Africa

Latest Articles

Fez delivers a traveler’s smorgasbord

Tastes of Africa
On one wall of Fez restaurant is a portrait of the African continent.
By BRIAN DUFF | November 30, 2011

Review: Machine Gun Preacher

White-savior storyline
Jesus does funny things to people: one day you're sitting on a toilet shooting heroin; the next you're building an orphanage in war-torn southern Sudan.
By ANN LEWINSON | September 27, 2011

Spreading Maine ideas

Talking TED
"Innovation is part of Maine's legacy and DNA." So says Adam Burk, executive director of TEDxDirigo, the independent group working to create a local TED conference for Mainers.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | August 25, 2011

Review: Abyssinia

Comfort food from Ethiopia and Eritrea
As Providence has become a foodie mecca over the years, ethnic opportunities have expanded beyond Italian and Portuguese. But African foods? Not so much.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 31, 2011

Turning feminist theory into a visceral rape deterrent

Striking back
In Africa, your vagina can get spikes for $2. No longer just a revenge dream, this device — called Rape-aXe — was actually distributed for free last year at the World Cup in South Africa.
By DENA RIEGEL | April 28, 2011

Review: The Last Lions

Beautiful footage backdrops a story of survival, love, and adaptation
A crocodile ripping up a cub off screen, a one-eyed lioness scheming for revenge, a mother taking down a water buffalo so her children don't starve - it's a bit more pulse pounding than March of the Penguins .
By ZAC JASON | March 02, 2011

Fou fou is hard work

Getting pounded by flour while making an African staple
The cassava flour was light beige, slightly more fine than corn meal. I'd bought it by mistake. Three pounds of it. I had no idea what to do with it.
By LINDSAY STERLING | January 12, 2011

Dinaw Mengestu's subtle take on immigrant blues

White lies
Seriousness sets Dinaw Mengestu's work apart from most novels about the immigrant experience.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | October 19, 2010

Photos: Cambridge Carnival International | September 12, 2010

Scenes from Cambridge Carnival International in Kendall Square
Crowds enjoy multicultural crafts and music at the 18th annual Cambridge Carnival International at Kendall Square on September 12, 2010.
By KELSEY MARIE BELL | September 20, 2010

Prepping for a Congolese cooking class

Shopping quest
In my car are a 62-year-old mother from Congo, her 27-year-old daughter, and their 18-year-old friend from Rwanda.
By LINDSAY STERLING | September 22, 2010

Ghana baby Ghana

A Letter from South Africa
Florida Road is a crowded strip of bars and clubs in Durban, a city on the eastern coast of South Africa.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | June 30, 2010

A Congolese feast

Beans and rice, with African flair
I met Constance Kabaziga at the checkout at Mittapheap World Market. She was buying frozen cassava root and dried beans, and I really wanted to know what she was going to do them.
By LINDSAY STERLING | June 30, 2010

Interview: Sebastian Junger

Getting up close and personal with Restrepo
Not even being held captive by armed militants in Nigeria satisfied The Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger's need for dangerous assignments.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 30, 2010

Summer treats

Whether classical, jazz, pop, or folk, 'tis the season to get out and enjoy the music
From Andean to zydeco, pick your flavor and there's a summer music festival ready to serve it up.
By CLEA SIMON | June 18, 2010

Art in the air conditioning

Local museums keep you cool — and the art's pretty good, too
From Picasso to William "Shrek" Steig's cartoons, and surfer photos to a Twilight Zone toy store, New England offers art worth traveling to this summer. Here we round up the best in the region, no matter the weather or your artistic inclinations.
By GREG COOK | June 16, 2010

Stark reality

Your indispensable World Cup update
Steven Stark is known to Phoenix readers for his "Presidential Tote Board" odds-making feature, but it turns out that he and his son, Harrison, are also soccer aficionados, having become fans of London side Fulham FC during stays in the British capital.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 14, 2010

Reality bites

The singular surrealism of Robyn Hitchcock
At some point or another, the greatest artists are pegged as oddballs, weirdos, freaks. Being a great artist does mean going out on a limb.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 04, 2010

Review: Living In Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders

Overworked overseas doctors
One thing you notice about the brave doctors working for the organization Médicins Sans Frontières in hellholes and war zones like Liberia and Congo: they sure smoke a lot.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 01, 2010

Take this to the polls

Endorsements
Our endorsements for the June 8 elections
By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | June 03, 2010

Messi situations

A giant tampon for BP; plus, the World Cup, and a big bash in Pawtuxet
Can’t you just imagine the high-level meetings taking place daily in the British Petroleum war room these days, full of top execs and engineers, neither of whom speak the others’ language, or have even close to the same concerns?
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | June 02, 2010

Preparing for June 8

Candidate breakdown for districts 114, 116, and 119
Stuckey vs. Vincent, Capron vs. Sharif, and Barkley vs. Dini
By DEIRDRE FULTON | May 26, 2010

Balls of fire

Porn stars, witch doctors, elephant farts, and the worst soccer team on the planet take center stage at this summer’s World Cup
For one month every four years, the United States — try as it might — can’t impose its vacuous culture on the rest of the planet. The World Cup arrives and the Americans are, at best, an afterthought.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG AND LANCE GOULD | June 01, 2010

Sweaty Palmes

The Cannes 2010 jury picks some winners, but some head-scratchers, too
Apichatpong Weerasethakul must have done something right in one or more of his previous incarnations.
By LISA NESSELSON | May 28, 2010

Review: OSS 117: Lost In Rio

Eyebrow Arch of Triumph
This sequel to the hilarious OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies supplies the further adventures of Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a secret agent so chauvinistic, he pities anyone not lucky enough to be French.
By BETSY SHERMAN | May 19, 2010

Freedom Watch: Speak no evil

Why are African-American leaders silent about slavery in Sudan?
It wasn’t the first time members of the Congressional Black Caucus had heard – and done nothing about – Sudan’s dirty secret. Even before a recent House international-relations subcommittee hearing on human-rights violations in Sudan, they knew that kidnapping and slavery had become a barbarous byproduct of Sudan’s bloody holy war.
By TIM SANDLER | May 20, 2010

Barbarians, legions clash at Holiday Inn

Repeating History
On Saturday morning, more than a hundred men crowded into the banquet hall of the Holiday Inn beside the turnpike exit in Westbrook. They came with armies in tow, prepared to refight many of the most famous battles of history.
By WHIT RICHARDSON | May 05, 2010

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Nature studies

New works by Catherine Hamilton and Susan Twaddell
“A bird feeder,” Hamilton writes in her artist statement, “creates an intensified microcosm of the trials and hardships of avian existence.”
By GREG COOK | May 05, 2010

At the G.I. Joe Convention: The Baroness and a ‘slice of Americana’

Gatherings
Roadblock flew in from Miami, and Tunnel Rat took the train from Jersey. But it was Baroness, aka Penelope Pappas, who got the cameras clicking at the 17th annual G.I. Joe Collectors’ Convention.
By ELIZABETH RAU | May 05, 2010

Offerings

Nora Chipaumire and Thomas Mapfumo at the ICA, BoSoma and Contrapose at BU
Nora Chipaumire’s lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukarahundi , presented at the ICA last weekend by CRASHarts, had the makings of a multimedia extravaganza.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | April 27, 2010

Words around town

Our fair city is chock full of people who write well and are willing to teach you their trade.
“Every writer I know has trouble writing,” said Joseph Heller. Let that serve as comfort.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | April 30, 2010