Fifty years ago an unmarried 25-year-old African woman was seen as odd. A husband and family was supposed to be your life’s goal. Thank God we’ve moved on. Or have we?
African identities
African identities The long trip home: What it’s like to move back to Africa
When you are really ready to live in Africa you take a step back, listen and learn from those who know a whole lot more than you do about the place you call home.
African identities Love and fear: Tanzania’s albino women
For reasons still unknown to scientists, albinism seems to be most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Tanzania has one of the highest incidents of albinism in the world, roughly 1 in 35000. The country’s albinos live in fear of their lives.
African identities First woman maasai warrior?: the appropriation of African cultures
To the many white people in African countries using us to make a name for themselves while overshadowing the work of those few who genuinely care and have a clue about what they’re doing, please get over yourselves, and find less insulting ways to feel good about yourselves
African identities Art Criticism: is the prefix ‘Afro-’ (as in “Afro-futurism”) arresting our imagination and manifesto salesmanship?
A prefix modifies a word/statement. The prefix ‘Afro-’ as used in art criticism modifies existing manifestos. But it has the capacity to arrest African imagination, so that the African imagination follows other manifestos, only to attach itself to them and never coming up with an original of its own. Filmmaker and Philosophy student Phetogo Tshepo Mahasha speaks
African identities Homosexuality and African history: the roots of the criminalisation of homosexuality
Media reports on how brutal it is to be a gay person in an African country, while much needed, ought to be more balanced. We should not ignore the fact that the legal status of gay people in most African countries is horrendous, we should also keep in mind that different spectrums of the LGBTQ community continue to thrive in even the most staunchly anti-gay countries in Africa
African identities How African elders stopped talking to the youth about sex
Today, many young people of African descent – both at home and abroad – lament their parents’ prudish attitudes towards sex. Most of us grew up around parents who never displayed their affection for each other in front of us, parents who never talked to us about sex except to warn us to abstain before marriage
African identities Black Pete: race, power and identity
White people in blackface celebrated as part of a “tradition”? The Dutch are one of the most progressive people in Europe, but the controversial character known as Zwarte Piet reveals a blind spot on the subject of race. Are the Dutch not fully aware of their history?