When Rhodes University’s recent graduate Terri Harris set out to study Makhanda’s water management system, she wasn’t just conducting academic research; she was probing a question that many in the small Eastern Cape town ask daily: why isn’t the water coming?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping how the world creates, connects, and does business – and Africa’s creative industries are no exception. At the recent African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Conference, hosted by Makerere University in Uganda, artists, academics, and innovators gathered to explore how AI can unlock new possibilities for creative economies across the continent.

South Africa has a deep, untapped reservoir of young people with a natural talent for logic, patterns, and problem-solving - so-called ‘STEM brains’. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. However, for decades, many of these brilliant minds have been lost – not due to a lack of ability, but to a school system that often teaches mathematics and science in a way that is rigid, uninspiring, and, in many cases, outright intimidating.

When people think of groundbreaking global research, they often imagine vast laboratories and large-scale institutes. Yet, tucked away in the small town of Makhanda, a small team at Rhodes University is quietly reshaping global conversations about sexuality, health, and reproductive justice.