Without much sorrow
Queen Elizabeth’s failure to even acknowledge or issue an apology for Britain’s colonial legacy, explains why many Kenyans did not mourn her death.
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Miguna Miguna
Miguna Miguna is a Kenyan activist and lawyer.
Soft Salafization in the Sahel
Many see Salafism as rigid and unbending, but in the Sahel, political conditions force its proponents to be smart and savvy.
African joy, joy in Africa
We are usually more attuned to Africa’s pains than to Africa’s pleasures. What would studying African pleasures, beyond censorious judgment, look like?
The quiet violence of child maintenance
Humiliation and stigma are companions for women seeking assistance from courts to obtain maintenance in South Africa.
Brazil’s violent caste system
Despite the country’s marker as a “racial democracy,” racism and prejudice still persist in Brazil, often violently and with deadly consequences.
Newen Afrobeat and echoes of Fela around the Andes
In the third installment on Afrobeat in South America, political scientist Simon A. Akindes writes about Newen Afrobeat from Chile’s capital.
Frantz Fanon unveiled
Although he was a spokesperson for the Algerian National Liberation Front, Frantz Fanon’s ideas often came at odds with that movement’s political demands.
Sleepwalking into fascism
That reactionary politics today lack a mass character is what makes them so dangerous.
Pull and I shall pull
Amil Shivji’s latest film, ‘Vuta N’Kuvute,’ is a gift, not only to the people of Tanzania, Zanzibar and its diasporas, but to the world.
Binyavanga Wainaina: The early years
On the occasion of the release of ‘How to Write About Africa,’ a collection of early essays and short fiction by Binyavanga Wainaina, Achal Prabhala remembers his friend’s earlier beginnings and literary breakthroughs.
Child of Mau Mau
Ethnicity did not simply disappear in Kenya’s 2022 elections. Instead, it was a crucible where both sides mobilized historical claims and ideas to win supporters, in ways that could, at times, elude the eye.
First as tragedy, second as farce
NoViolet Bulawayo’s novel ‘Glory’ forcefully evokes the Zimbabwean political landscape but struggles to stretch itself beyond the documentarian, vacillating between the journalistic and fictive.
Breakfast at Mobutu’s
Jacques Bongoma was a young Congolese progressive who became a close advisor to Joseph Mobutu after the country’s 1965 coup.
Tiptoeing across the minefield of neutrality
Recent US-South Africa relations appear to be firmly stalled in the cul-de-sacs of imperial or sub-imperial diplomacy.
Reading List: Duncan McEachern Yoon
The author’s new book wants to clear away some of the misunderstandings that dog Africa and China relations. Here, he catalogs the books that guided him.
The land and the sea
Communities whose land is being targeted for exploration by oil and gas companies are increasingly using the courts. South Africa points to good lessons for social movements about allying with the law.