How COVID-19 reveals the paradoxes of neoliberal logic
Pandemics force even neoliberal thinkers to admit government action and collective solidarity are urgently needed.
6420 Article(s) by:
Nathan Chiume
Nathan Chiume is an Africa analyst and consultant.
Painting Kenya’s power dynamics
The painter talks about how the distance between Nairobi and London allows him to take on topics at the heart of Kenya’s body politic.
Who will watch the watchmen?
Who will watch the police and the army in South Africa as they act on behalf of the state to enforce COVID-19 regulations.
Ugandans brace for the worst
President Museveni announces 14-day lockdown as market vendors are beaten, the sick unable to move to hospitals and the wealthy bunker down in their solar-powered homes.
Why xenophobia is bad for the health of all in South Africa
South Africa mustn’t forget the public—and that includes migrants and refugees—in its public health response to COVID-19.
A Letter Unanswered
Did Frantz Fanon ask Léopold Sedar Senghor for a job in 1953? And what might have happened to postcolonial psychiatry in Senegal if Senghor had given him one?
Addressing a pandemic on a continental level
What are the roles of the African Union and the African Center for Disease Control in responding to COVID-19?
In the back and in the side
South Africa’s Human Rights Day (originally Sharpeville Day) holds a special place in the nation’s history.
The necropolitics of COVID-19
COVID-19 isn’t simply a medical or epidemiological crisis; it is a crisis of sovereignty.
Keep the phones on
COVID-19 presents an unprecedented threat, but a campaign by South Africa’s security forces attempting to grind defenseless people into dust does not guarantee success.
Pentecostal promise and a South African dream deferred
Public anxiety grows over “prosperity preachers” who have dominated the religious landscape in South Africa and across the continent.
Rouge Impératrice
Imagining a utopian, unified African federation not divided by colonial era borders or neocolonial interventions.
The People vs 4G internet and other corona stories from Kenya
This crisis has further emphasized the neglect of Kenya’s poor by the government, and is therefore “a wake up call that we are on our own.”
Reading List: T.J. Tallie
Among the books historian Tallie has on his reading list is one about the food of the American Old South—“… a forgotten Little Africa but nobody speaks of it that way.”
African political techno
The evolution of techno, from within Detroit’s African-American community to Kampala, Uganda.
Quand le monde s’effondre
Au crépuscule du règne de Ouattara en Côte d’Ivoire.
Homesick: Notes on lockdown
We know what will happen with this new virus, and so I cannot blissfully self-isolate.
Why is Israel in Africa?
A new book explores the rationale of Israel’s efforts to expand its influence on the African continent.
Fear and loathing in the time of COVID-19
Coronavirus and the problematic perception of migrants as health threats.
From cholera to corona: The politics of plagues in Africa
What lessons can we learn for today from the 2008-09 cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe?