Homophobia in Senegal
While there is no Wolof word for “lesbian,” there are multiple words for the practice of a woman having sex with a woman, or a man having sex with a man.
Culture
Musician Umlilo pushes gender boundaries in South Africa
Artists in South Africa continue to push the boundaries of gender norms in popular media. In
What it means to be Winnie Mandela
Since she has never really spoken about her feelings on the breakdown of her marriage to Nelson Mandela, except to very close friends, we are obliged to speculate.
Political Theater
Robert Mugabe and how how quickly style and showmanship can sweep away an audience, even when the underlying message promotes violence and jingoistic triumphalism.
Elisofon’s Africa
The photographer, Elliot Elisofon's 'choice' of what to see and how was embedded in a visual colonial archive. It was never a unique choice.
The most important public intellectual of the last 50 years
In gratitude to Stuart Hall, a socialist intellectual who taught us to confront the political with a smile.
The #BullshitFiles: Tsunami and the Single Girl — One Woman’s Journey to Become an Aid Worker and Find Love
Every side-eye, cringe, SMH and WTF in the world has gathered for a family reunion in
British-Nigerian Me?
The issues faced by people of dual heritage who are torn between two different cultures and are confused about their identity.
The first Kenyan mockumentary about NGO’s
"The Samaritans" explores the absurdities of the NGO world. The main characters work for "Aid for Aid," a fictitious NGO that “does nothing.”
Give that man a Bells
There’s a commercial for Bell’s, a popular South African whisky (“Give that man a Bells”), that
Just don’t do it
Saying that blackface is an American thing (everyone now uses this excuse) and therefore not a problem anywhere else, makes you look dumb.
John Akomfrah, Stuart Hall and the Film Essay
Akomfrah's films gives voice to the legacy of the African diaspora in Europe, and his experimental approach to narrative and structure helped pave the way for the re-emergence of the "essay film" today.
The ‘Born Free Generation’
The Fader (yes, they’re still around) has been putting up a series of posts from Johannesburg
The Question of International Aid
How a documentary about a radio station provides a window into aid policy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The closest thing to real life
The documentary film. “Zoran and his African Tigers,” shows how harsh and unforgiving international football can be.
A level of decadence
Muntu Vilakazi photographs the 'Politics of Bling' on Johannesburg's East Rand.
Ponte City
The 54-storey building in Johannesburg, built in the 1970s, is the tallest residential building on the continent, and subject of a new photobook.
To be an artist in Egypt right now
An Egyptian theater company puts on Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in colloquial Arabic. The choice was no error.
New Photography Book Depicts the South African Social Landscape
Between 2012 and 2013, an exercise took place known as the France South Africa Season. This
The Rediscovery of William Onyeabor
The continued relevance or irrelevance of a musical figure to an African audience doesn't factor into that figure's "rediscovery" outside the continent.