The Importance of Reading ‘Khwezi’
The Jacob Zuma years were especially damaging for re-introducing South Africans to political leaders who did not fear shame.
Culture
Discourse on colonialism
Today marks ten years since Aimé Césaire's death. What would he have thought about the state of the former French colonies today?
No more caricatures
Engaging seriously with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s life could help us understand how South Africa got where it is and where it’s going.
Sounds of wisdom
The Sauti za Busara festival in Zanzibar aims to show that music is much more than a collection of tunes.
The double consciousness of Paul Gilroy
2018 marks 25 years since the publication of Gilroy’s seminal work, The Black Atlantic.
Unthinking refugee studies
What use are academic categories when they reinforce conservative concepts scholars seek to challenge?
What is Uber up to in Africa?
Uber’s usual tricks -- to provoke price wars in an attempt to increase their share of markets, evade taxes, and undermine workers’ rights -- are alive and well in Africa.
The boundaries of the Global African Diaspora
New York City's Caribbean Cultural Center seeks to “document and present the creative genius of African Diaspora cultures.”
Wokeness and the professional outrage machine
Social media group-think derails any chance for a progressive political movement.
Black in Berlin
Living in the city that hosted the 1884 conference where Western powers divided up Africa for themselves
Nollywood 3.0
Dare Olaitan’s film Ojukokoro gets some room to breathe in New York, after being stifled at the box office in Lagos.
Nipsey’s immigrant hustle
Eritrean-American rapper Nipsey Hussle mix of immigrant and street hustle.
David Goldblatt at the Centre Georges Pompidou
The South African photographer has a complicated place within his country's photographic culture.
Wakanda’s feminist scorecard
How the celebrated film Black Panther stacks up in its depiction of decolonized African feminism.
Love and life on the flipside of Dar es Salaam
It is nice to see two female leads in an African film that are not doing hair, casting some sort of ju-ju curse or throwing vases at cheating husbands.
Tanzania, Black Power, and the uncertain future of Pan-Africanism
Why did Tanzania and Julius Nyerere become touchstones for Pan Africanism in the 1960s and 1970s?
What kind of city is an African architecture for?
Despite a chronic housing and land shortage, Liberia's capital has not seen militant urban social movements.
Drake’s Plan
The plot of Drake's music video for "God's Plan" is him giving him out money to the poor. What was he trying to say?
Keorapetse Kgositsile was a feminist
How Kgositsile ensured he never expressed himself like a white man.
No noose or barbed wire is thick enough to hide the sun
Solomon Mahlangu was a famed liberation fighter in South Africa hanged by Apartheid in 1979. His legacy is the subject of a new film.