New Media and Africa's Urban Dictionary

IF you want to get a real sense of a country’s cultural pulse, listen to the slang. It’s one of the best gauges of what a culture thinks about itself, and how it perceives the world.

Mobile technology and the Internet have taken Africa by storm in the past decade, and in the next two years, smartphones are expected to outsell feature phones on the continent.

Africa’s connections with the world are also mediated by its diaspora - in 2012, the amount of money sent as remittances by Africans abroad surpassed that of official development aid.

For Val's Day: 5 Love Epics in Africa's History

Cleopatra's legacy has been vigorously contested, the subject of myth, embellishment, and propaganda 

“Forget what they say about money making the world go round - nations have risen and fallen on the account of a beautiful woman."

GOING by the contemporary narrative, love is something powerful, but fleeting and rather silly—with all it’s apparent expectations of dead plants, wax candles and whiny violins. But Valentine’s Day grouches, don’t despair. Love can be serious stuff too, it has been known to shape the course of whole nations:

Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt

One of the most mysterious and powerful women in ancient Egypt, Nefertiti was queen alongside Pharaoh Akhenaten from 1353 to 1336 BC.