This article was issued by World Politics Review (WPR) and is being re-published with their permission. By Ayodeji Rotinwa COTONOU, Benin (IDN) — During a February press conference announcing a new exhibition of newly repatriated treasures, Jean-Michel Abimbola, Benin’s minister of culture, was asked by a British journalist to address the common claim that European […]
Putin’s Russia Is Also Attacking Ukrainian Culture
By Barbara Crossette, Passblue NEW YORK (IDN) — In Europe and around the world, the landmark drama theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will long be associated with crimes against humanity, whether or not a formal trial of the Russians who bombed it is ever held. At least 300 people, including many children—the final […]
Major Book Fair in South Africa Returns After 2 Year Covid Absence
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The Open Book Festival 2022 returns to Cape Town, South Africa, from March 26-27 after an absence of two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Open Book is a literary festival with a focus on South African literature in an international context. The […]
Museums in Two Countries Fight Over a Statue
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A fierce tug of war is underway between a U.S. Museum and a Congolese gallery over a statue depicting the angry spirit of a Belgian officer beheaded during an uprising in Congo in 1931. An image of the statue of Maximilien Balot, a colonial administrator, […]
Superstar Angelique Kidjo on Africa: “We Never Had Independence”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — For those unfamiliar with African superstar Angelique Kidjo, her unflinching views on everything from the colonial mentalities of her French schoolmates to African politics and American history and her decision to call out slavery in her music can be found in a recent freewheeling interview […]
Distinguished Philosopher Kwasi Wiredu Passes At 90
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Distinguished philosopher, writer, and teacher Kwasi Wiredu, born in Ghana and recognized on three continents, has passed away at the age of 90. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy cites Wiredu for his decades-long study of “conceptual decolonization” in contemporary African systems of thought.
Recollecting Poitier’s Brush with Africa in Early American Films
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Not long ago, movies made in Hollywood filmed in major cities in Africa displayed an unapologetic ignorance of even minimal facts about the continent. Cities named Lagos, Nairobi or Johannesburg became “somewhere in Africa”, anti-colonial sentiments became a “coloured struggle”, and the continent became a […]
Historic City of Stone-Hewn Churches Re-Opens to Pilgrims Barred by War
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A World Heritage Site and Ethiopia’s holy city of Lalibela is welcoming pilgrims once again. Throngs of Ethiopians recently flooded the streets of the town caught up in the fighting between the government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians celebrate the birth […]
COVID-19 and the Structural Crises of Our Time – BOOK REVIEW by Chan Kok Peng*
By Lim Mah-Hui and Michael Heng Siam-Heng SINGAPORE (IDN) — This is clearly an ambitious book spanning over 200 pages and covering the history of economic and philosophical thought, pandemics, climate change, different economic and political systems and recent financial developments. The authors’ objective is to argue that these subject matters are not separate but […]
Major New York Buyer of Looted Antiquities Ordered to Return Some Pieces but No Prosecution
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A golden bowl, a ceremonial libations vessel, a marble statue and a small chest for human remains were among the 180 reputedly stolen antiquities that decorated the homes and offices of a Brooklyn billionaire whose collection of the ancient artefacts was valued at $80 million. […]