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May 14, 2026

Why Putin will have been watching the Trump-Xi summit nervously

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham

The opening headlines from the summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing signal an openness on the Chinese side towards stabilising relations with the US. In his opening remarks, the Chinese president noted that China and the US “should be partners not rivals”. But he warned Trump that a crisis over Taiwan could lead to “clashes and even conflicts”.

With Xi also indicating that there will be more opportunities for US companies to do business in China, the stage is set for a relatively successful summit. Both sides can claim it as a success because it offers some concrete benefits in the form of a trade war avoided and at least the prospect of cooperation on global issues such as the Iran war. It also sets a generally more positive tone for relations between the two countries.

Such an outcome is particularly troubling for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, who will see his relevance and leverage diminished by more stable and predictable US-China relations. Putin’s aspirations to position Russia as a great power depend on Moscow either being strategically useful to Washington and Beijing, or gaining leverage with them by demonstrating a capacity to be disruptive.

However, on both counts, Putin’s hand has been substantially weakened. His war against Ukraine is no longer a priority issue for the US, with the two main American interlocutors in peace talks, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, focused on negotiations with Iran.

Putin’s latest phone call with Trump on April 29 will have been disappointing for the Russian leader. His offer to take Iran’s highly enriched uranium to Russia was reportedly rebuffed by Trump, who told him to focus on “ending the war with Ukraine”. And days later the Kremlin was forced to scale back its annual military parade in Moscow, due to concerns that it could be targeted by Ukrainian forces.

On the Chinese side, things are possibly even more troubling. The last face-to-face meeting between Xi and Putin took place in September 2025. They have only held one video conference since then. A Kremlin statement during the Trump-Xi summit that Putin will visit China soon smacks more of desperation than confirmation.

Putin’s leverage

While Putin appears sidelined in the US-China relationship, he is not without cards of his own. Major global issues – including wars in Ukraine and Iran, energy security and the future of the international order – are still connected to Russia. This provides Putin with a degree of leverage in his relations with both Xi and Trump.

But exercising this leverage comes with significant risks, especially in areas where Chinese and US interests are more aligned with each other than with Russia. Take the case of the Iran war as an example.

Russia benefits most from this conflict continuing. The disruption it is causing to global energy flows has pushed up oil and gas prices, keeping Moscow’s war economy afloat. It has also reduced the flow of US arms to Ukraine. Unsurprisingly, therefore, Russia has expanded its support for Iran – from intelligence and cyber support to providing unjammable drones.

While Russian support is unlikely to enable Iran to win the war, it will give the regime in Tehran more time to avoid defeat and increase the costs for the US, its regional allies and the global economy. This is not going to play well with Trump, who is under mounting domestic pressure to wind down the war in Iran.

Beijing has offered Iran some support throughout the war, for example by helping it bypass western sanctions on the export of its oil. But there are clear limits to how far China will go. For China, its relationship with the US is far more important than the one with Iran. This tilts the balance of preferences in Beijing towards an end of the conflict rather than towards its continuation.

This does not mean that China and the US will now align against Russia. Relations between Russia and China are longstanding and deep across a range of issues. Their “no-limits partnership” may be increasingly asymmetric, but there is still a great deal of anti-American and anti-western alignment between them.

The US under Trump is also more ambivalent about its stance on Russia than under previous administrations. Trump’s transactional foreign policy – and his urge to make deals rather than pursue a consistent strategy – is something Russia will continue to try to leverage to its own advantage.

Ahead of the Trump-Xi summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov released a statement in which he said “the path to the implementation of a whole range of economic projects will be open” if the White House agrees to decouple trade from the war in Ukraine. This indicates that Moscow is fully aware of this opportunity – as well as the challenge to offer the US something China cannot.

The Xi-Trump summit is a party to which Putin was not invited. The fact that the US and China seem to be heading towards a period of better-managed relations indicates that his efforts to make his presence felt have largely failed. This does not bode well for his aspirations to restore Russia to its Soviet-era status as a great power – but it does not imply that he will give up.

Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.

– ref. Why Putin will have been watching the Trump-Xi summit nervously – https://theconversation.com/why-putin-will-have-been-watching-the-trump-xi-summit-nervously-282610

May 14, 2026

The Music Is Black: A British Story – it’s little wonder this emotional exhibition took over four years to complete

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kenny Monrose, Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge

I can only marvel when I consider that the footprint upon which the newly erected V&A East museum now stands was, for many decades, characterised by hard labour and heavy industry.

The area, once full of factories, warehouses and poverty, was described by novelists such as Charles Dickens in deeply unflattering terms. In 1857, he wrote: “Many select such a dwelling place because they are already based below the point of enmity to filth: poorer labourers live there, because they cannot afford to go further, and there become debased.”

Today, however, this once-defamed part of east London, has been transformed into a place of culture, leisure, artistry and creativity. The opening of V&A East exemplifies this shift. Its director, Gus Casely-Hayford, describes the institution as a platform for young Britons, regardless of background or origin, to craft their own destiny.

The inaugural display at the museum is the alluring exhibition The Music Is Black: A British Story, which celebrates 125 years of Black British music.

Director of the V&A East, Gus Casely-Hayford, introduces the museum and exhibition.

The exhibition covers the period from 1900 to 2025 and is divided into four significant historical moments: chattel enslavement, the Black Atlantic, New Commonwealth migration and the dynamic identity formation of so-called Black British culture. Entrenched within this historical timeline are the related themes of religion, class, location, power, gender and, of course, race.

Importantly, this is not a “kitchen sink” exhibition in which items are thrown together. Instead, it is carefully crafted, considered and curated. It is little wonder that the exhibition took over four years to complete. It comprises more than 200 artefacts, including outfits, sheet music, artwork, instruments and rare cinematic footage. These are underscored by a carefully designed soundscape delivered through headsets given to attendees, making navigation through the exhibition a fully immersive experience.

Inside the exhibition

Among my favourite pieces was Natty Bongo, a bronze sculpture created by Fowokan George Kelly of the British funk band Cymande. I was also drawn to the “other” piano owned by Winifred Atwell, the first Black British woman to top the charts with the ragtime hit Let’s Have Another Party in 1954.

Equally interesting were sound system operator and record producer, Sir Lloyd Coxsone’s record box and an extraordinary photograph by Charlie Phillips of activist Kwame Ture at the Cue Club in 1967.

I also thought the correspondence between Renaissance man Paul Robeson and British opera singer Amanda Aldridge was a worthy inclusion. Another significant moment is the official statement from Buckingham Palace confirming the appointment of composer Errollyn Wallen as Master of the King’s Music in 2024.

Some of the exhibition’s most striking artefacts include the “clit rock” outfit worn by Skunk Anansie as she became the first Black British woman to headline the Glastonbury Festival in 1999. Equally compelling is the juxtaposition between an ancient musical bow made from a calabash shell and modern instruments such as the Oberheim DMX sampling drum machine and the Roland JD-800 synthesizer.

Also on display is one of Shirley Bassey’s iconic outfits, celebrating her contribution to the sound of the James Bond franchise through Goldfinger in 1964.

The exhibition concludes by presenting the most recent and globally recognised form of Black British music: grime, which draws upon many of the musical traditions that preceded it. As my colleague and fellow sociologist Joy White recently pointed out to me, it is especially important that grime is included because it was born on the very periphery where V&A East now stands.

What the exhibition’s curator, Jacqueline Springer, does particularly well is foreground artefacts that demonstrate how Black British music has consistently functioned as a vehicle for communication. Throughout its history, it has fused spirituality and worship with resistance, rebellion and merriment. These themes, forged through the legacy of chattel enslavement, remain constant throughout the music’s development.

As a result, the exhibition becomes an emotional, multigenerational and multiracial journey that fully engages the senses of its audience. More importantly, it highlights Black British music as a vital component of British artistic and cultural life.

The Music Is Black does not claim to deliver the definitive story of Black British music. Rather, as the title itself suggests, it offers a story of Black British music – and it delivers that story with excellence, sophistication and rigour.

The Music Is Black: A British Story is at V&A East, London until January 3 2027.

Kenny Monrose does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The Music Is Black: A British Story – it’s little wonder this emotional exhibition took over four years to complete – https://theconversation.com/the-music-is-black-a-british-story-its-little-wonder-this-emotional-exhibition-took-over-four-years-to-complete-282780

May 14, 2026

A new voting system meant the Welsh election couldn’t have been further from a two-horse race – so why was it portrayed as one?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephen Cushion, Professor, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University

Even before votes were counted in this year’s Senedd (Welsh parliament) election, speculation among commentators was rife that one campaign narrative had firmly taken hold – that the contest had become a two-horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK.

Both parties promoted that framing during the campaign, urging voters to see the election as a straight choice between them. In the aftermath of the result – and Labour’s losses – attention quickly turned to whether the media had amplified that message, including criticism by a Labour Senedd member who refused to talk to ITV News because of its coverage.

Clearly the media were not solely to blame for Labour’s decline. However, our analysis of election coverage found that more than one in four TV news items featured an opinion poll, often framing the contest as a battle between two parties. On UK-wide flagship bulletins, that figure rose to more than half. In the final week of the campaign, almost half of all TV news items referenced a poll.

A binary choice?

From the outset, Plaid Cymru and Reform used campaign slogans that presented the election as a direct battle between the two parties. The implication was that voters should back one of the frontrunners rather than waste their vote on other parties.

That framing carried particular significance because this election was held under a new proportional voting system. Unlike Westminster’s first-past-the-post model, proportional systems are designed to produce representation for multiple parties. Seats are allocated according to vote share. Because of this system, the election couldn’t have been further from a two-horse race.

Stronger performances by Labour, the Conservatives, Greens or the Liberal Democrats could have translated into representation in the Senedd.

But public understanding of the new system remained limited throughout the campaign. Surveys conducted before and during the election suggested widespread confusion about how votes would translate into seats, alongside misinformation about tactical voting.

Whether the two-horse race narrative actually changed voting behaviour remains difficult to determine. Post-election research will need to assess whether voters acted tactically, misunderstood the electoral system, or were influenced by campaign messaging and media coverage.

Research has long suggested that heavy reporting of opinion polls can contribute to a “bandwagon effect”. This is where voters gravitate towards parties perceived to be gaining momentum.

Horse race dominated campaign coverage

As part of our election media analysis project, we tracked all election news coverage across both UK-wide and Welsh broadcasters between April 8 and May 6. This included flagship TV news bulletins on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. We also looked at online news articles from BBC Wales, ITV Wales, S4C and Sky News, and social media content produced by these outlets.

Our previous analysis
found that broadcasters produced many explainers during the campaign. These included videos outlining how the D’Hondt proportional voting system works.

But in day-to-day reporting, explanations of how votes translated into seats were far less common than stories about which parties were rising or falling in the polls. Instead, coverage increasingly focused on the electoral horse race, particularly in the final stretch of the campaign.

A table featuring the TV news items to feature opinion polls in the Senedd election campaign. — TV news items to feature opinion polls in the Senedd election campaign.
Cardiff University, AHRC, CC BY

Seat projections also became more prominent as polling day approached. Although not always included alongside polls, they shaped reporting in the campaign’s final days across television, online coverage and social media. This included ten online items in the final week, four on social media and two on TV news.

Because Plaid Cymru and Reform were leading many of the polls, coverage often centred on those two parties. On May 5, for example, ITV News’ Wales at Six programme opened by reporting that Plaid Cymru was surging ahead of Reform in the broadcaster’s latest poll.

As polls increasingly drove coverage, the election itself came to be narrated as a contest between two parties competing for victory.

Did coverage squeeze out other parties?

The prominence of polling and seat projections inevitably reduced attention on other parties and on the broader dynamics of proportional representation.

It’s questionable whether broadcasters should have amplified campaign messaging that framed the election as a binary contest. After all, without understanding the proportional voting system, people may not have appreciated that it is designed to represent a range of parties rather than produce a winner‑takes‑all outcome.

At the same time, it is important to recognise the difficulty of isolating media influence. Broadcasters were largely reporting representative opinion polls that, in many cases, accurately reflected the final outcome. But our analysis suggests that, in the final week especially, the campaign was increasingly understood through the language of momentum, winners and losers.

That approach undoubtedly added drama and urgency to coverage. But it also risked diverting attention away from policy debates and from the realities of a proportional political system designed to produce a more representative mix of parties in the Senedd.

Stephen Cushion has received funding from the BBC Trust, Ofcom, AHRC, BA, ESRC and Welsh Government.

Keighley Perkins receives funding from AHRC for research into broadcasters’ impartiality.

Maxwell Modell receives funding from the AHRC for research into broadcasters’ impartiality.

– ref. A new voting system meant the Welsh election couldn’t have been further from a two-horse race – so why was it portrayed as one? – https://theconversation.com/a-new-voting-system-meant-the-welsh-election-couldnt-have-been-further-from-a-two-horse-race-so-why-was-it-portrayed-as-one-282745

May 14, 2026

Depressed mice successfully treated with smart contact lenses that zap their brains – new study

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Barbara Pierscionek, Professor and Deputy Dean, Research and Innovation, Anglia Ruskin University

Scientists in South Korea have developed experimental contact lenses designed to send electrical signals through the retina and into brain regions linked to mood. In mice, the technology appeared to improve depression-like behaviour.

The idea sounds futuristic: a contact lens that could one day help treat depression by stimulating the brain through the eye. The work is still at a very early stage, with findings so far limited to a single mouse study.

The eye is already one of the body’s most useful access points for medical technology. Light passes through the cornea and lens before reaching the retina, which converts it into electrical signals carried to the brain through the optic nerve. Because of this close connection, researchers have spent years developing technologies that use the eye to monitor disease.

Smart contact lenses have already been designed to monitor some eye conditions, such as glaucoma. Other smart contact lenses can track pupil size as an indicator of nervous system activity, since the iris reacts to light, emotion and some drugs. And scientists have also developed experimental lenses to monitor glucose levels in people with diabetes.

The latest research attempts something different: using the eye as a route into the brain itself.

The contact lenses contain tiny electrodes that send mild electrical signals through the retina, the layer of light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. The researchers used a technique known as temporal interference, in which two slightly different electrical frequencies are delivered at the same time. The signals are designed so that they only become fully active where they overlap, allowing researchers to target specific brain regions linked to mood regulation.

The researchers compared the process to two weak torch beams crossing to create a brighter point where they meet. In theory, the approach could stimulate brain circuits known to be linked to depression.

The experiments were carried out in mice that had been injected with a stress hormone to create depression-like behaviour. The researchers acknowledge that this does not fully reflect human depression. Scientists also continue to debate the relationship between stress hormones and depression, with studies producing mixed results and questions remain about cause and effect.

For the study, the researchers fitted miniature contact lenses to mice with damaged photoreceptors, meaning their vision was already impaired. This was necessary because normal visual activity would interfere with the electrical signals passing through the eye. The technique, as tested, would therefore not work in animals, or people, with healthy retinas.

A white mouse. — So far, it has only been tested in lab mice.
Ginka’s/Shutterstock.com

Still a way to go

There are other reasons to be cautious. Human eyes constantly adjust focus by changing the shape of the lens, something mouse eyes do not do in the same way. That movement could disrupt signals delivered through a contact lens placed on the cornea.

The technology also faces practical challenges. Smart lenses need careful fitting to avoid damaging the cornea and must be kept clean to reduce the risk of infection. Any medical data they collect would also require strong safeguards.

Making the lenses is very expensive and the researchers note that the technology is not yet commercially viable on a large scale. A recent review highlighted the manufacturing difficulties involved in making smart contact lenses.

Depression itself is also difficult to model in laboratory animals. Symptoms, causes and severity vary widely between patients, making it hard to draw direct comparisons from experiments involving stressed mice raised in carefully controlled laboratory conditions.

Non-invasive brain stimulation is already an established area of medical research, and the work may help with future studies. But results from a small mouse experiment involving animals with impaired vision are still a long way from a treatment that could be used in humans.

Nonetheless, the idea of treating depression using smart contact lenses is intriguing, and this early work adds a creative new thread to the broader search for novel treatments for depression.

Barbara Pierscionek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Depressed mice successfully treated with smart contact lenses that zap their brains – new study – https://theconversation.com/depressed-mice-successfully-treated-with-smart-contact-lenses-that-zap-their-brains-new-study-282526

May 14, 2026

La propriété immobilière, un héritage culturel de l’agriculture

Source: The Conversation – France (in French) – By Vuillemey Guillaume, Professeur associé en finance, HEC Paris Business School

Acheter ou louer un appartement ou une maison est sûrement une décision financière que l’on imagine fondé sur des considérations intimes. Pourtant, les décisions des individus en matière de propriété immobilière seraient influencées par des croyances culturelles héritées. En cause : le passé agricole de leurs ancêtres.

Vos ancêtres cultivaient-ils les plaines d’une région agricole européenne comme l’Ukraine ou la Beauce ? Ou élevaient-ils du bétail près de la Corne de l’Afrique ? Loin d’être anecdotique, la question à cette réponse pourrait en partie déterminer si vous êtes ou non aujourd’hui propriétaire de votre logement.

Les résultats d’une vaste étude empirique que nous avons menée indiquent, en effet, que les représentations culturelles liées à la terre et au bétail – respectivement des actifs immobiles et mobiles – se transmettent de génération en génération. Ces conceptions contribuent encore aujourd’hui à expliquer la probabilité qu’un individu devienne propriétaire. En particulier, les personnes issues de sociétés historiquement fondées sur l’agriculture céréalière sont plus susceptibles de posséder un bien immobilier que les autres.

Une décision financière importante

« Faut-il acheter une maison/un appartement ou simplement louer ? » Il s’agit sans doute de la décision financière la plus importante pour la plupart des ménages, qui choisissent ainsi de faire de leur logement (plutôt que de l’or ou des actions) leur principal actif. Au-delà des considérations économiques (comme la capacité à rembourser un crédit sur 20 ans), la propriété immobilière est aussi influencée par la manière dont les individus perçoivent la sécurité, la valeur et le statut social associés à un logement.

Or, ces préférences culturelles sont profondément enracinées : elles trouvent leur origine dans des sociétés agricoles anciennes où la richesse reposait principalement sur deux types d’actifs, l’un mobile (le bétail), l’autre immobile (la terre). Mais les champs et les troupeaux étaient bien plus que de simples actifs économiques. Ils imprégnaient la culture, à travers des mythes et d’un folklore, qui ont laissé des traces et influencent encore aujourd’hui les représentations – et, in fine, les taux de propriété immobilière.

Les individus issus de sociétés historiquement dominées par l’agriculture céréalière, où la terre était davantage valorisée que les actifs mobiles, restent enclins à privilégier les actifs immobiles et deviennent donc plus souvent propriétaires.

Le poids de l’héritage culturel

Pour étayer cette hypothèse, nous avons analysé un corpus ethnographique. Les données contenues dans une base de données mondiale relative au folklore montrent que, dans les sociétés fondées sur l’agriculture, les motifs liés à la terre sont davantage présents dans leurs récits, tandis que les sociétés pastorales mettent davantage en avant le bétail. Parmi les premières figurent la plupart des pays européens, depuis l’Antiquité grecque jusqu’au Moyen Âge, où la terre était associée au pouvoir et au prestige pendant des siècles.

On peut penser au Chat botté, où le chat rusé fait passer le fils du meunier pour un propriétaire terrien afin de lui assurer une fin heureuse. À l’inverse, dans des sociétés pastorales d’Afrique de l’Est comme celle des Nuer, les structures de pouvoir et les représentations sociales reposent sur le bétail.

Aujourd’hui, les pays occidentaux comme de nombreuses sociétés pastorales sont devenus des économies industrielles, voire post-industrielles, ayant laissé derrière eux la plupart de leurs institutions traditionnelles liées à la terre ou au bétail. Pourtant, ces héritages culturels persistent et continuent d’influencer la manière dont les sociétés perçoivent les actifs mobiles et immobiles.

Héritages persistants

L’examen des données actuelles de la zone OCDE (41 pays disposant de données homogènes) confirme largement l’hypothèse posée. Ce sont dans les pays ayant une forte tradition agricole fondée sur la terre que l’on trouve aussi aujourd’hui des taux de propriété immobilière plus élevés. L’effet est significatif : une augmentation d’un écart-type de l’importance relative des terres cultivées (par rapport aux pâturages) est associée à une hausse d’environ 6 points du taux de propriété.

Le même schéma apparaît à l’échelle régionale en Europe. Même en neutralisant les effets propres à chaque pays, les régions historiquement agricoles présentent des taux de propriété plus élevés. Ces résultats ne prouvent toutefois pas à eux seuls un lien de causalité. D’autres explications pourraient exister.

Ainsi, les représentations culturelles voyagent avec l’immigration, il faut distinguer l’influence de la culture de celle de l’expérience locale, comme les guerres, l’inflation ou d’autres facteurs pouvant aussi influencer la décision d’acheter un bien immobilier.

Le poids des cultures

Pour cela, nous avons analysé le comportement des immigrés de deuxième génération aux États-Unis. L’idée est que ces individus – un échantillon de plus de 5 000 personnes – vivent dans les mêmes institutions et le même système économique, mais héritent de cultures différentes selon le pays d’origine de leurs parents (145 pays).

Les résultats confirment notre hypothèse : les descendants de sociétés historiquement fondées sur les cultures agricoles ont une probabilité plus élevée d’être propriétaires. Ce résultat reste robuste après avoir contrôlé de nombreux facteurs tels que le revenu, l’éducation, l’origine ethnique, la localisation géographique, la situation matrimoniale ou la structure du foyer.

Pour s’assurer de la solidité de l’explication, il convient de tester des explications alternatives. Le résultat mis en évidence précédemment persiste même après la prise en compte de facteurs tels que le PIB, les inégalités, la démocratie, l’état de droit ou des indicateurs culturels plus larges.

Les données suggèrent qu’il ne s’agit pas simplement d’une « culture générale de la propriété ». Ce qui prédit la propriété chez les immigrés de deuxième génération, c’est la part de la propriété dans le pays d’origine qui s’explique par les conditions agricoles et les caractéristiques des sols. Cela renforce l’idée d’un héritage culturel spécifique lié à l’agriculture.

Vuillemey Guillaume ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. La propriété immobilière, un héritage culturel de l’agriculture – https://theconversation.com/la-propriete-immobiliere-un-heritage-culturel-de-lagriculture-281439

May 14, 2026

Julius Malema: South Africa’s performative revolutionary is facing his biggest battle

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Ongama Mtimka, Lecturer, Nelson Mandela University

Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa’s fourth-largest party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), is a divisive figure: loved by some, hated by others.

Malema made headlines in April 2026 after a lower court found him guilty of illegal possession and discharging of a firearm and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment. He is appealing the conviction and sentence.

Within a few weeks he made headlines again when the country’s Constitutional Court ruled in a case the EFF had brought before it. The case was about the alleged theft of a large sum of foreign currency from President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa’s private game farm, Phala Phala. The court found in favour of the EFF and the other party to the case, the African Transformation Movement.

Malema hails from Seshego, a small village in Limpopo, which is one of South Africa’s poorer provinces. Born in 1981, he has become something of a generational peculiarity in the body politic of the country.

The old guard of liberation fighters who were active from the 1960s and 1970s onwards continue to dominate South Africa’s political landscape. They include leaders of parties in parliament like the African National Congress (ANC), Bantu Holomisa of the United Democratic Movement, and Patricia De Lille of the Good party, among others. But Malema broke that mould.

Few South African politicians have achieved what he has.

In 2013 Malema, together with Floyd Shivambu, announced the founding of the Economic Freedom Fighters as the main host for radical youth politics in South Africa. This was after they were fired from the ANC while serving as leaders of its youth wing.

The EFF went on to poll numbers that put it in third place in four successive elections between 2014 to 2021. In the most recent national poll in 2024, however, the party lost this spot to the former president Jacob Zuma’s new uMkhonto weSizwe Party.

Malema is a career politician who has used the political liberties bequeathed to democratic South Africa to his personal and political advantage. Yet, he continues to agitate against the emerging order, as if he himself were the victim of it, not a beneficiary high up in the distribution chain.

As a political analyst and senior lecturer, I have studied the rise of Malema and his party as part of South Africa’s ongoing leftist, worker-driven political wing. Tracking the gains and failings of the EFF, I believe there are several factors that contribute to Malema’s successes and shortcomings.

His skills at building a party and running a tight ship have been bolstered by his charisma and speech-making capability. But there have been controversies over showmanship and the use of divisive and incendiary speech. This has produced a complex and ambiguous public figure. And a party in flux.

The rise of a firebrand politician

Malema shot to national prominence in 2007 in the build-up to the major political upheaval of the democratic period, the 52nd conference of the ANC in the city of Polokwane. The league had assumed a kingmaker role in ANC succession battles in various times in the history of the liberation movement, helping remove president AB Xuma in 1949 and then president Thabo Mbeki through its active campaigning.

Events at the conference would change the trajectory of South Africa. Mbeki was president of the country as well as the party and was seeking a third term to run the party. His deputy in the party, Jacob Zuma, whom he had suspended as deputy president of the country, defeated Mbeki and delegates to the conference elected him to lead it.

After Zuma had come to power, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the ANC Youth League became critical of him.

Youth league members, including Malema, were hauled before the disciplinary structures of the ANC. According to his biographer, Fiona Forde, this was an attempt to curtail his rising influence in the party and the potential to disrupt succession.

Nonetheless, Malema’s EFF avoided the fate of quickly disintegrating, unlike other breakaway parties such as the Congress of the People.

He did this by building his party with the leaders who followed him from the Youth League. He used strong control of the party platform as its chief communicator, building a militant persona.

Malema’s wider public success can be attributed to his rhetoric, chants and tactics that have bordered at times on anarchy, war mongering and glorification of violence.

He has fashioned himself into a warrior figure who exploits black rage to gain popularity. The party stands for a more radical path to economic transformation in South Africa, particularly expropriation of land without compensation and nationalisation of mines.

But, as my research shows, his purpose appears less about waging a true revolutionary war and more about drawing political value from the perception that he could.

This creates a stark contradiction. Malema performs the role of a fearless revolutionary within a stable democracy that offers him all the securities and legal protections he needs to sustain this performance. Unlike those who rise against authoritarian regimes, he faces no mortal risks.

He appears to care deeply for the plight of the poor, yet his lifestyle suggests he is high up the distribution chain, with a taste for the finer things in life.

Many revolutionaries throughout history came from better backgrounds than the people they spoke for. Karl Marx, Frans Fanon, and Martin Luther King Jnr are but some of the examples. Yet few have balanced so overtly the “militant” brand with such personal comfort.

The primary mechanism for this warrior persona is a calculated mix of word, appearance and branding.

Malema uses the media and public events as a platform for his politicking. He has received significant media coverage as a result of his activities. But this hasn’t stopped him from frequently attacking the fourth estate.

In Parliament he has used disruptive tactics to draw attention to the party, even though it now only has 47 seats out of a total of 400.

An ambiguous future

Now that Malema has been convicted and sentenced to an effective five-year term in prison, he faces a turning point. He may be disqualified from serving as an MP and could even go to prison. This places the EFF into the realm of the ambiguous and uncertain.

Because the party has been held together by his firm grip, which clamped down on ambition, the EFF is not yet prepared for a succession. The potential loss of its leader leaves the “Red Berets”, and the rage they channel, in a state of flux.

The South African Communist Party has resolved to contest elections independently of the ANC. It remains to be seen how this will reconfigure left politics in terms of control over municipal councils in 2026. South Africa is scheduled to go to the polls in November 2026.

Ongama Mtimka is affiliated with the South African Association of Political Studies as the current sitting president.

– ref. Julius Malema: South Africa’s performative revolutionary is facing his biggest battle – https://theconversation.com/julius-malema-south-africas-performative-revolutionary-is-facing-his-biggest-battle-281750

May 14, 2026

Kenya’s war on traditional alcohol: a colonial hangover about what it means to be ‘civilised’

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Wafula Yenjela, Research associate, University of the Free State

At the dawn of Kenya’s colonial era in 1902, consumption of home-made alcohol was deeply embedded in society. For instance, among the Mijikenda of coastal Kenya, palm wine was integral (p.290) to traditional ceremonies, such as marriage and initiations, and in ritual offerings.

This partly explains why the colonial authorities did not consider prohibiting African home-made liquors.

As early as 1908, however, they did prohibit Africans from consuming or handling European liquors. The prohibition was ratified on the pretext of Europe’s commitment to preserving the presumed innocence of Africans. The ban on Africans’ consumption of European liquor fostered and sustained racial “social distance” between the colonised Africans and European colonisers.

The socio-political landscape began to change after the second world war. Neoliberal capitalism was becoming dominant in Africa. Multinational breweries took command of the market through advertisements, propaganda, and networking with government agencies to subdue home-made brews.

It was also a time of growing political awareness by a now sizeable educated African elite. A case in point is the mid-1940s boycott of traditional brews by African elites in Nairobi and in Dar es Salaam, agitating for access to bottled beer.

The prohibition of Africans’ consumption of bottled beer, wines and spirits in Kenya was lifted at the end of 1947. The end of the prohibition marked the beginning of condemnation, criminalisation and vicious attacks on the indigenous African alcohol industry.

Successive governments and religious groups opposed these brews directly. Multinational breweries also targeted them indirectly.

In the emerging propaganda narratives, bottled beer was presented as the consumers’ mark of civilisation, patriotism and respectability. Kenyan media, through popular advertisements, touted the notion of bottled beer as a mark of “good citizenship”.

Consumers of traditional home-made brew were identified as unrespectable, unpatriotic.

My recent research examined three novelistic portrayals of “respectable” alcohol consumption in Kenya. Meja Mwangi’s Going Down River Road (1976) and The Cockroach Dance (1979), and Charles Mangua’s Son of a Woman (1971), highlight urban class imaginaries that emerge from alcohol indulgences at the time.

Based on the analysis of the themes in these novels, I conclude that the Kenyan state’s war against traditional brews was a psychological war driven by a colonial mentality of African barbarism. State operatives’ attempts to wipe out traditional brews, their brewers and patrons sought to create the impression that Kenya was now a civilised country that consumed European liquors.

Novelistic portrayals of alcohol consumption

The novelistic representations of alcohol consumption are set in the 1970s. This was a time when Africans were emerging from a highly racialised atmosphere that was the Kenyan colony. The African elites at that time were attempting to adjust to the prevalent notions of respectability. They desired co-option in the colonial order, which they believed was the epitome of civilisation and modernity.

The consumption of bottled beer was one of the available illusory affirmations of European civilisation. Going Down River Road foregrounds clubs in the inner city: Karara Centre, The Capricorn, Small World, Eden Garden. Through these drinking centres, the novelist paints a picture of Nairobi’s 1970s economic disintegration mostly experienced by the city’s marginalised low-income population.

Patrons in Karara Centre admire bottled alcohol adverts on the centre’s walls. The owner sells African brews but displays adverts for Johnnie Walker, pilsner and Scotch whisky. Empty bottles of the European brands are displayed on the counter to reinforce the colonial hype of the superiority of European alcohols.

James, a civil servant, drifts to Karara Centre when broke. He reminds the regular patrons of the home-made alcohol that he is a patriot who builds the nation. That is, he regularly drinks bottled beer. Such sentiments reflect the power of adverts in the construction of a people’s identities.

On payday, Ocholla and Ben abandon Karara Centre for The Capricorn, a club that sells bottled beer. There, they imagine themselves to be in an advanced, modern joint, and among the respectable. But this lasts for only one day before they slip back to Karara Centre, their dependable base.

What we note here is that the colonial histories of bottled beer coupled with the advertisements contribute to a sense of inadequacy among the underdogs who aspire to be among the “civilised” through consumption of bottled beer in “modern, advanced” joints yet cannot afford it.

But in The Cockroach Dance, Meja Mwangi upsets the neoliberal capitalist posturings regarding bottled beer. While the adverts insist on bottled beer being a lubricant for lasting friendships and patriotism, events in the novel highlight the revolutionary savagery of alcohol.

Duzman Gonzaga and Toto, key characters in the novel, partake of bottled beer. Their experiences in various bottled beer joints reveal that the spaces are chaotic. After consuming the alcohol, patrons engage in violent rampages against their neighbours. Essentially, the novel demonstrates that bottled beer is not the hallmark of modernity and orderly development.

My analysis of the novels reveals that the claim that bottled beer was a mark of respectability was merely a marketing strategy. The strategy fed into the neoliberal capitalist interests of the multinational brewing and distillery giants, distributors and retailers. Consequently, traditional home-made alcohols’ criminalisation and condemnation features here as misplaced aggression.

Colonial doctrine against African brews

The sale of home-made brews in informal urban settings is sometimes treated as an act of terrorism against the state. Indeed, distilled home-made alcohol known as chang’aa has caused the deaths of an alarming number of its consumers in recent years. Laboratory tests reveal the brewers’ use of dangerous additives such as industrial methanol.

In February 2024, state operatives led by the country’s deputy president embarked on rounding up and destroying the alcohol and distillation equipment in various places. Despite crackdowns such as these, the sale and distribution continues.

The political elites’ war against the African indigenous brewery industry reveals their colonial anxiety – their own fears of regressing to barbarism.

Alcohol history in Kenya played a crucial role in the making of postmodern identities in the country. Colonial condemnation of African brews as emblematic of regression to African barbarism swayed the African psyche. The African elites who aspired to belong to a progressive postmodern world quickly learnt the colonial doctrine of condemning African brews.

The Kenyan state’s anxieties against home-made alcohol are mainly rooted in respectability politics.

Wafula Yenjela conducts research as a research fellow affiliated with the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

– ref. Kenya’s war on traditional alcohol: a colonial hangover about what it means to be ‘civilised’ – https://theconversation.com/kenyas-war-on-traditional-alcohol-a-colonial-hangover-about-what-it-means-to-be-civilised-281377

May 14, 2026

In Sudan, a migrant community reveals a resistance to malaria: the genetic study helping shape medicine

Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By David Comas, Full Professor, Universitat Pompeu Fabra; Instituto de Biología Evolutiva (IBE – CSIC – UPF)

Sudan lies at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East. It has played a key role in human demographic movements, reflected in the diversity of its cultures and languages. Although much of the country is arid, the Nile River has long acted as a corridor for trade, facilitating human migration through the region for thousands of years.

This makes Sudan a valuable place to study human genetic diversity and evolutionary history, which has important implications for understanding population-specific adaptation and health.

The Copts are a population that migrated from Egypt from the 7th century and mixed with populations in neighbouring regions, but also remained somewhat isolated. Copts are historically distinguished by their Christian faith and their language. In Sudan their numbers are estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.

As a group of evolutionary biologists we conducted a genomic study to understand the complex demographic history and identify signals of adaptive selection among Sudanese people. Our research is the first whole-genome sequencing study carried out in Sudan. This is a method scientists use to read and analyse a person’s complete DNA, the full set of genetic instructions, to understand traits, ancestry and disease risk.

Our research covered a total of 125 individuals from five population groups, defined by their language and cultural identity, known as ethnicity.

We found that Sudanese Copts showed unusually high resistance to Plasmodium vivax, the most geographically widespread malaria-causing parasite. This protection comes from a genetic variant they acquired after mixing with local Nilo-Saharan people.

Similar examples of recent adaptation to malaria after population mixing have previously been reported in Madagascar, Cabo Verde and Pakistan. But this is the first time such a process has been documented within mainland Africa itself.

The selection signal observed in Sudanese Copts is among the strongest ever detected in humans.

These findings show that strong natural selection can reshape the human genome very rapidly and that recent demographic history is crucial for understanding present-day genetic patterns. These can help explain differences in disease susceptibility across populations, informing medical research and public health strategies.

Human migrations in the region

The expansion of Arabic-speaking people in north Africa started in 639 CE in Egypt and gradually moved southward. It intensified between the 10th and 11th centuries with the migration of Bedouin groups into north Africa and Nubia. By the 16th century, the spread of Arab culture and Islamic faith contributed to the collapse of the last Christian kingdoms in the region.

But some populations remained in more isolated areas and preserved their own languages and cultural traditions. These include Nilo-Saharan-speaking groups in Darfur, around the Jebel Marra mountains, and Kordofanian speakers from the Nuba Mountains.

These mountainous regions also acted as partial genetic barriers. They limited interactions with surrounding populations. Today these populations show little or no genetic influence from the Arab expansion.

Our study confirms this pattern reported in previous studies. With the use of whole-genome sequencing data, our findings further strengthen this insight.

Adaptive selection to malaria protection

Our study indicates that around 1,000-1,500 years ago, the ancestors of Sudanese Copts intermarried with local Nilo-Saharan groups. The geographical barrier is not applied for all Nilo-Saharan speaking groups, only for those from Darfur. Copts could have admixed with other groups with a Nilo-Saharan origin but living in a more accessible area. The individuals from Darfur are the group in our dataset that better represent these ancestors, but that does not mean they are their direct ancestors. Through this mixing, they acquired the Duffy-null allele. This is a genetic variant (one of the different versions of a gene) that is widespread in Africa south of the Sahara.

This allele is a classic example of natural selection in humans, showing strong geographic differentiation between African populations and the rest of the world. The Duffy-null allele prevents the expression of the ACKR1 receptor, a protein found on red blood cells, used by P. vivax to enter and infect these cells.

Individuals who have inherited the allele lack this receptor and are therefore protected against this form of malaria.

Because the Duffy-null allele is rare among north African and Middle Eastern groups, it would not be expected to be prevalent in Copts. However, our findings show that about 89% of Sudanese Copts carry it.

Our study shows that after admixture with local populations, the variant was introduced into the Coptic population. Natural selection meant it was passed down through generations and became more common.

Having the allele gave people a survival advantage in a malaria area. Sudan reported over half million cases of P. vivax malaria in 2017. There is little or no information on regional variation, but the presence of the adaptive variant in Darfur does not necessarily mean adaptation occurred there.

This provides a clear example of a genetic population adapting to disease, occurring within the past 1,500 years.

Fixing Africa’s under-representation

Our study also identified more than one million previously unknown genetic variants, over 1,500 of which may affect genes and their functions. This highlights a major gap in global genomic databases. These are still heavily biased towards people of European ancestry, although Africa harbours the greatest genetic diversity. North Africa, in particular, has often been overlooked.

It’s important to know more about the genetic heritage of different populations because, as the Coptic resistance to malaria shows, it can guide medical research and help understand human evolution better.

Although whole-genome sequencing has transformed the study of human health and disease, truly global representation remains essential. Africa, as the birthplace of modern humans, harbours the greatest genetic diversity on Earth and should therefore be a top priority for genomic research.

This study fills important gaps in our understanding of Sudan’s and Africa’s demographic histories and increases diversity in global genetic datasets. It also shows the importance of including recently mixed populations to obtain a fuller picture of human evolution.

Hisham Y. Hassan was a co-author on the article.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. In Sudan, a migrant community reveals a resistance to malaria: the genetic study helping shape medicine – https://theconversation.com/in-sudan-a-migrant-community-reveals-a-resistance-to-malaria-the-genetic-study-helping-shape-medicine-278806

May 14, 2026

Un indice mondial des papillons pourrait faire progresser la conservation des insectes

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Federico Riva, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Carleton University

Environ 70 % des espèces présentes sur Terre sont des insectes. Ils constituent des éléments essentiels de la plupart des écosystèmes. Représentant la moitié de la biomasse de la planète, ils pollinisent les fleurs, décomposent la matière organique morte et jouent de multiples rôles dans les réseaux trophiques. Ils sont littéralement partout, y compris dans et autour de nos maisons, mais leur population diminue à un rythme alarmant dans de nombreux endroits.

Les implications sociétales de ce potentiel « insectageddon pourraient être catastrophiques. Des pertes dans la production alimentaire humaine pourraient notamment survenir. Cependant, il est difficile de confirmer les soupçons de déclin mondial, car nous manquons de données fiables sur les populations d’insectes dans de nombreuses régions du monde.

Nous ne disposons tout simplement pas, à l’échelle de la planète, des infrastructures qui nous permettraient de suivre l’ensemble des populations d’insectes. Cela signifie que nous ne savons pas comment les populations d’insectes réagissent aux différents changements mondiaux, et que nous pourrions ne pas parvenir à concevoir des politiques de conservation efficaces ni à vérifier si les mesures actuelles sont efficaces.

Il est donc crucial de s’efforcer de générer rapidement des indicateurs mondiaux sur les tendances des populations d’insectes. Dans notre article récemment publié, mes collègues et moi-même expliquons comment un indice mondial des papillons pourrait aider à suivre les populations de papillons à l’échelle mondiale – et comment nous pouvons atteindre cet objectif important.

Les papillons : l’exemple type des insectes

un papillon beige brunâtre sur une fleur blanche — Il est crucial de s’efforcer de générer rapidement des indicateurs mondiaux sur les tendances des populations d’insectes.
(Federico Riva)

L’une des raisons pour lesquelles les insectes ont été négligés dans le domaine de la conservation est qu’ils sont souvent ignorés – voire redoutés – par de nombreuses personnes. Beaucoup d’entre nous ont été élevés dans la prudence vis-à-vis des insectes, qu’il s’agisse d’abeilles, d’araignées ou d’autres bestioles.

Il existe, en revanche, un large intérêt pour les espèces vertébrées. L’observation des oiseaux fait partie des sociétés humaines depuis des centaines d’années. Le fait que les animaux de plus grande taille suscitent l’intérêt du public a sans doute stimulé les efforts mondiaux visant à calculer des indicateurs des tendances de leurs populations, comme l’Indice Planète vivante du Fonds mondial pour la nature (WWF) et d’autres organisations.

Si les insectes n’ont généralement pas bénéficié de la même attention que d’autres animaux, les papillons font exception à cette règle. Ces insectes, avec leurs motifs et leurs couleurs captivants, fascinent depuis longtemps les gens et sont représentés dans de nombreuses traditions à travers les cultures.

Notre amour pour les papillons se reflète dans une longue histoire de surveillance. Dans les années 1970, l’entomologiste britannique Ernest Pollard a lancé la pratique consistant à recenser les populations de papillons lors de ses promenades en Angleterre. Cinquante ans plus tard, des centaines de « promenades Pollard » sont organisées à travers l’Europe et dans de nombreuses autres régions du monde.

Recenser la présence d’une espèce dans une zone est un travail important. Cependant, les efforts visant à saisir les changements dans les populations d’insectes au fil du temps sont tout aussi fondamentaux. Néanmoins, une synthèse mondiale des programmes de surveillance des populations de papillons faisait jusqu’à présent défaut.

Un indice mondial des papillons

Notre article récent comble cette lacune. Nous avons coordonné un consortium international dans le but de mieux comprendre les opportunités et les défis liés au calcul d’un indice mondial des papillons qui reflète les tendances des populations de papillons à l’échelle mondiale.

En réunissant des scientifiques de tous les continents à l’exception de l’Antarctique, nous avons pu rassembler un ensemble de données incroyable comprenant plus de 45 000 tendances démographiques pour plus de 1 000 espèces de papillons. Nous avons utilisé cet ensemble de données pour :

un papillon aux ailes noires et jaunes et au corps rouge, jaune et noir sur une fleur rose rougeâtre — Enregistrer la présence d’une espèce dans une zone est un travail important. Cependant, les efforts visant à saisir les changements dans les populations d’insectes au fil du temps sont tout aussi fondamentaux.
(Unsplash/David Clode)

Déterminer où en sont les efforts actuels en termes de couverture taxonomique et spatiale de la faune mondiale des papillons.
Calculer la première version d’un indice mondial des papillons.
Évaluer les lacunes et les limites à combler avant d’aller plus loin.

Malgré un effort sans précédent, nous avons constaté que seules les populations d’environ 5 % des espèces mondiales ont été surveillées.

Il est important de noter que l’ensemble de données est principalement concentré en Europe et en Amérique du Nord et qu’il est biaisé en faveur des espèces généralistes (celles capables de survivre dans des environnements divers) ainsi que des espèces plus faciles à détecter.

Néanmoins, nous avons constaté que les espèces, en moyenne, sont en déclin, et que les papillons sensibles susceptibles de souffrir du changement climatique avaient tendance à décliner plus fortement que le reste de notre échantillon. Les populations en dehors de l’Europe et de l’Amérique du Nord étaient trop clairsemées pour permettre des conclusions solides.

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Semaine mondiale des papillons

La réalisation de cette étude nous a permis de tirer quelques enseignements. Il reste un travail considérable à accomplir si nous voulons calculer un indicateur véritablement mondial des tendances des populations de papillons.

Par exemple, de nombreuses régions du Sud auront besoin d’aide pour mettre rapidement en place des programmes nationaux de surveillance, et des recherches dans les régions tropicales sont nécessaires pour mieux comprendre quelles méthodes de surveillance fonctionneraient le mieux dans ces régions hyperdiversifiées.

La bonne nouvelle, c’est que les papillons constituent déjà l’un des groupes d’insectes les plus visibles et les plus surveillés, ce qui atténuera les difficultés liées à l’élaboration d’indicateurs sur les populations d’insectes. Les programmes de surveillance existants peuvent servir de modèle pour développer de nouvelles initiatives.

En fin de compte, l’élaboration d’un indice mondial des papillons sera essentielle pour assurer un suivi, attendu depuis longtemps, des changements dans les populations d’insectes. Surtout, cela pourrait également servir de fer de lance pour une conservation plus large des insectes.

Les gouvernements sont censés fixer des objectifs mesurables en matière de biodiversité, conformément à leurs engagements pris dans le cadre d’accords internationaux tels que le Cadre mondial de Kunming-Montréal pour la biodiversité. Cependant, les insectes restent largement négligés dans ces objectifs, et il est impossible de fixer des objectifs significatifs sans indicateurs fiables.

L’élaboration d’un indice fiable sur les papillons est donc fondamentale pour orienter les efforts de conservation, mieux comprendre l’ampleur de la crise de la biodiversité et la faire connaître au grand public. Les papillons ont une forte valeur émotionnelle. Cela peut contribuer à susciter un soutien en faveur de la conservation d’une manière que les insectes moins appréciés ne peuvent pas atteindre.

Notre consortium contribue à créer une telle dynamique : cette année, les membres de notre équipe lancent une Semaine mondiale des papillons et des discussions sont en cours concernant la création d’une organisation internationale.

Nous espérons que les collègues intéressés se joindront à nous pour les prochaines éditions de ces projets. N’hésitez pas à nous contacter.

Federico Riva a bénéficié d’un financement au titre du programme Horizon.

– ref. Un indice mondial des papillons pourrait faire progresser la conservation des insectes – https://theconversation.com/un-indice-mondial-des-papillons-pourrait-faire-progresser-la-conservation-des-insectes-280304

May 14, 2026

Nous avons trouvé le moyen de convertir les déjections de bernaches en nourriture pour volailles et en engrais

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Rassim Khelifa, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology; Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Global Change Biology, Concordia University

Les oies du Canada produisent des excréments désagréables à fouler et porteurs d’agents pathogènes, qui contaminent les pelouses et entraînent l’effondrement écologique des plans d’eau. (Wikamedia Commons/ Joe Ravi), CC BY-SA

Les bernaches du Canada sont de véritables gangsters. Elles sont imposantes, effrontées et extrêmement adaptables, et survivent admirablement bien en milieu urbain. Partout où elles passent, elles laissent leur marque caractéristique : des déjections verdâtres en forme de cigare.

La population de bernaches a connu une expansion rapide dans de nombreuses villes d’Amérique du Nord grâce à des environnements urbains favorables — nourriture abondante sur les pelouses, sites de nidification sûrs et faible nombre de prédateurs — et à la mise en œuvre de mesures de conservation efficaces au cours des trois dernières décennies.

Les bernaches sont certes adorables, mais lorsqu’elles se regroupent en grand nombre, elles peuvent devenir une nuisance. Elles endommagent les cultures et font concurrence aux autres oiseaux aquatiques. Leurs fientes, qu’il est déplaisant de fouler, sont porteuses d’agents pathogènes qui contaminent les pelouses et entraînent l’effondrement écologique des plans d’eau.

Une bernache peut déféquer toutes les 20 minutes. Imaginez alors la quantité de matières fécales produites chaque jour par des centaines, voire des milliers de ces oiseaux dans une ville. Or, presque aucun effort n’a été fait pour explorer les éventuelles utilisations bénéfiques de ces déchets.

Selon les conclusions de nos recherches publiées dans the Journal of Environmental Management, les déjections des bernaches pourraient être utilisées pour créer une source de protéine servant à la fois de nourriture pour animaux et d’engrais, et ce, grâce à l’apport d’une championne du recyclage que l’on trouve dans la nature : la mouche soldat noire.

Produire de la nourriture pour volailles à partir de fientes de bernaches

Les larves de la mouche soldat noire sont connues pour leur remarquable capacité à consommer et à décomposer les déchets organiques, notamment les déchets d’origine animale provenant des exploitations agricoles. Toutefois, elles n’ont encore jamais été testées sur des déjections de bernaches du Canada.

Dans le cadre de notre étude, nous avons nourri des larves de mouche soldat noire avec trois régimes alimentaires différents : un mélange standard riche en nutriments composé de maïs, de blé et de luzerne (mélange témoin), une combinaison de ce mélange alimentaire avec des déjections de bernaches, et enfin un régime composé exclusivement de fientes.

Nous avons également introduit une autre variable en stérilisant une partie des excréments, pour nous aider à déterminer si les micro-organismes présents dans la fiente ont une incidence sur la digestion.

Les résultats ont été surprenants : l’insecte a pu accomplir l’intégralité de son cycle de vie en se nourrissant exclusivement de déjections. En fait, il a pu en gober un peu plus de la moitié. Sa taille corporelle et sa durée de vie s’en sont trouvées réduites, mais cela n’a pas posé de problème puisqu’il remplissait sa fonction.

Les larves ont grossi plus vite et ont atteint un poids corporel plus élevé lorsque les excréments n’étaient pas stérilisés, ce qui donne à penser que les microbes présents dans les déjections favorisent d’une certaine façon le développement des insectes. Il est à noter que les larves ayant consommé le mélange d’excréments et d’aliments riches en nutriments se sont développées encore mieux que celles nourries uniquement avec des aliments riches en nutriments, et qu’elles ont atteint une condition physique similaire au stade adulte.

Ces résultats semblent indiquer que les larves de mouche soldat noire et les déjections de bernaches pourraient être utilisées pour alimenter un système de traitement des déchets organiques à grande échelle. Les excréments de bernaches pourraient être prélevés dans les parcs et les espaces verts de la ville, puis acheminés vers une installation où les larves pourraient être élevées en consommant ces déchets.

Les larves pourraient ensuite constituer une source de protéines pour l’alimentation de la volaille et en aquaculture, selon une approche circulaire de gestion des déchets urbains axée sur le « suprarecyclage ».

Fertilisant riche en nutriments

Le processus de digestion des larves produit également un résidu, les chiures.Les chiures de mouches soldat noires ont été testées dans le cadre de plusieurs études, principalement sur des cultures terrestres, où elles ont amélioré la croissance des plantes et le rendement des récoltes.

Nous avons décidé d’étudier le potentiel des chiures produites à partir des déjections de bernaches du Canada — en tant qu’engrais pour la lentille d’eau, une plante aquatique à croissance rapide et à forte teneur en protéines utilisée pour l’alimentation animale, la production de biocarburants et le traitement des eaux usées.

Dans le cadre de cette expérience, nous avons testé trois différents engrais potentiels pour la lentille d’eau. Le premier (le témoin) était une solution idéale contenant les nutriments nécessaires à la croissance de la plante. Le deuxième était constitué de déjections de bernaches non traitées, et le troisième de chiures issues de la digestion de la fiente de bernaches par des larves de la mouche soldat noire.

Lorsque les chiures étaient appliquées, la croissance de la lentille d’eau était de 30 % supérieure à celle des lentilles fertilisées par l’engrais témoin. Nous avons également constaté que les racines des lentilles d’eau cultivées dans des chiures issues d’excréments de bernaches étaient plus petites que celles cultivées dans les déjections non traitées, ce qui constitue une réaction typique à un environnement plus riche en nutriments, où ceux-ci sont facilement accessibles par les racines.

Économie circulaire durable

Il existe déjà des installations industrielles de traitement des déchets mettant les insectes à contribution. Entosystem, une entreprise québécoise qui produit des protéines d’insectes destinées à l’alimentation des animaux d’élevage et domestiques, utilise des larves de mouche soldat noire pour transformer les déchets alimentaires et organiques en protéines et en engrais.

En Nouvelle-Écosse, l’entreprise de biotechnologie Oberland Agriscience utilise également des larves de mouche soldat noire et fait appel à des technologies comme l’IA et la robotique pour transformer les déchets organiques en nourriture pour animaux et en produits pour les sols. NRGene, en Saskatchewan, est un centre de recherche et de démonstration qui effectue lui aussi des tests avec la mouche soldat noire dans le but d’optimiser la conversion à grande échelle de déchets en protéines.

Des systèmes similaires pourraient être utilisés pour valoriser les déjections de bernaches grâce à la mouche soldat noire, plutôt que d’acheminer ces rebuts vers les habituels dépotoirs ou sites d’enfouissement.

Cette méthode permet de transformer les déchets en ressources d’une grande utilité pour l’industrie agroalimentaire : les larves peuvent servir de nourriture pour la volaille ou en aquaculture, tandis que les chiures peuvent être utilisées comme engrais organique pour diverses cultures.

Grâce à cette approche respectueuse de l’environnement, une situation conflictuelle liée à la présence de la faune en milieu urbain devient une occasion à saisir. Elle contribue à mettre en place une économie circulaire durable où les déchets sont réutilisés, recyclés ou transformés en une nouvelle ressource.

Rassim Khelifa bénéficie d’un financement du programme CRC de niveau 2 du CRSNG (CRC-2022-00134) et d’une subvention à la découverte du CRSNG (RGPIN-2024-04564). Rassim Khelifa est membre du Centre québécois des sciences de la biodiversité et de la Société canadienne d’écologie et d’évolution.

Carlos Antonio Lopez Manzano bénéficie d’un financement du Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT) par le biais de la bourse au mérite pour étudiants étrangers (PBEEE). Membre du Centre québécois des sciences de la biodiversité (CQSBD) et de Ressources aquatiques Québec (RAQ).

– ref. Nous avons trouvé le moyen de convertir les déjections de bernaches en nourriture pour volailles et en engrais – https://theconversation.com/nous-avons-trouve-le-moyen-de-convertir-les-dejections-de-bernaches-en-nourriture-pour-volailles-et-en-engrais-282098