The complex history of skin lighteners
The intersecting dynamics of class and gender, changing beauty ideals, and the expansion of consumer capitalism in Africa.
capitalism
Kenya’s prison industrial complex
The fundamental flaws in President Uhuru Kenyatta's plan to make jails profitable.
The new normal
Reflections from New Orleans, Louisiana — the US's most African city — on the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Out of sight
In South Africa, social distancing to bring down COVID-19 infections takes a decidedly local shape. In a racialized society, it manifests primarily as white melancholia and black Afro-pessimism.
The necropolitics of COVID-19
COVID-19 isn’t simply a medical or epidemiological crisis; it is a crisis of sovereignty.
Is Heineken brewing a better Africa?
Multinational corporations are considered motors for development in Africa and the Dutch beer giant Heineken is often cited as one of the best examples. The reality is different and distressing.
A worthy ancestor
The world is out of joint and Immanuel Wallerstein, one of its great public intellectuals, has left us — albeit with tools to battle the dying kicks of capitalism.
The Kenyan Hunger Games
Philanthropy and celebrities are not enough to remedy the inequalities that persist in Kenya.
‘We are now treated the same as men. We have exactly the same rights’
How women farm workers in North Africa, specifically Morocco, are achieving justice on the job.
Can a hamburger free a people?
Duane Jethro goes to South African fast food chain, Chicken Licken, to eat a Big John Burger, and finds out the postcolonial feelings it inspires.
Ethiopia’s capitalist turn
In a break with previous administrations, Ethiopia's new Prime Minister has declared that he favors free market capitalism as his preferred economic model.
The ‘New’ Neoliberal Uganda
Challenging the success narrative that masks the disruptive social impact of neoliberal transformation under General Yoweri Museveni in Uganda.
Why western donors love authoritarian leaders
In recent years, Rwanda and Ethiopia have been some of the largest recipients of aid money from the UK and US governments, as well as some of the West's leading philanthropies, including the Gates Foundation.
The silences about capitalism in Africa
Many African countries are by now capitalist societies and analytically need to be treated as such when we talk about or study them.
Nelson Mandela and US imperialism
In his writings and speeches, Nelson Mandela exposed the links between American power, capitalism and racism.
Aliko Dangote needs the Nigerian state to thrive
Despite what Dangote wants us to believes about the magical power of entrepreneurship, his business savvy alone is not why he made it.
Is South African trade unionism at a turning point?
Does the gradual increase in the number of strikes indicate that a new wave of offensive strikes has begun? Or is it just a short-lived revival among a depressing long wave of defensive strikes?
The market decides if we are free
Ghanaian political-economic actors are limited in their ability to change conditions because of massive debt and the influence of investors and loan-makers.
Do informal workers’ lives matter?
What is the death of a pregnant informal fish seller in Dakar to the suffering of sweatshop workers in Bangladesh or refugees at the borders of Europe?
The Extreme Makeover of Patri$e Mot$epe
Motsepe was named South Africa’s first black dollar billionaire by Forbes Magazine.