OPINION
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Against the ropes – the other Mandela
Our collective imagination around Nelson Mandela can do with more interrogation, says Kagiso Mnisi.
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Efforts to discourage girls from being cut in Tanzania have changed the cultural meaning and practices around the ceremonial rite of passage.
Breast ironing, a traditional practice commonly done in Cameroon, is the use of hard or heated objects like a wooden pestle or scalding grinding stones to stop or slow the development of breasts in young girls, supposedly to “protect them from sexual harassment, rape and early pregnancy”.
At the root of the skin bleaching phenomenon is a psychological complex.
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Zethu Matebeni weighs in on the #RhodesMustFall protest movement, the largest wave of student protests in democratic South Africa.
Recent xenophobic and Afrophobic utterances by Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu, two of the leading figures in South Africa’s EFF party, fly in the face of Africanism and ubuntu, says Blessing Vava.
Voluntourists' ability to change systems, alleviate poverty or provide support for vulnerable children is limited. They don't have the skills and can perpetuate patronising and unhelpful ideas.
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- sex & relationships
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Whenever people talk about what a never-colonised Africa would look like, I think of what Women who Sleep with Women (WSWs) relationships would look like without gender normativity.
There are so many grooming options open to women today – from a landing strip to a bald Brazilian to covering your vagina in sparkles. Making the vagina look and smell ‘aesthetically pleasing’ – like ensuring it smells of guavas – is a billion-dollar industry. But women – and only women – should be in charge of what their lady parts look like.
We are failing our girls by denying them information about sex, says Kagure Mugo.
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We all enjoy sex but we don’t really talk about it – one reason that the topic of sextech is so emotionally charged. Artificial intelligence has boldly entered the global (and, more recently, the African) sex market, bringing with it a revolution in robotic sextech designed to provide sexual gratification that is eerily almost human.
The impression that Intimate partner violence (IPV) only occurs in heterosexual relationships where the man is stereotypically the aggressor is a false and dated idea. Lesbian women can, in fact, be perpetrators and victims of this form of violence.
Ahead of World AIDS Day on Friday, here is a snapshot in numbers, based on UN data, of the deadly disease which was identified in the early 1980s.
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- investigative
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The top U.S. foreign policy goals in Africa evidently no longer relate to human rights or democratic freedoms, but to protecting tiny, marginal American industries.
Not all rebel armies use rape and sexual violence as a weapon. Some have actually designed ways to prevent such atrocities. How and what can we learn from them?
“A large chair does not make a king.” This African proverb tells us one thing: The Paris Climate Change Agreement, now ratified by 44 countries on the continent, must amount to more than promises, says Dr Richard Munang.
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The process of institutionalisation may be patchy and uneven. But one thing is clear: Africa is not without functioning institutions.
Botswana’s new president needs to diversify the economy and make the most of regional integration.
Not all African leaders are willing to be swept by the democratic reforms of the early 2000s.
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Fatou Kandé Senghor is a Senegalese artist and filmmaker. She talks about the pan-African icons of her youth, the icons of Senegalese society, and the difficulties of passing on their lessons to her daughters in the digitalised and globalised 21st century.
Mũkoma wa Ngũgi explores a redefinition of what ‘icon’ means in the African context, the unearthing of names that are all too often forgotten, the invisibility of female icons in our historical narratives, and the nature and role of the diaspora in our cultural, political and economic production
UN Resident Coordinator Siddharth Chatterjee has one of those CVs that will blow you away. Sneak a peek at his Twitter bio and you will see what we are talking about. Ex Indian Special Forces. Ex Red Cross. Princeton alumnus. And a presiding don of the opinion pages at Huffington Post and Reuters. We’re sure you see what we are talking about. He’s a man worth paying attention to. We’re glad he recently spared a few minutes to sit down for an interview with Dr Diana Wangari who brings us the scoop.
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Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún interviews A. Igoni Barrett on the Graywolf Press Africa Prize and the role of literary prizes
Good career advice is hard to come by. Fortunately for all of us, Dr Jacqueline M. Applegate, the subject of a new interview on This Is Africa has it in spades. “In order to excel in your career, my advice is to be 100% committed to figuring out how to make your dreams a reality. Take the cards you’ve been dealt, play your hand well, and enjoy the journey!”
In this exclusive excerpt from an interview with Valentine Iwenwanne, Femi talks about his life, music, Fela and, of course, political and social issues.
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Botswana's former President Seretse Ian Khama, 65, is enjoying retirement, spending some of his time visiting communities. Khama recently shared some photos hanging out with villagers and donated some goodies to the children. The former president also participated in a football tournament.
By royal decree, Swaziland, one of Africa’s last absolute monarchies, will henceforth be known as the ‘Kingdom of eSwatini’
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie told her #MeToo story this week during the Stockholm Forum on Gender Equality. In her closing keynote speech, Adichie spoke of how she was sexually harassed when she was a 17 year-old. Adichie was one of the 600 gender equality actors who participated in the Stockholm Forum.
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Poaching is a blight that has robbed future generations of several species already, including the northern white rhino, of which only two females remain. Tanzania is now using proactive measures such as satellite collaring to save its drastically thinning elephant population
The death of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was first met with negative headlines by numerous local and global publications. The demonisation of an African woman comes easily to the Western media. But in this case, African women formed a vanguard against such negative stereotypical narratives and wrote Mama Winnie's history with a golden pen, appropriately placing her where she belongs; a revolutionary leader and the spear of the nation.
Julius Malema, the leader of the South African political party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), inspired a Twitter hashtag #JuliusMalemaChallenge following his speech at the Mother of the Nation’s funeral. He hit out at people and groups who, according to him, had betrayed her in life but extolled her in death.
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