Is science fiction coming to Africa? Or is it already here? Lauren Beukes, South African author and winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, discovers an SF scene shaped by people’s appreciation of both technology and magic.
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Tagged with “africa”
(12)
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Docs: Is Science Fiction Coming to Africa?
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Rethinking “Out of Africa”
I’m thinking a lot about species concepts as applied to humans, about the "Out of Africa" model, and also looking back into Africa itself. I think the idea that modern humans originated in Africa is still a sound concept. Behaviorally and physically, we began our story there, but I’ve come around to thinking that it wasn’t a simple origin. Twenty years ago, I would have argued that our species evolved in one place, maybe in East Africa or South Africa. There was a period of time in just one place where a small population of humans became modern, physically and behaviourally. Isolated and perhaps stressed by climate change, this drove a rapid and punctuational origin for our species. Now I don’t think it was that simple, either within or outside of Africa.
CHRISTOPHER STRINGER is one of the world’s foremost paleoanthropologists. He is a founder and most powerful advocate of the leading theory concerning our evolution: Recent African Origin or "Out of Africa". He has worked at The Natural History Museum, London since 1973, is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and currently leads the large and successful Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project (AHOB), His most recent book is The Origin of Our Species (titled Lone Survivors in the US).
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Interview with Lauren Beukes « The Skiffy and Fanty Show
South Africa is on the literary attack. This week we talk to Lauren Beukes about her novel, Zoo City, which was recently released in the United States.
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BBC World Service: Zimbabwe’s Diamond Fields
Have you bought a diamond recently?
Would you really know where it came from?
Assignment goes into Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields and uncovers evidence of torture camps and widescale killings.
As the international community argues over whether these diamonds should be sold on the open market, we ask if President Robert Mugabe will ever face prosecution for these crimes.
Hilary Andersson reports.
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PRI: Public Radio International - Hedge funds buying massive tracts of African farmland
Huffduffed from http://www.pri.org/stories/world/africa/hedge-funds-buy-massive-tracts-of-farm-land-5343.html
Tagged with pri africa hedge funds farmland
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DocArchive: The Short History of Five Notes: 25 Feb 2011
Dancehall singer Sean Paul, Hip hop star Missy Elliot and Malian singer Habib Koite all use a deceptively simple but hypnotic beat from the heart of Africa in some of their biggest hits. But what is it? Music journalist Rita Ray journeys to Ghana to find out.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects: Olduvai Handaxe
As early humans slowly began to move beyond their African homeland, they took with them one essential item - a handaxe. It is the most widely-used tool humans have created. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, sees just how vital to our evolution this sharp, ingenious implement was and how it allowed the spread of humans across the globe. Including contributions from designer Sir James Dyson and archaeologist Nick Ashton.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects: Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool
A simple chipped stone from the Rift Valley in Tanzania marks the emergence of modern humans. Faced with the needs to cut meat from carcasses, early humans in Africa discovered how to shape stones into cutting tools. From that one innovation, a whole history of human development springs. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, tells the story with contributions from flint napper Phil Harding, Sir David Attenborough and African Nobel Prize winner Dr Wangeri Maathai.
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The role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide
Linda Melvern is an investigative journalist and author. A world expert on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, she was a consultant to the prosecution team at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the military one case. She is an Honorary Professor of the Department of International Politics (University of Wales - Aberystwyth).
(May 6, 2009 at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE))
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Six Months in the Sudan: Dr James Maskalyk
In 2006 James Maskalyk, a young, single ER physician, gave up a successful practice at one of Toronto´s finest hospitals to join Médecins Sans Frontieres. Armed with a wide set of medical skills and unburdened by a family of his own, he volunteered to serve in the world’s most dangerous places. After months of waiting, he received his assignment: a small village called Abyei, sandwiched in between two military compounds on the border of northern and southern Sudan. This event was recorded at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
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