'The Nigerian Nostalgia Project'
This Facebook group page is worth visiting. The administrators collect photographs, including video and sound bytes, “… depicting scenes and people from Nigeria between 1960 and 1980.”
Further Reading
An ungovernable mind
Frustrated by most of his contemporaries, but supported by like-minded friends, Zimbabwean author Dambudzo Marechera forever changed our notion of what African literature is.
Taking care of each other
How a new underground club in Nairobi offers Kenyans respite from the harshness of everyday life.
Nothing good comes of France
France is not a new problem for Africa. Since the 19th century, its stood in the way of the continent’s self-determination.
Beyond the headlines
Recent violence across the Eritrean diaspora is being instrumentalized by populists. But the violence is a desperate cry for attention and requires the Eritrean opposition to seize the moment for regime change.
The myth of the apolitical commission
In response to the Johannesburg fire disaster, the South African government has announced a ‘politically free’ commission of inquiry. But there is no such thing.
The venality of the Kenyan MP
In Kenya, elected office does not represent a duty to represent ordinary citizens, but an opportunity for personal enrichment.
Black women write
In her new biography of South African writer Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell shows how the publishing industry historically excluded Black women, and how they wrote in spite of that.
A tragic kind of hope
Nigerian and South Sudanese filmmakers give voice to the search for identity, stability, and belonging through the lens of youth and migration.
Action required
Held in Nairobi this month, the inaugural Africa Climate Summit is an important step for the continent’s response to climate change. Still, the disasters in Libya and Morocco underscore that rhetoric and declarations are not enough.
The strange non-death of Bantustans
That South African political parties across the spectrum were quick to venerate the politician and Zulu prince Mangosutho Buthelezi, who died last week, demonstrates that the country is still attached to Bantustan ideology.
A revolution in pain
A conversation with members of Sudan’s resistance committees and Magdi elGizouli.
The “Caribbeanization” of Afrobeat in Colombia
In Colombia, doing straightforward political music carries many risks, including confronting state repression, political armed rebellions, and organized crime.
The rise and fall of an African novelist
By questioning black masculinity in post-apartheid South Africa, Thando Mgqolozana became one of the most impactful writers of his time. But then he got accused of the same thing he opposed.
Enduring grief in Enugu
Chika Unigwe’s novel, ‘The Middle Daughter,’ reimagines a Greek myth within a contemporary Nigerian context and develops it into a gripping family saga.
Follow the money
The city of Gqeberha in South Africa is an example of how water is increasingly becoming a commodified resource, benefiting the powerful and depriving everyone else.
Shifting the guilt
Even though Israeli novelist Agur Schiff’s latest book is meant to be a satirical reflection on the legacy of slavery and stereotypes about Africa, it ends up reinforcing them.
Banana Republics
Western leftists are arguing among themselves about whether there will be bananas under socialism. In Africa, however, bananas do not necessarily represent the vagaries of capitalism.
The next episode
We announce some major changes at Africa Is a Country. A director of operations and a new editor.
On safari
On our annual publishing break, we’ll be pondering what the responsibility of the African intellectual is today.
Who is hustling who?
In Kenya, political elites across the spectrum are trying to sell off the country for themselves—capitulation is inevitable.