By Justin Willis, Gabrielle Lynch and Nic Cheeseman Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, the face of Uganda’s political opposition, has been much in the news in the past few months: usually surrounded by policemen or soldiers, sometimes wreathed in tear gas, sometimes bloodied. The violence against the opposition ahead of […]
By Gerhard Maré Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, who has passed away at the age of 72, was the longest reigning of all Zulu kings on record. This was the 50th year of his incumbency. His reign spanned turbulent decades in South Africa. He assumed the throne at the height of apartheid, and […]
Popular Zimdancehall star Soul Jah Love, real name Soul Musaka, has died. The 31 year-old musician was confirmed dead on arrival at Mbuya Dorcas Hospital on Tuesday after friends had rushed him to the ZAOGA owned hospital after he had complained of weakness. The Pamamonya ipapo singer’s exact cause of […]
“Democrats,” Camilla Nielsson’s superb 2014 documentary about the tortuous construction of Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution, was most riveting as a snapshot of a country still trying democracy on for size, wary of what it saw in the mirror. Studying the troubled coalition government that paired president Robert Mugabe’s long-ruling ZANU-PF party with the more […]
By Francis Fukuyama, Barak Richman, and Ashish Goel Among the many transformations taking place in the U.S. economy, none is more salient than the growth of gigantic Internet platforms. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, already powerful before the COVID-19 pandemic, have become even more so during it, as so […]
By making art from recyclable materials – other people’s rubbish – Moffat Takadiwa is commenting on environmentalism and inequality. He is also sending the garbage back to the West through his practice: ‘As they continue dumping in Africa, I return it,’ he says. From one of Zimbabwe’s oldest, most overpopulated […]
Showboating Zimdancehall music promoter and self-proclaimed prophet, Passion Java, has announced his divorce from second wife Lily Tsegaye. Writing in Shona on his Facebook page, a bizarre choice given his wife is Ethiopian and his church based mainly overseas, Java announced that his divorce had now been approved, after a […]
By Ian Scoones The debate about compensation of former white farmers in Zimbabwe continues to rage. The compensation agreement signed in July agreed a total amount of US$3.5 billion to pay for ‘improvements’ to the land that was expropriated. After 20 years of discussion, this was a major step forward. […]
By Paul Onanuga Music is a reflection of the society within which it is produced. As a music genre, hip hop has not only gone global, it has taken up the shape of every society where it has found a home. Rap music has many positives, but elements of the […]
Pioneering Ndebele artist fears young people are losing a sense of their roots One of Africa’s best-known artists has made an impassioned appeal for governments and communities across the continent to preserve their traditions and culture in the face of globalisation. Esther Mahlangu, 85, said that she was worried young […]