Three African men were recently arrested in Algeria for allegedly disguising themselves as Arab women in order to reach the wealthy country of Dubai. In a scene reminiscent of the cult comedy film “White Chicks”, three black with half their faces covered in thick makeup foundation can be seen posing for mug shots in Algeria. The sad-looking trio were reportedly apprehended in Algeria, after officials noticed that they were not who they claimed to be – Arab women wearing traditional clothing, including niqab face covers. They had gone through the trouble of covering the exposed parts of their faces with a thick layer of foundation and used black eyeliner to increase their chances of passing off as women, but it wasn’t enough. Read More »

What should have been one of the happiest experiences of her life turned into a nightmare for a Nigerian soldier, after being arrested for accepting a marriage proposal while on duty. The female soldier’s trouble began when a video of her accepting the marriage proposal of a kneeling young man went viral on social media. Footage shows other members of the Nigerian military witnessing the proposal and then cheering and congratulating the two lovers. However, for the Nigerian Army, things weren’t quite so simple. This wasn’t a simple romantic gesture that had gone viral online, but video proof of a female soldier accepting to marry a trainee in the government’s youth training scheme, which is apparently a big no-no. Read More »

Authorities in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, are worried about the growing popularity of bombé, a new artisanal drug that allegedly turns energetic youths into mindless zombies. While the rest of the world is battling the Covid-19 pandemic, police in Kinsasha are struggling to contain an epidemic of their own – the rapid spread of a new and dangerous drug that threatens the lives of millions of youths. Known as ‘bombé’, which means powerful in the local Lingala language, this dubious concoction is based on a brown powder obtained from crushing the ceramic core of catalytic converters, a car part designed to cut the emission of toxic gases in vehicle exhaust pipes. Mixed with a variety of pills, this powder reportedly puts users into an almost catatonic state, where they will stand motionless for hours, sometimes days, or just move aimlessly like zombies, which has earned them the ominous nickname “zombies of Kinshasa”.

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Felis nigripes, the African black-footed cat, stands at just 8 to 10 inches tall and weighs roughly 200 times less than the average lion, but it is actually the most efficient feline predator on the planet. The black-footed cat is actually the smallest African feline, smaller even than the average alley cat, but you shouldn’t be fooled by its demure stature, because it is actually the deadliest of all the world’s felines. This adorable furball has an accelerated metabolism that requires it to hunt almost non-stop, which means that it kills an average of 10 to 14 rodents or small birds every night, more victims than a leopard hunts in a month. To top it all off, its predations success is around 60 percent, while lions only succeed in catching their victims about 20 to 25 percent of the time. Read More »

They say women are from Venus and men are from Mars, and nowhere is that more evident than in Ubang, a unique Nigerian rural community where men and women have their own separate languages. It’s hard to believe that men and women who grow up together in the same community can end up speaking different languages, but in the case of Ubang’s residents, it’s totally true. It’s not exactly clear what proportion of the words in the men’s and women’s languages are different, but there are enough examples to make sentences sound different when spoken by the opposite sex. For example, for ‘clothing’ men use the word ‘nki’, while women say ‘ariga’; ‘kitchi’ means tree for men, while women say ‘okweng’. These are not just some subtle pronunciation differences, but totally different words and it’s been like this for as long as anyone can remember. Read More »

James Sakara, the pastor of a Zambian Christian church, was found dead after asking to be buried alive in the ground so he could come back to life in three days’ time, like Jesus… To say that 22-year-old James Sakara was overconfident in his ability to emulate the resurrection of Jesus Christ would be an understatement. Be that as it may, the pastor of the Zion Church in the Zambian town of Chidiza managed to convince his congregation that he could in fact come back to life after three days, just like the Son of God. He somehow got three members of his Church to assist him by digging a shallow grave, tying up his hands, and burying him alive, only instead of coming back to life after three days, Sakara was found dead by members of the Zion Church curious to see why their leader hadn’t fulfilled his promise. Read More »

Gosiame Thamara Sithole, a 37-year-old woman from South Africa , reportedly gave birth to the world’s first decuples – 10 babies from a single pregnancy. The first recorded case of decuplets is currently shrouded in mystery, as  ten days since the woman allegedly brought the 10 babies into the world, no one has seen either the mother or the newborns. All we have to go on at this point are media reports and statements made by the babies’ father and other relatives, all of which claim that Gosiame Thamara Sithole did in fact give birth to 10 babies – seven boys and three girls – at the end of a 29-week pregnancy. Apart from the suspicious absence of the mother, there are a few things that don’t really add up, though… Read More »

A deeply religious man who became convinced that God would grant him a Lamborghini sports car if he fasted for 40 consecutive days and nights almost died after shunning food for a whopping 33 days. Mark Muradzira,  a Youth Leader of the Risen Saints Church in Bindura, Zimbabwe, recently decided to put God’s generosity to the test by asking for a Lamborghini sports car. Somehow, the 27-year-old man became convinced that the Almighty would grant his wish if he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, so he isolated himself in a remote mountain area to prevent being tempted by food. The unemployed man had opted for the extreme and bizarre way of obtaining a Lamborghini because he was unemployed and was unable to spend upwards of $200,000 on a new one. However, he was determined to offer his girlfriend her dream car, and fasting was the only affordable way to do it. Read More »

They say finding yourself in the right spot, at the right time, is the key to success, and this Nigerian homeless man who got the opportunity of a lifetime while sleeping under a bridge is the perfect example. You could say it was fate that Ali Olakunmi, a young Yoruba man from Nigeria’s Osun State, found himself sleeping under the same bridge that a creative director had chosen as the backdrop for a fashion shoot. As a homeless man in Ikeja, a suburb of Lagos, he didn’t really have any better options, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Afolabi (AL), the creative director we mentioned above, was waiting under the same bridge for a male model that was running late, and he happened to notice this young man who seemed to have all the features he was looking for in a model, so he approached him about putting on some clothes and posing for some pictures. And that’s how Ali the homeless became Ali the fashion model. Read More »

Nigerian socialite Mike Eze-Nwalie Nwogu, aka “Pretty Mike”, sparked controversy after attending a high-profile wedding accompanied by six heavily pregnant women, all allegedly carrying his babies. Describing the women as his “six baby mothers to be”, Pretty Mike was filmed rubbing and kissing each of their bellies at the wedding of Nigerian actor Williams Uchemba to his girlfriend Brunella Oscar. The socialite, who owns a nightclub in Lagos, wore a pink suit, while his six dates put on matching long silver dresses or two-piece outfits that emphasized their baby bumps. Read More »

During the month of September, over 500,000 high-school graduates in Sudan will be taking their university admission exams, and to discourage applicants from cheating mobile internet will be turned off nationwide for three hours every day. Sudan has a long history of turning off its internet during protests in order to disrupt the coordination of participants, but this year it is using the internet shutdown as a measure to prevent “large scale cheating” during university admission exams. Yesterday, September 16, at 8 am sharp, the people of Sudan realized that despite having paid their bills on time, their mobile internet service wasn’t working. After receiving thousands of complaints, internet operators announced that the Government had ordered a daily mobile internet shutdown until September 24, as a way to discourage university applicants from cheating on exams. Read More »

Legend says that they are footprints of the gods, others believe that they are UFO landing sights, and scientists have their own theories, but the truth is that no one really knows how the fairy circles dotting the Namib coastal desert came to be. Fairy circles are uniformly distributed round gaps in arid grassland across the Namib which look like polka dots on fabric when see from the air. Until 2014, they were known to only occur along the Namib Desert in southern Africa, but then almost identical formations were discovered near the mining town of Newman in Western Australia. Still, the fairy circles of Namibia remain the most famous and fascinating to the scientists who have studied them since the 1970’s. Theories about their formation and purpose abounds, but so far no one has been able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that theirs is the true answer to this decades-old enigma. Read More »

James Maina Mwangi believes himself to be the smartest looking man in all of Africa, maybe even the world, and looking at his impeccably stylish outfits, it’s hard to disagree. When he came to Nairobi, in Kenya, James Maina Mwangi had only one shirt and people laughed at him because they knew his father, who was an honorable but poor freedom fighter. He asked God for something to make himself stand out, and he apparently got this flamboyant fashion style. He’s been using his brightly colored suits and accessories to stand out on the streets of the Kenyan capital ever since, and has even attracted international attention thanks to his outfits. Read More »

Pastor Charles Osazuwa, the general overseer of Rock of Ages Assembly Inc. in Nigeria, called upon his followers to build or buy their own homes, as having a landlord is tantamount to having another Lord but Christ. During a controversial sermon that has been doing the rounds on social media over the last week, the Nigerian pastor told his congregation that being a tenant is technically a sin. He said that the first advice he always gives someone who has a job is to buy their own house, so they can liberate themselves from their landlord. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate or luxurious place, especially if it’s their first house, but as Christians they should not have two Lords… Read More »

Asking to get the coronavirus might sound crazy anywhere but in Kibera, Kenya’s biggest slum, where a new hairstyle inspired by the spiky look of the SarsCov-2 virus has become a big hit. With client numbers dwindling and their income collapsing, hairstylists in Kibera had to come up with ways to stay relevant, including finding solutions relating to the problem. In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, some stylists found inspiration for new hairstyles in the shape of the deadly virus seen under a microscope. But it’s not just about the design; the new hairstyle is also cheaper than other popular styles – it costs less than $1, making it an attractive option for cash-strapped clientele. Read More »