The humanitarian industrial complex should be dismantled—but not by a billionaire-backed administration with no plan beyond abandonment.
Latest
Aid, dependence, and ideological warfare
Foreign aid has never been just about assistance—it enforces political, economic, and social control, keeping recipient countries in a cycle of dependency.
The worst thing to happen to football
Gianni Infantino isn’t just another corrupt FIFA president—his greed, self-importance, and political alliances are actively ruining football.
Algeria and France’s endless rift
France and Algeria remain locked in a cycle of reconciliation and rupture as the wounds of colonization continue to shape their uneasy relationship.
Kemi Badenoch and the politics of assimilation
The UK Tory leader distances herself from Nigeria, embracing colonial narratives while rejecting solidarity with a nation grappling with neocolonial realities.
For the archive yet to come
Colonial archives hold the violence of the past, but they also carry the potential for anti-colonial futures—if radically reimagined for justice and accessibility.
TV
The CAF Champions League final and the politics of North-African football ultras.
Culture
Dakar’s fashion revolution
Amid a flood of Western fast fashion waste, Dakar’s designers upcycle discarded clothes into bold, sustainable styles.
Mati Diop’s reparative cinema
In ‘Dahomey,’ Mati Diop reimagines restitution, using surrealist cinema to revive looted African artifacts and amplify youth-led calls for decolonization.
The trials and tribulations of Rokia Traoré
Detained for over six months, Malian singer Rokia Traoré has been locked in a legal battle with her ex-spouse over custody of their daughter since 2019. Between allegations of abuse and arrest warrants, the case appears to be nearing its conclusion.
You are not the sun: FESPACO 85′
Forty years ago, African filmmakers and revolutionaries united to reclaim cinema as a weapon for liberation and cultural sovereignty across the continent.
Requiem for a revolution
A sweeping, jazz-scored exploration of Cold War intrigue and African liberation, Johan Gimonprez’s ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ lays bare the cultural and political battlegrounds where empires, artists, and freedom fighters clashed.
Revolutionary Papers
A year long series on the archival remnants of African and black diaspora anti-colonial movement materials to retrieve a politics and pedagogy that challenge the contemporary cooptation of radical histories. Guest editors: Mahvish Ahmad, Koni Benson, and Hana Morgenstern from the Revolutionary Papers project (revolutionarypapers.org)
Nigeria's archives of revolutionary printmaking offers us insights into the dissident voices of the country's old left, which are surprisingly relevant today.
Christian theology was appropriated to play an integral role in the justifying apartheid’s racist ideology. Black theologians resisted through a theology of the oppressed.
Politics
Elon Musk and the hypocrisy of the West
Musk’s embrace of far-right politics and Zionism reveals the fractures in Western liberal democracy, where whiteness trumps equality and justice.
The inheritance of hope
Through political turmoil and broken promises, Kenyans hold fast to hope—an enduring force that fuels resilience and dreams of a brighter future.
Jacob Zuma’s enduring relevance
The former president’s abiding presence in South African politics reveals the undercurrent of cultural populism and what can happen when local beliefs cut against the grain of liberal democracy.
When Brazil’s African Muslims scared the world
Taking place 190 years ago, the Malê Revolt in Bahia, led by African Muslim slaves, shook Brazil’s foundations and echoed global fears of a new Haiti.
Making a killing for investors
President Tinubu’s reforms have plunged Nigerians into economic despair, with soaring costs and violent repression, exposing the brutal toll of neoliberal policies.
Donald Trump
The wrong way to end aid
The humanitarian industrial complex should be dismantled—but not by a billionaire-backed administration with no plan beyond abandonment.
Aid, dependence, and ideological warfare
Foreign aid has never been just about assistance—it enforces political, economic, and social control, keeping recipient countries in a cycle of dependency.
Elon Musk and the hypocrisy of the West
Musk’s embrace of far-right politics and Zionism reveals the fractures in Western liberal democracy, where whiteness trumps equality and justice.
Hopium kills but hope seeds
Reflections on Trump’s 2024 US presidential victory.