By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 9 October 2023 (IDN) — Highly regarded Zimbabwe author Tsitsi Dangaarembga has been tapped for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom award, given to individuals with “remarkable courage and dedication” and political activism. Ms. Dangarembga received the prize this week in Johannesburg. Tinashe Mushakavanhu, a research […]
About Class, Inequality, Respect and Dignity
By Jan Servaes* MIAMI, USA. 6 October 2023 (IDN) — “There are a lot of things very few people—even my friends—know about me. Things like, when I was a kid, we often didn’t have coins to feed the washing machine in our apartment building, meaning we couldn’t do laundry and my clothes smelled of cat […]
South African Writers Address ‘Colouredness’ In New Book
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK. 2 October 2023 (IDN) — South African history professor Mohamed Adhikari was one of the early writers to examine racial identity in the Coloured community. In 2005, identity was one of the hottest topics in popular and academic discourse when his book “Not White Enough, Not Black […]
Arts & Culture: Search Concluded (10.7.1942-8.8.2023)
By Ramu Damodaran* NEW YORK. 6 September 2023 (IDN) — It was eminent Hindustani classical music singer Malini Nambiar who described Sixto Rodriguez best as a “true Karmayogi.” Like all words and phrases woven in the intimacy of a particular language, the term weakens in translation, but the interpretation of an individual who performs actions […]
Afropop Star Appointed ‘Special Advisor’ to Malian Junta
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK. 24 August 2023 (IDN) — Salif Keita, renowned singer-songwriter known as the “Golden Voice of Africa”, has been appointed one of five “special advisors” to the head of Mali’s military junta. Under a decree dated 11 August, the Afropop singer was named advisor to Colonel Assimi Goita […]
Prize-Winning Documentary Spotlights the People’s President
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK. 15 August 2023 (IDN) — “I’m president already. I’m president of the ghetto!” exults the subject of “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” midway through the documentary. That’s not exactly how it worked out, but directors Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo’s account of Wine’s 2021 campaign for president […]
Grief at Demise of Eminent Ghanaian Poet and Feminist
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 3 June 2023 (IDN) — Ghanaian author, poet, playwright and scholar, Ama Ata Aidoo, is resting in power after seven decades of an illustrious career. A renowned feminist, celebrated writer and playwright, she spent most of her early life among the Fante community, later studying at the […]
A19-Year-old Self Publishes a Fantasy Novel
By Maya Schlessinger* NEW JERSEY, USA, 20 May 2023 (IDN) — While most Pascack Valley (PV) students go to the library to check out books, PV senior Treshan Nilaweera, 19, hopes to see his own on the shelves. Last October, Nilaweera self-published a fantasy novel entitled The Many Worlds Theory, now available for purchase on […]
Africans Bid Farewell to A Hero and True Friend
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 1 May 2023 (IDN) — Yusuf Bangura will always remember the legendary calypso singer, actor and social activist, Harry Belafonte, for “bringing happiness and hope to many people around the world.” Although many Americans know of Belafonte’s activism to end apartheid in South Africa, the whole story […]
Films by Women A Standout at Africa’s Famed Film Festival
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | OUAGADOUGOU, 6 March 2023 (IDN) — In the bad old days of French colonial rule, Africans were forbidden from making films. As a result, one of the first films ever produced by an African “Afrique-sur-Seine” (Africa on the Seine), was made in Paris in 1955 by […]