What is it about the Kenyan postcolonial state?
The lesson from political economist Rok Ajulu’s academic work and activism: it’s not enough to change the “tenants,” but fight to change both the “state” and all of its houses.
documentary
El maestro siempre
Maky Madiba Sylla is a militant filmmaker excavating iconic Africans whose legacies he believes need to be known widely — like the singer Laba Sosseh.
Countering the narrative
If committed filmmakers want to reach and influence more people, and counter fake news, impact producing may help get us there.
Two women, two stories, both winners
The documentary film Mane about two women — a rapper and a wrestler — is a much-needed boost of fresh air in the male-saturated tale of the “Generation hip hop” of Senegal.
This is a sensorial feast, not a burial
Although overlooked this awards season, a new film by Lebohang Jeremiah Mosese deserves your attention.
Resonant music
The film "Africa Mia” (2019), directed by Richard Minier and Edouard Salier, explores the musical connections between Cuba and Mali.
Colonial accountability in transition
The mass atrocities of the 1899 French invasion of what is Niger today are finally being treated with the gravity and consequence they deserve in Western popular histories.
Musically, Congo is the mothership
The documentary, Rumba Kings, offers a commendable and tireless argument for both an intangible cultural heritage case and a centering of the Congolese way.
Lagos street boys
Filmmaker Tolulope Itegboje humanizes the maligned area boys of Nigeria's commercial capital; presenting them with an opportunity to share their stories.
Fractured dreams: The life of a Libyan exile
Muammar Gaddafi occupies a contested space in the histories of postcolonial Africa. What about his Libyan opponents?
The house of migrants
An interview with the filmmakers, Ousmane Samassekou and Aïcha Macky, about their films: two stunning documentaries creating new narratives about migration.
If you want to get the West’s attention, talk about the Holocaust
The intimate connection between the horror unleashed on Europe's Jews and the preceding centuries of atrocities perpetrated by the "Enlightened" West on those they colonized and enslaved.
In search of Ethiopia’s past and present
The film "Finding Sally" grapples with Ethiopia's past, but may romanticize its present.
Promises and discontents
A new documentary focuses on using the soil’s carbon absorbent properties to solve the climate change problem.
Is the future of African auteur cinema streaming?
Imagine if African films could enjoy shooting and editing on the continent, uninhibited by national and international politics.
When discussing war is taboo
Dieudo Hamadi’s film 'Downstream to Kinshasa' is a powerful antidote to the DRC's collective amnesia around the Six-Day War and its aftermath.
Restaging global history
The performative documentary 'Sun of the Soil' restores the historical record of the 'great king' of Mali, Mansa Musa.
Commerce is cannibalism
How economic disparities, inequities, and opportunities occur side by side in Lesotho.
The weaponization of memory in Burundi
Prince Louis Rwagasore, also known as “Burundi’s Lumumba," has been reduced to a political tool by the country's elite, but artists are doing his legacy justice.
The exiled writer from Equatorial Guinea
A new documentary about Equatorial Guinea and the exiled writer Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel provides an honest, critical examination of the country's political, social, and cultural issues.