Tuareg musicians Tinariwen, on tour in Europe these days, spent some time in Belgium this weekend. Belgian public broadcaster VRT [they’ll do a feature on Mali blues once a year, usually at the end of June, covering the one high-profile ‘world music’ festival Brussels has in summer, squeezing them into a one-minute slot alongside performers […]
A quick survey of Western media suggests Tuareg nationalist claims don’t carry the same weight as Malian, Nigerian or Algerian claims on Tuareg territory. For example, the current violence in Niger and Mali are covered as either a humanitarian crisis (sympathy for Tuareg refugees), Gaddafi’s legacy (rumored weapons support for the rebels from his fallen […]
Four moments which rocked France this year were the cases against rapper Youssoupha and IMF Head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the unveiling of the Paris exhibiton Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage, curated by former French footballer Lilian Thuram, and the 50th anniversary of Frantz Fanon’s death.
Suren Pillay, Cape Town Guest Blogger The World Cup had just ended, and there were stories in the newspapers, telling us that foreign nationals were going to be killed as soon as the event was over. These stories immediately mobilized many of us in civil society, and it even mobilized the state into action. The […]
I stand corrected, but no one mixes nationalism, tourism and sport in a feelgood cocktail quite like the South African advertising industry. Like in this TV commercial for South Africa’s national tourism authority, where Diski, a South African style of playing football–which in real life has only reaped bad results on the field–is roped into […]
