AfricaIs aCountry

Who Are We?

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Who Are We?

By
Sean Jacobs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoqsw3n8D6g&w=500&h=307&rel=0]
My man Gary Younge, New York-based feature writer and columnist for The Guardian, has a new book out on 21st century identity politics: Who are We–And Should It Matter in the 21st Century? The clips above and below, are from an interview with Gary about the book on the BBC program, “Booktalk.”  After the jump, as they say, is part two. (What’s sort of surreal is that Gary gets to finish his sentences. This is not American TV.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsbyGCt-HAE&w=500&h=307&rel=0]

Gary has also been interviewed by Andrew Marr and The Socialist Review.

Here is an excerpt from the book.  I am reading it now. Gary writes about his ambivalence with identity politics and its uses and abuses after 9/11.  The writer Margaret Atwood tweeted that it is an “excellent” book. The early reviews are also encouraging: Bookbag called it “thoughtful … incisive [and] accessible.”  There’s also a good review here.

— Sean Jacobs

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Reading List: Barbara Boswell

While editing a collection of the writings of South African feminist Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell found inspiration in texts that reflected Ngcobo’s sense that writing is an exercise of freedom.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

An annual awakening

In the 1980s, the South African arts collective Vakalisa Art Associates reclaimed time as a tool of social control through their subversive calendars.

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.