The day South African news media ate crow
How South Africa's media report on the doings within the official parliamentary opposition, the Democratic Alliance.
Politics
Prince Blackwater of China
This is big: Blackwater has set up a new Africa-focused military contractor, partnering with one of China's largest state-owned conglomerates.
The Komla Dumor I Knew
A contemporary of the late BBC journalist and newsreader remembers how their paths cross and Komla Dumor's lasting legacy.
A year of coups
In what amounts to another pointless exercise, the Washington Post repeated its 2013 map of countries most likely to have a coup. Of course, African countries are at the top of the list.
Nelson Mandela’s environmentalism
The first African head of Greenpeace International, Kumi Naidoo, on how the world could best do justice to Mandela.
The social history of a “moral panic”
There is no evidence that Nigeria is under attack from gays and lesbians or the nation's "culture" being eroded from within by "waves of sexual marauders."
Born Free Films
Amazwi Wethu in Cape Town, South Africa, teaches its high student members how to advocate for themselves through film and photography.
The “Apartheid-era Robin Hood”
I wrote a long piece on Zola Mahobe, a Soweto businessman who died last December (two
The Year of Blackface in the Netherlands
Interview with Verene Shepherd, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on People of African Descent.
How a coup d’état drove a scholar to social media
Call me a curmudgeon, but I had never really understood the value of social media. I
Boss Player
The Newscaster Komla Dumor loved sports, basketball (he had skills), and, above all, the beautiful game. He especially loved his Ghana's Black Stars.
The Prisoner and his Pin-up Girl
Apartheid's prisons tolerated 'National Geographic; For Nelson Mandela, who knew better, it was porn.
Nigeria’s Gay Problems
Nigeria's governing class declares its disdain for any form or likeness of homosexuality or the rights of gay people.
Nelson Mandela and how we talk about the state in Africa
It may be better to ask what Nelson Mandela's leadership means for how we assess the state in Africa.
Ghanaians Like Catchphrases
From the entertaining, mundane and sometimes depressing events and revelations, five of the most important lessons we learned from this year.
In the middle of the desert
African refugees walk to Jerusalem in mass protest against indefinite detention by the Israeli state.
Black Brazilian
“Brazilian” is not a race and life in Brazil is still black and white. Black people hardly benefit from Brazilian-ness.
The DRC: A country only imagined without agency
Can European film producers narrate African pasts without reducing these to just European historical developments?
Shake My Head Mandela “Moments”
We collected a ton of odd (including flat out racist and objectionable) media that circulated on social media and by journalists in the last few days about Mandela's passing.
To Come Back from Qunu
Our correspondent, attending the funeral of Nelson Mandela, the founder of post-apartheid South Africa, reflects on Madiba's legacy for his own children.