The Mandelas at Harlem’s Africa Square
The Mandelas and Africa’s place in African American politics and popular culture.
6452 Article(s) by:
Golda Gatsey
Golda Gatsey is a freelance writer and customer relationship manager.
Cape Town’s Inner Ugly
Patricia De Lille, one of South Africa’s most popular post-apartheid politicians, claims she tried to redress spatial apartheid in Cape Town, but the legacy of her seven year run as mayor is one of violent forced removals and a refusal to upgrade informal settlements.
Student protests and the weakness of democracy in Ghana
Hyper-partisan politics and shallow journalism obscured the implications of the protests at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
The emperor has no clothes
South Africa’s most famous monarch holds fast to power and prestige at no cost to himself.
Achille Mbembe’s Fanonian meditations
Mbembe’s ‘Critique of Black Reason’ is useful for our analysis of the postcolonial present.
Double jeopardy
The future looks terrifying for many US-based exiles from Mauritania—facing deportation to Africa’s modern “slave nation” under Trump’s monstrous ICE.
Resources and rape: The DRC’s (toxic) discursive complex
On the emergence and political work of the rape-resources narrative in the eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo).
‘Their champagne party will end’
In the age of renewed tyranny and illiberalism, diverse political repertoires and modes of struggle from the continent of Africa offer inspiration.
The architects of fantasy
Among the Ga people of Ghana, there’s more to a coffin and the rituals of death than meets the western eye.
Only the soil can free us
Why agricultural change is political change. Take the case of farmers in Burkina Faso.
Transitional justice’s glass ceiling
Can transitional justice initiatives achieve their ambitious agenda of combatting gender based violence?
Postcolonial theory and the strong arm of identity
The major problem with the term “decolonization” is its status as empty signifier, argues South African psychologist Wahbie Long.
Gods of Fiction
A critical look at some of the problematic assumptions that defined African literature during the decades of its inception.
Pride, prejudice and blackface
A Dutch woman of Ugandan descent reflects on growing up with Zwarte Piet.
An enduring European tradition
An interview with Berlin-based Sierra Leonean electronic musician Lamin Fofana on Europe’s longtime fascination with African culture.
The state of the Afropean union
A border crossing mix of Afrobeats and Zouk and an interview with Berlin-based Sierra Leonean electronic music producer, Lamin Fofana.
What the Jair Bolsonaro regime in Brazil means for Africa
Brazil is the world’s second-largest African nation, but just elected an outright rightwing racist as president. It can’t be good for the continent.
Black bodies will fall in Brazil
What does the election of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro mean for Brazilians of African descent?
The Museveni State
Caricatures aside, how do President Yoweri Museveni and the National Revolutionary Movement state reproduce power?
Mandela’s dreams
Media studies scholar Sharon Sliwinski asks whether dreaming can be recast as a vital form of resistance to political violence. A review of her book.