• William Shoki

This week on the Africa Is a Country podcast, we discuss the politics and spectacle of African football with Maher Mezahi.

• Vincent Bevins

The last decade saw the most protests in human history. But how is it that so many uprisings led to the opposite of what they asked for?

• Keith Mundangepfupfu

Although visibility is important, contemporary queer African literature reveals how easily representation privileges narratives of the resourceful and upwardly mobile.

• Tinashe Mushakavanhu

Frustrated by most of his contemporaries, but supported by like-minded friends, Zimbabwean author Dambudzo Marechera forever changed our notion of what African literature is.

• Raphael Kariuki

How a new underground club in Nairobi offers Kenyans respite from the harshness of everyday life.

• Zinhle ka’Nobuhlaluse

In her new biography of South African writer Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell shows how the publishing industry historically excluded Black women, and how they wrote in spite of that.

• Lilly Havstad

Nigerian and South Sudanese filmmakers give voice to the search for identity, stability, and belonging through the lens of youth and migration.

• Simon Adetona Akindes

In Colombia, doing straightforward political music carries many risks, including confronting state repression, political armed rebellions, and organized crime.

• Gopolang Botlhokwane

By questioning black masculinity in post-apartheid South Africa, Thando Mgqolozana became one of the most impactful writers of his time. But then he got accused of the same thing he opposed.

• Alex Dawson

Chika Unigwe’s novel, 'The Middle Daughter,' reimagines a Greek myth within a contemporary Nigerian context and develops it into a gripping family saga.

• Yotam Gidron

Even though Israeli novelist Agur Schiff’s latest book is meant to be a satirical reflection on the legacy of slavery and stereotypes about Africa, it ends up reinforcing them.

• Timothy Kumfer

Two miles from the White House, 'Black Land News' forwarded a bold vision of political, economic, and cultural autonomy inspired by African decolonization struggles.

• Promise Frank Ejiofor

How does it feel to be gay in an environment where homophobia is mundane and rampant, and where gays are silenced, ridiculed, and assaulted in everyday life?

• Asher Gamedze

Asher Gamedze on his new single ‘Wynter Time,' and the struggle of oppressed peoples against dispossession, exploitation and alienation.

• Luke Sinwell

Once associated with socialism, the language of participation has been co-opted. How was this radical idea depoliticized?

• Lizzy Attree

Kayo Chingonyi's latest poetry collection is a powerful meditation on the cycle of infection, death, and mourning wrought by HIV.

• Alex White

In the 1960s, two African nationalist magazines shared a name—but declassified files reveal that they were on opposite sides of a literary Cold War.

• Shamira Ibrahim

From 2024, the Grammys will feature an award for Best African Music Performance. Is the category a positive step embracing the global popularity of African music, or another homogenizing exotification?

• Nkanyiso Ngqulunga

In their debut EP, the Johannesburg-based experimental jazz group iPhupho L’ka Biko offer a message of hope, resilience and solidarity while drawing from South Africa’s black jazz heritage.

• Ery Claver

A new film by Ery Claver probes the fraught relationship between China and Angola, revealing their differences—and surprising similarities.