AfricaIs aCountry

'Afropolis'

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

'Afropolis'

By
Sean Jacobs

This photograph of Soccer City, the venue for the opening and closing games of the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg by the young Johannesburg photographer Sabelo Mlangeni, is included in the ambitious exhibit: “Afropolis. City, Media, Art: Urbanization Africa, now showing through March 11 at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne, Germany. The exhibit focuses on Cairo, Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa, and of course Johannesburg. Mlangeni’s contribution is entitled “Untitled – The Year 2010,” and consists of a series of photographs  created in June/July 2010 for Afropolis. According to the museum PR it “… captures moments beyond and after the turmoil and excitement of the World Cup.” More information here.

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.