South Africa joined in the Americans’ black history month celebrations by re-membering and reflecting on the life of Abram Onkgopotse Tiro, a student activist and black consciousness revolutionary who died on 1 February 1974. I host the “lit review desk” on the MA’AT Reggae Show every…
No one could or would dispute that Fela Kuti was a force to be reckoned with. His formidable cocktail of talent, charisma, and intense conviction made him the ideal spokesperson and advocate not only for the people of Nigeria but oppressed peoples of all stripes. To summarize the modern political history of Nigeria in a couple of sentences is impossible. However, it would…
African and Western influences intersect in the genre of Chimurenga. If your first encounter with it was through Paul Simon’s Graceland, then you should know that there is much, much more to it than the supremely danceable beats, infectious melodies, and spindly guitar licks that make you tingle. It was a vehicle for potent messages that unified the people…
Imagine what consistent exposure to music in other parts of the world would do to your perception of its vastness and the diversity of peoples who occupy it. Yet music feels highly personal—it is the soundtrack of our lives!—and further engenders intimacy. It is a powerful tool one can use to begin to cross the cultural boundaries that often divide us from those who are…
Growing up in the United States, my education of literature was VERY white and male and American. A lot of what is considered part of the literary canon (“the list of works considered to be permanently established as being of the highest quality”), which is lauded, taught in schools, and held up as classics–treated as crucial and universal–is white, male, and euro- or US-centric. A recent article posted in The New York Times…
Ukraine in the year 2036 is the setting for the new movie on Netflix, whereby the U.S. peacekeeping forces have intervened in a war between Russian-backed secessionists and local Ukranian resistance groups. Played by Anthony Mackie, the main character in this movie is a technological creation but otherwise fully human-looking and with the capacity to empathize with and experience human emotions…
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