Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 9

Critical mass

Cycling as community in Dar es Salaam. Image �� Mejah Mbuya.

Non-motorized transport is the most popular means of getting to work in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, with millions of people walking to work every day in these cities. While cycling in urban spaces was habitually the domain of the few, the brave, and primarily men a few years ago, now more and more residents of various walks of life are taking up biking in these East African metropolises.

In countries like the Netherlands or Denmark, the uptake of cycling would not be worth reflecting on. But in East African cities, where very few roads are built with cycling lanes, let alone adequate pavements, and new infrastructures continue to have the car bias of, for example, North America and the United Arab Emirates, the dogged defiance of more and more cyclists on the road is not only noteworthy, but also inspiring.

Critical Mass events in Nairobi and Dar highlight this expanding scene, and the inter-generational and cross-class profiles of attendees gestures towards the multiple reasons people take up biking in these places, beyond the oft stated motivations of saving the planet or cost. Indeed, below, Meja Mbuyah, a pioneer bicycle activist from Dar es Salaam, shares how many cultural, infrastructural and economic barriers to biking are being dispelled by the expanding network of cyclists in this city. And through these actions, cycling is fostering community.

Wangui Kimari

Tell us about yourself: Who is Mejah Mbuya?

Mejah Mbuya

I am an entrepreneur and bicycle activist based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. My passion for cycling goes beyond just the ride; I am dedicated to advocating for better infrastructure, safer roads, and a more cycling-friendly environment for everyone. I strive to inspire others to embrace cycling as a fun, eco-friendly, and healthy mode of transportation. Whether it���s promoting cycling awareness or leading cycling tours, my mission is to make cycling more accessible and enjoyable for all.

My journey started as a bicycle advocate in 2006, by creating bicycle tours in Dar es Salaam. This work stems from the desire to showcase Dar in a different light���using a sustainable form of transport to explore the city. We typically aim to provide locals and tourists with a unique way to experience Dar es Salaam���s rich culture, history, and landmarks, while also promoting cycling as a mode of transport. It���s not just about sightseeing but also about showing the benefits of cycling in urban spaces. At Umma Wa Wapanda Baisikeli Dar es Salaam [Community of Bicycle Riders in Dar es Salaam���UWABA] we campaign for better and safer road conditions for cyclists and host the annual Dar Bicycle Caravan.

Wangui Kimari

What do you want the world to know about Dar es Salaam?

Mejah Mbuya

Dar es Salaam is a vibrant and welcoming city that offers a blend of rich history, culture, and natural beauty. The indigenous ethnic groups of Dar are the Zaramo and Ndengereko, though Dar is home for many migrants from other parts of the country. Its central neighborhoods have diverse architectures with local influences and those ranging from India, Iran, Britain, and Germany.

Regarding cycling, Dar es Salaam has been making strides to improve its infrastructure for cyclists. While the city���s roads can be busy and hectic, there has been increasing awareness around the need for better cycling lanes and safer streets for those who prefer to explore by bike. The local government and cycling organizations are working to raise awareness about the benefits of cycling for both the environment and public health. It���s an exciting time for cycling in Dar es Salaam, with more initiatives promoting cycling as an affordable, eco-friendly, and healthy mode of transportation.

Wangui Kimari

You have done a lot of work to push for non-motorized transport in the city; tell us about this work, and what inspired you to start cycling in the city.

Mejah Mbuya

I���ve been passionate about promoting non-motorized transport for a while now; we realized that cycling had many benefits���it���s sustainable, affordable, and can help reduce traffic congestion and pollution in the city. But for people to make cycling a part of their daily routine, they needed safe roads, proper lanes, and better public awareness about the advantages of cycling. So, UWABA has been advocating and lobbying to raise awareness, create advocacy campaigns, and partner with local authorities to improve cycling infrastructure.

Cycling city tours can also inspire community engagement. It also offers a perspective of the city that cars just can���t provide, and it encourages people to slow down and really engage with their surroundings. By combining practicality with sustainability, we are laying the groundwork for a more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly city.

Wangui Kimari

Is cycling a major way for people to move about in Dar es Salaam?

Mejah Mbuya

It is not as prevalent or widespread as in many other major cities globally; it is estimated that less than 5 percent of its residents are using bicycles on a daily basis. The city���s transportation system is primarily dominated by buses, motorcycles (known locally as boda bodas), the new BRT [Bus Rapid Transit] Mwendokasi buses, and private cars. However, there has been growing interest in cycling, particularly for recreational purposes, and the cycling community is growing.

While cycling is gaining attention, its widespread adoption in Dar es Salaam faces challenges. Besides congestion and limited cycling infrastructure, on some streets, pavements are being squeezed not only by planners but also by street vendors; small traders have turned the pavements into their business spots, blocking pedestrians��� movements. Also, culturally, cycling is sometimes associated with a lower socioeconomic status. There is a general perception that people who use bicycles are poor. Because many people do not want to be seen as poor, they tend to avoid bicycles even if they can afford one. Middle-class Tanzanians may avoid cycling due to concerns about social perception, as cycling is often viewed as a means for those who cannot afford motorized transport. ​There are also communities where cycling is not seen as a ���woman thing.��� In such communities, women are discouraged from cycling. But, on the other hand, the high rate of accidents involving non motorized transport users is another factor making people fear it.

Despite these challenges, initiatives are underway to promote cycling as a sustainable and efficient mode of transport. UWABA has led efforts and actively works to raise awareness about the benefits of cycling and advocates for better cycling infrastructure. We organize events such as cycle caravans to map bicycle routes and highlight the need for dedicated bike lanes.

Wangui Kimari

What do you hope to achieve by offering bicycle tours of Dar?

Mejah Mbuya

There are several goals we would hope to achieve. First, promote sustainable transportation; by showcasing Dar es Salaam through bicycle tours, the aim is to raise awareness about the environmental benefits of cycling. We also hope for all to gain a more intimate and immersive experience of the city; this helps foster a deeper appreciation of the city���s heritage and local communities. Cycling also is a great way to build a sense of community. Whether you���re a local resident or a tourist, there���s something special about sharing a ride through the city with others. It���s also an inclusive activity that can cater to different ages, abilities, and backgrounds, creating a welcoming environment for all. By embracing cycling, we can also contribute to a shift toward more sustainable cities, in Dar es Salaam and beyond.

Sinners and ancestors

Ryan Coogler���s latest film is more than a vampire fable���it���s a bridge between Black American history and African audiences hungry for connection, investment, and storytelling rooted in shared struggle. Still from Sinners, Warner Bros. �� 2025.

As a Black American living in Nigeria, watching Ryan Coogler���s Sinners on the big screen was a proud and emotional moment. The film connected me with my family���s past while evoking the spiritual presence of my African ancestors. Sinners was also an opportunity for Black Hollywood directors to showcase Black stories and history on the global stage. Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan, directed by Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, tells the story of twin brothers who flee Chicago in the 1930s�� to their hometown in rural Mississippi. The twins open a blues juke joint only to discover that evil vampires await them in the heart of Jim Crow South.

Sinners provided me a rare glimpse of life in 1930s Clarksdale, Mississippi, where my family has been deeply rooted for over 100 years. While my grandparents never scared me with vampire stories and hoodoo magic, my family shared the horror stories of living under segregation and the back-breaking labor of picking cotton. ���We made 10 cents an hour,��� my grandmother would say, shaking her head in disgrace. My aunts often bickered and joked at family gatherings about who picked the most cotton, using humor to soothe painful memories.�� For them, their Christian faith and church community were essential to surviving the evil of white supremacy.

Sinners offers a desperately needed history lesson for African moviegoers on Black American blues history and culture in rural Mississippi���history that���s often missing from African libraries and bookstores. At a time when Black History is under attack in the US, historical movies and African American literature are not only welcomed in Africa���they���re celebrated.

The sold-out theaters across Nigeria during the second opening weekend confirms that African moviegoers support movies from Black Hollywood and that Black-centered stories in America can thrive internationally. Nigerians gasped, laughed, and shouted at all the right moments, bringing the theater to life just like home. Nairametroxs, meanwhile, reported that Sinners made N269.9 million in its first nine days.�� With a population of roughly 227 million and 90 movie theaters nationwide, that���s a major milestone.���

With the global impact of films like Sinners and Black Panther, it���s time for Black Hollywood directors and historians to be more intentional in promoting their work and doing business on the continent. Sinners would have earned even more in international sales across the African diaspora if it had invested in a strong media campaign. Most Nigerians heard about the movie through TV ads, social media, and word of mouth. The Sinners cast could have had a premiere in Abidjan, especially since Ivorian Zaouli dancers performed in the movie. The cast could have had a public screening in South Africa or Kenya and a press conference with African journalists and influencers on local radio and TV.

The abrupt closure of the US Agency for International Development, which had committed US$3.5 million to the creative industries in Nigeria, provides another opportunity for Black American producers to invest in the next generation of African storytellers. Black Hollywood could build film and acting schools, movie theaters, student film and art exchanges, and studios on the continent. This would create more jobs for African youth and business opportunities for both creators across the Atlantic.

As anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies continue to threaten Black progress in the US, Black entertainment leaders must invest now, share stories, and strengthen connections on the continent and across the diaspora.

The verdict against womanhood

From trans bans to racial exclusion, the hard-won gains made in women���s football are being rolled back under the guise of protecting women. Barbara Banda with the Orlando Pride. Image �� Dantey Buitureida via Shutterstock.com.

Women���s football is at a critical stage in its evolution. It is breaking records and enjoying increased visibility, viewership, and attendance which has positively influenced participation. In the process, unlike men���s football, it has maintained its political courage, and this has been demonstrated through the various ways footballers have successfully advocated for better pay and working conditions while also tackling larger societal issues.�� But the far-right fascist redux that has swept across the Western world jeopardizes the triumphs of women���s football.

In April, the United Kingdom���s Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of woman is based on biological sex assigned at birth. This effectively excludes trans women from being legally recognized as women. Less than a month later, the English Football Association (FA) announced that as of June 1, it would prohibit the participation of trans women in the sport.

The ruling and subsequent decision by the federation is not only exclusionary but sets a horrible precedent for women���s football. It fosters a hostile environment not only for trans women but for cisgender women as well. It also transforms women���s football into a political battleground for other equally insidious far-right agendas.

After a long history of being relegated to the shadows of society, the past two decades saw mainstream conversations of how trans people could have access to public life in meaningful ways. To be clear, the discourse was not always productive, but it was happening and it was shaping policy.

However, the prominence of far-right-wing politics have dramatically reshaped the tone and dialogue completely. As explained by historian Quinn Slobodian in his new book, Hayek���s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right, conservative thinkers deemed socialist movements concerned with civil rights, feminism, affirmative action, environmentalism, or anything that upholds democratic rights as the secret victors in the ideological war against communism. Red threats were replaced with green ones. To counter it, right-wing thought obsessively circles around race science, phrenology, nativism, and biological essentialism.

This framework is most nakedly expressed by economist Murray Rothbard, a central figure of American right-wing libertarian thought, who declared, ���Biology stands like a rock in the face of egalitarian fantasies.��� The implication is clear: Inequality is natural and not a product of structural failures. If some people are inherently less worthy, then neither the state nor institutions bear responsibility for addressing their needs, and therefore these needs shouldn���t be part of budget or policy consideration.

Slobodian underscores the fact that the far-right is exercising hateful outbursts not just based on ignorance but rather through a carefully crafted and calculated ideological project, made to appear economically rational and therefore can be easily slipped into the mainstream.

That is why, despite accounting for only a small percentage of the population, transgender people become a major flashpoint. Writer and feminist Moira Donegan notes on her podcast In Bed with the Right, the tolerance of transphobia becomes a testing ground of what other regressive policies the far-right can push without resistance.

This permits an expansion of violence beyond the initial subjects of fixation. It places non-white women���particularly Black women���in precarity as they are ostracized from normative womanhood not just socially but structurally, in the very grammar of Western thought. As theorized by Hortense Spillers in her foundational essay ���Mama���s Baby, Papa���s Maybe,��� in slavery and its afterlife, the category of “woman” is not simply policed; it is already racialized and fundamentally exclusive. As she puts it, when it comes to Black people, ���males become ���ungendered��� and females are ���gendered male.���”

This is not a new crisis; it���s a continuation. Across sporting codes, gender policing has disproportionately affected Black women, from Caster Semenya���s high-profile exclusion from athletics to the cases of Christine Mboma, Beatrice Masilingi, Francine Niyonsaba, and Margaret Wambui, amongst many others. Or consider how Serena Williams frequently highlights that she underwent more drug tests than any of her top American peers.

Whether it���s the Olympics, World Athletics, Confederation of Africa (CAF), FA, or FIFA, these governing bodies remain opaque about their gender-verification processes, and their flawed, testosterone-centric logic reinforces a violent colonial legacy.

Far-right fear mongering, and who it singles out, is deeply troubling especially given that women’s football has already proven itself to be ill-equipped to confront the rampant racism within its own chambers. Racism manifests both between players and from fans, while European beauty and desirability politics dictate who receives visibility; often irrespective of performance.

This imbalance is glaringly visible in Europe���s top competitions. The recent Women���s Champions League final between Barcelona Femeni and Arsenal featured starting lineups made up entirely of white players. This is more evocative of apartheid South Africa or Jim Crow America than a global sport in 2025. This was no isolated occurrence; such racial homogeneity remains disturbingly common, both on and off the field, yet it is largely unaddressed, revealing a normalization of dysfunction.�� A sport that blatantly pedestals white femininity is one that is vulnerable to exploitation and ideological incursions from the far right.

Zambian striker Barbra Banda, despite her extraordinary skill and track record on the pitch, has been reduced to a site of political agenda in a violent collision between race and gender. In 2022, Banda was ruled ineligible for the Women���s Africa Cup of Nations, and it was speculated that it was on the basis that she had elevated testosterone levels. Through this debacle, not only did CAF and the Zambian Federation fail to protect her, they served her up to the dogs and effectively greenlit the public vilification of one of the continent���s brightest stars.

The aftershocks have been brutal. Earlier this year, a fan was removed from the stands at an Orlando Pride game for targeting Banda with slurs. In March, a cluster of protesters stood outside Pride Park (located in Derby, England) before the Women���s League Cup final, not to watch the game, but to demand the exclusion of a player who doesn���t even play in the UK.

When she was named the BBC Women���s Footballer of the Year at the end of 2024, the response was an avalanche of transphobic and racist bile emanating not only from online trolls but from public figures like J. K. Rowling, former Olympian Sharron Davies, and Oliver Brown, chief sports writer at The Telegraph. Brown is particularly pernicious as he blurred the line between journalism, opinion, and orchestrated harassment. What���s more damning is the silence: Several prominent white women in football media failed to push back against Brown publicly after he published an incendiary piece on Banda.

But this is the playbook. Once the far-right and its institutional allies have finished targeting trans athletes and non-white women, they don���t dust their hands and consider the mission complete. Gender becomes a realm to exercise control. And cisgender white women aren���t exempt from harm, especially those that do not conform to ideals of cisheteronormative white femininity.

Just last year, a white marathon runner with alopecia was verbally attacked in an airport women���s restroom. Former United States Women���s National Team captain Megan Rapinoe has been on the receiving end of Donald Trump���s trolling numerous times across the years, and that hostility is no coincidence given her unapologetic queerness. Or rewind to a decade ago, where in the lead-up to the 2015 Women���s World Cup, FIFA required gender-verification tests from the Germany women���s national team. A week later, England���s squad underwent the same ordeal. This came on the heels of similar tests imposed on players from Korea, Iran, and Papua New Guinea. And yet FIFA has no known public record of ever imposing the same requirements on male players.

Finally, the trans alarmist panic sucks up a lot of air in the room, conveniently distracting from the FA and UK government���s long-standing failure to meaningfully grow women���s football. Their decisions make one thing clear: These institutions don���t care about women���s football or women in general, despite their claims. If they did, their primary concern would be the sport���s most persistent threat, which is misogyny. Because it���s misogyny that lays the foundation for the start-stop cycles, the chronic underfunding, the unchecked sexual, physical, and verbal abuse enacted on players, or the gross neglect that endangers the vitality of the game.

It should not be lost on anyone that while laws and bans are being pushed, clubs like Barnsley FC and Blackburn Rovers have faced severe financial insecurity with the former completely�� folding while the latter being forced to withdraw from the Women���s Championship and re-enter at least two tiers below because ownership refuses to meet the league���s basic funding requirements. That is three clubs in two years��and it���s business as usual. No grand interventions from the FA, just promises to hopefully find alternatives for the affected players and staff.

This is the same federation that was directly responsible for the banishment of women from football in favor of men. That set the women���s game back by half a century. With a legacy like that, you���d think there would be a sense of shame and a commitment to course correction. But over 100 years later, the tradition of unbridled contempt persists. And it���s women who keep paying the ultimate cost.

It’s Gianni’s world (cup)���

On the eve of the kick off of FIFA's newest major tournament, we wonder, who is the Club World Cup for? The Club World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. Image �� Delmiro Junior via Shutterstock.com

Just weeks ago, the curtain fell on the club football season for much of the world. Instead of the usual two-month summer break, however, some of the best clubs in the world are preparing to compete in FIFA���s new Club World Cup, staged to mark one year until the 2026 North American FIFA World Cup.

Organizing a rehearsal tournament is not new. Starting in 1992, this took the form of the FIFA Confederations Cup, which brought together the champions of each continent. It was quietly shelved after the 2017 edition ahead of Russia 2018. In 2021, FIFA replaced it with the Arab Cup, an appeal to regional sentiment that resonated strongly in the Arab world, even if it registered little global buzz.

This year, FIFA has opted to break with tradition. Instead of sticking to international football, it���s dipping its toes into the club football pool. This expanded, summer version of the Club World Cup signals a strategic pivot and a quiet power play in the ongoing tug-of-war between football���s foremost governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA.

In The Ringer, Dr. Stefan Szymanski, professor of sport management at the University of Michigan and co-author of Soccernomics explains this dynamic. ���You���re seeing a fight going on between UEFA and FIFA about who controls the revenues from the big games. UEFA is a minority within FIFA, but it has most of the money. FIFA hates this. Infantino is a mini-Trump���he wants to rule the world. Anything he can do to undermine the Champions League and replace it with a FIFA product is something he���s going to do.���

It was predictable that the European reaction to the Club World Cup would be negative. Jamie Carragher, who earlier in the year claimed that the , said there would be ���no appetite��� for the tournament from players, clubs, and supporters. Tottenham���s Danish coach, Thomas Frank, called the tournament ���ridiculous��� due to the oversaturation of the football calendar.

In October 2024, FIFPRO, a representative body that advocates for the rights and interests of professional footballers, filed a complaint to the European Commission over ���FIFA’s imposition of the international match calendar.���

���FIFA���s decisions on the match calendar in recent years have repeatedly favored its own competitions and commercial interests and neglected its responsibilities as a governing body, including its responsibility to protect players and their wellbeing,��� explained David Terrier, the president of FIFPRO Europe.

While FIFPRO makes valid points about the exploitation of players, their attack on FIFA is somewhat one-sided, considering how the very same players��� clubs push the commercial envelope to the limit.

For instance, complaints about player fatigue lose credibility when clubs like Manchester United, for example, wrap up their Premier League campaign against Aston Villa on May 25, 2025, and are on a long-haul flight to Malaysia to begin a Southeast Asia tour the very next morning. Just three days separated the 38th matchday of the Premier League season and kick-off for Manchester United vs ASEAN All-Stars in Kuala Lumpur. It was an exhausting turnaround that drew sharp criticism from fans and pundits alike.

Amid this high-stakes tug-of-war between clubs and competing governing bodies, African football finds itself caught in the crossfire.

With 54 member votes, Africa is FIFA���s largest regional bloc, and African football associations have consistently offered blind support to FIFA initiatives. It is simultaneously powerful (due to its traditionally unified voting bloc) and easily swayed due to chronic underfunding and weak governance structures. FIFA, understanding this influence, has not hesitated to enforce compliance through sanctions, while simultaneously rewarding loyalty via financial initiatives like the FIFA Forward program.

UEFA, for its part, has long looked down on CAF, with its leagues treating the Africa Cup of Nations as a scheduling nuisance and viewing the continent less as a footballing peer than as a talent pipeline to supply its elite clubs and competitions.

At the club level, African teams remain eager participants in FIFA���s expanded Club World Cup. Historically, South American, Asian, and African clubs have taken this tournament far more seriously than their European counterparts. Financially, participation comes with a minimum payout of $9.5 million, a sum that nearly matches the annual operating budget of top clubs like Esperance de Tunis and Wydad Casablanca. Three weeks of action could double their yearly budget, and that���s without factoring in the long-term branding and exposure benefits of competing on a global stage.

Yet, despite the financial incentives, the unflinching loyalty of African clubs and federations to FIFA can be difficult for African fans to digest. Take the tournament format itself. FIFA has allocated 12 spots to European clubs, six to South American clubs, five to North American teams, and just four each to African and Asian sides. Based on recent Club World Cup performances, there is little competitive logic to justify inviting more North American than African or Asian representation.

Add to this the optics of FIFA president Gianni Infantino���s admiration of US President Donald Trump, a man who infamously described African nations as ���shithole countries��� and implemented discriminatory travel bans targeting several African states.

Then there is Infantino���s track record of broken promises, which African fans are all too familiar with. Infamously, the FIFA president once championed the idea of an ���African Super League.��� Initially, he pledged that each participating club would receive $20 million, that the league would feature 24 teams, and that other revenue would be distributed to non-participating clubs through a solidarity fund. What materialized? A mini-tournament of eight clubs that fell far short of its ambitions and lasted just one year.

Despite all of that, there remains much anticipation within the African football family for the Club World Cup. Al Ahly (Egypt), Esperance (Tunisia), Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa), and Wydad (Morocco) will represent the continent. Club strategies have varied with the approach of the tournament. Al Ahly and Wydad have splurged on marquee signings this summer. Al Ahly brought in former Orlando Pirates coach Jos�� Riveiro and Zamalek icon Ahmed Sayed ���Zizo,��� while Wydad added veteran Moroccan international Nordin Amrabat from Hull City and Burkinabe playmaker Stephane Aziz Ki from Tanzanian giants Young Africans.

By contrast, Mamelodi Sundowns and Esperance opted for continuity. Sundowns, with a vast squad already, could not find room to add to their first-team squad and left first-team players at home. Esperance, however, may have missed an opportunity to plug holes they have in defense, much to the frustration of their demanding supporters.

Nonetheless, there���s a lot of optimism among African football supporters that at least a couple of clubs can advance past the group stages and change some of the preconceived notions that exist about club football on the continent.

That���s the real value of this tournament for African football. Sure, money matters. But for African clubs, the real prize is the platform. The chance to remind the world what our continent does best: play with personality on the pitch, and create the most electric atmospheres anywhere in the stands. It���s a rare shot at rewriting tired narratives and forcing global football to take African club football a little more seriously.

If you’d like hear more about the Club World Cup means to African clubs, be sure to check out the latest episode of the African Five-a-side podcast.

Firearms aren’t the only weapons

The writings of revolutionary Angolan leader and intellectual M��rio Pinto de Andrade helped galvanize the independence struggle. They are now available in English. Photo by Olhar Angolano on Unsplash.

Leia em portugu��s aqui.

Music, rhyme, poetry, and art in general have the power to invade us, to overflow from within, to redirect our course and orientation, transforming our reality through sensibility and energy. Words possess power, they belong to us, and we can share them. Material goods such as clothes, houses, cars, and phones can vanish, but the power of our words and ideas remains for life and beyond, marking generations and nurturing ancestry.

This impact reverberates in the recently released book The Revolution Will Be a Poetic Act: African Culture and Decolonization, a selection of texts by Angolan thinker M��rio Pinto de Andrade (1928���1990). The title of the book evokes the iconic song ���The Revolution Will Not Be Televised��� by Gil Scott-Heron (1949���2011). With his questioning, ironic, and political style, Scott-Heron became a key figure of the golden age of Black music and a pivotal influence on rap. Like the song, the book���s title underscores the cultural layer of revolutions, which neither were nor will be televised. Revolutions are not simple events that can be easily accepted or broadcast by mainstream media; they involve multiple disruptive and complex layers in dispute. As Scott-Heron stated in his song, the revolution will not be televised ���in four parts without commercial interruptions.���

The Revolution Will Be a Poetic Act was published at the end of 2024 by Polity Press. The book was edited and translated by Lanie Millar, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and Fabienne Moore, associate professor of French, both at the University of Oregon. Combining their expertise in decolonial African literatures, they brought this work to life. The volume gathers essays, speeches, and reflections by the Angolan intellectual, poet, and political figure M��rio Pinto de Andrade���an important name in the African and global anticolonial movement. The publication represents an effort to make Andrade���s poetic-political thought accessible to English-speaking audiences, linking his intellectual contributions to the broader struggle for decolonization.

Born in Golungo Alto, Angola, Andrade studied in Luanda before pursuing higher education in classical philology at the University of Lisbon, where he encountered the racial and political tensions of colonial Europe. Brazilian historian Helena Wakim Moreno has explored how these experiences led Andrade to shift his academic focus toward African linguistics and cultures, culminating in studies on Kimbundu, a language of the Ambundu ethnolinguistic group. His essay on Kimbundu, published in Luanda, served as an anticolonial critique of grammars and dictionaries produced since the 17th century.

Andrade was one of the founders of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in 1956 and became its first president in 1960. Even in exile, he continued to shape African political-cultural thought through publications and reflections on nationalism and decolonization. His influence extended beyond Angola, notably between 1965 and 1969 through the Conference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies (CONCP), a key coordinating space for liberation movements across Africa during the armed struggle.

His personal archives���letters, manuscripts, and various documents���are accessible through the Funda����o M��rio Soares website and offer valuable resources to researchers interested in Angola���s anti-colonial history, complementing the material presented in the book.

The volume is divided into fifteen parts addressing key topics to understand the interplay between culture, race, identity, and anticolonial struggle. Highlights include reflections on Black poetry in Portuguese (���Black Poetry Expressed in Portuguese���; ���Black Poets of Portuguese Expression���), critiques of Lusotropicalism and assimilation ideology (���What Is Lusotropicalism?���; ���Black African Culture and Assimilation���), and analyses of culture���s strategic role in armed struggle (���Culture and Armed Struggle���; ���The Armed Song of the Angolan People���; ���Culture and National Liberation in Africa���). The collection also includes more theoretical texts, such as ���Theoretical Production of African Intellectuals,��� and two interviews that illuminate Andrade���s personal and familial trajectory.

In the sections focused on culture and poetry, Andrade���s writings highlight how Black African intellectuals creatively appropriated the Portuguese language as a symbolic form of resistance to colonialism. By challenging assimilationist dynamics and the myth of Lusotropicalism, he exposed the cultural domination enforced by the Portuguese regime and the false promise of social inclusion through acculturation. His texts, such as ���The Armed Song of the Angolan People,��� emphasize how songs, poems, and oral narratives served as political instruments on the front lines of struggle.

By revisiting M��rio Pinto de Andrade���s thought, this book bridges the anticolonial past with present urgencies. Its ideas transcend oceans and echo, especially within Global South academic centers. Historically, universities such as Dakar, Ibadan, and Dar es Salaam played a key role in shaping intellectuals committed to emancipatory and pan-Africanist projects. In Brazil, these debates have become foundational in African and Afro-diasporic studies, with notable contributions from institutions such as the Center for Afro-Oriental Studies at the Federal University of Bahia, the Center for African Studies at the University of S��o Paulo, and the now-defunct Center for Afro-Asian Studies at Universidade Candido Mendes.

In addition to recommending the book, we also suggest the article ���The Films of Sarah Maldoror��� published by Africa Is a Country, to learn more about Andrade���s wife, Sarah Maldoror, one of the pioneering filmmakers of African cinema. Reading M��rio Pinto de Andrade today means recognizing the continuity of an intellectual and activist tradition that links Africa and its diaspora, memory and action, word and revolution. This collection is not just a tribute, it is a call to anti-Eurocentric studies.

As armas na��o so�� de fogo

Os escritos do l��der e intelectual revolucion��rio angolano M��rio Pinto de Andrade ajudaram a galvanizar a luta pela independ��ncia. Est��o agora dispon��veis em ingl��s. Photo by Jorge S�� on Unsplash.

Read in English here.

A m��sica, a rima, a poesia e a arte em geral t��m o poder de nos invadir, de nos transbordar, de nos fazer mudar de rota, de orienta����o, transformando nossa realidade pelos sentidos e energias. As palavras possuem poder, elas nos pertencem e podemos compartilh��-las, por outro lado, os bens materiais como roupas, casas, carros, celulares, tudo isso pode ir embora, mas o poder de nossas palavras e de nossas ideias, essas sim, se mant��m para o resto da vida e al��m dela, marcando gera����es e alimentando a ancestralidade.

Esse impacto pode ser reverberado no livro rec��m-lan��ado The Revolution will be a Poetic Act: African Culture and Decolonization, com uma sele����o de textos do angolano M��rio Pinto de Andrade (1928-1990). O t��tulo da obra nos faz lembrar da m��sica “Revolution will not be televised” de Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011), considerado um dos padrinhos do Hip-Hop, com grande repercuss��o na m��sica preta, com seu estilo questionador, ir��nico e pol��tico, foi uma das grandes referencias da golden age que influenciaram o rap mundialmente.

Nessa m��sica, assim como o t��tulo do livro, destaca-se a camada cultural para falar das revolu����es, que n��o foram nem ser��o televisionadas. As revolu����es n��o s��o momentos simples para serem facilmente aceitos e noticiados nos meios de comunica����o tradicionais, possuem diversas camadas transgressoras e complexas em disputa, como disse Scott-Heron na m��sica… a revolu����o n��o ser�� televisionada “em quatro partes sem intervalos comerciais”.

O livro The Revolution will be a Poetic Act: African Culture and Decolonization foi lan��ado no final do ano de 2024 pela Polity Press, as respons��veis pela organiza����o e tradu����o foram: Lanie Millar, professora associada de Espanhol e Portugu��s na University of Oregon, e Fabienne Moore, professora associada de Franc��s na mesma institui����o, elas uniram suas especializa����es em literaturas africanas decoloniais para realizar esta obra. As p��ginas re��nem ensaios, discursos e reflex��es do intelectual, poeta e pol��tico angolano M��rio Pinto de Andrade, figura especial do movimento anticolonial africano e mundial. A publica����o representa um esfor��o de tornar acess��vel ao p��blico de l��ngua inglesa uma sele����o in��dita do pensamento pol��tico-po��tico de Andrade, articulando sua contribui����o intelectual �� luta pela descoloniza����o.

Nascido em Golungo Alto, Angola, estudou em Luanda, seguindo no ensino superior em Filologia cl��ssica na Universidade de Lisboa, onde se deparou com as tens��es raciais e pol��ticas do contexto colonial na europa. A historiadora brasileira Helena Wakim Moreno pesquisou como essas experi��ncias influenciaram sua reorienta����o acad��mica para ��rea lingu��stica africana, culminando em pesquisas sobre o kimbundu, idioma do grupo etnolingu��stico Ambundu. Seu ensaio sobre o kimbundu, publicado em Luanda, representou uma cr��tica anticolonial ��s gram��ticas e dicion��rios produzidos desde o s��culo XVII, evidenciando seu compromisso com a valoriza����o das l��nguas e culturas africanas.

Andrade foi um dos fundadores do Movimento Popular de Liberta����o de Angola (MPLA) em 1956, tornando-se seu primeiro presidente em 1960. Posteriormente, mesmo durante o ex��lio, continuou a influenciar o pensamento pol��tico-cultural africano, contribuindo com publica����es e reflex��es sobre a constru����o do nacionalismo e a descoloniza����o. Al��m de sua contribui����o acad��mica, desempenhou um papel central na organiza����o pol��tica anticolonial em conex��o com Mo��ambique, Guin�� Bissau, Cabo Verde, atuando intensamente de 1965-1969 na Confer��ncia das Organiza����es Nacionalistas das Col��nias Portuguesas (CONCP), que foi um espa��o de coordena����o para organiza����es nacionalistas em ��frica no processo de guerrilha.

Seus arquivos pessoais como correspond��ncias, manuscritos e documentos diversos, podem ser acessados no site da Funda����o M��rio Soares, que possui um acervo para pesquisadores interessados na hist��ria da luta anticolonial em Angola, que podem complementar os interesses para quem for ler o livro.

The Revolution will be a Poetic Act: African Culture and Decolonization foi estruturado em quinze partes que discutem temas para compreender a articula����o entre cultura, ra��a, identidade e luta anticolonial. Entre os textos, destacam-se reflex��es sobre a poesia negra em l��ngua portuguesa (Black Poetry Expressed in Portuguese; Black Poets of Portuguese Expression), cr��ticas ao lusotropicalismo e �� ideologia da assimila����o (What is Luso-tropicalism?; Black-African Culture and Assimilation), al��m de an��lises sobre o papel estrat��gico da cultura na luta armada (Culture and Armed Struggle; The Armed Song of the Angolan People; Culture and National Liberation in Africa). Tamb��m integram a obra os textos de car��ter mais te��rico, como Theoretical Production of African Intellectuals, e duas entrevistas que lan��am luz sobre a trajet��ria pessoal e familiar de M��rio Pinto de Andrade.

Nos t��picos voltados para cultura e a poesia, os escritos de Andrade evidenciam a apropria����o criativa da l��ngua portuguesa por intelectuais negros africanos como forma de resist��ncia simb��lica ao colonialismo. Ao abordar as din��micas questionadoras �� assimila����o e o mito do lusotropicalismo, ele denunciava as estruturas de domina����o cultural impostas pelo regime portugu��s e a falsa promessa de inclus��o social por meio da acultura����o. A rela����o entre cultura e luta armada, presente em textos como The Armed Song of the Angolan People, mostrou como as can����es, poemas e narrativas orais foram instrumentos pol��ticos nas frentes de combate.

Ao revisitar o pensamento de M��rio Pinto de Andrade, este livro conectou o passado anticolonial ��s urg��ncias do presente. As ideias ali reunidas atravessaram os oceanos e ocupam espa��o para ecoar, especialmente, nos centros universit��rios do Sul Global. Historicamente buscam fortalecer a cr��tica ao colonialismo e �� domina����o imperialista. Em solo africano, os centros da Universidade de Dakar, da Universidade de Ibadan e da Universidade de Dar es Salam foram fundamentais na forma����o de intelectuais comprometidos com projetos emancipat��rios e panafricanistas. No Brasil, essas discuss��es se consolidaram nos estudos africanos e afrodiasp��ricos fundacionais do campo, com destaque para institui����es: o Centro Estudos Afro-Orientais (CEAO) da Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), o Centro de Estudos Africanos (CEA) da Universidade de S��o Paulo (USP), e o falecido Centro de Estudos Afro-Asi��ticos (CEAA) da Universidade Candido Mendes.

Para al��m de recomendarmos a leitura desse livro, deixamos aqui a sugest��o do artigo da Africa Is a Country “The films of Sarah Maldoror“, para conhecer mais sobre Sarah Maldoror (esposa de Andrade) uma das cineastas percursoras do audiovisual africano. Ler M��rio Pinto de Andrade hoje �� reconhecer a continuidade de uma tradi����o intelectual e militante que une ��frica e di��spora, mem��ria e a����o, palavra e revolu����o. Esta colet��nea n��o �� apenas uma homenagem, �� uma convoca����o para os estudos anti-eurocentristas.

Mozambique’s mid-life crisis

After 50 Years of independence in Mozambique, what and how to celebrate? Popular demonstration on a busy avenue in the center of Maputo, 22 November 2024. Image �� Mar��lio Wane.

Leia em portugu��s��aqui.

Mozambique is preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence, achieved on June 25, 1975, amid an atmosphere of political tension that brings with it a number of decisive questions about the future direction of the country. The moment coincides with the independence of the other former Portuguese colonies in Africa in the same year, reflecting the articulated nature of the anticolonial resistance in these countries, in the face of a common enemy and after a decade of armed struggle. Another common aspect is that, despite the enormous geographical distances and territorial discontinuity, the different liberation movements in this group of nations were in dialogue with each other, while at the same time establishing external alliances aligned with the socialist bloc, in the context of the Cold War. As a result, once liberation had been won, the former movements set up one-party regimes of Marxist-Leninist inspiration, which were in force until the early 1990s, when they began to adopt liberal democracy regimes due to the structural adjustment policies imposed by the World Bank and the IMF.

The occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the so-called Lusophone Africa therefore presents an inevitable opportunity for reflection and stocktaking of the historical experience, in each of the countries and together. In addition to the official celebrations, there will certainly also be artistic events, academic seminars, and, possibly, protests, since there is no escaping the harsh reality of the appalling living conditions in this group of nations, which are among the most impoverished in the world. Although, to a large extent, the political history of the PALOPs follows a more or less common script, individually, the developments have taken place according to their own idiosyncrasies, with the political-institutional instability in some of them standing out. This is the case of Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique, whose recent post-election crisis has drawn the attention of the world and more specifically the region, due to its structural elements, which reflect broader problems in the region.

The immediate cause of the political crisis was the electoral process in October 2024, which, for the seventh time, gave victory to the Frelimo party, amid various accusations and indications of fraud. In fact, this is a recurring situation that has been widely recorded and documented since the first multiparty elections in 1994. What is new is the fact that this time, the challenge has come not only from the opposition, but from various sectors of civil society and even international organizations, which have been somewhat complacent in the face of blatant situations. For example, in a report released at the end of January, the European Union pointed to the occurrence of ���irregularities and discrepancies that affect the integrity of the electoral process and results in the country.��� The background to these recurring accusations of electoral fraud is the fact that, due to a certain inertia of history, the Frelimo party has almost absolute control over state institutions, since it has been in power since independence. In this way, it has acquired the ability to instrumentalize them in its favor, making the political contest manifestly unequal. This ���inertia��� results from the fact that, since independence and over the following decades, the Frelimo regime has managed to produce a considerable consensus among the masses, anchored in the legitimacy acquired through the struggle for independence.

The crisis began immediately after the first official announcement of the results when Ven��ncio Mondlane, the main opposition candidate, called for a series of protests on a scale never before seen in the country. Questions of merit aside, and at a deeper level of analysis, the widespread contestation of the election results can be interpreted as the breakdown of this consensus, signaling the divorce between the former party-state and broad sectors of society. Not only the opposing demonstrations, but above all, the disproportionate police repression that was observed in response has been the emblematic image of the critical political moment experienced in the country. Even more symbolic of this ���divorce��� was the inauguration ceremony of the new president, Daniel Chapo, which was negatively marked by the absence of the usual popular participation. Due to the high-voltage atmosphere on the day of the inauguration (January 15), Independence Square had to be cordoned off, allegedly for security reasons. While Chapo was giving his speech, some demonstrators confronted the police in the area around the square, with one death and scenes of police violence that went viral around the world.

Another unprecedented aspect that characterized the event was the absence of foreign representations at the highest level, especially from historical allies such as Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Namibia, and Portugal, among others. These absences did not go unnoticed by the media and were exploited by the regime���s opponents as a sign of the international embarrassment caused by the controversial nature of the elections. Particularly in Portugal, where the parliament did not even recommend the presence of the president of the republic or the prime minister, as has been customary. For the rest, only South Africa, the closest ally in the region, and Guinea-Bissau, which is also experiencing a political-institutional crisis, were represented by their heads of state.

A new old government at a crossroads

Faced with the impasse, various voices from Mozambican civil society have suggested that the new government take a series of actions to overcome the crisis. However, these expectations���such as the formation of an inclusive, unified government and dialogue with the main opposition leader���have not been met. On the contrary, the signals emitted by the new leader (who is also president of the party) point to the strengthening of the hegemonic power of Frelimo, whose cadres make up all the ministries, added to the absolute majority in parliament, also strengthened by the election results.

In contrast to the relative social isolation of the ruling party, Mondlane (currently in the process of founding his own party) has continued his internal and external mobilization work, even after the self-exile he imposed after the October elections and his triumphant return to the country���s capital in January. On that occasion, he proclaimed himself ���president of the republic��� and began issuing ���presidential decrees��� from his ���parallel government��� as a way of pressuring the government to adopt measures that enjoy broad popular support but defy the institutional order.

Legal debates aside, the fact is that many of these ���decrees��� were temporarily accepted by a large part of the population, generating situations of social tension and political violence. On the one hand, the government categorized these acts as ���vandalism,��� and on the other, the opposition claimed their legitimacy as a form of civil disobedience in the face of the difficult living conditions imposed by an allegedly illegitimate government. The fact is that the first few months of the year have seen a high degree of social instability, marked by traffic bans in various parts of the country, the destruction of public and private infrastructure, work and trade stoppages, and more, which have been met with harsh police repression.

For a country with a fragile economy, institutions and infrastructure, maintaining such a state of affairs could easily lead to a situation of ungovernability, which in turn raises another type of debate: Who would be the beneficiaries of such instability. In this sense, there are widespread accusations of Mondlane being at the service of foreign interests, based on his ideological alignment with right-wing and even far-right sectors of the world. Added together, these suspicions are reminiscent of the phenomenon of ���color revolutions,��� such as the so-called Arab Spring, which hit countries in the north of the continent in the 2010s. And in this vein, the use of social networks as their main communication and mobilization tool is another element of suspicion that Mozambique is repeating the same strategy of destabilizing political regimes in the Global South in favor of Western interests.

What and how?

In any case, the pressures exerted by external interests have always been part of the equation for exercising power, most acutely in the most economically dependent nations. So the big question is how governments react and interact in the face of this reality, taking into account their own interests as sovereign states and, above all, from the point of view of the living conditions of the population. From the latter point of view, the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of independence necessarily begs the question: What should we celebrate? In other words, it means questioning what benefits were objectively brought to society as a whole as a result of political emancipation. Although we recognize the constraints imposed by an oppressive world economic order that is unfavorable to the countries of the Global South, local governments cannot be absolved of responsibility for the well-being of their peoples. And among the various factors explaining their absence in countries like Mozambique, the natural wear and tear generated by five decades of power exercised uninterruptedly by a single political force is certainly one of the most important.

Recognizing this reality becomes particularly relevant at a time when the winds of the Sahel are blowing from the north of the continent, demanding liberation from neocolonialist domination, exercised by the former Western imperialist powers in collusion with Africa���s conservative elites. And it is precisely this last element of the equation that should receive special attention in the public debate of African societies, with regard to the internal political dynamics that make neocolonialism possible. If, on the one hand, Ibrahim Traor�����s growing popularity among African youth signals the emergence of a new political consciousness, on the other hand, it can be seen as a potential threat to the already old postcolonial power structures. This is the case in the continent���s southernmost region, where the leading parties of the liberation movements���Frelimo, MPLA, ANC, ZANU-PF, SWAPO, historically allied���are experiencing an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy due to their forced longevity.

In addition to the question of what, it is also important to reflect on how to celebrate the milestone of 50 years of liberation from colonial rule. Since official preparations have already begun, the situation of crisis and instability brings with it the broader issue of social inclusion. In other words, the challenge is to ensure that the moment of celebration is meaningful for the whole of society, something that is difficult given the fragmented state of the social fabric today. More than ever, the need for open and inclusive dialogue has become imperative, not just for the specific moment of the intended celebration on June 25, 2025, but as a tool to enable solid long-term prospects for the future. In other words, the great challenge facing Mozambican society lies in the capacity of the historically authoritarian and centralized political system to promote greater participation and inclusion of civil society in decision-making processes for the collective construction of the nation���s destiny.

Mo��ambique em crise de meia idade

Depois de 50 anos de independ��ncia em Mo��ambique: o qu�� e como celebrar? Manifesta����o popular em avenida movimentada da zona central da Maputo, 22 de Novembro de 2024. Imagem �� Mar��lio Wane.

Read in English here.

Mo��ambique prepara-se para celebrar os 50 anos da sua independ��ncia, conquistada a 25 de Junho de 1975, em meio a um ambiente de tens��o pol��tica que traz consigo diversas quest��es decisivas quanto aos rumos futuros do pa��s. O momento coincide com as independ��ncias das outras antigas col��nias portuguesas em ��frica ocorridas no mesmo ano, refletindo o car��cter articulado da resist��ncia anticolonial nestes pa��ses, diante de um inimigo comum e ap��s uma d��cada de luta armada. Outro aspecto comum �� que, a despeito das enormes dist��ncias geogr��ficas e da descontinuidade territorial, os diferentes movimentos de liberta����o deste grupo de na����es dialogavam entre si, ao mesmo tempo em que estabeleciam alian��as externas alinhadas ao bloco socialista, no contexto da Guerra Fria. Da�� que, uma vez conquistada a liberta����o, os antigos movimentos instauraram regimes de partido ��nico de inspira����o marxista-leninista, vigentes at�� princ��pios da d��cada de 1990, quando passaram a adotar regimes de democracia liberal, por for��a das pol��ticas de reajustamento estrutural impostas pelo Banco Mundial e pelo FMI.

Assim, a ocasi��o do cinquenten��rio das independ��ncias da chamada �����frica lus��fona��� apresenta-se uma oportunidade inevit��vel de reflex��o e balan��o da experi��ncia hist��rica, em cada um dos pa��ses e em conjunto. Para al��m das celebra����es oficiais, certamente haver�� tamb��m eventos art��sticos, semin��rios acad��micos e, eventualmente, tamb��m protestos, uma vez que n��o se pode escapar �� dura realidade das p��ssimas condi����es de vida vigentes neste grupo de na����es, que est��o entre as mais empobrecidas do mundo. Embora, em grande medida, a hist��ria pol��tica dos PALOP siga um roteiro mais ou menos comum, individualmente, os desdobramentos deram-se de acordo com as suas pr��prias idiossincrasias, destacando-se entretanto, o ambiente de instabilidade pol��tico-institucional em alguns deles. �� o caso de Angola, de Guin��-Bissau e de Mo��ambique, cuja recente crise p��s-eleitoral tem chamado a aten����o do mundo e mais especificamente da regi��o, devido aos seus elementos estruturais, que refletem problem��ticas mais abrangentes na regi��o.

A causa imediata da crise pol��tica foi o processo eleitoral de Outubro de 2024 que, pela s��tima vez, deu vit��ria ao partido Frelimo, em meio a diversas den��ncias e ind��cios de fraude. Na verdade, trata-se de uma situa����o recorrente amplamente registada e documentada desde as primeiras elei����es multipartid��rias realizadas em 1994. A novidade consiste no fato de que, desta vez, a contesta����o partiu n��o apenas da oposi����o, mas por parte de diversos setores da sociedade civil e at�� mesmo de organismos internacionais que, de certa forma, tem contemporizado diante de situa����es flagrantes. Por exemplo, em relat��rio divulgado em fins de Janeiro ��ltimo, a Uni��o Europeia aponta para a ocorr��ncia de ���irregularidades e discrep��ncias que afetam a integridade do processo e dos resultados eleitorais no pa��s���. Como pano de fundo destas acusa����es recorrentes de fraude eleitoral, est�� o fato de, por conta de uma certa in��rcia da Hist��ria, o partido Frelimo deter controlo quase absoluto sobre as institui����es do Estado, uma vez que est�� no poder desde a independ��ncia. Desta forma, adquiriu a capacidade de instrumentaliz��-las a seu favor, tornando a disputa pol��tica manifestamente desigual. Tal ���in��rcia��� resulta de que, desde a independ��ncia e ao longo das d��cadas seguintes, o regime da Frelimo tenha logrado produzir consider��vel consenso entre as massas, ancorado na legitimidade adquirida atrav��s da luta pela independ��ncia.

O in��cio da crise deu-se logo imediatamente ap��s o primeiro an��ncio oficial dos resultados quando Ven��ncio Mondlane, principal candidato da oposi����o, convocou uma s��rie de manifesta����es de protestos de dimens��es jamais vistas no pa��s. Quest��es de m��rito �� parte, e a um n��vel mais profundo de an��lise, a ampla contesta����o dos resultados eleitorais pode ser interpretada como o rompimento do tal consenso, sinalizando o div��rcio entre o antigo partido-Estado e amplos setores da sociedade. N��o apenas as manifesta����es contr��rias, mas sobretudo, a repress��o policial desproporcional que se observou em resposta tem sido a imagem emblem��tica do momento pol��tico cr��tico vivido no pa��s. Ainda mais simb��lico do tal ���div��rcio��� foi o pr��prio ato da cerim��nia de posse do novo presidente, Daniel Chapo, negativamente marcada pela aus��ncia da costumeira participa����o popular. Devido ao ambiente de alta tens��o que j�� se vivia no dia da posse (15 de Janeiro), a Pra��a da Independ��ncia teve de ser isolada alegadamente por raz��es de seguran��a. Enquanto Chapo fazia o seu discurso, alguns manifestantes confrontavam a pol��cia no entorno da pra��a, tendo-se registado um ��bito e cenas virais de viol��ncia policial que correram o mundo.

Outro aspeto in��dito que caracterizou o ato foi a aus��ncia de representa����es estrangeiras ao mais alto n��vel, especialmente de pa��ses aliados hist��ricos como, por exemplo, Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanz��nia, Nam��bia, Portugal, entre outros. Tais aus��ncias n��o passaram despercebidas pelos meios de comunica����o e foram exploradas pelos opositores do regime como sinal do embara��o internacional causado pelo car��cter controverso das elei����es. Particularmente em Portugal, onde o parlamento chegou a n��o recomendar a presen��a do Presidente da Rep��blica ou do Primeiro-Ministro, como tem sido a praxe. De resto, apenas a ��frica do Sul, o aliado mais pr��ximo na regi��o e a Guin��-Bissau, que vive igualmente uma crise pol��tico-institucional, fizeram-se representar por seus Chefes de Estado.

Um novo velho governo diante de uma encruzilhada

Diante do impasse, diversas vozes da sociedade civil mo��ambicana tem sugerido ao novo governo a tomada de um conjunto de a����es com vistas a contornar a crise instalada. Entretanto, tais expectativas ��� como a forma����o de um governo inclusivo, de unidade, e o di��logo com o principal l��der da oposi����o – n��o tem sido correspondidas. Pelo contr��rio, os sinais emitidos pelo novo mandat��rio (que ��, simultaneamente, presidente do partido) apontam para o refor��o do poder hegem��nico da Frelimo, cujos quadros comp��em a totalidade dos minist��rios, somado �� maioria absoluta no parlamento, igualmente refor��ada pelos resultados eleitorais.

Em contraste com o relativo isolamento social do partido no poder, Mondlane (atualmente em vias de fundar o seu pr��prio partido), tem continuado o seu trabalho de mobiliza����o interna e externa, mesmo ap��s o autoex��lio que se imp��s ap��s as elei����es de Outubro e do seu regresso triunfal �� capital do pa��s, em Janeiro. Nessa ocasi��o, autoproclamou-se ���Presidente da Rep��blica��� e, ato cont��nuo, passou a emitir ���decretos presidenciais��� do seu ���governo paralelo���, como forma de pressionar o governo a adotar medidas que gozam de amplo apoio popular, mas que desafiam a ordem institucional.

Debates jur��dico-legais �� parte, o fato �� que muitos destes ���decretos��� foram temporariamente acatados por boa parte da popula����o, gerando situa����es de tens��o social e viol��ncia pol��tica. De um lado, o governo classificou tais atos como ���vandalismo��� e de outro, a oposi����o reivindicou a sua legitimidade, como forma de desobedi��ncia civil, face ��s dif��ceis condi����es de vida impostas por uma governan��a alegadamente ileg��tima. Dado concreto �� que viveu-se nos primeiros meses do ano um alto grau de instabilidade social, marcada por interdi����o da circula����o em diversos pontos do pa��s, depreda����o de infraestruturas p��blicas e privadas, paralisa����o do trabalho e do com��rcio, etc, respondidos com dura repress��o policial.

Para um pa��s de economia, institui����es e infraestruturas fr��geis, a manuten����o de tal estado de coisas pode facilmente levar a uma situa����o de ingovernabilidade, o que por sua vez, levanta outro tipo de debate: sobre quem seriam os benefici��rios de tal instabilidade. Neste sentido, pesam sobre Mondlane acusa����es difusas de estar a servi��o de interesses externos, baseadas no seu alinhamento ideol��gico com setores da direita e at�� de extrema-direita mundial. Somados estes aspetos, tais suspeitas remetem ao fen��meno das ���revolu����es coloridas���, como a chamada Primavera ��rabe, que atingiu pa��ses do norte do continente, na d��cada de 2010. E ainda nesta ordem de ideias, o uso das redes sociais como sua principal ferramenta de comunica����o e mobiliza����o constitui outro elemento de desconfian��a de que esteja a se repetir, em Mo��ambique, a mesma estrat��gia de desestabiliza����o de regimes pol��ticos do Sul Global a favor de interesses do ���Ocidente���.

O qu�� e como?

Seja como for, as press��es exercidas por interesses externos sempre fizeram parte da equa����o do exerc��cio do poder, de forma mais aguda nas na����es economicamente mais dependentes. De modo que a grande quest��o que se coloca �� como os governos reagem e interagem diante dessa realidade, tendo em conta os seus pr��prios interesses como Estados soberanos e, principalmente, do ponto de vista das condi����es de vida da popula����o. Sob este ��ltimo aspeto, a ocasi��o do cinquenten��rio da independ��ncia for��osamente imp��e a seguinte quest��o: o que celebrar? Em outras palavras, significa questionar quais foram os benef��cios objetivamente trazidos para o conjunto da sociedade como resultado da emancipa����o pol��tica. Embora reconhe��am-se os constrangimentos impostos por uma ordem econ��mica mundial opressiva e desfavor��vel aos pa��ses do Sul Global, n��o se pode eximir os governos locais da responsabilidade pelo bem-estar dos seus povos. E, dentre os v��rios fatores explicativos da sua aus��ncia em pa��ses como Mo��ambique, o desgaste natural gerado por cinco d��cadas de poder exercido ininterruptamente por uma ��nica for��a pol��tica �� certamente um dos mais importantes.

O reconhecimento desta realidade torna-se particularmente relevante num momento em que sopram do norte do continente ventos do Sahel a reivindicar a liberta����o da domina����o neocolonialista, exercida pelas antigas pot��ncias imperialistas ocidentais em conluio com as elites conservadoras africanas. E �� precisamente este ��ltimo elemento da equa����o que deve receber especial aten����o no debate p��blico das sociedades africanas, no que diz respeito ��s din��micas pol��ticas internas que tornam poss��vel o neocolonialismo. Se por um lado, a crescente popularidade de Ibrahim Traor�� entre a juventude africana sinaliza a emerg��ncia de uma nova consci��ncia pol��tica, por outro lado, pode ser vista como uma amea��a em potencial ��s j�� velhas estruturas de poder p��s-coloniais. �� o caso da regi��o mais ao sul do continente, em que os partidos l��deres dos movimentos de liberta����o ��� Frelimo, MPLA, ANC, ZANU-PF, SWAPO, historicamente aliados ��� vivenciam uma crise de legitimidade sem precedentes, devido �� sua longevidade for��ada.

Somada �� quest��o de ���o qu�����, importa refletir, igualmente sobre como celebrar o marco dos 50 anos de liberta����o do jugo colonial. Uma vez que j�� se iniciaram os preparativos oficiais para o efeito, a situa����o de crise e instabilidade traz consigo a problem��tica mais abrangente da inclus��o social. Ou seja, trata-se do desafio de garantir que o momento da celebra����o seja carregado de sentido para todo o conjunto da sociedade, algo dif��cil dado o estado de fragmenta����o em que atualmente se encontra o tecido social. Mais do que nunca, a necessidade de di��logo aberto e inclusivo coloca-se como um dado imperativo, n��o apenas para o momento espec��fico da pretendida festa no dia 25 de Junho de 2025, mas como ferramenta que possibilite perspetivas de futuro s��lidas a longo prazo. Em outras palavras, o grande desafio que se imp��e �� sociedade mo��ambicana consiste na capacidade do sistema pol��tico historicamente autorit��rio e centralizado passar a promover maior participa����o e inclus��o da sociedade civil nos processos de decis��o para uma constru����o coletiva dos destinos da Na����o.

Crise da meia-idade em Mozambique

Depois de 50 anos de independ��ncia em Mo��ambique: o qu�� e como celebrar? Manifesta����o popular em avenida movimentada da zona central da Maputo, 22 de Novembro de 2024. Imagem �� Mar��lio Wane.

Read in English here.

Mo��ambique prepara-se para celebrar os 50 anos da sua independ��ncia, conquistada a 25 de Junho de 1975, em meio a um ambiente de tens��o pol��tica que traz consigo diversas quest��es decisivas quanto aos rumos futuros do pa��s. O momento coincide com as independ��ncias das outras antigas col��nias portuguesas em ��frica ocorridas no mesmo ano, refletindo o car��cter articulado da resist��ncia anticolonial nestes pa��ses, diante de um inimigo comum e ap��s uma d��cada de luta armada. Outro aspecto comum �� que, a despeito das enormes dist��ncias geogr��ficas e da descontinuidade territorial, os diferentes movimentos de liberta����o deste grupo de na����es dialogavam entre si, ao mesmo tempo em que estabeleciam alian��as externas alinhadas ao bloco socialista, no contexto da Guerra Fria. Da�� que, uma vez conquistada a liberta����o, os antigos movimentos instauraram regimes de partido ��nico de inspira����o marxista-leninista, vigentes at�� princ��pios da d��cada de 1990, quando passaram a adotar regimes de democracia liberal, por for��a das pol��ticas de reajustamento estrutural impostas pelo Banco Mundial e pelo FMI.

Assim, a ocasi��o do cinquenten��rio das independ��ncias da chamada �����frica lus��fona��� apresenta-se uma oportunidade inevit��vel de reflex��o e balan��o da experi��ncia hist��rica, em cada um dos pa��ses e em conjunto. Para al��m das celebra����es oficiais, certamente haver�� tamb��m eventos art��sticos, semin��rios acad��micos e, eventualmente, tamb��m protestos, uma vez que n��o se pode escapar �� dura realidade das p��ssimas condi����es de vida vigentes neste grupo de na����es, que est��o entre as mais empobrecidas do mundo. Embora, em grande medida, a hist��ria pol��tica dos PALOP siga um roteiro mais ou menos comum, individualmente, os desdobramentos deram-se de acordo com as suas pr��prias idiossincrasias, destacando-se entretanto, o ambiente de instabilidade pol��tico-institucional em alguns deles. �� o caso de Angola, de Guin��-Bissau e de Mo��ambique, cuja recente crise p��s-eleitoral tem chamado a aten����o do mundo e mais especificamente da regi��o, devido aos seus elementos estruturais, que refletem problem��ticas mais abrangentes na regi��o.

A causa imediata da crise pol��tica foi o processo eleitoral de Outubro de 2024 que, pela s��tima vez, deu vit��ria ao partido Frelimo, em meio a diversas den��ncias e ind��cios de fraude. Na verdade, trata-se de uma situa����o recorrente amplamente registada e documentada desde as primeiras elei����es multipartid��rias realizadas em 1994. A novidade consiste no fato de que, desta vez, a contesta����o partiu n��o apenas da oposi����o, mas por parte de diversos setores da sociedade civil e at�� mesmo de organismos internacionais que, de certa forma, tem contemporizado diante de situa����es flagrantes. Por exemplo, em relat��rio divulgado em fins de Janeiro ��ltimo, a Uni��o Europeia aponta para a ocorr��ncia de ���irregularidades e discrep��ncias que afetam a integridade do processo e dos resultados eleitorais no pa��s���. Como pano de fundo destas acusa����es recorrentes de fraude eleitoral, est�� o fato de, por conta de uma certa in��rcia da Hist��ria, o partido Frelimo deter controlo quase absoluto sobre as institui����es do Estado, uma vez que est�� no poder desde a independ��ncia. Desta forma, adquiriu a capacidade de instrumentaliz��-las a seu favor, tornando a disputa pol��tica manifestamente desigual. Tal ���in��rcia��� resulta de que, desde a independ��ncia e ao longo das d��cadas seguintes, o regime da Frelimo tenha logrado produzir consider��vel consenso entre as massas, ancorado na legitimidade adquirida atrav��s da luta pela independ��ncia.

O in��cio da crise deu-se logo imediatamente ap��s o primeiro an��ncio oficial dos resultados quando Ven��ncio Mondlane, principal candidato da oposi����o, convocou uma s��rie de manifesta����es de protestos de dimens��es jamais vistas no pa��s. Quest��es de m��rito �� parte, e a um n��vel mais profundo de an��lise, a ampla contesta����o dos resultados eleitorais pode ser interpretada como o rompimento do tal consenso, sinalizando o div��rcio entre o antigo partido-Estado e amplos setores da sociedade. N��o apenas as manifesta����es contr��rias, mas sobretudo, a repress��o policial desproporcional que se observou em resposta tem sido a imagem emblem��tica do momento pol��tico cr��tico vivido no pa��s. Ainda mais simb��lico do tal ���div��rcio��� foi o pr��prio ato da cerim��nia de posse do novo presidente, Daniel Chapo, negativamente marcada pela aus��ncia da costumeira participa����o popular. Devido ao ambiente de alta tens��o que j�� se vivia no dia da posse (15 de Janeiro), a Pra��a da Independ��ncia teve de ser isolada alegadamente por raz��es de seguran��a. Enquanto Chapo fazia o seu discurso, alguns manifestantes confrontavam a pol��cia no entorno da pra��a, tendo-se registado um ��bito e cenas virais de viol��ncia policial que correram o mundo.

Outro aspeto in��dito que caracterizou o ato foi a aus��ncia de representa����es estrangeiras ao mais alto n��vel, especialmente de pa��ses aliados hist��ricos como, por exemplo, Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanz��nia, Nam��bia, Portugal, entre outros. Tais aus��ncias n��o passaram despercebidas pelos meios de comunica����o e foram exploradas pelos opositores do regime como sinal do embara��o internacional causado pelo car��cter controverso das elei����es. Particularmente em Portugal, onde o parlamento chegou a n��o recomendar a presen��a do Presidente da Rep��blica ou do Primeiro-Ministro, como tem sido a praxe. De resto, apenas a ��frica do Sul, o aliado mais pr��ximo na regi��o e a Guin��-Bissau, que vive igualmente uma crise pol��tico-institucional, fizeram-se representar por seus Chefes de Estado.

Um novo velho governo diante de uma encruzilhada

Diante do impasse, diversas vozes da sociedade civil mo��ambicana tem sugerido ao novo governo a tomada de um conjunto de a����es com vistas a contornar a crise instalada. Entretanto, tais expectativas ��� como a forma����o de um governo inclusivo, de unidade, e o di��logo com o principal l��der da oposi����o – n��o tem sido correspondidas. Pelo contr��rio, os sinais emitidos pelo novo mandat��rio (que ��, simultaneamente, presidente do partido) apontam para o refor��o do poder hegem��nico da Frelimo, cujos quadros comp��em a totalidade dos minist��rios, somado �� maioria absoluta no parlamento, igualmente refor��ada pelos resultados eleitorais.

Em contraste com o relativo isolamento social do partido no poder, Mondlane (atualmente em vias de fundar o seu pr��prio partido), tem continuado o seu trabalho de mobiliza����o interna e externa, mesmo ap��s o autoex��lio que se imp��s ap��s as elei����es de Outubro e do seu regresso triunfal �� capital do pa��s, em Janeiro. Nessa ocasi��o, autoproclamou-se ���Presidente da Rep��blica��� e, ato cont��nuo, passou a emitir ���decretos presidenciais��� do seu ���governo paralelo���, como forma de pressionar o governo a adotar medidas que gozam de amplo apoio popular, mas que desafiam a ordem institucional.

Debates jur��dico-legais �� parte, o fato �� que muitos destes ���decretos��� foram temporariamente acatados por boa parte da popula����o, gerando situa����es de tens��o social e viol��ncia pol��tica. De um lado, o governo classificou tais atos como ���vandalismo��� e de outro, a oposi����o reivindicou a sua legitimidade, como forma de desobedi��ncia civil, face ��s dif��ceis condi����es de vida impostas por uma governan��a alegadamente ileg��tima. Dado concreto �� que viveu-se nos primeiros meses do ano um alto grau de instabilidade social, marcada por interdi����o da circula����o em diversos pontos do pa��s, depreda����o de infraestruturas p��blicas e privadas, paralisa����o do trabalho e do com��rcio, etc, respondidos com dura repress��o policial.

Para um pa��s de economia, institui����es e infraestruturas fr��geis, a manuten����o de tal estado de coisas pode facilmente levar a uma situa����o de ingovernabilidade, o que por sua vez, levanta outro tipo de debate: sobre quem seriam os benefici��rios de tal instabilidade. Neste sentido, pesam sobre Mondlane acusa����es difusas de estar a servi��o de interesses externos, baseadas no seu alinhamento ideol��gico com setores da direita e at�� de extrema-direita mundial. Somados estes aspetos, tais suspeitas remetem ao fen��meno das ���revolu����es coloridas���, como a chamada Primavera ��rabe, que atingiu pa��ses do norte do continente, na d��cada de 2010. E ainda nesta ordem de ideias, o uso das redes sociais como sua principal ferramenta de comunica����o e mobiliza����o constitui outro elemento de desconfian��a de que esteja a se repetir, em Mo��ambique, a mesma estrat��gia de desestabiliza����o de regimes pol��ticos do Sul Global a favor de interesses do ���Ocidente���.

O qu�� e como?

Seja como for, as press��es exercidas por interesses externos sempre fizeram parte da equa����o do exerc��cio do poder, de forma mais aguda nas na����es economicamente mais dependentes. De modo que a grande quest��o que se coloca �� como os governos reagem e interagem diante dessa realidade, tendo em conta os seus pr��prios interesses como Estados soberanos e, principalmente, do ponto de vista das condi����es de vida da popula����o. Sob este ��ltimo aspeto, a ocasi��o do cinquenten��rio da independ��ncia for��osamente imp��e a seguinte quest��o: o que celebrar? Em outras palavras, significa questionar quais foram os benef��cios objetivamente trazidos para o conjunto da sociedade como resultado da emancipa����o pol��tica. Embora reconhe��am-se os constrangimentos impostos por uma ordem econ��mica mundial opressiva e desfavor��vel aos pa��ses do Sul Global, n��o se pode eximir os governos locais da responsabilidade pelo bem-estar dos seus povos. E, dentre os v��rios fatores explicativos da sua aus��ncia em pa��ses como Mo��ambique, o desgaste natural gerado por cinco d��cadas de poder exercido ininterruptamente por uma ��nica for��a pol��tica �� certamente um dos mais importantes.

O reconhecimento desta realidade torna-se particularmente relevante num momento em que sopram do norte do continente ventos do Sahel a reivindicar a liberta����o da domina����o neocolonialista, exercida pelas antigas pot��ncias imperialistas ocidentais em conluio com as elites conservadoras africanas. E �� precisamente este ��ltimo elemento da equa����o que deve receber especial aten����o no debate p��blico das sociedades africanas, no que diz respeito ��s din��micas pol��ticas internas que tornam poss��vel o neocolonialismo. Se por um lado, a crescente popularidade de Ibrahim Traor�� entre a juventude africana sinaliza a emerg��ncia de uma nova consci��ncia pol��tica, por outro lado, pode ser vista como uma amea��a em potencial ��s j�� velhas estruturas de poder p��s-coloniais. �� o caso da regi��o mais ao sul do continente, em que os partidos l��deres dos movimentos de liberta����o ��� Frelimo, MPLA, ANC, ZANU-PF, SWAPO, historicamente aliados ��� vivenciam uma crise de legitimidade sem precedentes, devido �� sua longevidade for��ada.

Somada �� quest��o de ���o qu�����, importa refletir, igualmente sobre como celebrar o marco dos 50 anos de liberta����o do jugo colonial. Uma vez que j�� se iniciaram os preparativos oficiais para o efeito, a situa����o de crise e instabilidade traz consigo a problem��tica mais abrangente da inclus��o social. Ou seja, trata-se do desafio de garantir que o momento da celebra����o seja carregado de sentido para todo o conjunto da sociedade, algo dif��cil dado o estado de fragmenta����o em que atualmente se encontra o tecido social. Mais do que nunca, a necessidade de di��logo aberto e inclusivo coloca-se como um dado imperativo, n��o apenas para o momento espec��fico da pretendida festa no dia 25 de Junho de 2025, mas como ferramenta que possibilite perspetivas de futuro s��lidas a longo prazo. Em outras palavras, o grande desafio que se imp��e �� sociedade mo��ambicana consiste na capacidade do sistema pol��tico historicamente autorit��rio e centralizado passar a promover maior participa����o e inclus��o da sociedade civil nos processos de decis��o para uma constru����o coletiva dos destinos da Na����o.

Return the gods

The founder of a digital archive of African deities explains the motivation behind its creation. Woman dressed as Oxum in Salvador de Bahia. Image �� Joa Souza via Shutterstock.

On an eddy of a wind rising from the breath of the world, a bold dream rides: to reanimate the mythologies of Africa and seed the earth with the knowledge of its gods, so that they might be as storied as any Olympian.

An audacious dream���unspeakably beautiful���it has captured my heart. It speaks my name, because, haunted by the vacuum left by the dismantling, demonization, and erasure of the mythologies and moral architectures that once ordered African lives, I conceived a return of those stories. As new storms of injustice, othering, and exploitation threaten to break over the lives of people of sub-Saharan African descent worldwide, I have begun a restoration of those pantheons and the power they augur.

In classrooms today, children can name the gods of Mount Olympus, but even African children struggle to name the Orisas, Yoruba sky worlds, or Igbo covenant trees. This is no accident: Africa���s mythologies and their oral legacies have been largely dismissed.

Erasure ensued, engineered through epistemic severing, labeling African mythologies primitive, sacred artifacts ���ethnography,��� never literature or philosophy. Their Western counterparts were preserved and offered pedestals, with degrees in Classics, syllabi on Latin, Norse, and Sanskrit texts, yet no African parallels in major institutions.

The ���twin evils��� fractured memory, not just borders. Slavery severed roots and names. Colonialism disrupted continuity, connections, and kin. For Africa and its diasporas, myth is history���s metaphorical twin���distorted, misreported, but still alive���calling for reframing. Mythologies are how civilizations narrate themselves, with values and traditions derived from them. Obscured and fragmented, these systems encoded ecological insight, ethical frameworks, medical knowledge, and technologies of care. In losing them, we are bereft not only of Africa���s stories but also of the infrastructure of African genius and morality.

This is the purpose of The Afrodeities Codex, my mytho-literary project reconstructing African cosmologies. It is born of the bold dream to bear witness to the grandeur of Africa���s mythic past. It rests on this belief: African mythologies deserve the same cultural platform long granted to European pantheons, with Sango as well-known as Thor.

No more a call to worship than the Classics is a call to genuflection; this is an invitation to reclaim ancestral systems of ethics, law, and collective care encoded in mythology.

Some African mythologies survived, but in fractured forms. While there is living practice across the diaspora and rural communities in Africa, it is uneven and viewed as superstition, not sacred infrastructure; cultural aesthetic, not civic memory; backwards, not foundational. This positioning reinforces the narrative that Africa had no symbolic systems of worth. Restoration is a refusal of extinction and a demand for parity.

From the Dahomey cosmos to Ife���s origin stories, African mythologies predate Greek myths by more than 1,000 years. The gods governed the heavens, rivers, markets, fertility, and morality, serving as connective tissue across language and geography. Pan-regional deities such as Mami Wata, masquerades, festivals, and initiations functioned as performative mythical archives. Their loss engendered the disappearance of spiritual literacy and communal frameworks of reciprocity and interdependence.

Reanimation is an ethical response to that loss: for Africans whose ancestral disconnection has been institutionalized; for diasporans seeking to mend the ruptures of displacement; and for a global public long offered European myths as cultural inheritance, while African mythology remains exoticized trivia.

Precolonial Africa did not separate myth from medicine, law, or mathematics. The Ishango Bone holds a 20,000-year-old mathematical code���likely cosmological. The Timbuktu manuscripts spanned astronomy, medicine, and ethics, often written in poetic, symbolic forms that infused the sacred into their logic and structure. Myth was method, teaching counting, healing, and living in balance.

While no one prays to Zeus, his name and legend live on as cultural capital. African gods, by contrast, are rarely granted intellectual legitimacy���a clear colonial consequence. Reanimation will restore mythologies as frameworks of memory, morality, and meaning. The Codex is a design response to design decisions, such as the systems preventing African cosmologies from functioning as knowledge, canon, and source code; school curricula that omit African mythology entirely���academic gatekeeping denying its philosophical seriousness; publishing markets that aestheticize but don���t invest; and AI systems trained on Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian models while excluding African data. .

Mythologies are narrative bones, their lessons, ligaments of knowledge that once bound symbolic, ethical, and spiritual architectures, some of which endured in river names, encrypted rituals, and diaspora religions. The Orisa reborn in Candombl��, Vodou, and Santer��a. Ancestral codes in Nsibidi���s visual grammar preserved by Ekpe societies. Myth encrypted in ritual, memory, performance, flickering in fragmentary echoes, awaiting reassembly.

African cosmologies were carried into visual symbolic systems���Nsibidi, Adinkra, Ge���ez���deeply layered, mytho-linguistic tools, transmitting memory, law, and diplomacy that were maps of intellectual sovereignty. Rebuilding legibility across literature, scholarship, and public imagination is the purpose of the Codex; showing what once was ordered and can be again is essential to changing political relations and reducing anti-Black racism. The Codex is archival but also canon-making.

Cultural moments such as Black Panther, Black Is King, and Afrofuturism revived a possibly fleeting interest in African cosmologies, but attention does not equal depth, nor interest restoration.

The Afrodeities Codex offers repair, not gesture, an intellectual infrastructure to reintroduce African mythologies as full systems of knowledge: complex, evolving, essential.

Even if these cosmologies had no contemporary application��� and I believe they do���they still deserve rescue, preservation, and light for what they represent. Their vanishing stems not from irrelevance, but from colonial violence and systemic neglect, the consequences of which are absurdities such as the narrative that Africa had no writing, that African thought was primitive because it was oral, claims belied by feats like Lalibela���s rock-hewn churches, Aksum���s stelae, or the great earthworks of Sungbo���s Eredo.

Reanimation begins with naming the erasure, enumerating the losses, then rebuilding, with reverence, intention, and invention. From Nok figurines to the stone cities of Great Zimbabwe, myth was never abstract. It was etched in form and inhabited matter. Now, it is a bridge back to the African spine of the world���s story.

Mythology migrated, moving through music, drum codes, ritual, and chant. Griots were living archives, oral historians and poetic diplomats who transmitted myth not just as story, but as score���lyrical, rhythmic, instrumental. Their performances carried prophecy, law, and lineage, echoing across trade routes and migrations. Myth became a shared symbolic tableau, gods governing rivers, ancestors walking beside the living.

Uncredited, European fables, folklore, and fairy tales echo African motifs: talking animals, tricksters, shapeshifters, the traveling musician, and the uncanny power of music.

You can hear the echoes still, in Afrobeat lyrics, spiritual jazz, and ceremonial rhythms from Bahia to Brooklyn. Mythology is the subtext of the conductor���s score. It must now become the foreground, the heartbeat of the dream, no longer just the echo.

Yes, the wind is carrying it still. The dream rides on. The Codex continues.