Matchday 1: Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmed Ben Bella, and Muammar Gaddafi
Africa Is a Country is proud to introduce a new podcast focused on the politics and cultural relevance of football on the African continent.
Continental
Economics has an African women problem
The Knowledge Portal of the Nawi Afrifem Macroeconomics Collective is a digital apex platform that collates and curates African women’s knowledge resources on the economy.
When settlers become civilians
The tragedy of settler-colonialism.
Free Palestine
The horrific violence against civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli, are overwhelmingly the product of Israel’s occupation and siege. But we can and must condemn all of it, while steadfastly opposing Israeli apartheid.
The committed cameraman
New films from Mila Turajlić salvages footage from the Yugoslavian news archives to tell a story of non-aligned internationalism against Cold War bipolarity.
The junta belt
What’s fueling the military takeovers sweeping across West and Central Africa?
African digital culture in context
How might a longer view of African art-making affect our understanding of what counts as art, text, and authorship?
The people’s cup
This week on the Africa Is a Country podcast, we discuss the politics and spectacle of African football with Maher Mezahi.
Reading List: Vincent Bevins
The last decade saw the most protests in human history. But how is it that so many uprisings led to the opposite of what they asked for?
Nothing good comes of France
France is not a new problem for Africa. Since the 19th century, its stood in the way of the continent’s self-determination.
A tragic kind of hope
Nigerian and South Sudanese filmmakers give voice to the search for identity, stability, and belonging through the lens of youth and migration.
Action required
Held in Nairobi this month, the inaugural Africa Climate Summit is an important step for the continent’s response to climate change. Still, the disasters in Libya and Morocco underscore that rhetoric and declarations are not enough.
Shifting the guilt
Even though Israeli novelist Agur Schiff’s latest book is meant to be a satirical reflection on the legacy of slavery and stereotypes about Africa, it ends up reinforcing them.
On safari
On our annual publishing break, we’ll be pondering what the responsibility of the African intellectual is today.
Reading List: Luke Sinwell
Once associated with socialism, the language of participation has been co-opted. How was this radical idea depoliticized?
A tale of two reviews
In the 1960s, two African nationalist magazines shared a name—but declassified files reveal that they were on opposite sides of a literary Cold War.
False progress
From 2024, the Grammys will feature an award for Best African Music Performance. Is the category a positive step embracing the global popularity of African music, or another homogenizing exotification?
Africa for Africans
After World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were not only locked in an ideological struggle with each other, but also competed with an anticolonial vision of modernity, an ideology which is still influential today.
The bittersweet pursuit of liberation
Ismay Milford’s new book takes us into the world of anticolonialism, giving us a rich account of the struggles of a cohort of activists from east and central Africa.
Pat Robertson’s Africa
The ultra-conservative American televangelist Pat Robertson has died. As poisonous as his influence on American politics was, Robertson’s legacy in Africa is even more cynical.