Skeptics Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [africa]

for questions about claims based in Africa, or limited in Africa.

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Is the internet in Madagascar faster than in UK?

According to this article dated July 30 2019, the island nation of Madagascar has faster internet than the United Kingdom. If you only know Madagascar because of that animated penguins film, you've not been using the Internet properly. But that is…
SSimon
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Did 60% of polled South Africans say the country was better run during apartheid?

I have found several sites claiming that a study shows that over 60% of polled South Africans said the country was better run under apartheid - most notably, a 2002 Guardian article: In a rebuke to the African National Congress government, more…
EugeneProut
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Do African countries have to pay a "colonial tax" to France?

There is a claim that as of today, a lot of African countries are forced to pay a significant percentage of their income to France, and this is the cause of widespread hunger in Africa. 14 African Countries Forced by France to Pay Colonial Tax For…
vsz
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Did Malian sailors reach the Americas in 1311 CE?

Some sources claim that Malian soldiers arrived in the Americas in 1311 CE. For example, in Silicon Africa: 100 African Cities destroyed by Europeans: Malian sailors got to America in 1311 AD, 181 years before Columbus. An Egyptian scholar, Ibn…
gerrit
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Do any people in South Africa traditionally spend two days together praising wrong-doers to help them?

I have seen variations on the following meme posted by many of my friends on Facebook: https://me.me/i/ubuntu-in-certain-regions-of-south-africa-when-someone-does-4931579 In certain regions of South Africa, when someone does something wrong, he is…
Steven Gubkin
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Is Rub' al Khali the largest sand desert in the world?

This sentence appears in the Wikipedia article on Rub' al Khali. The Rub' al Khali desert [note 1] (Arabic: الربع الخالي‎, i.e., "the Empty Quarter") is the largest continuous sand desert (erg) in the world (...) I was wondering how this sentence…
trejder
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Does Nestlé contribute to infant mortality in developing countries?

There has been a long-running boycott against Nestlé (see http://info.babymilkaction.org). The main complaint is that their promotion of formula milk in developing countries is irresponsible because there is not always clean water to dilute it…
RichR
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Does Ebola pose "little risk to the U.S. general population"?

We are currently in the middle of the largest ever Ebola outbreak, with nearly 900 killed and more than 1,600 infected by the disease in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and now Nigeria. The disease's toll continues to rise. One of the big questions…
samthebrand
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Are these women “for sale in the market in Libya”?

This post has been shared 142,000 times. The associated text reads: Women for sale in the market in Libya, we are against slave trade. If you are against slave trade Share Are these women in Libya, are they for sale in a market, and are they for…
Tim
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Did an experimental Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) cause the AIDS pandemic?

Aidsorigins.com mentioned in a post that: The oral polio vaccine (OPV) theory of origin of AIDS proposes that an experimental OPV made in a unique manner was administered to nearly one million Africans in the 1957-1960 period, leading to the…
user26068
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Did France flood Guinea with counterfeit currency to destabilize it?

I've read in several Pan-Africanist and conspiracy theory sources (e.g. here and here) that France during the Fifth Republic smuggled in counterfeit Guinean Franc into Guinea in order to destabilize its economy after it gained independence. I…
Zudios
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Is it possible to determine if a person has had receptive anal sex through a physical exam?

Physical examinations of the anus are sometimes used in North Africa to determine if a man has practiced receptive anal sex, and hence has broken laws against homosexuality. Here is one such report from Tunisia in 2017 I was skeptical at first…
Akli
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Were three brothers killed while trying to have sex with a crocodile?

Someone shared ZW (Zimbabwe) News article on Facebook. I don't believe it is true. According to the story, three brothers in Limpopo, South Africa attempted to rape a crocodile after being told it would improve their sex lives, but were killed by…
komodosp
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Did Muammar al-Gaddafi have 95% popular support even when he was being overthrown

I just watched The illuminati Exposed By Muammar Gaddafi on YouTube. It was very interesting, but at one point they said that there was a pro-Gaddafi rally in the Tripoli with 1.7 million people or 95% of Tripoli. This rally occured during the civil…
Coomie
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Did Obama refuse to help former SEALs in Benghazi?

According to SOS and many small journals, Facebook censored a meme stating that President Obama refused to save the lives of former Navy SEALs in Benghazi. The meme simply stated, “When Obama called the SEALs, they got bin Laden. When the SEALs…
Cees Timmerman
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