Of Sky, Water and Skin: Photographs from a
Zanzibari Darkroom - Pamila Gupta

Wasafiri - Professor Pamila Gupta

‘Hamwe Festival is a wonderful initiative.’ We are thrilled to welcome WiSER’s Prof. Nolwazi Mkhwanazi, a prominent medical anthropologist, on our first Board of Advisors, who will play a critical role in the growth and impact of #HamweFestival.

More info here.

On apprend de sources sûres qu’un grand débat sera organisé en juillet prochain à Montpellier, en marge du sommet Afrique-France, entre le président français Emmanuel Macron et plusieurs intellectuels africains du continent et de la diaspora. L’historien camerounais Achille Mbembe a mené une série de rencontres dans douze pays africains avec de nombreuses personnalités pour recueillir des propositions sur la thématique de la « reforme les relations entre le continent et l’Hexagone ».

To be hosted by the French embassy in South Africa and ACEIR, this online event is one of a series of debates across the continent that are directed by philosopher and historian, Prof. Achille Mbembe, at the request of the President of France. Proposals that emerge out of the debates will be summarised by Prof.

Never in history has the issue of redefining the African-French relationship irradiated the mandate of a French head of state as it has under the Macron presidency. Woven from a more or less painful colonial past, the African-French relationship has gone through several ages. Tumultuous with some states – Rwanda – and unknown for others – Portuguese-speaking Africa. This relationship has developed with most French-speaking African countries in a particular embrace oscillating between official discourse and unspoken words.

Can high-level meetings and summits build trust and change a historically complex set of relationships between France and post-colonial African nations? 

First published by ISS Today

Can high-level meetings and summits build trust and change a historically complex set of relationships between France and post-colonial African nations?

French president Emmanuel Macron visited Rwanda on 27 May, the first such trip for France’s head of state since Nicolas Sarkozy over 10 years ago. This was a highly anticipated visit aimed at normalising relations between the two countries, which have been tense over conflicting narratives about France’s role during the 1994 genocide. 

The Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry invites you to a FarBar program of Sonic as Landscape with curator Mpho Matsipa, artist Olalekan Jeyifous, writer and researcher Wale  Lawal, and composer Dani Kyengo O'Neill.

The vastly different perspectives and treatments in two recent books about Zimbabwean author Dambudzo Marechera leave the reader with tantalising questions beyond the subject matter.

My first encounter with Dambudzo Marechera is at assembly at an out-of-the-way rural boarding school. I was twelve. At this point I don’t know his story or reputations. His gender is fluid. For a while he stayed a woman in my imagination. He is not a man. Androgynous. – Tinashe Mushakavanhu