Africa

1+ hour, 57+ min ago   (579+ words) We asked Jack Swab and Derek Alderman, cartographers and geographers who study the social and communicative power of maps, to explain what’s going on. A cartographer’s job is to choose from the hundreds of different map projections, and consider where…...

13+ hour, 55+ min ago   (986+ words) First published on April 8, 2017 Today marks the anniversary of the end of nearly 700 years of African Muslim rule over Spain, Portugal and Southern France. Four hundred and eight years ago today King Phillip III of Spain signed an order, which…...

5+ hour, 42+ min ago   (750+ words) The reigning Bunyoro king was Sir Tito Gafabusa Winyi IV. On 22 October 1962, shortly before Uganda’s independence, King Tito formally nominated his son, Prince Solomon Iguru, as his successor in a written document. The nomination was based on the succession rules applicable…...

11+ hour, 33+ min ago   (1050+ words) Equal Earth Map Challenges the Traditional Mercator Projection: The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution supporting greater use of the Equal Earth projection instead of relying heavily on the centuries-old Mercator projection. The Togo-led resolution received support from…...

3+ hour, 38+ min ago   (755+ words) Last De­cem­ber, African singer/record­ing artist Tan­do N’Ko­su re­leased the spo­ken-word/at­mos­pher­ic track and al­bum project, I Am Africa (stylised I Am Afri­ka), which per­son­i­fies…...

11+ hour, 27+ min ago   (1856+ words) For generations of Chinese readers, Taiwanese writer Sanmao offered a rare window into Africa through her bestselling stories of life in the Western Sahara. But her accounts also carried colonial-era stereotypes, romanticized her role in the region, and included stories…...

43+ min ago   (733+ words) The Layman’s Economics — tracing today’s markets back to where they started Disclaimer: This essay is a personal …...

12+ hour, 6+ min ago   (801+ words) As happens in life, so it does with the death of a monarch. The awe, aura, and pomp when mourning and entombing a king or queen is steeped in deeply nuanced rituals and traditions. What is interesting and saddening, though,…...

6+ hour, 55+ min ago   (519+ words) Did you feel that? The Earth moved. Or rather, our perception of the Earth shifted. Still, don't retire that "Everything is Bigger in Texas" bumper sticker just yet. More on that in a bit. On Sept. 4, the United Nations General…...

2+ hour, 32+ min ago   (1387+ words) Women used profits from trafficking of enslaved Africans to secure their families’ futures, research reveals More than 1,000 women invested in the slave trade, challenging the conventional notion that they were passive beneficiaries and largely fought for its abolition. Researchers found…...