The making and unmaking of permanent minorities
Mahmood Mamdani’s new book asks how communities that have been enemies can heal. But does it succeed?
Politics
Managing the city like the military
Nairobi is already witnessing the sidelining of democratic institutions. Now a new city management agency is further excluding the public.
Excavating Kazi Mataani
In the second video from our Capitalism In My City project, Dennis Esikuri talks to everyday Nairobians about the current employment opportunities in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic.
History and the politicians
The historically fraught relationship of metropole and colony persists between France and Algeria, as a recent “symbolic” gesture reveals.
Ethiopia’s murderous new era
The writer's brother died in the political violence that has become part of how political power is being contested in Ethiopia.
The strongman’s vision of democracy
Former South African President Jacob Zuma’s various rationalizations and obstructions for his crimes make for good drama. But they also reveal Zuma’s aversion to the rule of law.
Kenya’s 42 (+) tribes
The vagueness around who is and isn’t a “tribe of Kenya” is a double-edged sword. The persistence of ethnic classification and counting can be pernicious.
Beyond violence and militarism
In Nigeria, we should train and empower communities to participate in security measures, rather than arming militias.
A forsaken people
The Indigenous people of the Tibesti mountain range that straddles northern Chad and Libya have been neglected and stigmatized by the elites who control and favor development of the south.
Shoprite’s attack on workers’ rights
The Southern Africa retail chain boasts massive profits, but its workers in Namibia are shortchanged.
A history of resource plunder
Since European colonialism first arrived, Africa has provided its best raw materials to the global North. Can African countries finally break out of this pattern?
The lessons of the Indian farmers’ protests
The latest COVID-19 crisis in India is overshadowing a farmers' revolt over land and agriculture. That revolt holds lessons for Africans.
Machine wars
What does the expansion of artificial intelligence in warfare look like in West Africa and other US military outposts?
The new movement against apartheid
There is a lesson in the struggle for South African freedom: South Africans seeking solidarity understood they were speaking to specific audiences, not to an undifferentiated global community, and they strove to meet people where they were.
The demobilization of the South African masses
What do we know about the potential for new kinds of social movements in South Africa?
Dispossession in the name of democracy
South Africans fight for “adequate housing,” freedom from eviction, and a government that will progressively realize both of these goals.
Liberation after independence
On AIAC Talk this week, we mark Independence Day in Sierra Leone, and Freedom Day in South Africa—but what does freedom really mean on the ground in these countries? Watch the show live Tuesday on YouTube.
Capitalism is a disease
Anyone who lives in fear of getting sick exists in a state of unfreedom.
The hustlers of Nairobi
Why is Nairobi's government terrorizing hawkers and hustlers around the city? An anthropological perspective.
Exit the bulldozer, enter Mama Samia
Has the recent death of Tanzania’s president John Magufuli created new political possibilities?