Further Reading
The trouble with “showing the real Africa”
iShowSpeed’s Africa tour is widely celebrated as respectful and refreshing, yet it operates within a long tradition of racialized spectacle that turns Africa into content and Blackness into performance.
Securing Nigeria
Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.
Co-opting African literature
Can a festival meaningfully applaud African creativity while its sponsor profits from African death?
Repression by other means
The shooting and prolonged detention of Serrote José de Oliveira expose how Angola’s legal order is not merely breaking down, but being deliberately replaced by a system of impunity and police power.
Who gets to tell the history of Mau Mau?
David Elstein’s attack on David Olusoga’s docuseries on the legacy of the British empire reveals less about historical error than about the enduring impulse to rehabilitate British colonial rule.
What Kwame Nkrumah knew about profit shifting
From colonial accounting tricks to modern tax havens, Nkrumah understood how capital escapes, and why political independence was never enough.
Labor without boundaries
In Chad, domestic labor between Chinese employers and local workers unfolds in private spaces where rules are missing and conflict fills the gap.
When charity poses for a Grammy
Burna Boy’s highly publicized Lagos prison visit looked like generosity, but it also looked like content. Who was it really for?
Wrestling power from political dinosaurs
The passing of Raila Odinga has unsettled Kenya’s political equilibrium, exposing a crowded field of veterans, opportunists, and activists, alongside a growing generational demand to reclaim power from an aging elite.
Empire’s middlemen
From Portuguese Goa to colonial Kampala, Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book shows how India became an instrument of empire, and a scapegoat in its aftermath.
Who is AFCON for?
From air travel costs and border regimes to television culture and class exclusion, the problem of attendance at AFCON is structural, not because fans lack passion.
À qui s’adresse la CAN ?
Entre le coût du transport aérien, les régimes de visas, la culture télévisuelle et l’exclusion de classe, le problème de l’affluence à la CAN est structurel — et non le signe d’un manque de passion des supporters.
Lions in the rain
The 2025 AFCON final between Senegal and Morocco was a dramatic spectacle that tested the limits of the match and the crowd, until a defining moment held everything together.
What’s in an AFCON final?
From national redemption and continental dominance to personal legacy and political ambition, the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final means everything to Africans.
Empty stands are not the whole picture
Why focusing on attendance figures at the 2025 AFCON is the wrong way to measure the tournament.
Between Bambali and Nagrig
The rivalry between Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah pushed them to unprecedented heights, but also links two seemingly distant and disconnected villages.
The untameable Victor Osimhen
The volcanic temperament and irresistible brilliance of the footballing star converge as the Super Eagles close in on continental glory.
Grounded expectations
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations marks a transition period for the Nigerian men’s national team. This could be good for them (and the nation).
The twins who shaped Egyptian football
While international media focuses on the legacy of Mohamed Salah during this Africa Cup of Nations, Egyptians are focused on a pair of identical twin brothers.
Where are the politics of Bafana Bafana?
While most sports in South Africa are inseparable from the national political imagination, men’s football manages to stay relatively removed.