There was a group of hominins, those creatures more closely related to us than to chimpanzees, that did take a different, parallel journey from our ancestors. Our paths ran beside each other - and potentially even crossed at times - but...

Archaeology isn't exactly easy, so it's pretty impressive how often we can figure things out about people that aren't around anymore. But that's not always possible, and some mysteries leave archaeologists puzzled for centuries. From...

Have you ever heard of the Emu War? It was a hilariously disastrous attempt at wild animal population control, and while you'd think that humans would have gotten better at that sort of thing in the last hundred-ish years, that doesn't...

How prevalent is solar power, really? According to researcher Jenny Chase, it's already displacing fossil fuels in key energy markets around the world. She explains the rise of affordable solar power and dives into how her team tracked...

Corruption is often defined as misuse of a position of power for personal gain. And while corruption in politics is nothing new, it isn't limited to the political sphere; it can happen in schools, sports, businesses, or religious...

Democracy is the most compelling vision we have for self-governance, says freedom advocate Yordanos Eyoel. Taking a stand against predatory and opportunist authoritarian forces, she shares how to reimagine, accelerate and protect the...

For 46 years, South Africans lived under Apartheid, a strict policy of segregation that barred the country’s Black majority from skilled, high-paying jobs, quality education, voting, and much more. So, how did these laws come to be? And...

South Africa transitioned to democracy in the 1990s with a visionary constitution, but the promises of that constitution are largely unfulfilled to this day. Public leader Lindiwe Mazibuko explores how poor leadership failed to deliver a...

In the long term, shutting down a coal mine means cleaner air and a healthier environment — but in the short term, it can devastate a community or family that relied on the mine's paychecks to make ends meet. Environmental justice...

The myth of the Missing Link--the idea that there must be a specimen that partly resembles an ape but also partly resembles a modern human--is persistent. But the reality is that there is no missing link in our lineage, because that’s...

We can track our history of eating just about anything back through the fossil record and see the impact it’s had on our evolution. Throughout time, part of the secret to our success as a species has been our early - and sometimes fatal...

To figure out how Thrinaxodon and Broomistega became entombed together, scientists looked at the burrow itself, along with their fossilized bones. And it looks like their luck ran out, when a behavior that usually would’ve helped them...

This video contains images and video of snakes and spiders. It's possible Euchambersia possessed venom about 20 million years before the first lizards and over 150 million years before the first snakes evolved. We’ve teamed up Sarah...

Fossil evidence suggests Diictodon used burrows to breed, and that a parent stayed behind to feed and protect their young. And the parent that stayed behind? It might’ve been the male.

Greetings, fellow Homo sapiens. Our species is the only remaining member of the genus of upright, walking apes known as Homo. Where did we come from? Our history just got a whole lot more complicated (in a good way) thanks to some...

From the 1650s through the late 1800's, European colonists descended on South Africa. They sought to claim the region, becoming even more aggressive after discovering the area's abundant natural resources. To support their claims to the...

2018 was full of exciting discoveries and incredible advancements in the field of science. So today, we are taking a look back at 2018 to highlight three more great science news stories!

It's difficult to talk about African theater thanks to colonialism. Pre-colonial Africa was home to many spoken languages, and not nearly as many written languages. The chain of oral tradition was broken by colonial policies, and so many...

Protests in South Africa over a statue of a 19th century diamond magnate

and colonial conqueror set off a national debate two years ago about
the
remnants of apartheid. As part of his ongoing series, Culture
at Risk,...

Fearing the complete depletion of their water supply amid an extreme drought, officials in South Africa's second most populous city have limited water consumption to 13 gallons per resident a day. Police are also fining people for...

A sprawling township outside of South Africa's biggest city of Johannesburg has become synonymous with a continued struggle nearly two decades after the end of apartheid. But while many cultural divides still remain, some black South...

In South Africa, voters will go to the polls Wednesday in an election that could present the strongest challenge to date for the ruling African National Congress. A recent wave of xenophobic attacks has put the issue of immigration front...

Nelson Mandela discusses his first visit to Washington as President of South Africa. Originally broadcast on the MacNeil/Lehrer News hour on October 6, 1994.

Nelson Mandela discusses his visit to the United Nations Security Council seeking peacekeepers to quell violence in South Africa. Originally broadcast on the MacNeil/Lehrer News hour on July 15, 1992.