• Politics

Oct 23

Troubling times in Burkina Faso

• Daniel Eizenga

Burkina Faso’s current crisis will test the resilience of its political institutions.

• Culture

Oct 22

The imperial legacy in scholarship

• Bruno Charbonneau

What censorship about articles in a French journal tells us about the state of France-Africa relations, imperial legacies and the impact these have on the production of knowledge about Francophone Africa.

• Politics

Oct 21

African migration and the charade of ‘return to safety’

• Iriann Freemantle

The UNHCR and African Union’s policy of returning migrants to their countries of origin, suggests that Africans should be grateful to just stay alive, and are only—theoretically—entitled to anything beyond that on their own continent.

• Politics

Oct 20

The façades of liberal democracy

• Arvin Alaigh

Once we dismiss the fiction that Enlightenment liberalism and liberal democracy will inoculate western society from fascism, we can begin the project of actively combating right-wing extremism.

• Culture

Oct 19

Cape Verde’s culture of recalcitrance

• Vik Sohonie

The island nation’s celebrated political system was never a gift bestowed, but seized through sheer agency and hard-fought autonomy.

• Culture

Oct 18

Reading John Mbiti from Uganda

• Derek R. Peterson

The late Mbiti is praised for indigenizing Christianity. However, his veneration of “African” tradition also served as theological justification for authoritarian rule.

• Economics
• Politics

Oct 17

The poverty of poor economics

• Grieve Chelwa
• Seán Muller

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics experiment on the poor, but their research doesn’t solve poverty.

• Culture

Oct 17

The voice of the Republic’s forgotten

• Annette Joseph-Gabriel

The film BACK UP! and important conversations about state violence, racism, global imperialism, and, crucially, the internal workings of social movements.

• Culture

Oct 16

“Converting Eviction”

• Tim Zulauf

A reflection—by one of the group’s artists—on a Swiss-South African art project exploring eviction and extraction.

• Culture

Oct 15

The reading habits of Ngugi wa Thiong’o

• Jean Pierre Nikuze

In the wake of yet another Ngugi wa Thiong’o snub by the Nobel Committee, we are at a loss. Perhaps a reconsideration of the author’s body of work can provide insight.

• Culture

Oct 14

Are you safe? Please stay safe

• Anonymous

The statistics and scenes of violence against black immigrants in South Africa are horrible. A young Cameroonian student in South Africa writes about what it is like to live under such insecurity.

• Politics

Oct 12

Eyes on the Prize

• Snetsehay Assefa

Does the peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea—now rewarded with a Nobel Prize—bring the kind of cooperation between the two countries that it aspired to do a year ago?

• Culture

Oct 11

A living monument of the struggle

• Judith Van Allen

The passing of American economist Ann Seidman has again spotlighted the impacts of committed scholarship on Africa.

• Culture

Oct 09

The resistance music of the Ugandan people

• Dave Pier

The pop star turned Member of Parliament, Bobi Wine, is only the latest in a long line of music-as-politics in Uganda.

• Culture

Oct 09

Multimodal memories

• Zuhair Mehrali

Exile and memory from East Africa to the United Kingdom and back again.

• Culture

Oct 08

A particular kind of black man

• Modupeola Oyebolu

The Nigerian-American writer, Tope Folarin, wrestles with blackness and black immigrant identity in his new novel.

• Culture

Oct 07

The end of revolutionary radio in South Africa?

• Dan Corder

Bush Radio, “The Mother of Community Radio in Africa,” is in financial trouble. Give them all your money.

• Sport

Oct 05

The ship from Cameroon

• Kangsen Feka Wakai

The fate of Cameroon’s women’s national football team, like much else in the country, is a reflection of the sorry state of its politics.

• Culture

Oct 04

The Cuban Atlantic

• Boima Tucker

How socialist Cuba’s foreign policy of solidarity with Africans, midwifed a new genre of music on the island.

• Politics

Oct 03

The place of race in Cuba

• Esteban Morales Dominguez

Cuba achieved more for Afro-Cubans in 50 odd years than in the 400 years before that. However, socialism did not resolve the question of racism on the island.