Don’t mobilize, organize
To rebuild, the South African left must realize that there are no shortcuts to power.
6437 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.
The specter of foreign forces in Haiti
The so-called ‘Haitian crisis’ is primarily about outsiders’ attempts force Haitians to live under an imposed order and the latter’s resistance to that order.
It could happen to us
Climate negotiations have repeatedly floundered on the unwillingness of rich countries, but let’s hope their own increasing vulnerability instills greater solidarity.
Let it burn
Whether or not Twitter survives should be irrelevant to those committed to building a democratic public sphere.
The journey of a thousand steps
How might refugee as well as forced migration studies benefit from the movement to decolonize all aspects of African Studies?
A kingdom’s ransom
Although films like ‘The Woman King’ offer us a small glimpse into the past, they cannot give us the full story.
Royal succession in the age of social media
New Zulu king Misuzulu’s strategy for ensuring the relevance of his monarchy copies from the Windsors in Britain: use the media.
Defying defeat
Political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s collection of writings are a powerful and evocative reminder that democracy in Egypt remains a bleak prospect.
What’s wrong with the South African Institute of Race Relations?
Surveys on race by South Africa’s Institute of Race Relations (IRR) are deeply flawed and cynically used. Its influence on mainstream politics is significant and dangerous.
There are no dogmas for the practice of democracy
Africans have been decolonizing, critiquing, but also enriching liberal democracy from an African perspective since colonial times. Pro-democracy and decolonial intellectuals owe a debt to this body of work and can learn from it.
Reading List: Shimrit Lee
The author of ‘Decolonize Museums’ assembles a list of essential reading on the past, present and future of museums.
KwaZulu-Natal Gothic
The crime drama ‘Reyka’ looks at violence in the troubled South African province.
Bookends: Rémy Ngamije
Rwandan-Namibian writer and founder of Doek! arts organization shares his sober routine and dramatic daydreams.
Another coup in Burkina
September’s coup is Burkina Faso’s second of the year, and its another one with popular support. Why did it happen?
A new Zion
The spread of Garveyism from the US to Africa was as much about political liberation as it was religious salvation.
Rise of the reactionaries
AfriForum is no longer on the political fringe in South Africa, rather it’s key in perpetuating increasingly mainstream, right-wing populism.
How to write like Binyavanga Wainana
This week on the AIAC podcast, we discuss a new posthumous collection of writing from Binyavanga Wainana.
Obviously, this is not working
Former Africa Is a Country fellow, Dr. Lassane Ouedraogo, based in Ouagadougou talks to Bamba Ndiaye of The Africanist Podcast on the general situation in Burkina Faso the day after the coup there.
Participation without competition
Yoruba political ontology, non-competitive democracy, and the sacrality of power in Nigeria.
En route to the unknown
African women exercise their right to migrate, but also face dilemmas on their way to the unknown. We need policies that protect them.