Africa is a Jockey

• Davy Lane

Will the breakthrough of a Swazi jockey in British horse racing change the global stakes for Africa and its diaspora’s riders?

Tintingate

• Johan Palme

Coming to grips with historically racist stereotypes and colonial traces in children’s literature.

Race, Entitlement and Gay Pride in South Africa

• T.J. Tallie
• Alice de Vries

In supposedly post-apartheid South Africa – where political and economic power are at odds – what happens in gay spaces?

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°21

• Tom Devriendt

Bring the Beat Home

• Basia Cummings

The documentary, “Soul Power,” captures a moment in African-American music during the 1970s: testing its boundaries in Kinshasa, Zaire.

Soukous for Kabila

• Siddhartha Mitter

Congolese musicians are divided over politics: endorse President Joseph Kabila and gain from official patronage, oppose him in exile or cope independently in Kinshasa.

The indelible mark of the mbira

• Boima Tucker

The thumb piano has made somewhat of a resurgence in contemporary pop music partly because of the international stardom of groups like Konono N˚1.

Are there enough African films

• Tom Devriendt

This new batch of films are set in Guinea Bissau, Ghana, Sudan, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa and Mauritius.

When W Magazine Went to Johannesburg

• Steffan Horowitz

They used the same examples every trendy Western fashion or pop culture publication do, when they run special issues on South Africa.

Gay Shame in Johannesburg

• Brett Davidson

The confrontation at Johannesburg Pride between white organizers and a group of black activists demanding Pride honor those killed, mostly black, for their sexuality, in South Africa.

Interrupting Paris Fashion Week

• Shamira Muhammad

A group of black women, from Africa and its diaspora, decide to mess with Paris Fashion Week. Was it worth it? Did anyone care?

Chinua Achebe reflects on Biafra, but for whom?

• Jumoke Verissimo

Achebe’s “There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra” reopens old wounds about the civil war.

Kickstarter Must be Strong Stuff

• Gregory Mann

When Deacon, a member of the band Animal Collective went to Mali to make an album and … to end slavery.

Friday Bonus Music Break, N°20

• Tom Devriendt

Township Life Has Never Looked So Glam

• Africa Is a Country

Solange Knowles is the second major UK or American artist to shoot a music video in Cape Town in so many months.

The Geopolitics of Hunger

• Thomas Blaser

Former UN envoy Jean Ziegler on Third World hunger: “We Let Them Starve.”

10 films to watch out for, N°5

• Tom Devriendt

Africa is a Horse

• Davy Lane

What is it with the long practice in British racing of adding an African appellation to a race horse’s name. Most African countries now have at least one horse name after it.

The Danger of a Single TED Talk

• Elliot Ross

Africa isn’t a brand and we find the clamor for “positive news” from Africa inane and condescending.

Nollywood–Nigeria’s Mirror

• Wills Glasspiegel

The Nigerian poet and critic, Odia Ofeimun, on how Nollywood depicts traditional culture and religion.