Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani has written a sensitive essay, published in the Wall Street Journal, on the African role in the trans-Atlantic and trans-Saharan slave trade. She observes that the four-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of slaves in Virginia coincides with questions about guilt and responsibility and a debate in the United States about reparations to the descendants of slaves.

The South African Department of Health has alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to the emergence of a new variant, C.1.2. It was first detected in May and is now circulating in most of the country’s provinces and at least seven other countries, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, New Zealand, and China.

Thus far, COVID-19 has been far less devastating in Africa than observers had feared. There have been 1.4 million cases of COVID-19, with less than 35,000 deaths.

This update represents violence in Nigeria and related to Boko Haram in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger from September 24 to September 30, 2022.