Successful trials held in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda |JULIA BELLUZ| Developing a vaccine to stop HIV is thought to be among the most daunting challenges in medicine for one big reason: The virus is extraordinarily genetically diverse, even more so than the flu. So it’s difficult to think about how …
Read More »COMMENT: Fighting antimicrobial resistance
Over ten million people will die from drug-resistant microbes every year by 2050 COMMENT |Jörg Reinhardt| In the first week of July, G20 leaders committed to working together to address one of the world’s most pressing and perplexing security threats: antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – a fierce and evolving adversary against …
Read More »COMMENT: Understanding the meaning of land
When land is understood in cultural and political terms, its value is not only monetary COMMENT |MWAMBUTSYA NDEBESA| Tensions over land threaten state integrity in Uganda. The proposed constitutional land amendment seems to have generated a lot of passion and tension both in the political and non-political class in …
Read More »TECH: Big cars with ridiculously tiny engines
There’s no substitute for cubic capacity, or so they used to say. Used to. With the development of technologies such as turbocharging and direct-injection over the past decade and some impressive weight-saving, many carmakers have been pursuing the concept of engine-downsizing with a passion. Downsizing does not mean losing power …
Read More »Book Review: Militarism and the Dilemma of Postcolonial Statehood
Book Review: Can military deliver democracy? Title: Militarism and the Dilemma of Postcolonial Statehood: The Case of Museveni’s Uganda Authors: Busingye Kabumba, Dan Ngabirano, Timothy Kyepa Publisher: Development Law Publishing Availability: All major bookstores Reviewer: GAAKI KIGAMBO In his 30th State of the Nation Address on June 6, President Yoweri …
Read More »COMMENT: Capitalising on Africa’s youth
Changes to higher education can empower youth to drive continent’s economic transformation COMMENT |KIM KERR| When South African university students took to the streets in 2016 as part of the “Fees Must Fall” protest movement, the “decolonisation of the curriculum” was among the movement’s chief concerns. It was a pivotal …
Read More »ARTS: Unfamiliarity at surfaces exhibition
Some of the drawings are larger than life hanging on the white-washed walls of the large gallery space. At the entrance, a glass bottles installation hangs like a chandelier from the ceiling. KAMPALA, UGANDA |DOMINIC MUWANGUZI| Inside the bottles are drawings of different facial expressions staring at you. Right beneath it, …
Read More »COMMENT: Africa’s leadership crisis
Why citizens have good reasons to be fed up with their politicians and what needs to be done about it COMMENT |TAHIRU AZAAVIELE LIEDONG| A few months ago, a video in which a street boy blamed bad leadership for Nigeria’s socio-economic problems, went viral on social media in the country. …
Read More »COMMENT: China colonising Africa?
To call China a colonial power is to diminish the true horrors that were faced by the colonised COMMENT|HANNAH RYDER|A few months ago, a New York Times magazine cover was emblazoned with the question “Is China the World’s New Colonial Power?” The notion that China is a twenty-first-century coloniser is …
Read More »BUSINESS: Future of banking
If it looks so gloomy, why is everyone seeing it as bright? KAMPALA, UGANDA | JULIUS BUSINGE | The banking industry in Uganda appears to be facing an uncertain future. Most banks are recording a mixture of good and bad performance, sluggish growth in private sector credit, rising non- performing …
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