Zambia
Deciphering ancient artifacts with a lost language used by women in Zambia
Curators at the National Museum of World Culture in Sweden recently invited a group of Zambian women to help understand the meaning of some ancient artifacts and the communities that used them. Samba Yonga, a co-founder of the virtual Women’s History Museum of Zambia, was one of them. She discussed the project with The World’s Host Carolyn Beeler.
What a grieving orca mother tells us about animals and death
Among scientists, however, there remains a prejudice against the idea that animals feel “real” grief or respond in complex ways to death. Following reports of the “grieving,” zoologist Jules Howard, for example, wrote, “If you believe J35 was displaying evidence of mourning or grief, you are making a case that rests on faith, not on scientific endeavor.”
For gay men in Zambia, where homosexuality is banned, suicide is a common end
The LGBTQ community isn’t acknowledged in Zambia because the law doesn’t allow for its existence, so people who struggle with mental health issues often can’t find the care they need. Some grassroots organizations are working to help LGBTQ people, but they often operate in secret.
For one South African house cleaner, this year’s big drought means crying, hungry children
The current drought in southern Africa is the worst in decades, and likely a harbinger of things to come as the region warms up and dries out as its climate changes. The drought is having real impact on one resident in a Pretoria township, and what governments in the region can do to help prepare for a hotter and drier future.
Can extreme global poverty end in this century? Here’s why it looks promising
Geeking out to help end global poverty. (That’s meant with the highest respect for geeks.) Tapping great minds to help the world’s poorest, Shashi Buluswar leads the Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in Berkeley, California.
