958 Article(s) by:
Sean Henry Jacobs
Sean Henry Jacobs is the founder of Africa Is a Country. He currently edits the Eleven Named People newsletter.
My favorite things from the last six months
Art South Africa me asked to pick my "Best Six;" basically my "favorite (six) things from the last six months."
A voice that is incessantly in exile
South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin's life complicates jazz history and shows how Africans reshaped American jazz in the 20th century.
Jakes Gerwel and “the intellectual home of the left”
The fate of the University of the Western Cape, set up for coloureds, radicalized by black consciousness and from where the ANC prepared to govern.
What joy sounds like in German
Bonus music break: Abdullah Ibrahim, John Tchicai, Gato Barbieri, Barre Phillips and Makaya Ntshoko performing live on German public television in 1968.
The cliché about ‘struggle photography’
Cedric Nunn's photography reflects the complex emotions of his black South African subjects, their humanity, dignity, in very personal terms.
That time Rick Ross filmed a music video in a Lagos slum
Can a rap music video do better than some journalism in showing the real, unvarnished existence of ordinary Nigerians?
Il Manifesto
Africans can draw uninformed conclusions about what’s going on in their own backyards and on the continent.
The Decade of Film
I participated in Sight & Sound's once-a-decade poll of the greatest films of all time. I included at least two African films: "Borom Sarrett" and "Mapantsula." Hopefully, they make the cut.
The United States of Africa
Yannick Létourneau talks about the genesis of his film about the Senegelese rapper, Awadi. Also, why so many political musicians come from West Africa.
Struggles over memory in South Africa
Revisionism pervades popular culture in South Africa now, coloring our perception of the past.
Nando’s Grilled Chicken Politics
We asked the Africa Is a Country "office" to comment on Nando's new ad that is supposedly a comment on the widespread antiblack xenophobia in South Africa.
