Before Boima rides us out this year with West Africa’s best dance tunes, we couldn’t resist including a post with some of the lowlights of 2011.

Colonial Themed Weddings
New South Africans can’t help themselves. The white couple, “Dave and Chantal,” who thought a “colonial” (and Apartheid) theme at their wedding in South Africa complete with an all-black waiter staff in red fezes would be cool. Read our account and the comments here. And while we’re on the subject of the rainbow nation, what about the white guy who posed with a gun in hand while kneeling over what appears to be a lifeless black child in South Africa like he killed an animal on a hunt. To make things better, he claimed he got “permission” from the parents of the child, who happened to work on his friend’s farm. Yeh, it’s like the new South Africa down on the farm. Then there are people who come up with ad campaigns like this one. This is of course all Julius Malema’s fault.

The DSK-Diallo Coverage
The DSK/Diallo case coverage, particularly in the New York Post, and sometimes the New York Times (when it gleefully reported defense leaks) and definitely the French media, which very nonchalantly reported the details of Diallo’s identity long before she came out to do the interview and described her as “not very seductive”/unattractive.

Nicholas Kristof
Because he can’t help himself. Elliot Ross has described Kristof as “probably the most hardline fetishist of the African body in pain” on this blog. Two examples from 2011: here and here. And here is a bonus link where Kristof guest stars with George Clooney. No he is not playing the romantic lead.

The Nude Revolution in Egyptian
Basically everyone involved in that affair, including journalists who reported on it.

Condé Nast Traveler and CNN

The luxury travel magazine included Libya as a holiday destination in its April edition–yes, months into the Libyan civil war — among its 15 Best Places to See Right Now. The 250-word blurb proclaims “a door long shut is open again,” and ends with a recommendation to fly Lufthansa from New York’s JFK via Frankfurt to Tripoli, which has since been shrouded in a NATO-imposed no-fly zone. They did the same with Egypt href=”https://editor2.jacobinmag.com/africa-is-a-country/2011/04/11/sundowners-in-libya/” target=”_blank”>in their February issue. Then there’s CNN href=”http://twitter.com/#!/NOWLebanonBlog/status/105620813654405120″ target=”_blank”>confusing Libya with Lebanon. But of course Libya is in the Middle East, right.

Rapper 50 Cent
He wants to stop child hunger in Africa while helping the sagging sales of his energy drink.

The Mandela Grandchildren
Three of Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren are getting their own reality TV show. Word is it will also be available on US cable television. One journalist likens the show to something resembling “the Kennedys, with a dash of the Kardashians.” I can’t even imagine what that means.

Parachute Journalism
Time Magazine’s “correspondent for West Africa,” for her parachute journalism on Foreign Policy’s website about political developments in South Africa. First read her opinion piece and then read Jonathan Faull’s takedown of Leigh on AIAC here.

Some foreign correspondents and celebrities who have to pose with African children in photographs because the local adults don’t want to.

Finally, to those few commenters to this blog who feel compelled to remind us that Africa is not a country: we appreciate you.