Jennifer Fitchett, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, University of the Witwatersrand Tropical cyclone Idai has made headlines across southern Africa throughout the month of March. Lingering in the Mozambique Channel at tropical cyclone intensity for six days, the storm made landfall in Beira, Mozambique in the middle of the month, then tracked in a westerly […]

Brooke Schedneck, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes College Thich Nhat Hanh, the monk who popularized mindfulness in the West, has returned home to Vietnam to enjoy the rest of his life. Devotees from many parts of the world are visiting the ailing 92-year-old, who has retired to a Buddhist temple outside Hue. This thoughtful […]

The response to Somali piracy was set in motion in 2008 when the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1816. In terms of international law, piracy is a crime of universal jurisdiction, meaning any state may act against it on the high seas and in exclusive economic zones. Carina Bruwer, PhD candidate, Centre of Criminology, University […]

The Kashmir issue has caused tension and conflict in the Indian subcontinent since 1947, when independence from Britain created India and Pakistan as two sovereign states. Chitralekha Zutshi, Professor of History, College of William & Mary – 5 March 2019 Tensions between India and Pakistan have diminished in recent days after repeated military clashes in […]

Miriam Bak McKenna, Postdoctoral Fellow in International Law, Lund University 1 March 2019 The unravelling of European empires was one of the formative moments of the modern world. But as the long-awaited International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the Chagos Islands has underlined, this process is far from complete. Almost 50 years after […]

Ernest Chi Fru, Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences, Cardiff University In a suspension of disbelief, the countless readers who have picked up J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books have readily accepted that Ents, the ancient treelike creatures of the fictional Fangorn forest, walk, talk and even dispense wisdom for hobbits lost in the woodland […]

Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University At first glance, they look like nothing more interesting than rocks. But to our research team, these two rocks – situated just 420 metres apart on a rugged, remote portion of South Africa’s Cape south coast – are fascinating and important pieces of […]

Field Museum via Archeology News Network – 31 January 2019 Antarctica wasn’t always a frozen wasteland – 250 million years ago, it was covered in forests and rivers, and the temperature rarely dipped below freezing. It was also home to diverse wildlife, including early relatives of the dinosaurs. Scientists have just discovered the newest member of that […]

One of the most fascinating manuports was the remarkable fossil of a Karoo reptile, which was reportedly found being used as a pot lid in a Griqua hut around 1830. This specimen went on to become very important in the elaboration of the study of continental drift. Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal […]

Bonny Ibhawoh, Professor of History and Global Human Rights, McMaster University As long as unresolved historic injustices continue to fester in the world, there will be a demand for truth commissions. Unfortunately, there is no end to the need. The goal of a truth commission — in some forms also called a truth and reconciliation […]