The reading habits of Ngugi wa Thiong’o
In the wake of yet another Ngugi wa Thiong’o snub by the Nobel Committee, we are at a loss. Perhaps a reconsideration of the author’s body of work can provide insight.
6428 Article(s) by:
Paul Milchick
Paul Milchik is a pseudonym for the author of this piece. His name has been changed due to his status as an international student in the US during the second Trump administration, in a context where foreign students have been targeted for detention and deportation as a result of expressing pro-Palestinian views.
Are you safe? Please stay safe
The statistics and scenes of violence against black immigrants in South Africa are horrible. A young Cameroonian student in South Africa writes about what it is like to live under such insecurity.
Eyes on the Prize
Does the peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea—now rewarded with a Nobel Prize—bring the kind of cooperation between the two countries that it aspired to do a year ago?
A living monument of the struggle
The passing of American economist Ann Seidman has again spotlighted the impacts of committed scholarship on Africa.
The resistance music of the Ugandan people
The pop star turned Member of Parliament, Bobi Wine, is only the latest in a long line of music-as-politics in Uganda.
Multimodal memories
Exile and memory from East Africa to the United Kingdom and back again.
A particular kind of black man
The Nigerian-American writer, Tope Folarin, wrestles with blackness and black immigrant identity in his new novel.
The end of revolutionary radio in South Africa?
Bush Radio, “The Mother of Community Radio in Africa,” is in financial trouble. Give them all your money.
The Ship from Cameroon
The fate of Cameroon’s women’s national football team, like much else in the country, is a reflection of the sorry state of its politics.
The Cuban Atlantic
How socialist Cuba’s foreign policy of solidarity with Africans, midwifed a new genre of music on the island.
The place of race in Cuba
Cuba achieved more for Afro-Cubans in 50 odd years than in the 400 years before that. However, socialism did not resolve the question of racism on the island.
No country for poor men
Rwanda is juking its development statistics as the international community turns a blind eye to the human rights abuses of Paul Kagame’s authoritarian rule.
Precolonial Africa had written traditions
Ajami is the centuries-old practice in West Africa of writing other languages using the modified Arabic script. It is also more widely dispersed than we give it credit for.
The poetic revolution will not be anthologized
Black Women’s poetry has been largely ignored or denigrated in the world of South African letters. They have to do it on their own.
Witchcraft studies
The gendered nature of witchcraft accusations aimed at women who deviate from accepted social norms.
Self-devouring growth
In Africa, the consequences of the growth-at-all costs model are starting to reveal themselves, and they’re not pretty.
The long short history of post-apartheid South African rugby
The compromises and conciliations of South African rugby mirror the unfinished transition from apartheid racism in the broader society.
The mysterious ways of The Black Jacobins
C.L.R. James’ book about the Haitian Revolution, had an impact far beyond the Caribbean.
Are you really Global apartheid?
The writer, a “Global” Somali traveler, reflects on borders, airports, and belonging.
Love in the time of war
Director Hajooj Kuka’s first feature film focuses on the contours of masculinity and the contradictions of war in Sudan.