Heavy Metals Music
Zamrock emerged from the optimism of postindependence Zambia, fusing psychedelic rock with nationalist ambition. Its rise and fall mirror the promise — and the exhaustion — of a country built on copper.
8 Article(s) by: William Shoki
William Shoki is an editor at Africa Is a Country. He is based in Cape Town.
Musk Looks to the Motherland
The billionaire is fueling a global panic about the fate of white South Africans and misrepresenting the real problems that plague his home country.
Elon Musk Is a Mouthpiece for South Africa’s White Far Right
Elon Musk’s claim that South Africa’s land expropriation laws are part of a broader attack on the country’s white minority is divorced from reality. But it represents South African elites’ inability to understand the class tensions that define their nation.
We Can’t Understand South Africa’s Racial Inequalities Without Looking at Capitalism
A popular new South African book insists racism is primarily to blame for social polarization. But describing South African inequality as “the new apartheid” obscures the central role that class and capitalism play in reproducing hierarchies.
Education Should Be About Building Democratic Citizens, Not Compliant Workers
In South Africa, as in so many other capitalist countries, the education system is seen as a means of molding children into future workers. But education should be about building democratic citizens, not producing compliant workers for employers.
“Jerusalema” Is About Self-Determination
The South African house track “Jerusalema” has rocketed around the world, becoming a viral sensation. But it’s no common pop song — it speaks to a growing desire across Africa to remake and reimagine the world.
In South Africa and Around the World, We Have to Resist the Scapegoating of Immigrants
In South Africa, the political class is scapegoating immigrants to distract from their failure to root out the country’s massive inequality. But just like everywhere else, immigrants aren’t the problem — economic elites and their political handmaidens are.
Political Struggle Is the Answer — Not Conspiracy Theories
A conspiracy theory rocketing around South African social media claims that the real Nelson Mandela died in 1985. It’s a desperate attempt to make sense of the rampant inequality still gripping the post-apartheid country — but only socialist politics, not conspiracy theories, can diagnose the problem and offer a just solution.