Reading List: Sheila Collins
American civil rights activist George Houser was also active in Africa’s anti-colonial struggle. To write his biography, Sheila Collins widely read 20th century African political history.
Blog
The empire of words
The fiction of Senegalese writer and filmmaker Khady Sylla not only used speech to create worlds and ways of being in the world, but used speech as a world and a character in its own right.
Where everyone can go together
The struggle in Israel-Palestine lacks a sense of inclusivity, like in South Africa, that aims to take over and transform the state into a democracy for all its citizens.
Spirit of a nation
Leila Aboulela’s historical novel of nineteenth century Sudan tells the story of one of Africa’s first successful, anticolonial uprisings.
Pitfalls of the soft life
For black women in particular, the individual pursuit of a soft, consumption-driven life is a fragile approach to securing social justice.
After we wash our hands, what do we do next?
Lest the WHO forget, containing infectious diseases is less about culture than the racist structure of international relations that condemns countries like Haiti to cycles of epidemics.
Chris Hani’s black Marxism
Chris Hani’s legacy is often reduced to debates about his assassination in April 1993, but his significance goes beyond South Africa’s democratic transition.
South Africa’s crisis of representation
South Africa has had formal democracy for 30 years, but more of its citizens are tuned out of the democratic process.
With respect
A new film by French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis uncovers how American jazz giant, Thelonious Monk, was disrespected by French media at the end of his European tour in 1969.
Where are North Africa’s Jews?
A fascinating new graphic novel sets out to describe the effects of Nazi and collaborationist policies on the inhabitants of French-controlled colonies and protectorates of World War Two North Africa.
Dancing the Twist in Bamako
Set in newly independent Mali, 'Dancing the Twist in Bamako' is neither propagandistically praiseful of socialism nor does it present it through a wholly negative lens.
The Africanness of North Africa
As xenophobic attacks and anti-black rhetoric ramp up in North Africa, it is useful to highlight (or remember) the fluid, intertwined histories of the Saharan region.