Culture & Society

Kwame Brathwaite

‘Black is Beautiful’ Kwame Brathwaite (1938-2023)

Kwame Brathwaite, the American photographer whose works visually powered the ‘Black Is Beautiful’ movement of the 60s, has died aged 85. Throughout his career, Brathwaite captured Black icons including Muhammad Ali, Aretha Franklin, The Jackson Five, and Nina Simone. Ultimately, his works sought to uplift the essence of being Black.
Islam

Black Mecca A Brief History of Black Islam from Africa to the Diaspora

By the second half of the twentieth century, Islam re-emerged as an ideological tool for African Americans fighting within civil rights and Black Power movements. Ironically, the proliferation of Black Islamic organizations in twentieth-century United States—most famously the Nation of Islam—often masks the gradual, centuries-long formation of said organizations, their ideologies, and their influence on modern Afro-diasporic identity.

Interim Royals The Marginalization of Women-Regents in Present-Day Yoruba Monarchy

Yoruba culture, particularly traditional leadership, holds that men are superior to women, so they dominate governance at most levels while women are considered unfit to lead in most cases. On these grounds, for women to assume the position of regents, tradition demands they discard their identities.