Comments for Africa is a Country

Comment on Mali’s problem–Not child soldiers, but soldiers acting like children by Political Geography Now

Political Geography Now — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:22:15 +0000

Very enlightening! As someone with an interest in linguistics, the part about saying different things in French and Bambara is especially interesting.

-Evan

Comment on Lesotho votes today by Political Geography Now

Political Geography Now — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:14:54 +0000

Thanks for this feature on one of the world’s small countries, something we don’t have enough of. And it’s always refreshing to hear about not just how different other places are, but also about how much they have in common.

-Evan

Comment on This is not about art by userbuser

userbuser — Mon, 28 May 2012 18:05:46 +0000

“Many who find the picture disrespective come from a background whose English is not their mother toungue. Many do not understand the word satire or freedom of speech (and I say this with not wanting to sound patronizing).”

This is very true. England was the first country to invent “satire” and it’s colonial child, America, invented “freedom of speech” sometime soon afterward. Poor, ignorant Africans who either weren’t colonized thoroughly or simply do not speak English cannot grasp these profound concepts and thus, we see the outrage over this piece by Murray (and I say this with not wanting to sound patronizing).

Comment on The Afrikaans struggle by ekapa

ekapa — Mon, 28 May 2012 16:54:21 +0000

@jonneke: Thank you very much for the upload. This is very generous of you.

Comment on Akin Omotoso’s Country by ebele

ebele — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:20:59 +0000

I have not seen any of his films but would love to. How does one get to see them? Perhaps one day he will have time to turn one of his dad’s remarkable novels into a film. I wonder what Akin thinks of Nollywood.

Comment on This is not about art by sechaba

sechaba — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:48:43 +0000

Alex the problem with this debate is that people’s entry into the debate is largely based on their upbringing/conditioning and understanding of freedom of expression or African Culture. Many who find the picture disrespective come from a background whose English is not their mother toungue. Many do not understand the word satire or freedom of speech (and I say this with not wanting to sound patronizing). It is true that curtailing freedom of expression can be dangerous but showing disrespect to a father of a nation is proving to be as if not more dangerous and I feel that those fighting for freedom of expression are not interesting in trying to unerstand the other side (maybe this is true for the Africanists). South Africa is a shared country and therefore I feel we need to show respect for each other.

Comment on The Afrikaans struggle by jonneke

jonneke — Sat, 26 May 2012 20:21:49 +0000

@ekapa https://vimeo.com/42881930 this is a drama aired on radio freedom — not in Afrikaans (though there are a few phrases here and there) but certainly aimed at Coloured and Indian audiences.

Comment on Friday Bonus Music Break by bethanyjoycarlson

bethanyjoycarlson — Sat, 26 May 2012 14:18:52 +0000

I love the Friday Music Breaks. May I suggest featuring an image in these music break posts? When I do a status update on Facebook with the URL to this blog post, there is no alluring image to encourage people to click through to the post.

Comment on This is not about art by Sean Jacobs

Sean Jacobs — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:40:41 +0000

@Sue, Here’s from a report by City Press’ Charl Blignaut clearly doing the work of the ANC’s legal counsel:

“In 2007 [Murray's] gallery – under different ownership – refused to exhibit a wall sculpture containing the words “Osama bin Cohen” in large gold letters, fearing reprisal from both the Muslim and Jewish communities. ”

http://www.citypress.co.za/Politics/News/Who-is-Brett-Murray-20120519

Comment on Soweto Soul by bongiswa

bongiswa — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:25:28 +0000

plz solve ur prb guyz