What kind of ancestor do you want to become?
Medical anthropologist Julie Livingston argues that the conditions of capitalist modernity in which we live are not sustainable and are leading to increased rather than lessened inequality.
Culture
The imperial legacy in scholarship
What censorship about articles in a French journal tells us about the state of France-Africa relations, imperial legacies and the impact these have on the production of knowledge about Francophone Africa.
Cape Verde’s culture of recalcitrance
The island nation's celebrated political system was never a gift bestowed, but seized through sheer agency and hard-fought autonomy.
Reading John Mbiti from Uganda
The late Mbiti is praised for indigenizing Christianity. However, his veneration of "African" tradition also served as theological justification for authoritarian rule.
The voice of the Republic’s forgotten
The film BACK UP! and important conversations about state violence, racism, global imperialism, and, crucially, the internal workings of social movements.
“Converting Eviction”
A reflection—by one of the group’s artists—on a Swiss-South African art project exploring eviction and extraction.
The reading habits of Ngugi wa Thiong’o
In the wake of yet another Ngugi wa Thiong’o snub by the Nobel Committee, we are at a loss. Perhaps a reconsideration of the author’s body of work can provide insight.
Are you safe? Please stay safe
The statistics and scenes of violence against black immigrants in South Africa are horrible. A young Cameroonian student in South Africa writes about what it is like to live under such insecurity.
The resistance music of the Ugandan people
The pop star turned Member of Parliament, Bobi Wine, is only the latest in a long line of music-as-politics in Uganda.
Multimodal memories
Exile and memory from East Africa to the United Kingdom and back again.
A particular kind of black man
The Nigerian-American writer, Tope Folarin, wrestles with blackness and black immigrant identity in his new novel.
The end of revolutionary radio in South Africa?
Bush Radio, "The Mother of Community Radio in Africa," is in financial trouble. Give them all your money.
The Ship from Cameroon
The fate of Cameroon's women's national football team, like much else in the country, is a reflection of the sorry state of its politics.
The Cuban Atlantic
How socialist Cuba's foreign policy of solidarity with Africans, midwifed a new genre of music on the island.
Precolonial Africa had written traditions
Ajami is the centuries-old practice in West Africa of writing other languages using the modified Arabic script. It is also more widely dispersed than we give it credit for.
The poetic revolution will not be anthologized
Black Women’s poetry has been largely ignored or denigrated in the world of South African letters. They have to do it on their own.
Witchcraft studies
The gendered nature of witchcraft accusations aimed at women who deviate from accepted social norms.
The long short history of post-apartheid South African rugby
The compromises and conciliations of South African rugby mirror the unfinished transition from apartheid racism in the broader society.
The mysterious ways of The Black Jacobins
C.L.R. James' book about the Haitian Revolution, had an impact far beyond the Caribbean.
Are you really Global apartheid?
The writer, a "Global" Somali traveler, reflects on borders, airports, and belonging.