NHOROONDO
DEVEDZO| Mabhuku neMapepa aGandashanga Stanlake Samkange Mabhuku ake anosanganisira African Saga: An Introduction to African History (1971), anomutsidzira kwazvo ruremekedzo rwatinozvipa sevanhu vatema, uye akanyorwa panguva iyo vanamuzvinafundo vazhinji vaidukupisa rudzi rwedu vachikusha nhema dzeusvetasimba. Stanlake Samkange akavhurira Mashonaland musuwo weyunivhesiti paakatora dhigiri rayo rekutanga muna1947 paFort Hare University College. Kudzidza pachikomo kwaiera makore aya, […]
Pan-Africanism means we will do it ourselves by doing it together. It grounds economic advancement, political liberation, cultural self-determination and territorial integrity in the unity of all African people on the continent and its diaspora. While the African Union has scored some important wins, African unity essentially fails along class lines.
A year after Munhumumwe’s “Makorokoto” won him Radio 2’s first independence-era number one song, his cousin Zimunya published “And Now the Poets Speak”, co-edited with Mudereri Kadhani, and set the tone for new Zimbabwean poetry. Few years later, he had written well enough to be considered Zimbabwe’s foremost poet. What did it mean for Zimunya to grow up around Marshall Munhumumwe, who died in 2001, and how did turbulent Rhodesia shape his path? He holds nothing back in this long interview with Onai Mushava.
Thulani Maseko (1 March 1970 – 21 January 2023) was fatally stopped in his tracks as he campaigned for electoral reforms in Eswatini. The assassination has attracted global attention on the extent of repression in Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Calls to hold King Mswati III’s government to account for the “targeted killing” are getting louder.
MHANZI
Syndicated Loverboy – Oliver Mtukudzi in Kwekwe What was the divorce album he wrote his first wife, Melody, upon settling in the City of Gold? Which hometown rockstars did he kick it off with, having arrived from Harare without a band? What about his studio correspondence with Daisy, before and after Kwekwe? Oliver Mtukudzi slept […]
Nas’ Ultra Black Theory “Ultra Black” is the most commercially successful Pan-Africanist artist’s white paper on Black power. As a hip hop capitalist, Nas is the unusual poet laureate who observes neither the saintly asceticism of Bob Marley nor the socialism of W.E.B Du Bois and George Padmore. As a lone-wolf intellectual, Nas may be […]
Winky D wants to restore Zimdancehall to its default ghetto settings. His 13th album, Eureka Eureka, challenges culture capture by self-seeking patrons and state actors. Noted for his conceptual dynamism and pro-poor devotion, Winky D has repeatedly thrown his weight against trends to influence the industry in his own direction. Will Zimdancehall respond to his latest call?
Few remember Karl Marx as a love poet but long before the shaggy economist was the poster-boy of regime change, he was an impassioned lyricist, smitten with the mortal madness of love like the rest of us. Despite his documented hate for capitalism, he concluded his love poems in cheesy capitals like: “LOVE IS JENNY, JENNY IS LOVE’S NAME.”
UVARANOMWE
NHAURIRANO| Mutambo wekuKwereta Mabhuku muGaraji raSpiwe Mahachi-Harper Pfungwa dzangu dzakaramba dzichidzokera kuZimbabwe, kune vamwe vanofarira mabhuku seni. Ndaishuva kuti vawanewo mukana nemabhuku andanga ndaunganidza aya. Saka ndakaita shungu nekuunza mabhuku angu kuno. Ndichisvika Harare, ndakatanga nekushandura garaji rangu kuita imba yekuverengera. we Mahachi-Harper akadzoka kuZimbabwe muna2017 ndokusvikopaza garaji rake kumaflats ekuWestgate. Zvaipisa mabhuku ake ane […]
DEVEDZO| Mabhuku neMapepa aGandashanga Stanlake Samkange Mabhuku ake anosanganisira African Saga: An Introduction to African History (1971), anomutsidzira kwazvo ruremekedzo rwatinozvipa sevanhu vatema, uye akanyorwa panguva iyo vanamuzvinafundo vazhinji vaidukupisa rudzi rwedu vachikusha nhema dzeusvetasimba. Stanlake Samkange akavhurira Mashonaland musuwo weyunivhesiti paakatora dhigiri rayo rekutanga muna1947 paFort Hare University College. Kudzidza pachikomo kwaiera makore aya, […]
In newly independent Zimbabwe, language wars erupted between homecoming writers who had made their names in the language of exile and writers who had worked with the state-run Literature Bureau to grow a Ndebele and Shona canon. Onai Mushava revisits the cold encounters of two of Zimbabwe’s best known writers, Dambudzo Marechera and Aaron Chiundura Moyo, in conversation with their contemporaries and critics.
Catching Feelings is a South African romantic comedy, written, directed and led by Kagiso Lediga. The Netflix thinkpic brings together sex, race and literature as seen through the insecurities of its cruelly self-probing lead character Max Matshane.
MAFIRIMU
Catching Feelings is a South African romantic comedy, written, directed and led by Kagiso Lediga. The Netflix thinkpic brings together sex, race and literature as seen through the insecurities of its cruelly self-probing lead character Max Matshane.
MOVIE REVIEW| Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You Marxist Boots Riley left critical references to the U.S president out of his 2018 movie, Sorry to Bother You, so they do not feed the buzz at the expense of his less comfortable communist ideas. This lone-wolf angst is shared by Kendrick Lamar whose 2021 feature finds the […]
Claude Grunitzky documented the urban culture scenes of different regions with his early media venture, TRACE TV. As lockdown put new emphasis on decentralised work culture, the Togolese-American journalist and businessman rolled out his new idea, TRUE Africa University, to empower the young African entrepreneurs going it alone. He shares insights into his work in an interview with This Is Africa.
Zimbabwe is making gestures to loosen the government chokehold on airwaves inherited from Rhodesia and maintained in the 42 years of independence. But broadcasting licenses have been selectively awarded to Zanu PF politicians, oligarchs, state enterprises and the army. New television stations are merely the latest horsemen of Zimbabwe’s airpocalypse.
ZANONYORWA
In newly independent Zimbabwe, language wars erupted between homecoming writers who had made their names in the language of exile and writers who had worked with the state-run Literature Bureau to grow a Ndebele and Shona canon. Onai Mushava revisits the cold encounters of two of Zimbabwe’s best known writers, Dambudzo Marechera and Aaron Chiundura Moyo, in conversation with their contemporaries and critics.
Nas’ Ultra Black Theory “Ultra Black” is the most commercially successful Pan-Africanist artist’s white paper on Black power. As a hip hop capitalist, Nas is the unusual poet laureate who observes neither the saintly asceticism of Bob Marley nor the socialism of W.E.B Du Bois and George Padmore. As a lone-wolf intellectual, Nas may be […]
Few remember Karl Marx as a love poet but long before the shaggy economist was the poster-boy of regime change, he was an impassioned lyricist, smitten with the mortal madness of love like the rest of us. Despite his documented hate for capitalism, he concluded his love poems in cheesy capitals like: “LOVE IS JENNY, JENNY IS LOVE’S NAME.”
MITAMBO
Juju, Ganja and Mafia at Dynamos A long-serving captain at the country’s most successful football club, Mucherahowa identifies, in the course of his own life story, some of the millstones holding back Zimbabwe’s version of the beautiful game. Even at the high point of its glory days, during the 1998 CAF championship campaign, Dynamos reliably […]
Zimbabwe cricket legend Dave Houghton is in charge of the Chevrons for the second time. His golden-age aura has rubbed off to the youthful squad as Zimbabwe made progress in a T20 World Cup for the first time in Australia last week.
ZVENYIKA
Pan-Africanism means we will do it ourselves by doing it together. It grounds economic advancement, political liberation, cultural self-determination and territorial integrity in the unity of all African people on the continent and its diaspora. While the African Union has scored some important wins, African unity essentially fails along class lines.
MOVIE REVIEW| Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You Marxist Boots Riley left critical references to the U.S president out of his 2018 movie, Sorry to Bother You, so they do not feed the buzz at the expense of his less comfortable communist ideas. This lone-wolf angst is shared by Kendrick Lamar whose 2021 feature finds the […]
Nas’ Ultra Black Theory “Ultra Black” is the most commercially successful Pan-Africanist artist’s white paper on Black power. As a hip hop capitalist, Nas is the unusual poet laureate who observes neither the saintly asceticism of Bob Marley nor the socialism of W.E.B Du Bois and George Padmore. As a lone-wolf intellectual, Nas may be […]
Winky D wants to restore Zimdancehall to its default ghetto settings. His 13th album, Eureka Eureka, challenges culture capture by self-seeking patrons and state actors. Noted for his conceptual dynamism and pro-poor devotion, Winky D has repeatedly thrown his weight against trends to influence the industry in his own direction. Will Zimdancehall respond to his latest call?
MAGARIRO
NHAURIRANO| Mutambo wekuKwereta Mabhuku muGaraji raSpiwe Mahachi-Harper Pfungwa dzangu dzakaramba dzichidzokera kuZimbabwe, kune vamwe vanofarira mabhuku seni. Ndaishuva kuti vawanewo mukana nemabhuku andanga ndaunganidza aya. Saka ndakaita shungu nekuunza mabhuku angu kuno. Ndichisvika Harare, ndakatanga nekushandura garaji rangu kuita imba yekuverengera. we Mahachi-Harper akadzoka kuZimbabwe muna2017 ndokusvikopaza garaji rake kumaflats ekuWestgate. Zvaipisa mabhuku ake ane […]
Mukwasha (son-in-law), proverbially known as the money tree, is a Zimbabwean species known for his endless male abilities, from knifing bulls and stoning cobras to writing off budget deficits for the whole family tree. This Is Africa goes back in time to assemble the ultimate mukwasha playlist.
Claude Grunitzky documented the urban culture scenes of different regions with his early media venture, TRACE TV. As lockdown put new emphasis on decentralised work culture, the Togolese-American journalist and businessman rolled out his new idea, TRUE Africa University, to empower the young African entrepreneurs going it alone. He shares insights into his work in an interview with This Is Africa.
Cypherpunks developed cryptocurrency to limit the power of states over individuals. As governments turn to crypto-deterrence and cyberwarfare, the blockchain’s founding propositions of private space and individual freedom are being done away.
