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With current physical and financial barriers to accessing care, people with mental health conditions may turn to artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots for mental health relief or aid. Although they have not been approved as medical devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or Health Canada, the appeal to use such chatbots may come from their 24/7 availability, personalized support and marketing of cognitive behavioural therapy.

However, users may overestimate the therapeutic benefits and underestimate the limitations of using such technologies, further deteriorating their mental health. Such a phenomenon can be classified as a therapeutic misconception where users may infer the chatbot’s purpose is to provide them with real therapeutic care.

With AI chatbots, therapeutic misconceptions can occur in four ways, through two main streams: the company’s practices and the design of the AI technology itself.

Four ways therapeutic misconception can occur through two main streams.
(Zoha Khawaja)

Company practices: Meet your AI self-help expert

First, inaccurate marketing of mental health chatbots by companies that label them as “mental health support” tools that incorporate “cognitive behavioural therapy” can be very misleading as it implies that such chatbots can perform psychotherapy.

Not only do such chatbots lack the skill, training and experience of human therapists, but labelling them as being able to provide a “different way to treat” mental illness insinuates that such chatbots can be used as alternative ways to seek therapy.

This sort of marketing tactic can be very exploitative of users’ trust in the health-care system, especially when they are marketed as being in “close collaboration with therapists.” Such marketing tactics can lead users to disclose very personal and private health information without fully comprehending who owns and has access to their data.

The second type of therapeutic misconception is when a user forms a digital therapeutic alliance with a chatbot. With a human therapist, it’s beneficial to form a strong therapeutic alliance where both the patient and therapist collaborate and agree on desired goals that can be achieved through tasks, and form a bond built on trust and empathy.

Since a chatbot cannot develop the same therapeutic relationship as users can with a human therapist, a digital therapeutic alliance can form, where a user perceives an alliance with the chatbot, even though the chatbot can’t actually form one.

Examples of how mental health apps are presented: (A) Screenshot taken from Woebot Health website. (B) Screenshot taken from Wysa website. (C) Advertisement of Anna by Happify Health. (D) Screenshot taken from Happify Health website.
(Zoha Khawaja)

A great deal of effort has been made to gain user trust and fortify digital therapeutic alliance with chatbots, including giving chatbots humanistic qualities to resemble and mimic conversations with actual therapists and advertising them as “anonymous” 24/7 companions that can replicate aspects of therapy.

Such an alliance may lead users to inadvertently expect the same patient-provider confidentiality and protection of privacy as they would with their health-care providers. Unfortunately, the more deceptive the chatbot is, the more effective the digital therapeutic alliance will be.

Technological design: Is your chatbot trained to help you?

The third therapeutic misconception occurs when users have limited knowledge about possible biases in the AI’s algorithm. Often marginalized people are left out of the design and development stages of such technologies which may lead to them receiving biased and inappropriate responses.

Read more:
Artificial intelligence can discriminate on the basis of race and gender, and also age

When such chatbots are unable to recognize risky behaviour or provide culturally and linguistically relevant mental health resources, this could worsen the mental health conditions of vulnerable populations who not only face stigma and discrimination, but also lack access to care. A therapeutic misconception occurs when users may expect the chatbot to benefit them therapeutically but are provided with harmful advice.

Lastly, a therapeutic misconception can occur when mental health chatbots are unable to advocate for and foster relational autonomy, a concept that emphasizes that an individual’s autonomy is shaped by their relationships and social context. It is then the responsibility of the therapist to help recover a patient’s autonomy by supporting and motivating them to actively engage in therapy.

AI-chatbots provide a paradox in which they are available 24/7 and promise to improve self-sufficiency in managing one’s mental health. This can not only make help-seeking behaviours extremely isolating and individualized but also creates a therapeutic misconception where individuals believe they are autonomously taking a positive step towards amending their mental health.

A false sense of well-being is created where a person’s social and cultural context and the inaccessibility of care are not considered as contributing factors to their mental health. This false expectation is further emphasized when chatbots are incorrectly advertised as “relational agents” that can “create a bond with people…comparable to that achieved by human therapists.”

Measures to avoid the risk of therapeutic misconception

Not all hope is lost with such chatbots, as some proactive steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood of therapeutic misconceptions.

Through honest marketing and regular reminders, users can be kept aware of the chatbot’s limited therapeutic capabilities and be encouraged to seek more traditional forms of therapy. In fact, a therapist should be made available for those who’d like to opt-out of using such chatbots. Users would also benefit from transparency on how their information is collected, stored and used.

Active involvement of patients during the design and development stages of such chatbots should also be considered, as well as engagement with multiple experts on ethical guidelines that can govern and regulate such technologies to ensure better safeguards for users. Läs mer…

National Conservatism conferences, one of the main meeting grounds for the global radical right, rarely attract much attention. If not for the decision of a local mayor, the same neglect would have befallen this year’s event in Brussels.

But the mayor’s decision to shut down the conference on the grounds of “public safety” earned NatCon, as it’s known colloquially, headlines around the world.

Although the decision was quickly overturned and the conference continued the next day, the damage was done. Cancelling a meeting of radical right-wing activists who rail against “cancel culture” qualifies as a devastating self-inflicted wound for those seeking to counter the spread and influence of radical right ideas.

Radical right meeting ground

NatCon is part of a broader effort to build a transnationally connected movement against liberal globalization.

This year’s featured speakers included familiar right-wing figures like Brexit firebrand Nigel Farage, British politician Suella Braverman, controversial French author and presidential candidate Éric Zemmour and Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán.

The meeting was barely underway when the police arrived to shut it down. While the official reason was “public security,” Emil Kir, the mayor of the Brussels district where the conference was being held, added a list of other justifications. They included NatCon’s “ethically conservative” vision, its “hostility to the legalisation of abortion, same-sex unions, etc.,” its focus on the defence of “national sovereignty” and its “Eurosceptic” attitude.

Police look on at demonstrators outside the National Conservatism conference in Brussels on April 16, 2024.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

This, combined with his observation that some of the speakers “are reputed to be traditionalists,” led him to declare that “the far right is not welcome.”

Far from silencing the radical right, we believe setting the police on a meeting of former and present politicians — however objectionable and offensive their opinions are to many people — will only make them more vocal and more convinced about the righteousness of their mission.

Their supporters, too, are likely to find the police action a step too far, which may in turn have consequences at the ballot box. In this sense, the Brussels mayor may have handed the radical right a gift.

Free speech as a rallying cry

The radical right has made free speech one of its battle cries, and the effort to “cancel” the conference confirmed its accusations that liberal free speech is limited only to those who support liberal positions.

In the words of Frank Furedi, one of the conference’s organizers:

“The city of Brussels is occupied by forces hostile to free speech and democracy. Tragically and shamefully, it has become apparent that the political establishment in Brussels is actively collaborating with left-wing extremists to prevent the free expression of political ideas and opinions in the city.”

The fact that the closure happened in Brussels — the European Union’s capital and a bane to the radical right — is an added bonus. The radical right regards the EU as a prime agent of the suppression not only of free speech, but also of national identities and sovereignty.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during the National Conservatism conference in Brussels on April 17, 2024.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

For powerful politicians like Orbán, who addressed NatCon on the second day of the conference, the EU epitomizes the abusive power of a new global elite dedicated to exporting liberal values and in the process destroying traditional cultures and differences.

“I guess they couldn’t take free speech any longer,” Orbán said on X, adding the hashtags “#noMigration, #noGender, #noWar.”

Radical right goes global

Some might agree with the Brussels mayor that censorship of such unsavoury viewpoints is legitimate and necessary.

The analogy is frequently made to 1930s Germany, suggesting that if the Weimar government had suppressed the Nazi movement, the Holocaust might have been avoided. Even if historically correct, which is debatable, it is highly doubtful that such a strategy would succeed now.

Today’s radical right is global. Its ideas cannot be suppressed by cancelling meetings. Those ideas circulate through digital media and have supporters around the world. They’re no longer exclusive property of fringe movements; they’re now shared by powerful parties and governments.

In fact, many of the NatCon attendees moved on directly to the much bigger stage of CPAC Hungary, the largest international gathering of radical conservatives. Again, prominent speakers like Orbán, Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom, Santiago Absacal of the Spanish Vox party and Tom Van Grieken of the Flemish Vlaams Belang were set to express similar opinions to those heard at NatCon Brussels.

Silencing doesn’t work

For those opposed to the ideas circulating at NatCon and CPAC, the debacle in Brussels contains one lesson: trying to silence the radical right isn’t the way forward. Not only is it likely to backfire, it will probably galvanize the radical right.

As one of our contacts at NatCon confessed, many are glad that the police intervened, not only because it exposed the thinking of those in power, but also because it gave conference attendees a sense of mission and encouragement to keep fighting.

The challenge for those of us who oppose these ideas is to demonstrate the same courage. Rather than censoring, we must dare to counter the radical right through rational arguments and political convictions. Läs mer…

Tackling violence against women will be the sole agenda item for a national cabinet meeting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has convened for Wednesday.

The meeting, held remotely, follows thousands of Australians attending rallies across the country, as community anger surges over the horrific number of women killed so far this year.

One topic is expected to be bail laws. NSW already has an inquiry, after a man charged with crimes against a woman was granted bail and then allegedly killed her.

Albanese was at the Canberra rally on Sunday, where he received some heckling. He was accompanied by the Minister for Woman Katy Gallagher and the Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth.

“We are here today to demand that governments of all levels must do better, including my own, including every state and territory government,” the Prime Minister told the crowd.

“We’re here as well to say that society, and Australia, must do better.

”We need to change the culture. We need to change attitudes. We need to change the legal system. We need to change the approach by all governments – because it’s not enough to support victims.

”We need to focus on the perpetrators and focus on prevention.”

National cabinet would “talk about what we can do, including as part of the national plan to end violence against women and children, where in the first two budgets, we’ve added $2.3 billion,” Albanese said.

He said, “I know that we all must do better,” but “it’s not just governments’ problem. It’s a problem of our entire society” and a “a national crisis”.

“We need to make sure that this isn’t just up to women. It’s up to men to change men’s behaviour as well.”

The federal government has rejected calls for a royal commission into the issue, saying it already has a plan.

Rishworth told Sky on Sunday that victim survivors and many experts had had input into that plan. “So we believe we need to get on with the job.

”We have a Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner and Commission that our government stood up. That role is incredibly important in monitoring. We believe we just need to continue to have this sustained effort. We believe that is what will make the difference,” she said.

In the latest incident, in Perth a 35-year-old man was charged with murdering a 30-year-old mother late last week.

A police statement said: “It will be alleged […] the accused physically assaulted the victim at their shared home on Currie Street [in Perth]”.

“It will be further alleged the accused set the property alight while the victim was still inside.” The woman was later found dead.

So far this year 27 women have died in gender-based violence in Australia.

eSafety review opens public consultations

Meanwhile, amid growing concern about the negative effects of social media (including its contribution to gender-based violence) and the government’s fight with Elon Musk over the post of the Assyrian church stabbing, public consultations are opening on strengthening eSafety laws. An issues paper is being released on Monday.

A review by Delia Rickard, a former deputy chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, is underway. She has already been consulting academics, civil society and government departments and agencies to determine issues, the review’s are scope and the public consultation processes.

“The Review is considering the effectiveness of the current framework, including whether more powers are needed to address new and emerging harms,” Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.

It is also looking at “options to reduce harms caused by online hate, as well as new harms raised by emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence”.

Among the matters the issues paper raises are

further steps to ensure the industry acts in children’s best interests
adequacy of existing penalties and enforcement powers
accessibility of laws and regulations dealing with online content and harms, and
international developments in online safety regulation, including whether a new duty of care should be imposed on digital platforms. Läs mer…

South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, eclipsed only by Honduras and a handful of Caribbean island states. Furthermore, South African police crime data shows that South Africans experience above average levels of robbery, assault and rape.

The 2022/23 Victims of Crime survey, which surveyed a representative sample of 42,746 South Africans, showed that the population had been feeling acutely unsafe. Only 37% indicated that they felt safe at night in their communities. Public trust in the police has also fallen, declining from 38% in 2015 to 27% in 2021.

Illegal guns play a significant role in the high levels of violent crime in the country.

In June 2021 the police minister reported that there were more than 1.6 million private licensed firearm owners in South Africa who owned 2.7 million firearms. Since then, there have been close to 500,000 new firearm licence applications, according to the 2021/22 and 2022/23 police annual reports. Hence, it’s likely that there are around two million licensed firearm owners and about three million licensed firearms in the country.

The Small Arms Survey, which is widely regarded as the most reputable international source of information on firearms, has calculated that South Africa is ranked tenth globally in terms of licensed firearm ownership.

This begs the question: given that licensed firearms are being acquired by many South Africans for personal safety reasons, is a licensed firearm an effective means of self-protection in South Africa?

Read more:
Robberies surge as criminals take advantage of South Africa’s power outages

After researching firearm crime and violence in Africa for more than 20 years, as well as serving as an arms trafficking expert for the United Nations, I have concluded that firearms can provide a degree of safety to users, but more importantly, they present a range of risks for users and society at large, especially if they are in criminal hands.

Getting a gun licence in South Africa

South Africa has strict firearm control legislation, and applying for a firearm licence is a time-consuming process.

The Firearms Control Act (2000) stipulates that firearm licence applicants must:

be 21 years of age or older
not have a criminal record or a history of substance abuse, violence or negligent handling of a firearm
pass background checks conducted by the police, and competency tests relating to firearm safety and knowledge of the relevant laws.

Applicants for a licence for self-protection need to provide the police with a compelling written motivation.

Owning a licensed firearm is also costly. An entry-level handgun costs around R9,000 (about US$485). A licence applicant is also required to have a gun safe at home that is approved by the South African Bureau of Standards. The cheapest gun safe costs about R900 (about US$48).

Guns, crime and safety

A key issue in South Africa is that criminals frequently possess firearms. Furthermore, a study of offenders with residential robbery convictions showed that firearm owners had been targeted by criminals for valuables, including firearms. It also showed that criminals were likely to shoot household members if they felt threatened.

Drawing on anecdotal evidence, firearm interest groups in South Africa have strongly promoted the personal safety advantages of firearm ownership. They claim it provides firearm owners with lethal technology to defend themselves, their families and their property.

However, there have been no credible South African studies to substantiate such a position.

In the US, a few studies have suggested that, in certain contexts, the possession of a firearm may discourage criminal attacks.

The crime prevention potential of firearm possession has nonetheless been challenged by a recent review of US studies by Rand, a respected think tank. It suggests that widespread legal firearm ownership cannot be convincingly linked to crime prevention.

Read more:
Rape is endemic in South Africa. Why the ANC government keeps missing the mark

A recent South African study indicated that there was a higher risk of homicide during a robbery if both the perpetrator and victim had firearms. This was particularly the case for men as they were often more confrontational than women in such situations.

Studies from various countries have shown that other risks firearm owners and their families typically face include homicide, intimate partner violence, suicide, and accidental shootings.

Although most murders are committed with unlicensed firearms in South Africa, my research has shown that licensed firearms stolen from, or lost by, licensed owners have been acquired by violent criminals.

There have also been reports of licensed firearms being used in fatal road rage incidents. Licensed firearms have also featured prominently in studies on intimate partner femicide and domestic violence.

Firearms account for 8.6% of suicides in South Africa. This is close to the global average for firearm suicide, although countries with lower levels of firearm access tend to have lower percentages of suicide by firearm use.

A Red Cross Children’s Hospital study has indicated that the accidental shooting of children is also a problem in South Africa.

In short, firearm ownership is accompanied by risks of injury (and death) for firearm owners and their families.

Legal risks of firearm misuse

Firearms may provide firearm owners with a means of self defence in confrontations with criminals, but the unlawful use of a licensed firearm can have negative legal consequences for firearm owners, including criminal convictions. For example, a firearm owner may be charged with committing a violent crime if they use unreasonable and disproportionate lethal force when confronted by a criminal threat.

Read more:
South Africans are feeling more insecure: do Ramaphosa’s plans add up?

Hence, South Africans who are eligible to apply for firearm licences for self-defence purposes should carefully reflect on risks that possessing a licensed firearm may present to them and their families before applying. Prospective gun owners may also want to consider whether there are less risky alternatives to firearm ownership, such as improving their security in the home and joining a neighbourhood watch or community safety group. Läs mer…

The “birds and the bees”. The “facts of life”. Whatever you call it, many parents dread discussing sex and sexuality with their teenagers. They may be embarrassed, or worried that they don’t understand some concepts. In some countries, cultural norms may mean it’s considered inappropriate for adults and adolescents to talk about sex.

However, these are conversations worth having. A large body of research has shown that teens who openly discuss sex and sexuality with their parents reduce their risky sexual behaviour, leading to improved reproductive health.

It’s also important to remember that this won’t be a one-off discussion. Adolescents undergo constant development, facing new questions and challenges as they grow. Continuous dialogue allows parents to provide ongoing guidance, address emerging concerns, and reinforce values over time. It also fosters an atmosphere of trust and openness.

I’m a public health researcher who studies adolescent sexuality, sexual and reproductive health. Based on my research, as well as on frequent interactions with both teenagers and their parents, I’ve put together this guide to address parents’ common questions and concerns. I hope this advice can help you to engage your teens in open, honest and helpful dialogues about sex and sexuality.

When should I start talking to my kids about sex and sexuality?

There is no universally “right” age to start discussing sex and sexuality with your children. However, I’d suggest that you can initiate discussions about body parts and puberty before your kids are 10. Conversations specifically about sex and sexuality can begin around age 10.

No matter your teens’ age, it is important for parents to create a safe space for these discussions by letting your teens know they are not being judged, and that everything they say is confidential.

Read more:
Let’s _not_ talk about sex: insights into how Kenyan parents talk to their teens

Family dynamics differ in every household. Sometimes teenagers trust or are more comfortable with one parent than the other. However, both parents should be on the same page to avoid giving contradictory messages to their teens. In a two-parent household, it is beneficial to have both parents involved in discussing sexuality education with their teen, but it is not necessary to always do it together. A combination of individual and joint conversations can be effective.

What sorts of topics fall under the umbrella of sex and sexuality?

Some of the important topics parents can discuss with their teenagers include

how the reproductive system functions
building healthy relationships – the importance of consent, communication, mutual understanding and boundaries
the physical and emotional changes that occur during puberty
how to maintain good sexual health practices and hygiene.

According to my religion or culture, it’s not appropriate to discuss these topics with my children.

Many parents have their own misconceptions and biases about sex, often rooted in religious or cultural beliefs. But the reality is that avoiding discussions about sex does not stop teenagers from engaging in sexual activities or seeking information from other sources. Studies have shown that “parent-child communication is strongly associated with a child’s safer sex practices, including condom use and delayed sexual debut”.

Read more:
Childhood sex education reduces risky sexual behaviour: a Nigerian case study

Face your own biases and sexual prejudices head on when talking to your teens. For instance, don’t shy away from talking about the spectrum of LGBTQ+ identities. Focus on the importance of respecting, accepting and accommodating different sexual orientations and gender identities.

I don’t understand some of the concepts my teen is asking about!

You’re not alone. Most parents are not experts on these topics. The important thing is to listen actively – tune in to their thoughts and feelings as they talk – without judgement, and with empathy. Try to be thoughtful, factual and compassionate when answering their questions. Don’t be dismissive.

You also don’t need to have all the answers immediately to hand. It is OK to ask your teenagers to give you some time to research the topic. You might suggest researching it together, or asking them to do some research and talk to you about what they find out.

Read more:
Social media for sex education: South African teens explain how it would help them

Another practical and effective way to deal with your teen’s questions and concerns is to connect them with available community resources. These could be school counsellors or community healthcare providers, such as doctors and nurses, who can offer age-appropriate information and confidential medical care. Look for local community organisations and support groups that can provide sexuality education, peer support and safe spaces. Parents’ recommendations and referrals will boost young people’s trust in these care services, encouraging them to use the resources and services.

My teenager says they belong to the LGBTQ+ community. I’m not sure how to support them!

First and foremost, it is wonderful that your teenager felt comfortable enough to share this with you, and it is great that you are willing to learn and be supportive. Here are some steps you can take to support your teenager who has come out to you as LGBTQ+:

Acknowledge and validate by letting your teen know that you love them and accept them for who they are.
Listen with an open mind, without judgement. This is a time for them to express themselves freely. Ask open questions to show your interest and better understand their experience.
Ask your teen what kind of support they need from you. Maybe it is just knowing you are there for them, or perhaps they would like you to connect them with LGBTQ+ resources or support groups.
Be patient with your teen and allow him the space to explore his feelings at his own pace, because coming to terms with one’s sexual orientation or gender identity can be a journey.
Challenge your assumptions and biases. Reflect on your own beliefs and be open to adjusting them if necessary.
Be an ally by showing your support not only within the family, but also in public.
Seek support If you are feeling overwhelmed or unsure about how to support your teenager, seek guidance from LGBTQ+ organisations, therapists, or support groups for parents of LGBTQ+ youth.

An investment in teens’ future

Providing accurate information, fostering open communication, and offering support equips your teen to navigate sex and relationships responsibly. When parents talk about sex and sexuality with their teenagers, it is an investment in their future health and well-being. By approaching it with sensitivity, honesty, and empathy, you can build a strong foundation for open communication and empower your teens to make informed decisions. Läs mer…

Published in 1992, Daughters of Africa is a groundbreaking volume of writing by women of African descent. It was followed by an expanded second edition, New Daughters of Africa, in 2019. The mind behind the books is pioneering Ghanaian-born publisher, writer and editor Margaret Busby. She became the first Black female publisher in the UK at 20 when she co-founded Allison and Busby in 1967. The company was first to publish a number of significant writers during her two-decade tenure.

Busby has continued to nurture new generations of writers, academics, editors, publishers and critics. In May she was in South Africa to give the keynote speech at the second Johannesburg Festival of Women Writers. I took the opportunity to talk with her about her publishing journey.

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers: It is a significant achievement, in editing Daughters of Africa, to bring such a large and diverse body of women together and keep them together. How did you manage that?

Margaret Busby: I do what I can do. What I can’t do, I can’t do. I don’t defeat myself before I start out. When it was published in 1992, people would say, “How long did it take to put this together? That’s over a thousand pages.” And I’d say, well, it either took me maybe 18 months or else it took me my whole life. Because, for as long as I was literate and interested in reading, I was collecting books and magazines. That first volume was what I resonated with, what I knew of, what I had access to.

And in fact, back then you’d have thought there were only, you know, a few women of African descent who were writing, and they were all American. Because back in those days, you’d find anthologies that would be called “anthology of short stories from the West Indies”. And they wouldn’t say by men, but then you wouldn’t find any women in them. Or there’s a volume of poetry from Africa; where are the women? It’s was if women were not writing. I wanted to say, well, they are there, they just haven’t been given the potential. I was trying to just share the space, I suppose, the literary space.

Jonathan Ball Publishers

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers: You were feminist before feminism, and that comes out in your books.

Margaret Busby: As you know, being a woman isn’t necessarily always easy. And historically, in terms of the way society has treated women, there’ve been all sorts of expectations of what you can do, what you can’t do. And sometimes it’s only another woman who can understand that, because it doesn’t happen to other people. Just as I don’t have to explain to another black person what it is to be black.

The way things were in the 1960s and 70s was not the way things are now. There are possibilities now that women can tune into, take advantage of, that work.

But who is controlling what is put out there? Who is controlling the narrative? Who are the publishers? Who’s controlling what gets reviewed? Unless those gatekeepers represent us all, then we have to rely on their impartiality or knowledge or whatever. I think we have to be involved. Women of African heritage have to be involved at every level.

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers: What do you still feel like you want to do? Because you’ve created a forest of all those women who write. You’ve conferred an authority on us.

Margaret Busby: It’s lovely for you to say that – makes it worthwhile. Of course, I’d love to do another volume and another volume, because in both Daughters and New Daughters, I’m not saying these are the only people you should read. And in the first volume, there was a bibliographical section of other books at the end, which was probably a hundred pages, just saying “go and find out more for yourself”. And now there’s the internet, so people can go and do their own research and do their own anthologies. I saw there was some anthology that came out of women of Hispanic descent in America, inspired by Daughters of Africa.

Margaret Busby being interviewed.
Photo: Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

Then we created the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award, which means that a woman student from the African continent gets a free course of study at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies. And the first student who came through was (Kenyan writer) Idza Luhumyo, and she went on to Texas State University, and then won the Caine Prize in 2022. So we’re all part of this chain and this ripple effect, and that’s what I like.

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers: What are some important things you’ve learned in your career?

Margaret Busby: If you say to anybody, “Start a publishing company”, they’d say, “Oh, I haven’t got enough money”, “I don’t know enough”, whatever. There’s always some reason they think it’s going to be difficult. When I was 20, did I have any money? Did I know what the conventions were? Did I know I wasn’t meant to be doing this? No, I just said, that’s what I want to do, okay, I’ll do it. You shouldn’t be put off by somebody saying, “Oh, you can’t do that, it’s not done…”

That’s the great thing about youth. And I think sometimes youth has been stolen from the youth now, because they know too much. They think they know too much. But also, it’s not real knowledge. It’s just statistics on the internet. It’s just projections. It’s simulations. The Sims. That’s not reality. You don’t know if that’s how it’s going to pan out. So you have to try anyway. You have to just try.

Read more:
Children’s book revolution: how East African women took on colonialism after independence

I think that whole tradition of storytelling is important to hold on to. Listening to other people, listening to the stories you’re told by your elders, doesn’t necessarily mean you have to repeat what they do or what they say. But if you don’t know, you don’t know whether you agree, where you want to move on from. But it’s all part of making you who you are, who you may end up being, who you want to be, who your children might be. It’s all part of something that we’re contributing towards. Läs mer…

Imagine you’re lucky enough to travel all the way to the Moon, and you’re bouncing around in your space suit, exploring its surface. How high could you jump?

That’s what Miles, aged nine, from London, wanted to know. And so we found him an expert in astrophysics to help find the answer!

Listen to The Conversation’s Curious Kids, a podcast where kids get answers direct from experts.

You can read a print version of this story here.

The Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast is published in partnership with FunKids, the UK’s children’s radio station. It’s hosted and produced by Eloise. The executive producer is Gemma Ware.

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, you can email it to curiouskids@theconversation.com, or record and send your question to us directly at funkidslive.com/curious.

And explore more articles from our Curious Kids series at The Conversation.

Disclosure statement:

Jacco van Loon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Läs mer…

Maps, although seemingly objective representations of the world, hold immense power. They shape our understanding of space, navigate our journeys and define political boundaries. But beneath the veneer of neutrality lies a potential for manipulation.

The history of warfare is littered with examples of maps used to dehumanise the enemy. Some of these are very explicit. Satirical maps were produced by all sides in the first world war, depicting Europe as a series of caricatures to dehumanise enemy states and push a victorious war narrative.

Other examples are less obvious. In the Vietnam war, the US military produced maps that designated specific regions of Vietnam as “free-fire zones”, meaning any person or activity within that zone could be considered hostile and targeted with military force. This tactic effectively erased the civilian population from the map, treating the entire area as an enemy stronghold.

A map of Europe produced in Germany at the outbreak of the first world war depicting each country as a satirical human figure.
US Library of Congress / Wikimedia

The dehumanising effect of maps stems from their inherent abstraction. Maps simplify reality by reducing a complex landscape teeming with life and history into lines, symbols and colours. While necessary for clarity, this simplification often has the consequence of stripping away the human element.

For example, the below map shows the locations of known Russian military strikes and ground attacks after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The map uses symbols to simplify the conflict. Later we would learn that one of these cartoon-like icons represents the Bucha massacre in which 458 Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war were reportedly killed by Russian forces.

A map showing the locations of Russian military strikes and ground attacks inside Ukraine as of February 28 2022.
Associated Press

Fuelling conflict

Maps can also be used to reinforce the “us v them” mentality that fuels conflict. They create a visual distinction between “our side” and “theirs” by starkly delineating enemy territory.

In the lead-up to the Rwandan genocide in 1994, extremist Hutu media outlets produced maps that categorised Rwandans by ethnicity: Hutu and Tutsi. These maps weren’t just geographical representations, they were tools for identification and targeting.

The maps often used contrasting colours to sharply divide Hutu and Tutsi areas. This visual distinction created a clear separation between the in-group (Hutu) and the out-group (Tutsi), promoting the idea that Tutsis were not part of the Rwandan fabric.

Read more:
Rwanda genocide: 30 years on, why Tutsis are at the centre of DR Congo’s conflict

Some maps went further, using symbols like machetes or snakes to represent Tutsis, portraying them as violent and dangerous. These maps were widely distributed through newspapers and radio broadcasts. They not only identified Tutsis but also served as visual propaganda that justified violence against them.

This visual separation fosters a sense of distance and difference, making it easier to view the enemy as an abstract threat rather than fellow human beings. Propaganda maps exploit this effect by exaggerating the size of enemy territory or depicting enemy populations as faceless masses.

Removing the human from the map

The Israel Defence Force’s introduction of grid maps to Gaza in December 2023 has introduced another way of dehumanising populations. Similar to the free-fire zones of the Vietnam war, Israel has divided Gaza into more than 600 blocks, ostensibly to aid in evacuating civilians.

Each block on the map, which can be accessed through a QR code on leaflets and social media posts, can receive evacuation warnings before the bombardment of a given square. However, aid workers have warned that the map risks turning life in Gaza into a “game of battleships” in which the flattening of any grid square is justified under the pretence that it is an empty space on a map.

Maps also have an impact on the way we, as observers, view conflict. This can extend beyond the battlefield. Maps often depict refugees as a homogeneous mass, neglecting the individual stories and desires that drove them from their homes.

In the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for example, the BBC came under fire for one map in which it used arrows to depict the movement of refugees. People on social media suggested that these symbols insinuated invasion rather than fleeing. Following criticism, the BBC updated the map to use proportional circles instead.

Lessons are being learned

The dehumanisation inherent in war maps is not inevitable. Including civilian infrastructure and population density on military maps, for instance, can serve as a constant reminder of the human cost of conflict. Oral histories and community mapping projects can also offer alternative perspectives on the land, highlighting the human stories often erased by military cartography.

The Gaza conflict has shown that lessons are being learned about how better to use maps during conflict. Reuters, for example, has employed maps alongside other text and visual elements to help tell a fuller story and complete what maps alone might never be able to do.

Ultimately, maps are tools that can be used for good or ill. We must strive to see beyond the lines and symbols, and remember the human beings whose lives are impacted by the conflicts depicted on maps. Läs mer…

Guadeloupian writer Maryse Condé, who has died aged 90, left a body of work which includes many deeply nuanced and wide-ranging responses to the centuries of often violent contact between cultures and societies.

Take her bestselling pair of historical novels Segu (1984) and The Children of Segu (1985). Set in an early 19th-century royal court in what is now Mali, these books explored the profound changes brought to a highly complex society by the slave trade, the arrivals of Islam and then Christianity, and European colonialism.

Condé’s work always challenged simple solutions to complex problems. It drew upon the intersections of class, ethnicity, gender, origins and race, and the myriad competing perceptions of social status that sought to establish a basis in any of these.

Condé’s startling work won her The New Academy Prize in Literature, known as “the alternative Nobel prize”, in 2018, among many other awards. It is hard to choose which of her books are among her best, so here are five which resonate with many of our current debates about identity, memory and our troubled shared histories.

1. Tituba, Black Witch of Salem) (translated by Richard Philcox)

University of Virginia Press

Her 1986 novel Moi, Tituba sorcière… Noire de Salem(published in English as Tituba, Black Witch of Salem with a foreword by American feminist activist and thinker Angela Davis) is considered by some to be the greatest novels about slavery, power and perceptions of witchcraft.

The story draws in part upon what remains in the historical record of a young woman called Tituba, who was sold into slavery in the Caribbean and then North America in the late 17th century. Tituba was among the first women to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials.

Condé crafts a richly imagined life for Tituba, setting the first half of the book in the brutal violence of the slave economy in Barbados. The second half is set in Boston and Salem, where a more insidious violence is politely buried under layers of hypocrisy before exploding in the Salem persecutions.

Condé’s novel speaks powerfully to the divisive legacies of slavery and colonialism, as well as to the growing awareness that what counts as “knowledge” – in the novel, as opposed to “witchcraft” – has not been decided equally.

2. Crossing the Mangrove (translated by Richard Philcox)

Penguin Classics

The complexity of Caribbean identity is at the heart of Crossing the Mangrove (1989) Each chapter is narrated by a different character as they attend the night-long wake of the mysterious Francis Sancher.

In this short novel, the rich diversity of this one small community is set out, with class, colour, education, gender, history and political commitment all playing a part in the characters’ thoughts of the deceased Sancher, of themselves, and of each other.

Secrets, blind spots, lies and prejudices emerge over the course of the night. Some will be revealed to the community, but some are only clear to the reader. Condé portrays the rich diversity of Caribbean society, alongside the universal experience of loss and grief.

Some have linked the title to Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem Crossing the Bar (1889), which is interpreted by some as an elegy about passing into the afterlife. Others have pointed to the difficulty of moving through a mangrove, with its multidirectional roots, which could be seen as a metaphor for the complexity of identity.

3. Heremakhonon (translated by Richard Philcox)

Three Continents Press

Condé also explored the idea of roots in her first novel, Heremakhonon (1976), a novel that traces the itinerary of a young black Guadeloupian woman who absorbed the lesson both from her family and from the French education system that she was “French”.

Yet when she arrives in Paris to continue her studies, she is told she is really African, and should go there to find her authentic roots. She does so, only to be told she is not truly African, but Caribbean.

Condé writes with verve and a great deal of acute social critique, pointing to what happens to an individual when their identity is dragged into grand theoretical ideas of any stripe.

4. Tales From the Heart: True Stories From My Childhood (translated by Richard Philcox)

Soho Press

Condé returned to these themes in several of her autobiographical texts, particularly Le cœur à rire et à pleurer : souvenirs de mon enfance (2001), published in English in as Tales From the Heart: True Stories From My Childhood . She describes her childhood in a comfortable middle-class Guadeloupian family and her gradual political awakening to what her brother calls “alienation”.

In the book she writes of how her parents fetishise and impose on their children a certain fantasy version of metropolitan white French culture. They disdain Guadeloupian culture, the Créole language and any connection to a Black identity.

Towards the end of the book, the teenage Condé realises “I was a ‘black skin, white mask’ and Frantz Fanon was going to write a book with me in mind”. Here Condé references the seminal text, Black Skin, White Masks, by the Martinican theorist and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, which explored the effects of colonialism and racism on the psyche, and the experiences of people of colour in a white-dominated world.

5. The Journey of a Caribbean Writer (translated by Richard Philcox)

One of Condé’s last books, The Journey of a Caribbean Writer (2014), collects some of her lectures and essays, along with two previously unpublished texts.

It gathers many of her thoughts on the relationships between the Caribbean and Africa; the space the sociologist Paul Gilroy called the Black Atlantic. This describes the mixing of black cultures with other cultures from around the Atlantic; diaspora and globalisation; and the happenstance of the places we are born and the languages and cultures we inherit and encounter.

This book alone is a worthy introduction to the work of one of the most complex, most honest, and yet most engaging and hopeful of contemporary thinkers. Läs mer…

Germany has become the latest country to resume its funding to Unrwa, the United Nations agency that provides essential relief services to nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees. The decision came after an independent review found no evidence to support Israel’s claim that the agency has been infiltrated by Hamas.

Germany is the agency’s second-biggest funder – and the move is especially striking in view of its extremely close political alignment with Israel, which is now coming under increasing strain.

All eyes are now on the US, the agency’s largest supporter, to see if it will reinstate the US$350 million (£280 million) it typically provides each year. Meanwhile in the UK, MPs have written to foreign minister David Cameron, demanding that funding is restored “without delay”.

Reaction from the Israeli government has been hostile. In a statement, Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman said that “this is not what a true and comprehensive investigation looks like”, adding “it is impossible to say where Unrwa ends and Hamas begins”. The Israeli government did not provide any further detail or evidence for this claim.

Israel alleged in January that 12 of Unrwa’s 13,000 employees in Gaza had participated in the October 7 attacks. Shortly afterwards, the government went on to claim that hundreds of Unrwa employees are members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, in breach of the UN’s neutrality principles.

In response, Unrwa commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini immediately fired nine of the accused 12 (of the other three, two are dead and one is missing). Meanwhile, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, ordered an independent review into Unrwa’s neutrality practices.

That review was chaired by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna and carried out by staff of Nordic research bodies – the Swedish-based Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the Norwegian Chr. Michelsen Institute and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

The report makes good reading for Unrwa. Colonna and her team described its work as an “indispensable lifeline” for Palestinians and noted the agency’s robust neutrality framework.

Crucially, they also found that Israel has provided no evidence for its allegations that a significant number of Unrwa employees belong to militant groups.

Donor response

In response to the original Israeli allegations, 16 governments paused or suspended funding to the agency. This threw Unrwa’s work into an escalating crisis. With the agency having already suffered from a serious financial deficit for many years, management warned that it could run out of money entirely in a matter of weeks.

The withdrawal of core funds heightened the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where Unrwa provides essential services to 87% of the population, including food assistance to 1 million Palestinians. The UN special rapporteur on the right to food advised that the defunding made famine in Gaza inevitable.

Not long afterwards, a group of aid organisations confirmed that human-made famine has now taken hold.

Catherine Colonna: evidence doesn’t support Israeli allegations about Unrwa.
EPA-EFE/Sarah Yenesel

With the Colonna report finding no evidence to support the allegations, serious questions are now raised about the speed with which so many states withdrew their funding. Many governments had already reinstated funding for Unrwa after Colonna’s interim report was released last month. These included Australia, Japan, Finland, Iceland,
Sweden and Canada.

Since the final report’s publication, EU humanitarian chief Janez Lenarcic has called on others to follow suit. But there are so far no signs that the US – Unrwa’s biggest donor for decades – will.

Congress recently passed a budget banning any financing of Unrwa for the next 12 months. This means there is little possibility of a policy reversal, even if the Biden administration was amenable to it. By the time that budget expires in March 2025, the next US presidential election may have returned the White House to Trump – who completely defunded the agency during his previous presidency.

The UK government has also so far resisted calls to reinstate funding to Unrwa, meaning there may be a limit to the Colonna report’s impact on this front.

Israel’s stance

The accusations levelled against Unrwa in January follow years of Israeli attacks on the agency. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, first called for Unrwa to be disbanded back in 2017 and has repeated his demand regularly since then.

Observing this, several observers, including Omar Shakir, the Israel-Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, have concluded that the Israeli discourse on Unrwa is really driven by the political objective of undermining Palestinian refugee rights.

They may now point to further evidence of this in the Colonna report, which notes that although Unrwa has provided Israel with its staff lists annually since 2011, the government had never previously raised any concerns.

Vital: Unrwa is the main UN agency responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees.
Christoph Soeder/dpa-Pool/dpa

The report also throws further doubt on Netanyahu’s post-war plan for Gaza, which proposes that Unrwa be shut down and replaced by other international aid groups. It is unclear how this would work in practice, as Israel has provided no specifics.

What’s more, Colonna and her team found that Unrwa actually has “a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities” – raising questions about whether neutrality is really the issue here.

Amid the political discussions, it is crucial not to lose sight of what is at stake. A man-made famine is threatening lives across the Gaza Strip. More than 2 million Palestinians are struggling to survive after Israeli attacks have killed more than 34,000 people over the past six months.

With Unrwa providing a critical lifeline, any decision about its funding has serious repercussions – with the most vulnerable people in Gaza paying the ultimate price. Läs mer…