Lagos gone to seed
The Nigerian drama ‘Òlòtūré,’ about sex work and sex trafficking in the country’s commercial capital, which premiered on Netflix, is mostly uncomfortable. And not in a good way.
6427 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.
The politics of influence
Influence exhilarates. It also makes people nervous. Writers, artists, scholars, researchers—we all seem to want to be “influential.” Less often do we want to admit to being “influenced.”
Like an infant in a suffocating hold
The stories of African immigrants to the United States tell vivid tales of unimaginable anti-Blackness through foreign terrains.
Lessons from Africa’s past to cope with COVID-19
How managing COVID-19 and other crises necessitates Africa’s structural transformation, and what we can learn from the early post-independence development projects.
The emptiness of anti-corruption politics
This week on AIAC: Wangui Kimari and Benjamin Fogel on the politics of anti-corruption, and then the particular case of Tanzania with Sabatho Nyamsenda and Elisa Greco. Subscribe to our Patreon for the podcast archive.
The grand plan to save forests has failed
Communities that live and work in African woodlands must become central to conservation efforts.
The soft, patriarchal underbelly of Kenya’s Parliament
Kenya’s 2010 Constitution put limits on men’s dominance of public institutions, including parliament. Since then, men have done everything to sabotage it, but also to scrap it altogether.
Johannesburg cannot police its future
South Africa’s biggest city is ground zero for debates about the long-term effectiveness and constitutionality of militarized urban policing and how we imagine the post-COVID city.
The radical politics of women’s bodies
Women in Nigeria’s Kaduna state march naked and partially dressed to demand an end to deadly violence. In the process, they challenge norms about the female body.
How to build Palestinian solidarity internationally
Addressing antisemitism in anti-Zionist politics and what Africans can do about the occupation.
The myth of South African nationality
Growing xenophobic nationalism in South Africa is a danger to African people across the continent.
Oil, protest and mass solidarity in Mauritius
How an environmental catastrophe catalyzed major anti-government mobilizations in Mauritius.
Where are the flowers for Gilbert?
The drummer Gilbert Matthews was a visionary of South African jazz. The silences on his passing from official quarters are discordant.
Decolonizing African literature
How do we decolonize African literature? AIAC talks about it with Bhakti Shringarpure and Lily Saint. Stream it live Tuesdays on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. Subscribe to our Patreon for the podcast archive.
Good influence
It is unfair to expect coherent politics from Naira Marley or his fans, the Marlians. We should, instead, chastise the Nigerian state for stifling its people and keeping its young perpetually waiting.
Abolish Kenya’s prison system
Arresting and jailing Kenya’s poor isn’t working to cut crime or protect people’s rights. We need something else.
We are all Sudanese
A new film explores the perspectives of Sudanese-American artists navigating their relationships and responsibilities to the revolution back home.
The hallucinatory bunker of the white right
The anti-Black Lives Matter backlash in South Africa highlights the growing ideological convergence between the far right and conservatives.
A city on a hill
The viral sensation “Jerusalema” and its dance challenge reveals a deeper longing and desire to re-imagine the world.
How we normalize racialism
In the first part of a two-part post, the author challenges conventional progressive approaches to “race,” finding them to be untenable with non-racialism.