Music and Politics

By: Sean Jacobs

If you have nothing to do tonight and are in New York City, head down to The New School where Boima Tucker and I are hosting musicians Brian Jackson and Masauko Chipembere as well as writers Carolina Gonzalez, Eddie Stats Houston and Wills Glasspiegel for “A Conversation on Music and Politics.”

And this panel comes with an after party. Starting at 10pm Eddie Stats and Boima will be DJing at Cayenne Lounge on West Houston. The party also doubles as a kind of unofficial Sierra Leone 50th Independence party.

Here are the details.

When we say apartheid

Haidar Eid

We need to envisage a future where colonial privileges between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean sea are completely dismantled.

Politics

04.19.2024

No scrubs

Kamande Kinyanjui

Why are Kenya’s doctor’s on strike?

Politics

04.18.2024

What are academic boycotts for?

Maya Wind

Far from democratic institutions, a study of Israeli universities reveals that they are, in fact, directly and actively complicit in Israeli apartheid and racial rule.

Politics

04.17.2024

Between M23 and electric vehicles

With regional and global powers keen to take advantage of the DRC’s mineral wealth, it is hard to see how things can get better for the country in the short and medium term.

Culture

04.15.2024

Whose Biennale is it anyway?

Laura Burocco

The theme for this year’s Venice Biennale, the ‘olympics of the art world’ is ‘Foreigners Everywhere.’ But beyond representation, what are the barriers to participation?

04.12.2024

Post-Afcon blues

Maher Mezahi

Who else sorely misses the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations? Re-live the excitement from the stands in a short video by the AIAC team.

Culture

04.10.2024

When a black viking meets a black slave trader

What do computer generated images tell us about the evolution of coloniality and racialization in the AI era?

Politics

04.09.2024

Border politics

Jan Bornman

Right-wing populists in South Africa have started copying their American counterparts by calling for a border wall.

04.08.2024

Allez Les Grenadières

Magdala Louis

When Haiti’s national women’s team take to the field for ninety minutes, they allow the Haitian people to dream.

Politics

04.04.2024

Speaking as one African to another

Emma Daitz

South African anti-apartheid revolutionary Robert Sobukwe is often understood as a black nationalist. So what should we make of his close friendship with a white liberal?

Politics

04.03.2024

The people’s coup

Ayisha Osori

Incoming Senegalese president Bassirou Diomaye Faye is as much outgoing President Macky Sall’s creation as he is Ousmane Sonko’s.

Politics

04.02.2024

Goodbye, Piassa

Rachel Dubale

The demolition of an historic district in Addis Ababa shows a central contradiction of modernization: the desire to improve the country while devaluing its people and culture.

Politics

04.01.2024

The limits of international solidarity

The failure of South African universities to call out Israel’s genocide challenges the assumption that South Africans have a deep appreciation of injustice in Palestine given their similar experiences under apartheid.

Ancestors

03.29.2024

House of stone

Tinashe Mushakavanhu

Roy Guthrie was a refrigerator salesman in South Africa before he moved to Zimbabwe and established its largest sculpture park.

Politics

03.28.2024

Congo beyond the hashtags

Ruth Mudingayi

While social media has amplified calls for social justice in long-ignored parts of the world, it should only be the beginning of our activism.

Politics

03.27.2024

Lessons from Lesotho

With a coalition government likely after South Africa’s elections in May, many are looking at the West for examples of coalition politics. South Africans, however, should look next door.

03.25.2024

From Salt River to the sea

When the the Palestinian Men’s National Team played an exhibition match in Cape Town, South Africa, it might as well have been a home game.

03.22.2024

Filling in the gaps in the study of African sports

To celebrate 20 years of research on sports in Africa, the SportsAfrica network will publish a series of monthly articles on Africa Is a Country drawing on their members’ research.

Politics

03.21.2024

Labor pains

Sanyaolu Juwon

Today, the Nigeria labor Congress barely commands the respect of Nigerian workers.

03.20.2024

La CAN et la politique des affects

Lyn Kouadio

La CAN de cette année en Côte d’Ivoire a montré que ce n’est pas seulement la politique du football qui compte, mais aussi la politique de l’ambiance.

Further Reading