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 […]
Reviews
Zimbabwean artist Takadiwa speaks to the world through garbage
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 ‘Prophet’ Passion Java announces divorce from second wife
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 […]
A closer look at land and compensation for Zimbabwe’s white farmers
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. […]
Video vixens and cash: how Nigerian hip hop music objectifies women
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 […]
Hold on to your traditions, artist Esther Mahlangu tells Africans
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 […]
Friends reveal how gas powered Ginimbi’s business success
By Brian Chitemba Genius “Ginimbi” Kadungure (36) breathed his last in the wee hours of Sunday. His death created a buzz on social media platforms and spawned wild conspiracy theories of how he lived, made his fortune and died. Kadungure’s palatial mansion in Nyamande Village in Domboshava — some 30 kilometres from […]
Zimbabwe-born teen Blessing Chitapa wins UK’s The Voice talent singing competion
Blessing Chitapa has been crowned as the winner of The Voice UK. The 18-year-old singer, originally from Zimbabwe, was named as the winner during Saturday’s episode of the ITV talent competition. She saw off competition from Jonny Brooks, who was coached by Sir Tom Jones, in the final. Chitapa, who […]
Dambudzo Marechera’s literary shock treatment
By Tinashe Mushakavanhu “The intense, slightly aggressive young man made an immediate impression. But the intensity was real. And the writing talent which was being applauded was real. And the aggression or anger was real, was deeply felt, and was in part pain and resentment against acts of arrogance, racism […]
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie voted ‘winner of winners’
Nigerian author’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun, which won in 2007, named the best book in the prize’s 25-year history by the public Thirteen years after she won the Women’s prize for fiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel about the Biafran war, Half of a Yellow Sun, has been voted […]