August 07
South Africa: New Book On Mapungubwe Archive Contests History of South African World Heritage Site
Mapungubwe is a world heritage site and national park located on the border between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. From about 1000 AD the settlement there developed into a… Read more »
August 04
Africa: Beyoncé Has Helped Usher in a Renaissance for African Artists
Beyoncé has released her seventh solo studio album, titled Renaissance (2022). The album, an event in global popular culture, is the first of a three-part project by the US… Read more »
August 01
Africa: How Used Clothes Became Part of Africa's Creative Economy - and Fashion Sense
In recent years the global secondhand apparel market for clothing and shoes has grown exponentially. In 2002 used clothing exports were worth US$1.4 billion. Despite a slowdown… Read more »
July 28
South Africa: What the U.S. Can Learn From Apartheid-Era Book Bans in South Africa
"Beloved." "The Hate U Give." "Maus." "Burger's Daughter." Read more »
July 27
Zimbabwe: Noviolet Bulawayo's New Novel Is an Instant Zimbabwean Classic
In Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo's new novel Glory - longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 - animals take on human characteristics. Through this she explores what happens when… Read more »
July 26
South Africa: Epitaph for a Baobab - Remembering South African Poet and Activist Don Mattera
The towering South African poet, activist and humanitarian Donato Francesco Mattera passed away on 18 July at the age of 86. What he represented to South Africa is far larger than… Read more »
July 25
Nigeria: Setting the Record Straight - Burna Boy Didn't Create a Music Genre Called Afrofusion
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu was born in 1991 in Port Harcourt, the largest city in Rivers State in Nigeria. He would become known as Burna Boy, a singer, songwriter and record producer… Read more »
July 19
Africa: Remembering Frantz Fanon - Six Great Reads
Frantz Fanon, the Martinique-born psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and leading pan-Africanist, would have been 97 on 20 July 2022. Read more »
July 14
Nigeria: 100 Years of Popular Music in Nigeria - What Shaped Four Eras
The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020 shut down nearly all physical and social human activities. For musical practice this meant near death.… Read more »
July 13
Africa: New Book Challenges Whiteness - A Review Through the Cover Image
The cover of The Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness carries a striking image courtesy of South African artist Norman Catherine. The image was created in 2015 as… Read more »
July 10
Africa: 'Stranger Things' Shows How Conspiracy Theories Take Hold and Do Harm
Note: The following article contains spoilers about "Stranger Things." Read more »
July 07
South Africa: Spiritual Traditions Fuel South African Jazz Artist Tumi Mogorosi's New Album
Blues ... Black ... Darker than grey/ Creation sounds Gold Reef Mine rockfall crush-sounds/ Guitar-string gun-spit tear flesh/ Black sonic science/ Darkest Acoustics ... (from… Read more »
Nigeria: Wole Soyinka's Life of Writing Holds Nigeria Up for Scrutiny
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known simply as Wole Soyinka, can't be easily described. He is a teacher, an ideologue, a scholar and an iconoclast, an elder statesman, a… Read more »
July 06
Zimbabwe: Ndabaningi Sithole - A Forgotten Intellectual and Leader
Ndabaningi Sithole was one of the founding fathers of the modern state of Zimbabwe in southern Africa. In August 1963, he became the first president of the Zimbabwe African… Read more »
July 04
South Africa: The Case of the Acclaimed South African Novel That 'Borrows' From Samuel Beckett
Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt: may those who utter our words before us perish. This lighthearted Latin curse speaks a truth many readers and writers have felt: to have our… Read more »
July 03
Zimbabwe: Book On Zimbabwe Strongman Robert Mugabe's Legacy Has Many Flaws
Development studies professor David Moore's new book, Mugabe's Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe, attempts to understand the legacy of Robert… Read more »
June 29
Africa: How the Music of an Ancient Rock Painting Was Brought to Life
Archaeologists spend a lot of time examining the remains of distant pasts, which includes the study of rock paintings. This is largely visual work - but sometimes we can "hear" the… Read more »
June 24
Africa: Falling in Love With Cabo Verdean Singer Cesária Évora All Over Again
Ana Sofia Fonseca's feature documentary Cesária Évora opens with hand-held, bootleg-style footage of the legendary Cabo Verdean morna singer in rehearsal. It is… Read more »
June 23
Rwanda: Kinyafranglais - How Rwanda Became a Melting Pot of Official Languages
Today, Rwanda is a melting pot of official languages. Although more than 99% of Rwandans speak Kinyarwanda - a Bantu language and the country's mother-tongue - Rwanda has three… Read more »
Africa: Nigerian Historian and Thinker Toyin Falola On Decolonising the Academy in Africa
Nigerian intellectual and historian Toyin Falola's latest book is called Decolonizing African Studies: Knowledge Production, Agency, and Voice. It sets out to respond to the urgent… Read more »
June 22
Nigeria: Widows in Nigeria Are Sometimes Treated Badly
Nigeria is home to about 15 million of the world's 258 million widows. Widowhood in an ethnically and religiously diverse country like Nigeria, with three major ethnic groups and… Read more »
June 16
Uganda: What the 100-Year-Old Makerere University in Uganda Reveals About Culture
Makerere University, which marks its centenary this year, is well-known as the oldest university in East Africa and as a cradle of political elites. Its alumni include presidents… Read more »
June 09
Kenya: Drama That Shaped Ngugi's Writing and Activism Comes Home to Kenya
As Kenya marked its 59th anniversary of internal self-rule on 1 June 2022, a controversial play by the nation's foremost author, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, was staged in sold-out shows.… Read more »
June 08
South Africa: Senzo Meyiwa Trial Casts Spotlight On Language Use in South African Courts
The murder of football player Senzo Meyiwa in 2014 and its protracted and controversial police investigation involving high profile figures in the South African music industry… Read more »
June 07
East Africa: Four Novelists, One Ocean - How Indian Ocean Literature Can Remap the World
Novels make worlds. They create an intuitive sense and mental image of a place. And the senses of space produced by fiction shape how readers see the world itself, just like maps… Read more »
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