“All you wear is ‘Native’?” “You don’t wear ‘regular’ clothes?” “Why don’t you wear English clothing?” I wear African attire all the time and these are questions I’m asked in Lagos, Nigeria, where men wear English suits with neckties in the blazing sun. Why?
Cultural identity
Politics and Society What would African feminist porn look like?
“Hey, have you seen Twi porn before?” he asked. “You’re joking” was my response. Twi porn? He put in a DVD and yes; it was a porn film with a heterosexual Ghanaian couple speaking Twi throughout.
African identities African attire isn’t “proper” attire?
Despite African and African-inspired attire being all the rage and trending internationally, Africans in America can still be refused entry to nightclubs because of their attire. “Isn’t African dress equal in all respects to European dress?,” asks one writer.
Arts, Culture and Sport White Barbie, out! Queens of Africa, in
Something is terribly wrong when a Nigerian girl like myself grows up craving white Barbie dolls. Girls all over Africa crave the same today, and this far from harmless. Fortunately Nigerians are starting to produce dolls that look like us.
African identities Female MPs in Kenya outrage over polygamy law
Female MPs in Kenya have stormed out of a late-night parliamentary session in a row over the legalisation of polygamy
African identities The death of South African languages
South Africa has 11 official languages, but some black people are being brought up to speak only English. Others equate speaking English with intelligence, forgetting that when we lose our mother tongue we lose a sense of who we are.
Politics and Society African faces, European minds
When one looks and listens to business, political and cultural leaders, we are most likely to see and hear speeches of African people that not only reinforce white supremacy but are rooted in European thinking. Our present orientation is not necessarily rooted in African thought, culture and heritage.
African identities 25 and not Married?!
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 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