Why is Facebook asking me how to pronounce my name?
Facebook has decided my name is weird and hard and I have to prevent awkward situations by teaching my “Friends” how to say it.
18 Articles by:
Shamira Muhammad
Shamira Muhammad founded Ma'athi Magazine, a travel website.
Moonshine Roots Music and Fela Kuti
Valerie June admires Fela Kuti, Ali Farka Toure, Miriam Makeba and a Nigerian blues singer she once heard in her car, but can’t remember their name.
Dark Princess
If mainstream fashion showcases won’t open its doors to the “others” and black fashion showcases aren’t willing to show the breadth of silhouettes, then there is much more at stake than not having a dark-hued covergirl.
Pan-African Twerking
That South Africa has a “Pro Twerk Team” may seem like a great opportunity to see twerking from a new, non-American perspective. Or to throw shade.
Beignets and Nigerian meat pies
Nollywood, the world’s second largest film industry, produces over 2000 films annually, and now, seven of its best will be screened at France’s first ever NollywoodWeek Paris.
Where the thing in her head translated well
An interview with the filmmaker Dehanza Rogers, about the film “Sweet, Sweet Country,” a fictional film capturing the harsh personal choices of Africans in Clarkson, a town in Georgia known for its large immigrant population.
Living up to its Pan-African dimensions
Filmmakers Newton Aduaka and Haile Gerima and film critic and scholar, Mbye Cham, assess Fespaco 2013.
Al Jazeera Goes French
Al Jazeera is planning a French language version of its news network. That means, government funded France 24 will be in direct competition with it for viewership in Africa and amongst the continent’s French speaking diaspora.
Africans in Cannes
For all its cinema glitz, Cannes is in a part of France associated with the far right and very anti-immigrant, so it is a treat to see the region is hosting an African themed film festival.
Who killed Thomas Sankara?
A French Communist MP announced he would press the French National Assembly to create an inquiry commission to investigate the 1987 assassination of Thomas Sankara.
Do African filmmakers care for FESPACO?
Filmmakers who use digital technology hope FESPACO catches up to the times. Meanwhile, this year the festival attempts to right its gender imbalances.
A state of cultural flux
Andrew Dosunmu’s new feature film, “Mother of George,” is set in Brooklyn, NY’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, focusing on the complications of African immigrant life, especially love and family.
Yoruba Cool
Africa is everywhere on “Landing on a Hundred,” the new album by American guitarist and singer, Cody ChesnuTT. It’s in the instrumentation, the arrangements and in his voice.
The artist as citizen
An interview with Abdellah Karroum is the artistic director of the Biennale Regard Benin 2012, which premise is “Inventing the World: the Artist as Citizen.”
Yannick Nyanga’s Tears
How a black French rugby player’s crying during the playing of the country’s national anthem was appropriated for all sorts of rightwing and reactionary politics.
Kehinde Wiley Goes To Paris
The American artist says he wants to tackle Françafrique; to turn it on its head. But in the process, he can’t help repeat stereotypes and artificial divisions.