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Music
Pop Music and Cultural Resistance in Nigeria via Apala
A new Soul Jazz Records compilation presents Apala songs, created to reject colonialism and celebrate recent independence in late 1960s Nigeria.
20 Feb 2020
Books
When the Migrants Come to Collect Their Due: On Suketu Mehta's 'This Land Is Our Land'
Suketu Mehta offers a powerful, angry, and brilliant defense of immigrant rights in This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto.
05 Sep 2019
Books
Mieke Eerkens 'All Ships Follow Me' Is a Harrowing Family Memoir Scarred by the Horrors of War
Against the backdrop of Dutch East Indies colonialism and Nazi sympathizers, two families come together amidst the ashes of World War II in Mieke Eerkens' moving family history, All Ships Follow Me.
18 Jul 2019
Music
Videos vs. Colonialism: The Cases of Rammstein and Hatari
Two recent videos from Rammstein and Hatari offer a study in contrasts and speak loudly to the challenges involved in authentically confronting colonialism through popular music.
13 Jun 2019
Books
Thinking on Dark Matter: 'A Mind Spread Out on the Ground'
In Alicia Elliott's essay collection about colonialism, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, she compares racism to the elusive role of dark matter in the universe.
17 Apr 2019
Books
'Heaven and Hell' Offers a Powerful Child's-eye View of Japanese Colonialism
Japanese poet Toriko Takarabe grew up in Japanese-occupied Manchuria and lived to tell the harrowing tale.
01 Apr 2019
Books
Fracturing to Survive in Tanya Tagaq's 'Split Tooth'
Inuk musician/writer Tanya Tagaq's first novel, Split Tooth, tells a magical, fucked-up story about teenage girls' adolescence in the Arctic.
17 Jan 2019
Film
At the Crossroads of Pity and Revolt: Intensity and Time in Lino Brocka's 'Manila in the Claws of Light'
Lino Brocka's Manila in the Claws of Light seethes with rage against colonial oppression without ever becoming overt agitprop.
16 Nov 2018
Books
An Algerian Travelogue Offers Important Reflections on Settler Colonial Guilt and Responsibility
Olivia Burton revisited her family's colonial heritage in Algeria, and the gorgeous comic which resulted offers a reflection on our personal imbrication in the colonialism of our forebears
11 Sep 2018
Comics
Oh, Canada! (in Ass-kicking Comics)
It's probably to Canada's credit that it's never produced a best-selling superhero like Captain America. Instead, we've got five comics here that'll thrill one's identity politics for Canada Day -- and kick some ass, too.
29 Jun 2018
Television
Netflix's 'The Crown' Gives Us Insight Into Our 20th Century Sins
For reasons as much aesthetic as intellectual, The Crown can proudly take its place among the highlights of TV's current golden age.
26 Jan 2018
Film
The Paradox of Sight in the Films of Jean Rouch and Robert Drew
With all of their differences, the insistence that we are moved is integral to the cinematic enterprises of both Jean Rouch and Robert Drew.
17 Jan 2018
Music
The Classic Shanghai Divas and the Unintended Exoticism of the Taiwanese Bootleg
What does the record collector collect when the desired product is too expensive? Perhaps a bootlegged version shunned by the fussy connoisseur, an untended but degraded gem that ironically coincides with the vibrant decadence of Shanghai's colonial era.
10 Jan 2018
Books
'Ants Among Elephants' Is a Riveting Account of Left-wing Politics and Casteism in India
Sujatha Gidla's memoir is an example of history as told from down below, by the people who were involved in the labour and caste protests and the women who did the reproductive labour for the revolutionaries.
04 Dec 2017
Games
Colonial Power in 'Dishonored 2'
Emily is no representative of lawful order in an otherwise chaotic world.
16 Dec 2016
Games
'Herald' Attempts the Troubled Waters of the Colonial Narrative
The “colonialism” at play is not between nations, rather it seems more interested in how it influences a man recently come of age.
06 May 2015
Games
A Colonist's Fantasy: The Problem with the Fair Fight
Agarest illustrates just how much fun it is to be the scrappy underdog in games without actually being the scrappy underdog. It’s striking how often games suggest that the power of the victim’s moral high ground is equitable to that of the conquistador’s rifle.
12 Nov 2013
Reviews
The Problems of the Human Conscious in Albert Camus' 'Algerian Chronicles'
Algerian Chronicles is a stirring and lasting work of moral conviction. Camus illustrates the impossible challenge of pursuing justice in a conflict marked by heinous crimes.
04 Jun 2013
Books
David Foster Wallace Unpacks Pop Fiction
A newly available syllabus from a 1994 class taught by David Foster Wallace shows a great willingness to engage with mass-market fiction on a critical level.
04 Mar 2013
Games
To Explore or Conquer: Colonialism in 'Expeditions Conquistador'
Somewhere, Expeditions Conquistador has a “right” path. There is a better way to act than the actual conquistadors did. But even the most restrained, responsible, and virtuous expedition is harmful, mired with challenges, and weighed down by the reminders that you are an outsider that poses a threat.
25 Feb 2013
Games
Expeditions Conquistador
Expeditions Conquistador is an alternate history, in which the player is put in the position of South America’s conquerors. Most of the game is centered on exploration and resource management with some sparse but important combat and dialogue trees mixed in. To say the least, it’s extraordinarily bold to handle such sensitive material in such a “game-like” fashion.
17 Feb 2013
Reviews
'Minority' Report: 'A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster'
E. M. Forster's experiences epitomise those of the closeted homosexual. He could be the walking definition of the man with the Victorian upbringing who inhabits a dual existence.
16 Jun 2011
Reviews
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