I heard of Basil Davidson's passing at the honourable age of 95 from a former student who forwarded an obituary to me. For years Davidson's prolific work has been on reading lists I distributed to all students (regardless of ethnic background) on my African history courses. It was when I pinned on the classroom wall an article about him with a huge photograph that students expressed their surprise that Davidson was not an African. read more »
Blogs
The Vuvuzelization of world football: Ghana & the real story of SA2010
With Ghana as the only remaining African team at the ongoing 2010 World Cup, as I write, the question for many people inside and outside Africa has been about the miserable performance of the five other African representatives. The 2010 World Cup was billed as the African World Cup, and hopes were high that a good number of African teams, amongst the six, would do better than in previous World Cup tournaments. These hopes thrived notwithstanding the facts of the official FIFA rankings, in which no single African team featured in the world's top eighteen. read more »
From the Editor Sharing the Gifts of the Nile: The Struggle between Egypt and East Africa
The Nile, for so long the lifeblood of many African civilizations along its banks, is now the scene of acrimonious debate and potential conflict among the nations that contribute to or depend on its precious waters. Nine Nile Basin countries are pitted against each other; on the one hand is Egypt and Sudan and on the other Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The battle for control of the Nile is fueled by a combustible mix of colonial history, postcolonial politics, environmental threats, and developmental ambitions. read more »
Which Pan-Africanism? A Critical Reading of Ngugi’s ‘Re-membering Africa’ By Chambi Chachage
Posted June 21st, 2010 by Anonymous
"The Pan-Africanism that envisaged the ideal of wholeness was gradually cut down to the size of a continent, then a nation, a region, an ethnos, a clan, and even a village in some instances... But Pan-Africanism has not outlived its mission. Seen as an economic, political, cultural, and psychological re-membering vision, it should continue to guide remembering practices" - Ngugi wa Thiong'o
The Curator as Culture Broker: A Critique of the Curatorial Regime of Okwui Enwezor By S. Okwunodu Ogbechie
What is the meaning of Enwezor's curatorial work and how does it affect the kind of knowledge emerging in the discourse of contemporary African art? read more »
