The great opus of “Small Bobby”
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/06/the-great-opus-of-small-bobby
In the 1950s and 1960s, the South African magazine Drum gained an international reputation for innovatively revealing black urban life as told, in the main, by black writers and photographers. Ranjith Kally’s pictures and stories of the people of Durban, a city on #South_Africa’s east coast, were part of those circulated nationally, on the…
The Rumble in the Jungle
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/06/the-rumble-in-the-jungle
Some of the most indelible images of #Muhammad_Ali come from his 1974 trip to the Congo. He was the feted guest of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko — who renamed the country Zaire in 1971 — for the spectacular “Rumble in the Jungle” title bout with heavyweight champion George Foreman. The fight exemplified Ali’s boxing smarts. […]
#SPORTS #identity_politics #Obituary #pan-Africanism #Racial_Nationalism
The G.O.A.T.
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/06/the-g-o-a-t
The emotions run high when I think about #Muhammad_Ali and what he meant to me, to us, as children, growing up during apartheid in South Africa. There were days when it felt like the violence and oppression would never end, that we would not win, that the system was too big, too strong. We […]
Maestro Sidibé
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/04/maestro-sidibe
I have never been to Bamako, never been to Malick Sidibé’s studio in that city. In the later years, he would receive visitors, and his son would take their pictures against those famous Sidibé backdrops. But the heyday of the work had been in the 60s and 70s in that post-independence ferment that one […]
The Radical Historian
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/04/the-radical-historian
Until the 1970s, South African historiography – on elite, white English-speaking campuses – was dominated by historians. These historians traced South Africa’s #History of racism to the frontier settled by Dutch descendants, refusing any links to British imperialism, even as they had begun to integrate Africans into their histories. A group of mostly young, white […]
In honor of Rose Lomathinda Chibambo
▻http://africasacountry.com/2016/01/in-honor-of-rose-lomathinda-chibambo
(8 September 1928 to 12 January 2016) In a sense, the fate of Rose Lomathinda Chibambo is that of the perpetual female outsider, always encroaching into male enclaves, white and black alike. In 1952, she starts organising women in Zomba, the then capital of Malawi, to protest against the colonial government because the men via the […]
An ode in memory of Chimusoro Sam Moyo
▻http://africasacountry.com/2015/11/an-ode-in-memory-of-chimusoro-sam-moyo
An unimaginable loss has happened. Our phenomenal intellectual pan-African giant on land issues, Professor Sam Moyo, has died following injuries sustained during a terrible car accident in New Delhi, India......
The Permanent Exile
▻http://africasacountry.com/2015/10/the-permanent-exile
The Pan-Africanist intellectual and journalist Bennie Bunsee (79) passed away on October 10th in #Cape_Town, the city where he lived and worked since he returned from exile after South.....
#Chespirito: The Latin American Idol
▻http://africasacountry.com/chespirito-the-latin-american-idol
Mexican actor Roberto Gómez Bolaños died last week, aged 85. Chespirito (which means “little Shakespeare” in Mexican Spanish), as he was known, created, scripted and starred on many successful #TV.....
#LATIN_AMERICA_IS_A_COUNTRY #culture #Mexico #Obituary #POLITICS #Roberto_Gomez_Bolanos
#Ali_Mazrui and Me
▻http://africasacountry.com/ali-mazrui-and-me
I am asked on a regular basis, on campus and off, a question I assume is posed to many scholars of Africa, especially non-African ones like me: “What made you decide to teach African #HISTORY?” And whether I give the long or short answer, my reply always begins with explaining the pivotal role Ali Mazrui […]
The Historic Legacy of #Ivor_Wilks
▻http://africasacountry.com/jean-allman-on-ivor-wilks
I first met Ivor Wilks in 1976, when I appeared in his office doorway – a befuddled, nervous, and apprehensive undergraduate – with a rather vague and naïve idea about applying for an undergraduate research grant to study in #Ghana. In retrospect, Ivor had no reason to take me seriously and probably every reason to brush […]
When #Maya_Angelou lived in #Ghana
▻http://africasacountry.com/when-maya-angelou-lived-in-ghana
In 1961, Maya Angelou, already a civil rights worker, and her then partner Vusumzi Make, an exiled activist from South Africa (he was a leading Pan Africanist Congress member), moved to Cairo, Egypt, where she found work at an Egyptian newspaper. One year later, Angelou and Make broke up and she moved to Ghana with her […]
The #Komla_Dumor I knew
▻http://africasacountry.com/the-komla-dumor-i-knew
A friend who knew I was once a broadcast journalist with #Joy_FM recently asked me whether I had any pictures with Komla Dumor (KD). My response was “unfortunately not, and I am not going to Photoshop one either,” as I do not want to be called a Fast Pretender - a term reserved for friends of Shabba Ranks and Maxi Priest on House Call. This is to say I did not get the chance to bond with KD like say Akwasi Sarpong or Stan Dogbe, mostly because Komla Dumor was “always leaving when I was coming.” What I am trying to say is that I did know the man, but not intimately. However, at the least, he was my friend on Facebook–I hope that (...)
#MEDIA #BBC_Focus_on_Africa #Ghana #Obituary #TELEVISION #University_of_Ghana #Vibe_FM
Boss Player
▻http://africasacountry.com/boss-player
The BBC news presenter #Komla_Dumor, who passed away this weekend from cardiac arrest, was an exceptional broadcaster; read Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie’s obit here. Everyone loved him. He was probably the most stylish newscaster also, and was well on his way to becoming the first globally recognized superstar news presenter originating from the continent. Dumor took #JOURNALISM seriously. Just […]
#Football_is_a_Country #BBC_Focus_on_Africa #football #Obituary #soccer