Threads

Environment & Land Contemporary (2000–present)

Bambara groundnut, fonio, teff — the orphan crops that aren't orphans

Agricultural research funding has, for the last sixty years, concentrated on three cereals: maize, rice, wheat. Together they receive roughly 75% of global crop-research funding and account for …

2 min read · Pan-African · 21 views

Modern Solutions Contemporary (2000–present)

Addis light rail — Chinese-built operations after handover

The Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit (AA-LRT) opened in September 2015 — the first metro system in sub-Saharan Africa outside Johannesburg's Gautrain. Two lines, 32 kilometres, 39 stations, …

1 min read · East Africa, Ethiopia · 20 views

Modern Solutions Contemporary (2000–present)

Lagos BRT — what works, who pays, and the equity gap nobody priced in

The Lagos Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor opened in 2008 along Ikorodu Road, the first operational BRT in sub-Saharan Africa, and was for a decade a reference case …

2 min read · West Africa, Nigeria · 22 views

Modern Solutions Contemporary (2000–present)

Mukuru SPA — participatory upgrading at city scale in Nairobi

The Mukuru Special Planning Area (SPA) was gazetted by the Nairobi City County Government in August 2017, suspending normal development control over an area of roughly 689 acres …

1 min read · East Africa, Kenya · 23 views

Environment & Land Contemporary (2000–present)

Pfumvudza scaling — Zimbabwe's conservation agriculture programme at five years

The *Pfumvudza* (Shona: 'new season' or 'rebirth') conservation agriculture programme was launched by Zimbabwe's Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement in 2020 and has now run through …

2 min read · Southern Africa, Zimbabwe · 21 views

Economic Systems Medieval (500–1500 CE)

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage — and the global price-shock that followed

In 1324 the *mansa* of Mali — Musa I — left Niani for Mecca with what the Egyptian chroniclers described as 60,000 people, 12,000 slaves, and so much …

5 min read · West Africa, North Africa · 27 views

Environment & Land Contemporary (2000–present)

South African land reform at thirty — restitution, redistribution, and what actually happened

The 1994 transition committed the new South African state to three land-reform tracks: *restitution* (returning land dispossessed under the 1913 Natives Land Act and successor legislation), *redistribution* (transferring …

1 min read · Southern Africa, South Africa · 21 views

Modern Solutions Contemporary (2000–present)

M-KOPA pay-as-you-go solar — the 2024 contraction and the model's limits

M-KOPA — founded in Nairobi in 2011 by Jesse Moore, Nick Hughes (of M-Pesa fame), and Chad Larson — pioneered the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar-home-system model that has now …

2 min read · East Africa, Pan-African · 20 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Zimbabwe platinum royalty regime — what the 2023 sliding scale changed

Zimbabwe holds the second-largest platinum group metals (PGM) reserve globally after South Africa, concentrated in the Great Dyke geological formation running north-south through the central Mashonaland West and …

2 min read · Southern Africa, Zimbabwe · 19 views

Culture & Traditions Medieval (500–1500 CE)

Ge'ez liturgy, vernacular faith — language and authority in Ethiopian Orthodoxy

Walk into an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo service on a Sunday morning in Addis Ababa, Adwa, or Asmara, and you will hear the liturgy partly in Ge'ez — a …

2 min read · Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Eritrea · 19 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Kenyan dairy cooperatives — Brookside, KCC, and the politics of milk

Kenya's dairy sector is one of the more revealing case studies in African agribusiness consolidation. The Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC), founded in 1925 as a settler-farmer cooperative, was …

1 min read · East Africa, Kenya · 20 views

Governance & Political Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Maghreb Union dormancy — Morocco-Algeria border closure and the cost of regional non-integration

The Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), founded in February 1989 by Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania, has not held a Heads of State summit since 1994. The Morocco-Algeria …

2 min read · North Africa, Maghreb · 19 views