Threads

Long reads on African history, governance, economics, culture, and what comes next.

All eras Ancient (before 500 CE) Medieval (500–1500 CE) Pre-colonial (1500–1884) Colonial era (1884–1960s) Independence era (1960s–2000) Contemporary (2000–present) Future systems & solutions

Philosophy & Thought Contemporary (2000–present)

Ubuntu is not a slogan — it's a theory of mutual obligation

The phrase *umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu* — 'a person is a person through other people' — has been mass-printed onto coffee mugs, hashtagged onto corporate diversity slides, and generally …

5 min read · Southern Africa · 55 views

Philosophy & Thought Colonial era (1884–1960s)

Equiano's narrative — Vincent Carretta, Paul Lovejoy, and the unresolved authorship question

Olaudah Equiano's *The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African* (1789) is among the most important first-person accounts of the transatlantic slave …

2 min read · West Africa, Diaspora · 39 views

Philosophy & Thought Independence era (1960s–2000)

Steve Biko in his own words — Black Consciousness as a political-philosophical programme

Steve Bantu Biko, killed in police custody on 12 September 1977 at the age of 30, left a body of writing — collected posthumously in *I Write What …

2 min read · Southern Africa, South Africa · 29 views

Philosophy & Thought Colonial era (1884–1960s)

Fanon at Blida-Joinville — the psychiatric clinical practice behind the political theory

Frantz Fanon's political writing — *Black Skin, White Masks* (1952), *A Dying Colonialism* (1959), *The Wretched of the Earth* (1961) — is among the most influential post-colonial theoretical …

2 min read · North Africa, Algeria · 25 views