BUALA | African Contemporary Culture

Algorithmic Capitalism: war, chaos, and knots

martalanca — Thu, 21 May 2026 09:32:45 +0000

Stefano Rota

Algorithmic capitalism proposes an operating scheme that is increasingly defined by circular lines that join the two terms, producing scenarios that do not seem exaggerated to define as apocalyptic. The development of AI strengthens that plot, which becomes increasingly evident through stated strategies and actions taken, where nothing must be disguised. Everything finds an explanation in scientific – or pseudoscientific – statements that bring together absolute confidence in technology, religious beliefs, differences between human beings based on the intelligence quotient.

“Nothing stopped them. In the greatest adversities, in the most difficult situations", Women of the Revolution, by Raquel Freire

martalanca — Thu, 21 May 2026 09:24:16 +0000

Josina Almeida

In a time of fierce competition for historical memory, in which the most extreme forces on the right try to rewrite what fascism was, the film Women of the Revolution, by Raquel Freire, is a moment of truth, a point of order at the table. Who tells our story? Who guesses the joys and the sufferings, the griefs, and the charms? Who knows what was in the heart of a child who was killed along with their family in Gaza? Who hears the birds in the morning feeling what overflows the life that fits us?

Latin America is not a pawn without its will

martalanca — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:31:04 +0000

Gabriella Florenzano

What has happened in Venezuela goes beyond the realm of internal political dispute and enters, quite explicitly, the territory of raw imperialism, undisguised, shameless and without any real commitment to democracy. Donald Trump’s speech, in which he announced that the United States would “govern” Venezuela and take control of its oil, laid bare what Latin America has known ever since it was invaded by the Europeans: it has always been about resources, trade and profit. It has never been about freedom, it has never been about human rights, it has never been about democracy.

Is there really a brand-new wave of Portuguese cinema?

martalanca — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:27:30 +0000

Manuel Halpern

The goal of this text is not to redefine the selection criteria of Indie — it's like the orthographic agreement, as long as there's a rule, it works. Rather, it serves as a pretext for exploring the origins of a brand-new Portuguese cinema, in search of those lost roots, that movement, that unity, even if fragile. This is despite the fact that, in a globalised world, we are all inevitably influenced on a global scale. Nevertheless, one should not underestimate the potential of one’s immediate neighbour.

Everyday is 25th of April

martalanca — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:25:02 +0000

Marta Lança

It is thrilling to feel the wave of diverse people “going out into the streets (avenues, I`m sorry) with carnations in their hands at set times”. I am a cell from this mass of water and flesh for decades, and it has been exciting to see the revolution day reactivate, gain pulse and multitude, more cause and watchwords. I recognize the 25th of April on my path, as if I practiced every day, and I have been thinking in our generation’s place: the children of the 25th of April, that came after the end of the dictatorship to put in practice freedom, with so many possibilities to blossom and always so complaining. We went through the analogical to the digital, from heroin to amphetamine, from post-Cold War to global crises, between celebrating and the fear of losing… the social State, the work, the home, the spirit.

The politics and ethics of a “Vida Justa”- The Future is Now!

martalanca — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:22:27 +0000

Stefano Rota

The tendency towards individualisation, the loss of meaning in collective ways of interpreting processes and formulating responses, the dominance of the ideology of success at any cost and of meritocracy – where failure is attributed to individual blame – and the constant undervaluation of physical relationships in favour of virtual ones: all of this points to an anthropological shift that reaches deep levels, including the realm of the unconscious and of dreams.

Adultery lies there

martalanca — Thu, 07 May 2026 09:56:52 +0000

Edna Matavel

The next day, as usual, the grandmother went to lay flowers in the grave and came across the grandson's body lying on the ground, the servants who were with her manifested themselves and the spirits began to quarrel. His maternal relatives wanted him to be a servant of God, adopting modern practices to represent the family in society. On the other hand, his paternal family wanted him in the hut, serving the family spirits. The shouts reached the village and everyone watched that spectacle of spiritual conflict.

In the name of fraternity and historical, active and combative solidarity

martalanca — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:35:07 +0000

Apolo de Carvalho

Birthplace of one of the greatest Pan-Africanist thinkers of all time, Amílcar Cabral, Guinea-Bissau occupies our collective memory, just like Toussaint’s Haiti, Dessalines, Boukman and Cécile Fatiman, a place reserved for the great luminaries of the history of Pan-African revolutions and struggles. Therefore, we can not be indifferent to the extreme violence that the people of this nation, forged in the struggle, has been facing in the hands of a State ruled by scammers, kleptocrats and murderers, whose Berlin-style agenda has been nothing but the destruction of that ‘broad road of hope’ built by the greatest collective endeavour this people has ever undertaken: the struggle for independence.

After the Jamahiriya

martalanca — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:25:12 +0000

Owen Schalk

For many in Libya, the Jamahiriya remains a reference point of lost sovereignty and stability. Such views are reinforced with every new revelation about Libya’s subjugation to outside forces. One of the latest insights into this subjugation came when the US Department of Justice released documents revealing that, during NATO’s intervention in Libya, Jeffrey Epstein worked with former British and Israeli intelligence officers in an effort to access billions in Libyan state assets frozen in Western countries.

Pope Leo’s visit to Africa: theology scholar outlines 3 realities the Catholic church must face

martalanca — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:21:33 +0000

Stan Chu Ilo

It needs to address the fluid religious imagination of many African Christians who easily migrate from mainline Christian groups like Catholicism to Pentecostalism and African traditional religion. This means the Catholic church needs a moment of self-introspection to ask if it is really meeting the people at their points of need. Is it a church that bears the narratives and wounds of the people?