The Gambia Gambit
There is a long-standing Norwegian tradition of externalizing racism, so that anti-black racism is always and inevitably located elsewhere.
Blog
The A to Z of Kenyan Twitter
“Twitter is going to change Kenya!” I declared in my presentation. We’d just set up a “Twitterfall” behind me, glowing on one of the plasma screens. It scrolled up with a clockwork flow showing the 25-odd attendees their tweets in real-time. Trickling down one after the other it featured the tweets and responses from those […]
Angola’s Flash Mobs
Should the tipping point against the MPLA - in power since independence - arrive in Angola, there are some activists ready to hit the ground, running.
Purely as artifacts
Mainstream journalism must stop treating Timbuktu and Timbuktians as artifacts, focusing mainly on manuscripts.
Cape Town, Segregation and Hip Hop
It’s very difficult for Spaza (hip hop done mostly in Xhosa) and Afrikaans hip hop to organically co-exist.
African pop reawakens its political roots
Nigerian band VILLY & The Xtreme Volumes wants to open the world's eyes to the political and social realities of the continent through a catchy and danceable repertoire.
Tony Blair Saves The Children of Africa
Interventionists across the political class in Europe and North America have comprehensively militarized the humanitarian enterprise in recent years. So there was much more dismay than surprise when Save the Children awarded Tony Blair a Global Legacy Award recently. Yes, the same Tony Blair reportedly now worth £10 million who takes Henry Kissinger as his role […]
The BBC gets Rwanda wrong
It is a lot to ask the world to accept the multiple truths of Rwanda and it was too much for the film to explain this picture in all of its complicated nuance and actually share with us what remains untold about Rwanda’s story.
Sweden’s love affair with Pippi Longstocking and “definitions” of racism
Recently The New York Times picked up on one of Sweden’s latest “race controversies”: The Swedish national broadcaster announced it would broadcast an edited version of a 1969 Pippi Longstocking TV-series. The edited version excludes a scene where Pippi plays Chinese by slanting her eyes and Pippi’s mainly absent dad is just a king instead of a ‘negro-king’. Despite Pippi’s creator, […]
Remembering Mandela and Other Weekend Specials
Weekend Special is all that stuff we wanted to, but did not get around to writing about or just shared on social media.
Remembering Slavery in South Africa
People forget that for 176 years, racial slavery was the central institution in a large part of the territories that would come to form South Africa.
Racial Degeneracy and Cowardice
The failure of Americans to have a concerted conversation on racism is not surprising. Too much is at stake for too many people, interests and institutions.