IRL: In Real Life

Just over a year ago, we streamed the first episode of AIAC Talk. Africa Is A Country founder and editor, Sean Jacobs, and staff writer, William Shoki, got together virtually to host a show on politics and culture from an African perspective. Beginning during the first wave of COVID-19 transmission in 2020 which saw lockdowns imposed and citizens around the world compelled to remain indoors, it sought to take advantage of the migration of life online to reach captive audiences. It was shortly after when BlackLivesMatter swept the United States and conversations about, and protests against, racial injustice and inequality spread internationally, that the project developed a sense of urgency. In this episode, Sean and Will unpack the ongoing tumult in South Africa—is it simply a reactionary attack on constitutional democracy mobilized by supporters of Zuma? Or, are their underlying structural causes—like mass poverty and joblessness—which elites are exploiting for their own gain, and which arise from their failures to begin with?