Who are the Olympics for?
Beneath the image of togetherness, the world’s biggest athletic spectacle is still beset by discrimination and exclusion.
Paris
The lost promise of childhood
The state-sanctioned violence committed against children such as Nahel M forces us to revisit the very question of childhood, its privileges, and its roots in the French imperialization of Africa.
A History in Fragments
The recent explosions in the Stade de France was one of the most surreal things to ever take place in a stadium built nearly two decades ago specifically to house history.
Kehinde Wiley Goes To Paris
The American artist says he wants to tackle Françafrique; to turn it on its head. But in the process, he can't help repeat stereotypes and artificial divisions.
Interrupting Paris Fashion Week
A group of black women, from Africa and its diaspora, decide to mess with Paris Fashion Week. Was it worth it? Did anyone care?
Parisian Africa
Younger generations of artists, many immigrants of African origin, are reconfiguring the arts in France on their own terms.
The Other African election: France’s First Round
Both of the front-runners, incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist François Hollande, have run against FrançAfrique. Easier said than done.
Bamako-sur-Seine
A sense of how the Malian diaspora experiences the political tensions and instability back home.
We are the remains
This is Number 11 in my occasional series of posts highlighting the music of my hometown, Paris, also a center of Europe's African diaspora.
French Tropicalism
When it comes to engaging with French language opinions and writings in English, it’s a desert out there.
Shoutout Banlieue
Number 8 in our series, Paris Is a Continent, showcasing the music of the French capital, is about bragging rights and one song.
The whole ‘Afrobeats’ thing
Afrobeats is broadly what most people think when they try to define black music in the UK. But it is hard to pin down.
Fathers, men and brothers
The third in my series of musical breaks from Paris, France, features L'Algerino, Nessbeal, Corneille and La Fouine.