Magical realism in Accra
The film, “The Burial of Kojo,” sparks a vital conversation about the intersections of heritage, politics, and spirituality in Ghana and in Africa at large.
6429 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.
Walter Rodney was way ahead of his time
Rediscovered lectures Walter Rodney gave in 1978 in Hamburg shows a reflective intellectual, thinking critically about postcolonial African governance.
Who’s reporting Africa now?
NGOs and freelance journalists are increasingly filling the vacuum being left by a declining Western media presence. It’s not all good.
Entry-level misogyny
In a heteronormative society like Nigeria, men are entitled to sex with any and all women.
The Zambian farmers who are suing a mining company in a British court
In January 2019, a group of Zambian farmers brought their fight for justice to the UK Supreme Court, in a case with far-reaching implications for multinational companies.
Donald Trump’s Africa policy
The involvement of far right and conservative think tanks in developing Trump’s Africa agenda.
Will Kenya’s courts let gay people live?
Director Wanuri Kahiu went to look for hopeful African love stories and made a lesbian love story, amid court sanctioned homophobia.
We know from political crises in Africa that foreign intervention is a bad idea
Foreign support for governments that benefit privileged elites and their external backers perpetuate violence and instability. It won’t be any different for Latin American countries like Venezuela.
American tribalism
Political ‘tribalism’ has for far too long been seen as an African problem. It is also an American problem, reflecting parallel legacies of colonialism.
The Education We Want
African teachers organize themselves against privatization of public education. These academics are widespread in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.
Scenes from a youthful uprising
After years of divide and rule by President Omar al-Bashir, the youth of Sudan have united to push him out.
I have rarely seen a people pray as much as Haitians do
The legacies of colonialism and the African slave trade on religious practices in the African diaspora.
Democracy by numbers
If you want a prejudice to look respectable, put a number to it and compile an index. You can then rule the minds of many people.
Hopes for a Green October in Sudan
What Sudan’s history of protest against authoritarianism can teach the current generation.
The burden of being Nigerian
On xenophobia against Nigerians in Ghana.
The spear of the nation
Apartheid propaganda, white media and Afrikaner nationalists painted Verwoerd’s killer as crazy, but Dimitri Tsafendas was a committed political activist.
The war on women and children in South Africa
The family is the site of extremely violent incidents in South African society—particularly involving women and children. What can the state do?
The ‘New’ Neoliberal Uganda
Challenging the success narrative that masks the disruptive social impact of neoliberal transformation under General Yoweri Museveni in Uganda.
This is what a neoliberal trade union looks like
Zambia’s mining unions increasingly focus on profit-generating businesses, at the expense of collective action.
The house of exile
Edward Said once said of the usefulness of exile for intellectual work: it involves adopting “a spirit of opposition, rather than accommodation.” James Baldwin and Sisonke Msimang took it to heart.