Writing the City in a Different Script
The Arabic-Afrikaans Tradition of the Cape By Saarah Jappie A hundred years ago, Mr A. Toffee, a resident of Hanover Street in Cape Town, wrote an impassioned letter to his religious congregation. The page-and-a-half-long document was an exposé of the deceptive behaviour of several imams, which he had been the victim of. He described in […]
Jihad as a Form of Struggle in the Resistance to Apartheid in South Africa
By Na’eem Jeenah Although Muslims form about 2 per cent of the South African population, the community and its individuals played significant roles in South African society for the past 350 years. By the middle of the 20th century, as resistance to apartheid intensified, a number of Muslims were in prominent positions in various resistance organisations. […]
A Petition for Mongo Beti
Patrice Nganang recalls the duel between politics and the literary sphere in 1990s Yaoundé – a time when the campaign for ‘democracy’ exposed the chiasmus that is the Cameroonian intelligence, and the words of Mongo Beti ignited a movement for dissent, return and reconstruction. What I remember most about the years of fire is that […]
Mapping The Last King of Africa
This map features alongside a text by Olivier Vallée in the new Chronic, an edition in which we ask: what if maps were made by Africans for their own use, to understand and make visible their own realities or imaginaries? How does it shift the perception we have of ourselves and how we make life […]
In a Time of Boko Haram
by Elnathan John. I. DRESSES Beneath the oil-stained, flattened pillow that Mansir sits on lies the fulfilment of a promise; the source of a joy no one can understand but this young bright-eyed man. His veil and black bra and red dress are folded neatly beneath the pillow. Sitting on it helps, since there hasn’t been […]