Essays in: Musings

Last year, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour began production of her series Sex and Love Around the World, where she traverses the globe in order to investigate ‘unconventional’ expressions of intimacy and the unspoken rules that govern unorthodox relationships in different societies. I had the opportunity to speak with one of the show’s producers last year, and […]

What’s in a name? Naming in African communities is an act steeped in tradition and, some say, one that comes with spiritual consequences for the bearer. Children are named to honor an ancestor, to reflect a significant event in a space in time, even to ward of evil or mischievous spirits. In a discussion over […]

Over the past two decades or more, the portrayal of Africa as a continent scabbed over by war, famine, hopelessness and ignorance has given way to depictions of a continent brimming with new and untapped promise. The ‘Africa Rising’ anecdote is now as ubiquitous as the ancient story of the phoenix rising from the ashes, […]

Black Panther has been in theaters for three days. I have held my tongue and waited for you all to get apprised for long enough. It’s time to discuss the film as a family.   Black Panther boasts a lineup of some of the most celebrated and talented stars in Hollywood, including Angela Bassett (aka the […]

 Conservative men were virtually jizzing themselves in the Comments Section all over the innanets yesterday ahead of the State of the Union Address, each heaping their fawning adoration on a subject who could neither hear their euphoric vociferation nor care if he did. America’s Orange Fuhrer lives only for his self-gratification, and these tiki-lighting, khaki-wearing […]

“Are you boycotting Netflix?” “What?” “Netflix. Mo’Nique said we should all boycott Netflix.” It was now 5am CAT and I could only stare at my phone and wonder what had happened 8 hours prior EST to illicit this text from my sister. I know her well enough to know that her query was dripping with […]

I’m a (not so) secret super fan of the FOKN Bois, the oddly paired rap duo from Ghana. It’s often tempting to invoke parallels between the members of this group and the now-defunct Outkast, but it’s even wiser to refrain from that temptation. Just like Andre and Big Boi, M3nsa and Wanlov are – and […]

Do you make New Year resolutions? I don’t. Not any more. I don’t even make goals. Murphy’s Law operates in my life with the efficiency of a bicycle and the ferocity of Eddy Merckx on the pedals. Whether horrific or splendid, every event in my life is a surprise. It’s all very New Age – […]

The year is drawing to a close and we are in the homestretch! 2018 is peering back at us over the horizon. 2017 has been a bizarre year, much of it in a good way. After the horrors that 2016 wrought upon us, it was good to catch some semblance of a breather over these […]

In the movie Selma, there is a scene during which the members of the SCLC couldn’t agree on which obstacle to voting rights (and all civil rights, by extension) to tackle first. They deliberated hotly among themselves. “It has to be the poll tax,” said one. “No. It’s education,” said another, citing the literacy tests […]

I have the worst luck flying into OR Tambo Airport. Since I began flying to South Africa in 2011, I have had my bags broken into 100% of the time. There is no margin of error with regard to that statistic. No matter what flight/airline I’ve traveled on – be it Delta Airlines, or Virgin […]

Many years ago, I had the honor of hearing Leymah Gbowee speak in Accra as she gave an introduction to the film ‘Pray The Devil Back to Hell.’ The documentary covers chronicles social unrest in the West African Republic of Liberia, where civil war has torn the nation apart and left hundreds of thousands dead […]

I know we don’t like Joel Osteen. I know! We hate the way his face breaks into that peculiar goofy half smirk, like he’s always primed to play a game of peek-a-boo with his audience. We hate that curly shag he sports just above the nape of his neck. We hate that there is always […]

The idea that “Africans sold each other” into slavery is not a new one, but it is one that is generally advanced by the poorly educated or those wishing to shift the bulk of the blame from European participation and place it on the shoulders of the Mythical African. Mythical because before a person born […]

Until this weekend, I was among the few Ghanaians who had never read Chuninua Achebe’s critically acclaimed work, Things Fall Apart. I was familiar enough with the title and the name of the main character – Okonkwo – but much like those village-bound JSS students who made flatulent claims about going abroad for the long […]

There is a push by both liberal and conservative white circles to reimagine – and now, to rewrite – the devastating effects that slavery had on the Black family unit. I first became aware of this trend (one that is part of a larger effort to whitewash horrors of the Trans Atlantic slave trade) when […]

Have you ever been watching a sci-fi series or flick and thought to yourself, “Man, it would be great if we had a tablet that held all of my books and personal information?” And then poof! 15 year later, Apple comes out with an iPad and a portion of your geek dreams come to pass? […]

My husband says that my vast knowledge of obscure cartoons is evidence of my latchkey upbringing. “I had parents who loved and nurtured me, and made sure they were home with me after school. Whereas as YOU had television.” He was joking, but there was an element of seriousness to his assertion. Marshall (my husband) […]

Note: I will tell you all about the brain tumor that’s kept me from writing, but let’s table that for now so we can talk about this. On the 4th of March in the year of Lord, two thousand and seventeen, it was widely reported that a 26 year-old restaurant manager named Jihad Thaabn grabbed […]

Somewhere along the way in late 2016, I (apparently) uttered the words “I desperately need a vacation from my family!” Now, I don’t recall ever saying this aloud – but as the old Negro proverb goes, “From your lips to God’s ears!!!” That is how I ended up being banished to Tsitsikamma National Park for […]

In the summer of 2009, I paid a drop-in visit to my cousin in Ohio. She’s an extroverted introvert, so I knew my chances of catching her at home were pretty good. And home she was, just as I’d predicted. Her house was exactly as I recollected, punctuated by the same accessories and scents that […]