The Gathering
Essays and criticism
Argument at length. Longest first on the front page, newest first here.
Olongo Africa
Pan-African
Essays, criticism, poetry, fiction, translation and travel writing, at proper length. For the evenings you want to think rather than skim.
olongoafrica.com →-
31 Oct
On Mechanics and the Mechanisms of Power
In Sefi Atta’s short story, Miracle Worker, a mechanic’s wife discovers a vision of the Virgin Mary on the oil-covered windscreen of an abandoned Peugeot 405…
Salawu Olajide
16 min -
21 Oct
Black Magnolia: A Photo Essay
The Magnolia Mound Museum + Historical Site in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a strange place. When I visited this museum, I saw that it looked awfully…
Salawu Olajide
9 min -
18 Oct
Coming of Age in a Catholic Boarding School
There abound varied reasons why people chronicle their life experiences. Some seek to reflect aloud and take stock on notable junctures in their lives. There are…
Salawu Olajide
19 min -
12 Oct
Lopsided Honeymoon
Two weeks before I met Judith, I had a relationship with an older lady in my dream. We worked the relationship all the way to marriage,…
Salawu Olajide
18 min -
1 Oct
Why Do Many Nigerians Vote Against Their Own Interests?
It is no longer news that the Nigerian political class does not care about Nigerians. For one, it became one of the world’s poverty capitals while…
Salawu Olajide
15 min -
28 Sep
‘We Are Absurdities’: An Interview with Tares Oburumu
Tares Oburumu is a Nigerian poet born in the creeks of Bayelsa and raised amid the socio-economic and cultural tensions of the Niger Delta region. His…
Salawu Olajide
15 min -
28 Sep
‘Ekosimba’: First Contemporary Congolese Anthology Releasing in October 2026
“EKOSIMBA” (Mlimani Editions) is a multilingual anthology of 63 poems by contemporary Congolese writers from the African continent and global Diaspora. Primarily translated into English, it…
Salawu Olajide
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22 Sep
The King of World Beats at 80
On the second day of September 2026, the U.S. Mission in Nigeria, through their official X (formerly Twitter) handle, published a hashtag-led tribute to a historical…
Salawu Olajide
16 min
African Arguments
Pan-African
Analysis by African scholars and journalists, frequently historical in method. Filed under essays rather than history because that is what it mostly is.
africanarguments.org →-
30 Oct
Kenya’s 2027 Election: Time to Address the Warning Signs
On August 16, 2026, hundreds of people armed with machetes, guns, and sticks attacked a convoy carrying opposition politicians and supporters of the Linda Mwananchi movement…
Carine Kaneza Nantulya
6 min -
30 Oct
Nigeria’s AI Ambitions vs. The Regulatory Void–Who Protects the Citizens?
Last year, scammers launched a deepfake videos of popular Nigerian social media influencer, Martins Vincent Otse, through a fraudulent Facebook campaign. The cybercriminals superimposed a fabricated…
Adetokunbo Abiola
5 min -
27 Oct
Africa cannot build a stronger agrifood economy while the livestock sector loses $4 billion a year
Across Africa, the livestock sector supports more than 350 million people. Livestock is much more than an agricultural commodity. For millions of families, cattle, sheep, goats,…
Huyam Salih and Obai Khalifa
5 min -
27 Oct
The War in Sudan and the Challenges of Mediation
Less than two months after Sudan’s war began in April 2023, the then African Union (AU) Commission chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, called it the ‘prototype’ for…
Paula Slier
8 min -
27 Oct
Delayed Rains and Broken Routes: War and Climate Crisis in North Darfur’s Jebel Issa
All names of individuals interviewed for this article have been changed their safety and privacy. The Fatal Rain of Jebel Issa In mid-September 2026, when rain…
Albashir Dahab
7 min -
26 Oct
Laying on Thin Water: The Looming Danger of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Subsea Repair Vessel Deficit
Submarine fibre-optic cables (subsea telecommunications cables) handle up to 99% of our global internet traffic and communications, underlining the operations of numerous businesses and institutions across…
Chan Tsz Yung Frederick
8 min -
21 Oct
The Palace Guard Against the Trenches : What the Mutiny in Niamey Revealed
The mutiny that broke out in air base 101 in Niamey in the night of 29 August 2026 failed. The real question now is to understand…
Moussa Traoure
5 min -
21 Oct
Wood for War: How Wagner Was Paid in Central African Forest
On 9 February 2021, as government troops and Russian mercenaries pushed rebels back from Bangui, the Central African Republic (CAR) signed Decree No. 21.044. It gave…
Amadou Diarra
5 min
An Africanist Perspective
Pan-African
Ken Opalo of Georgetown on state formation and political economy, data-led, with a standing book-review series drawing on African historiography.
africanistperspective.com →-
30 Oct
Let’s Stop Telling Insomniacs to Get More Sleep
Thank you for being a regular reader of An Africanist Perspective. If you haven’t done so yet, please hit subscribe to receive timely updates on new…
Ken Opalo
9 min -
16 Oct
The perceived risk profiles of African economies are changing (and that’s a good thing)
Thank you for being a regular reader of An Africanist Perspective. If you haven’t done so yet, please hit subscribe to receive timely updates on new…
Ken Opalo
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8 Oct
Two recent podcast appearances
Thank you for being a regular reader of An Africanist Perspective. If you haven’t done so yet, please hit subscribe to receive timely updates on new…
Ken Opalo
length n/a -
1 Oct
On the escalation of war in Ethiopia
Thank you for being a regular reader of An Africanist Perspective. If you haven’t done so yet, please hit subscribe to receive timely updates on new…
Ken Opalo
length n/a -
19 Sep
The things we project onto maps
Thank you for being a regular reader of An Africanist Perspective. If you haven’t done so yet, please hit subscribe to receive timely updates on new…
Ken Opalo
length n/a -
3 Sep
Book Review 4/26: A Man of the World: Tom Mboya, the Cold War and Decolonization in Kenya (by Daniel Branch)
Thank you for being a regular reader of An Africanist Perspective. If you haven’t done so yet, please hit subscribe to receive timely updates on new…
Ken Opalo
length n/a -
14 Aug
The end of “post-apartheid South Africa” and the birth of normal and better politics
Thank you for being a regular reader of An Africanist Perspective. If you haven’t done so yet, please hit subscribe to receive timely updates on new…
Ken Opalo
length n/a -
28 Jul
Book Review (3/26): The Political Economy of Rwanda's Rise (by Pritish Behuria)
Thank you for being a regular reader of An Africanist Perspective. If you haven’t done so yet, please hit subscribe to receive timely updates on new…
Ken Opalo
1 min
Review of African Political Economy
Pan-African
Decolonisation, labour and Sahel state formation with deep historical framing. Academically authored, openly left in orientation, and it cites its evidence.
roape.net →-
28 Oct
The sports commercializers are in town
Two recent stories from Kenya reflect the rapid growth, rising ambitions, and increasing commercialization and professionalization of East Africa’s sports sector. In the first, Helios Sports…
ROAPE
6 min -
26 Oct
Mining in contemporary African underdevelopment
One of the defining characteristics of capitalism is its remarkable ability to emerge from every crisis even stronger.[1] History has shown time and again that war…
ROAPE
24 min -
23 Oct
Life after Museveni
I have argued before that moving forward, Uganda will need General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of current President Yoweri Museveni. Or a person like Gen. Kainerugaba. This…
ROAPE
8 min -
21 Oct
Bought, held, and sworn
Somalia’s parliamentary election is not one election. It is 275 simultaneous, separate auctions. Each of Somalia’s 275 House of the People seats belongs to a specific…
ROAPE
19 min -
19 Oct
Eusi Kwayana (1925-2026)
Eusi Kwayana was born Sydney King, as he was known initially for his first, more than two decades in public life. In 1968 he took on…
ROAPE
12 min -
14 Oct
African Labour and Liberation
African Labour and Liberation brings together the experiences of workers, trade unions and labour movements across the continent to ask what they can tell us about…
ROAPE
5 min -
12 Oct
Fanon’s continuing presence and revolutionary Sudan
Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it. – Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 1968 I…
ROAPE
29 min -
30 Sep
What is the Real Marxist Tradition in Africa?
John Molyneux’s classic statement of Marxist theory and practice What is the Real Marxist Tradition? was first published in 1984. The short book provided an incredibly…
ROAPE
3 min
Bakwa Magazine
Cameroon
Bilingual English and French essays, criticism, fiction and interviews, with its own book imprint. The best crossing point between Anglophone and Francophone writing.
bakwamagazine.com →-
14 Oct
Q and A with Comfort Mussa on Writing The Shape of Unbroken Things
Iya and Mambo meet each other at a moment when both are carrying something heavy. Who came to you first, and what did you want their…
admin
4 min -
14 Oct
Q and A with Marie Helene Ngoah on Translating The Shape of Unbroken Things
When you first read The Shape of Unbroken Things, what did you hear in Comfort’s voice that you knew you had to maintain in French? As…
admin
4 min -
16 Aug
The Shape of Unbroken Things/Ce qu’on ne brise pas
Today marked her first day at a new school, where she would be repeating the Form 3 year. Consistently among the top ten students in her…
Comfort Mussa
9 min -
5 Aug
Bakwa 12
Bakwa 12: The Lost Manuscript and Other Meditations Release date: August 2026 “While my former friends were having profound literary conversations at Conference Two in…
admin
1 min -
5 Aug
Bakwa 11
Bakwa 11: When Love is a Scream Release date: May 2023 From Gorée Island to Sugartown, Bakwa 11: When Love Is a Scream assembles stories, essays,…
admin
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5 Aug
On Territoriality and African Literature
This three-part diagram traces the literary feud between Chinua Achebe and Ayi Kwei Armah, as well as Armah’s conflictual relationship with the Heinemann African Writers’ Series,…
Moses Maerz
2 min -
5 Aug
When You Read Suzanne Césaire, You Take Your Koutla
“When you read Suzanne, you take your Koutla.” Those are the words Valérie Adam said to me in Le Bureau d’Aimé Césaire during my last…
Adama Keïta
8 min -
3 Jul
Learning to Feel the World Differently
I first became aware that my way of seeing the world was not neutral through an encounter that felt fleeting at the time but has stayed…
Comfort Mussa
5 min