#CaptionThis: What was Madonna pointing at?

For some odd reason, last weekend, this striking black and white image by photographer Terry Kane of pop singer Madonna “tour(ing) a UN millennium village in Mtanga, Malawi, in 2007” illustrated a Financial Times book review of The Tyranny of Experts by William Easterly and The Idealist, by Nina Munk. Madonna is not mentioned in the piece at all which you can read here. In any case, we were struck more by the image and posted it on our Facebook page, where we asked readers to #captionthis. We promised that we’d feature a few of your responses on the blog, so here they are. Feel free to add more in the comments: 

Seán Burke: “You can put my self-importance right over there.”

Joseph Miller: “That’s where I want the two of you to perform Hakuna Matata”

Andriannah Mbandi: “Can i get a piggy back ride across to over theeeere?”

Jane Bennett: “(Medem to gardner) Lapha, lapha and lapha….”

Belinda Dodson: “Oh look! It’s a baby in the bulrushes.”

Ryan Justin Cummings: “Right there is where Lupita Nyongo’s parents bequeathed her to me….”

Katie Ubax Carline: “And there’s the crate with my clothing donation: camo trousers and a pair of combat boots for the whole town!”

Chantelle Hammer: “So Africa is right over there” jaaaa there”

Further Reading

Visiting Ngara

A redevelopment project in Nairobi’s Ngara district promises revival—but raises deeper questions about capital, memory, and who has the right to shape the city.

Gen Z’s electoral dilemma

Long dismissed as apathetic, Kenya’s youth forced a rupture in 2024. As the 2027 election approaches, their challenge is turning digital rebellion and street protest into political power.

A world reimagined in Black

By placing Kwame Nkrumah at the center of a global Black political network, Howard W. French reveals how the promise of pan-African emancipation was narrowed—and what its failure still costs Africa and the diaspora.

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.

Empire’s middlemen

From Portuguese Goa to colonial Kampala, Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book shows how India became an instrument of empire, and a scapegoat in its aftermath.

À qui s’adresse la CAN ?

Entre le coût du transport aérien, les régimes de visas, la culture télévisuelle et l’exclusion de classe, le problème de l’affluence à la CAN est structurel — et non le signe d’un manque de passion des supporters.

Lions in the rain

The 2025 AFCON final between Senegal and Morocco was a dramatic spectacle that tested the limits of the match and the crowd, until a defining moment held everything together.