Goodbye B.B. King. Here he is playing live in Kinshasa, then Zaire, 1974
Hamba kahle, B.B. King (1925-2015)
Further Reading
On Safari
On our year-end publishing break, we reflect on how 2024’s contradictions reveal a fractured world grappling with inequality, digital activism, and the blurred lines between action and spectacle.
Feeding fear and prejudice
In South Africa, a spate of food poisoning incidents has ignited another round of xenophobic scaremongering.
Rebuilding Algeria’s oceans
Grassroots activists and marine scientists in Algeria are building artificial reefs to restore biodiversity and sustain fishing communities, but scaling up requires more than passion—it needs institutional support and political will.
Citizens for hire
Kenya’s labor export model treats citizens as commodities, exploiting workers for remittances while neglecting domestic job creation.
Metal that will bend
Once a beacon of hope for militant trade unionism, Numsa’s descent into corruption and political entanglement reflects the broader struggles facing South Africa’s labor movement.
How Rashid Vally showed us the way
Rashid Vally, the visionary behind South Africa’s iconic jazz label As-Shams, forged a legacy of revolutionary jazz that defied apartheid and continues to inspire new generations of musicians, activists, and music lovers.
Ibaaku’s space race
Through Afro-futurist soundscapes blending tradition and innovation, Ibaaku’s new album, ‘Joola Jazz,’ reshapes Dakar’s cultural rhythm and challenges the legacy of Négritude.
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.
The beautiful game’s ugly secret
The #MeToo movement exposed abuses across industries, yet men’s football remains resistant to accountability, protecting predators and sidelining survivors.
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.
Africa’s sibling rivalry
Nigeria and South Africa have a fraught relationship marked by xenophobia, economic competition, and cultural exchange. The Nigerian Scam are joined by Khanya Mtshali to discuss the dynamics shaping these tensions on the AIAC podcast.
The price of power
Ghana’s election has brought another handover between the country’s two main parties. Yet behind the scenes lies a flawed system where wealth can buy political office.
Tyla and the politics of ambiguity
Tyla’s rise as a global pop star highlights the complexities of race, identity, and cultural representation, challenging how Blackness is perceived across the diaspora.
Growing but not maturing
As Ghana heads to the polls, its democratic promise fades amid economic turmoil, corruption, and disillusionment, leaving voters to choose between two flawed options.
Brazil is an African country
After marking its first federal National Black Consciousness Day, Brazil confronts its deep African heritage and enduring racial inequalities.
O Brasil é um país africano
Após marcar seu primeiro Dia Nacional da Consciência Negra como feriado federal, o Brasil reafirma sua profunda herança africana e as persistentes desigualdades raciais.
Gen Z, Riggy G, and the Kenyan pornocracy
In a political landscape defined by opportunism, spectacle, and betrayal, Kenya’s youth-led protests offered a fleeting glimpse of change—only to be ensnared by the same system they sought to challenge.
Beats of defiance
From the streets of Khartoum to exile abroad, Sudanese hip-hop artists have turned music into a powerful tool for protest, resilience, and the preservation of collective memory.
Reading List: Adam Hanieh
Materially speaking, oil is simply a sticky, black goo. It doesn’t have any innate power separate from the kind of society we live in—capitalism.
Bored of suppression
Colonial-era censorship bodies continue to stifle African creativity, but a new wave of artists and activists are driving a pan-African push for reform.