“Mandela was not the only head of state taken in by Koagne. Le king kept snapshots of himself with many a man of power, among them Mobutu Sese Seko and Denis Sassou Nguesso […] He took Mobutu for 15 million dollars. Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso lost 40 million to him. Sassou, Etienne Eyadéma of Togo, several high officials of Gabon, Tanzania and Kenya, a member of the Spanish government and an ex-operative of the Israeli Mossad were bamboozled as well.” – Dominique Malaquais (Blood Money: A Douala Chronicle).
Bantu Serenade by Ntone Edjabe (featuring Nah-ee-lah) (read excerpt)
Santu Mofokeng: Trajectory of a street photographer (part1) (read excerpt)
Binyavanga Wainaina: Hell In Bed With Mrs Peprah (read excerpt)
Dominique Malaquais: Lindela (the winnie suite) (read excerpt)
Boubacar Boris Diop: Myriem (read excerpt)
Cover:
Neo Muyanga
Cityscapes 2: Inside "the World-Class City" (Africa Centre for Cities, Winter 2012)
Cityscapes is a continuous adventure in trying to decipher the emergent cities of the global south. The magazine understands that with a constant overflow of dynamics and meaning, it is best to operate in the zone of juxtaposition, contrast, typology, irony and creative critique.
The cover of issue two features a portrait of Sushma Prasad, an assistant clerk in the Cabinet Secretariat Department in Patna, capital city of the state of Bihar in eastern India. The work, by Dutch photographer Jan Banning, establishes the tone for the two contrary dynamics explored in this issue: bureaucratic inertia and world-class aspirations.
Featured in this issue is an in-depth look at Johannesburg’s aspirations to be a “world-class city,” by journalist Kim Gurney, as well as Rahul Mehrotra‘s complimentary look at developments in Bangalore, India. Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina weighs in on a speculative new city outside Nairobi and much more.
