Africa Is a Country

Blood on the chair

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Blood on the chair

By
Sean Jacobs

Platon, the New Yorker staff photographer got many of the world's leaders to sit for portraits. A number of African leaders obliged.

Platon described Rwanda's longtime President, Paul Kagame, as "my favorite picture."

In September this year over five days, Platon, the New Yorker staff photographer got many of the world’s leaders to sit for him while they were here for a meeting of the United Nations. You can check out all the portraits on the New Yorker’s website. Each photograph come with audio commentary by Platon. Here are some of the African leaders.

About Robert Mugabe, the longtime leader of Zimbabwe, Platon says: “… His skin was so stretched. It wasn’t oily, but it looks oily, shiny … made of wax of glass or something … ” As Mugabe walked away, another leader (who remains nameless) refused to sit in the same chair. When asked what’s wrong with the chair, the leader responded: “There’s blood on it.”

Then there’s Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, who Platon describes as “warm” “look[ing] wicked” and “definitely laughing at me”

Rupiah Banda of Zambia, whose face is “carved in stone”:

And, Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya, who appeared distracted:

View the rest here.

Further Reading

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.