Africa Is a Country

'Slavery, The Game'

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

'Slavery, The Game'

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJMzeQicAh8&w=600&=369]

While watching out for Fifa 12, I got distracted by this Youtube “commercial” for  another video game, “Slavery: The Game.”  Within days it had half a million views. Watch the trailer above. It just seemed to absurd to be true. There was a a website, with a video, ways for you to share it on social media and a phone number. A few websites checked the phone number and the company listed as developer and found it did not exist. They also reasoned retailers here wouldn’t carry it because of its offensive nature. But some commenters on Youtube were actually excited by the prospect of capturing, torturing and making profits off slaves. I suspected if it was the work of Adbusters or The Yes Men.

 It turned out it was a viral campaign for a Dutch TV series about slavery. Clever.

Further Reading

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahel States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.

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?