Africa Is a Country

Amsterdam is a Continent

Amsterdam is a Continent

By
Tom Devriendt


ZAM is an international multimedia platform celebrating African creativity and new thinking, priding itself on a network of over 500 African journalists, photographers, writers, artists, academics, visionaries, doers and hundreds of peers in Europe and elsewhere. (Which we can attest to.) The original Dutch version of ZAM Magazine has been around for a while but to widen their reach, the magazine has reinvented itself as “an independent, quarterly print magazine on Africa and beyond” that will be launched in Amsterdam today. The first international issue features contributions by Helon Habila, Achille Mbembe, Paula Akugizibwe and Elnathan John; profiles of artists Jane Alexander and Ayana Vellissia Jackson (the portrait on the magazine’s cover, above, is by Jackson); opinion pieces by Kalundi Serumaga, William Gumede, Kassim Mohamed; Africa is a Country (yes); and much more.

Speakers tonight will be Kunle Adeyemi, Palesa Motsumi and Idsis Akinbajo (with visuals by Bouba Doula and tunes by DJ Bamba Nazar). ZAM’s new facebook page has all the details.

(Tonight’s launch is open to everyone interested so if you’re in Amsterdam, shoot them an email confirming your presence at [email protected] — and tell them Africa is a Country sent you.)

Further Reading

Fuel’s errand

When Africa’s richest man announced the construction of the continent’s largest crude oil refinery, many were hopeful. But Aliko Dangote has not saved Nigeria. The Nigerian Scam returns to the Africa Is a Country Podcast to explain why.

Fragile state

Without an immediate change in approach, Somalia will remain a fragmented country populated by self-serving elites seeking foreign patrons.

Coming home

In 1991, acclaimed South African artist Helen Sebidi’s artworks were presumed stolen in Sweden. Three decades later, a caretaker at the residential college where they disappeared found them in a ceiling cupboard, still in their original packaging.

Imaginary homelands

A new biography of former apartheid homeland leader Lucas Mangope struggles to do more than arrange the actions of its subject into a neat chronology.

Business as usual?

This month, Algeria quietly held its second election since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in 2019. On the podcast, we ask what Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s second term means for the country.