Blogs

Academics are often accused of being preoccupied with theory rather than practice, and semantics instead of actions, while favoring microscopic details over the big picture. Scholars working on Africa, in particular, are often accused of being intellectually self-indulgent, while the continent faces an array of very real challenges.  read more »

A number of thought provoking studies on race and performance in American culture have demonstrated that class identities in America have been constructed through the symbolic use of  African American bodies.  The bulk of these studies have looked at minstrelsy in 19^th century America.  David Roediger (1991) has shown that minstrelsy, a popular form of Vaudeville-type entertainment wherein White performers (usually male) blackened their faces with burnt cork in order to impersonate African Americans, played a key role in White working class formation before t  read more »

The eruption of race in the current American presidential campaign has been a reminder of its volatility in American history and politics. The decision of Barack Obama to run for the Presidency has seen him transformed from an African American freshman United States Senator to a national figure whose political fortunes have become tied to the possible transformation of American political culture and its life.  read more »

Rwandans are remembering the genocide of Tutsis 14 years ago, which was the culmination of a racist script written in Europe and then rehearsed in the continent for over 100 years with an African cast.  read more »

Very senior officials of the American, French, British, and German governments recently held fruitful discussions with their Nigerian counterparts in Accra, Ghana. The purpose of the meeting was to amicably resolve disputes that have developed over exclusive rights to treat the minor ailments of Nigerian rulers and ‘top government functionaries'.  read more »