Towards alternative media as critical media in Africa

Social media have enhanced and reshaped alternative media in Africa. It was unsurprising, for example, that the February 2016 edition of New African magazine dedicated its cover to protesters from South Africa, under the heading ‘The #ashtag generation: Inside the new protest movements’. It referred to hashtags such as #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall and #ZumaMustFall as having played a critical role in shaping the struggles from below (Nyamnjoh, 2016). [...

Young African diaspora: Global African narratives, media consumption and identity formation

This study focused on identity formation and media consumption among first-generation young Africans in the diaspora. It investigated what it means to be African and the impact of multiple identities and forms of belonging within diasporic communities. Emphasis was on how they experience the diaspora as liminal spaces and subsequently negotiate relationships with other Africans in indeterminate diasporic spaces to construct, redefine, negotiate and even contest identities. Using snowballing and purposive sampling, the study analysed first-hand accounts and interviews informed by personal histories and lived experiences of (1) what they know about Africa; (2) their sense of belonging to Africa; (3) how Africa is represented in the media and (4) their views/attitudes on markers of African identity. Findings indicate that young Africans in the diaspora have a strong sense of belonging to Africa and are actively engaged with different forms of African media such as music and films

Mirazón Lahr et al. reply.

In the accompanying Comment1, Stojanowski et al. challenge the evidence for inter-group conflict at Nataruk2. They make two arguments—first, that the lesions in three crania are due to soil compression; second, that there is a correlation between body position and age, reflecting different burial traditions. We believe that their interpretation is incorrect on both counts.European Research Counci

Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya

The nature of inter-group relations among prehistoric hunter-gatherers remains disputed, with arguments in favour and against the existence of warfare before the development of sedentary societies. Here we report on a case of inter-group violence towards a group of hunter-gatherers from Nataruk, west of Lake Turkana, which during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene period extended about 30 km beyond its present-day shore. Ten of the twelve articulated skeletons found at Nataruk show evidence of having died violently at the edge of a lagoon, into which some of the bodies fell. The remains from Nataruk are unique, preserved by the particular conditions of the lagoon with no evidence of deliberate burial. They offer a rare glimpse into the life and death of past foraging people, and evidence that warfare was part of the repertoire of inter-group relations among prehistoric hunter-gatherers