The beloved Christmas ballet, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was first performed in 1892. Known for its enchanting score and festive themes, it has become a holiday tradition worldwide Continue reading...

Researchers say fossilised marks were apparently made in same place within days of each other about 1.5m years agoAbout 1.5m years ago a big-toothed cousin of prehistoric humans walked quickly along a lakeside in Kenya, footprints marking the muddy ground. But they were not our only distant relative on the scene: treading the same ground was the early human Homo erectus.Researchers say an analysis of fossilised footprints discovered in deposits of the Turkana Basin, northern Kenya, suggest the marks were made by two different species on the human family tree who were in the same place within hours or days of each other. Continue reading...

Protesters across the globe marched to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. In Spain, activists clad in white robes and wearing white masks carried placards emblazoned with the name, age and location of women killed this year. In Turkey, protesters clashed with police while law enforcement in Kenya used tear gas against an anti-femicide march. Continue reading...

Trump undeniably made gains but alarm over a rightward shift among African Americans is overblown. Plus: Kenyans embrace standupDon’t get The Long Wave? delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week, I had a chat with Lauren N Williams, the deputy editor for race and equity at the Guardian US, about the country’s election results and the role Black voters played. I wanted to discuss the reported swing among Black voters to Donald Trump, which seemed pretty significant. However, talking to her made me see things from a different angle. But first, the weekly roundup. Continue reading...

Loved by tourists, elephants are, however, often loathed by farmers. Elephant conservation has been a been a success in Tsavo in Kenya, with their number increasing by about 6,000 in the mid-1990s to almost 15,000 in 2021. The human population has also grown, encroaching on grazing and migration routes for the herds, with resulting clashes becoming the No 1 cause of elephant deaths. But a long-running project by the charity Save the Elephants offered an unlikely solution: deterring some of nature’s biggest animals with some of its smallest: African honeybees Continue reading...

New venues and a fresh wave of comedians are winning huge audiences in Nairobi and beyondKK knows that a well-told colonial joke can excite a Kenyan crowd. “I love how white people discover stuff that was already there,” he tells the audience at the Punchline Comedy Club which is staged at Two Grapes, a Nairobi restaurant. “I got this DM from this white man the other day. He was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I love your content. I’m so glad I discovered you.’ I’m like, ‘No, We’ve done this before.’”He goes on about how they “discover” people then take them to other places “to be discovered”, and how those who have been “discovered” end up travelling the world and making a lot of money. Continue reading...

Restless Development, a global youth agency, asked photographers aged 18-25 from around the world to submit images for the WHO global campaign to end violence against children on the theme of feeling safe. The resulting photo essays were displayed in Bogotá, Colombia, earlier this month Continue reading...

From Kenya to Brazil, patients need tasty, nutritious food more than most – so which countries do it best?• ‘We have learned to have low expectations’: why is UK hospital food so bad?One of the best meals of my life was the platter of food that I ate in a Taipei hospital after I gave birth to my son last year. There was tofu braised in five-spice, shiitake mushrooms, steamed cauliflower with diced carrot, and sauteed spinach with ginger. It was paired with plenty of liquid: rice porridge, black sesame soup, and vegetable broth peppered with daikon. Continue reading...

Unable to access her documentation, Esther* found herself trapped in a spiral of abuse typical of Kenya’s child labour problemAs a preteen, Esther*, now 20, says she could not wait for the weekdays to come around. Going to school meant an escape from the dark, tin-roof home she shared with her mother in a poorer part of Makadara, a high-density neighbourhood on the south side of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.She disliked that their house sat directly in front of an open sewer and had walls so thin she knew exactly what her neighbours were up to. But it was the boredom between naps and chores she dreaded the most. Continue reading...

Set up to conserve traditional seeds, the Genetic Resources Research Institute is now helping smallholders diversify with crops resilient to the rapid changes in climateOn a winding road in the densely forested Kikuyu highlands of south-central Kenya lies a nondescript government building: the Genetic Resources Research Institute. Opened in 1988, during the country’s “green revolution”, this little-known national gene bank was set up to hold and conserve seeds from the traditional crops that were in danger of disappearing as farmers and agricultural industry moved to higher-yield varieties.For decades, it has collaborated with researchers studying crop genetics and others working to develop improved varieties. But as the climate crisis worsens food insecurity, the repository of about 50,000 seed and crop collections could become a lifeline for farmers. Continue reading...

Division’s first female coach discusses the reaction from the club’s players and fans and why she is not feeling pressure“I can say so far so good,” Jackline Juma says, two and a half months after becoming the first female coach of a men’s team in the Kenyan Premier League. Results have been mixed after five points from five games but there are signs of progress that FC Talanta are on course to achieve her first target: avoiding a repeat of last season’s relegation battle, when the Nairobi club survived by a point. Really though, the 38-year-old wants a top-six finish in the 18-team league.There is, of course, a bigger picture. Being a female coach of a top-tier professional men’s team could be a gamechanger if it goes well, but what if it doesn’t? “I don’t feel the pressure of being a representative female coach,” Juma says. “The chances of failing are possible; all coaches know that. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but when you do [lose] it must be a learning process. I do not feel pressure as I know I am capable.” Continue reading...

Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, a total blackout in Cuba, tributes to Liam Payne and the US election: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists Continue reading...

Senators upheld five of 11 charges in unprecedented vote while Rigathi Gachagua was treated for chest painsKenya’s senate impeached the deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, while he was in hospital on a day of high political drama in Nairobi.Senators upheld five out of 11 charges against Gachagua in a vote late on Thursday, making him the first deputy president in the country to be ejected from office through impeachment. Continue reading...

Kenyan also won Chicago Marathon in 2021 and 2022Tributes paid to late Kelvin Kiptum in raceKenya’s Ruth Chepngetich smashed the women’s world record by nearly two minutes at the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, winning in 2:09:56.Chepngetich became the first woman to break 2 hours and 10 minutes in the marathon. The 30-year-old broke the previous record of 2:11:53, which was set by Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia at the 2023 Berlin Marathon. Continue reading...

Project Mila’s team of volunteers collect organic waste from households, markets and restaurants in Mombasa and feed it to voracious larvaeA group of young Kenyans are working on an unusual solution to the problems of food waste and fish feed produced unsustainably from wild-caught fish stocks: maggots.The larvae of the black soldier fly are now devouring unwanted food in projects around the world. Their excrement, known as frass, can be used as a fertiliser for land-based crops, and their protein-rich bodies, harvested before they turn into flies, can be fed to livestock. Continue reading...

From dodging bullets to sleeping on goat skins, film-makers Peter Murimi and Daphne Matziaraki faced unique challenges when documenting the conflict between white farmers and Indigenous herdersThe Laikipia plateau in Kenya is a wildlife conservation haven, and a popular safari destination featuring all the big five animals of Africa. As yet, a simmering local conflict between the Indigenous pastoralist communities and long-established white farmers has remained largely unnoticed by the international community. But The Battle for Laikipia, shot by two seasoned film-makers – award-winning Kenyan documentary-maker Peter Murimi and Daphne Matziaraki, a Greek director with a short film Oscar nomination – walks a tightrope to show the delicate balance in a conflict that has become increasingly violent in recent years due to the climate crisis.“While making the film, we were surprised by the fact that the people who share that same landscape barely knew each other and did not truly understand one another,” says Matziaraki. “A lack of empathy, fear and sometimes refusal to acknowledge the historical context are the reasons why this conflict has escalated to that point. Climate change is bringing to the surface issues that were buried under the rug for decades.” Continue reading...

The smouldering conflict between the Samburu community and European settlers is captured in an arrestingly shot, shrewdly edited documentaryThe effects of the climate crisis – a drought that parches the once verdant grazing land – fan the flames of a tension that has been smouldering for generations in the central Kenya region of Laikipia. This essential documentary, shot over several years by film-makers Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi, explores the conflict between the Samburu people, a nomadic pastoralist community that has always grazed cattle and goats on the land, and the third and fourth-generation European settlers who own ranches and conservancies in the region and who protect their property with fences, bellicose curses and, as resources dwindle, guns. Handsomely photographed and shrewdly edited, the picture captures both the mounting tension and the arresting drama of the landscape. It’s a sober and balanced piece of film-making that allows both sides to voice their positions while acknowledging that there is no easy resolution for the situation.In UK and Irish cinemas Continue reading...

The Yaaku people long ago assimilated with the majority Maasai, and few still speak Yaakunte, but there is a new determination to save their culture – and their forest – before it disappearsWords and photographs by Gioia Shah in Kori KoriIn a community centre made of glass bottles, Juliana Loshiro stands before her pupils, a group of village elders. Sitting in a semi-circle, they listen and repeat simple words and greetings in Yaakunte (also called Yaaku), the language of their tribe.Though it might seem strange that even older people cannot speak the language, one of the pupils stands up and explains why he is in the class: his grandparents died before they could teach him Yaakunte, he says, and his mother, a Maasai, did not know the language. “So we got lost.” Continue reading...

Illuminating documentary examines the tensions between indigenous pastoralists and commercial ranchers as resources become more scarce during a droughtAt the turn of the 20th century, Laikipia in Kenya saw an influx of British settlers who were allowed to claim ownership of uninhabited and uncultivated territory. Much of the local population were stripped of their own land and forced to work as hired hands; many were killed. While more than 60 years have passed since the end of British rule, the stark racial inequality in Kenya remains. Shot during a period of severe drought, which heightens the tension between indigenous pastoralists and commercial ranchers, Peter Murimi and Daphne Matziaraki’s illuminating documentary illustrates the symbiotic relationship between land rights and climate justice.As the lack of rainfall wreaks havoc on plant life, the film focuses on the Samburu people – a nomadic tribe – and their struggle to find grazing pasture for their cattle. Although historically both camps have supported each other in times of trouble, the presence of the pastoralists on private ranches is now met with verbal abuse and even gunshots. In retaliation, some of the indigenous locals have taken up arms, and the region descends into further chaos. Continue reading...

AI apps are increasingly popular among small-scale farmers seeking to improve the quality and quantity of their cropSammy Selim strode through the dense, shiny green bushes on the slopes of his coffee farm in Sorwot village in Kericho, Kenya, accompanied by a younger farmer called Kennedy Kirui. They paused at each corner to send the farm’s coordinates to a WhatsApp conversation.The conversation was with Virtual Agronomist, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide fertiliser application advice using chat prompts. The chatbot asked some further questions before producing a report saying that Selim should target a yield of 7.9 tonnes and use three types of fertiliser in specific quantities to achieve that goal. Continue reading...