South Africans fought for freedom, but won democracy
The famed South African musician Hugh Masekela has a history of speaking his mind on postapartheid politics.
6443 Article(s) by:
Rita Nketiah
Rita Nketiah is a feminist researcher, writer and activist living in Accra, Ghana.
Blood on the chair
Platon, the New Yorker staff photographer got many of the world’s leaders to sit for portraits. A number of African leaders obliged.
The Carnival at the Cape
The historian John Edwin Mason’s photographs of Cape Town’s New Year’s Carnival.
You can now trust Nigerians
Recently advertising and the movies in the West have have been hard on Nigerians. Even when they mean well.
House music
Since it is Friday, I might as well put up a few music videos.
Let Robeson Sing
Manic Street Preachers pay homage to the greatest American of the first half of the twentieth century, Paul Robeson. The music video by Nigerian Andrew Dosunmu is a tribute too.
Who will get rich
The fantasy that local people – small businesspeople, informal traders, especially black people – will make money or get jobs during the 2010 World Cup.
The New Black Atlantic
What does it mean when a Tanzanian rapper joins a cypher on BET, the US entertainment TV channel on its biggest night – during prime time – and rhymes in Swahili.
The society of elegant people
What is it about Congolese men who dress up in tropical weather like they’re on a catwalk in Paris sometime in late Fall?
Family ties
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting news piece on the growing migration by Portuguese workers to Angola.
That’s Not Rugby
Don’t expect “Invictus” to break from the “rainbow nation” narrative despite that symbolism’s sell buy date having long expired.
All black people look the same
A TV news anchor confuses Jesse Jackson with Al Sharpton. Then blames the teleprompter. This is journalism.
The Radio Kalahari Orkes
The curious appeal of a band of celebrity Afrikaner musicians engaging with a quite easily defined past and present.
No good African leaders
Mo Ibrahim can’t find a suitable candidate for the good governance award he hands out to the best former African leader once a year.
Botswana Blues
Botswana’s been governed by the same party since independence in 1966. There’s no crisis of democracy in Botswana.
Race bingo and dancehall
A busy week means a lot of stuff gets the speed blog treatment. Among others, the African country that gets the worst treatment in US media.
A ranking by any other name
This story of Harvard political scientist, Robert Rotberg, and Sudanese billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, falling out, is quite something.
What we know about Australia
The popular Australian show, “Hey Hey It’s Saturday Night!,” on Channel 9, thought it would be okay to revive blackface.
South Africa is far from Jamaica
For someone who knows music, not sure why Ghostface Killah thought Vampire Weekend is riding a Jamaican riddim in the very popular song, ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.’
The most important African country to the U.S.
What came across as recognition of Africa Is a Country from a US State Department official, was more a case of speaking too fast.