With the stellar chart success of her band’s 2009 album Wild Young Heart, her unrivalled bid for the title of the funkiest soul diva of the Noughties and a stage persona that is larger than life, it is easy to assume that the frontwoman of Britain’s coolest rock band The Noisettes, Shingai Shoniwa, will be a classic diva. But Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo is pleasantly surprised to discover otherwise. More...

For some young girls in Kenya, their first sexual experiences are often violent and violating. They are coerced, forced or sold into intercourse whilst still only children. This shattering of innocence often leads to a spiral of teenage pregnancy, school drop-outs, continued and frequent abuse and increased risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases. Selina Cuff reports from Nairobi. More...

Throughout history, keeping the race ‘pure’ has been an obsession with certain groups. Human beings find difference fascinating and have used it to conquer, oppress and oppose groups that are unlike them in appearance. Africans in particular have been the beneficiaries of this antipathy. However, interracial love in Africa is more common than ever. What is the attraction of a romance between different ethnic groups? asks Luso Katali Mnthali. More...