• Matthias De Groof

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?"

• Zahra Moloo

Janet McIntosh's fascinating book, Unsettled: Denial and Belonging Among White Kenyans, forces an interrogation of the past.

• Ethel-Ruth Tawe

In honor of Pride month, we revisit the past which shows that many Africans were unapologetic about their sexuality and gender non-conformity.

• Zachary Mondesire

During the Cold War, Khartoum was very successful at frustrating solidarity by other Africans for South Sudan's independence struggle.

• Tammy Wilks
• Doseline Kiguru

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.

• 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.

• Mwongela Kamencu

Government money, artistic freedom, and integrity in Kenya in the time of COVID-19.

• Julie MacArthur

Political activist and award winning photojournalist Boniface Mwangi wants to remake Kenyan politics. A new film charts his journey.

• Elizabeth W. Giorgis

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.

• Marta Tveit

What does the decade-old “Congo-case,” involving two Norwegian mercenaries, tell us about residue coloniality in Scandinavia?

• Kim Gurney

When the usual rules no longer hold, like in a pandemic, we might find inspiration in the collectivities and working principles of artists.

• Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi

The painter Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi speaks to Drew Thompson about the evolution of her practice and how she locates herself in contemporary African art.

• D.S. Battistoli

The “World Music” record industry has a lot to do with what kinds of reggae music we get to hear and consume.

• Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed

A hierarchy exists against indigenous film industries in the Ghanaian film industry.

• 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.

• Mohamadou Mbougar Sarr

What it means to be a man and a feminist.

• Austin Corona

Raja Casablanca's fan clubs are well organized, politically active and occasionally violent.

• Michael de Vulpillieres

Recreational soccer in New York City offers significant social, cultural, and sometimes economic support for the city's working class African immigrants.

• Vivian Chenxue Lu

Jumoke Verissimo’s first novel, A Small Silence, explores the psychic afterlives of protest in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic.

• Tania Adam

Paranoia is my friend since, as Achille Mbembe says, “the pandemic democratizes the power to kill; now we all have the power to kill.”