Meditations on Paul Biya’s Reelection in Cameroon
The Biya regime’s grip on power has been exposed more than ever before. It is revolting to watch.
6443 Article(s) by:
Ladan Osman
Ladan Osman is the author of Exiles of Eden (2019) and The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (2015). She lives in Brooklyn.
A terrible failure to protect school girls in Liberia
The privatizing and deregulating education in Liberia as much as white saviorism should take the blame for the sexual violence under an NGO’s watch.
Africa rising? A historical perspective
African demographic growth is expected to continue unabated over the next century. How should poverty reduction be addressed on the continent?
Has Africa’s May ’68 been forgotten?
In 1968, France witnessed an extraordinary student uprising which changed politics. Morocco and Senegal did too, but we seldom talk about it.
Two trips to Juba
Youth activism and the politics of violence in South Sudan.
Arundhati Roy in Johannesburg—An essay on essays
In a world of fake news, shallow analysis and torrid pontificating, combining empirical evidence with emotive expression, is what give Roy’s essays legs.
Exile, Return, Home?
Many will read Sisonke Msimang’s new memoir for its musings on exile and home, but it is also a political telling of the complicated South African transition.
Zimbabwean Twitter is shifting politics
Fasting and prayer don’t determine election results; and two, social media has profoundly changed the political landscape.
Silent Aid
The time is ripe to ask not “does aid work,” but “how does aid work?”
Why we’re losing the fight against TB
The global response to a disease that largely effects the most marginalized populations of poorer countries shows a basic lack of respect for human rights on the part of international institutions.
The school hairstyle protest in Soweto
When black students at an elite school in South Africa’s capital protested over how teachers treated them over their hair, everyone noticed. It’s not the same in township schools.
When Melania Trump went to Africa
Pith helmets and jodhpurs aside, Melania Trump went to four African countries to promote her “Be Best” education initiative. What’s that about?
Decolonizing streets
The renaming of streets is an important urban decolonial practice.
Husbands to rent
Try being a single woman in Nigeria.
Nelson Mandela and US imperialism
In his writings and speeches, Nelson Mandela exposed the links between American power, capitalism and racism.
How to remember Jonas Savimbi
Sixteen years after the end of the Angolan civil war, the Angolan state considers how to properly remember and memorialize the leader of UNITA.
Limping towards irrelevance
How can South Africa’s biggest trade union federation, Cosatu, remain relevant in the face of declining membership and a failing formal economy?
Anti-black excellence
In Ghana, political leaders, religious leaders and leading rappers all have one thing in common: internalized anti-blackness.
Obama, Mandela and the limits of liberalism
American liberals’ continued refusal to engage seriously with the global collapse of the postwar liberal order.
Gay life in Senegal
Homosexuality continues to be a dangerous topic in Senegal. There, as in much of the African continent, heteronormative behavior is enforced with violence.