Windhoek characters
Netta Kornberg watch film trailers so you don't have to: This time, Namibian short films are the focus of her #TrailerTakedown.
Blog
We embarrassed Nelson Mandela
For the author, watching memorials for Mandela, South Africans have lost their ability to generate theater, the theater of the mass event.
The day Jacob Zuma lost control of the ANC?
At an event meant to celebrate Nelson Mandela's life, Jacob Zuma was not only embarrassed by the crowd (they booed him multiple times), by those on stage.
The problem with the Hollywood Mandelas
Hollywood films about Nelson Mandela separates him from the movement that produced him. The fact is, movements made Mandelas, not the other way around.
Four Women Musicians from Niger
Safiath, ZM, Habsou Garba and Fati Mariko: producing diverse sounds in rap, hip-hop and soul.
Remember to call at my grave: Madiba and John Dube
This December marks the 14th year of my involvement with the history of South Africa, both as a researcher and as a frequent visitor to a land I fell deeply in love with on my first trip with college students in 1999. At the core of my passion to understand and absorb the past of this brave nation lies a hidden challenge set before me by President Mandela in 2000, when he had his office send me a message saying that he himself did not know much about the Reverend John Langalibalele Dube, the man to whom he had paid such a resounding tribute on April 27, 1994, when he traveled to the Ohlange High School in Inanda (KwaZulu-Natal, where the picture above was taken) to vote in the first multi-racial democratic elections.
Nelson Mandela Did Not Walk Alone
In the early 1990s I was teaching Economics in a fifth floor classroom at Khanya College in downtown Johannesburg. During one of my early lessons at Khanya I was in the middle of explaining supply curves when a roaring sound from the street below began to disturb my teaching. I tried talking louder but the […]
Miley Cyrus has Nigerian parents
Parody performers, the Naija Boyz, take on Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball." It is unclear what they're trying to say.
A Brief Cinematic Guide to ‘Mother of George’
The film is a complex and nuanced exploration of the questions and limits of what one will do for love, told by an unorthodox filmmaker.
Should the Left celebrate Nelson Mandela?
The Mandela who needs celebrating is the Mandela who, if he was not Lenin, never pretended to be something else.
The people need a new myth
The Brother Moves On is not anti-ANC. Their new music rather speaks to the ideals of the liberation movement and asks if this is what we fought for.
The triumphant end of Africa’s liberation struggle
The one individual the African continent was unanimously proud and infinitely grateful of, was Nelson Mandela.