The Trouble with Aid with “The Trouble with Aid”
How the humanitarian movement grew in close relation to the democratization of moving image technologies.
Blog
Waiting for Superman
The idea that leadership is the panacea to South Africa's varied troubles, is asserted as an almost axiomatic truth amongst South Africa's monotonous punditry.
‘Race jokes’ in South African ads
In South Africa, repackaging dated colonial fears about race and sex are used to sell beer and to win an advertising award for being "different."
Woman of the Year
Alice Nkom, the brave, activist lawyer, harassed and imprisoned by Cameroon's repressive regime on the government's actions: "Threats like these show us that the fight must continue.”
Hip as Nationalist Project
Kuduru as an effort by politically connected Angolan elites to to package a fun and edgy dance born in Angola as soft power.
Redefining “Blackness”
An interview with Nigerian-American artist, Toyin Odutola.
We write what we like about Steve Biko
What does it mean for a dead man to live through us, as we chant his name and claim him?
Friday Bonus Music Break, N°28
Kuduro pioneer Sebem (fresh out of prison; he was in for repeated traffic violations, from what I understand) has a new video out (above); the clip’s rural setting is surprising, given kuduro’s over-all urban flow. Next, a Senegalese collaboration between Djibril Diop and Aida Samb:
God, too, takes the train to work
The author, also a photographer, on documenting South Africa's "train churches."
Rethinking mental illness
The diagnostic parameters need to be completely overhauled as they embody a Western mode of understanding which itself is culturally bound.
All the immigrants’ crimes in Italy
The online work of Italian rightwing websites to establish the idea that immigrants are dangerous for the Italian society
10 African films to watch out for, N°15
The Professor is a fiction film by Tunisian director Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud. Synopsis: Tunis 1977. Khalsawi Khalil, Professor of Constitutional Law is responsible to defend the official State’s position in a period of tension between the government and the Interntional League for Human Rights. One day, Khalil learns that Houda, one of his students with […]