We kick off our weekly installment of new music videos with OttawaParis-based Mélissa Laveaux riding the crunchy electronics with flair on her new offering, ‘Triggers’, in a video directed by Terence Nance — remember also this other video he shot for her earlier this year: Some trippy and transcendental downtempo music from YellowStraps (that’s Yvan Murenzi, […]
The UK is jokingly referred to as Harare North for its sizable Zimbabwean diaspora, second only to South Africa. This photo essay captures that world.
Zimbabwe makes a good story for western writers and readers. The staggering racism of the Rhodesian whites, the heroic liberation uprising, and Mugabe; a freedom fighter not unlike Nelson Mandela, who having spent more than a decade in prison, won the first democratic election and immediately called for racial reconciliation. Then, from the late ‘90s, […]
Interview with Ben Cousins, founder of PLAAS at the University of the Western Cape, and who has researched land reform since 1989.
To understand why Tsvangirai's MDC can't win in Zimbabwe, it is helpful to move beyond the standard analysis of systemic electoral corruption and an unfair vote.
This summer I’ve been hired as a freelancer for Iggy, MTV’s global music website. The site is aimed at young people to introduce them to the idea that pop music is a global phenomenon (if today’s tech savvy youth already didn’t know.) I get paid by Viacom every time I put something up there, but it’s a pretty quick moving stream of content, and posts tend to disappear rather quickly. I thought it would be good to run each one of my posts as a series over here on Africa is a Country.
Zimbabwe is its own self, its own country, not some echo chamber from which people hope to catch reverberated strains of their own discourses.
Two initial thoughts on Alexandra Fuller’s “Breaking the Silence: Oppression, Fear, and Courage in Zimbabwe” in the May 2013 National Geographic Magazine: First, anything by Alexandra Fuller will be an excellent read, and second, how will the photos accompanying the text manage to portray Zimbabwe? The first time I read the article was on a […]
On a visit to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, academic Herman Wasserman gets reminded of home and how people perceive him.
It’s election season in Zimbabwe, and so, as before, the State has engaged in ‘urban renewal’ by ‘cleaning the streets.’ Under British rule, today’s Zimbabwean women fought for the right to move about in public. The colonial administration used the “immorality and prostitution of native women” as an alibi for draconian, repressive measures against “native […]
When Tendai Maraire broke down his Pungwe mixtape for us last year. I remember when Zimbabwe gained independence. My mother had a big party at the house in Seattle — with all her friends, Zimbabwean and American. My uncle, who fought in the guerrilla war against the white Rhodesian state, flew in weeks later. She started celebrating […]
Zimbabwean photographer, Nancy Mteki: "If we don’t stand up for ourselves, no one else is going to do it."
On Sunday, March 17, a day after the Constitutional Referendum, Zimbabwe arrested Beatrice Mtetwa, leading human rights lawyer and Board member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. Mtetwa had been arrested for the ‘crime’ of asking the whereabouts of a client. The State refers to that as “obstructing or defeating the course of justice.” […]
This weekend, Zimbabwe held a Constitutional referendum. And so Zimbabwe enjoyed yet another 15 seconds of international press attention. Turnout was reported as low. The public was as apathetic, uninformed, and/or disinterested. And the referendum was described as important, especially for women. According to some reports, ‘women’ knew that: “Some women’s rights groups have praised […]
On Sunday, Jestina Mukoko, Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was ‘released’ from prison. Her defense attorney and fabulous feminist human and women’s rights attorney Beatrice Mtetwa, among others, greeted her. Yes, it’s springtime in Zimbabwe, as in Zimbabwe Spring … except that it’s not. Friday was International Women’s Day, #IWD2013. To honor that, […]
The Zimbabwean photographer, Nancy Mteki, picks her five favorite photographs and shares some words about how and where the images were made.
Another book argues Zimbabwe land reform is a success. But does it deal adequately with the processes by which that “success” was achieved.
A few days ago the BBC reported on Zimbabwe’s impending elections, amidst concerns of renewed violence and human rights abuses in the country. However, what is often lost in the sensationalization of political violence, by this and other news articles is the revolutionary impact that non-violent actions can have in transforming a national political landscape. […]
Foodyism and obscure ‘ethnic’ food are trendy these days. So, it is odd that South Africa hasn’t received more attention.
Tendai Maraire of Shabazz Palaces breaks down his 'Pungwe' mixtape for us.