Uganda’s rulers don’t get that clobbering words is impossible. The pen will escape every hammer, and cross borders to haunt oppressors, even if the authors are no longer around.
Latest
Milk in the Upington sun
Fear of the future, longing for the past: the new story in South African politics.
The humiliating weight of Frenchness in Tunisia
Tunisia had sought to Arabize itself since independence and failed. It’s relation to France still very much defines the country’s character.
Faster than the ashes of a burning fire
Hausa poetics of compassion and resistance in northern Nigeria in the age of pandemics and neoliberal democracy.
Making meaning in Johannesburg
Documenting an urban housing crisis and how tens of thousands of informal workers and unemployed people struggle to reshape Johannesburg.
The land doesn’t lie
Safi Faye’s 1976 film, ‘A Farmer’s Love Letter,’ exposes the gap between the post-colonial state and the concerns of ordinary people.
World Cup 2022
As Iran withstands one of its greatest existential challenges, its men's national team would be forced to carry the weight of a nation’s despair on the field.
The reality of any society, any nation, and of our world, is much messier than picking a soccer team.
Culture
The legacies of their many shaykhs
Indigenous traditions possess the greatest potential for developing robust civic values and identity in Africa.
How knowledge makes a discourse true
Mainstream discourses about Aamajiranci, northern Nigeria’s Qur’anic schooling system, expose the power politics of knowledge in postcolonial societies.
The limits of the cop drama
A bleak new television drama, ‘Donkerbos,’ explores secrets in small town South Africa, but fails to offer alternatives to the tropes of good vs evil.
How to make sense of Khoisan revivalism
Khoisan Consciousness is sweeping across South Africa. Exploring multiple perspectives is vital to make sense of it.
Consumed by numbers
The “follow-back” economy of Nigerian Twitter represents a struggle for recognition in a vastly unequal and status-obsessed society.
Ousmane Sembene
Sembene’s Africa is everyone’s Africa
If someone had to hold the title of father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembéne would be the most compelling candidate.
The haunting draw of the West
To be African means at some point to desire to leave. African cinema can provide solace for our tortured relationship to the West and our own continent.
Two tales against neocolonialism
Working-class men try unsuccessfully to integrate themselves into new economies in the films of Ousmane Sembene and Mrinal Sen.
Ousmane Sembene invented a new cinema for Africa
An interview with Samba Gadjigo, the late Ousmane Sembene’s longtime friend and official biographer about the resurgence of Sembene’s work.
Politics
William Ruto and the evangelicals
Which theology we will use to make sense of the relationship between church and state in Kenya?
The future of Brazil
For his third term, Lula faces the ghosts of Bolsonarismo, contradictions in his own ruling coalition, and tough global conditions. On our podcast this week.
Amilcar Cabral and the South Africans
Amilcar Cabral’s influence stretched far beyond the Portuguese colonies, profoundly influencing the political struggle in South Africa, past and present.
The people are our mountains
On the 50th anniversary of his murder, those who fought alongside Amilcar Cabral give a painful reminder of what could have been had he lived to see Guinea Bissau’s independence.
The used car problem
It’s tempting but unsatisfactory to blame poverty and weak regulation for the dumping of used vehicles in Africa.
RADIO
This month on Africa Is a Country Radio, taking inspiration from the work of Chinua Achebe, we take a listen to the music of the post-independence era on the African continent.