1689 Search results for "african"

African Traditional Religions prepared me to grieve my mother
I’ve learned it’s best not to try to control how the memories of my mother show up, or what emotions they are wearing when they enter. This one is dressed in a rare crossbreed of inconsolable laughter and a stabbing sob, and it’s seeping out of my iphone from wherever the speaker is located on […]
Steve McQueen’s ‘Western Deep’ is a counter memory for Black miners during South African Apartheid
by Donnie Moreland Steve McQueen’s Western Deep is a horror film. Though McQueen’s 2002 dual video installation (presented with Carib’s Leap) is, in form, video art, I feel it is possible to understand Western Deep as genre cinema. An exploration into the TauTona Mine Shaft No.3 of South Africa—also known as Western Deep—it is a […]
What Black Brits want African Americans to know about race and racism in the U.K.
By Habiba Katsha Race and racism aren’t topics that are spoken about openly enough in the U.K., and when they are mentioned it’s usually just to compare it to racism in the States. White British people look at the U.S as the epitome of a racist country, especially with Donald Trump as president. They are […]
“It doesn’t have to make sense to other people”: An interview with African Diaspora Childfree Sociologist, Dr. Kimya N. Dennis
I wasn’t prepared for the responses to my most recent essay on living intentionally as a childfree Black woman and taking ownership of my womb. I never presumed I was alone in my sentiments on this subject, of course, but I also didn’t expect my words to resonate so deeply with so many people. Writing […]
Rwandan publishing house Imagine We is cultivating African storytelling for global readers
In 2015, Rwandan literary author Dominique Uwase Alonga founded the African publishing house, Imagine We, to cultivate, train and produce African authors and storytelling. They produce Rwandan and African children and young adults’ books.
Smithsonian Museum of African American History acquires Wakandan artifacts
According to WTOP, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has obtained props from the film Black Panther, including the superhero’s suit. The museum received the items following a February screening at the facility’s Earl W. & Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts.
‘MTV Shuga’ is a messy millennial edutainment series educating African youth about sexual health
by Kathleen Anaza Drawing in viewers with juicy telenovela-style drama, star-studded casts and curated soundtracks, MTV Shuga has become a favorite among the scandalous and socially-conscious television viewer on the African continent. Over five seasons, Shuga has operated as three self-contained miniseries, each set in a unique country and with a distinct cast. The stories […]
Review Roundup: Zora Neale Hurston’s book on one of the last Africans in the Atlantic slave trade
Nearly 90 years after it was first written, Zora Neale Hurston’s series of interviews with one of the last Africans brought to America from the Atlantic slave trade has arrived in bookstores across the country. Barracoon is introduced rather fittingly by Alice Walker, the woman whom we can thank for a revitalized interest and scholarship […]
South African revolutionary leader Winnie Mandela dies at 81
On Monday, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, perhaps one of South Africa’s most beloved and most complex figures, passed away at the age of 81. Her passing allows for renewed perspectives on her life, which was propelled by revolutionary action during apartheid that would become later be marred in a series of scandals. As The Guardian reported, Mandela was frequently […]
Call me Akata: Reclaiming our birthright as Indigenous and African people born on American soil
by Chelsea Neason In 1964, Malcolm X made history with “The Ballot or the Bullet”. With this speech, he proclaimed a bone-shaking truth: Black people born in America are not Americans. In Detroit, MI during one of the most impactful decades of visible Black resistance in the United States, Malcolm declared: “We are Africans, and […]
South Africa moves to take lands from settlers’ descendants to redistribute to indigenous South Africans
South Africa’s parliament recently moved for a controversial land redistribution plan. The plan would empower the government to seize lands from white farmers without offering them payment (a move that in the United States would likely elicit due process violation rebuttals) and give them to Black South African people. The plan’s purpose is largely recompense […]
Like my native tongue, Wakanda bridges the cultural gap between my African ancestry and Black American life
by Antoinette Gregg Until I moved to New York City for graduate school, I had never been asked the question, “What kind of Black are you?” Growing up, there was only one kind of Black that I knew of: Geechee. A hodgepodge of Caribbean, African, and European ways of life, Geechee/Gullah is the culture, language, […]