A historical novel by Sudanese writer Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin narrates an unusual love story between a slave and a princess.
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Those who make homes in dark buildings
In his new book ‘The Blinded City,’ Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon takes readers into inner city Johannesburg not as it was or could be, but as it is.
Dreams of highfalutin philosophies
If an author writes with empathy, precision and authenticity about experiences foreign to their own, they’re a good writer and not a cultural appropriator.
Taper salam
For African women passing through Morocco en route to Europe, begging on the streets becomes a way to support themselves, but also reinforces humiliation and shame.
A Picture’s Worth
Mabel Cetu is considered South Africa’s first Black woman photojournalist and documented the everyday lives of Black communities in the 1950s.
A brief history of five elections in Angola
The specter of Angola’s 1992 elections continues to impact the country’s democratic process.
World Cup 2022
As Iran withstands one of its greatest existential challenges, its men's national team would be forced to carry the weight of a nation’s despair on the field.
The reality of any society, any nation, and of our world, is much messier than picking a soccer team.
Culture
Greed has fiercer allies than justice
Libyan writer Ibrahim Al-Koni’s latest novel is a philosophical retelling of the story of Amazigh queen Al-Kahina.
The media of the useable past
Revisiting the papers of left, anti-colonial revolt from the continent can remind us of messy, rich alternatives.
Museveni’s goons are polite
Uganda’s rulers don’t get that clobbering words is impossible. The pen will escape every hammer, and cross borders to haunt oppressors, even if the authors are no longer around.
The humiliating weight of Frenchness in Tunisia
Tunisia had sought to Arabize itself since independence and failed. It’s relation to France still very much defines the country’s character.
Faster than the ashes of a burning fire
Hausa poetics of compassion and resistance in northern Nigeria in the age of pandemics and neoliberal democracy.
Climate Change
A democratic energy transition in Tunisia
It may seem obvious that a real transition to renewable energies is urgent, but not all transitions are the same or fair.
It could happen to us
Climate negotiations have repeatedly floundered on the unwillingness of rich countries, but let's hope their own increasing vulnerability instills greater solidarity.
The land and the sea
Communities whose land is being targeted for exploration by oil and gas companies are increasingly using the courts. South Africa points to good lessons for social movements about allying with the law.
Life to the sound of gunfire
Nigerians fleeing extremist violence at home take refuge across the border in Niger among an already fragile population. Together they proceed to carve out a way to live better lives for now.
Politics
Apartheid nostalgia
South Africans agree that redistribution and economic security are urgent. But will they arrive via a deepening of democracy and public accountability, or a return to authoritarianism?
Everything the government does
On the South African Department of Tourism’s pending sponsorship deal with Premier League football club, Tottenham Hotspur.
Naija decides
This month, Africa’s largest democracy and economy goes to the polls. On the AIAC podcast, we discuss Nigeria’s upcoming elections.
Milk in the Upington sun
Fear of the future, longing for the past: the new story in South African politics.
William Ruto and the evangelicals
Which theology we will use to make sense of the relationship between church and state in Kenya?
RADIO
This month on Africa Is a Country Radio, taking inspiration from the work of Chinua Achebe, we take a listen to the music of the post-independence era on the African continent.