From aesthetic cool to political confusion, a new generation in Kenya is navigating broken promises, borrowed styles, and the blurred lines between irony and ideology.
Latest
Zambia’s quiet diplomacy
Long seen as a neutral player in global affairs, Zambia’s foreign policy is shifting under new pressures—from Western donors, Chinese investment, and its own strategic ambitions.
The un-African mechanisms of queer repression
Anti-queer laws in Africa are often framed as cultural defense—but their roots lie in colonial legacies, religious nationalism, and global reactionary alliances.
Africa and the AI race
At summits and in speeches, African leaders promise to harness AI for development. But without investment in power, connectivity, and people, the continent risks replaying old failures in new code.
The business of empowering women
Despite decades of donor funding, the push for women in politics in Nigeria often sidelines real change in favor of workshops, buzzwords, and photo ops—leaving power structures intact.
Will the future of food be genome edited?
What will we eat in the future—and who gets to decide? From lab-grown meat to agroecology, the politics of food in Africa are being shaped by tech dreams, corporate agendas, and grassroots resistance.
TV
The CAF Champions League final and the politics of North-African football ultras.
Culture
A powerful storytelling tradition
The last great Fang bard, Eyí Moan Ndong fused myth, music, and sci-fi to create epic performances that defy Western categories—and demand global recognition.
Binti, revisited
More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.
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 bones beneath our feet
A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.
The memory keepers
A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.
Revolutionary Papers
A year long series on the archival remnants of African and black diaspora anti-colonial movement materials to retrieve a politics and pedagogy that challenge the contemporary cooptation of radical histories. Guest editors: Mahvish Ahmad, Koni Benson, and Hana Morgenstern from the Revolutionary Papers project (revolutionarypapers.org)
Nigeria's archives of revolutionary printmaking offers us insights into the dissident voices of the country's old left, which are surprisingly relevant today.
Christian theology was appropriated to play an integral role in the justifying apartheid’s racist ideology. Black theologians resisted through a theology of the oppressed.
Politics
After the uprising
Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.
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.
In search of Saadia
Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.
Tariffs, Trump, and the Global South
Trump’s trade war is framed as a battle with China—but its fallout is exposing just how little power African economies have in a rigged global system.
Why the far right needs violence
Javier Milei rose to power promising freedom—but his government is unleashing economic violence, criminalizing dissent, and testing the limits of Argentina’s democracy.
Donald Trump
Tariffs, Trump, and the Global South
Trump’s trade war is framed as a battle with China—but its fallout is exposing just how little power African economies have in a rigged global system.
Why the far right needs violence
Javier Milei rose to power promising freedom—but his government is unleashing economic violence, criminalizing dissent, and testing the limits of Argentina’s democracy.
Liberal internationalism after USAID
As US aid falters, the crisis of liberal internationalism deepens. What comes next when even its strongest institutions can no longer hold the facade together?
Caught at the border
Asylum seekers from Africa are caught in a growing crisis at the US-Mexico border, as Trump's policies leave them in legal limbo and unsafe conditions.