6454 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.

Boogie Down Nima in the Bronx
Recognition of the contributions to the New York cultural landscape by African immigrants remains strangely absent from the average New Yorker’s frame of reference.

Three Signs of Ghana’s Art Times
Ghana is currently experiencing a surge of contemporary performing and visual arts. Here are some notes on goings on about Accra-town.

Who will make the great Sankara biopic?
We don’t want to see a film about what might have been, however seductive that aspect of Burkina Faso’s history is. But what was achieved.

The Story of Cameroon’s First Metal Band
The mistake of directing the hardline scorn we reserve for say Madonna and Fox News at small independent filmmakers or young volunteers at NGO’s in Africa.

What is wrong with this headline?
Europe’s new provincialism exacts a human toll that can only be accepted with a mind-set that subscribes to nothing more than a new barbarism.

Capitalizing on a mess
Johannesburg: the city where criminals don’t discriminate, but property developers do.

Not Nollywood
An Interview with Nigerian Filmmaker Tunde Kelani.

Black Violin
Kevin Sylvester and Wilner Baptiste are the classically trained violin and viola playing duo that anchor Black Violin.

The first rules of Halloween
As a public service, we will, every year around Halloween, share this guide on how not to embarrass yourself or offend anyone.

The new South African family film
The idea that a post-racial South Africa can only be achieved through the adoption of white ideals, culture, and norms by black South Africans.
Weekend Music Break 58

How serious is Renamo’s pro-war rhetoric?
One mitigating factor: The Mozambican opposition movement is weak—in terms of political impact, financial resources, popular support, and military resources.

Silicon Valley’s awkward relationship with “Africa”
There is a huge disconnect between Americans working in Africa, and Africans working in America – though they are often in the same building.

South Africa is a Continent
Jacob Zuma says out loud what most South Africans believe about themselves: South Africa isn’t in Africa. It’s somewhere else. Somewhere better.

Representing Niger
Tal National’s music is breezy, in all Niger’s languages and about topics to which everyone can relate: love, peace, and the beauty of women.

Cape Town hip-hop got interesting again
The difference between Isaac Mutant and Die Antwoord is that Mutant is the real deal.

A postmodernist dark comedy
Kenneth Gyang’s “Confusion Na Wa” and the growing desire for variety and novelty in Nigerian cinema.

Ayn Rand in South Africa
In its current form libertarianism and its worship of the market is utterly irrelevant to South Africa.

Mozambique’s Pandza Music
A digital, more lo-fi interpretation of local Marrabenta mixed with dancehall and hip-hop, combined with a mid-tempo, laid-back vibe.