“Happy Africans”
It’s unclear how big the Gun Owners of America are (the NRA predominates in the numbers
Media
The day South African news media ate crow
How South Africa's media report on the doings within the official parliamentary opposition, the Democratic Alliance.
Prince Blackwater of China
This is big: Blackwater has set up a new Africa-focused military contractor, partnering with one of China's largest state-owned conglomerates.
Cape Town Gangster Films
If you wish to gain some insight into the turmoil of gangland Cape Town, it's worth starting with the films of Riaan Hendricks and Dylan Valley.
The Komla Dumor I Knew
A contemporary of the late BBC journalist and newsreader remembers how their paths cross and Komla Dumor's lasting legacy.
When Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie met Sweden
Sweden is a country living under the illusion of a special kind of exceptionalism, including that it is “less affected by postcolonial relations than other nations.”
Born Free Films
Amazwi Wethu in Cape Town, South Africa, teaches its high student members how to advocate for themselves through film and photography.
The “Apartheid-era Robin Hood”
I wrote a long piece on Zola Mahobe, a Soweto businessman who died last December (two
How to say Lupita Nyong’o
Please do your research, stretch your tongue, and practice saying Lupita's name. The Kenyan actress, born in Mexico, plans be around at the top for a while.
A Visitor’s Guide to India
The key question: Are you black? Worry. It is almost always your fault.
How The Atlantic Can Do Better, Starting with Malawi
“Confronting a Sexual Rite of Passage in Malawi”, published by The Atlantic last Monday, is misleading
Somalis on Ice
"Unlikely Sports Heroes" partially serves to reinforce the image of inferiority. They never actually win anything.
File Under: Mahmood Mamdani on South Africa’s much vaunted Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Because the (South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission) focused on perpetrators and overlooked the beneficiaries of
The DRC: A country only imagined without agency
Can European film producers narrate African pasts without reducing these to just European historical developments?
A wayward couple in Dakar
Martin Scorsese digitally restores Djibril Diop Mambéty’s masterpiece Touki Bouki.
The donkey that carried the cloud on its back
A Kenyan film asks in order to evolve, what part of ourselves do we keep and what part do we leave behind.
Burying Comrade Nelson Mandela
For some of us, the official celebrations are missing a crucial element: Celebrating Nelson Mandela as a figure of armed struggle and the liberation movement.
The Mandela Legacy
Madiba’s example of forgiveness, reconciliation, and humility are inseparable from his unwavering commitment to combat white
The Woolworths ‘Tribute’ to Nelson Mandela
Are corporate entities really well intentioned in celebrating Mandela the freedom fighter or are they merely using these tributes to position their brands on the right side of history?
The problem with the Hollywood Mandelas
Hollywood films about Nelson Mandela separates him from the movement that produced him. The fact is, movements made Mandelas, not the other way around.