How To Use a Sjambok
This and other lessons from the South African front lines.
Blog
Has the giant fallen?
The split within South Africa's largest trade union federation, COSATU.
Willy Sagnol’s Race Problem
If you tell a lie enough times then people will start believing it as gospel. You
Africa is a Radio, Episode #7
This month's selection of tunes is from Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Colombia, the United States, the U.K., Angola, and classics from East Africa.
The Bullshit Files: The “Mandela Ray Ban Sculpture”
Public art, the vandalism of Nelson Mandela’s legacy for commerce and the spoiling of public space in Cape Town.
The key figures in Colombia’s Picó sound system culture
The sound system, or Picó culture of the Caribbean coast of Colombia is very close to my
Africa Through a Lens
An online archive of photos taken from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office photographic collection housed in the UK's National Archives.
Zambia has a white president
When President Michael Sata died, Western media ignored his political legacy and fixated on acting president Guy Scott’s whiteness treating him like a novelty rather than analyzing Zambia.
Sodade
There's something amazing about not being able to understand lyrics but still being able to comprehend what a song means.
You’re told that you will get used to it
A South African doctor working for MSF writes about her experience working in the Ebola zone in Sierra Leone.
Passports and nations
The writer Taiye Selasi doesn’t seem to realize there is a difference between identity as a subjective, biographical problem and identity as a legal and political reality.
The Spear of the People
The KwaZulu-Natal Midlands has a bit of a reputation as a “sleepy hollow.” But it was a crucial node in the struggle against apartheid.