By Kylie Thomas Ernest Cole is famous for photographing the everyday realities of South Africa’s racist apartheid system. His 1967 book House of Bondage ensured...
The humility of a man who cannot be humiliated
Who was Albert Luthuli? The murdered South African leader who put his people above himself A biography By Judith Coullie South African liberation leader Albert Luthuli died...
Pops Mohamed mixed old and new to reinvent South African music
An orbituary By Gwen Ansell Pops Mohamed is dead: He was committed to a South African musical identity, Ismail Mohamed-Jan – better known by South African jazz...
Valentin-Yves Mudimbe: the philosopher who explored what decolonised African thought might look like
Valentin-Yves Mudimbe was one of the most influential African thinkers of the 20th century. He showed that Africa was often imagined as a void to...
Mozambique: the opposition leader returns home after post-election turmoil
By Luca Bussotti When people watched political debates on Soico TV, one of the most watched private channels in Mozambique, around 2010, they often saw a...
Rashid Vally: South African visionary whose indie record labels shaped the jazz scene
By Gwen Ansell Some record labels create huge market and financial clout. Some stay much smaller, but punch way above their weight in terms of...
By Alaba Ilesanmi Rikki Stein, born into a regular, middle-class home in the UK, has had what must have seemed an unlikely career. As a...
Jomo Kenyatta, father of the nation? Kenya’s first president built up a myth which masked his faults
By Stephen Mutie The 22th of August is Kenyatta day in Kenya. The former president strategically used myth. That he is still remembered as the...
