A girl called Àìná was captured by an African king and later taken to England to become Sarah Forbes Bonetta, protege of the imperial monarch

When she was seven years old, Bayo Randle’s great-great-grandmother Sarah Forbes Bonetta was presented to Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle as a “diplomatic gift” from an African king.

Victoria would go on to pay for Bonetta’s education, approve her marriage to one of west Africa’s wealthiest men, and become godmother to her eldest daughter.

Amid growing evidence of fungi’s key role in ecosystems and storing carbon, African scientists are championing the need to preserve ‘funga’ as much as flora and fauna

Madagascar has long been celebrated for its remarkable wildlife, with the vast majority of its species – from ring-tailed lemurs to certain species of baobab trees – found nowhere else on the planet. But when discussing the island nation’s endemic treasures, fungi are often left out of the conversation.

Yet “fungi are some of the most important things in the world”, says Anna Ralaiveloarisoa, a Malagasy scientist. “They feed 90% of terrestrial plants. Without them, there is no life on the Earth.”

Presidential elections in Djibouti and Benin at the weekend highlighted how a costly electoral system is reshaping democracy

Alexis Mohamed would have loved to stand against his former boss. A longtime adviser to Djibouti’s president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, Mohamed resigned last September, citing democratic regression in the country.

But at the election at the weekend, Mohamed was not on the ballot. Now outside the country, he says he cannot return home to file nomination papers or campaign freely without credible security guarantees. Even if he were allowed to compete, nomination costs would still loom as a steep barrier in a political environment many critics describe as ceremonial, with Guelleh the habitual winner.

As president Patrice Talon steps down after a decade, the west African country’s finance minister is favourite to win

This Sunday, just four months after a failed coup, Benin heads to the polls for a presidential election that feels more like a coronation than a contest.

Patrice Talon, the businessman turned politician who has been president since 2016, is ineligible to run again after serving two five-year terms.

Without AI you will be a ‘weaker and poorer nation’, says former UK chancellor two months into job at US firm

The former chancellor George Osborne has said countries that do not embrace the kind of powerful AI systems made by his new employer, OpenAI, risk “Fomo” and could be left weaker and poorer.

Osborne, who is two months into a job as head of the $500bn San Francisco AI company’s “for countries” programme, told leaders gathered for the AI Impact summit in Delhi: “Don’t be left behind.” He said that without AI rollouts they could end up with a workforce “less willing to stay put” because they might want to seek AI-enabled fortunes elsewhere.

West African Ecowas forces sent to country after group of soldiers announced dissolution of government on state TV

West African troops were deployed to Benin on Sunday after what the country’s president described as an unsuccessful coup attempt.

Benin’s president, Patrice Talon, said on Sunday that the situation was “totally under control” after security forces acted to end a coup attempt by a group of soldiers who attacked state institutions.