There are no bees in Dakar
Dedicated to the memory of the writer’s friend: the rebel and genius, Binyavanga Wainaina.
Ancestors
Our man of the people
Binyavanga Wainaina was a writer who not only produced seminal work, but also contributed to and shaped the African literary tradition into what it is today.
The Joe Miller model
Remembering Joe Miller, a historian of eastern Angola and central Africa, who died at 79 on 12 March 2019.
An African film manifesto, forty years later
Med Hondo (1936-2019) was Morgan Freeman and Eddie Murphy in French. His first film premiered at Cannes in 1970. And in 1979 he wrote a manifesto: “What is the cinema for us?”
Bisi Silva: Time Remembered
Bisi Silva's constant movement was a form of unlearning; in her awareness of artists and cultural production on the African continent.
Mahmood Mamdani on Marxist intellectual Samir Amin
Samir Amin's life resembled that of Karl Marx: a man without a homeland, but one whose home was a chosen commitment to a historical project.
Eddison Zvobgo and the struggle for Zimbabwe
Eddison Zvobgo was both implicated in and a critic of Mugabe's rule. He paid for it. His niece remembers him.
The core of Samir Amin’s politics
The Egyptian Marxist Samir Amin's contributions to historical social science—and revolutionary theory—span an almost mind-boggling breadth.
A tribute to Ron Dellums, radical
Former US Congressman and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, who passed away recently, played a leading role in the global fight against South African Apartheid in the 1980s.
A cinema of dissent
Burkinabe filmmaker Idrissa Ouédraogo was a singular talent in African cinema. His films championed marginalized people and cultures.
A wild fig grows in Rowan Street
Professor Sampie Terreblanche, who passed away at 84 on February 17, 2018, was one of South Africa's foremost political economists.
Hugh Masekela’s musical modernism
Masekela wanted to craft a sound that avoided “world music” caricature while not simply mimicking the American Bebop he was so enamored of.
A man of the Namibian people
Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, who died at 92 on 9 June 2017, was one of the founders of Namibia's modern liberation movement that led the fight for political independence.
The great opus of “Small Bobby”
Ranjith Kally (1925-2017), a legendary photographer, documented South African Indian life in famed magazine Drum.
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.
The Greatest Of All Time
The author, also named Muhammad, on what having a black hero meant during his childhood in Apartheid South Africa.
Malick Sidibé: Directing Light
Amy Sall (Sunu Journal), Candace Keller (Michigan State), Drew Thompson (Bard), curator Thato Mogotsi and Cherif Keita, reflect on Malick Sidibé's impact.
Maestro Sidibé
The author, also a photographer, writes about receiving the sad news that Malick Sidibé, the Malian master photographer, has died, at the age of 80.
The Radical Historian
Martin Legassick (1940-2016) was key to revisionist tradition among South African historians that made connections between apartheid and post-war capitalism.
In honor of Rose Lomathinda Chibambo
A prominent leader in the fight against British colonialism and the first woman cabinet minister in independent Malawi.