From Kansas to Kampala
The plague of evangelical Christianity and its role in fueling homophobia in African countries like Uganda.
25 Articles by:
Brett Davidson
Brett Davidson is former director of the Media and Narratives Division of OSF's Public Health Program.
Gay Shame in Johannesburg
The confrontation at Johannesburg Pride between white organizers and a group of black activists demanding Pride honor those killed, mostly black, for their sexuality, in South Africa.
The trouble with South Africa’s middle class
In South Africa, there was more activity in solidarity with Pussy Riot than with the Marikana miners killed by police in August 2012.
Her Zimbabwe
As the number of active female bloggers has increased, so too has the level of discourse around the dynamism and contradictions of life as a Zimbabwean woman.
Spring revolution or a summer of discontent
Can North Africans define their own futures, away from the inventions of old white men in think tanks in Washington DC?
New Media and Activism in Africa
The limitations of working in the online space, given the small percentages of people with online access (despite the expansion of mobile technology).
The Swarm of Insects Destroying the City
Interview with South African writer Henrietta Rose-Innes’s about her novel, “Nineveh.”
Intellectual Property Propaganda
Intellectual property protection has never been shown to promote economic development in developing countries.
Sending South African miners home to die
Sick mineworkers condemned to rural South Africa, die there with little or no continuation of care, follow up, or chemotherapy.
Health care for all
The health news – with major implications for Africans living on the continent – that made the headlines in 2011.
Helen Zille’s ‘AIDS Gestapo’
The leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance makes offensive remarks about AIDS, then smears her critics, AIDS activists and journalists, as Nazis.
Cyberpunk Thriller
Zoo City is set in an alternate Johannesburg, where criminals or those who have serious moral failings, get landed with an animal familiar as a permanent attachment.
The Mobile Phone Chimera
Two recent articles highlight the fact that the digital divide is very much still with us, and in fact new kinds of divides may be opening up.
What’s So Funny
Tracing the origins and development of newspaper cartooning in South Africa, and its political place.
Jonathan Jansen’s Burden
A profile of Jansen, vice chancellor of Free State University, on a leading online media outlet in South Africa, says more about the problem with liberalism in South Africa.
Save the Museum (in Uganda)
Just about this time last year, Uganda lost a priceless part of its cultural heritage when the Kasubi Tombs were burnt down. The tombs were a UNESCO World Heritage Site and were built in 1882 - the burial place of four Buganda kings.
Now it seems another cultural site faces destruction. Global Voices reports on a campaign in Uganda to save the Uganda Museum, founded in 1908.
Apparently the ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry plans to build a 60-storey office building on the site (I wonder whether there were many fights between the Tourism and the Trade and Industry factions over that one).
Not only does the museum house some important exhibits, but according to the Facebook page set up by the Save the Museum Campaign, it's the oldest museum in Eastern Africa.--Brett Davidson