Africans want in on Virtual Reality
New artistic possibilities are boundless for 360° film as the technology becomes more accessible.
Blog
Behind the new Gulf crisis is same old order
The Gulf States and Israel benefit tremendously from the authoritarian order that has kept the region underdeveloped and unfree for decades.
Weekend Special No.2034
Twitter a while back: ‘Robert Mugabe is old enough to be Muhammadu Buhari’s father.’ Robert Mugabe, 93, is campaigning to be reelected next year. He is “slurring his words and dozing off (just resting his eyes, a spokesman claimed).” He may still win. Wole Soyinka was right in 2011 when he described Mugabe as “still […]
Abdullah Ibrahim’s ‘tawhid’
Ibrahim was drawn to Islam and the Black Power movement. The latter, especially, was liberating with its expansive definition of blackness that included coloureds like him.
Dakar’s African Renaissance
A Kenyan scientist wonders how Senegalese found ways to blend African spirituality with Islam.
Biafra as focal point for fresh perspectives of Nigeria
Igbo nationalist groups have the right to self-determine whether they want to be part of Nigeria or form their own independent republic.
James Baldwin on Film
The latest entry of the brilliance of James Baldwin on film, "I Am Not Your Negro," lays bare the fiction and terror of race in American life.
The right to ‘eat’
Politics in many parts of Africa is often understood through a metaphor of eating – a point to which Jean-François Bayart drew our attention in his seminal 1989 publication, The State in Africa. In contrast to the social scientific discourse of corruption, the idiom of eating is more neutral and bespeaks necessity. While eating to […]
Weekend Special, No.1976
Happy Father’s Day. This was the week of June 16th–the commemoration of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, which gave impetus to the long last phase of the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. (If you’re wondering about the contemporary incarnations of that revolt, look no further than #FeesMustFall, #RhodesMustFall, the Economic Freedom Fighters and groups like […]
The perenial dictator
Rwanda’s constitution was changed in 2016 to allow Kagame to stay in power until 2034.
The West’s culpability in North Africa and the Middle East
There seems to be no limit to Europe’s and USA’s willingness to accept and even support autocrats in North Africa and the Middle East. Consider the case of Egypt, Africa’s third most populous country. Since Egypt’s military seized power in a coup and thus ended a brief experiment with real democratization in July 2013, the […]
The liberating power of transgressive film genres
Jordan Peele's 'Get Out' should be seen as part of the Afrofuturism genre, which offers physical and mental liberation through supernatural or non-realistic means.