Current Affairs, Featured
Renowned Cape-Verdian singer, Cesaria Evora dies at 70
Renowned West-African singer, Cesaria Evora passed away on Saturday in her native country of Cape Verde of cardiorespiratory insufficiency and hypertension. Credited for putting Cape Verde on the world map, Evora was often known as the “Barefoot Diva”. She always sang barefoot, a way for her to express her solidarity with poor women all over [...]
Featured, Movies about Africa
African film : new forms of aesthetics and politics
While it is true that everywhere from Hollywood to Nollywood producers have their say in what goes into a film, nowhere are they as arrogant and paternalistic as in African cinema funded by France
Featured, Suggested
bin Laden in a Romanian church
As expected, the news that Osama bin Laden has been killed made it around the world in a heartbeat. In the light of this event, some Romanian journalists did some research and discovered that there is a church in the western part of Romania (Timisoara) where an image of Osama bin Laden is actually painted [...]
Current Affairs, Featured
In memoriam Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros
As a journalist, I instinctively hope that the deaths of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were not in vain. But I also know that the products of their work are the long-lasting testimony of lives well lived.
Current Affairs, Featured
Modern human cultures and languages born in Africa
All modern languages have an African origin, recent study shows.
Click on the following photos to access the latest featured articles
Book Reviews, Featured
Tourism and Migration in a globalized world
Posted on 14 December 2010
I just finished reading a very interesting report published last year by the World Tourism Organization. It’s called Tourism and Migration: Exploring the Relationship between Two Global Phenomena. As the title of the report suggests, the authors are interested in dealing with the relationship between tourism and migration, given the fact that both phenomena involve [...] Continue Reading
East Africa, Featured
Urban Developments in Dar es Salaam
Posted on 14 December 2010
Dar es Salaam, the main economic center of Tanzania, is one of the most congested cities I have ever been to and lived in. Traffic in the city is, for the lack of a better word, a real clusterfuck. If you expect to drive from Maktaba Street (downtown) to Mikoceni B, via Ali Hassan Road [...] Continue Reading
Current Affairs, Featured
African women go after hot masculine men
Posted on 09 December 2010
The Economist recently ran a story on women’s tastes towards men based on a series of scientific studies recently published in academic journals. To cut to the chase, Professor Lisa DeBruine, of the University of Aberdeen, published a paper in which she argues that women in developing countries with precarious health conditions (which basically means [...] Continue Reading
East Africa, Featured
One brain drain phenomenon you haven’t heard of
Posted on 08 December 2010
Brain drain and Africa are old acquaintances. For as long as we have heard of post-colonial Africa, we’ve known of people leaving the continent, willingly or not (or better said because they had no other choice), in search for a better place. And the problem with a phenomenon like brain drain is that it is [...] Continue Reading
Current Affairs, Featured
The Brenda Fassie story (2005)
Posted on 17 October 2010
Brenda Fassie is, arguably, one of the greatest African singers of the last 20 years. Widely considered the Queen of African Pop (in South Africa and beyond), Fassie is often seen as one of the most remarkable artists who has successfully appealed to a wide audience made of both disfranchised, poor people and middle-class Africans, [...] Continue Reading
Book Reviews, Current Affairs
The Clothes of Nakedness – power, deceit and struggle in a West African city
Posted on 11 October 2010
Benjamin Kwakye is, by all means and purposes, a literary force to be reckoned with. Born in Accra, Ghana, Benjamin Kwakye attended the Presbyterian Secondary School (Presec), Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. He currently works and lives near Chicago. His first novel, the one I just finished reading, is called The Clothes of Nakedness. Set [...] Continue Reading
Book Reviews, Featured
Where is Home?
Posted on 07 October 2010
It doesn’t often happen that I finish reading a book and then I end up starring at my ceiling thinking to myself: this was a hell of a book. Every time it happens, I feel this strange feeling of exuberating joy and I feel so happy with myself despite the fact that I had no [...] Continue Reading
Current Affairs, Featured
WTF is Black Interest?
Posted on 02 October 2010
The reason why this approach pisses me off is that it represents a ghettoization of a discipline. Basically, a publishing house is making an artificial division in the field of literature based on racial terms. What that implies is that the average customer is deprived of the element of surprise that comes with buying a book just for the sake of the book. Now you’re literally told from the beginning that this book is published by a black person dealing with black issues. Continue Reading
Current Affairs, Featured
In Africa, salvation lies in the hands of women
Posted on 01 August 2010
From the very first time I got to spend a significant amount of time in East Africa, I realized that the most hard-working, diligent and persistent actors I had the pleasure of observing were women. I remember emailing an old friend of mine, during my first research trip to a small village in Uganda, saying the following: [...] Continue Reading
Featured, Suggested
Introducing Bessie Head
Posted on 30 July 2010
Bessie Head is one of my favorite African writers. Her books, though not numerous, have had a huge impact on both how I see Southern Africa and how I see myself in relation to a part of the world that I deeply cherish. In case you don’t know who Bessie Head is, here are some [...] Continue Reading
Awesome quote of the day
I’m going through my research material from Uganda as I’m preparing to write my masters thesis. I just came across one of the most hilarious quotes on my tapes. Check this out (it’s by a woman craft maker):
A man who speaks and gives orders is that who has money to meet the needs of his wife. But if a man cannot fulfill those duties, then he is not a man after all, right? He’s just a nagging woman with a penis.
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This Vanguard reportage deserves to be seen.
I don’t normally post things that are not Africa-related but this young man from Taiwan is simply amazing. Lin Yu Chun participated in a Taiwanese version of the American Idol called Super Star Avenue, singing the song I will always love you by Whitney Houston. I’ll keep it short: his version of the song is clearly better than what Mrs. Houston is capable of singing right now. Some dubbed him the “Susan Boyle of Taiwan” and there might just be something of this young man. Check it out yourselves. I’m sure you’ll be surprised as well.
To all of us who have experienced the adventure that is a boda-boda (motorcycle-taxi in East Africa, primarily in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo)
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A Romanian in Africa by Codrin Arsene is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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