The specter of neocolonialism
Francophonie has served to obscure the harms caused by neocolonial projects in Africa, projects that are themselves a reflection of the racism within France’s borders.
colonialism
After the monuments have been removed
Senegalese writer Mbougar Sarr on how we are actually informed about symbols we want to bring down, and about those we wish to commemorate.
The mark of the former colonizer
What explains this reluctance to discuss the permanence of symbols honoring slave traders and colonialists in the public spaces in both France and its former colonies?
Law and disorder
France’s history of violence policing left a legacy of law and disorder, targeting dissidents, in its former colonies.
A plagued history of Kampala
The parallels between COVID-19 and the 1910s in Kampala, when the colonial regime used a series of plagues to cut Ugandans out of the capital city.
Buddha in Africa
A new documentary about China's colonization of Malawi reveals how one colonial hand opens the door for another.
An ambivalent sense of belonging
Janet McIntosh's fascinating book, Unsettled: Denial and Belonging Among White Kenyans, forces an interrogation of the past.
A murder in Congo
What does the decade-old “Congo-case,” involving two Norwegian mercenaries, tell us about residue coloniality in Scandinavia?
Homeless in the city
The periodic evictions of poor families in Nairobi follows in a long tradition in Kenya, dating to colonialism, to keep the city as a space for the elite.
Transnational African feminisms
What roles have francophone African women played in movements for pan-African liberation, historically and now?
The complex history of skin lighteners
The intersecting dynamics of class and gender, changing beauty ideals, and the expansion of consumer capitalism in Africa.
Corona, how are you?
COVID-19 spreads from Europe to Africa, inverting colonial imaginaries of African disease and challenging inherited hierarchies.
Food is power
The World Food Program says COVID-19 will bring about a famine of biblical proportions, so it is a good time to revisit why food has never just been about the simple act of eating. Food is history. Food is identity.
A storm is coming
A post-colonial visual meditation on archive, memory, and colonial violence.
The mysterious death of a UN Secretary-General
Revisiting the events that led to the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld, a key UN official in the decolonization of Africa during the Cold War.
Should sleeping giants lie?
Colonial land grievances and the politics of redistribution in contemporary Kenya.
Will the colonized ever speak?
New French film on decolonization in Africa and Asia incapable of avoiding the Eurocentrism the filmmakers wanted to steer clear of.
Postcolonialism does not exist in France
It is no longer shocking to witness the prejudice among French institutions and intelligentsia against Africa and Africans.
Between democracy and despotism
South Africa introduces a new law which allows traditional leaders along with third parties to decide for communities, without their consent.
Carceral colonialism
On the United Kingdom’s attempts to finance the construction of large-scale prison facilities in former colonies, to where it wants to deport undocumented migrants.