Lagos gone to seed
The Nigerian drama 'Òlòtūré,' about sex work and sex trafficking in the country’s commercial capital, which premiered on Netflix, is mostly uncomfortable. And not in a good way.
Culture
The politics of influence
Influence exhilarates. It also makes people nervous. Writers, artists, scholars, researchers—we all seem to want to be “influential.” Less often do we want to admit to being “influenced.”
Where are the flowers for Gilbert?
The drummer Gilbert Matthews was a visionary of South African jazz. The silences on his passing from official quarters are discordant.
Good influence
It is unfair to expect coherent politics from Naira Marley or his fans, the Marlians. We should, instead, chastise the Nigerian state for stifling its people and keeping its young perpetually waiting.
We are all Sudanese
A new film explores the perspectives of Sudanese-American artists navigating their relationships and responsibilities to the revolution back home.
A city on a hill
The viral sensation “Jerusalema” and its dance challenge reveals a deeper longing and desire to re-imagine the world.
How we normalize racialism
In the first part of a two-part post, the author challenges conventional progressive approaches to “race,” finding them to be untenable with non-racialism.
The Black Bill Gates
Beyonce offered me escapism in my childhood. But now I see the contradictions and shortcomings in her claimed radicalness.
The most wanted man
The legend of Nelson Mandela was built years before his lengthy jail sentence catapulted him to global fame.
Precarious Somali boyhoods
Somali-Canadian writers lay bare the harsh realities of being Black, migrant and Muslim in multicultural and ostensibly tolerant Toronto.
The university of patriarchy
Tanzanian universities are beginning to tackle “sextortion.” Will new policies and attention to sexual harassment on campuses make a difference?
Frozen in time
How African literature is taught reveals a depressing lack of knowledge concerning North African writers and their works.
A rare cinematic portrait of queer women’s intimacy in Nigeria
The new short film "Ifé" is a moving story about the delights and difficulties of human relationships.
The Cold War’s unfinished legacy
Journalist Vincent Bevins’ new book, The Jakarta Method, shows that some of the 20th century’s ugliest episodes are still unfolding.
The linguistic famine
The burial of African languages by Africans themselves has ensured our total immersion into colonial culture.
Beyond African royalty
Beyoncé, 'The Lion King,' 'Coming to America,' and the complicated politics of African representation in Black American cultural production.
How to curate a pandemic
Three prominent curators on how they are (re-)situating their respective curatorial practices in relation to the political moment.
The pitfalls of African consciousness
It took time to digest Beyonce's Black Is King. Conclusion: it fails to deliver us. Instead, it's just another capitalist construction of the world.
How not to write about the Rwandan genocide
How Rwandan history is told—and who does the telling—is important as it determines who is able to participate in conversations about the past.