The Spirit of Marikana
Marikana's workers were active agents in controlling their own destinies in the midst of plutocratic mine-owners and “pocket trade unions.”
Essays
How France will eat itself
Police brutality mediates the relationship between French citizens of African descent and public and political institutions.
Temple run or stay?
For young people in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, there is a code for the perilous journey that they are making to Europe via Libya.
When Ghanaians put their arms around New York City
Today, 30,000 of the 235,000 Ghanaian immigrants to the US call New York City home.
The Legacy of the Algerian Revolution
One of the most enduring legacies of colonialism is the idea that it is impossible to contemplate a future in which the rest of the world does not resemble Europe.
Was Mohandas Gandhi a racist?
Debates about Gandhi represents a deeper crisis about belonging, entitlement and exclusion in postcolonial Africa.
How to cover Eritrea
Eritrea has expelled all international correspondents and banned local private newspapers since 2001. One consequence is
How do we talk about rebel groups?
Seeking to interrogate unhelpful media (and official) narratives that permeate everyday discourse and obscure the truth about these terrorist organizations is important.
A sympathetic critique of Thomas Sankara
The judgment that Sankara was a hero rests in part on what was politically possible in Burkina Faso in the early 1980s.
Africa’s First Lady
Winnie was everything Africans - and African women in particular - were not supposed to be.
International Criminal Court politricks
Reigniting an important debate on the entanglements between the production of justice and the fragility of continental legal mechanisms.
MLK was a Pan-African
On the third Monday of January each year, Americans mark MLK's birthday with a public holiday. Africans should too.
The year of Elaine Salo
Elaine Salo, who died on August 13, 2016, had done the hard work of liberation and engaged head-on with the limits and promises of the new South Africa.
Africa makes us look better
For the author, the "us" are the thousands of Euro-American expatriates in Kenya, including herself.
Memory of the Present
Dominant culture in South Africa benignly recall slavery as part of a vaguely picturesque past that left us with beautiful colonial houses, award-winning wines and tourism.
If Africa is a country, then Fidel Castro is one of our national heroes
On 25 November 2016, Fidel Castro passed away. To many Africans Fidel was a hero, playing a central role in their liberation from colonialism.
Don’t call me Toubab
"White person!," people passing by shout, smiling and waving at me. I am black. I am African. I am Rwandan."
Crisis and the meaning of money in Zimbabwe
All sorts of countercultural, even radical signifiers have been ransacked of their meaning in Zimbabwe.
Trump’s America
What does it say about a country that could elect such an unsavory character?
Shutdown — on the death of compromise in South Africa
We are in a new phase, one that is characterised by a rejection of compromise as a tactic for managing democratic intercourse.