• Jan Bornman

In South Africa, a spate of food poisoning incidents has ignited another round of xenophobic scaremongering.

• Niall Reddy
• William Shoki

Once a beacon of hope for militant trade unionism, Numsa’s descent into corruption and political entanglement reflects the broader struggles facing South Africa’s labor movement.

• Atiyyah Khan

Rashid Vally, the visionary behind South Africa’s iconic jazz label As-Shams, forged a legacy of revolutionary jazz that defied apartheid and continues to inspire new generations of musicians, activists, and music lovers.

• Khanya Mtshali

This weekend, Chris Brown will perform two sold-out concerts in South Africa. His relationship to the country reveals the twisted dynamic between a black American artist with a track record of violence and a country happy to receive him.

• Sa’eed Husaini

Nigeria and South Africa have a fraught relationship marked by xenophobia, economic competition, and cultural exchange. The Nigerian Scam are joined by Khanya Mtshali to discuss the dynamics shaping these tensions on the AIAC podcast.

• Tshiamo Ramela

Tyla’s rise as a global pop star highlights the complexities of race, identity, and cultural representation, challenging how Blackness is perceived across the diaspora.

• Open Secrets

Despite South Africa’s ban on arms exports to Israel and its condemnation of Israel’s actions in Palestine, local arms companies continue to send weapons to Israel’s allies and its major arms suppliers.

• William Shoki

2024 has been the ultimate election year. Just Us Under A Tree rejoins the Africa Is a Country Podcast to reflect on South Africa’s May poll and what it reveals about contemporary democratic politics.

• Khanya Mtshali

Nicknamed the “Candace Owens of South Africa,” Siphesihle Nxokwana is an anti-feminist influencer playing to crowds already on her side.

• Bárbara Rousseaux

South African photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa returns to places of pain and beauty to reinterpret the landscape and, in turn, discover something new about himself.

• Jabulile Dlamini-Qwesha

Samthing Soweto and DJ Maphorisa’s clash over a song credit raises the question of whether numbers trump respect in the Amapiano music scene.

• Efthimios Karayiannides

While it might be cathartic to compare Elon Musk’s tech firms to apartheid-era mines, the connection between ex-South Africans and American capitalism is complicated.

• Brian Kamanzi

South Africa’s pivot to electricity markets will be socially regressive, whether green or not.

• Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi

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.

• Wamuwi Mbao

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.

• Oliver Tambo

In 1973, Josie Fanon interviewed then-ANC president Oliver Tambo about Israel and apartheid South Africa. Originally printed in French, it is now available in English for the first time.

• Oliver Tambo

En 1973, Josie Fanon a interviewé Oliver Tambo, alors président de l’ANC, à propos d’Israël et de l’apartheid en Afrique du Sud. Il est désormais disponible pour la première fois depuis sa publication originale.

• Khanya Mtshali

Given his track record of sowing division and making empty promises, South Africans should be wary of treating its new Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture as a lovable buffoon.

• Fezokuhle Mthonti
• Ayanda Charlie

In South Africa, a popular beauty contest is revealing the specter of ultranationalism and anti-blackness.

• Khanya Mtshali

The theft dispute between Onezwa Mbola and Nara Smith reveals the consumerist undertones behind content for women in the online creative economy.