Making Sure We Give Credit Where It’s Due in the Ebola Outbreak

As a brutal year comes to an end in the West African countries that are fighting Ebola, it’s important to take a moment to appreciate those on the frontline. Much…..

5012

4 mins read

December 10, 2014

The Gambia Gambit

“Everybody who is written about has an image of what he will look like on the printed page. He is always disappointed,” wrote the South African commentator Jonny Steinberg …

1165

4 mins read

December 9, 2014

The Malian Crisis and the Disproportionate Focus on Manuscripts

Years of humanitarian and political emergencies in the Western Sahel—including ongoing food and water shortages, secessionist movements, terrorism and outbreaks of disease—continue to go under the radar of most mainstream…..

3663

4 mins read

December 8, 2014

Tony Blair Saves The Children of Africa

Interventionists across the political class in Europe and North America have comprehensively militarized the humanitarian enterprise in recent years. So there was much more dismay than surprise when Save the…..

2302

5 mins read

November 21, 2014

How not to write about Africa: Use “African Spring”

On October 30, as thousands of determined Burkinabe put an end to the 27 year rule of their Western-backed autocratic leader, Blaise Compaoré, journalist Hewete Haileselassie asked a question (in a…..

3049

7 mins read

November 18, 2014

#EpicFail When @Jezebel Wanted to make Saartjie Baartman Relevant to Millenials

You know how feminists worry that feminism is dead, and that young women are dismissing the possibility of fashioning powerful, self-directed, and critical subjectivities, and instead framing themselves as idiot…..

3083

3 mins read

November 12, 2014

Bob Geldof doesn’t need to do a #BandAid30 for Ebola. African musicians made a song already

Bob Geldof is going to put out another Band Aid single, another rehash of the grotesque “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” with slightly altered lyrics. We’ve written about the problematic…..

2427

6 mins read

November 7, 2014

The whole ‘Zambia has a white president’ meme

When Zambian President Michael Sata died in London last week after being sick for some time, Western media (and some on Twitter) spent little time reflecting on his rule (basically…..

3783

2 mins read

October 20, 2014

The Future of The Gettleman

After re-reading this article last night, I traveled to the end of the world and was happy to find that I am still writing insightful pieces such as the below, which…..

6251

6 mins read

October 19, 2014

‘There is no Ebola here’: What Liberia teaches us about the failures of aid

Professor Thandika Mkandawire is a development economist with a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue – one of Africa’s finest. Last week I moderated a discussion on health and…..

JOURNALISM