Amira Ali takes a critical look at the reconstructed identities of East African women along western political imagination. The identities, as expressed in hip-hop lyrics, objectify women from the region as being quite not African, amplifying the myths of western anthropologists of the past

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni recently signed a law that outlaws miniskirts in the east African nation. This poet attempts to make sense of the new law

The young man articulated the frustration, fragility, despair and aspiration of so many young-black-men. He spoke for the many who strive to better their life by attempting to gain the ability to negotiate with a system that has socialized, marginalized, and institutionalized them with a misrepresented identity

Though little acknowledged, one year prior to the founding of the OAU, Pan African Women’s Organization was formed in 1962 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It could be said that PAWO was the building block, the impetus, for the establishment of the OAU

No matter how vibrant the so-called modern world is and how much technological development exists, it is still be over-shadowed by the impoverished and neglected world within it

In all my years in the United States and there are a few cultural tendencies I still have not been able to get used to: bagels, children talking back or ‘sassing’ their parents, and public acts of defaming a parent or sibling

'Man dreams
of far away lands
unknown,
thoughts yearnin'
of unconcealed gems
to fetch and be fetch'd,

to reach the field
of the unknown
but to be desecrat'd
by projects
of food stamps and sorts
yet unknown...'

Amira Ali's 'Speak no more – let us just make music', originally published in issue (491) – – is now available as a [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.