Children’s Books African Kids Could Relate To
While visiting relatives in Nigeria, I found a children’s bookshop in Lagos with no African children or African languages in their books. That day changed everything.
Lit
How do we talk about the memory of Apartheid
The fact that the choices for black people under Apartheid were either martyrdom or compromise was part of the injustice of that system.
Angola’s Forgotten Massacre
Lara Pawson's book about the complex and violent events on and after the 27th of May, 1977: the date of a supposed coup d’etat in Luanda, Angola.
The rebirth of a literary dream
The story of Ba re e ne re, now probably Lesotho's premier literary festival as told by those involved from its start in tragic events.
The Italian Joseph Conrad
Alessandro Spina produced one of the greatest indictments against colonialism and jingoism, as well as a tribute to the Mediterranean’s cosmopolitanism.
The Contemporary Mark of Assata Shakur
The Black American activist's relevance for today's generation following the killing of Mike Brown by police, and the suppression of protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
What Binyavanga thinks of the Caine Prize
The inaugural winner of the Caine Prize for short fiction opines on the useless rivalry between Kenyans and Nigerians about who has won more Caine Prizes.
The Resurrection of Nat Nakasa
“This is Simply a Personal Statement from Me to You” On August 18th I attended the
The promise of revelation
James Matthews has the distinction of being one of the first Black Consciousness poets and publishers in South Africa. He is the subject of a documentary by director Shelley Barry.
Obituary: Nadine Gordimer
My first introduction to Comrade Nadine was through her writing during my student activist days in
Dreadlocked Rapunzel
The struggle to Africanize folktales that have been thought of as “owned” by rigid European narratives and European aesthetic expectations.
Searching for Brenda Fassie
Tseliso Monaheng and Kagiso Mnisi speak to the editor of an edited book about South African pop star, Brenda Fassie: "I'm Not Your Weekend Special."
Brenda Fassie’s revolution without harmony
Brenda Fassie was a woman who stepped out of line, talked out of turn, wore the pants, pulled up her skirt and loved women and men.
Elegy for Robo The Technician
Lesego Rampolokeng's tribute to an old school pioneer and one of the key builders of the South African hip hop scene.
Thinking About Genocide
An extract from Mahmood Mamdani's seminal study, 'When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda."
The Dangers of a Single Book Cover
The historian Simon Stephens discovers a meme in the book covers of novels set in or with African themes.
To discover Stuart Hall
Hall was a skilled storyteller, who placed his memory, his deep sense of alienation, and his autobiography at the heart of his theory and politics.
Latin America is a country
Gabriel Garcia Marquez wanted to counter the notion that everything in Latin America can be understood only through Euro-American lenses.
The FBI’s Hustle
The contradictions of U.S.'s domestic and international policies manifested by its wars on drugs, terror, and the country's Black communities.
When Chinua Achebe went to Scandinavia in 1988
It is striking that that the topics his hosts discussed with Achebe in those days are still animating us.