Afropolitans and the fantasy of a digital nation
Web3 utopians promised a sovereign future for the African diaspora—but what they delivered was a networking club for elites, wrapped in crypto-libertarian hype and Afro-futurist aesthetics.
Continental
The other route to the American dream
With Europe increasingly closed, West African migrants are turning to the US—via Latin America. But the journey is long, dangerous, and brutally expensive, raising urgent questions about global responsibility.
Sanctions as civilizational warfare
Framed as hard diplomacy, economic sanctions are a subtler form of warfare—one that erodes sovereignty, punishes civilians, and extends colonial power under a new name.
Pan Africanism under elite capture
Recent celebrity investments in the continent raises the question: Who is it really for?
As aid ends, empire endures
Western donors are cutting budgets, but the aid model they built—rooted in control, dependency, and depoliticization—still shapes Africa’s development.
The un-African mechanisms of queer repression
Anti-queer laws in Africa are often framed as cultural defense—but their roots lie in colonial legacies, religious nationalism, and global reactionary alliances.
Africa and the AI race
At summits and in speeches, African leaders promise to harness AI for development. But without investment in power, connectivity, and people, the continent risks replaying old failures in new code.
Will the future of food be genome edited?
What will we eat in the future—and who gets to decide? From lab-grown meat to agroecology, the politics of food in Africa are being shaped by tech dreams, corporate agendas, and grassroots resistance.
Tariffs, Trump, and the Global South
Trump’s trade war is framed as a battle with China—but its fallout is exposing just how little power African economies have in a rigged global system.
The cost of care
In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?
African music festivals and the politics of reclamation
Across the continent, music festivals are challenging industry gatekeepers and testing what it means to organize on African terms.
Why I’m done talking to straight people about homophobia
Homophobia doesn’t start with violence—it begins with silence, erasure, and everyday destruction. But straight people only seem to notice when it’s too late.
FIFA’s double standards
While FIFA swiftly banned Russia from competition, it continues to delay action on Israel—revealing the politics behind football’s so-called neutrality.
Macron needs to shut up more
France’s president can’t stop talking, but his condescending remarks on Africa are only accelerating the collapse of French influence on the continent.
Is AFCON a major tournament?
AFCON doesn’t need European validation to be major—it already is. But the real danger lies in how dismissive narratives shape the value of African football and its players.
The gig economy’s false promise
Touted as a path to empowerment, Africa’s gig economy is a digital twist on old patterns of labor exploitation—but workers are fighting back.
The wrong way to end aid
The humanitarian industrial complex should be dismantled—but not by a billionaire-backed administration with no plan beyond abandonment.
The worst thing to happen to football
Gianni Infantino isn’t just another corrupt FIFA president—his greed, self-importance, and political alliances are actively ruining football.
Requiem for a revolution
A sweeping, jazz-scored exploration of Cold War intrigue and African liberation, Johan Gimonprez’s 'Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat' lays bare the cultural and political battlegrounds where empires, artists, and freedom fighters clashed.
The memefication of politics
On our year-end publishing break, we reflect on how 2024’s contradictions reveal a fractured world grappling with inequality, digital activism, and the blurred lines between action and spectacle.