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.
Continental
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.
Reading List: Adam Hanieh
Materially speaking, oil is simply a sticky, black goo. It doesn’t have any innate power separate from the kind of society we live in—capitalism.
Bored of suppression
Colonial-era censorship bodies continue to stifle African creativity, but a new wave of artists and activists are driving a pan-African push for reform.
Russian and waiting
Western missteps in Africa are creating an opening for Russia to deepen its influence.
Reading the present as history
In his debut novel, Thaer Husien remixes genre and takes readers on a psychedelic ride through a dystopian yet disturbingly familiar future Palestine.
Why are African artifacts everywhere but Africa?
The countless African artifacts that continue to be held in Western institutions after being obtained illegally send a violent message that makes efforts toward reconciliation inconsequential.
Liberation is not propaganda
At Africa Energy Week, the language of resource sovereignty disguised a new form of climate denial that appropriates progressive rhetoric in service of fossil fuel companies.
When you get under Antony Blinken’s skin
On the deplatforming of 'African Stream.'
Femicide is rising, but where’s the outrage?
While feminist movements have made significant strides in naming, recognizing, and advocating against femicide, the rest of the world appears disturbingly indifferent.
Writers for a new world
The debacle around Ta-Nehisi Coates' latest book shows us that no matter a writer's individual acclaim, the liberal media establishment will never tolerate anything that fundamentally challenges its racist edifice.
African contradictions in the world of science
African contributions to the globalized world cannot be celebrated while the place occupied by African peoples remains on the periphery.