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Featuring an Introduction by Director Raj Patel Surplus Radical Bookshop and The Institute for African Alternatives invite you to a screening of the recently released film ‘The Ants and the Grasshopper,’ directed by internationally renowned food policy expert, author, and social justice activist, Raj Patel and Zak Piper. The film…

Featuring an Introduction by Director Bobby Rodwell Surplus Radical Bookshop and The Institute for African Alternatives invite you to a screening of the film ‘Word Down the Line’ by Bobby Rodwell ‘Word Down The Line’ is a poetic reflection of South Africa’s journey to democracy, told through the voices of…

The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Radical Bookshop are pleased to invite you to a film screening of “Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man” by Robin Shuffield. This event forms part of our African Film Series in which we explore the life and times of important African revolutionaries and events…

Keynote speaker Yanis Varoufakis, renowned radical economist and former Greek Finance Minister, will speak on Africa in the Face of the new Cold War and the West’s new colonial escapades The annual Ben Turok Memorial Lecture marks the anniversary of the death of IFAA’s founder and former director, the struggle…

Venue: Bertha House, 67 & 69 Main Rd, Mowbray, Cape Town Date: 23rd November 2022 Time: 4.30 pm for 5 pm (Snacks and Drinks in Dining Area) RSVP to: https://cutt.ly/UMAaEPh Press Statement The “Niger Delta Command”, a work of fiction will be launched at Bertha House in Mowbray, Cape Town…

Please join us for Crossroads Homecoming– a collaborative book launch festival– cohosted by: Jacana Media, the Department of History and the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of Western Cape, the City of Cape Town Crossroads Library, the UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives, the Crossroads Philippi Young Women’s Reading…

Unpacking the unfolding of the current social and political crisis in India…

Surplus Books, Inkani Books, The Tri-Continental Institute for Social Research, and The Institute for African Alternatives, invite you to the launch of the riveting new book by Christopher McMichael Shoot to Kill: Police and Power in South Africa.  From the slave-driver’s whip in the 18th century Cape Colony to the…

On March 8, International Women’s Day, IFAA reflects on the perspectives of feminist and women leaders who have fought against colonialism and apartheid for freedom, and continue to date to fight for social, economic and political transformation. Importantly, Ruth First warns that there is a danger of: ‘forgetting or ignoring…

Urban farming is not a new phenomenon but it has proliferated rapidly in recent years. This has been driven by advances in technology and global challenges that include food insecurity, energy shortage, urban migration, poverty, unemployment and environmental degradation. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization urban farming is…

IFAA would like to congratulate our senior researcher, Dr Hibist Kassa, on the publication of her chapter ‘The Crisis of Social Reproduction in Petty Commodity Production and Large-scale Mining: A Southern Perspective on Gender Inequality’ in the new collection Inequality Studies from the Global South, Routledge (2020). For more information…

In the following reflections on the decolonisation of higher education, I have three objectives. First, I intend to analyse decolonisation discourse both theoretically and experientially. I do so partly on account of what I would call its viscerality but also because lived experience is an essential category of analysis in…

  One by one, nations across the African continent won formal political independence in the second half of the 20th century. Some decades since the formal end of colonial rule, the continent continues to be plagued by significant residues of a bygone era. Neo-colonialism is a concept designed specifically to…

Professor Ari Sitas argues that the waves of student protest in South Africa in 2015 – 2016 reflect the failure of an ANC government to deconstruct the country’s deeply embedded colonial legacy, both in ideas and in its myriad practical manifestations. The writer uncovers the effects of layers of colonial…