I was starting to lose it, I could feel it. "Resort to comedy, use your imagination!" I said to myself, writes Rhys Darby.

South Africa's president has visited a gravely ill Nelson Mandela in the hospital and cancelled a visit to Mozambique.

Seven al-Qaeda-linked militants on a suicide mission attacked the UN compound with a truck bomb and then poured inside, killing at least 13 people before dying in the assault.

The future wellbeing of millions of Africans may rest in the unlikely hands of a vegan hippy scientist working for a sweet company who plans to map and then give away the genetic data of 100 traditional crops.

Graham Reid finds flavour through goats and a stark desert where the West's latest beauty "must-have" grows.

Rob McFarland revels in the opulence of a two-day rail trip in Africa.

Tourists have long flocked to the home-turned-museum of former President Nelson Mandela on Vilakazi Street in the South African township of Soweto. Now the area has a growing attraction: big snakes, and lots of them.