Silicon Valley’s awkward relationship with “Africa”
There is a huge disconnect between Americans working in Africa, and Africans working in America – though they are often in the same building.
Culture
Representing Niger
Tal National's music is breezy, in all Niger's languages and about topics to which everyone can relate: love, peace, and the beauty of women.
Cape Town hip-hop got interesting again
The difference between Isaac Mutant and Die Antwoord is that Mutant is the real deal.
A postmodernist dark comedy
Kenneth Gyang's "Confusion Na Wa" and the growing desire for variety and novelty in Nigerian cinema.
Mozambique’s Pandza Music
A digital, more lo-fi interpretation of local Marrabenta mixed with dancehall and hip-hop, combined with a mid-tempo, laid-back vibe.
Confronting Afrikaners’ cultural masochism
The frustration or inability to establish an identity that is free of hegemonic constructed myth – that ceases to be at odds with current reality.
A black boy with blue eyes
Introducing the South African writer, K. Sello Duiker's novel 'Thirteen Cents' to US audiences.
From Kansas to Kampala
The plague of evangelical Christianity and its role in fueling homophobia in African countries like Uganda.
When marketing men make films about football
I finally got around to watching “Thierry Henry 1:1” on iTunes. The promo material is written in breathless prose: “Who is the personality hidden in this dream career? … What are his ideals? What goals does he want to reach? … Thierry Henry is a world star torn between past and present.” This is all false advertising […]
The African New Wave
Weekend Music Break Number 57 includes a tribute to Fela Kuti, music from Lesotho, and the fast rapping of Sarkodie.
Remembering Sathima Bea Benjamin
Sathima had the unique ability to strike first at your heart, not unlike the experience of hearing Billie Holiday for the first time.
Christina Aguilera feeds “war-torn” Rwanda
Africa: helping white people who are a bit down-in-the-dumps, feel better about themselves since 1884.
Weekend Music Break: The Brother Moves On
I followed The Brother Moves On around South Africa once. True story, I even wrote about it here. I’ve seen them many more times after that, and each time was a trip. On their recent trip to Cape Town, they stopped over to record some songs for the Big Leap sessions, an initiative by Assembly […]
The Supposed Vacuity of the “Global Novel”
The fact that the global novel has emerged from the world of the global literary economy does not render it "lite."
Mozambican Occupations
The work of photographer Felipe Branquinho, which portrays workers and working class people in their urban surroundings in Mozambique.
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips and the “True Story” of Somali Piracy
The complexity surrounding the social and economic drivers of piracy off the Horn of Africa was lost in the media-friendly version of the story.
African Writers and the Nobel Prize for Literature
Only five African or African-born writers have been awarded the prize since it was first awarded in 1901: Soyinka, Mahfouz, Gordimer, Coetzee and Lessing.
The scope of the problem
Egyptian director Mohamed Diab's film "Cairo 678" documents the lives of 3 women, all victims of sexual harassment and assault and who organize collectively against it.
How we tell stories about cities
We must not forget the everyday lived realities and struggles in vanished neighborhoods.
A Hot Mess
Black women have no say in what is pretty considering it is the job of non-white women to dispel the standards of beauty, and white women to reinvent it.