Achille Mbembe’s Fanonian meditations
Mbembe’s ‘Critique of Black Reason’ is useful for our analysis of the postcolonial present.
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.
Double jeopardy
The future looks terrifying for many US-based exiles from Mauritania—facing deportation to Africa’s modern “slave nation” under Trump’s monstrous ICE.
Resources and rape: The DRC’s (toxic) discursive complex
On the emergence and political work of the rape-resources narrative in the eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo).
‘Their champagne party will end’
In the age of renewed tyranny and illiberalism, diverse political repertoires and modes of struggle from the continent of Africa offer inspiration.
The architects of fantasy
Among the Ga people of Ghana, there’s more to a coffin and the rituals of death than meets the western eye.
Only the soil can free us
Why agricultural change is political change. Take the case of farmers in Burkina Faso.
Transitional justice’s glass ceiling
Can transitional justice initiatives achieve their ambitious agenda of combatting gender based violence?
Postcolonial theory and the strong arm of identity
The major problem with the term “decolonization” is its status as empty signifier, argues South African psychologist Wahbie Long.
Gods of Fiction
A critical look at some of the problematic assumptions that defined African literature during the decades of its inception.
Pride, prejudice and blackface
A Dutch woman of Ugandan descent reflects on growing up with Zwarte Piet.
An enduring European tradition
An interview with Berlin-based Sierra Leonean electronic musician Lamin Fofana on Europe’s longtime fascination with African culture.
The state of the Afropean union
A border crossing mix of Afrobeats and Zouk and an interview with Berlin-based Sierra Leonean electronic music producer, Lamin Fofana.
What the Jair Bolsonaro regime in Brazil means for Africa
Brazil is the world’s second-largest African nation, but just elected an outright rightwing racist as president. It can’t be good for the continent.
Black bodies will fall in Brazil
What does the election of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro mean for Brazilians of African descent?
The Museveni State
Caricatures aside, how do President Yoweri Museveni and the National Revolutionary Movement state reproduce power?
Mandela’s dreams
Media studies scholar Sharon Sliwinski asks whether dreaming can be recast as a vital form of resistance to political violence. A review of her book.
Homophobic liberals
In Malawi, artists, especially poets—usually associated with progressivism and intellectualism—are the vanguard of a new homophobia.
Sudan in Berlin
“Berlin isn’t Germany. Just like that website you write for—it’s really its own country.”
The rebirth of the Nigerian left?
What has the world’s Moët drinking capital and a world leader in global indices of private jet ownership to do with left politics?
The idea of a borderless world
The capacity to decide who can move, who can settle, where and under what conditions is increasingly becoming the core of political struggles.