Obroni, a History
Most Ghanaians think "obroni" means "white person" or "foreigner", but it stems from the Akan phrase "abro nipa" meaning "wicked person."
Politics
President Obiang and the Samba School
Carnival in Rio de Janeiro as a site for the politics of influence by one of Africa's most brutal dictatorships.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Tunde Kelani
The legendary Nigerian filmmaker, Tunde Kelani is considered the bridge between the first generation of Nigerian filmmakers and Nollywood.
Can Malawi cope with another severe flood?
The floods that have devastated much of the southern region of Malawi represent one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s history.
The imagination of the United Nations
Why aren’t Africans living on the continent part of the United Nations' International Decade for People of African Descent?
Are Corporations Colonizing the UN?
If market-focused empowerment becomes the norm in development, who will want to learn about politics or find out why their countries are poor in the first place?
What if black people inverted South Africa’s township tours?
Two black Capetonians went to rich Camps Bay and filmed white people going on about their lives.
Some problems between the people and the police
What Egypt’s latest football tragedy says about social divisions in the country.
The hierarchy of refugee stories
In sharp contrast to the coverage of Syrian refugees, Western media barely register the escalating Eritrean refugee crisis.
Do we really need new street names?
The renaming of a popular Cape Town road after Apartheid's last president, FW de Klerk, opens the debate about memorials in postapartheid South Africa.
Economics has an Africa problem
There is an established tradition in Economics of talking about Africa from afar, western scholars leading the discussion.
Party like its 1999
Nigerians have fought for democracy before, and we shouldn’t underestimate civil society’s willingness to defend it.
Football, Disappearances and Disasters in Haiti
The horrible tale of football star Joe Gaetjens's football triumphs, his torture and disappearance by Haiti's US's supported dictatorship.
The Black Messiah
John Coltrane was a prophet of global black power who musically and metaphorically broke down barriers constraining the lives and imaginations of black people worldwide.
The news from South Africa
...or the constant deferral of reconciliation
Just one long war
The US is re-upping its failed "war on drugs" in Central America. The spin is they will fight "violence and poverty." This won't end well.
Many Terence Rangers
If you studied history in Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s, you could not avoid the influence of Terence Ranger, especially in making sense of nationalism.
Africa Cup of Nations Memories
Watchiing the African Cup of Nations before the era of internet streams and mass football broadcasting in North America.
El México Guerrero: Ayotzinapa’s defiant struggle for justice
On the night of September 26th, 2014, in the western Mexican state of Guerrero, 43 students
Do critiques of representation make a real difference?
The Rusty Radiator Awards is not a critique of existing power relations and stark global inequalities, but of representation.