In the context of climate apartheid, a new scramble for resources, and debt crises, the Global South must find another way to be human.
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Living on the land
Small scale farmers in Tunisia are caught between international actors and a domestic policy that protects corporations.
Against exceptionalism
Although visibility is important, contemporary queer African literature reveals how easily representation privileges narratives of the resourceful and upwardly mobile.
Amazon in Cape Town’s murky waters
The predatory tech giant is at the center of a heritage site land grab, pitting indigenous and environmental activists against city authorities.
Divided loyalties
Somalia’s political landscape is increasingly fragmented due to regional and clan differences. Is this the end of the centralized state and a unified, national identity?
Landscapes of ambition and neglect
While Ethiopia’s leaders chase shiny new projects that are grand monuments to themselves and modernity, they ignore the country’s rich, natural heritage.
TV
On March 20th there was a national shutdown in South Africa. On that day, we hosted a discussion in Johannesburg on the effectiveness and future of the South African left.
Culture
An ungovernable mind
Frustrated by most of his contemporaries, but supported by like-minded friends, Zimbabwean author Dambudzo Marechera forever changed our notion of what African literature is.
Taking care of each other
How a new underground club in Nairobi offers Kenyans respite from the harshness of everyday life.
Black women write
In her new biography of South African writer Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell shows how the publishing industry historically excluded Black women, and how they wrote in spite of that.
A tragic kind of hope
Nigerian and South Sudanese filmmakers give voice to the search for identity, stability, and belonging through the lens of youth and migration.
The rise and fall of an African novelist
By questioning black masculinity in post-apartheid South Africa, Thando Mgqolozana became one of the most impactful writers of his time. But then he got accused of the same thing he opposed.
Climate Politricks
A series on climate justice, tax justice and extractives in African spaces. Funded by Open Society Foundations. Guest edited by Grieve Chelwa.
A new documentary focuses on using the soil’s carbon absorbent properties to solve the climate change problem.
Social policy is essential to creating more just African countries. Why is it not the norm across the continent?
Politics
Nothing good comes of France
France is not a new problem for Africa. Since the 19th century, its stood in the way of the continent’s self-determination.
Beyond the headlines
Recent violence across the Eritrean diaspora is being instrumentalized by populists. But the violence is a desperate cry for attention and requires the Eritrean opposition to seize the moment for regime change.
The myth of the apolitical commission
In response to the Johannesburg fire disaster, the South African government has announced a ‘politically free’ commission of inquiry. But there is no such thing.
The venality of the Kenyan MP
In Kenya, elected office does not represent a duty to represent ordinary citizens, but an opportunity for personal enrichment.
Action required
Held in Nairobi this month, the inaugural Africa Climate Summit is an important step for the continent’s response to climate change. Still, the disasters in Libya and Morocco underscore that rhetoric and declarations are not enough.
Global Migration
The myth of the apolitical commission
In response to the Johannesburg fire disaster, the South African government has announced a ‘politically free’ commission of inquiry. But there is no such thing.
A tragic kind of hope
Nigerian and South Sudanese filmmakers give voice to the search for identity, stability, and belonging through the lens of youth and migration.
A double standard
The pathologization of ‘migrants’ in Tunisia and France shows how race and poverty shape our understanding of belonging.
Sierra Leone decides
What’s at stake in Sierra Leone’s elections on June 24? We discuss on this episode of the Africa Is a Country podcast.