The Next James Bond
The Bond franchise has a white casting problem, but at least it has made peace with Britain and its institutions' marginal position within world affairs.
Blog
Development always comes with a political agenda
An interview with the leaders of a viral online campaign originating in Norway aimed at exposing European ignorance about the foolhardiness of humanitarianism in Africa.
TIME Magazine and the “Africa is Rising” Meme
TIME Magazine has copied what The Economist did in 2011, and decided “Africa is Rising.” Again. This week’s European edition is taken over by stories on this theme. Alex Perry, who writes for TIME from Cape Town (remember his style) has a piece where, despite the cover title, he does not come to any real conclusion. We’ve […]
Friday Bonus Music Break, N°26
We should start numbering these bonus music breaks. First up, above, from Kenya: the Large Gang, who claim to be “a lifestyle,” or at least more than a music group. Also from Nairobi (H/T “urban soul” blog GetMziki), the Grandpa Records family (basically a group of artists that are signed to the label) doesn’t take […]
Killing an African Warlord
“Key & Peele” (the comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) are considered the next generation of top black comedians (that’s a link to The New York Times endorsement). Their sketch comedy show on the American channel Comedy Central is supposed to take over from where Dave Chappelle left things when he went on vacation to […]
New, Old South African Theater
The success of 'Mies Julie' tells us more about the way that audiences in the Global North like to think about South Africa than it does about actual South Africa.
10 African films to watch out for, N°12
Here’s another list of 10 films in the making or already finished. Two long fiction features to start with. Dakar Trottoirs (directed by Hubert Laba Ndao; left) has “surrealist characters of a paradoxical theatre intermingling in the heart of the city.” Sounds real. There’s a write-up on the shooting of the film and a short […]
The View from the Cape
The chance that the lives of South Africa's poor will change for the better without struggle, is slim.
The Trouble with the Nigeria Prize for Literature
Should we care that Africa's richest book prize is paid for by a company with unethical business practices?
General Focus of Freetown
How is it like to be talented, have dreams and be young in Sierra Leone and what kinds of support exist to get you to the next level. Kelvin Doe's story is a good case study.
Yannick Nyanga’s Tears
How a black French rugby player's crying during the playing of the country's national anthem was appropriated for all sorts of rightwing and reactionary politics.
French-Algerian sculptor Rachid Khimoune exhibits in New York City
Rachid Khimoune grew up in a small mining town in Northern France where his Algerian parents had settled. It was there that he saw first hand the end of industrialisation: his father lost his job at the local mine and the family moved to the suburbs of Paris. The waves of urban immigration to the cities […]