Know your Dutch history
It is important that Dutch slavery history gets anchored in history curriculums the same way that the Second World War (which is incomplete) is.
Culture
The Congolization Movement
Creating spaces where artists related to the Congolese diaspora can freely tell their side of the story.
New Documentaries To Look Out For at the Luxor African Film Festival
The third edition of the Egyptian Luxor African Film Festival again has a wide-ranging programme scheduled for next month. Selected films will be showing in different competitions: Long Narrative, Short Narratives, Short Documentaries and Long Documentary. Below you’ll find a couple of the selected documentaries’ trailers (set in Togo, Senegal, Ghana, Somalia, South Africa, Tunisia, […]
The realism and violence in ’12 Years a Slave’
In a non-sensationalist manner, without super-heroes and special effects, director Steve McQueen allows the viewer not just be horrified, but to empathize too.
Homophobia in Senegal
While there is no Wolof word for “lesbian,” there are multiple words for the practice of a woman having sex with a woman, or a man having sex with a man.
Musician Umlilo pushes gender boundaries in South Africa
Artists in South Africa continue to push the boundaries of gender norms in popular media. In contemporary dance, members of the group V.I.N.T.A.G.E. Cru (who we’ve interviewed) are boldly leading the way (see their latest video) and in music, the young Cape Town-based singer Umlilo is poised to redefine common gender perceptions. Through his makeup, […]
What it means to be Winnie Mandela
Since she has never really spoken about her feelings on the breakdown of her marriage to Nelson Mandela, except to very close friends, we are obliged to speculate.
Political Theater
Robert Mugabe and how how quickly style and showmanship can sweep away an audience, even when the underlying message promotes violence and jingoistic triumphalism.
Elisofon’s Africa
The photographer, Elliot Elisofon's 'choice' of what to see and how was embedded in a visual colonial archive. It was never a unique choice.
The most important public intellectual of the last 50 years
In gratitude to Stuart Hall, a socialist intellectual who taught us to confront the political with a smile.
The #BullshitFiles: Tsunami and the Single Girl — One Woman’s Journey to Become an Aid Worker and Find Love
Every side-eye, cringe, SMH and WTF in the world has gathered for a family reunion in the title of this book. It is the perfect set-up for searing satire, which is what I hoped was on offer when I clicked the link forwarded by my sister with a “hahahahahahaha” subject line – although she did mention […]
British-Nigerian Me?
The issues faced by people of dual heritage who are torn between two different cultures and are confused about their identity.
The first Kenyan mockumentary about NGO’s
"The Samaritans" explores the absurdities of the NGO world. The main characters work for "Aid for Aid," a fictitious NGO that “does nothing.”
Give that man a Bells
There’s a commercial for Bell’s, a popular South African whisky (“Give that man a Bells”), that is currently doing the rounds on the Interwebs and has a lot of people weeping on Twitter and Facebook. The ad was released as part of Super Bowl Weekend. No there’s no Super Bowl in South Africa–it was just […]
Just don’t do it
Saying that blackface is an American thing (everyone now uses this excuse) and therefore not a problem anywhere else, makes you look dumb.
John Akomfrah, Stuart Hall and the Film Essay
Akomfrah's films gives voice to the legacy of the African diaspora in Europe, and his experimental approach to narrative and structure helped pave the way for the re-emergence of the "essay film" today.
The ‘Born Free Generation’
The Fader (yes, they’re still around) has been putting up a series of posts from Johannesburg (Obey You Collective: South Africa) that focuses on “artists, trail-blazers, and bright young talents from South Africa.” (The series is paid for by soft drink company Coco Cola.) Much of it seems to be filmed around the part of the city marketed as Maboneng. In the latest instalment, they published an interview with Tarryn Alberts, part of dance crew, V.I.N.T.A.G.E. (If you remember, Zach Rosen interviewed them for AIAC, here). Anyway, the interview includes this illuminating passage about the Catch 22 for young black people after Apartheid:
The Question of International Aid
How a documentary about a radio station provides a window into aid policy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The closest thing to real life
The documentary film. “Zoran and his African Tigers,” shows how harsh and unforgiving international football can be.
A level of decadence
Muntu Vilakazi photographs the 'Politics of Bling' on Johannesburg's East Rand.