Popular Culture

A number of thought provoking studies on race and performance in American culture have demonstrated that class identities in America have been constructed through the symbolic use of  African American bodies.  The bulk of these studies have looked at minstrelsy in 19^th century America.  David Roediger (1991) has shown that minstrelsy, a popular form of Vaudeville-type entertainment wherein White performers (usually male) blackened their faces with burnt cork in order to impersonate African Americans, played a key role in White working class formation before t  read more »

When most people think of the African diaspora, they think of the Americas. But African diasporas exist in all parts of the world from Europe to Asia, where in some cases they antedate the formation of the Atlantic diasporas. There is a particularly large African diaspora in the Arabian Gulf where the descendants of Africans have influenced all aspects of the cultures of these societies including music.  read more »

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza was in town the other day for a meeting in Montréal. Prior to his arrival, he had done things the African way by sending an email to notify me that he was coming to my neck of the wood in Canada. Could he tempt me to embark on the two-hour drive from my base in Ottawa for a long overdue reunion in Quebec’s leading city?  read more »

Rendition, the gripping new movie by award-winning South African director Gavin Hood, is suffering the fate of many good political films -- damned by faint praise, writes Marc Norton.  read more »

When Africa appears in the venerated pages of the New York Times, it is generally in the “world news” or op-ed pages. It is noteworthy, therefore, that a lead article about Africa recently appeared in the Sunday New York Times “Style Section,”—a section that is usually devoted to debating the merits of Birkin bags and Jimmy Choo shoes.  read more »

By: Carina Ray   read more »