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.
Culture
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.
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.
Policing black women’s hair
The policing of black hair often begins at a very young age, in the most subtle and intimate spaces, long before you get to school.
What’s a national anthem got to do with anything?
Next time 'Die Stem' part of the South African anthem plays, the appropriate reaction is to sit down or take a knee.
Beyond the usual South African reporting on “Africa”
Journalism on and about the continent tends to veer between the extremes of neglect or stereotype on the one end, and touristic exoticism on the other.
The African Summer Olympics
The highlights of the 2016 Rio Olympics, including why Kenyan athletes were not wearing matching outfits at the opening ceremony.
Still doing the right thing
It is eerie (and tragic) how relevant the themes of racial tension and structural violence of Spike Lee's 'Do the right thing' still is — both in America and South Africa.
The Freetown Sound Edition
Blood Orange and Sampha are two London-raised artists with Sierra Leonean roots, currently making waves on both sides of the Atlantic.