A still from “Episode 3″ of Martens’ “Enjoy Poverty” Project. Joe Penney, Guest Blogger “It is now widely acknowledged that Africa, as an idea, a concept, has historically served, and continues to serve, as a polemical argument for the West’s desperate desire to assert its difference from the rest of the world,” Cameroonian academic Achille […]
A group of celebrities (among them Jessica Biel, Lupe Fiasco and Santigold) decided to climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness about the global clean water crisis. Okay, so they’re a group of B-List celebrities, but the idea sounds good. They finished the climb last month. The idea was simple: The celebrities […]
There’s only film this year with an Africa-related theme in the official competition at the Sundance Film Festival: director Jennifer Arnold‘s documentary film, “A Small Act.” Then there’s a special African shorts presentation. A friend who played role in selecting the shorts told me to watch out for Wanuri Kahiu, th director of “Pumzi,” about […]
Excerpts from author Alex Halperin’s contribution in the latest issue of lit magazine, “n+1″: The safer parts of Africa have become a workshop for high-concept philanthropy, wrapping adventurism in a veneer of charity. Young Americans bring yarn to a small Ugandan town, where they teach women to crochet hats to sell back in the States. […]
These celebrities want to gamble and hang out. So they say they want to save Africans.
