[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4riYn1SozWo&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

The young Lagos, Nigeria-band Che and the Continuous Highlife Evolution’s striking “Civil War.” As the band puts it on their Facebook page, “… Some people in Africa have known only civil war all their lives; while for many other Africans the daily life is as difficult, as tough, as unpredictable and dangerous as if they were living in a daily civil war. Are we living in a civil war? Don’t wanna live no more in a civil war. Oh no no.” We can dance while we figure that out.

Further Reading

Writing while black

Percival Everett’s novel ‘Erasure’ raised questions about Black middle-class complicity in commodifying the traumas of Black working-class lives, but the film adaptation leaves little room to explore these tensions.

The Mogadishu analogy

In Gaza and Haiti, the specter of another Mogadishu is being raised to alert on-lookers and policymakers of unfolding tragedies. But we have to be careful when making comparisons.

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.