The problem with microcredit in Africa
The microcredit industry is not a driver of development and poverty reduction, but quite the opposite: it is an “anti-developmental” intervention.
6436 Article(s) by:
Sheila Adufutse
Sheila Adufutse is a feminist activist and trained as a project manager.
We all the way live
Live TV broadcasts of political rallies, funerals and press conferences, may be more decisive than social media in shaping mass debate in South Africa.
The emptiness of an ending
With Mugabe’s death, might there be space for a new self-definition as a nation in Zimbabwe, as a broad family of nationals, with a shared national project?
Nativism and narrow nationalism in South African politics
The question of who belongs in South Africa, stains any project that aims to build a more equal and inclusive society.
A trap nomad finds a home
The Somali artist and DJ, Hibotep, is one of the many pushing electronic hybrid sounds from East Africa through the epicenter of the movement, Kampala.
Getting the story right
13 years after Binyavanga Wainaina’s satirical essay, many “experts” on Africa continue to fail to comprehend the need for African voices in stories about the continent.
Hendrik Witbooi’s Bible
Restitution and the responsibility of addressing Europe’s colonial legacy – in this case Namibia – via artifacts left behind.
The Coloured Gangster
In Cape Town, gangs have come to dominate social and economic life for the city’s mostly coloured working class.
Beyond White Jesus
While many African Christians can only imagine a white Jesus, others have actively promoted a vision of a brown or black Jesus, both in art and in ideology.
General Sisi’s empty seats
Football and neoliberal repression go together in Egypt.
Ghana’s Rastas and the year of return
Ghana’s government likes to advertise its “Year of Return” to welcome members of the African diaspora back to the country, but the first returnees, Ratafarians, are still fighting for their rights.
Salif Keita’s incomparable call
The famed Malian musician celebrates his 70th birthday and 50 years in the industry in 2019.
Jour des morts
Comment le vol de cadavres au Gabon reflète la politique du pays.
Day of the dead
How stealing corpses in Gabon reflects its politics: a political system that does not hesitate to draw its vital force in death, even as death and paralysis threaten the system’s leading beneficiaries.
The problem with post-race comedy
Comics have power, especially over the young, and perhaps more than we care to acknowledge.
The confrontation with France’s slave past
A visit to a museum in a French port city, brings up questions about how slavery is remembered.
The Erasure of Dulcie September
South African activist Dulcie September would have turned 84 today had she not been assassinated in March 1988. The podcast series They Killed Dulcie revisits the murder and her legacy.
Groundings with Walter Rodney
On the 50th anniversary of Walter Rodney’s The Groundings With My Brothers, a small group of scholars on the impacts of Rodney on their intellectual development and political commitments.
Long live Ruth First
The great South African writer and activist, Ruth First, was assassinated by a letter bomb sent by the South African Security Police in Maputo, Mozambique on this day, 17 August, in 1982.
Cake politics
The Rugby Championship, the World Cup, and Springbok politics in South Africa.