How to subvert the Hollywood Western
An interview with the South African director and writer of 'Five Fingers for Marseilles,' a Western set in that country, and starring an all black cast.
Articles by
Sean Jacobs
Sean Jacobs, Founder and Editor of Africa is a Country, is on the faculty of The New School and a Shuttleworth Fellow.
Future so bright
All things equal, we should have a new website within the next couple of weeks.
The Interregnum in Zimbabwe
I write this quick note as an outsider (and well aware of my physical distance from
The Youths
When I was a youth, each January 8, the African National Congress, then the dominant liberation
Weekend Special, No.1976
Happy Father’s Day. This was the week of June 16th–the commemoration of the 1976 Soweto Uprising,
Weekend Special, No. 1211
(1) Identity politics is neoliberalism, as Adolph Reed once said. And it delivers like clockwork. The hip hop
Weekend Special
We’re bringing back Weekend Special. Borrowing its title from a song by the late Brenda Fassie,
Art in dark times
Interview with historian Dan Magaziner about his new book, The Art of Life in South Africa, about one of the few art schools training black art teachers under Apartheid.
Patrice Lumumba (1925–1961)
"Africa will write its own history and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity" (Lumumba, 1960)
Martin Luther King Jnr., Pan-African
On the third Monday of January each year, Americans mark MLK's birthday (January 15th) with a public holiday. Africans should too.
The year of Elaine Salo
Elaine had done the hard work of liberation and didn’t shy away from engaging head-on with the limitations and promises of the new South Africa.
If Africa is a country, then Fidel Castro is one of our national heroes
On 25 November 2016, Fidel Castro passed away. To many Africans Fidel was a hero, playing a central role in their liberation from colonialism.