Topic description and stories

Cambridge researchers have long worked with African colleagues on issues that matter not just to the continent but to the world.

A Young Chimpanzee Playing with Twigs

Tool use is 'innate' in chimpanzees but not bonobos, their closest evolutionary relative

16 Jun 2015

First evidence for a species difference in the innate predisposition for tool use in our closest evolutionary cousins could provide insight into how...

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Strolling, Uganda

" ̽»¨Ö±²¥Professor is World Cup": understanding ‘secret’ urban languages

22 Apr 2015

Research into a ‘playful’ and increasingly popular urban language that grew out of the necessity for criminals to hide their true intent could help...

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Cast of the 'Nariokotome boy' (Homo ergaster) skeleton

Earliest humans had diverse range of body types, just as we do today

27 Mar 2015

New research harnessing fragmentary fossils suggests our genus has come in different shapes and sizes since its origins over two million years ago...

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'Extreme sleepover #15' – keeping the lights on in rural Uganda

20 Mar 2015

Stephanie Hirmer travelled to Moyo in northern Uganda to ask which possessions the villagers most value and why. ̽»¨Ö±²¥results will be used to help...

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Chimp eating army ants using an 'ant-dipping' tool

Chimpanzees have favourite ‘tool set’ for hunting staple food of army ants

16 Oct 2014

New research shows that chimpanzees search for the right tools from a key plant species when preparing to ‘ant dip’ - a crafty technique enabling...

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Straw coloured fruit bat

Understanding the bushmeat market: why do people risk infection from bat meat?

09 Oct 2014

Ebola, as with many emerging infections, is likely to have arisen due to man’s interaction with wild animals – most likely the practice of hunting...

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Urban Uganda

Urbanisation of rural Africa associated with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes

29 Jul 2014

̽»¨Ö±²¥increasing urbanisation of rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to an explosion in incidences of heart disease and diabetes, according to...

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Africa: the coming revolution

21 May 2014

Africa’s fastest-growing economies could offer a radical alternative to the West’s current reliance on national capitalism according to an academic...

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Truck stop

Research recommends how to tackle spread of HIV/AIDS by African truckers

15 Oct 2013

An investigation into how the transport suppliers employed by multinational companies contributes to the spread of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa urges...

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Camel farming

Farming the 'long-necked thing’: moving from cows to camels

23 Sep 2013

A move from cattle herding to camel keeping among Kenyan farmers is more than an economic transition, it represents a fundamental shift in age-old...

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Reporting from Zimbabwe: why the sanctions must be lifted

24 Aug 2013

̽»¨Ö±²¥Zimbabwean elections will quickly drop off the international news agenda. In her third and final report, anthropology student Rowan Jones ponders...

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Karnu Warrior

Until lions write their own history…

12 Jul 2013

An exhibition of contemporary textile art by Deanna Tyson has opened at the Alison Richard Building in response to the unique materials held there...

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