Irregular boundaries
First class cricket in South Africa, once a white man's preserve, is now technically open to all, but it is a game of money, dazzle, dancing girls and quick results.
Culture
Don’t kill yourself because of suffering
Weekend Music Break, No.104 is just a playlist of ten great songs accompanied by predictably striking visuals from across Africa and its diaspora.
When Ghanaians put their arms around New York City
Today, 30,000 of the 235,000 Ghanaian immigrants to the US call New York City home.
The Legacy of the Algerian Revolution
One of the most enduring legacies of colonialism is the idea that it is impossible to contemplate a future in which the rest of the world does not resemble Europe.
Was Mohandas Gandhi a racist?
Debates about Gandhi represents a deeper crisis about belonging, entitlement and exclusion in postcolonial Africa.
The second life of ‘Daughters of the Dust’
The classic film, first premiered in 1991, is making a comeback. Not least: Beyoncé’s visual album 'Lemonade' borrows liberally from Julie Dash's film. Why is the film so influential?
How to cover Eritrea
Eritrea has expelled all international correspondents and banned local private newspapers since 2001. One consequence is
The uncompromising Zoë Wicomb
Zoë Wicomb's fellow South African, JM Coetzee once wrote: "For years we have been waiting to see what the literature of post-apartheid South Africa will look like. Now Zoe Wicomb delivers the goods."
How do we talk about rebel groups?
Seeking to interrogate unhelpful media (and official) narratives that permeate everyday discourse and obscure the truth about these terrorist organizations is important.
A sympathetic critique of Thomas Sankara
The judgment that Sankara was a hero rests in part on what was politically possible in Burkina Faso in the early 1980s.
Art in dark times
Interview with historian Dan Magaziner about his new book, The Art of Life in South Africa, about one of the few art schools training black art teachers under Apartheid.
Africa’s First Lady
Winnie was everything Africans - and African women in particular - were not supposed to be.
Cape Town’s art fair
Art players and enthusiasts from around the world and down the street will coalesce at the
International Criminal Court politricks
Reigniting an important debate on the entanglements between the production of justice and the fragility of continental legal mechanisms.
Pan-Africanism was Peter Abrahams’ Country
Peter Abrahams lived pan-Africanism (in South Africa, Britain and Jamaica) and remained brave enough to challenge those within it.
Weekend Music Break No.105 – Songs from banned countries: Somalia edition
For this weekend’s music break, we’ll have a second edition of “Songs from banned countries.” This
By the light of the arrivals gate
Guinea's electricity crisis is a metaphor for the country's postcolonial maladies
Weekend Music Break No.104 – Songs from banned countries: Sudan edition
We’re returning to the older format of Weekend Music Break (a series of embeds rather than
Crime in South Africa
Two books tell complex and illuminating stories of how crime and corruption play out at the street level in the country's cities.
Power against Power in Ghana
Art – especially music – occupies a double-edged place in Ghanaian history in its relation to power.