Although synonymous with Sophiatown in South Africa, at its height, Drum magazine was read across the African continent. It "linked and shared ideologies, beliefs and abilities [and] was influential and ... Read More

Sophiatown in Johannesburg was named after the wife of the developer, Herman Tobiansky, who also named streets after his children. He bought the land in 1899 with the view ... Read More

The masks in the "Art of the African Mask" exhibition catalogue from the Bayly Art Museum at the University of Virginia, are divided into four categories: Faces of Spirits, Images ... Read More

The oil industry is booming in various African countries, yet in places such as Nigeria, Angola and Sudan oil wealth has not benefited the country as a whole. Since the ... Read More

Zimbabwe may be renowned for its stone sculptors, but a new school of art has emerged, art made from junk. In a BBC photo gallery of an exhibition on at ... Read More

A new biography on perhaps the most famous slave of all time, Olaudah Equiano, is causing controversy. According to a review published by the Mail and Guardian, the book ... Read More

Because many of the myths about Africa and African history "have become 'common knowledge' and widely accepted in American society, in both Black and White communities" associate professor at Johns ... Read More

22 - 28 January A former Minister of Education in Rwanda is found guilty of genocide, President Apolo Milton Obote is overthrown in his absence by General Idi Amin Dada, ... Read More

The Herero people in Namibia are trying to get reparations from the Germany government for the genocide that followed a failed uprising against German colonial rule in 1904, reports BBC ... Read More

Does traditional dress have a place in today's urbanized society? Two Zimbabwean brothers who ventured into a shopping mall in Harare wearing just a nhembe (a traditional goatskin loincloth) have ... Read More

After Namibia finally achieved independence in 1990, a competition was held for a new national anthem. The winning anthem, written and composed by Axali Doeseb, is called Namibia, Land of ... Read More

Today saw a first for women in Africa with the swearing-in of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president of Liberia, the first woman on the continent ever to be elected as head ... Read More

After more than 80 years of debate and scientific investigation, the case of who or what killed the first early human ancestor fossil to be discovered in Africa, the Taung ... Read More

15 - 21 January Islam becomes the official Egyptian state religion, General Justin Metsing Lekhanya stages a military coup in Lesotho, and Libya is ordered by the UN to hand ... Read More

The tales of elephants getting drunk by eating rotten marula fruit have been debunked by scientists, reports National Geographic News. Co-author of the study, Steve Morris, a biologist at the ... Read More

It seems physicists struggling to make efficient LEDs (light-emitting diodes, found in electronic gadgets from computer monitors to traffic lights) should've taken some time out of the lab and travelled ... Read More

Shiwa Ng'andu is a remote, stately home built in the 1920s by Stewart Gore-Browne, a British colonial who came to what was then Northern Rhodesia to fulfil a dream, and ... Read More

The declaration of a national park near Graaff-Reinet, to be called the Camdeboo National Park, brings the number of parks in South Africa to 22. It constitutes 14 500 hectares ... Read More

From the beginning of this year, all vehicle fuels in Sub-Saharan Africa will be lead-free, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. This fulfils a resolution made in 2002 at ... Read More

8 - 14 January A peace deal is signed between the government of Sudan and southern rebels, Biafran rebels capitulate to Nigerian authority, Joshua Nkomo is allowed to return home ... Read More

Here's another blot on Africa's record: the on-going war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the deadliest war in the last 60 years, with some 38,000 people dying ... Read More

Love or hate her novels, Doris Lessing has always been known for being outspoken. Her novels set in Africa that were published during the 1950s and 1960s "[decried] the dispossession ... Read More

It's taken far too long, but finally an offshoot of the African Union has taken a stand on the human rights abuses happening in Zimbabwe. The African Commission on Human ... Read More

Rwanda has redrawn its provinces, reducing the number to just four, named after the points of the compass (North, South, East, West), plus a 'province' around the capital city, Kigali. ... Read More

It seems there is something in which Africa is a world leader, but it's not something to be proud of.... BBC News reports that, according to a survey by Transparency ... Read More

1 – 7 January Donald Woods escapes to Lesotho, Joy Adamson is killed in Kenya, Joe Slovo dies in South Africa, and two Libyan MiG-23s are shot down by US ... Read More