What is the World Cup for?
The World Cup was born from imperial rivalry and nationalist aspiration. Almost a century later, it still oscillates between mass hope and elite spectacle.
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Reading List: Hugo ka Canham
On the publication of his book on black life on the margins, the South African author reflects on work that expand the meaning of being black on the world.
Milk in the Upington sun
Fear of the future, longing for the past: the new story in South African politics.
Dreams of highfalutin philosophies
If an author writes with empathy, precision and authenticity about experiences foreign to their own, they're a good writer and not a cultural appropriator.
Outside the field of African art
Asking whether white people should curate African art anymore, may be outdated. Instead we should ask: what is African art now and does the category matter anymore?
Editing pan-Africanism
Many know Frene Ginwala, the iconic anti-apartheid activist, as democratic South Africa’s first speaker of parliament. But few know of her time building pan-African media in Dar Es Salaam.
Sudan’s lying witches
Since 2019, two separate political processes developed simultaneously in Sudan: one at the state level and the other at the grassroots. Today’s war originates in the predominance of the former over the latter.
Projecting radicalism
Noni Jabavu was one of South Africa’s most trailblazing writers. Her commitment to elite ambivalence makes it difficult to hail her as a black feminist icon.
Divided loyalties
Somalia’s political landscape is increasingly fragmented due to regional and clan differences. Is this the end of the centralized state and a unified, national identity?
The repression of Palestine solidarity in Kenya
Kenya is one of Israel’s closest allies in Africa. But the Ruto-led government isn’t alone in silencing pro-Palestinian speech.
Henry Kissinger’s Angola
In 1975, seeing how a communist victory in Angola’s civil war would boost the morale of Vietnamese freedom fighters, Henry Kissinger wanted to plan a covert operation against the MPLA.
Punching above its weight
South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel is the latest example of its ability to act as a normative superpower, exceeding even the great powers in shaping global moral discourse.
Confront the principle, not episode
It is no surprise that even today, Europe only feels guilt about the episode of the Holocaust and not the principle of genocide which made it possible.
Neither anthem will do
Nigerians should reject both a song that conjures colonial memories and a tune that evokes years of military rule.
What to do about the South African economy?
Some progressive economists argue that a bigger budget deficit is the solution to the country’s socio-economic woes. But it isn’t that straightforward.
Rooting for everybody black
The Olympics, with its provocative patriotism, are the perfect forum for using a broader diasporic focus to push back against hypernationalism.
Resisting the new green colonialism
A proposed green hydrogen project in Tunisia prioritizes European energy needs over local sovereignty.
Speaking poetry to power
Amid the turmoil of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon, a unique group of individuals has emerged as powerful agents of change.
Who are the Olympics for?
Beneath the image of togetherness, the world’s biggest athletic spectacle is still beset by discrimination and exclusion.
The beautiful game’s ugly secret
The #MeToo movement exposed abuses across industries, yet men’s football remains resistant to accountability, protecting predators and sidelining survivors.