What’s new? Making money off poor school children again
The latest trick is to transfer tax-payer funded aid aimed at Africa and the Middle East into the pockets of corporations and individuals.
Speculative view
Two new Nigerian films explore the world of traditional worship in Nigeria
#ZimbabweShutdown and ZANU(PF)’s neo-liberal turn (again)
How to make sense of the January 2019 protests in Zimbabwe.
Albert Luthuli, MLK and global human rights
Albert Luthuli was ANC President when South Africa’s biggest liberation movement turned to armed struggle. He’s been the subject of much conjecture. What did he actually think about political violence?
Voltamos a Africa? The options for Black Brazil in the time of Bolsonaro
Even with the contradictory and violent policies of many African contexts, is emigration to the continent from toxic, racist, rightwing Brazil a viable option for Afro-Brazilians?
Africa No Filter
Displacing African Studies outside of Africa and emptying it of any transformative potential, obscures its revolutionary legacy and converts it into an impotent, banal field.
Passport privilege remains an entirely unaddressed, unsustainable inequity, and the most consistently overlooked factor that defines every single immigration debate and "crisis" of movement and migration.
Culture
Mahmood Mamdani on Marxist intellectual Samir Amin
Samir Amin’s life resembled that of Karl Marx: a man without a homeland, but one whose home was a chosen commitment to a historical project.
Looking for my religion
The power of having a god who resembles us.
The creation of black criminality in South Africa
The seamless continuity in industrial levels of imprisonment employed by the colonial and the modern South African state.
The silences in academia about capitalism in Africa
Many African countries are by now capitalist societies and analytically need to be treated as such.
The forgotten kingdom
The link between knowing history and political agency in northern Ghana.
Africa is a Radio
INTL BLK radio is back with a border crossing mix of Afrobeats and Zouk, as well as an interview with Sierra Leonean electronic music producer Lamin Fofana.
Politics
The Congo finally witnesses political change, but how meaningful will it be?
It’s the first time an African president appears to have rigged an election, not in favor of his hand-picked successor, but in favor of an opposition politician.
Social media, repression and the crisis in Cameroon
Despite consistent and protracted attempts by government to repress access to social media and freedom of expression, citizen’s voices are being heard over the internet in Cameroon.
John Bolton’s African power play
Africa, for Donald Trump and his National Security Advisor John Bolton, is a place to risk a little and chase some glory. US media just parrots it.
The role of indigenous activism on climate change in Africa
Discussions on the global climate crisis tend to ignore the role that Africans are playing at the leading edge in the fight against climate change.
Why western donors love authoritarian leaders
In recent years, Rwanda and Ethiopia have been some of the largest recipients of aid money from the UK and US governments, as well as some of the West’s leading philanthropies, including the Gates Foundation.
Football is a Country
Who gets to host future editions of the men’s soccer World Cup is not just big business, but also a bargaining chip in international relations.