Popular Culture

 I might be the only African who is getting a little tired of the Obama phenomenon. And I might be the only one who was relieved that Chicago didn't win the bid for the 2016 Olympics. And I might be the only one who was pleasantly surprised that Chicago lost in the first round.

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It is intriguing to read African scholars based in the West blasting their compatriots on the home continent for abandoning African culture and aping the Western one. It is also saddening to hear them blame victims of oppression for bending to cultural and economic domination, instead of blaming the immoral oppressor for making exploitation complete by numbing the minds of the oppressed.  read more »

The renowned and flamboyant Nigerian-British artist, Yinka Shonibare, is currently (June 26 - September 20) exhibiting his work at the New York Museum of African Art. His exuberant works of sculpture, paintings, and photographs offer a biting and sardonic critique of colonialism, identities, and Africa. The following commentaries talk about the man and his art. PT Zeleza, Editor, The Zeleza Post

Headless Bodies From a Bottomless Imagination By Deborah Sontag

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A major exhibition on Ife art, Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria, opened on June 16, 2009 at the Fundacion Marcelino Botin, Santander, Spain and will move from there to the Museum for Africa Art, New York, United States and later to the British Museum, London, United Kingdom. 

The exhibition however will not be shown in Nigeria or in any other African country.

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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 »