A photographer of African liberation
Ozier Muhammad captures, for black American audiences, the expressive possibilities of Africa's liberation struggles.
Culture
Revolutionary political thought in South Sudan
Once upon a time, South Sudanese exiles in Khartoum—inspired by, among others, Charles Dickens and Malcolm X—had a radical vision for their new country.
The Museum of Black Civilizations
France no longer has an excuse to hold on to Senegal's cultural heritage. Senegal has a place for it.
Abantu Book Festival as an archive of the future
A radical feature on South Africa's literary calendar, Abantu celebrates black intellectual labor, and resists the tropes that marginalizes it.
The power of telling our own stories
When we as Africans tell our own stories, we re-write the stories in the history books that our children are still taught in schools.
A planetary humanism made to the measure of the world
Excerpts from a conversation with the British historian, writer and academic Paul Gilroy.
The ways in which movement can and cannot heal
An interview with author Emmanuel Iduma on traveling through twenty African cities.
The film festival film
A documentary film about a black filmmaker and her struggles to make a film about Marike de Klerk.
The contradictions of Africa-China in Guangzhou
The reality for Africans living in China's 'African City' contrast greatly with the way their governments and China's leaders interact.
Sidney Poitier and Capitalist Decolonization
Poitier is a pioneer in Hollywood (the first black male actor to win an Oscar), but, like in most of his US acting roles, he also played it safe in African roles he took on.
Laughing pains
Stand-up comedy, especially black stand-up, and the political in South Africa.
Magical realism in Accra
The film, "The Burial of Kojo," sparks a vital conversation about the intersections of heritage, politics, and spirituality in Ghana and in Africa at large.
Walter Rodney was way ahead of his time
Rediscovered lectures Walter Rodney gave in 1978 in Hamburg shows a reflective intellectual, thinking critically about postcolonial African governance.
Who’s reporting Africa now?
NGOs and freelance journalists are increasingly filling the vacuum being left by a declining Western media presence. It's not all good.
Entry-level misogyny
In a heteronormative society like Nigeria, men are entitled to sex with any and all women.
Will Kenya’s courts let gay people live?
Director Wanuri Kahiu went to look for hopeful African love stories and made a lesbian love story, amid court sanctioned homophobia.
American tribalism
Political 'tribalism' has for far too long been seen as an African problem. It is also an American problem, reflecting parallel legacies of colonialism.
I have rarely seen a people pray as much as Haitians do
The legacies of colonialism and the African slave trade on religious practices in the African diaspora.
Democracy by numbers
If you want a prejudice to look respectable, put a number to it and compile an index. You can then rule the minds of many people.
The burden of being Nigerian
On xenophobia against Nigerians in Ghana.