Africa Is a Country

Viva Tanzania

Viva Tanzania

By
Sean Jacobs

For all the gross, lurid news stories or the films you see about fatal  violence against, and neglect of people suffering from albinism in East Africa, this one about Tanzanians electing an albino, Salum Khalfani Barwani, to Parliament, is good news.  Barwani, an opposition MP, will represent a rural constituency.  (BTW, a well-known rapper, Sugu, was also elected to Parliament in the elections in which the majority party’s parliamentary shrunk by over 50 seats.)

CNN, BBC and Afronline.

Image: Pieter Hugo, “Portraits of people with albinism” (2003)

Further Reading

Writing while black

The film adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel ‘Erasure’ leaves little room to explore Black middle-class complicity in commodifying the traumas of Black working-class lives.

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.