Gazing at a distance
Two exhibits at the same museum: one seeking to deconstruct the white Western gaze, the other perpetuating it.
Culture
Blood dripping from his head
A painful, violent story of migration captured in the song "Lagos" - for our series "Liner Notes," in which musicians talk about making music.
Freedom, youth and remembrance
In the documentary "Remembered Futures" the filmmakers interrogate the ways South Africans understand their own history and how this affects their futures.
Badvertising and the Soweto Uprising
The worst crime of a new ad "celebrating" the martyrs of 1976 is the message does not accord with the realities of young black South Africans.
No exoticism, no promos, just the music
The Hipsters Don’t Dance "Top World Carnival Tunes" for May 2015.
Swaziland’s Bushfire
The Southern African country, Swaziland, is an absolute monarchy characterized by widespread oppression. It also hosts the Bushfire Music Festival.
Rhodes Must Fall in the West too
The Rhodes Must Fall movement is starting a much-needed conversation about the institutional roots of racism at universities in the West. Hopefully that conversation will lead to solutions.
Decolonizing the University
What to do with the universities South Africa inherited from the violences of Apartheid.
Was the German composer Beethoven, African?
There's even an album to advance this argument: "Beethoven Was African: Polyrhythmic Piano Sonatas."
The War Story We Need Right Now
The book, 'Guantanamo Diary' is an exception about America's 'War on Terror': an account of torture and terror by one its victims.
The Afro-Anarchist’s Guide to Kendrick Lamar
On "To Pimp a Butterfly," is Kendrick being ironic when he wonders "How Much a Dollar Cost"?