(Re)Discover a culture beyond your imagination.

When the property manager of my building wants to communicate with tenants, she prints out a letter and sticks it in the door jamb of every apartment. Mostly her communiques involve the water main being shut off or the garage being cleaned or something that has been broken for three years finally being repaired. 

On Sunday, she sent a note saying that as of Wednesday, all the building’s trash chutes would be closed, and the dumpster would be moved out of the garage into the parking lot. She was very testy and said that despite repeated warnings, too many tenants had ignored the clearly posted trash rules. “You brought this on yourselves,” basically. There was too much trash being strewn on the floor and discarded haphazardly around the dumpster. 

And I cannot say she was wrong. Though I am rarely here, when I am in town, I notice that the hallways always reek of trash and my neighbors are absolute slobs. They are not at all constrained by the spatial limitations of the dumpster. They will leave trash anywhere in the vicinity of the dumpster, or not. If something spills out, they don’t bother to pick it up. It’s all very laissez-faire. I am not a trash saint but I am perfectly capable of putting my trash in the dumpster, where it belongs.

When I read the missive, I was irritated because now, taking the trash out was going to be a real fucking hassle. But hey, the letter stated the new rules so that was that.

Because I have little else to do, I strategized my new trash routine and came up with a plan. I located the new dumpster location, and then I forgot about it because I may not have much of a life but I always have plenty of TV I could be watching.

Today, there was another letter in the door jamb saying that the trash chutes would remain open and the dumpster would remain in it’s current location in the garage because so many tenants had offered feedback (ie, complained). That feedback had been heard, loud and clear. 

I read the letter three times. I did so because I was so stunned that people would complain, that people felt like they could complain and say that they did not want to be inconvenienced in this manner.

Meet Dr Fanelwa Ngece-Ajayi, bringing science and technology to the township

After completing her science degree, Dr Fanelwa Ngece-Ajayi is using her expertise to highlight the importance of science and technology in Khayelitsha - her home suburb.

Ngece-Ajayi supported her domestic worker mother financially by braiding hair on weekends, so she could make it through school.

Now the physical chemistry senior lecturer at UWC has established a non-profit organisation, AmaQawe ngeMfundo, in the hope of changing negative stereotypes about townships - starting in schools and instilling confidence in pupils to study maths and science.

“We visit schools with our makeshift mobile laboratory and give learners access to interactive demonstrations and experiments to help make learning more practical,“ Ngece-Ajayi said.

"Then there are times we take them on outings - to the Science Centre, for instance. One of the learners inspired by that trip would like to become a forensic biologist.”

Ngece-Ajayi said her organisation was currently limited to Khayelitsha, due to a lack of funding and resources.

“In future, I’m excited about seeing these youngsters interested in solving the current water crisis, as well as finding solutions to the health issues in South Africa.

"I want them to see that it is possible to be part of this country’s teams leading projects of this magnitude.

South African architect Wandile Mthiyane is changing the world’s view of shantytowns 

The sprawling shanty towns of South Africa have been a source of inspiration to a humble young architect rated among the best of his generation and thrust him into global stardom on a journey of determination, humility and selflessness that is set to change the face of these settlements.

Wandile Mthiyane, 23, was born in the midst of poverty in a shanty town in KwaMashu, Durban, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. Now an architect recognised by the UN and global youth empowerment organisations, he has started a programme with shanty town communities to build sustainable, efficient, affordable housing and infrastructure to restore their dignity.

Meet Margaret Ikape, the Nigerian astronomer seeking to inspire others

Margaret Ikape remembers seeing a fireball dash across the sky one night in Nigeria when she was very young.

“It was very cool but it made me want to know more,” said the University of Toronto master’s student in astronomy and astrophysics.

Questions started rolling into her mind: Do stars really move? How fast do they move? How far are they from here? How big are they?

t was a youthful curiosity that later led her to the University of Nigeria to try and find answers. She got plenty of conceptual knowledge but modern resources were scarce and there was practically no demonstration of what she was learning from the books.

That’s until she attended the West African International Summer School for Young Astronomers, a program started three years ago by UofT’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics. Its goal is to expose young Africans to the field of astronomy, and in the case of Ikape, it sure did.

“I had never looked into a solar telescope before,” she said, remembering how fascinating it was to see sunspots for the first time.

This week she will be returning to the same conference in Accra, Ghana, this time as a cosmology instructor. Another UofT student, Jielai Zhang, will be teaching galaxy formation at the same conference.

“I am actually very excited to be going back to this summer school. It means a lot to me,” she said, noting there are many other kids who have the same basic questions she was asking herself back then. “I hope I can inspire them to go further.”

Still dreaming of becoming an astronaut, Ikape is thrilled that Ghana recently became the first African country to launch a student built satellite in space.

First African coding grand prize winner from Cameroon succeeds even without the Internet

The first African winner in Google’s annual coding competition is 370km (230 miles) from home, sitting outside his cousins’ house in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, because the government has cut off his hometown from the internet.

As cocks crow in the background, 17-year-old Nji Collins Gbah tells the BBC about the series of complex technical tasks he completed for Google between November and mid-January.

Nji had thrown himself into the contest, using knowledge gained from two years of learning how to code, mainly from online sources and books, as well as other skills he was picking up on the fly.

The prestigious Google Code-in is open to pre-university students worldwide between the ages of 13 and 17. This year more than 1,300 young people from 62 countries took part.

By the time entries closed, Nji had completed 20 tasks, covering all five categories set by Google. One task alone took a whole week to finish.

And then just a day after the deadline for final submissions, the internet went dead.

Mahershala Ali

First African coding grand prize winner from Cameroon succeeds even without the Internet

The first African winner in Google’s annual coding competition is 370km (230 miles) from home, sitting outside his cousins’ house in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, because the government has cut off his hometown from the internet.

As cocks crow in the background, 17-year-old Nji Collins Gbah tells the BBC about the series of complex technical tasks he completed for Google between November and mid-January.

Nji had thrown himself into the contest, using knowledge gained from two years of learning how to code, mainly from online sources and books, as well as other skills he was picking up on the fly.

The prestigious Google Code-in is open to pre-university students worldwide between the ages of 13 and 17. This year more than 1,300 young people from 62 countries took part.

By the time entries closed, Nji had completed 20 tasks, covering all five categories set by Google. One task alone took a whole week to finish.

And then just a day after the deadline for final submissions, the internet went dead.