Lilian Thuram’s burden
Why should black players have the burden of calling out racism, while white players don't feel compelled to do the same?
Blog
Weekend Music Break 62
10 new music videos from Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Kenya, Mali, Burundi (via Belgium), South Africa and Nigeria (via the US and the UK) to get your weekend started. But first up, from Senegal, Daara J Family have a new video out, directed by Lionel Mandeix and Loïc Hoquet. N’Dongo D and Faada Freddy, from Dakar, still […]
L’Afrique Est Un Pays
Dutty Artz and Africa Is a Country co-present the EP, "L'Afrique Est Un Pays," as a gift to Africa is a Country readers. For a limited time you can download the EP by liking our Facebook page.
My Own Private Mangaung
Heard about Mangaung? No, not the site of the 1912 founding of the ANC nor last year’s ANC Conference. The real Mangaung. The prison. Mangaung Prison, run by G4S, is the world’s second largest private prison in the world. G4S is proud of that. They’re not so proud of last month’s allegations, revealed by Ruth Hopkins of the Wits Justice Project, of gross, brutal and widespread torture, forced anti-psychotics and shock therapy, and general anarchy and chaos on the part of the staff.
Revisiting Sweden’s colonial past
The image of a benevolent, preternaturally anti-racist “good old Sweden,” spreading its perfect democracy around the world, is fiction.
My New York Times column about Cape Town
The author wrote a column about racial and class inequalities in the city where he lived. The usual backlash by those in power followed.
Moonshine Roots Music and Fela Kuti
Valerie June admires Fela Kuti, Ali Farka Toure, Miriam Makeba and a Nigerian blues singer she once heard in her car, but can't remember their name.
A window into South Africa’s jazz history
The first full color photographs of the vibrant, underground jazz scene that flourished in South Africa in the 1960s.
File under: Dutch Liberalism
No, there's is not a vigorous debate on blackface and racism in the Netherlands. Instead it's the usual duplicity of Dutch liberals.
Canada’s “Somali Problem”
Racism against Somali Canadians is a real problem. It is present not only on the right, but the left as well.
Africa and the Future
An interview with Achille Mbembe, including on the consequences of global capitalism on the continent.
Nkrumah’s team is going to the World Cup
A short history of football, nation building and the consolidation of pan-African solidarity in 1960s Ghana.