Africa Is a Country
@africasacountry.bsky.social
Website, Podcast, Radio Show. Left politics & culture, useable pasts. http://africasacountry.com
What becomes possible when the psychic weight of labor, migration, and extraction is, even briefly, set down? africasacountry.com/2026/09/we-a...
We are oil to you
What becomes possible when the psychic weight of labor, migration, and extraction is, even briefly, set down?
africasacountry.com
And read William Shoki's thoughtful piece on the saga in @africasacountry.bsky.social here: africasacountry.com/list/campaig...
Weekend Special, Sep 21: The idea of South Africa
africasacountry.com
A diaspora vote won Snit Tewoldemedhin the People’s Choice Award at Miss World. But the freedom to choose is exactly what Eritreans at home don’t have. africasacountry.com/2026/09/who-...
Who gets to speak for Eritrea?
A diaspora vote won Snit Tewoldemedhin the People’s Choice Award at Miss World. But the freedom to choose is exactly what Eritreans at home don’t have.
africasacountry.com
eLDee’s latest single reignited an old debate about women, money, and dating in Nigeria. But no one really chooses these gendered arrangements shaped by economic insecurity and unequal access to opportunity. africasacountry.com/2026/09/the-...
The political economy of romance
eLDee’s latest single reignited an old debate about women, money, and dating in Nigeria. But no one really chooses these gendered arrangements shaped by economic insecurity and unequal access to oppor...
africasacountry.com
With the return of AFCON qualifiers, @mahermezahi.bsky.social kicks off this season's coverage of African football on the African Five-a-Side podcast youtu.be/blN7VwL4hkQ?...
Previewing 2027 AFCON qualifiers: Pitso, Renard return; who replaces Mahrez? Moroccan starboy joins
YouTube video by African Five-a-Side podcast
youtu.be
A dispute inside a household in N’Djamena becomes a lesson in what money cannot substitute for: recognition, trust, and everyday human dignity. Republished from The Elephant africasacountry.com/2026/09/peop...
People have to be treated as people
A dispute inside a household in N’Djamena becomes a lesson in what money cannot substitute for: recognition, trust, and everyday human dignity.
africasacountry.com
Dangote’s refinery ended Nigeria’s dependence on imported fuel and became Africa’s most important energy asset overnight when Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz. But it also became the country’s most powerful monopoly. africasacountry.com/2026/09/too-...
Too big to regulate
Dangote’s refinery ended Nigeria’s dependence on imported fuel and became Africa’s most important energy asset overnight when Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz. But it also became the country’s most powe...
africasacountry.com
“Tech fetishism, the ascription of human agentive powers to machinery, is always a political act. It obscures that the goals, the purposes embodied in any technology, are human purposes.”
Africa Is a Country@africasacountry.bsky.social · last wk.Warnings from researchers at Anthropic and OpenAI that their own products could end humanity distract from the real damage AI is already doing. africasacountry.com/2026/09/the-...
"What they were rejecting was not African same-sex practice or gender variance. What they were rejecting was a Western political identity organized around a Western sexual ontology. (...) The culture wars of America are now torching the social fabric of Africa."
Africa Is a Country@africasacountry.bsky.social · 3w agoLong before modern sexual identities reached the East African coast, the Swahili shoga occupied a recognized place in women’s society, until colonialism and later Western frameworks remade them. africasacountry.com/2026/09/who-...
A fascinating read. “What broke was not the regime itself, but rather the impression of its permanence; in a formation of this type, that impression is not merely decorative but an integral part of the power structure.”
Africa Is a Country@africasacountry.bsky.social · 2w agoA joke born from a Chief Justice’s insult grew to 22 million followers and forced out a cabinet minister in eight weeks. What does this reveal about India and about the limits of leaderless revolt everywhere? africasacountry.com/2026/09/roac...
“the hostility generated by the EU’s partnerships is not the only possible response to the same reality. Other choices are being made, by other actors, in the same city.”
Africa Is a Country@africasacountry.bsky.social · 2w agoEuropean officials are calling the EU-Mauritania migration deal a success. Here’s what the numbers don’t count. africasacountry.com/2026/09/what...
Warnings from researchers at Anthropic and OpenAI that their own products could end humanity distract from the real damage AI is already doing. africasacountry.com/2026/09/the-...
The extinction pitch
Warnings from researchers at Anthropic and OpenAI that their own products could end humanity distract from the real damage AI is already doing.
africasacountry.com
From the Women’s War of 1929 to the Anlu uprising three decades later, African women were organizing and resisting long before donors arrived to ‘give them a voice.’ africasacountry.com/2026/09/who-...
Who profits from ‘saving’ women?
From the Women’s War of 1929 to the Anlu uprising three decades later, African women were organizing and resisting long before donors arrived to ‘give them a voice.’
africasacountry.com
A joke born from a Chief Justice’s insult grew to 22 million followers and forced out a cabinet minister in eight weeks. What does this reveal about India and about the limits of leaderless revolt everywhere? africasacountry.com/2026/09/roac...
Roaches in revolt
A joke born from a Chief Justice’s insult grew to 22 million followers and forced out a cabinet minister in eight weeks. What does this reveal about India and about the limits of leaderless revolt eve...
africasacountry.com
European officials are calling the EU-Mauritania migration deal a success. Here’s what the numbers don’t count. africasacountry.com/2026/09/what...
What Europe’s migration deals are really buying
European officials are calling the EU-Mauritania migration deal a success. Here’s what the numbers don’t count.
africasacountry.com
Washington’s own record of intervention in the Horn of Africa — not Mogadishu’s — is the strongest case against recognizing Somaliland now. africasacountry.com/2026/09/why-...
Why the US should not recognize Somaliland
Washington’s own record of intervention in the Horn of Africa — not Mogadishu’s — is the strongest case against recognizing Somaliland now.
africasacountry.com
Kenya’s youth uprising was documented in real time through music, murals, memes, and essays. Publishing that history became an act of resistance in its own right. africasacountry.com/2026/09/this...
This book was born in the streets
Kenya’s youth uprising was documented in real time through music, murals, memes, and essays. Publishing that history became an act of resistance in its own right.
africasacountry.com
Long before modern sexual identities reached the East African coast, the Swahili shoga occupied a recognized place in women’s society, until colonialism and later Western frameworks remade them. africasacountry.com/2026/09/who-...
Who killed the Shoga?
Long before modern sexual identities reached the East African coast, the Swahili shoga occupied a recognized place in women’s society, until colonialism and later Western frameworks remade them.
africasacountry.com
After a 5 year fight (one we documented in our film 'After Oil') Wild Coast communities have won their case against Dutch Shell in South Africa's Constitutional Court. They can no longer explore for oil off the coast of the Eastern Cape. mg.co.za/the-green-gu...
‘People over profits’: Constitutional Court deals blow to Shell’s Wild Coast plans
The Constitutional Court has delivered a significant blow to Shell and Impact Africa's Wild Coast exploration plans, setting aside their exploration right. The court found that thousands of affected c...
mg.co.za
As the UN and the US pull back from Somalia’s security architecture within months of each other, Mogadishu insists it is ready. The gap between that confidence and the country’s political reality tells a different story. africasacountry.com/2026/09/soma...
Somalia’s uncertain hand-off
As the UN and the US pull back from Somalia’s security architecture within months of each other, Mogadishu insists it is ready. The gap between that confidence and the country’s political reality tell...
africasacountry.com
Detroiternational
Africa Is a Country@africasacountry.bsky.social · last mo.During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in the shadow of increased political tensions, we visited the US-Canada border at Windsor/Detroit, and found a diverse proud community whose split national allegiances extend far beyond the metropolitan area. youtu.be/m8Qr17VUl28
In the latest edition of The Ideas Letter, William Shoki of @africasacountry.bsky.social, Brian Kagoro of Open Society, Panashe Chigumadzi, and @nicdawes.bsky.social discuss the dashed hopes of South Africa after apartheid amid stubborn inequality, high unemployment, and rising xenophobia.
South Africa Agonistes - The Ideas Letter
Thirty years ago, South Africa was heralded as a harbinger of a just and non-racial order. After decades of a criminal, repellent regime, Nelson Mandela’s ascension to the presidency and…
theideasletter.org
How do the struggles of one generation echo, decades later, in another’s? africasacountry.com/2026/09/read...
Reading List: Faraaz Mahomed
How do the struggles of one generation echo, decades later, in another’s?
africasacountry.com
Kenneth Nnebue made 27 Yoruba-language films before 'Living in Bondage.' Why does Nigeria still only remember the one he made in Igbo? africasacountry.com/2026/09/who-...
Who started Nollywood?
Kenneth Nnebue made 27 Yoruba-language films before Living in Bondage. Why does Nigeria still only remember the one he made in Igbo?
africasacountry.com
During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in the shadow of increased political tensions, we visited the US-Canada border at Windsor/Detroit, and found a diverse proud community whose split national allegiances extend far beyond the metropolitan area. youtu.be/m8Qr17VUl28
World Cup Road Trip Episode 5 (Between Two Nations)
YouTube video by Africa Is a Country
youtu.be
We spoke with South African journalist @dierogeryoung.bsky.social about the making of our documentary After Oil and the political context of the green transition. Read the interview here: bios.net.za/i-like-ship-...
I Like Ship Metaphors
--- an interview with Boima Tucker --- Boima Tucker has spent the last few years making a film about extraction, energy, colonialism an...
bios.net.za
Texto revelador. "Poseer nuestros minerales nunca ha obligado a una mujer a morir por un embarazo que la ley debía terminar. Estas cosas no deberían estar en tensión."
Africa Is a Country@africasacountry.bsky.social · 2mo agoA charter twenty African governments just endorsed defends seed sovereignty and economic independence in one breath, and moves to gut abortion and queer rights in the next. africasacountry.com/2026/08/betw...
This publishing break, we contemplate why we’re all feeling so burnt out. africasacountry.com/2026/08/on-s...
On Safari
This publishing break, we contemplate why we’re all feeling so burnt out.
africasacountry.com
When thousands of young Moroccans stormed Ceuta last week, it was not an invasion, but the latest in a five-year pattern of coercive migration diplomacy on a border with five centuries of colonial history behind it. africasacountry.com/2026/08/ceut...
A border spectacle
When thousands of young Moroccans stormed Ceuta last week, it was not an invasion, but the latest in a five-year pattern of coercive migration diplomacy on a border with five centuries of colonial his...
africasacountry.com
A charter twenty African governments just endorsed defends seed sovereignty and economic independence in one breath, and moves to gut abortion and queer rights in the next. africasacountry.com/2026/08/betw...
Between feminism and pan-Africanism
A charter twenty African governments just endorsed defends seed sovereignty and economic independence in one breath, and moves to gut abortion and queer rights in the next.
africasacountry.com