The world isn’t broken, it was built this way
From Congo to Gaza, the machinery of empire hides behind the language of aid and development.
Books
Firearms aren’t the only weapons
The writings of revolutionary Angolan leader and intellectual Mário Pinto de Andrade helped galvanize the independence struggle. They are now available in English.
Beyond national liberation
A new book issues both an indictment of South Africa’s failed transition and a call to rebuild the left through climate justice, solidarity economies, and radical humanism.
Journey through the afterlives of a colonized Africa
In a hauntingly sincere recollection of her childhood and evolution into the ‘Most Dangerous woman in Africa,’ Andrée Blouin reintroduces herself while taking readers alongside an intimate ‘Africa Tour.'
The forgotten women of slave revolts
Rebecca Hall’s "Wake" uncovers the hidden history of African women warriors and their role in resisting the transatlantic slave trade.
When Brazil’s African Muslims scared the world
Taking place 190 years ago, the Malê Revolt in Bahia, led by African Muslim slaves, shook Brazil's foundations and echoed global fears of a new Haiti.
Imaginary homelands
A new biography of former apartheid homeland leader Lucas Mangope struggles to do more than arrange the actions of its subject into a neat chronology.
From Cairo to Cornell
The Malcolm X effect of Gambian-British activist Momodou Taal.
The limits of self-professed hypocrisy
In 'Revolutionaries’ House,' Nthikeng Mohlele explores the moral decay within South African politics through a disaffected politician tortured by his personal indiscretions.
Unearthing Subterranean Knowledge
If the savannas of West Africa are a new corporate mining frontier in the 21st century, it's because it is also home to the world’s longest-standing indigenous gold mining economy.
Yvonne Vera’s gardens
Tadiwa Madenga’s latest book offers us a biographical portrait of Zimbabwean author Yvonne Vera written through her love of plants, gardens and nature.
The DRC’s never-ending wars
A new book argues for the centrality of Congolese elites and regional powers in perpetuating domestic conflict, but it too easily lets the West off the hook.
Shadows of coloniality
What does it mean to be Malawian?
The story of Eskom
Load-shedding, deepening privatization, and unaffordable electricity makes it difficult to imagine a pivot away from the neoliberal approach to South Africa’s climate crisis.
Henry Kissinger’s South Africa
In the 1970s, Kissinger believed that the liberation of southern Africa from white-minority rule represented a Cold War setback.
Reading List: Daniel Hammett, Laura S. Martin and Izuu Nwankwọ
What is the relationship between humor and politics in Africa?
Reading List: Faeeza Ballim
What does the history of South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, tell us about the apartheid and post-apartheid state?
Projecting radicalism
Noni Jabavu was one of South Africa’s most trailblazing writers. Her commitment to elite ambivalence makes it difficult to hail her as a black feminist icon.
Inventing our own fictions
For Binyavanga Wainaina, writing about Africa means to to write honestly, benching any attempts to categorize our lived experiences in language that could never accommodate them.
The wounds that burst open
Writer, filmmaker and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga entwines the troubled story of herself and her country Zimbabwe in the book of essays, 'Black and Female.'