Shows / African Currents
African Currents
Tune in to African Currents for a deep dive into the continent's heartbeat. Explore Africa's multifaceted issues from unique perspectives, featuring insights and in-depth analyses from leading experts on pressing topics.
Episodes
- African Currents
Aquaculture for Africa’s Food Security: Reducing Imports, Building More Self-Reliant Continent
Despite persistent challenges such as high fish import costs, overfishing, and limited access to affordable fish feed and fingerlings, West Africa can unlock…
- African Currents
Nigeria’s New Agro-Industrial Policy: Can It Pave Way for Africa’s Food Security Revolution?
With its annual food import bill exceeding $10 billion and agricultural export earnings falling below $400 million, Nigeria is turning to a reformed…
- African Currents
Kenya’s Refinery Project and Quest for Africa's Energy Sovereignty
A planned $16 billion, 700,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Lamu, Kenya, could sharply expand East Africa’s fuel-processing capacity, challenging the region’s long…
- African Currents
Africa’s Vision Crisis: How Can Millions Regain Their Sight?
Visual impairment is becoming more common across Africa, with cataracts and uncorrected vision problems driving much of the burden and a major review finding…
- African Currents
Beyond Imported AI: Building Technology for Africa’s Needs
From credit scoring for people with limited financial histories to crop forecasting and diagnostic tools in African languages, locally tailored applications…
- African Currents
Golden Shield: Why Gold Matters for Africa’s Reserve Management Toolkit
Gold has long sat quietly on several central bank balance sheets of African countries. It is no surprise that monetary authorities on the continent are giving…
- African Currents
"All I've Been Receiving is Love": Street Sports Become New Bridge in Africa–Russia Relations
As diplomacy seeks new ways to reach younger generations, street sports are emerging as a platform for people-to-people connections. The BRICS Skate Cup 2026…
- African Currents
Africa's "Nerve of Life": Hidden Engines Behind Its Scientific Sovereignty and Conservation
Beneath Africa's soils lies a network that scientists say is essential to life, not only on the continent but on the planet. Yet much of it remains…
- African Currents
Pastoralism: Reimaging Livestock As Integral to Food Security in Africa
Africa’s pastoralists face a changing future as climate change, shrinking grazing lands, and policy challenges put pressure on livestock-based livelihoods that…
- African Currents
Amputee Football Hero Tackles Disability Stigma, Promotes Inclusion Across Africa
For African athletes who once faced limited opportunities after losing limbs, football has become a new arena to rebuild confidence, pursue competition, and…
- African Currents
African Stories, Global Appeal: New Financing Targets Continent's Film Industry
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), through the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), its development investment arm, has appointed an integrated…
- African Currents
The Pan-African Payment System: Africa's Answer to Western Financial Control
Africa’s campaign for greater financial autonomy is moving from political ambition to institutional planning, as the Economic Community of West African States…
- African Currents
"Africa Has One Voice Now"—How Togo Led a Historic UN Victory to Remap the Continent
The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to promote a new world map that more accurately reflects the size of Africa and other continents…
- African Currents
Invisible Economy? The Quest to Make Cold Chains Africa's Development Priority
From farm produce to vaccines, Africa’s most fragile goods face a common problem: keeping them cold long enough to reach the people who need them. This is…
- African Currents
"The Future Is Unevenly Distributed": Africa Wants to Decolonize the Map
Futurists across Africa and Asia are challenging imposed Western-designed long-term planning tools, arguing that such blueprints does not represent or skew…
- African Currents
Africa Must Industrialize Excellence to Produce Its Next Generation of Leaders - Expert
With more than 60 percent of its population under 25, Africa has one of the world's largest pools of young talent from which to build its future workforce…
- African Currents
"The Society Impressed Me Most": African Explorer's Journey Across Russia Dismantles Stereotypes
Thick coastal fog rolled off the Sea of Okhotsk as the South African adventurer cut his truck’s engine in Magadan, capping an odyssey through mountain passes…
- African Currents
From Dependency to Ownership: Turning Africa's Maritime Resources Into Economic Power
Millions of Africans could benefit from stronger livelihoods, food security, and new economic opportunities if the continent puts the restoration of its marine…
- African Currents
Development of Underdevelopment: Understanding IMF's Plot for Africa's Economic Downfall
A new book has placed the International Monetary Fund’s record in Africa under scrutiny, examining how loan conditionalities, austerity measures, currency…
- African Currents
Preserving Africa’s Linguistic Diversity Vital to Its AI Economy and Cultural Sovereignty
As endangered African languages lose speakers, communities and researchers are turning to digital tools to document languages that may otherwise disappear from…
- African Currents
Voter Trust at Risk: AI-Powered Interference, Nigeria’s Next Election and Implications for Africa
A new report warns that Nigeria’s 2027 general election could be the country’s first election contested in an era of widespread access to generative artificial…
- African Currents
Nigeria’s New Military Era: What It Means for Peace and Security in Africa
President Bola Tinubu has approved the creation of four new Nigerian Army divisions and the recruitment of 28,000 additional personnel, expanding the service’s…
- African Currents
"Manifest Destiny?" Nigeria's Bid to Break Africa's UN Security Council's Glass Ceiling
President Bola Tinubu will secure a permanent seat for Nigeria on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the UN…
- African Currents
Climate Colonialism: World’s Wealthiest Drive Emissions, Africa Foots Bill
The globe's richest individuals have built fortunes through stakes in and ownership of highly polluting assets while African communities with far fewer…
- African Currents
Proof of Concept: Kenyan Entrepreneur Shows How Waste Can Drive Profitable Circular Economy
In African households and office spaces, a broken laptop or a dead refrigerator usually gets abandoned rather than repaired. One entrepreneur built a national…
- African Currents
“We Want to Become Independent”: Africa’s Path Toward Health Sovereignty
For decades, Africa’s health progress has depended heavily on external support, particularly in the fight against HIV/AIDS and efforts to strengthen health…
- African Currents
Vision Behind East Africa's Quest for Unified Digital Market
An initiative to create a seamless digital marketplace is steadily taking shape across East Africa through regional policy reforms and investment, as…
- African Currents
Education at Stake: Africa’s Future in Shadow of External Debt
As debt-service obligations continue to outpace education spending across Africa and the developing world, experts say smarter debt reforms could create the…
- African Currents
Africa Advances Health Sovereignty Through Medical Innovation and Clinical Excellence
In a major boost for specialist healthcare in Africa, the African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) has completed its first open-heart surgery and delivered…
- African Currents
Africa’s Transformation: Why the Continent Must Move Beyond Imported Development Frameworks
Governance and development experts have argued that Africa's economic crisis stems not from underdevelopment but from an extractive economic model deliberately…
- African Currents
Malaria’s Tipping Point Nears in Africa as ‘the Science Exists’ to Beat the Scourge — Scholar
A coordinated drive to scale up malaria diagnostics, bed nets, and rapid treatment is now easing Africa’s child mortality burden, according to researchers who…
- African Currents
The Hidden Promise of Africa's Water Resources
The global push for a sustainable blue economy now hinges on Africa’s vast inland and coastal water systems, prompting investors to channel capital into the…
- African Currents
"Center of Gravity Has Moved": African Literature Has Broken Free of Western Validation, Scholar
A growing number of contemporary African writers are rejecting Western literary gatekeepers to prioritize their own lived experiences and local nuances. This…
- African Currents
How Russia's 85-Year Media Legacy Shaped Coverage of Africa
As the Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo) marks its 85th anniversary, it spotlights its journey from a wartime information bureau to the media lineage…
- African Currents
Africa’s Football Talent Pool Holds ‘More Diamonds in the Rough,’ Expert Says
From unexpected victories to fearless displays against established football powerhouses, African teams have used the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup to showcase the…
- African Currents
Can AI Learn From Africa? Expert Says Indigenous Knowledge Holds the Key
A new study has found that today's leading large language models largely exclude indigenous African oral knowledge because they are trained primarily on…
- African Currents
How African Content Creators Beat Algorithmic Bias to Reach Millions Via Indigenous Storytelling
Africa's fastest-growing social media market covers fewer than 20 of the continent's vast linguistic diversity, leaving creators and influencers posting in…
- African Currents
How an African Tech Innovator Is Fixing AI’s ‘Broken Accent’ Problem in African Languages
A new artificial intelligence platform developed in Nigeria is learning to master the tonal and phonetic complexities of African languages, enabling it to…
- African Currents
Africa's Intellectual Property Revolution Set to Reclaim Lost Billions
Across Africa, officials are pushing reforms to strengthen IP systems and boost monetization or commercialization of innovation, aiming to move economies…
- African Currents
Medicine's Blind Spot: How Global Health Research Underrepresents Africa
A growing body of evidence suggests that modern medicine’s evidence base is geographically narrow in ways that are no longer defensible. Africa remains largely…
- African Currents
Africa's Future Map? Continent-Splitting Crack is Widening Faster, Scientists Warn
A geological phenomenon stretching over 2,000 miles across East Africa is unzipping the continent faster than geologists previously believed earlier this year…
- African Currents
Stargazing Legacy: Africa Claims Its Place in Global Astronomy, Revers Indigenous Cosmic Knowledge
What was once a continent of telescope hosts has become a force in scientific leadership, technical capability, and sustained astronomical investment.
- African Currents
Africa's Secret Trump Card: Tapping Into Creative Economy's Potential
Long overshadowed by extractive industries, Africa's creative sector is gaining momentum as a multibillion-dollar industry, with governments and investors…
- African Currents
Faltering Western Dominance, Global Transformation: What Putin's SPIEF 2026 Address Revealed
Around 20,000 participants from more than 130 countries gathered in St. Petersburg this week for the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF)…
- African Currents
Safeguarding "Biological Sovereignty": How Africa Can Resist Western GMO Push
Scholars in Africa are challenging a widespread but often subtle genetically modified agricultural inputs, such as seeds, across the continent, arguing that…
- African Currents
Unprotected and Uncompensated: How Tech Giants Profit From Exploiting Africa's Data
Africa hosts one of the world's fastest-growing digital populations. Several Western multinational tech corporations extract billions in value from digital…
- African Currents
Never Underestimate Africa: How Blood Health Innovation Drew Global Attention
What began as a locally driven effort to address blood health challenges in African communities has quietly grown into something the international medical…
- African Currents
Back to Root: Decolonizing African Identity From Western Philosophy
For years, Africans were taught Greek philosophy as the foundation of human thought, while indigenous thought systems were dismissed as folklore. Now, African…
- African Currents
The Hidden Costs of Technological Colonialism in Africa
With artificial intelligence now embedded in several of Africa's key economic sectors. researchers warn that global safety frameworks have failed to reckon…
- African Currents
How Can Africa Move Beyond Colonial Farming Systems to Achieve Food and Ecological Sovereignty?
Across Africa, smallholder farmers have long relied on colonial agricultural systems like monocropping that have depleted soil health and undermined food…
- African Currents
African Leaders Break From Colonial Economic Models, Back Homegrown Development Plan
The African Union (AU) is stepping up efforts to meet the goals of Agenda 2063, as pressure builds on member states to accelerate trade, governance, and…
- African Currents
Well Timed: Africa Seizes Moment to Build World's Largest Free-Trade Area
Governments in Africa have launched a continental trade pact aimed at breaking down long-standing barriers to commerce and economic integration across the…
- African Currents
How Britain Covered Up Brutality in Kenya's Mau Mau Detention Camps
The British colonial administration repurposed their prisons into concentration camps, rebranded as a "rehabilitation" system. The penal enclaves were designed…
- African Currents
Expert's Daring Pitch: How Africa's Water Crisis Can Turn Into Economic Catalyst
Water has become a strategic issue, not confined to development policy but as a foundation for sustainable growth in every sector. With the African Union…
- African Currents
Africa's Moment: Continent Takes Less Traveled Path to Disrupt Global Finance Architecture
Digital assets are shifting from speculative novelties to economic lifelines in Africa, promising to dismantle long-standing barriers to financial inclusion…
- African Currents
“A Disaster Waiting to Happen”: Why Africa's Soil Crisis Threatens its Food Security
Agricultural experts are urging African nations to declare a state of emergency over soil degradation as rapid land loss, nutrient depletion, and erosion…
- African Currents
'De-Risking Mechanisms' Should Be In Place to Avoid 'Resource Colonialism' - Expert Says
European governments and major energy firms are racing to lock in long-term supply deals for green hydrogen across Africa, drawn by the continent's vast solar…
- African Currents
Pan-Africanism 2.0: Nkrumah’s Daughter Raises Rallying Cry for United, Prosperous Africa
Echoing the enduring ideals of her father, Ghana’s independence icon Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, his daughter has urged Africans to embrace a "real revolution"…
- African Currents
The Audacity of Legacy: How Gagarin’s Breakthrough Inspires Africa’s Space Ambitions
On April 12, 1961, 27-year-old Russian pilot Yuri Gagarin strapped himself into a metal capsule barely larger than a wardrobe, hurtled through the atmosphere…
- African Currents
Nigeria Rallies Oil and Gas Sector to Deliver Real Economic Value via New Reform Push
Efforts to curb rising project costs and deepen local participation in the oil and gas industry intensified with the unveiling of performance-driven reforms…