How not to write about Duke Ellington
Everything that is wrong with Adam Gopnik’s New Yorker essay on Ellington (and the Beatles).
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Miguna Miguna
Miguna Miguna is a Kenyan activist and lawyer.
Nelson Mandela and how we talk about the state in Africa
It may be better to ask what Nelson Mandela’s leadership means for how we assess the state in Africa.
File Under: Mahmood Mamdani on South Africa’s much vaunted Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Because the (South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission) focused on perpetrators and overlooked the beneficiaries of mass violations of rights abuses – such as the pass laws and forced expulsions – it allowed the vast majority of white South Africans to go away thinking that they had little to do with these atrocities. Indeed, most did learn nothing new. The alternative would have been for the TRC to show white South Africans that no matter what their political views – whether they were for, against or indifferent to apartheid – they were all its beneficiaries, whether it was a matter of the residential areas where they lived, the jobs they held, the schools they went to, the taxes they did or did not pay, or the cheap labour they employed.
The Black Panther
Before Eusebio, it was unthinkable for a European national team to be dominated by or build around players of African origin.
Top Music Videos of 2013
Ah, 2013 was good for the beautiful creature that is the music video. From big budget
Ja Nee: South Africa in 2013
My favorite South Africanism is an Afrikaans expression: “Ja Nee”. The expression – “Yes/No” in English
The Last Rehearsal
A very subjective list of the top ten films of 2013.
Our Favorite Album of 2013
I’ve had Shane Cooper's "Oscillations" in my possession for the past four months. From the onset, it
Ghanaians Like Catchphrases
From the entertaining, mundane and sometimes depressing events and revelations, five of the most important lessons we learned from this year.
The monologue of her silence
The Senegalese director, Khady Sylla, made films out of the impossible and the untranslatable.
Facepalm: Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s “Africa”
We have no illusions about Sandler having a responsibility to create smart cinema.
In the middle of the desert
African refugees walk to Jerusalem in mass protest against indefinite detention by the Israeli state.
Black Brazilian
“Brazilian” is not a race and life in Brazil is still black and white. Black people hardly benefit from Brazilian-ness.
Vintage Cru
The Johannesburg-based crew challenges the status quo in South Africa with dance.
An Interactive Study Map of African States
History professsor Laura Mitchell developed this interactive map for her students for a map quiz and for the rest of us dispel the notion that Africa is a country. Go on, do the exercise.
To Be Young, Angry and Black
The face of Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa is young-ish and black. Their "redistribute now" missive has earned both valid and lazy criticism. Their tone is perceived by many to be "dangerous" and "irrational". For Ramphele, the red-beret clad young man from Rustenburg should have been less respectful towards her. For he is "young, angry and black". The faceless trope deprives him of agency; he is driven by dangerous impulses and anger; he is one within an uncontrollable mass, predestined to produce instability. He is a threat. In a country that oscillates between the haze of Rainbow Nation-ism and the reality of economic exclusion – “young, angry and black” is a good scarecrow.