Charl Blignaut
@poptartology.bsky.social
Writer, reader, editor, poptart, flaming queer.
"Africa repeatedly appears as a homogeneous place full of savage danger or childish immaturity, and in need of a Korean saviour." By Osarugue Otebele theconversation.com/how-k-dramas...
How K-dramas use Africa as a backdrop to boost South Korea’s image
Africa constantly appears as a ‘country’ full of savage danger or childish rebellion, in need of a saviour.
theconversation.com
"Our findings underscore that substance use disorder in north-west Nigeria can’t be understood in isolation. It’s part of a system – climate stress, poverty, mental distress – and must be addressed as such." - Abdullahi Abdulwahab Yakubu theconversation.com/study-of-20-...
Study of 20,000 Nigerians explores the links between drug use, climate change and poverty
A staggering 67.5% of respondents relied on maladaptive coping strategies.
theconversation.com
"I cannot think of anyone else who has infiltrated the system and transformed it so radically from within. " - by Sam Naidu theconversation.com/who-is-navi-...
Who is Navi Pillay, the South African judge who won the Nobel prize? We asked her biographer
Under the warmth and good humour is a formidable, steely grit.
theconversation.com
"Plaatje’s legacy is compelling also in that it merged insights and elements from across knowledge systems, languages and creative practices, which he put in conversation with each other." - by Janet Remmington theconversation.com/sol-plaatje-...
Sol Plaatje at 150: why a pioneering South African change-maker still inspires today
Plaatje’s friends called him a ‘walking library’ because he read extensively and engaged with a wide set of ideas to help form his worldview.
theconversation.com
How will Senegal fund the infrastructure for hosting the Youth Olympics? theconversation.com/senegals-you...
Senegal’s Youth Olympics legacy: who pays after the Games?
For the Youth Olympic Games, Senegal has relied heavily on substantial direct public funding with support from its partners.
theconversation.com
The influential veteran photojournalist Ian Berry passed away on 13 September. He covered conflicts across the world, but is best known for the photographs he made that documented the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa. Article by Kylie Thomas theconversation.com/ian-berrys-s...
Ian Berry’s Sharpeville images exposed apartheid violence to the world
Ian Berry’s photographs of the Sharpeville massacre provided evidence of a crime against humanity.
theconversation.com
"I Wish You Well is not most productively read as a simple complaint about “gold diggers”. It questions a gendered romantic economy in which men are expected to provide and women are expected to consume." - Garhe Osiebe theconversation.com/billing-cult...
Billing culture: Nigerian rapper eLDee takes on modern dating in I Wish You Well
Has romance turned into a marketplace where intimacy is measured through transactions?
theconversation.com
"He proved that Yoruba musical traditions could capture interest on prominent international platforms while preserving their unique identity. This gave later African artists more opportunities." - Damilola Peter Olatade theconversation.com/king-sunny-a...
King Sunny Adé at 80: six decades of Nigerian musical innovation, global acclaim and cultural preservation
Sunny Adé is celebrated as the King of Jùjú music.
theconversation.com
"For most of the 20th century, writing about African music circled a single word: rhythm. Africans were said to have it in abundance, and Europeans analysed it. Harmony and form belonged to Bach and Brahms." - Geoff Mapaya theconversation.com/kofi-agawu-t...
Kofi Agawu: the scholar who showed the world that African music isn’t just about rhythm
Among contemporary African musicologists, Agawu has been one of the most distinctive voices over the past half-century.
theconversation.com
"He was considered a bridge between the old and new breed of actors, bridging theatre and film and paving the way for much emerging talent in the industry." #RIPOluJacobs theconversation.com/olu-jacobs-r...
Olu Jacobs remembered: Nollywood’s elder statesman always acted for his country
As ill health besets the Nigerian film and theatre legend, a tribute is in order. In his career he has always placed his country and industry first.
theconversation.com
"Together these findings provide rare archaeological insights into rural communities during both prehistoric and medieval times. They help us understand how societies developed and maintained themselves in a region too often left out of the history books." theconversation.com/history-is-b...
History is being rewritten at an archaeological site in Morocco. What the discovery of an ancient wall tells us
Communities in the north-west Maghreb were able to coordinate large construction projects thousands of years ago.
theconversation.com
"Viral African dance in China becomes simultaneously a form of cultural exchange, a site that treats racial identity as a commodity, and a means through which dancers strategically negotiate and reproduce ideas about Africa and African dance." - by Suvi Rautio theconversation.com/viral-africa...
Viral African dance videos are busting stereotypes in China – and making money for some
Digital platforms offer opportunities for African dance influencers to construct their own visions of what it means to be African.
theconversation.com
"Instead of merely stating 'sex work is work', my research identifies the labour processes that differentiate digital and traditional sex work. This is to argue for how labouring on digital sexual spaces is a legitimate form of gig economy work." - Phiwokazi Qoza theconversation.com/onlyfans-in-...
OnlyFans in South Africa: what creators say about sex work, personal safety and the gig economy
While some creators proudly embrace the label of sex worker, many others reject it outright.
theconversation.com
"TIn his music, Cape Town’s gangland residents find a shared refrain of survival and pride, echoing their own defiance against racism, violence and poverty in Tupac’s voice." by Dariusz Dziewanski theconversation.com/why-tupac-li...
Why Tupac lives on in Cape Town 30 years after he was murdered
Tupac is proof that being young, marginal and Black does not necessarily mean being powerless.
theconversation.com
"In many ways, my book is about the encounter between skyrocketing land prices caused by Nairobi’s expansion and a terrain of land poverty that has its roots in British colonial rule, something that was never rectified after independence." by Peter Lockwood theconversation.com/nairobis-exp...
Nairobi’s expansion is swallowing up rural land: new book reveals the impacts on families
Urbanisation is experienced through growing tensions within families over precious yet meagre plots of land.
theconversation.com
"Infantino plays the same game as Blatter. He distributes resources and privileges where he can gain votes. But the reality is complex. Significant benefits come with deep structural costs." by Gerard A. Akindes theconversation.com/fifa-in-afri...
Fifa in Africa: has Gianni Infantino really helped football development?
African nations consistently vote for Infantino because they depend on Fifa for financial support.
theconversation.com
"Prayer camps challenge stereotypes of African cities as deficient and Nigerian cities as sites of religious conflict. They provide viable urban alternatives to Lagos, fostering coexistence and everyday forms of conviviality. " - Marloes Janson theconversation.com/along-nigeri...
Along Nigeria’s ‘spiritual highway’, prayer camps create a new urban future
The vast prayer camps challenge stereotypes of Nigerian cities as chaotic, dysfunctional, and driven by religious tension.
theconversation.com
"In the book there’s a fascinating case study. In 2022 and 2023, three different African film festivals in Brazil and Canada chose the same film to screen so that they could compare audience reactions..." theconversation.com/film-festiva...
Film festivals take African cultural heritage around the world – and help keep it alive
In these spaces, lifelong relationships can be formed through the love of cinema.
theconversation.com
"It would be too simple to read this restitution solely through the lens of former coloniser versus formerly colonised. That decolonial framing has real merit ... but it can also obscure internal power relations." - Maurizio Esposito La Rossa theconversation.com/returning-bo...
Returning bones to Madagascar doesn’t just right a colonial wrong: why a royal skull still has power
Royal relics in Madagascar confer legitimacy on rulers.
theconversation.com
"The experiments with genre and language continue: today, you can hear English, Yoruba and Nigerian Pidgin being creatively mixed in popular music genres such as Afrobeat, fuji and rap, as well as in Nollywood films and fiction blogs." By Karin Barber theconversation.com/how-lagos-pi...
How Lagos pioneers built a vibrant Yoruba print culture in the 1920s – at the height of colonialism
English was imposed as Nigeria’s official language, but the British had no way of controlling what people did with it.
theconversation.com
"Its ability to draw from other musical influences and morph into different forms while maintaining its identity is the reason the music endures and is starting to go global." theconversation.com/zed-beats-ho...
Zed Beats: how home studios reinvented Zambian pop music and gave young people a voice
Zed Beats artists aren’t known for political songs, but they’ve become so popular that they’re used to mobilise voters during elections.
theconversation.com
"In my own ongoing research, I have heard of powerful music professors or teachers who abused their students. Of male orchestral players and conductors forcing themselves onto women players. Of teachers trading in manipulation and humiliation." theconversation.com/abuse-and-si...
Abuse and silence in South Africa’s classical music culture: what a student’s story reveals
Not even the #MeToo movement and a reckoning with sexual abuse could rupture the sound-proof walls of South African classical music.
theconversation.com
"The question of whether Bastian Schweinsteiger is a racist or not is not the crucial one ... The key question is rather why these stereotypes are repeatedly expressed in football and why, for many, they seem to reflect reality rather than appear problematic." theconversation.com/racism-at-th...
Racism at the World Cup is an ugly reality. How to understand where it comes from
Tired colonial tropes paint Africans as untamed, unrestrained, and lacking in intelligence.
theconversation.com
"The film does more than dramatise crime fighting: it reveals how citizens negotiate legitimacy, justice and political authority when the state struggles to provide security." theconversation.com/issakaba-wha...
Issakaba: what a 1999 Nollywood classic reveals about Nigeria’s security crisis today
One of west Africa’s most popular action films speaks to Nigeria’s pressing security issues.
theconversation.com
"Western society has developed in a context that often seeks to define and establish separate religious and secular aspects of life. But, African knowledge systems generally treat what we might call science, religion, medicine and art as parts of a unified whole." theconversation.com/what-ghanas-...
What Ghana’s World Cup ‘juju man’ tells us about sport and spirituality in Africa
Although it may seem strange to westerners, soccer and esoteric rituals go hand in hand in Africa.
theconversation.com
"How African football transformed itself from a peripheral curiosity into a central force on the global stage." theconversation.com/world-cup-hi...
World Cup history: a timeline of Africa’s greatest moments on the field
Ten pivotal moments that tell the story of how African football transformed itself.
theconversation.com
"The translation demonstrates that African languages are not simply vehicles for local experience; they are capable of engaging the most complex works of world literature while bringing new meanings to them." by Tinashe Mushakavanhu theconversation.com/ulysses-in-i...
Ulysses in isiZulu: why an African translation of the classic Irish novel matters in today’s world
Writers from very different places can grapple with the same questions.
theconversation.com
"This mixing and matching is locally described as “religious shopping”. According to the hundreds of self-identified religious shoppers I’ve interviewed over the past 15 years, those seeking health and wealth cannot afford to be picky." - Dr Marloes Janson theconversation.com/shopping-for...
Shopping for God in Lagos: what is Chrislam?
To secure health and wealth, many people combine elements from different religious traditions. One such movement is Chrislam.
theconversation.com
"Our analysis argues that jhāna and tongues might be culturally distinct tools acting on the same human mechanism – a spiral of attention, arousal and release that enables renewal." theconversation.com/meditation-a...
Meditation and speaking in tongues: the surprising similarities between two spiritual practices
Buddhist meditation and Pentecostal speaking in tongues could hardly look more different. But not to the brain.
theconversation.com
Why Jonasi is never fully at home anywhere. theconversation.com/power-pleasu... By Dr Grace Khunou
Power, pleasure and patriarchy: why The Polygamist on Netflix is captivating viewers
Power and pleasure collide with Black hopes and dreams in the show that has sparked global conversation.
theconversation.com