Policy makers need to protect and promote the interests of people whose indigenous knowledge and toil developed a thriving national cannabis economy – in the face of harsh police crackdowns.
Restrictive norms
Politics and Society Time to tackle violence against women in Mali
The transition period could set the tone for new norms that future governments could live by.
Lifestyle Can you smoke dagga before work?
A Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruling suggests you can so long as it doesn’t impair your performance.
Africans rising Breaking down barriers: women’s football in Morocco
Many people around the world would not expect football to be popular among women in conservative Morocco, but it is, in fact, a fast-growing phenomenon.
Politics and Society Sierra Leone’s steps to end Female Genital Mutilation
United Nations Women reported that traditional cutters in Sierra Leone have pledged to abandon and advocate against FGM which is still not illegal in the country. This added support will contribute to the clampdown on initiation ceremonies by the secret societies that uphold the practice.
Politics and Society U.S-Zambia diplomatic ties strained over Zambia’s 15-year jail sentence of gay couple
Zambia’ s High Court recently passed a decade and a half long jail term to two men for engaging in sexual relations “against the order of nature”. The move was highly criticised by the U.S Ambassador to Zambia Daniel Foote, who said he was ‘horrified’ by the ‘oppressive’ decision.
Lifestyle The world’s first Vagina Museum opens in London
The world’s first physical vagina museum has been opened in London to educate and inform people about gynaecological anatomy while providing a space in which to hear about and discuss the taboo subjects surrounding female bodies.
Lifestyle South Africa’s city of Johannesburg holds first official black queer ball
South Africa has joined the fray of ball room culture; an originally American countercultural phenomenon rooted in necessity and defiance. In the late nineteenth century members of the underground LGBTQI+ community in large cities organized masquerade balls in direct defiance of laws and as a means to find community and belonging.
Politics and Society Guarding empty shells: Imprisoning national consciousness in relics of the past
The symbols and rituals of power of colonial regimes that brutalised black Zimbabweans before independence are still hallowed in the free country. Farai Mudzingwa wonders why such a scenario persists in a nation where a phrase like “Zimbabwe will never be a colony again” is an integral part of the national lexicon.