The fuss over the first Afro-Latino Spiderman
When Marvel Comics first announced that a new Spiderman would be half-Hispanic and half-African-American.
Culture
Summer in the City
Weekend Music Break 49 makes stops in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda and with the diaspora in Australia, among others.
Everyone has their own Paul Biya
What would happen if the president goes missing? The people wouldn't care. They've learned to live without him.
Stone breakers
This edition of Weekend Music Break, number 48, curated by journalist and rapper T'seliso Monaheng, stops over in Senegal, Lesotho, Ghana and South Africa.
On African Fiction(s)
Who decides where African fiction begins and ends and which (African) writers fall within its ambit?
Weekend Music Break 47
Another week, another solid playlist of eclectic African sounds. Yo Chale, feeling fresh after a trip to the barbing saloon, C-Real and M dot prove they each embody the word “OPEIMU” (extraordinary individual) as they stroll and cruise through the Ghanaian streets. Complimenting the tinted gold visuals, the track makes ample use of a few gloriously […]
Liberian Independence, Staten Island Style
This past Spring I wrote an article for the Red Bull Music Academy about the music and nightlife communities clustered around African neighborhoods in New York. A key motivation behind writing that article was to bring some visibility to the many diverse communities of African immigrants within the city that aren’t always visible to the average New […]
What’s wrong with the Germans?
German reality shows that travel to Africa have the feel of colonial era ethnographic films in how they perpetuate the image of the ‘primitive other’
Hassan Khan and his 6 minute film “Jewel”
Last year, while visiting Okwui Enwezor’s Triennale at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (titled: “Intense Proximity”), I was struck by one specific piece: “Jewel”, a 6 minute short film by Egyptian artist Hassan Khan. As already noted by Orlando Reade writing about The Ungovernables, this short video is as much enigmatic as enthralling: Even if […]
What is the new image of Africa?
“Africa is finally seizing control of its image” goes the mantra. But which Africa and which image?
Sympathy for the ‘Devil’
A New York Times article that's respectful and mostly accurate, including the use of terminology, when covering African Traditional Religion.
Restaging the Death of Patrice Lumumba
The merits of restaging 'Une Saison au Congo,' Aimé Césaire's history of the life and death of Patrice Lumumba, in London, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor.
This Film Has Been Banned
The South African feature film, "Of Good Report," deals with the relationship of a teacher with his underage student. The local censors decided it is a crime to screen it.
Weekend Music Break 46
Electrique DJs, Fena Gitu and Jaaz Odongo have the perfect Summer tune for you. Technically, we’ll have to call it “Kenyan” house music: Another great video by director Nicky Campos, this time for South Africans Cassper Nyovest and OkMalumkoolKat: “9 quatrains to paint a reality,” Enyam Scandalocks calls it. The reality he describes is Lomé’s. Koreg on […]
The Banned Film
South Africa's film censor bans the film 'Of Good Report' by Jahmil XT Qubeka, which deals with predatory teachers.
5 New Films to Watch Out For, N°28
Here’s another pick of five interesting-looking new films that have come out recently. Born This Way is a film by Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullmann about gay activists and members of “Alternatives Cameroun,” the first LGBT organization in Cameroon — a cause made all the more urgent by the recent killing of Camfaids director and activist Eric […]
A Season in the Congo
A review of Aimé Césaire's 'A Season in the Congo' (Une Saison au Congo) at the Young Vic theatre in London.
The Unruly Rush of the City
Julie Mehretu's canvases depict a public zone dichotomous to that of their own surrounding, brimming with a sense of the life of a city which we can never really know or measure, whose politics is alive but oddly incubated.
Nigeria’s drama filled history
The historian Max Siollun wants to present Nigerian history as something more than a mechanical rendering of dates and facts.
Weekend Music Break 45
We took the week off last week so we’re coming back at you extra strong today. For those of you trying to stay warm this winter and those of you keeping it cool this summer we’ve got ten tracks that’ll give you what you need. Kicking it off is Brooklyn-based Rwandan Iyadede. It’s been far too […]