Tag: Feature
Hello A(I)frica
The global rise of artificial intelligence holds both promise and danger, and Africa needs its own experts to balance the two, Eunice Kilonzo reports. “I get smarter the more you tell me,” says Ada. “So I am going to ask a few questions that will help me help you. What’s your name?”Eunice.“Are you pregnant?”No.“Are you […]
Cost and red tape stifle Africa’s HIV drug producers
Locally manufactured antiretroviral drugs could make devastating stock-outs a thing of the past. But pilot production projects are struggling to scale up, reports Christabel Ligami. Agnes Mumbi knows all about the devastating effects that antiretroviral (ARV) stock-outs can wreak on families. The 32-year-old Kenyan mother of two has been taking the drugs since testing positive […]
How a deadly outbreak unveiled the key to safer food
A deadly Listeria outbreak in South Africa highlighted the power that consumers wield in improving food safety. Now scientists hope to harness that power in other parts of Africa. In mid-June 2017 at a medical lab in Pretoria, South Africa, five patient samples tested positive for the deadly foodborne bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. That was unusual: […]
How Kenya’s devolution hobbled healthcare
Earlier this year, two girls died of dog-transmitted rabies in western Kenya. The deaths incensed veterinarians who had been struggling to obtain rabies vaccines from the local government for years. By all accounts, the veterinarians should have been able to source the vaccines. In 2014, Kenya’s national government had embarked on a drive to eliminate rabies […]
Kenya’s butterfly queen
Esther Kioko has gone from village girl to top insect scientist. Here she tells Geoffrey Kamadi about her journey so far. Like many of the children in the village where she grew up, Esther Kioko’s favourite pastime was chasing grasshoppers, praying mantises, and other bugs. The children would disembowel the hapless critters using acacia thorns, […]
This is how Nigeria plans to avoid Burkina Faso’s GM cotton curse
This growing season, farmers on more than 1,000 cotton farms across Nigeria are growing genetically-modified (GM) cotton under the watchful eyes of scientists. Come harvest, the scientists will compare the modified cotton with the traditional strains also grown on these farms, carefully evaluating the new strains in terms of their resistance to pest attacks, fibre […]
South Africa’s divided past is reflected in its innovation landscape
South Africa is ranked as Sub-Saharan Africa’s most innovative country. But its innovation landscape is marred by deep inequalities that look likely to persist, reports Sarah Wild. South Africa leads innovation in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the 2019 Global Innovation Index. But this ability to transform research into marketable products is dominated by a few […]
Digging for gold in Africa’s garbage
Landfills—those smelly, polluted no-man’s lands of modern life—often contain useful raw materials. Recycling them for profit presents opportunities and challenges for Africa, Eman El-Sherbiny reports. Just a bus ride away from the shimmering Nile-side skyscrapers of central Cairo lies Hay el- Zabaleen. Known locally as Garbage City, it’s where the unwanted clothes, food and, all […]
Saving Africa’s wild larder
Changes in land-use, population growth, and climate change spell trouble for wild plants that have fed Africans for centuries, writes Joseph Opoku Gakpo. At Nyankpala, a small town in northern Ghana,forests that covered the surrounding countryside a century ago are no more. Thousands of hectares have given way to homes, businesses, roads, a university campus—even […]
Dialing down the sun
Spraying reflective chemicals into Earth’s atmosphere could be an effective, if controversial, way to halt global warming. But few African scientists have studied how this technology could affect the continent until now, Esther Nakkazi reports. Imagine it’s the year 2039. For nearly a decade, governments have been spraying reflective aerosols into the Earth’s atmosphere in […]