New dawn or false dawn?
South Africa’s ruling party’s devotion to its policy of cadre deployment is an indication that it values its own power more than the public interest.
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Africa holds up a mirror to India
Shobana Shankar's new book, 'Africa, India and the Spectre of Race' (Hurst/Oxford, 2021) explores this complicated history.
Animating the oral tradition
A new Disney short film series dramatizes traditional African storytelling for the big screen. Does it succeed?
Girl on the internet
Nicknamed the “Candace Owens of South Africa,” Siphesihle Nxokwana is an anti-feminist influencer playing to crowds already on her side.
What does it have to do with Marikana?
The Marikana Massacre changed democratic South Africa forever. It can also catalyze resistance to the current order.
Coming home
In 1991, acclaimed South African artist Helen Sebidi’s artworks were presumed stolen in Sweden. Three decades later, a caretaker at the residential college where they disappeared found them in a ceiling cupboard, still in their original packaging.
An allegiance to abusers
This weekend, Chris Brown will perform two sold-out concerts in South Africa. His relationship to the country reveals the twisted dynamic between a black American artist with a track record of violence and a country happy to receive him.
Nothing left
A much-anticipated “Conference of the Left” was supposed to unite South Africa’s progressive forces. Instead, it confirmed the harder truth: the left doesn’t need unity, it needs rebuilding.
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.
Hopium kills but hope seeds
Reflections on Trump’s 2024 US presidential victory.
Reading List: Nicky Falkof
What happens to the contemporary explosion of moral panics, urban legends, and other paranoid narratives when they manifest in a place like South Africa?
Metal that will bend
Once a beacon of hope for militant trade unionism, Numsa’s descent into corruption and political entanglement reflects the broader struggles facing South Africa’s labor movement.
The class contradictions of scholar activism
The radical politics of the professional middle classes — too often found full of rhetoric, but short on action — are explored in Leo Zeilig’s new novel, The World Turned Upside Down.
Enter the Povo
Mozambique’s disputed elections triggered a deadly uprising, as citizens resisted Frelimo’s rule and exposed the cracks in neoliberal policies.
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 Visa farce
The South African government’s rush to clear visa applications has led to mass rejections, bureaucratic chaos, and an overloaded appeals system — leaving thousands in limbo.
Sam Nujoma: liberation hero, pragmatist and power broker
Namibia’s founding president led the fight for independence with unwavering resolve, but his legacy is complicated by economic compromises and political dominance.
Colonial Vice at the Venice Biennale
At the world’s most prestigious art exhibition, all is not well when it comes to relative newcomers from the African continent.
Pan Africanism under elite capture
Recent celebrity investments in the continent raises the question: Who is it really for?
A crise dos libertadores Africanos
À medida que Moçambique se aproxima dos 50 anos de independência, seu partido no poder se agarra ao poder em meio à turbulência política, eleições contestadas e crescente descontentamento público.