UK officially falls into recession for first time in 11 years due to impact of pandemic

The UK has officially entered into the largest recession on record due to the impacts of the coronavirus crisis. Figures showed the pandemic sent the economy plunging by 20.4% between April and June. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed the UK's nosedive into recession for the first time since the financial crisis after the record-breaking contraction in the second quarter, which follows a 2.2% fall in the previous three months.

Mekatilili wa Menza; the Kenyan female freedom fighter remembered for slapping a British colonial administrator

Mekatilili wa Menza was a fearless prophetess and warrior who led her people, the Giriama, in rebelling against British imperialism. Born in the 1860s, she is remembered for slapping a British colonial administrator after a disagreement over their imperialist policies and attempts in subduing them. A subset of the Mijikenda peoples of Kenya, the Giriama were said to inhabit the Kenyan coast with sacred dwellings called kayas, located in forested areas, which were destroyed by the British colonial administration in 1914.

It’s Kamala Harris! – Biden picks first Black woman as running mate

Joe Biden has selected Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate ahead of November’s general election. The 55-year-old California senator is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian-Jamaican descent to be nominated for national office by a major party. She is also only the fourth woman in history to be chosen for one of their presidential tickets.

Meet the Chimbu skeleton people of Papua New Guinea who terrify enemies with their body art

The Chimbu, an ethnic and linguistic group, live in the Chimbu, Koro, and Wahgi valleys in the mountainous central highlands of Papua New Guinea. They live in rugged mountain valleys between 1,400 and 2,400 meters above sea level, where the climate is temperate, with precipitation averaging between 250 and 320 centimeters per year.

The Imbalu festival of Uganda where male circumcision is performed in public

It is merrymaking every two years in the Bugisu or Gisu region in eastern Uganda as they celebrate Imbalu, a circumcision ritual that initiates boys into men. Usually held around August, thousands of people, foreign and local, flock to Mutoto cultural ground in eastern Uganda, outside the town of Mbale to watch young Ugandan men get their foreskins sliced in public.

Full-length police bodycam footage of George Floyd’s death now released to public [Watch]

Police camera video of George Floyd’s arrest and his chilling final moments has now been made public. The video, about an hour in length, comes from the body cameras of former officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng.

Massive explosion shakes Lebanon's capital Beirut (videos)

A massive explosion erupted in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday, August 4. The afternoon blast shook several parts of the capital with Local Red Cross reporting hundreds of injured and widespread damage.

Ibrahim Njoya, the African king who created his own writing system that was destroyed by the French

King Ibrahim Njoya was between the years 1860 to 1933, the 17th ruler of Bamum, a large ethnic group located within what is now western Cameroon.Before his reign at the end of the 19 century, the history of the Bamum people was preserved primarily through oral transmission from one generation to the other.Out of fear that important historical facts of the Bamum could be erased or corrupted, Njoya introduced an alphabet that could be used to write down the history of his people.

Sara Gómez, a Cuban filmmaker who was banned for exposing failed promises to Afro-Cubans

Sara Gómez born November 8, 1942, was a Cuban filmmaker, who by 31 had passed but she left behind a rich body of work. During the early years of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art & Industry (ICAIC), she was one of only two black filmmakers in attendance. She was also the institute’s first and for her lifetime, Cuba’s only woman director. As a revolutionary filmmaker, Gómez focused not only on wider social inequalities that Afro-Cubans were subjected to but specifically “the socio-economic annihilation of Black women in a post-revolutionary Cuba.

Four ancient African languages – older than English spoken till this day.

By some counts, there are more than 3,000 African languages although most linguists on the continent and other places believe the number goes just a little beyond 2,000. All the same, linguistic evolution on the continent has been taking place for over 5,000 years. Some of the languages that were used by the ancestors of old are no more spoken.