A crop that changed the world
The story about peanuts, and the people who grew it at the margins of an empire in 19th century West Africa, then the most abundant source of the world’s most important oilseed.
6449 Article(s) by:
Miguna Miguna
Miguna Miguna is a Kenyan activist and lawyer.
Stellenbosch University’s intractable racism problem
The University of Stellenbosch in South Africa treats racism as an issue that must be soft-soaped to avoid alienating white people.
Imagining new stories, new freedoms, and new joys
Lindsey Green-Simms’ book “Queer African Cinemas” explores the intersections of postcolonial thought, queer theory, and screen media.
Climate change as class war
On this week’s AIAC podcast: After an upswing before the pandemic, the global climate justice movement currently looks stuck. What kind of climate politics can appeal to the majority of people?
Guinean first ladies and big (political) business
The wives of (former) heads of state form an important part of the political elite in Guinea, considerably shaping the country’s sociopolitical and economic past and present.
A little bit of African thinking
The profound influence, often underplayed, that great African revolutionary Amílcar Cabral had on Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire.
Kwasi Wiredu’s golden rule
The greatest achievement of Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu was to recast African knowledge from something lost to something gained.
What’s good for investors isn’t good for Africans
How Africa’s pension funds risk becoming instruments of Africa’s neoliberal takeover.
An African Queer in the academy
We do not have to die, become sick or leave the academy to live and be in this space.
Keeping a displaced group closely knit together
A photo essay on Masjid Tajul Huda, a mostly West African mosque in the Bronx, New York.
The land of the freed people
‘We Slaves of Suriname’ (1934) was the first study of Dutch colonial rule from the perspectives of the people who resisted it. It is has been published in English for the first time.
Something for nothing
As coal is dying we must be prepared to absorb the transferable infrastructure of this industry and re-tool it for use in the emerging economy.
A hopeful song about Sierra Leone
A new film, “Sing Freetown” (director: Clive Patterson) and accompanying theater project from Sorious Samura and Charlie Haffner attempt, with varying success, to sing a different song of Freetown.
Take back the unions for their members
Why South Africa needs to democratize its labor movement.
Troubled times in Egypt
On this week’s AIAC Podcast: A decade after the Arab Spring, Egypt faces troubled times. Could we see another uprising?
Endless war in Somalia
Somalis have enough to worry about. The last thing they need is more war, especially one sponsored by the United States’ War on Terror.
Beja music cannot be beaten by any regime
The Dorpa Band from Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea coast in eastern Sudan, embodies Beja Culture. Their bandleader, writes what drives their music.
The psychological pains of Ethiopian intellectuals
The desire to be absorbed into and consumed by the West, to find solace in its seductive promises, animates Robin Dimet’s film, “Sami’s Odysseys.”
Omar Blondin Diop and Issa Samb’s Senegal
Activist Blondin Diop and artist Samb are exemplars of Senegal’s post-independence promise and crisis, marked by the global uprisings of May 1968. Mustapha Saha was a friend to both of them.
Inhabiting the shapes and sounds and patterns of other people
May 21 marks the anniversary of the writer and commentator Binyavanga Wainaina’s untimely death in 2019. He was 48.