Pasha 96: The impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s oil dependent economy: GettyImages In response to COVID-19, governments around the world, including Nigeria, adopted lockdown measures to curtail the spread of the coronavirus. As expected, these measures were generally unfavourable to businesses and livelihoods. Nigeria is yet to recover from the blows to its already faltering …
Pasha 95: Key questions answered on the results of the Novavax vaccine trials: shutterstock Novavax vaccine trials run in South Africa and the UK indicate that its efficacy in the UK was 89% at least 7 days after individuals had received two doses of vaccine. In South Africa, the vaccine efficacy was 60% in people …
Pasha 94: Talking about masculinity with South African artist Nakhane: Nakhane live at Omeara What is it to be a man? Through their role in the film Inxeba and the music videos from their albums, South African singer-songwriter, author and actor Nakhane presents themself as fiercely gender nonconforming. With a focus on queer identity and …
Pasha 92: How we discovered two new giant radio galaxies: MeerKAT Radio Telescope A telescope in South Africa by the name of MeerKAT enabled the discovery of two giant radio galaxies recently. Finding one radio galaxy is special. Finding two is fantastic. Radio galaxies get their name from the fact that they release huge beams, …
Pasha 93: Nigeria doesn’t have a coherent COVID-19 vaccine plan. What’s needed: px Covid vaccine biontech pfizer Many countries are either buying or planning to buy COVID-19 vaccines to immunise their citizens. But there is not yet a coherent plan by the Nigerian government for how to get the vaccines. Public officials have announced different …
Pasha 91: Blunders that left South Africa trailing in the vaccine stakes: shutterstock The South African government has announced plans to vaccinate about two-thirds of its population against COVID-19 by the end of the year. The aim is to do this in three phases, starting with healthcare workers in phase one, the elderly and those …
Pasha 90: How COVID-19 has hit the tourism sector: shutterstock COVID-19 has affected most industries and sectors in some way. One of those hit the hardest is the tourism sector as a result of lockdowns, borders closing and the global pandemic. Hospitality, aviation and travel for sport and religion were all hit hard. But what …
Pasha 89: Talking about earthquakes in South Africa: shutterstock Earthquakes are quite rare on the African continent. But that’s not to say that one couldn’t hit and be damaging. Recently the Western Cape region of South Africa saw some earthquake activity, though it’s unusual and was low on the scale that measures earthquakes. There is …
Pasha 88: Lockdown and young people living on the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe: GettyImages For many young people living on the streets, lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic has made their situation worse. The city of Harare in Zimbabwe was no exception. Lockdown made it difficult for young people to find food and make money in …
Pasha 87: Why de-escalation and dialogue is necessary for Ethiopia and Tigray: GettyImages Tensions between Ethiopia’s central government and its Tigray region escalated after Tigray disputed a decision by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to delay elections. Tigray held its own elections. Ahmed then launched a military offensive on Tigray. Mass casualties, suffering and regional …
Pasha 86: Why it’s wrong to be pessimistic about democracy in Africa: shutterstock The state of democracy on the continent is often depicted as generally negative. But the reality is more nuanced. African countries represent a spectrum, from relatively stable democracies like Botswana, Ghana and South Africa to problem spots where opposition and transfers of …
Pasha 85: Large numbers of seals aborted in Namibia this season: scientists investigate: shutterstock Around 5,000 aborted seal foetuses were found at a Cape fur seal colony on Namibia’s coast in October 2020. Events like this have occurred before, for example in 1994, but this high rate of simultaneous abortion has not been seen recently. …
Pasha 84: South Africa and a resurgence of COVID-19: shutterstock South Africa will almost certainly experience a resurgence of COVID-19. However, this new round is likely to be lower than the first round of infections in the country. This is because at the peak earlier in the year, restrictions were being eased and an estimated …
Pasha 83: Talking #EndSARS and the new proposed unit: GettyImages Following over two weeks’ protest against police brutality in Nigeria, there are reports that a number of protesters have been shot with live ammunition. Reports suggest that unarmed protesters were shot by military men at the Lekki toll plaza in Lagos on Tuesday, October 20. …
Pasha special edition, part 2: The significance of the call to prayer in Islam: shutterstock The call to prayer in Islam has been sounded out aloud for centuries. Recently in South Africa a citizen took issue with the noise coming from the Islamic education centre in his neighbourhood and took the matter to court. Here …
Pasha special edition: The Muslim call to prayer controversy in South Africa, part 1: shutterstock The call to prayer in Islam, or adhan, as it’s known in Arabic, has come under the spotlight in South Africa. Fed up with hearing the call to prayer from a neighbouring Islamic education centre in Durban, a resident took …
Pasha 82: Remembering South Africa’s George Bizos: shutterstock South African human rights lawyer and advocate George Bizos passed away on 9 September 2020. Bizos was famous as a fighter for human rights and was one of Nelson Mandela’s lawyers in the Rivonia trial. He also represented anti-apartheid struggle icons like Ahmed Kathrada. Bizos left an …
Pasha 81: A closer look at the informal water market in Kenya: GettyImages Water is a scarce resource. In certain parts of Nairobi, Kenya, water is hard to come by. This has created a market for informal vendors to exist. Often these vendors sell water at highly inflated prices and they often take water from …