Colonialism shaped modern universities in Africa – how they can become truly African

Colonialism profoundly shaped modern universities in Africa. It implanted institutions on African soil that were largely replicas of European universities rather than organically African.

For historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe, one problem of universities in Africa “is that they are ‘Westernised”. He describes them as “local institutions of a dominant academic model based on a Eurocentric epistemic canon that attributes truth only to the Western way of knowledge production”. This model, he says, “disregards other epistemic traditions”. Read more by clicking here!

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Nature’s Pharmacy, Our Treasure Chest: Why We Must Conserve Our Natural Heritage

Medicinal plants grow naturally around us. Over centuries, cultures around the world have learned how to use plants to fight illness and maintain health. These readily available and culturally important traditional medicines form the basis of an accessible and affordable health-care regime and are an important source of livelihood for indigenous and rural populations. Increasingly, medicinal species that reside in natural areas have received scientific and commercial attention. In the United States, of the top 150 prescription drugs, at least 118 are based on natural sources. A child suffering from leukemia in 1960 faced a 10 percent chance of remission; by 1997, the likelihood of remission had been increased to 95 percent thanks to two drugs derived from a wild plant native to Madagascar. But we still know little about the treasure trove inhabiting our wild places. As of 1995, less than 1 percent of all tropical plant species had been screened for potential pharmaceutical applications

Water and carbon cycling

Looking for a quick yet detailed overview of the water and carbon cycles? Look no more! A fantastic resource provided by the RGS to support your studies. It can be accessed here!

Why are people still flying to climate conferences by private jet?

Rishi Sunak, David Cameron and King Charles are just three of the more than 70,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries at the latest UN climate summit in Dubai, COP28 . But they are among hundreds who will have travelled there by private jet. In fact, the UK prime minister, foreign secretary and king even travelled in three separate planes . At COP27 in Egypt last year, around 315 private jet journeys took place. This is an extraordinary statistic, especially as fewer world leaders attended that COP, as many were busy at a G20 summit in Bali. That’s why we set up a team of academic experts to estimate the carbon footprint of travel to this year’s meeting, COP28 in Dubai, for different modes of transport including private jets. We ultimately want to empower attendees to make informed climate-conscious travel choices. We also compared the carbon footprints for the past three COPs to help see where the conferences could be located in order to dissuade attendees from using private je

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