The Xhosa literary revival
The writer Mphuthumi Ntabeni's new novel explores the deep history of colonialism and resistance in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
South Africa
Police killings: how does South Africa compare?
An examination of South African statistics reveal that the police are substantially more violent than those in the US or Canada.
The cultural resilience of a creole city
On this month’s AIAC Radio we head to Cape Town to understand how this creole city's musical culture resisted containment throughout history. Listen on Worldwide FM and follow us on Mixcloud.
The poet of colouredness and exile
Dennis Brutus described Arthur Nortje as “perhaps the best South African poet of our time.”
What is learning for?
The ideal South African is not the citizen but the consumer, and this is impressed upon children immediately when some are sent to private schools.
Upsetting color and its representations
What is one particular place when represented photographically?
Who is afraid of Robert Sobukwe?
AIAC Talk explores the life, thought and legacy of the pan-Africanist and anti-apartheid revolutionary, Robert Sobukwe.
Hamba Kahle Sibongile Khumalo
South African singer Sibongile Khumalo (1957-2021) was a musical giant. She also launched her own label and advocated for women's rights.
The death of an exceptional woman
The cruel and lonely COVID-19 death of the South African land and rural women’s activist, Siza Ngubane.
The afterlives of indenture
South Africa's history of indentured labor leaves behind a legacy of violence against women among the country's South Asian population.
More morbid symptoms
Much of what passes for politics these days is actually just anti-politics: not a function of too much politicization, but a severe lack of it.
The tragic delusions of white exceptionalism
At another historical inflection point, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized white Americans’ delusions as the property of the West more broadly.
The problem with generalizations
Despite the media's wish for a neat story, the African continent's response to COVID-19 is all over the map.
The legacy of violence in the struggle for South Africa
An excerpt of an essay, titled “Nongoloza’s Ghost,” in Lapham’s Quarterly. It's published in partnership with Africa Is a Country.
Renewable energy’s dark side
As countries expand investment in decentralized renewable energy, its worth keeping an eye on who's profiting.
Soft targets
What was behind the assassinations in the 1980s of two key anti-apartheid figures: Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, and senior ANC official, Dulcie September?
Congo’s white ‘refugees’
After the fall of colonial rule, some whites fled from their African countries of residence and sought refuge in apartheid South Africa.
Tupac is alive in Africa
Young Africans are breathing life into Tupac’s memory, channeling his image and his music to be heard and seen in social spaces where they feel neither audible nor visible.
Living on
The Indian activist ES Reddy led the fight against South African apartheid at the UN. More importantly, his life reflected the best of left internationalism.