http://youtu.be/tLyhZlgWIpM This is a random selection of ten films we don’t know much about, yet, but which we hope to see once completed or screened at the nearest film festival. ‘The Door of No Return’ (La Puerta de No Retorno) follows Santiago Zannou who accompanies his father, Alphonse, to his homeland, Benin, 40 years after […]
'Vershtunkende' is a Yiddish adjective loosely translated as ‘darned,’ ‘exasperating’, ‘maliciously idiotic’. It is not a nice word to use for either a person or thing.
My grandmother had a pub where wayfarers, fishermen, their wives, officers and anybody who had trouble or was looking for a little happiness would come, buy tots of the local gin, “akpeteshie” and start pouring their souls out. I would crawl under tables, eaves dropping and soaking it all in. When I got bored listening […]
The Angolan singer's new album deals with war in the widest sense: war with the self, war with family, neighbors, friends.
Makoko, in Lagos, with over 100, 000 residents, is viewed as a shantytown. There’s more to it. This is the destruction of a community.
Kaleidoscope magazine has done an "Africa" issue; it wants to walk a fine line between identity politics and universalism.
Africans can draw uninformed conclusions about what’s going on in their own backyards and on the continent.
If you’re wondering where we are (if you don’t read through to the end of posts) and why the page doesn’t change, we’re on a break this month. However, that hasn’t stopped us from tweeting away or posting short missives on our Facebook page. We’ll be back on September 3rd. Till then we have to […]
I participated in Sight & Sound's once-a-decade poll of the greatest films of all time. I included at least two African films: "Borom Sarrett" and "Mapantsula." Hopefully, they make the cut.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHRbEhLj540 I’ve recently taken on a new daily commute from Bed-Stuy to Harlem via the A Train. This route, once celebrated in song by Duke Ellington, was and remains famous for connecting New York’s two largest and most historical Black Communities. Today, both communities retain their importance as cultural nodes for the descendents of Black migrants from […]
While some in the virtual AIAC office have been putting together their summer lists, I thought I’d keep it real and put up a winter list. (Yes, it’s winter here in South Africa.) If you ever get tired of summer in the Northern hemisphere, this list is for you. While this is by no means […]
The author, a regular contributor, summarizes four new books she's been reading.