African countries could advise Greece on its economic woes…

The British medical journal, The Lancet, has published a study that shows the Aids virus has mutated into strains resistant to ARTs used around Africa. The study published on 28 July, was funded by the Dutch Foreign Ministry, and aimed to assess the prevalence of primary resistance in six African countries after anti-retroviral treatments (ARTs) were introduced and whether wider use of ARTs in the region is associated with rising prevalence of drug resistance in areas south of the Sahara, as has been widely suspected in some circles.

While millions in East Africa are caught in the cobweb of a devastating drought that has spread its tentacles across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, the government in Addis Ababa is snatching some of Ethiopia's most productive farmland from local tribes and leasing it to foreign companies to grow and export food. A Survival International investigation has uncovered shocking evidence that vast blocks of fertile land in the Omo River area in south west Ethiopia are being leased out to Malaysian, Italian and Korean companies. Vast stretches of land are also being cleared for huge state-run plantations producing export crops, even though 90,000 tribal people in the area depend on the land to survive.

In a review of Rasna Warah’s 'Red Soil and Roasted Maize: Selected Essays and Articles on Contemporary Kenya', Oby Obyerodhyambo praises a hard-hitting collection of commentaries from the Daily Nation columnist.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron may want to get his own house in order before lecturing African leaders…

How do you plead Mr Mubarak?

In a review of Afyare Abdi Elmi’s ‘Understanding the Somalia Conflagration’, Farah Abdulsamed praises ‘a book which is well-written, inventive and amazingly readable’.

‘One of the most depressing things about being from an African country, and I suspect it is the same for being from any post-colonial society, is the need to seek validation abroad or by Western standards. You can be the best writer ever, but if a bunch of white guys in academies don't see it, you're not.’

What does a 'clean slate' mean for South Sudan, wonders Gado.

As Christine Lagarde takes charge at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Gado ponders whether policies will be consensual.

What does the future look like?

Set the cost of the Fifa World Cup against South Africa’s development needs, and ‘you can't but conclude that we didn't need it, nor could we afford it. So why did we go all out to host such an unnecessary event?’ asks Andile Mngxitama.

In this interview with , Pius Adesanmi speaks about the role of academia, politics, aid, football and his new book, ‘You are Not a Country, Africa’, the inaugural winner of the Penguin Prize for African Writing.

Femi Ojo-Ade’s study of Césaire’s four plays is ‘a celebration of black consciousness’, writes Peter Wuteh Vakunta in a review of Ojo-Ade’s 'Aimé Césaire’s African Theater: Of Poets, Prophets and Politicians'.

Nothing will stop Uganda's president...

There are still a few escape routes open...

A fresh start for the new IMF boss?

There was an ‘undeniable optimism’ and sense of hope at this year’s ZIFF, writes Kari Dahlgren, as the creativity and dialogue the film festival sparked provide a source of ‘unity and strength to both imagine and bring forth global social and economic justice.’

Nigerian born writer Ikhide R. Ikheloa made it a point to ‘diss’ the shortlisted stories for the 2011 Caine Prize, says Emmanuel Iduma, but ‘there are deeper concerns than the sweeping conclusions he makes in his short essays’, for example, whose story are we supposed to write, how real can we be about Africa, and does the story of the real Africa belong to only one person?

A policeman was arrested for using Zimbabwean President Mugabe's private toilet at a trade fair last month.