This Is Africa, Dubai Edition

The Mall of the Emirates in Dubai decided on the best way to represent Africa: with a restaurant serving BBQ and burgers.

Mall of the Emirates' "high end" food court.

Dubai is a diverse international city that has become an important economic, immigration, and transportation hub for Asia, Africa, and Europe.  The demographics of the place reflect this as over 80% of the population is non-Emirati.  So when the Mall of the Emirates created a “high end” food court representing its diverse population with cuisine from countries like India, Japan, Lebanon, Egypt, France, and China, they had to make an effort to represent Dubai’s numerous African residents.

So what is Dubai’s premier African restaurant representing an entire continent named?  Tribes of course!  (It’s apparently a chain originating in Johannesburg)  And what food can possibly sum up the continent’s diverse regional cuisines into one?  None other than BBQ and burgers.

For special occasions the restaurant staff will perform a traditional song.  What was the anthem that I heard them performing as I walked by?  None other than the 2010 World Cup anthem, “Waka Waka” by Colombian pop singer Sakira. Oh, Africa!

Further Reading

Kenya’s vibe shift

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

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.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.