Misheck Mutize, University of Cape Town The three major credit rating agencies – Moody’s, S&P Global and Fitch – have often differed among themselves when rating African institutions and countries. Their opinions don’t have to be aligned, but a huge gap in the ratings suggests inaccuracies in the analyses. Wrong ratings have consequences.
Dan Paget, University of Sussex Public rallies were banned in Tanzania in June 2026 for the second time in a decade. The first ban was imposed by President John Magufuli in 2016. His successor, President Samia Hassan, lifted it in 2023 as part of a reform agenda. Now she has reimposed the ban.
Kira Lancker, University of Copenhagen At lakeside markets along Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake by area, choosing fish to eat is part of daily life. A customer might pick a tilapia based on its freshness, size, price, and farmed or non-farmed origin, much like shoppers do in markets and supermarkets around the world.
Hafte Gebreselassie Gebrihet, University of Oslo; University of Cape Town and Dan Banik, University of Oslo Africa faces declining aid, rising debt, climate pressure and a weakening global order. Official development assistance, the technical term for foreign aid, fell by 23.1% in 2025, the largest annual contraction on record. It’s projected to decline
Ph. Hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans were shipped from the Gold Coast, today’s Ghana. National Maritime Museum, London, CC BY Nana Kesse, Clark University The transatlantic slave trade was a multilayered, highly commercialised global enterprise that lasted from the early 1500s to the mid 1800s. The events over this period are far
Jonathan Munemo, Salisbury University “Today, everyone recognises that trade is as much a security issue as an economic one.” European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde made this comment in February 2026, while addressing the Munich Security Conference. Although she was speaking about Europe, her words matter profoundly for Africa. The continent’s 54 economies
Oyewale Tomori, Nigerian Academy of Science As the news spread about the outbreak of Ebola in mid-May 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report about pandemics. The title was: A World on the Edge: Priorities for a Pandemic-Resilient Future. The document was prepared by the WHO’s Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. It
Ph. Ghana fans will be cheering their team alongside nine other African nations at the World Cup finals. Adera Abdoulaye Dolo/Pexels, CC BY Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu, Stephen F. Austin State University The 2026 men’s Fifa World Cup marks a seismic shift in the global football landscape. The decision to expand the final
Ongama Mtimka, Nelson Mandela University Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa’s fourth-largest party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), is a divisive figure: loved by some, hated by others. Malema made headlines in April 2026 after a lower court found him guilty of illegal possession and discharging of a firearm and sentenced him
Bamba Gaye, MD, MPH, MSc, PhD, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar Modern medicine prides itself on being a universal science, built on evidence from clinical trials. But there’s a bias in medical research. While Africa accounts for roughly 25% of the global disease burden and 19% of the global population, the continent’s