Nollywood’s political struggle
How has Nigeria’s film industry responded to the protests of #EndSARS?
Culture
Our distance from dirt
Can we move from temporary shame about our endless consumption of unethically sourced jewels and smartphones to concrete action?
A hug that listens
Angolans have made themselves in and out of Angola, in conversation with the world; they carry with them the deep look of permanent uncertainty. But also take with them the smile of resistance.
Um abraço em escuta
Ekwa Msangi, realizadora Tanzaniana-Americana, mostra a história de muitos imigrantes com a experiência de uma família angolana de imigração.
The Real Housewives of Nollywood
Nigerian cinema is obsessed with films about the wealthy. Can class politics shine through?
Angola’s veterans
Recent changes affect the daily lives of ex-combatants and other soldiers who struggle to reintegrate into society a decade after the end of the war.
Gramsci in the postcolony
How useful is Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony in making sense of 20th century Egyptian politics?
What comes after art repatriation
We all want to see Africa's heritage repatriated to the continent. But what happens after it returns?
Freetown’s musical soup
The first episode of the new season of Africa Is a Country Radio, our monthly music show, focuses on the port city of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Listen on Worldwide FM and follow us on Mixcloud.
Christianity and the alienation of Africans
At a time when Evangelical Christianity frequently goes against the interests of African people, is it time for us to re-make Christianity?
COVID-19 and cultural rites
In a Kenya coping with COVID-19 restrictions, circumcision season presents an impossible choice between tradition and civil obedience.
Tupac is alive in Africa
Young Africans are breathing life into Tupac’s memory, channeling his image and his music to be heard and seen in social spaces where they feel neither audible nor visible.
History class
What might Black Lives Matter learn from Africanist scholars who have studied inequality outside the US, especially in Africa?
Academic reparation and stepping aside
Reflections from a former President of the African Studies Association (ASA), the largest African Studies association globally, on the future of the discipline.
The hip hop president?
Hip hop and the Black political mainstream more broadly, continues to have hope in the promises of American capitalism.
Achille Mbembe’s decolonization
Mbembe’s work serves as a guide to understand our fragmented global present and the urgent matter of charting ways out of our shared dark night.
Slam democracy
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a rigid educational system, largely unchanged from the colonial era. Slam artists and activists are working to open it up to alternative spaces of expression.
Looking disenchantment in the face
The history of Africa involves navigating utopian visions and brutal realities as the recent work of Egyptian filmmaker Tamer el-Said's and before that, Ayi Kwei Armah show.