Colonial Fantasies

Just a sample: A "Heart of Darkness"-themed ship, Tarzan in South Africa and a travelogue on the Congo River.

DeWet Du Toit, the white South African living out a Hollywood-fantasy as a "real-life Tarzan" (Flickr).

The arts and culture site, Blackbookmag.com, reports that two British artists have built a “Heart of Darkness”-themed hotel in the shape of a steamboat on the roof of a Thames River arts center in London. It is named Roi des Belges (King of the Belgians). They charge between 120 and 185 pounds for singles or couples per night to stay in the hotel. “Inside, the cozy paddle steamboat is lined with timber, vintage books, and props that echo details from Conrad’s works, such as maps of Africa.”

Roi des Belges on the Thames.

Two days ago, The Guardian (of all publications) put up a travel piece with this introduction: “I was alone in the middle of deepest, darkest Congo. Worse still, I was being chased by eight angry tribesmen in two dugout canoes – and they were gaining on me.” We figured it must be a joke.

Then there’s DeWet Du Toit, who left South Africa to work as a security guard in Manchester, and returned to George, a coastal town in the Western Cape region of South Africa (where else?), where he lives out his fantasy as ‘the real Tarzan’, complete with promotional video, animals, black helpers and friendly news coverage (he wants to break into Hollywood like Charlize Theron and District 9). It is not the 1950s anywhere.

Further Reading

Slow death by food

Illegal gold mining is poisoning Ghana’s soil and rivers, seeping into its crops and seafood, and turning the national food system into a long-term public health crisis.

A sick health system

The suspension of three doctors following the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s son has renewed scrutiny of a health-care system plagued by impunity, underfunding, and a mass exodus of medical professionals.

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.