The erratic electricity supply in Nigeria in many ways defines the contours of possibility in everyday life and death in Nigeria.
Latest
Gutting the public sector serves no one
Structural Adjustment Programs, implemented by the World Bank and IMF in developing countries, leave the administrative state especially unequipped to deal with climate change.
Groundbreaking win for Zambia’s farmers against British mining giant
A Supreme Court ruling in the UK could set a precedent for multinational corporations to more vigorously account for the human and environmental impacts of their operations.
Who gets to speak for black French people?
There is a long history of white artists representing black people in France, reproducing stereotypes and failing to capture the people they claim to represent.
Zombie statistics and poverty porn
Two sides of the same e-waste documentary.
The Joe Miller model
Remembering Joe Miller, a historian of eastern Angola and central Africa, who died at 79 on 12 March 2019.
Before Fallism
The popular myth holds that most South African major resistance leaders come from its coastal regions. That's not been the case since the mid-1970s.
The post-independence fates of Zimbabwean student activists who fought the Rhodesian regime.
Politics
The meaning of party politics in Ghana’s urban neighborhoods
Why do so many of the urban poor support John Mahama and Ghana’s opposition National Democratic Congress?
Laboratories for violence
Why a military-only approach against Boko Haram in the countries bordering Lake Chad will always fail: it doesn’t address the root causes of political conflict there.
Israel and Palestine: The South African alternative
Combating Zionism requires a vision that pays no credence to ethno-nationalism. As the world reconsiders the one-state solution, South Africa should lead the way.
Frontiers of dystopia
Cameroon claims to be a democracy, then why are even moderates like Maurice Kamto in jail?
Sudan’s national salvation
Omar al Bashir has fallen in Khartoum. Beyond regime change—managed by the military—there’s a deeper economic crisis.
Football is a Country
When Ruud Gullit won the Ballon d’Or in 1987, he dedicated the award to the imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Then Gullit made a reggae song about Apartheid.
Worldwide White Supremacy
Voltamos a Africa? The options for Black Brazil in the time of Bolsonaro
Even with the contradictory and violent policies of many African contexts, is emigration to the continent from toxic, racist, rightwing Brazil a viable option for Afro-Brazilians?
Pride, prejudice and blackface
A Dutch woman of Ugandan descent reflects on growing up with Zwarte Piet.
Black bodies will fall in Brazil
What does the election of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro mean for Brazilians of African descent?
The post Trump fortunes of South Africa’s white nationalists
South Africa's white nationalists are finally in the spotlight, thanks to Donald Trump. Nobody likes what they see.
Culture
Voice of the Cape
Rapper YoungstaCPT’s headspace is shaped by Cape Town’s history.
Bridging visual distance
The photo series Another Way Home captures how migration effects families, communities and individuals—those who travel and those who stay behind.
The politics of ethical deception
If in India there has been an investment in myth of Mohandas Gandhi as a non-racial icon, in South Africa Gandhi also has his defenders.
God don kam
Rapper Jovi has inducted himself into a club of Cameroonian artists who have embraced their own truths in the face of adversity.
The crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front
Judi Rever’s account of the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath challenges the official narrative.
Africa is a Radio
INTL BLK radio is back with a border crossing mix of Afrobeats and Zouk, as well as an interview with Sierra Leonean electronic music producer Lamin Fofana.