A group of San Bushmen from the Khomani San community practice their hunter-gatherer craft in the Southern Kalahari desert on October 15, 2009 in the Kalahari, South Africa. One of the largest studies of African genetics by an international team from the University of Pennsylvania, published in April 2009, revealed that the San of Southern Africa are the most genetically diverse on earth, and that the San homeland could be the spot where modern humanity began. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The shortlist for the coveted Bird Photographer of the Year awards has been announced by Nature Photographers and the British Trust for Ornithology. Here: Red-billed oxpecker on an impala, Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by Edmund Aylmer/BPOTY/Cover Images/The Guardian)

Mali supporters cheer ahead of the Group F Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2021 football match between Mali and Mauritania at Stade de Japoma in Douala on January 20, 2022. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP Photo)

Participants race during the Red Bull Box Cart Race challenges in Bo Kaap, one of the iconic neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa on November 6, 2022. (Photo by Esa Alexander/Reuters)

A meerkat stands guard as her pups cuddle at Mountain Zebra National Park, South Africa early November 2025. (Photo by Nadine Leonard/Two Point O Media)

A reveller is photographed during a traditional Maracatu carnival in Olinda, Brazil February 8, 2016. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

A cave diver in Anhumas Abyss, Bonito, Brazil. (Photo by Marcio Cabral/Epson International Pano Awards 2018)