When paintings are dreams
The vivid imagery of Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera touches powerfully on themes such as womanhood, religion and spirituality.
Culture
Matchday 1: Ahmed Sekou Touré
In this week's episode of the African Five-a-side podcast, we delve into how Guinea's first president, and our midfield destroyer, said "No" to France and "Yes" to football.
Between struggle and national history
The 1959 Pidjiguiti Massacre served as an important historical marker in the curriculum of the anticolonial resistance in Guinea-Bissau.
Poetry, nationalism, and al-Shabaab
In Somalia, poets are considered organic public intellectuals.
Understanding the African sports economy
Sports on the continent are being commercialized at a rapid rate. What’s driving it?
Reading List: Daniel Hammett, Laura S. Martin and Izuu Nwankwọ
What is the relationship between humor and politics in Africa?
The politics of hosting AFCON
Africa’s biggest spectacle is happening soon. What does it take to host the African Cup of Nations?
Nairobi’s third places
In Nairobi, skateboarding provides an alternative space where consumption is not a prerequisite for entry.
Weeping for Palestine
In 1987, a band led by a group of South African Jewish brothers released a song against apartheid repression. Today, its lyrics speak to conditions in Palestine as well.
Matchday 1: Mobutu Sese Seko
The African Five-a side podcast continues to explore the stories of five African heads of state and their influence on football. This week, we introduce our striker.
Bayard Rustin’s Zimbabwe
A new film about American civil rights icon Bayard Rustin overlooks his later conservative turn, evident in his attitudes to anticolonial resistance in Africa.
Are the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers a new era for African Football?
This week on the African Five-a-side podcast, we take a look at the kick off of the African qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
God, ancestors, and nature
Environmental protection is deeply-held practice in African spirituality. What happens when it is re-shaped by Christianity and capitalism?
The man behind ‘Uganda Renaissance’
How an experimental periodical led by an individual editor thrived in Nasserist Cairo even though it never joined the canon of revolutionary print.
Hier kom die bokke
Something’s different about the reaction to South Africa’s victory at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, its fourth title.
Matchday 1: Kwame Nkrumah
Up next in the African Five-a-side podcast, we name our central defender, and explain how Ghana's first president boycotted the 1966 FIFA World Cup and won two Afcons.
Keeping Afrobeat decolonial in Buenos Aires
One bandleader's quest to keep Afrobeat political in Latin America.
Where is African cinema in Hollywood?
It would seem that Hollywood has discovered Africa again. But how does all the new American content about Africa’s past compare to a previous generation of African-made movies on the same topic?
Matchday 1: Gamal Abdel Nasser
In the latest episode of the African five-a-side podcast, we name our goalkeeper.
Baloji’s synaesthetic universe
The return of Belgian-Congolese multitalent Baloji is nothing short of remarkable, with his latest output offering a fourfold album, an immersive exhibition, and most notably, a captivating magic realistic film.