ZAM x Open Art Exchange
Between Here and Now
Held in Johannesburg’s Braamfontein district during the weekend of 11 October, Fak’ugesi 2025’s Power Surge theme came alive, spotlighting African digital innovation in spaces that merge creativity, technology, and radical imagination. At the heart of the well attended festival, full of young and experienced, yet always curious lovers of tech, the transcontinental symposium Glitching the Future brought together artists, theorists, and performers. The Glitching the Future symposium, presented as an...
Held in Johannesburg’s Braamfontein district during the weekend of 11 October, Fak’ugesi 2025’s Power Surge theme came alive, spotlighting African digital innovation in spaces that merge creativity, technology, and radical imagination. At the heart of the well attended festival,...
Thania Petersen places her own body and gaze at the centre of histories long written about her community. Her photographic self-portraits in I Am Royal (2015), made as a gift to her children, gained widespread attention when curator Ingrid Masondo recognised Petersen’s vision and included her work in the Iziko South African National Gallery collection. In this conversation, Petersen reflects on a practice that interrogates the labels of “Cape Malay” and “Coloured” while tracing a creolised sense of...
Thania Petersen places her own body and gaze at the centre of histories long written about her community. Her photographic self-portraits in I Am Royal (2015), made as a gift to her children, gained widespread attention when curator Ingrid Masondo recognised Petersen’s vision and...
Kleptocracy, a society or system ruled by those who use political power to appropriate their country’s resources for personal gain, became one of ZAM’s central themes after our colleagues in the Network of African Investigative Reporters and Editors, investigation after investigation, kept uncovering files and dubious agreements hidden in back rooms, tracing mansions, vast estates, private car parks, Swiss bank accounts, and New York shopping trips back to their beneficiaries. Finding underlying...
Kleptocracy, a society or system ruled by those who use political power to appropriate their country’s resources for personal gain, became one of ZAM’s central themes after our colleagues in the Network of African Investigative Reporters and Editors, investigation after...
Getting close to the rubies still means risking your life Exactly ten years ago, in 2015, ZAM published the investigation The Ruby Plunder Wars of Montepuez . It revealed that in Montepuez, Mozambique — home to the world’s richest ruby deposit — a “local general pockets proceeds while artisanal miners get shot by Special Forces.” The report was met with vehement denials of responsibility by the majority mine owner, UK gemstone giant Gemfields, and with stony silence from its Mozambican partner...
Getting close to the rubies still means risking your life Exactly ten years ago, in 2015, ZAM published the investigation The Ruby Plunder Wars of Montepuez . It revealed that in Montepuez, Mozambique — home to the world’s richest ruby deposit — a “local general pockets proceeds...
How migrant fishermen followed their catch from Ghana to Denmark—and back Ghanaian fishermen who migrated to Europe because of overfishing along Ghana’s coastline have found themselves exploited in the European fishing industry. The companies that depend on their labour do little to ensure decent working conditions, a situation worsened by weak regulations and the rise of populist anti-migrant rhetoric in the global north. Interestingly, however, circumstances seem to be improving on the Ghanaian...
How migrant fishermen followed their catch from Ghana to Denmark—and back Ghanaian fishermen who migrated to Europe because of overfishing along Ghana’s coastline have found themselves exploited in the European fishing industry. The companies that depend on their labour do little to...
Article created in partnership with the DOEN Foundation. Lusanga is a village about 570 kilometres from Kinshasa, in the Kwilu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a population of roughly 15,000. Its history reflects the ecological devastation brought about during the colonial era. Like much of the former Bandundu province, northeast of Kinshasa in the DRC, the village of Lusanga was once surrounded by dense tropical forests. Century-old trees and a rich biodiversity once sustained...
Article created in partnership with the DOEN Foundation. Lusanga is a village about 570 kilometres from Kinshasa, in the Kwilu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a population of roughly 15,000. Its history reflects the ecological devastation brought about during the...
Article created in partnership with the DOEN Foundation. It’s early in the morning in Commune 3 of Bamako, Mali, and there’s a buzz in the neighbourhood. A group of young people are busy preparing the open space, which is sometimes used for events. To prevent dust from rising, the young girls carefully sprinkle water on the ground before sweeping the area clean in preparation for the ceremony to mark the return of Les Praticables (The Platforms) , a biennial theatre event that had, over the years,...
Article created in partnership with the DOEN Foundation. It’s early in the morning in Commune 3 of Bamako, Mali, and there’s a buzz in the neighbourhood. A group of young people are busy preparing the open space, which is sometimes used for events. To prevent dust from rising, the...
Article created in partnership with the DOEN Foundation. Far from the bustle of downtown Bamako, tucked away in a quiet neighbourhood, lies the headquarters of the Anw Jigi Art association. At its helm Assitan Tangara, embodies a new generation of socially engaged artists - deeply rooted in their communities and guided since childhood by a passion for the stage. To reach the headquarters of Anw Jigi Art in Djalakorodji, a northern suburb on the outskirts of Bamako, I had to navigate chaotic, uneven...
Article created in partnership with the DOEN Foundation. Far from the bustle of downtown Bamako, tucked away in a quiet neighbourhood, lies the headquarters of the Anw Jigi Art association. At its helm Assitan Tangara, embodies a new generation of socially engaged artists - deeply...
Produced over eleven years in Mali and Mauritania, the film offers a unique first-person account of Tuareg history and culture against a backdrop of conflict and exile. It is a story of transmission and memory, where the intimate meets the political, and the first film to portray the Tuareg world from within. Undertows is a hieratic journey by filmmaker Intagrist el Ansari into the memory of his people. Framed as an intimate letter and testament to his son, it recounts the history of resistance and...
Produced over eleven years in Mali and Mauritania, the film offers a unique first-person account of Tuareg history and culture against a backdrop of conflict and exile. It is a story of transmission and memory, where the intimate meets the political, and the first film to portray...
(For English, read below) Uitnodiging – Opening Between Here and Now ZAM Magazine en Open Art Exchange nodigen je van harte uit voor de opening van de tentoonstelling en de Glitching the Future livestream symposium. Between Here and Now 11 – 19 oktober 2025 bij Open Art Exchange Hoogstraat 85, Schiedam, Nederland Between Here and Now is een multidisciplinaire tentoonstelling van Afrikaanse kunstenaars binnen en buiten de Afrikaanse diaspora. Het “now” betreft de actuele ervaring van migratie en...
(For English, read below) Uitnodiging – Opening Between Here and Now ZAM Magazine en Open Art Exchange nodigen je van harte uit voor de opening van de tentoonstelling en de Glitching the Future livestream symposium. Between Here and Now 11 – 19 oktober 2025 bij Open Art Exchange...
In 1955, now seventy years ago, the Bandung Conference took place in Indonesia. Initiated by Indian Prime Minister Nehru and Indonesian President Sukarno, twenty-nine newly independent African and Asian countries committed themselves to a charter emphasising ‘respect for fundamental human rights’. The conference’s then Secretary-General, Ruslan Abdulgani, spoke of the ‘Bandung Spirit’: a call for peace and a declaration of war on violence and discrimination. The gathering ultimately gave rise to...
In 1955, now seventy years ago, the Bandung Conference took place in Indonesia. Initiated by Indian Prime Minister Nehru and Indonesian President Sukarno, twenty-nine newly independent African and Asian countries committed themselves to a charter emphasising ‘respect for fundamental...
Draagt een culturele boycot van officiële Israelische instituties bij aan het Palestijnse streven naar zelfbeschikking? In Nieuwsuur reflecteerde ZAM redacteur Bart Luirink op de ervaringen van zo’n boycot in de strijd tegen apartheid. Na het bloedbad van Sharpeville in maart 1960 riepen de Verenigde Naties op tot een boycot van Zuid-Afrika. In Nederland pleitten de eerste activisten tegen de apartheid, waaronder de latere burgemeester van Amsterdam Ed van Thijn, voor economische strafmaatregelen...
Draagt een culturele boycot van officiële Israelische instituties bij aan het Palestijnse streven naar zelfbeschikking? In Nieuwsuur reflecteerde ZAM redacteur Bart Luirink op de ervaringen van zo’n boycot in de strijd tegen apartheid. Na het bloedbad van Sharpeville in maart 1960...
The LGBTQIA+ community in Burkina Faso responds with shock to lawmakers’ decision to recriminalise consensual same-sex sexual relationships. On 1 September 2025, all 71 MPs in Burkina Faso voted to adopt a new Persons and Family Code. Under the amended Code, anyone convicted of engaging in homosexual activity now faces between two and five years in prison, or a fine ranging from $3,600 to $17,800. Burkina Faso’s Justice Minister, Edasso Rodrique Bayala, told the national broadcaster RTB that “if a...
The LGBTQIA+ community in Burkina Faso responds with shock to lawmakers’ decision to recriminalise consensual same-sex sexual relationships. On 1 September 2025, all 71 MPs in Burkina Faso voted to adopt a new Persons and Family Code. Under the amended Code, anyone convicted of...
Neo Matloga’s new solo exhibition is about resilience – not the kind we shout about, but the quiet kind. The kind found in small rituals, in the decision to show up again. These are portraits of everyday courage. For his first exhibition in Johannesburg since 2020, Matloga presents a tableau of quiet figures witnessed in moments of daily life between Johannesburg and Mamaila, the village where he grew up. The artist describes his paintings as “psychological landscapes,” in which the range of...
Neo Matloga’s new solo exhibition is about resilience – not the kind we shout about, but the quiet kind. The kind found in small rituals, in the decision to show up again. These are portraits of everyday courage. For his first exhibition in Johannesburg since 2020, Matloga presents...
Ana's journey from nothing to nowhere On 18 April, for fear of creating hotbeds of COVID 19 contagion, a Mexico City judge ordered the release of migrants from sixty-five overcrowded immigration centres in the country. By the end of that month, with both the northern and southern border lines under lockdown, the Mexican National Migration Institute (INM) estimated that over twenty thousand migrants were now stranded around border lines; under the lockdown, even appointments to identify refugees are...
Ana's journey from nothing to nowhere On 18 April, for fear of creating hotbeds of COVID 19 contagion, a Mexico City judge ordered the release of migrants from sixty-five overcrowded immigration centres in the country. By the end of that month, with both the northern and southern...
The transnational investigation into the recruitment of African young women for Russia’s Alabuga drone site (see link to main story) was conducted by investigative journalists from seven African countries. They are featured below. Charles Mafa began the investigation in response to the mixed messaging received by the public in his home country, Zambia, caught between an intensive propaganda campaign and recruitment drive for Alabuga on one side, and troubling international reports on the other. He...
The transnational investigation into the recruitment of African young women for Russia’s Alabuga drone site (see link to main story) was conducted by investigative journalists from seven African countries. They are featured below. Charles Mafa began the investigation in response to...
Instead of young Africans trading their dreams for a place in someone else’s war, the international community should embrace them. International reports have addressed Russia’s recruitment of young African women for its Alabuga military-industrial zone, 1,000 km east of Moscow, as a ‘trap,’ based on false information and fake promises. Our recent investigation confirmed that much of the content in campaigns that reached tens of thousands in our countries was indeed false. Alabuga is not a school,...
Instead of young Africans trading their dreams for a place in someone else’s war, the international community should embrace them. International reports have addressed Russia’s recruitment of young African women for its Alabuga military-industrial zone, 1,000 km east of Moscow, as a...
Credible and licensed agents Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Diaspora Affairs, Roseline Njogu, recently appealed to Kenyans to verify every job opportunity they come across. “The National Employment Authority can inform you about credible and licensed agents,” Njogu was quoted as saying, adding, “We are still seeing Kenyans using travel agents and tour companies in an attempt to find jobs abroad; however, these are not licensed operators.” The goal Njogu purported to embrace—proper control of...
Credible and licensed agents Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Diaspora Affairs, Roseline Njogu, recently appealed to Kenyans to verify every job opportunity they come across. “The National Employment Authority can inform you about credible and licensed agents,” Njogu was quoted as...
It’s easy to fall back on ‘the spectacle of suffering,’ but we need to examine the reasons behind the drama, argues Africa Is a Country editor William Shoki. By now, we’ve all seen the images from Gaza: starving children, skeletal arms, babies so thin they resemble ghosts. Rightly, the world has turned its attention to this horror, however belatedly. What is harder to explain is why Sudan’s starvation crisis—equally urgent and equally human—barely registers in the global imagination. Why does it...
It’s easy to fall back on ‘the spectacle of suffering,’ but we need to examine the reasons behind the drama, argues Africa Is a Country editor William Shoki. By now, we’ve all seen the images from Gaza: starving children, skeletal arms, babies so thin they resemble ghosts. Rightly,...
Left behind Late last year, the world was alerted to the disturbing news that Russia was recruiting hundreds of young African women, aged 18–22, to manufacture drones in a military-industrial compound called Alabuga, 1,000 km east of Moscow. Reports said that the recruits—from at least 15 African countries—were promised good salaries and skills training, but that once there, they were often trapped, facing tax deductions, dangerous working conditions, strict surveillance, and difficulties returning...
Left behind Late last year, the world was alerted to the disturbing news that Russia was recruiting hundreds of young African women, aged 18–22, to manufacture drones in a military-industrial compound called Alabuga, 1,000 km east of Moscow. Reports said that the recruits—from at...
A dodgy channel Late last year, the world was alerted to disturbing reports that Russia was recruiting hundreds of young African women, aged 18–22, to manufacture drones in a military-industrial compound called Alabuga, 1,000 km east of Moscow. The reports also stated that the recruits—from at least 15 African countries—were promised good salaries and skills training, but once there, they were often trapped, facing tax deductions, dangerous working conditions, strict surveillance, and difficulties...
A dodgy channel Late last year, the world was alerted to disturbing reports that Russia was recruiting hundreds of young African women, aged 18–22, to manufacture drones in a military-industrial compound called Alabuga, 1,000 km east of Moscow. The reports also stated that the...
