Summer Reading List
What are some Africa Is a Country editors and contributors reading during their northern hemisphere summer break?
Lit
Whose “new African writing”?
Finding more multilingual literary pathways will benefit all of African—and world—literatures.
On New African Writing
What precisely is new about new African writing and what makes it different from what we have seen before?
Aristide Zolberg and African Studies
A political scientist, Zolberg wrote two ground breaking books on West Africa politics in the 1960s and was key to formation of African Studies.
An African inspired fantasy world
Two Nigerian-American brothers hope to bring a unique African cultural perspective to cartoons, comics and animation, where Africans are usually absent.
Hair politics and other Weekend Specials
With this, I am bringing back Weekend Special for all those things we don't have the time to blog about or say more than the required 140 characters on Twitter.
Does Zimbabwe’s new Constitution live up to women’s aspirations?
This weekend, Zimbabwe held a Constitutional referendum. And so Zimbabwe enjoyed yet another 15 seconds of
The Book of Marikana
Rewriting history from below in South Africa by utilizing the voices of workers and their survivors themselves.
There’s “too much Africa in South Africa”
That what a Dutch writer Adriaan Van Dis told an Italian newspaper when asked about what South Africa is like now.
Africa’s supposed red earth
The Stadsschouwburg of Amsterdam, an iconic theater in the city, organizes a festival on the continent that consists mostly of the work of white artists.
To sanitize and trivialize a decade of mayhem
Another book argues Zimbabwe's land reform is a success. But does it adequately deal with the processes by which that “success” was achieved?
Nigerians don’t talk like that
Will Ferguson wrote a novel about Nigeria's 419 scams. He also won an award for it. Do we think it's a good read?
What’s Best for American Policy in Africa
Would former US Assistant Secretary for Africa, Susan Rice, have been a good choice for Barack Obama's Secretary of State?
Race politics in Ghana
Historian Jemima Pierre argues that Whiteness serves as a reference point for Ghanaians’ notions of beauty, Blackness, and power, but Ghanaians remain blind to this.
S is for Samora Machel
We asked about a dozen Africa Is a Country contributors what their favorite books of 2012 were. Here are their picks.
We write what we like about Steve Biko
What does it mean for a dead man to live through us, as we chant his name and claim him?
Literary Sudans
The online retrospective, “Literary Sudans," is intended to highlight the two Sudans as sites of literature and culture.
Why does South African history continue to be written primarily by white scholars?
The striking minority of black contributors in South African historiography is a scandal more than a decade after the end of apartheid.
The Trouble with the Nigeria Prize for Literature
Should we care that Africa's richest book prize is paid for by a company with unethical business practices?
Jakes Gerwel and “the intellectual home of the left”
The fate of the University of the Western Cape, set up for coloureds, radicalized by black consciousness and from where the ANC prepared to govern.