Africa Is a Country

Bono did something right

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

Bono did something right

By
Sean Jacobs

You know we give Bono a lot of grief on this site, but in this commercial for ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Cup–bar a few disagreements here and there–he is on point. Did I just say that. Just in this case of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXlBSlyU8xY

* BTW, ESPN has put a lot of money into promoting the World Cup, so it is also worth checking out the short “32 Teams, 1 Dream” videos they made and presented by Beninous actor Djimon Hounsou. I particularly like the ones for the six African qualifiers: South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria,  Cote d’Ivoire (I know the myth of Drogbacite continues) Ghana and Algeria.  What is striking about some of the team profiles are how political, or left progressive, they seem to be: Take the Algeria one where Hounsou brings up the Algerian war of independence and in the Honduras video where whoever wrote the script and produced it, basically condemns the coup against the democratically elected president.

Further Reading

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.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.

Djinns in Berlin

At the 13th Berlin Biennale, works from Zambia and beyond summon unseen forces to ask whether solidarity can withstand the gaze of surveillance.

Colonize then, deport now

Trump’s deportation regime revives a colonial blueprint first drafted by the American Colonization Society, when Black lives were exiled to Africa to safeguard a white republic.