The New Testament
Much of black youth culture in South Africa celebrates constant self-invention, and is built on the gospel of entrepreneurship.
6388 Article(s) by:
Fatima B. Derby
Fatima B. Derby is a Ghanaian feminist writer and queer activist.
The Return of Muammar Gaddafi
Nostalgia for Gaddafi reflects a depressing understanding of African politics which rules that a dictator is better than a chaotic political void.
The wanderers from Niger
Nigerien band Anewal eschews explicit politics and sings mostly of harmony and brotherhood.
How not to talk about corruption in South Africa
How media and anti-corruption campaigns reinforces, or fail to adequately address, racialized and ahistorical accounts of corruption as a problem in South Africa.
The politics of national sovereignty
What does the Catalan independence movement mean for African separatists?
An allegory for freedom
Blackness, like the nation of Haiti herself, is a thing to be punished for committing the crime of daring to exist and resist.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government loves Africa
A big reason for this is to counter the growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
The rise and fall of Mangosuthu Buthelezi
South African public life is rife with revisionism, often opportunistic. Take the case of Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
How Nigeria defeated Ebola
In Nigeria, there is a critical mass of scientific, medical and public health expertise—from managing medical crises, natural disasters and the health-related fallouts of economic breakdown.
Emmanuel Macron’s Twitter fingers
The stuff we couldn’t cover the second week of December, so we compiled them here in byte sizes.
Cameroon is Cameroon
On the arrest and detention of Cameroonian writer and scholar, Patrice Nganang.
Hendrik Verwoerd in Jerusalem
The “two state solution” for Israel and Palestine will be the culmination of the same political vision that motivated apartheid South Africa.
The roar of the ocean’s many waters
South Africa’s Constitution begins with a bold statement: “We, the people of South Africa, Recognise the injustices of our past …”
The Sons of Africa in World War I
Interview with Fred Khumalo, author of a novel about the sinking of the SS Mendi, a warship carrying hundreds of black South African soldiers.
Ghana’s President and what the West wants to hear
Many social media users have construed Akufo-Addo’s words in the President of France’s presence, as somehow radical.
Reading Frantz Fanon
The glut of books on Fanon serve as a guide for reading him through the challenges of our present. But they also reveal the extent to which reading Fanon today is not such a straightforward operation.
Musical chairs in Angola
Angola’s new president may still chart his own political course against party directives and the interests of the Dos Santos family.
The U.S., Uganda, and the War on Terror
The United States’ support for “strong man rule” in Africa, if President Yoweri Museveni’s recipe for longevity in Uganda.
Why do so many Western Leftists defend Robert Mugabe?
Mugabe was a neoliberal stooge up until the 2000s and far from being a Pan-Africanist hero sent his army to intervene in the most rapacious war in Africa’s history in the Congo.
Thomas Sankara Boulevard
Plus the great novelist Sarah Ladipo Manyika has put together a list of the best books of the Mugabe years.