Review: The Shadow Scholars gives us a peek into the world of Kenyan college grads who are commissioned and paid by students in the most prestigious institutions in the western hemisphere to produce essays, papers, scholarly articles and graduate theses on their behalf.

Review: Outsourcing academia

Meet the Kenyan intellectuals quietly ghostwriting academic works for lazy students in the Global North.

After a year of intracontinental jockeying for position, Africa is making a name for itself on the netball court. Three countries are in the top 10 in the world: South Africa in fifth, Uganda in sixth and Malawi in seventh.

Up and up, and soon the top

African countries have slowly been stacking up wins in netball, but can they break into the global top four?

Borderlands: The story of the city of Kigoma is also the story of the MV Liemba and the MV Mwongozo. Both ferries have been removed from active service, leaving no government-owned ferries operational on Lake Tanganyika, leaving the city stranded.

Boats to nowhere

Kigoma, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, is one of Africa’s great frontier towns. But the big ships are not sailing any more.

Here’s this week’s quiz. It’s a mixed bag. Give it a go. You might surprise yourself.

Producing a weekly newspaper from a virtual newsroom is a lesson in open communication, that's why we do reader surveys. What do you want to see more or less of? What are we getting right? What can we improve on? Please fill this one out. Thanks in advance.

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The Continent Reader Survey 2024

All protocol observed. Our goal is for The Continent to be the most important source of African news for anyone, anywhere. To get there, we need y...

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Western sanctions targeted Russian exports, like refined oil. But in the eight months following the invasion, an oil tanker loitering just outside Maltese waters sold nearly two million barrels of Russian oil to Nigerian importers. Blended with products from elsewhere, it was then sold as oil from Malta. It also sold at prices 24% higher than unblended Russian oil.

Done dirty: Nigerians pay a premium for super dodgy fuel

To dodge sanctions, oil companies blend Russian oil between ships – offshore, out of sight. This can lead to dirty fuel. The kind thought ‘good...

Data is important. It’s not what we think we know, it’s what we can prove. Your responses to our reader survey help us make a case to the people who support journalism that they need to keep supporting The Continent.

Google Docs

The Continent Reader Survey 2024

All protocol observed. Our goal is for The Continent to be the most important source of African news for anyone, anywhere. To get there, we need y...

If court appeals fail, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah will become Namibia's fifth president next March. Every one of those presidents, including her, has come from the governing Swapo, which took power in 1990 after the country got its independence from South Africa.

First woman president crowned after peaceful poll

But the election was a bit of a shambles, critics say.

A football fixture in Guinea staged in honour of the president ended like the 2009 protest against Dadis Camara: in tragedy.

Horrific end to ‘Dear Leader’ football match

A fixture staged in honour of the president ended like the 2009 protest against Dadis Camara: in tragedy.

French foreign lesions: Colonial atrocities are finally catching up to Paris, and Macron’s government is too weak to put up a fight.

French foreign lesions: This reckoning is overdue

Colonial atrocities are finally catching up to Paris, and Macron’s government is too weak to put up a fight.