How not to write about Africa: Use “African Spring”
The “Arab Spring” has become our reference point for revolutions in this digital age, including in Africa south of the Sahara. It's ahistorical.
Search Result(s) for: “”
Constant Messiah
Singer Kaneng Lolang is a cosmopolitan currently living in Ouagadougou. She’s spent quality time in Siberia and Brooklyn, but her roots are in Nigeria, Lagos, specifically
Africa Cartoons
A digital archive featuring the work of over 180 cartoonists from throughout the African continent.
Is it a good idea to use blackface to shame racism?
The Dutch filmmaker Sunny Bergman put on blackface to fight the racist caricature Zwarte Piet.
The photographer Paul Strand’s Portraits of 1960s Ghana
With Kwame Nkrumah's support, Strand’s last major photographic project was of Ghana over three months between 1963 and 1964.
Have we learned nothing?
Representing Africans as helpless and without dignity while showing ourselves as knowledgeable problem-solvers is the problem and not part of the solution.
Football between above and below
In "Futebol Nation," British journalist David Goldblatt explores the social and political history of Brazilian football.
Giving politicians a lyrical trashing
As far as rap group Keur Gui are concerned, nothing has changed in Senegal.
Belgium’s blackface problem
Racism in Belgium is endemic, and not taken seriously. Few people talk about it and even fewer are listening.
Kenya gets an Art Fair
Kenyan artists have to grapple with a number of challenges, including how to use digital platforms to promote and sell art at a fair price.
Soweto Punk Revolution
A punk festival comes close to what one would imagine the DIY-embracing, eccentricity-accepting and obedience-ignoring CBGB’s of the ‘70s to have been like.
Nelson Mandela founded a beauty contest
Weekend Special is basically highlights of the stuff we shared via social media, i.e. Twitter and Facebook. We fell off but feel it's the right time to do it more regularly.
The limits of the idea of “alternative Africas”
How much energy should we invest in counterfactuals like: What if a diminished Europe, devastated by a plague, did not produce colonial powers, how might Africa’s history have unfolded?
Fifty Four Kingdoms
The apparel and accessory company, 54 Kingdoms, makes fashion with "a pan-Africanist sensibility." They thought the African Cup of Nations is a good place to start.