Don’t be fooled by a catchy tune
How the international soundtrack to Black Lives Matter critiques the present by reworking the past.
Violence
Ethiopia’s murderous new era
The writer's brother died in the political violence that has become part of how political power is being contested in Ethiopia.
Football and empire
AIAC Talk this week: the historical entanglement of South African football with English football, and what that tells us about politics and sport. Watch it on our YouTube channel.
Ghana’s moral panic
Enough of the ignorance: LGBT+ rights are Ghanaian and human rights, not an attempt by Westerners to impose their values or culture.
Take the soul from everyone, and the liberty of all
The treatment of victims of rape and sexual violence in Senegal, a country in which the bodies of women have always been an arena for political battles.
Police killings: how does South Africa compare?
An examination of South African statistics reveal that the police are substantially more violent than those in the US or Canada.
Thousands of mockingbirds
On surviving the Khartoum massacre and trying to make sense of what remains from Sudan’s revolution.
A thousand portraits of a loyal man
The new film about Brazilian revolutionary Carlos Marighella is one dimensional. It should not distract from Marighella's legacy.
The miseducation of the Nigerian middle class
Could the enduring effects of #EndSARS be the beginning of a broad alliance against an irresponsible political elite that has shirked all pretensions of being responsible to the people?
The afterlives of indenture
South Africa's history of indentured labor leaves behind a legacy of violence against women among the country's South Asian population.
The legacy of violence in the struggle for South Africa
An excerpt of an essay, titled “Nongoloza’s Ghost,” in Lapham’s Quarterly. It's published in partnership with Africa Is a Country.
Nollywood’s political struggle
How has Nigeria’s film industry responded to the protests of #EndSARS?
Murder as order
The Ugandan government quells public unrest with violence. What won't it do in the name of "security"?
A slaughter in Kumba
What will it take for the decades-old regime of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya to address the root cause of the country’s senseless conflict?
Tupac is alive in Africa
Young Africans are breathing life into Tupac’s memory, channeling his image and his music to be heard and seen in social spaces where they feel neither audible nor visible.
Ethiopia’s war of narratives
The current political conflict, now a civil war, in Ethiopia partly has its roots in disagreement among elites on how to narrativize Ethiopian history.
History class
What might Black Lives Matter learn from Africanist scholars who have studied inequality outside the US, especially in Africa?
Study notes on Nigeria’s youth revolt
Was the #EndSARS protests a victory or a defeat for the country's popular masses?
The multiple meanings of #EndSARS
The recent #EndSARS protest in Nigeria reveals how young people carve out agency in the context of Nigeria's dysfunctional and violent state.