How and why Benin’s Voodoo Festival is gaining popularity as Africa’s mecca of divine spirits, attracting foreigners and adherents
The festival gained popularity over the years from within and outside Africa, organisers say, and attracts thousands of locals and foreigners who flock to the Atlantic coast town to experience one of the world’s oldest religions.
There are fears Trump’s executive order that repurposes an existing agency is designed to shield super-rich from public scrutiny
A former USDS employee called the repurposing of the Digital Service into DOGE an “A+ bureaucratic jiujitsu move.” It will give Musk and his associates access to unclassified data in every government agency.
Beatification of Congolese civil servant murdered for fighting corruption picks up, inspires generation
The Rev Francesco Tedeschi, an Italian priest who is spearheading the beatification cause as the postulator, said the Vatican decree of martyrdom indeed recognizes Kositi died out of hatred for the faith, because his decision to not accept the spoiled food was profoundly inspired by the Gospel.
Decolonising intellectualism: Why Uganda’s knowledge systems need to be weaned of intellectual imperialism
In the context of Uganda, universities remain, as in the past, the main knowledge centres where knowledge is organised, authorised and governed. Here, our universities have continued to organise, authorise and govern knowledge within units or packets of knowledge called disciplines within which the knowledge workers specialise in small bits of knowledge within each discipline.
Rising gaps in relationships: Why men prefer younger partners and women switch to younger men when they hit 60 years
For women, a similar but less strong effect was observed after the age of 25 years. On average, for every 10 years of age, the preferred age difference at the beginning of a new relationship between a woman and her partner rises by about one additional year.
Smartphones on cusp of becoming ‘old news’ as Big Tech develops easy-to-use smart glasses
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg thinks that within 10 years, smart glasses will overtake smartphones in both popularity and usefulness. By the time we hit the 2030s, he predicts people will be keeping their phones tucked away more than they’re using them.
Urbanising in poverty: Kenyan startup city shines light on what Africa has to do in readiness for 900 million urban residents
Situated on 5,000 acres, Tatu City aspires to be what its name suggests: a city, privately owned, that its designers hope will eventually have a population of 250,000. It is already home to 88 businesses employing 15,000 people. They include CCI Global, which operates a 5,000-seat call center, and Zhende Medical, a Chinese medical supply manufacturer.
Trump’s bare-knuckled election campaign speeches give Facebook chief reason to roll back hate speech
Arturo Béjar, a former engineering director at Meta known for his expertise on curbing online harassment, said while most of the attention has gone to the company’s fact-checking announcement on Tuesday, he is more worried about the changes to Meta’s harmful content policies.
Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas 13 days after Catholics and Protestants’
The patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Mathias, in his televised Christmas Eve message called for reconciliation and peace in a nation where conflict has been often fuelled by ethnic strife.
CNN defamation trial comes at a rough time for legacy media and for the struggling network
CNN said in court papers that Young’s case amounts to “defamation by implication” and that he hadn’t actually been accused of nefarious acts. The initial story he complained about didn’t even mention Young until three minutes in, CNN lawyer David Axelrod argued on Tuesday.
