Make Bono History
For those whose hatred of Bono is as deep as mine or who are merely looking for concrete reasons to despise this particular celebrity do-gooder.
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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.
Oscar Pistorius to be allowed to visit ailing Mandela–but without his gun
The visit would be a good opportunity for the nation to collectively heal; after all, both Oscar and Madiba have been through adversity.
Who’s Been Sleeping in My House
On prime time television in South Africa, the country is often a place without a past.
Zimbabwean Diaspora Diaries
The UK is jokingly referred to as Harare North for its sizable Zimbabwean diaspora, second only to South Africa. This photo essay captures that world.
The argument over J.M. Coetzee
J M Coetzee, South Africa’s most decorated and celebrated writer, gets the country’s literary scholars and biographers, all worked up.
Some of my best friends are braaiers
Barbecuing may be the perfect activity to remind South Africa that inequality is the first heritage we need to overcome.
The Politics of Spectacular Violence
The reactions to the Westgate Mall attacks in Nairobi makes clear the differentiation between human lives that are worthy of grief, and those that are not.
The Algerian Ministry of Culture
Why is the great director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) making a state-sponsored biopic?
Smells like Brazil
Angola spends millions of dollars to host the World Championships in roller hockey (yes). Anyone who think it is a waste of money gets beaten up.
Mapping neoliberalism
if there is any city in South Africa most suited to be labelled the ‘apartheid city’, it would be Cape Town.
This is not only Ghana’s loss
The academic Ato Quayson remembers the celebrated Ghanaian poet and intellectual, Kofi Awoonor (1935-2013), who was murdered in a terror attack in Kenya.
Making sense of the terror attacks in Kenya
Follow these sources (a mix from the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook, including from some mainstream media sources that aren’t that bad) to process the Nairobi mall terror attack.
Weekend Music Break 55
When Tendai Maraire broke down his Chimurenga Renaissance mixtape for us last year, he said about
The Disneyfication of Ellen Sirleaf Johnson
The Liberian president mostly gets away with soft pedal press in the West at odds with how Liberians view her or her legacy.
When Ken Norton played Mandingo
Ken Norton, the champion professional boxer who died this week, also had a long, though not
Rastafari and His Imperial Majesty
It’s understandable that Rastafari aren’t critical about Haile Selassie, but the idealization of the monarch and Ethiopia in general can prevent critical analysis.
Criminal Media
South Africa’s mainstream media has a blindspot: It mostly covers crime as it affects the suburbs and whites. No wonder the readers are misinformed.
A story is the only time you can have my attention
Blitz the Ambassador talks to us about his new EP, ‘The Warm Up,’ ahead of his Brooklyn, NY, show tonight.
Zimbabwe’s Forgotten 20%
Zimbabwe makes a good story for western writers and readers. The staggering racism of the Rhodesian
Elections and Ethnicity in Guinea
There is a certain deja vu about how Alpha Conde stays in power: every time there’s an election he exploits ethnic divisions.