Memory of the Present
Dominant culture in South Africa benignly recall slavery as part of a vaguely picturesque past that left us with beautiful colonial houses, award-winning wines and tourism.
Culture
If Africa is a country, then Fidel Castro is one of our national heroes
On 25 November 2016, Fidel Castro passed away. To many Africans Fidel was a hero, playing a central role in their liberation from colonialism.
The Nigerians are coming
Nigerian cinema is finally being embraced outside Nollywood for its diversity and capacity to adapt to dramatic technological and infrastructural shifts.
Don’t call me Toubab
"White person!," people passing by shout, smiling and waving at me. I am black. I am African. I am Rwandan."
Crisis and the meaning of money in Zimbabwe
All sorts of countercultural, even radical signifiers have been ransacked of their meaning in Zimbabwe.
Modern Muslims in Sudan
In his memoir, the sociologist Steve Howard writes about experiencing Ramadan in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
Trump’s America
What does it say about a country that could elect such an unsavory character?
Feet & Cars
Growing up in 1980s Congo-Brazzaville there wasn’t a lot of technology going around. Computer games, cellphones
Weekend Music Break No.100
Music Break number 100 is here!!! Let’s celebrate the occasion with a playlist of classic African
Congo as Poverty Porn
What can we do for 'the worst place in the world'? Surely this play in London, is not the thing.
Not standing on the sidelines anymore
A number of recently made, small budget films are doing the festival rounds. They give great insight into African women as actors, characters and filmmakers.
‘This is Lara Pawson reporting for the BBC …’
The first cigarette I smoked was a Marlboro. I was twenty-one. I didn’t feel sick and
Colonial Sahara
The constant struggle of the Sahrawi to assert their identity in the face of a permanent occupation by Morocco.
Uptown griots
Malians started arriving in New York City in the 1980s, numbering about 8,000 now. They also brought their music.
No Victims and No Culprits
Congo needs fewer metanarratives from the West and more of Radio Tele Manika.
Ousmane Sembene invented a new cinema for Africa
An interview with Samba Gadjigo, the late Ousmane Sembene’s longtime friend and official biographer about the resurgence of Sembene’s work.
Apparently, I love Africa. I’ve been told this by people who hardly know me.
In 2003, I was among the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, who marched through London to
Shutdown — on the death of compromise in South Africa
We are in a new phase, one that is characterised by a rejection of compromise as a tactic for managing democratic intercourse.
Black African immigrants, race and police brutality in America
Most poor African immigrants to the US can't pull the “get out of black”-card when confronted with racism, something middle class Africans can pull.
Transnational eugenics
Few works sufficiently recognize the truly transnational character of the eugenics movement, and how colonial Africa served as the launching pad for it.