We also aim to educate. Over the next few months, Allison Swank will commence a new weekly series on popular (and not-so-popular) films in the United States ‘about’ Africa. The focus will be on the idea of representations and how they contribute to the broader idea of Africa in the West. Let’s get the academic-speak […]
In the music video for her latest single, "Rockstar 101," singer Rihanna appears in what looks like blackface.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsG49zXF8xk&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Driving in Soweto, film maker Dumisani Phakathi reflects on next month’s World Cup: [The World Cup] is like a wedding … You organize the wedding between you and your partner. The event is amazing, the photographs get taken. Everybody remembers the day. But the trick is about what happens after. What do you carry […]
I’m a bit late with this, but I’ll post it anyway. (Look out for lots of posts about World Cup commercials on this site over the next few days.) Another one of the myriad of commercials made to order for Coco Cola to dominate soft drink consumption during next month’s World Cup. This time […]
An authoritative, comprehensive reference work covering South Africa’s history, politics, law, society and culture, economy, environment, and more, from the era of human origins to the present.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFTOqZsLjaw&w=500&h=307&rel=0] On May 25th, 1963, the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union), composed of 32 newly independent African states, came into existence in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. * The clip is from the documentary film, “I Bring What I Love,” about the making of Youssouh N’Dour’s album of Sufi devotional songs, “Egypt.”
Should our contributor Sonja Sugira, usually a harsh critic of humanitarianism, cut Bono's RED campaign some slack?
Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times columnist who has made Africa his beat, lectures poor Congolese about their leisure time. No word about the larger structures causing their misery in the first place.
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You know we give Bono a lot of grief on this site, but in this commercial for ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Cup–bar a few disagreements here and there–he is on point. Did I just say that. Just in this case of course. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXlBSlyU8xY * BTW, ESPN has put a lot of money into […]
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/9002801 w=500&h=281] Rapper Blitz the Ambassador (representing for the Ghanaian diaspora and Brooklyn), featuring Tess, who can sing, doing the song “Something to Believe,” off Blitz’s new “StereoLive” album. (BTW, he has an EP, called “Native Son,” coming up which features songs written entirely in Twi.) I like this big band sound on this song. […]
[slideshow] The German photographer, Rainer Elstermanns, imagined an old photo studio set in rural Kenya in his studio in Berlin. He dressed models in period costumes. The result is a 17-minute film and a series of 40 recreations. Elstermann writes that he was inspired by the work of the great African photographers and artists, Samuel […]