We know Jacob Zuma can dance. But can Julius Malema, the future President of South Africa (ha!), dance? At least we we know that neither Malema or his colleagues at the ANC Youth League understand social media. Johannesburg’s DJ Cleo throws Malema and social media both in the mix for this video. And gets away with […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mLtdHQeIZA&w=500&h=307&rel=0] My 5-year old has known for quite a while–long before mainstream media caught onto it–that the children’s TV show, Yo Gabba Gabba, has the best musical guests. Among them: Solange Knowles (Rosa’s favorite singer), Mos Def, Biz Markie and of course The Roots, one of dad’s favorite bands.  Here’s The Roots doing “Lovely, Love My […]

In a recent interview on French television to promote his new book “Sortir de la Grande Nuit: Essai sur l’Afrique Décolonisée,” Johannesburg-based political philosopher Achille Mbembe suggested that Europe “seems to be gripped by an enormous desire for apartheid.” (We blogged about it here.) This is also the implicit theme of a recent lecture by British social theorist […]

Last month Johannesburg filmmaker Akin Omotoso, who directed a documentary about Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, flew to Lagos to attend the launch of Soyinka’s political party, The Democratic Front for a People’s Federation, and to relive some childhood memories:

I can’t say I was completely bowled over by Dinaw Mengistu’s first novel, “The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears,” about an Ethiopian immigrant in gentrifying Washington D.C. (Some of my friends loved it though and most literary elites here raved about it: The New York Times Book Review, for example, deemed it one of “the […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDg6pBMlsI4&w=500&h=307&rel=0] It’s no secret that I am a big fan of the Noisettes and their singer and bassist, Shingai Shoniwa. She’s like a 21st century Eartha Kitt. So I was surprised to read a tweet by Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli that Shoniwa’s agent had rejected an opportunity for her to collaborate with him. (The official word to Kweli was […]

When the Johannesburg Art Gallery bought one of Mr. [Gerard] Sekoto’s paintings in 1940, they had to hire him as a janitor so that he could see his own art on display—circumventing the law outlawing black people from entering the country’s museums. Now considered one of the most important 20th century South African artists, Sekoto […]

It would be interesting to hear people’s opinions about this argument by writer Adam Hochchild (the author of King Leopold’s Ghost: ) published earlier this year in  Mother Jones magazine:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F65KLV4NbU4&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Some of the things that come out of the mouths of American voters in Gary Younge’s excellent online series of short video reports (for “The Guardian”) ahead tomorrow’s US midterm elections is just odd. People really say things like that. The best part about it is that it is actual reporting. This is an […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKLxfP3xju0&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Since we’re on the topic of Cote d’Ivoire, here’s Ivoirian veteran underground rapper Manusa’s “Dans Mon Pays,” a blistering critique of life under Laurent Ggagbo’s regime. This not Drogbacite. “No dancey … happy, nice melodies, [or] very uplifting” music here.