Not an African Christmas
If the image of the starving black child has been deemed obsolete, then so has the Western “we” that claimed so much power for itself in the late 1980s.
6445 Article(s) by:
Sheila Adufutse
Sheila Adufutse is a feminist activist and trained as a project manager.
Styles and Genres
The best films of 2012 with African subjects as their focus: incredibly powerful and moving activist filmmaking that has documented the shifting politics of the continent.
Kuduro’s International Wave
If Os Kuduristas is problematic, there’s no one to blame for its existence but perhaps us, the international community and the media.
Weekend Music Break, N°29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=301NtFqV5SI Here's a resolution for the new year: to feature more Togolese pop. If you don't
Why does the BBC care what FW de Klerk thinks?
It’s 2012 and FW de Klerk still thinks Apartheid had been beneficial to its black victims. Yet global media treats him like an analyst on South African politics.
Social Media in Africa’s Revolutions
How anonymous parties define, construct, and support uprisings in Africa via social media.
François Hollande went to Algeria
Hollande’s visit coincided with a vote in the UN Security Council authorizing ECOWAS intervention in Mali; something Algeria, Mali’s northern neighbor, objected to.
The Trouble with Aid with “The Trouble with Aid”
How the humanitarian movement grew in close relation to the democratization of moving image technologies.
Waiting for Superman
The idea that leadership is the panacea to South Africa’s varied troubles, is asserted as an almost axiomatic truth amongst South Africa’s monotonous punditry.
‘Race jokes’ in South African ads
In South Africa, repackaging dated colonial fears about race and sex are used to sell beer and to win an advertising award for being “different.”
Woman of the Year
Alice Nkom, the brave, activist lawyer, harassed and imprisoned by Cameroon’s repressive regime on the government’s actions: “Threats like these show us that the fight must continue.”
Hip as Nationalist Project
Kuduru as an effort by politically connected Angolan elites to to package a fun and edgy dance born in Angola as soft power.
Redefining “Blackness”
An interview with Nigerian-American artist, Toyin Odutola.
We write what we like about Steve Biko
What does it mean for a dead man to live through us, as we chant his name and claim him?
Friday Bonus Music Break, N°28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5f_KAkAIWI Kuduro pioneer Sebem (fresh out of prison; he was in for repeated traffic violations, from
God, too, takes the train to work
The author, also a photographer, on documenting South Africa’s “train churches.”
Rethinking mental illness
The diagnostic parameters need to be completely overhauled as they embody a Western mode of understanding which itself is culturally bound.
All the immigrants’ crimes in Italy
The online work of Italian rightwing websites to establish the idea that immigrants are dangerous for the Italian society
10 African films to watch out for, N°15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvF-sDfO_wU The Professor is a fiction film by Tunisian director Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud. Synopsis: Tunis 1977.
DJ Al Walser For President
Vice Magazine recently ran an interview with Al Walser, the DJ who nabbed a Grammy nomination for