African Currents

As diplomacy seeks new ways to reach younger generations, street sports are emerging as a platform for people-to-people connections. The BRICS Skate Cup 2026 in Russia brought together African, Russian, and international skateboarders, showing how shared passions can build bridges and create opportunities for youth.

Beneath Africa's soils lies a network that scientists say is essential to life, not only on the continent but on the planet. Yet much of it remains undocumented. A group of African researchers is now working to uncover these systems as part of a broader push for scientific independence and locally led conservation.

Africa’s pastoralists face a changing future as climate change, shrinking grazing lands, and policy challenges put pressure on livestock-based livelihoods that have sustained communities for centuries. Experts are urging a new approach that blends indigenous knowledge with modern solutions to build resilience and boost the sector’s economic value.

For African athletes who once faced limited opportunities after losing limbs, football has become a new arena to rebuild confidence, pursue competition, and represent their communities on the pitch.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), through the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), its development investment arm, has appointed an integrated production company as co-general partner of the Pan-African Film Fund, which aims to mobilize up to $1 billion to expand financing for the continent's film and audiovisual industries.

Africa’s campaign for greater financial autonomy is moving from political ambition to institutional planning, as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) recommits to launching the ECO in 2027 and the East Africa Community (EAC) steps up work toward a single currency and deeper regional payment integration by 2031.

The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to promote a new world map that more accurately reflects the size of Africa and other continents, replacing the distorted proportions of the centuries-old Mercator projection with alternatives such as Equal Earth.

From farm produce to vaccines, Africa’s most fragile goods face a common problem: keeping them cold long enough to reach the people who need them. This is prompting calls for urgent investment in infrastructure and skills.

Futurists across Africa and Asia are challenging imposed Western-designed long-term planning tools, arguing that such blueprints does not represent or skew their countries' social and economic development projections, urging locally led models.

With more than 60 percent of its population under 25, Africa has one of the world's largest pools of young talent from which to build its future workforce, institutions, and leadership. Yet the continent has yet to develop a broad, systematic pipeline capable of turning that human capital into leaders at a scale that matches its ambitions.