The murderous pogrom against migrants and refugees in South Africa has now claimed 62 people murdered and thousands homeless at last count. I have been struck by the haphazard official response by the South African government (apart from rhetorical commitments) and the country’s political leadership (President Thabo Mbeki, hiding in a TV studio, to this [...]
Archive for May, 2008
Immigrants are ‘the real superheroes’
Posted in film, photography, South Africa, tagged Dulce Pincon, film, immigrants, immigration, photography, racism, South Africa, violence, xenophobia on May 31, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Modern Painters features Marlene Dumas, Robin Rhode and William Kentridge
Posted in art, tagged art, interviews, magazines, Marlene Dumas, Modern Painters, Robin Rhode, William Kentridge on May 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Table of Contents here.
Good Music on Saturdays: ‘Mode for Joe’
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged babies, Joe Henderson, Music, South Africa, violence, xenophobia on May 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I woke this morning. Rosa went to music class. I put on Joe Henderson. For Fidel and Nkosi and all the new babies in South Africa. (Oh, the record, see here.)
Music: Usher, “Love in this Club” (the Coupe Decale Remix)
Posted in Music, tagged Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, DJ Chief Bouma, Ivory Coast, Love in this Club, Music, The Fader, Usher on May 30, 2008 | 2 Comments »
DJ Chief Bouma, West Coast purveyer of Ivorian Coupe Decale adds to the myried remixes of Usher’s “Love in this Club.” You can hear it here.
Art: Aunt Juliana (1944) by Gustavo Lazarini Terradas
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, Aunt Juliana, exhibitions, Glossolalia: Languages of Drawing, Gustavo Lazarini Terradas, Museum of Modern Art, Uruguay on May 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Original reference.
Guinea-Bissau and the globalization of the cocaine trade
Posted in Not just about Africa, tagged crime, drug trade, Guinea-Bissau, Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post, West Africa on May 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s poorest nations, has become a major transshipment hub and the epicenter in Africa for the cocaine trade, according to U.S., European and U.N. officials. The shift demonstrates how the flow of drugs adapts not only to law enforcement pressure but also to the forces of global economics. View the video [...]
You know it’s bad when you have to go to another country to buy bread
Posted in politics, South Africa, tagged Christian Science Monitor, Scott Baldauf, South Africa, violence, xenophobia, Zimbabwe on May 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Christian Science Monitor‘s Johannesburg correspondent Scott Baldauf (I am a real fan of the paper’s Africa reporting) on the link between cross-border movement between South Africa and Zimbabwe as a result of a food crisis against the backdrop of a meltdown in Zimbabwe and widespread xenophobia (that turned violent and murderous) in South Africa. [...]
Thabo Mbeki in letter to George W Bush: On Zimbabwe, I side with Robert Mugabe
Posted in Not just about Africa, politics, South Africa, tagged elections, George W Bush, letter, Robert Mugabe, Thabo Mbeki, Zimbabwe on May 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In late April … President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa — Zimbabwe’s influential neighbor — addressed a four-page letter to President Bush. Rather than coordinating strategy to end Zimbabwe’s nightmare, Mbeki criticized the United States, in a text packed with exclamation points, for taking sides against President Robert Mugabe’s government and disrespecting the views of [...]
The tale of the magical penis snatchers
Posted in You can't make this stuff up, tagged Frank Brunes, genitals, Harper's magazine, Lagos, magazines, magic, magical penis loss, Nigeria, penis, penis thieves on May 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A 6-page spread in Harper’s Magazine, a monthly periodical known for its “emphasis on fine writing and original thought.” You need a subscription to see the article so the writer, Frank Brunes, has kindly created a link to the article on his blog. If you still can’t access it, an editor over at Slate gives [...]
Pre-colonial African literary culture
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Africa on the Internet, history, Mali, manuscripts, Timbuktu on May 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In my day job, I teach university-level courses in African Studies. Occasionally I have to teach introductory courses that aim to cover the continent’s long and diverse history. One problem lecturers often have in teaching courses that include Africa’s pre-colonial past — a period when Africa’s interaction with Asian societies was more intense than it [...]
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