Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Africa

Lions spritzed with the hormone oxytocin stayed closer together.

Planet Positive

Can Spraying Lions With the ‘Love Hormone’ Help Them Live Together?

Researchers administered oxytocin to captive animals, and preliminary results showed the big cats were less hostile towards strangers

A typical Making the Road trip to South Africa includes a visit to Soweto, a township outside of Johannesburg that was the site of anti-apartheid organizing and violence for years.

Tourism Gets a Refresh in the Hands of Activists Seeking to Decolonize the Industry

Operators practicing ‘solidarity tourism’ push back against travel that can be environmentally and socially destructive

Votive offering found at the Sikait site

Did Ancient Nomads Seize Control of a Roman Emerald Mine in Egypt?

Recent excavations suggest the Blemmyes assumed power of the Sikait mining site between the fourth and sixth centuries C.E.

Africa was home to an estimated 5 million elephants a century ago, but today there are just 415,000 individuals left.

Elephant Tusk DNA Exposes Illegal Poaching Networks

The new study suggests a shift in major smuggling routes

Scientists studied more than 1,500 beads made from ostrich egg shells from across 31 sites in Africa, and found that they were nearly identitical in shape and size, suggesting an early form of social networking. 

New Research

A 50,000-Year-Old Fashion Statement Could Be One of the World’s Oldest Social Networks

Nearly identical beads carved from ostrich eggshells, found over a large region of Africa, might have been a first in cool trends

Over the span of 15 months, scientists cataloged 76 instances of chimps using insects on their wounds and the wounds of others. 

Chimpanzees Appear to Use Insects to Treat Their Wounds

In a first, chimps in Gabon were seen applying insects to sores on themselves—and others, a possible show of empathy

Hippos may appear inactive, but a recent study shows that they’re listening closely to their surroundings.

A Hippo’s Response to an Unknown Caller? A Blast of Poop and a Rowdy Holler

The lumbering animals respond calmly to their grunting and groaning friends, but a stranger’s voice often prompted a loud, filthy territorial response

The remote Kibish Formation, in southern Ethiopia, features layered deposits more than 300 feet thick that have preserved many ancient human tools and remains. 

East Africa’s Oldest Modern Human Fossil Is Way Older Than Previously Thought

Analysis of ash from a massive volcanic eruption places the famed Omo I fossil 36,000 years back in time

Richard Leakey's most notable find came in 1984 when he uncovered a near-complete Homo erectus skeleton dated about 1.5 million years ago. The skeleton dubbed Turkana Boy is 40 percent complete and is the most near-complete fossil skeleton of a human ancestor ever found.

Famed Paleoanthropologist and Wildlife Conservationist Richard Leakey Dies at 77

His team’s discovery of early human skulls and skeletons cemented Africa as the cradle of humanity

From amazing firsts on Mars to the impacts of climate change on Earth, these science stories stood out as the most important of 2021

The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2021

Thrilling discoveries, hurdles in the fight against Covid and advancements in space exploration defined the past year

New memorials provide a bare outline of the lives of two Black victims killed during the Holocaust.

New Memorials in Berlin Honor the Holocaust’s Overlooked Black Victims

Two brass “stumbling stones” are among the first to memorialize the Afro-German people murdered by the Nazis

A high-necked polychrome pot, created sometime between 1100 and 1400 B.C.E., was among the more than 900 items returned to Mali.

The U.S. Returns More Than 900 Stolen Artifacts to Mali

American authorities seized the presumably looted objects, which were listed as replicas, in 2009

Rising water sent arachnids like the Arabian fat-tailed scorpion fleeing into local villages.

Scorpions Swept Into Egyptian Homes by Floods Sting More Than 500 People

Rising water following a rare storm in Aswan forced the arachnids out of their underground burrows in search of dry land

The room combines art that evokes imagined futures and artifacts from different contexts within the African diaspora.

The Met’s New Period Room Envisions a Thriving Afrofuturist Community

The Manhattan museum’s latest imagined space blends Black history and contemporary art

Africa could lose rare glaciers like Mount Kilimanjaro's Southern Ice Field within 20 years.

Africa’s Last Rare Glaciers May Soon Disappear

The continent is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, despite its population contributing little to the problem

Colombian wildlife officials hope to control a rather large invasive species—the hippo—with contraceptive drugs.

Officials Use Contraceptives to Control Pablo Escobar’s ‘Cocaine’ Hippos

Smuggled into Colombia by the drug kingpin in the 1980s, the African mammal is now a growing environmental threat in the South American country

Shera from the series "Tales of the First Sunrise."

How One Photographer Took Spiritual Inspiration From African Woodcarving

Stranded by the pandemic, Yannis Davy Guibinga made a connection with home through his art

The ivory comb shows gazelle-like animals attempting to escape predators.

Cool Finds

1,500-Year-Old Ivory Beard Comb Found in Grave in Germany

The rare sixth-century grooming tool features intricate carvings of a hunting scene

The 'Ubeidiya site today is an expanse of grasses. Concealed from this view are slabs of fossilized pebbly clay, a source of ancient finds that have helped scholars learn about the journeys of Homo erectus.

Evotourism ®

What Drove Homo Erectus Out of Africa?

Excavations at a site in northern Israel are at the heart of a debate about the species’ migrations

New research suggests these human-like footprints found in Crete may by 6.05 million years old.

New Research

New Research Suggests Human-Like Footprints in Crete Date to 6.05 Million Years Ago

The findings could upend scientists’ understanding of human evolution—but the paper has proven controversial

Page 11 of 20