The linguistic famine
The burial of African languages by Africans themselves has ensured our total immersion into colonial culture.
Culture
Beyond African royalty
Beyoncé, 'The Lion King,' 'Coming to America,' and the complicated politics of African representation in Black American cultural production.
How to curate a pandemic
Three prominent curators on how they are (re-)situating their respective curatorial practices in relation to the political moment.
The pitfalls of African consciousness
It took time to digest Beyonce's Black Is King. Conclusion: it fails to deliver us. Instead, it's just another capitalist construction of the world.
How not to write about the Rwandan genocide
How Rwandan history is told—and who does the telling—is important as it determines who is able to participate in conversations about the past.
The media and the workers of Marikana
The anniversary of Marikana just passed us. Media coverage of the massacre is an important part of its legacy.
Challenging whiteness in South Africa
White South Africans rarely look in the proverbial mirror to reflect on where they come from and how those histories shape their current realities.
The culture wars are a distraction
When our political parties only have recourse to the realm of identity and culture, it is a smokescreen for their lack of political legitimacy and programmatic content. It is cynically unpolitical, and it’s all bullshit.
After the monuments have been removed
Senegalese writer Mbougar Sarr on how we are actually informed about symbols we want to bring down, and about those we wish to commemorate.
What Chinese people eat
News reports claiming that “wet markets” in Asia are the source of the coronavirus obscure the fact that the consumption of wild animals is common in the West.
Sadio Mané, made outside Africa
The Liverpool striker, Sadio Mane, carries the values of his boyhood home, Bambali, with him. But his football is a product of the European professional game.
Sadio Mane is a Senegalese (Fairtrade) brand
What can the Senegalese Sadio Mane’s story tell us about the marketing of dreams.
More than a two-dimensional African celebrity
A new documentary about Liverpool FC striker, Sadio Mane, is watchable, but suffers from the fallacy that sports and politics don’t mix.
Religion outside the law
Some churches in South Africa have become embroiled with criminal economies.
The exiled writer from Equatorial Guinea
A new documentary about Equatorial Guinea and the exiled writer Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel provides an honest, critical examination of the country's political, social, and cultural issues.
Seeking refuge in Sahelian cinema
Director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun utilizes the fluid space of the Sahel to demonstrate the power of cinema as a limitless art.
In the jungles of the Congo
The book 'Emerald Labyrinth' explores American and Congolese efforts to document species biodiversity.
Utopias, joy, and the law
The director of Kenyan film 'Rafiki' discusses leading the struggle against state sponsored censorship in Kenya right now.
African literature is a country
What if you survey African literature professors to find out which works and writers are most regularly taught? Only a few canonical ones continue to dominate curricula.
Naira Marley is no revolutionary
A fan of rapper Naira Marley writes that it will take more than counter-cultural popularity to effect any tangible change in Nigeria.