AfricaIs aCountry

Postapartheid Ideology

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

Postapartheid Ideology

By
Sean Jacobs

The video for “Go Getter,” by Johannesburg’s MB featuring Malika, which I saw playing once or twice on a TV in the background (TV’s are always on in people’s houses there) while in South Africa earlier this year. Pay attention.  Here’s the refrain: “You need to let it go/go get it/go get it.”

Let it go? and go get what? That’s when you notice that for the people they actually show, this sort of positivism may not be, er, realistic: the ice cream man, the street sweeper, and the people standing against the wall, checking the paper for…wanted ads?

Further Reading

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This year, instead of taking a publishing break, we will be covering the African Cup of Nations. To transition, we consider why football still matters in an era of enclosure, mediated presence, and thinning publics.