Africa Is a Country

Who Are We?

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Who Are We?

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoqsw3n8D6g&w=500&h=307&rel=0]
My man Gary Younge, New York-based feature writer and columnist for The Guardian, has a new book out on 21st century identity politics: Who are We–And Should It Matter in the 21st Century? The clips above and below, are from an interview with Gary about the book on the BBC program, “Booktalk.”  After the jump, as they say, is part two. (What’s sort of surreal is that Gary gets to finish his sentences. This is not American TV.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsbyGCt-HAE&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

Gary has also been interviewed by Andrew Marr and The Socialist Review.

Here is an excerpt from the book.  I am reading it now. Gary writes about his ambivalence with identity politics and its uses and abuses after 9/11.  The writer Margaret Atwood tweeted that it is an “excellent” book. The early reviews are also encouraging: Bookbag called it “thoughtful … incisive [and] accessible.”  There’s also a good review here.

— Sean Jacobs

Further Reading

From Cape To Cairo

When two Africans—one from the south, the other from the north—set out to cross the continent, they raised the question: how easy is it for an African to move in their own land?

The road to Rafah

The ‘Sumud’ convoy from Tunis to Gaza is reviving the radical promise of pan-African solidarity and reclaiming an anticolonial tactic lost to history.

Sinners and ancestors

Ryan Coogler’s latest film is more than a vampire fable—it’s a bridge between Black American history and African audiences hungry for connection, investment, and storytelling rooted in shared struggle.