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, [...]

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 [...]

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.

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: [...]

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 [...]

Reading the regional newspaper I still occasionally write for I discovered that a Kenyan citizen is working in my hometown of only 7000 people. His name is Ayacko Paul Odero. He is 34 years old and works for a local construction company. As the author of the article mentions, he is the first African to be exploited in the otherwise uninteresting city of Tirgu Bujor.

In my country is the type of movie one might see no reason in reviewing. The seriousness of the topic combined with the predictability and banality of some of the characters, the sloppy writing and the cheesy nature of some of the scenes makes me just want to get through my review as soon as [...]

This is a short paper I wrote for a course on Women in Modern Africa. I think there are some interesting debates on how life histories should be interpreted and analyzed here, so I’m posting it on my website hoping that it might be of interest to young scholars and researchers who are are doing [...]

When many Westerners hear of Africa, they think of violence, civil war, famine and rape. However, in many African cities I often felt much safer than in Chicago where I have been living since 2006. Therefore, I decided to make a list of major or at least well-known African cities where I truly felt safer than [...]

Art in Tanzania is an NGO operating in East Africa with projects in Tanzania and Ethiopia. One of their amazing initiatives has been to promote and support local artists and assist them with recording and promoting their music. This project has had some success and the organization is working on new strategies that will give [...]