Buddha in Africa
A new documentary about China's colonization of Malawi reveals how one colonial hand opens the door for another.
Culture
Lumumba’s iconography in the arts
On anniversary of the birthday of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of an independent Congo, we ask, "What iconography arose around him, and why is that iconography so diverse?"
An ambivalent sense of belonging
Janet McIntosh's fascinating book, Unsettled: Denial and Belonging Among White Kenyans, forces an interrogation of the past.
Six LGBTQ+ figures from African history
In honor of Pride month, we revisit the past which shows that many Africans were unapologetic about their sexuality and gender non-conformity.
The Two Sudans
During the Cold War, Khartoum was very successful at frustrating solidarity by other Africans for South Sudan's independence struggle.
What does it mean to be African in a post-apartheid academy?
The Nigerian scholar and poet, Harry Garuba, who died in February 2020, was a key figure in African Studies and teaching literature in South Africa.
Reading List: Xavier Livermon
Livermon’s new book explores how South African kwaito artists, Lebo Mathosa and Mandoza, pushed against the boundaries of gender and performance in their music.
This artist doesn’t want to sing for the Kenyan government
Government money, artistic freedom, and integrity in Kenya in the time of COVID-19.
A politics of nuisance
Political activist and award winning photojournalist Boniface Mwangi wants to remake Kenyan politics. A new film charts his journey.
The wife’s tale
First published in 2018, Aida Edemariam’s The Wife’s Tale is an extraordinary book that will help in opening up new narratives about women's histories.
A murder in Congo
What does the decade-old “Congo-case,” involving two Norwegian mercenaries, tell us about residue coloniality in Scandinavia?
Artists help us leap into the unknown
When the usual rules no longer hold, like in a pandemic, we might find inspiration in the collectivities and working principles of artists.
Art and the politicization of African bodies
The painter Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi speaks to Drew Thompson about the evolution of her practice and how she locates herself in contemporary African art.
The roots album that never got made
The “World Music” record industry has a lot to do with what kinds of reggae music we get to hear and consume.
Representing northern Ghana
A hierarchy exists against indigenous film industries in the Ghanaian film industry.
Reading List: Cara Moyer-Duncan
Media scholar Cara Moyer-Duncan wrote a book about postapartheid South Africa. Here she gives her book picks for our #ReadingList series.
The other Afropolitans
What it means to be a man and a feminist.
The brutal beauty of Morocco’s Soccer Ultras
Raja Casablanca's fan clubs are well organized, politically active and occasionally violent.
Saturday mornings
Recreational soccer in New York City offers significant social, cultural, and sometimes economic support for the city's working class African immigrants.
The afterghosts of protest
Jumoke Verissimo’s first novel, A Small Silence, explores the psychic afterlives of protest in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic.