When he was fifteen, the Gabonese Luc Bendza embarked on his life journey to China to follow the footsteps of his childhood movie stars, Bruce Lee and Wag Yu. Notwithstanding objections from his family, culture shock and economic hardships in China, and racism in his new country, Bendza joins a prestigious wushu academy (the kind […]

In recent years there has been a global convergence on the “girling of development”; in other words, girls’ empowerment and education as a way to address poverty. This includes corporate campaigns such as Nike’s Girl Effect  and those by state aid organizations such as USAID’s Let Girls Learn. These campaigns promote understandings about girls’ empowerment that […]

Yolanda Daniels is a domestic worker with three children. She has lived on a farm outside of Stellenbosch in South Africa’s Western Cape for more than 16 years with the white farm owner’s consent. Like many other women living on farms, overwhelmingly coloured and black, both the security of Ms Daniels’ employment and housing are […]

This time no theme, just another Music Break for your weekend! Weekend Music Break No.108 1) This week starts out with Morocco via Bronx rapper French Montana’s approach to the current Afropop zeitgeist in the USA, and obligatory accompanying video shot in Africa… a trip surely inspired by Ugandan youth’s propensity towards “viral dance videos,” Nice, but what’s […]