Journalist Ferial Haffajee says “Yes.” Gayton McKenzie, the self-described millionaire and former bank robber says “No.” And, he adds, “Only a man who understands what poverty is is able to overcome the challenge it poses since he knows – intimately – his enemy.” While trying to answer this question in 2012, Haffajee confidently wrote: “Donald Trump […]

This week on the Chronic website, we explore how global geopolitics play out in money exchanges. A decade on from postcolonial turmoil that saw their currency drastically devalued, Fungai Machirori observes how ordinary Zimbabweans are adjusting to the bond note, another face-saving tender introduced by the government. Moses März considers how, almost 60 years after independence, the CFA franc, […]

Taking advantage of both the intimacy and unpredictability of the live radio studio space and the reach and scope of the internet, Pan African Space Station Pop-Up seeks to forge new collaborations across time and space. A combination of live conversations, travelogues, discussion sessions and performances, together with exhibitions of new and archival material interrogate our shared histories. The […]

Visit, follow and listen to the  latest LIVE recordings from The Pan African Space Station on our Mixcloud. Also listen to and watch our archive on Stories About Music in Africa, a series that presents concert-lectures and audio/visual stories recorded at the Chimurenga headquarters in Cape Town as well as satellite locations across the African world. The […]

Forged from a rare metal found only in Africa and South America, the Afro-horn is an instrument to open the mouths of the gods. It was invented by ancient Egyptians, who called it the Tun-tet. According to Brent Hayes Edwards’ imaginative essay on the mythical instrument, there are only three Afro-horns in the world: one […]

On 16 August 2012, the South African Police Service opened fire on a crowd of striking mineworkers at Marikana, killing 34 and wounding dozens of others. Loyiso Mkhize goes back in time to the site of the massacre, seconds before the first shot has been fired, and imagines it not only as a fight against […]

Through the fictional character Qalqalah, Sarah Rifky, grapples with the question what is an institution? Speaking to art institutions and their futures she asks: what is the future of art? And more importantly, what is the future of language? Artwork by Thenjiwe Nkosi. Read Qalqalah in The Corpse Exhibition and Older Graphic Stories. Out now.    

Jamaican-born poet, musician and visual artist Jimmy Rage, explores pain and destruction through the passage of time and space: “We cruise the highways and byways,” of memory and imagined futures. Read Screaming Though the Galaxy here in The Corpse Exhibition and Older Graphic Stories. Out now