The estranged son of Ghanaian immigrants reared in Brescia wreaks havoc in Manchester:

“Why always me?” read the slogan on Mario Balotelli’s vest. Because, Mario, you’re clearly more than a little bit eccentric. But you do know how to score goals and, as long as that is the case, City will forgive him for whatever controversies come their way bearing his fingerprints. City’s own firestarter lit the fuse, put a rocket up United, set the game ablaze and every other firework pun going. You wouldn’t want to be his neighbour and it will be one hell of an autobiography one day, but that’s six goals in five games. The good outweighs the bad even if it is a close-run thing at times. And maybe he is learning: the old Mario would surely have lifted his shirt for his second goal, too, and collected a second card for his troubles.

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Further Reading

Procès et tribulations de Rokia Traoré

Détenue en Italie puis en Belgique pendant prèsde sept mois, la chanteuse malienne est engagée depuis 2019 dans une bataille judiciaire avec son ex-conjoint belge pour la garde de leur fille. Entre accusations d’abus et mandats d’arrêt, le feuilleton semble approcher de sa conclusion.

Requiem for a revolution

A sweeping, jazz-scored exploration of Cold War intrigue and African liberation, Johan Gimonprez’s ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ lays bare the cultural and political battlegrounds where empires, artists, and freedom fighters clashed.

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Ibaaku’s space race

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An allegiance to abusers

This weekend, Chris Brown will perform two sold-out concerts in South Africa. His relationship to the country reveals the twisted dynamic between a black American artist with a track record of violence and a country happy to receive him.

Shell’s exit scam

Shell’s so-called divestment from Nigeria’s Niger Delta is a calculated move to evade accountability, leaving behind both environmental and economic devastation.