Facepalm: Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s “Africa”
We have no illusions about Sandler having a responsibility to create smart cinema.
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In the middle of the desert
African refugees walk to Jerusalem in mass protest against indefinite detention by the Israeli state.
Black Brazilian
“Brazilian” is not a race and life in Brazil is still black and white. Black people hardly benefit from Brazilian-ness.
Vintage Cru
The Johannesburg-based crew challenges the status quo in South Africa with dance.
An Interactive Study Map of African States
History professsor Laura Mitchell developed this interactive map for her students for a map quiz and for the rest of us dispel the notion that Africa is a country. Go on, do the exercise.
To Be Young, Angry and Black
The face of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa is young-ish and black. Their “redistribute now” missive has earned both valid and lazy criticism. Their tone is perceived by many to be “dangerous” and “irrational”. For Ramphele, the red-beret clad young man from Rustenburg should have been less respectful towards her. For he is “young, angry and black”. The faceless trope deprives him of agency; he is driven by dangerous impulses and anger; he is one within an uncontrollable mass, predestined to produce instability. He is a threat. In a country that oscillates between the haze of Rainbow Nation-ism and the reality of economic exclusion – “young, angry and black” is a good scarecrow.
A short film about African migrants in Barcelona
How does one hold on to a deeply rooted sense of self, a cultural identity, and make new paths to adapt and make new forms of home?
Somali first, Muslim second, gay third
The melodic world alive in the work of Somali author Diriye Osman.
The DRC: A country only imagined without agency
Can European film producers narrate African pasts without reducing these to just European historical developments?
Shake My Head Mandela “Moments”
We collected a ton of odd (including flat out racist and objectionable) media that circulated on social media and by journalists in the last few days about Mandela's passing.
To Come Back from Qunu
Herman Wasserman, at the site of the funeral of postapartheid South Africa's founder, Nelson Mandela, contemplates Mandela's legacy for his children.
An interview with Ghanaian artist Sarkodie in the lead-up to his new album
Few rappers on the continent have been as prolific as Sarkodie this year. The Ghanaian emcee has released a steady stream of songs and videos, all in the lead-up to his album which will be titled Sarkology. So we found it necessary to touch base with him during a video shoot in Johannesburg for “Pon […]