[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OoeAeZM5Q&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

The opening episode of the new series of “The Simpsons” features a convoluted plotline where the character Krusty the Clown ends up in the Hague tried for war crimes. This is a clip from the episode.  As the South African blogger Chris Roper summarizes it (in an equally convoluted blog post):

“[At The Hague] … Bart and Homer need to find some saving grace in Krusty’s past, and this turns out to be Krusty’s refusal to play Sun City in 1990. [Remember in the 1980s, to protest Apartheid, a number of US artists refused to play Sun City, the gambling resort built in the Bophuthatswana bantustan where whites could “mix” with blacks and pretend they’re in Las Vegas.] Three days after his refusal, Nelson Mandela is freed from prison. This congruence of events leads to Krusty being pardoned, and released. …Krusty’s refusal to play Sun City [it turns out, is] not a political statement, but a protest about the kind of potato chips in his dressing room.  Krusty makes his heroic statement (“I ain’t going to play Sun City”), and then turns to his band and says, “Vuvuzela me out of here”. The band swops their instruments for vuvuzelas, and the discordant sound of the World Cup serenades Krusty from the stage.”

Further Reading

Whose game is remembered?

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations opens in Morocco amid growing calls to preserve the stories, players, and legacy of the women who built the game—before they’re lost to erasure and algorithm alike.

Sovereignty or supremacy?

As far-right politics gain traction across the globe, some South Africans are embracing Trumpism not out of policy conviction but out of a deeper, more troubling identification.

From Cape To Cairo

When two Africans—one from the south, the other from the north—set out to cross the continent, they raised the question: how easy is it for an African to move in their own land?

The road to Rafah

The ‘Sumud’ convoy from Tunis to Gaza is reviving the radical promise of pan-African solidarity and reclaiming an anticolonial tactic lost to history.

Sinners and ancestors

Ryan Coogler’s latest film is more than a vampire fable—it’s a bridge between Black American history and African audiences hungry for connection, investment, and storytelling rooted in shared struggle.