African Longreads

Out of Egypt’s Chaos, Musical Rebellion One washed towels in a barbershop. The other sold fast food....

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:44:02 +0300

Out of Egypt’s Chaos, Musical Rebellion

One washed towels in a barbershop. The other sold fast food. Some nights, they would grab the microphones at outdoor weddings and try out raps they had written, only to earn a hail of stones. Now they are among the fastest-rising stars in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation and its largest music market. Under the names Okka and Ortega, they play sprawling shows in Egypt and abroad. In just a few years, these and other young musicians have created a new genre of youth-driven, socially conscious music and forced it on the Egyptian soundscape. Their music predated the political revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, and most of the musicians did not join the uprising in Tahrir Square. But the turmoil since has left Egypt’s huge youth population searching for voices that address issues they care about.

Writer: Ben Hubbard

Length: 1218 words

Source: The New York Times

Published: May 11th, 2013

Robert Mugabe: From Liberation Hero to Villain to Redeemed Father of a Nation? In 2010, Prof Ian...

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:29:43 +0300

Robert Mugabe: From Liberation Hero to Villain to Redeemed Father of a Nation?

In 2010, Prof Ian Scoones of Sussex University published a study that claimed the seizure of white-owned farms, which smashed food production a decade ago, had also bequeathed a positive spinoff in the form of thousands of small-scale black farmers. It has been followed this year by a book, Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land, which concludes: “In the biggest land reform in Africa, 6,000 white farmers have been replaced by 245,000 Zimbabwean farmers. These are primarily ordinary poor people who have become more productive farmers.” Agricultural production is now returning to its 1990s level, they argue. The reappraisal is hotly disputed. The MDC says that Zanu-PF cronies and supporters are the main beneficiaries, and the new farmers are still easily outnumbered by agricultural workers who lost their jobs – but the mere fact that land reform’s consequences have moved from conventional wisdom to a debate worthy of airtime is another step towards making Mugabe’s legacy less unpalatable.

Writer: David Smith

Length: 1401 words

Source: The Guardian

Published: May 10th, 2013

Bi Kidude, Songstress Who Breathed Life Into Taarab Yes, Fatuma Binti Baraka was that tiny, and that...

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:22:27 +0300

Bi Kidude, Songstress Who Breathed Life Into Taarab

Yes, Fatuma Binti Baraka was that tiny, and that kidude description stuck on her until her death last week, only that this time it was not used in the quasi-derogatory manner of her formative years, but as a stage name for a woman who had become the face and voice of Zanzibari music. Bi Kidude travelled the world using the name, and wherever she went the crowds related it Tanzania’s rich cultural heritage. Despite a career that span across decades, much of Bi Kidude’s life story is uncorroborated. There are numerous fables about her exploits in Oman and other Arab countries as she toddled her first steps in the world of music and entertainment, but few of these have been backed up by material evidence. Also worthy of note is the fact that her age, estimated at about 100 years, had not been confirmed by the time she died and was only based on her accounts and the guesstimates of Swahili historians.

Writer: Edward Qorro

Length: 1010 words

Source: The Daily Nation

Published: April 26th, 2013

Final Issue: How Poor Management Destroyed [Egypt’s] Leading Voice Even though the paper broke...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:00:46 +0300

Final Issue: How Poor Management Destroyed [Egypt’s] Leading Voice

Even though the paper broke even in an impressive 20 months, Kassem says a series of poor decisions failed to capitalize on this success and dragged it into a financial crisis. The investors approached the paper mainly as a prestige project, aiming only to have it finance itself and not to turn into a profitable investment. “I don’t believe in this view: that in order to produce a good paper, it has to be bankrupt. No, I believe in the saying that there is no press freedom without a business plan. Subsequently, he says, the investors adopted a policy in which a steady stream of revenue was prioritized over the continued growth of the paper. Since its inception in 2004, the revenues of the paper increased steadily until investors in 2007 decided to contract an advertising company in the hope of guaranteeing regular returns. This, Kassem argues, put a ceiling on the paper’s growth.

Writer: Heba Afify

Length: 1185 words

Source: Egypt Independent

Published: April 25th, 2013

Inside Camp Farah: The Making of Marathon Man Mo It has been over 18 months since Farah’s...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:06:05 +0300

Inside Camp Farah: The Making of Marathon Man Mo

It has been over 18 months since Farah’s colours were lowered. He won all his races in 2012, and 13 out of 16 in 2011, but until he joined Salazar he was consistently a notch below the super elite. He finished sixth in the 5,000m at the 2007 world championships and seventh in the same event in 2009. Not bad but not exceptional. That year his agent, Ricky Simms, suggested he move up to the marathon. Dave Bedford, then race director of the London Marathon, agreed. They sought out Salazar, a former world record holder in the event, believing he would persuade Farah. But Salazar reckoned Farah’s future was still on the track – if not entirely on track.

Writer: Sean Ingle

Length: 2501 words

Source: The Guardian

Published: April 19th, 2013

Asia in My Life The colonial school system segregated Asian, European and African from each other...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:34:10 +0300

Asia in My Life

The colonial school system segregated Asian, European and African from each other and it was not until Makerere College that I had social interaction with Indians. Makerere was an affiliate of the University of London in Kampala, Uganda, where, until the advent of idi Amin, racial relations were benign. Before its college status, Makerere used to be a place of post-secondary schooling for African students from British East Africa, but as Independence approached, the college opened its doors to a sizeable Indian student presence. That is when we started learning about each other’s different ways of life at a more personal basis. We shared dorms, classes, and the struggles for student leadership in college politics and sports. Leadership emerged from any of the multi-ethnic and multi-racial mix. Doing things together is the best teacher of race relations: one can see and appreciate the real human person behind the racial and ethnic stereotypes.

Writer: Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Length: 2825 words

Source: Chimurenga Magazine

Published: May 15th, 2012

The Third Way The experience of the abortive Tsholotsho challenge has shown that Mugabe is not...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:21:36 +0300

The Third Way

The experience of the abortive Tsholotsho challenge has shown that Mugabe is not prepared to countenance the renewal of the party and has treated this as a personal threat instead. Indeed, Mugabe’s response to Tsholotsho confirms that he is only comfortable surrounded by subservient personalities. The appointment of Joyce Mujuru as the second vice-president has little to do with a principled gender agenda but all to do with a strategy to sideline a potent political threat from the young Turks in the party. These young Turks, who are now engaged in collective wound-licking after being dealt a fatal political blow by Mugabe are, in addition to Mnangagwa and Moyo, six provincial chairpersons, namely July Moyo, Daniel Shumba, Jacob Mudenda, Lloyd Siyoka, Themba Ncube, Mike Madiro and Phillip Chiyangwa.

Writer: Trevor Ncube

Length: 1735 words

Source: Sir Nigel’s Journey [Blog]

Published: April 19th, 2013

Breaking the Silence A concerned person can’t help but keep track: In the decade from 2001 to 2011...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:35:00 +0300

Breaking the Silence

A concerned person can’t help but keep track: In the decade from 2001 to 2011 official oppression has forced at least 49 Zimbabwean journalists into exile, the fifth worst record in the world. Within Zimbabwe’s borders, scores of national and a few international human-rights activists, writers, and photographers have been intimidated or arrested, and one local cameraman, suspected of passing photographs of a beaten-up Morgan Tsvangirai to foreign media, was murdered in 2007. Since 2000 Tsvangirai has been arrested numerous times and once nearly beaten to death by Mugabe’s henchmen. In theory, freedom of speech is protected. In practice, a series of imaginatively broad laws attempt to ensure silence. Regardless of when or how Mugabe leaves power, it’s going to take his country a long time to recover from him.

Writer: Alexandra Fuller

Length: 2696 words

Source: National Geographic

Published: May, 2013

Gods Fall Down: The Mythical World of Senegalese Wrestling The Senegalese know wrestling as laamb, a...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:24:19 +0300

Gods Fall Down: The Mythical World of Senegalese Wrestling

The Senegalese know wrestling as laamb, a deceptively simple contest between two men dressed in loincloths and decked in talismans. The winner is whoever puts his opponent on the ground, whether on his back, rear, stomach, or a combination of hands and knees. It is an old sport, fought in the sand, steeped in deep, village traditions. But in the last decade, this pastime has evolved into an outsized spectacle, widely televised; its champions have become wealthy celebrities with a greater claim on people’s hearts than any president or businessman. Today, the combination of legend, money and mysticism has made laamb a cradle for heroes and the ambition of every boy in Senegal.

Writer: John B. Thomson

Length: 4190 words

Source: SB Nation

Published: March 23rd, 2013

Madiba, I Let You Go Now it is time for us to show him some of that same mercy. To stop staring and...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:04:02 +0300

Madiba, I Let You Go

Now it is time for us to show him some of that same mercy. To stop staring and instead honour him quietly in our lives going forward, grant him his peace. Madiba has earned his rest. He has earned the right to sit quietly with the people he loves most in this world, and drift gently into the next one. He gave us his life in service – but we don’t even want to grant him his death. Why do we keep on wanting him to get better, just so that he can go back into hospital? Selfishly, we don’t want to let go of all he symbolises, so we are forcing him to cling to a life that he has, in all honesty, lived out. Madiba withdrew himself many years ago, as we all know. He did not want public life anymore; what he wanted was a life, a good life, with his family. He was done fighting and wanted happiness. And that, ironically, seems to be the one thing that – for all our claimed love – we don’t want to grant him.

Writer: Marelise van der Merwe

Length: 1182 words

Source: The Daily Maverick

Published: April 3rd, 2013

The Story Behind “Nairobi Nights” When Nairobi Nights appeared in 2011, it was unlike anything else...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:29:08 +0300

The Story Behind “Nairobi Nights”

When Nairobi Nights appeared in 2011, it was unlike anything else that has appeared in Kenyan media. The blog was a running conversation on selling sex in East Africa’s most bustling city. Purportedly written by a Kenyan prostitute who calls herself “Sue,” the blog chronicled her adventures working Nairobi bars, backrooms, and hotels. It quickly found an audience of ultra-wired and sex-curious youth—which is to say everyone with a pulse and a phone. “When it came out, it blew up. If you were connected, you found out about it,” says Kennedy Kachwanya, a blogger with a large following. “Everyone wanted to know what this was about.” Another Kenyan blogger named Harriet Ocharo recalled when she first heard of the blog: “Somebody circulated a link from Twitter and it went viral that day.”

Writer: Dayo Olopade

Length: 3146 words

Source: Tomorrow Magazine

Published: Fall, 2012

Generation Kenya As I sit here, in upstate New York, and read The New York Times, or watch CNN,...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:38:31 +0300

Generation Kenya

As I sit here, in upstate New York, and read The New York Times, or watch CNN, Africa feels like one fevered and infectious place. In this diseased world, viruses spread all over—and a small local crisis in one corner can infect the rest of the continent in one quick blink. In a highly suggestive New York Times piece, dated April 23, 2007, and titled “Africa’s Crisis of Democracy,” Nigeria’s recent flawed election is used to show how everything democratic in sub-Saharan Africa is teetering on shaky stilts. This habit—of trying to turn the second-largest continent in the world, which has 53 countries and nearly a billion people of every variety and situation, into one giant crisis—is now one of the biggest problems Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Ghana face. We have learned to ignore the shrill screams coming from the peddlers of hopelessness. We motor on faith and enterprise, with small steps. On hope, and without hysteria.

Writer: Binyavanga Wainaina

Length: 4774 words

Source: Vanity Fair

Published: July, 2007

Ancient Kingdoms in Land of War For many people around the world, Sudan conjures images of war,...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:04:47 +0300

Ancient Kingdoms in Land of War

For many people around the world, Sudan conjures images of war, instability, drought and poverty. All of those things exist here, often in tragic abundance. But lost in the narrative are the stories of the ancient kingdoms of Kush and Nubia that once rivaled Egypt, Greece and Rome. Lost to many, that is, but not to the archaeologists who have been coming here for years, sometimes decades, to help unearth that history.

Writer: Isma’il Kushkush

Length: 1099 words

Source: The New York Times

Published: March 31st, 2013

Born Lucky: Tales of a High-Class Hooker Born to a rich family at the coast, Lynn was educated at a...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:55:00 +0300

Born Lucky: Tales of a High-Class Hooker

Born to a rich family at the coast, Lynn was educated at a private, “international” school in Mombasa and counted more white friends among her classmates than black Kenyan ones – you can tell by the absence of a Kenyan accent. She’s bright, no doubt about it, and beautiful, with wild two-inch tufts of bleached blond hair, huge doe eyes, caramel skin and strong, bright white teeth. She could probably make a good living in front of the cameras in Cape Town but when she arrived in Nairobi she couldn’t find a job, so she became what she describes as a ‘chick hustler’ instead. She is only 20 years old and quite good at her job.

Writer: Brian Rath

Length: 1196 words

Source: Mail & Guardian

Published: March 25th, 2013

Recognising Africa’s Past, Finding its Future Femi has followed in his father’s...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:34:12 +0300

Recognising Africa’s Past, Finding its Future

Femi has followed in his father’s footsteps, and continued the mission of taking Afrobeat, the musical genre pioneered by Fela, to the world. The first of my two interviews with him takes place early on a Thursday evening at the Shrine, an expansive complex in Ikeja, Lagos, where he holds court, as his father did decades ago (the Shrine used to be at a different venue then). He will be performing later tonight (when he is in town he performs on Thursdays and Sundays), in a dimly-lit pavilion. Dancers and band-members hang around, but Femi is seated by himself, backstage, clutching a trumpet. He is wary of me at first (I would later understand why), but as the interview proceeds he relaxes, and I end up taking far more of his time than I had promised.

Writer: Tolu Ogunlesi

Length: 2244 words

Source: AlJazeera.com

Published: January 10th, 2013

Lunch with the FT: Isabel dos Santos Though Forbes has placed her fortune at $2bn, Dos Santos is,...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:24:45 +0300

Lunch with the FT: Isabel dos Santos

Though Forbes has placed her fortune at $2bn, Dos Santos is, unlike the Saudi prince who went ballistic when the magazine valued him at $20bn rather than the $29.6bn he says he deserved, at pains to play down her wealth. She says all her transactions are leveraged, mention of which is used to stress her relationships with commercial banks in Europe, Asia and Africa. I am about to test out another juicy tale about her influence when a waiter pops up to ask whether we would like dessert. Dos Santos orders fresh mint tea and a spoon to try whatever I’ll choose. The waiter suggests a Yorkshire rhubarb cheesecake designed “to share”. He departs and I try again: does she, as I was told the day before our lunch, call up the governor of the central bank and tell him what to do? “In which country?” she quips. We laugh merrily (the wine bottle has been drained by now).

Writer: Tom Burgis

Length: 2418 words

Source: The Financial Times

Published: March 29th, 2013

Chinua Achebe, African Literary Titan, Dies at 82 Chinua Achebe caught the world’s attention with...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:57:11 +0300

Chinua Achebe, African Literary Titan, Dies at 82

Chinua Achebe caught the world’s attention with his first novel, “Things Fall Apart.” Published in 1958, when he was 28, the book would become a classic of world literature and required reading for students, selling more than 10 million copies in 45 languages. The story, a brisk 215 pages, was inspired by the history of his own family, part of the Ibo nation of southeastern Nigeria, a people victimized by the racism of British colonial administrators and then by the brutality of military dictators from other Nigerian ethnic groups. “Things Fall Apart” gave expression to Mr. Achebe’s first stirrings of anti-colonialism and a desire to use literature as a weapon against Western biases. As if to sharpen it with irony, he borrowed from the Western canon itself in using as its title a line from Yeats’s apocalyptic poem “The Second Coming.”

Writer: Jonathan Kandell

Length: 1973 words

Source: The New York Times

Published: March 22nd, 2013

Malawi: 100 Days of Joyce Banda Friday Jumbe, the former finance minister who is now the leader of...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:30:00 +0300

Malawi: 100 Days of Joyce Banda

Friday Jumbe, the former finance minister who is now the leader of the opposition United Democratic Front, describing Banda’s 100 days in office, said: “We understand that things have been very sudden and people have not recovered from the shock. I don’t think she has recovered from the shock either, and because we are in a state of shock, the decision-making faculties tend to be disturbed too, and so I don’t expect all the decisions she is making to be necessarily good for everybody.” What is appreciated though, Jumbe said, “is that in these 100 days there has been a semblance of peace in Malawi. There has been no harassment by the government, no harassment by policemen, and there is hope that the rule of law will prevail.”

Writer: Lameck Masina

Length: 1240 words

Source: New African Magazine

Published: July 27th, 2012

Money and Violence Hobble Democracy in Nigeria The leader of the young men seized the stack of cash,...

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:09:10 +0300

Money and Violence Hobble Democracy in Nigeria

The leader of the young men seized the stack of cash, carefully counting the notes in the glow of the car’s headlights: 10,000 Naira, or about $80. Once he confirmed the amount and nodded his assent, a cry went up. “Excellency, Excellency!” the young men shouted, using the honorific for governors, opening the cordon and allowing Mr. Fayemi’s car to pass through. “This is our politics,” Mr. Fayemi said, an edge of disgust in his voice. Such payoffs clearly make him uncomfortable, but he said he hoped that the ends would justify the means. Once installed in the governor’s office, he says he can begin to change the political culture. But first he has to get elected. “Money,” Mr. Fayemi said. “It is the language of Nigerian politics. As much as you want to get away from that, you also have to be mindful of those short-term things you must do.”

Writer: Lydia Polgreen

Length: 1797 words

Source: The New York Times

Published: November 24th, 2006

The Betrayals of Barack Obama The world has become a more dangerous place for many reasons, but...

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:51:31 +0300

The Betrayals of Barack Obama

The world has become a more dangerous place for many reasons, but chief amongst them has been the continued foreign policy and military choices of America. Despite the Obama Administration’s pledge to reclaim the moral authority which America once had in the world, it has unfortunately tarnished it still further. Instead of a break with the past, the defining legacy of his first term will be a secret, pernicious war conducted without proper oversight, and which promises us no salvation at the end. Had we pinned our expectations too high when proclaiming Barack Obama as a saviour?

Writer: Kalim Rajab

Length: 1765 words

Source: The Daily Maverick

Published: 26th July, 2012