ZAM Magazine

29/12/2025

Cycling Cities: The African Experience

ZAM spoke with Ruth Oldenziel, who, together with Njogu Morgan, Peter Norton, and Yusuf Madugu, is one of the book editors of Cycling Cities: The African Experience, which was recently published. The book explores a century of urban cycling across Africa - from the rural towns of Aba and Zomba to the bustling capitals of Cairo and Cape Town, and many cities in between.

Read the full article with Ruth Oldenziel on Cycling Cities: The African Experience by clicking the link in the bio or visiting zammagazine.com

Get your copy under:
https://www.transitiestudies.nl/product/cycling-cities-the-african-experience/?lang=en

Image by Frank Odweso

23/12/2025

Where clouds and spirits meet

There was certainly no more fitting location than the ship-like Keizersgrachtkerk in Amsterdam to host South African poet Julia-Beth Harris’s recent poetic performance, Where the Clouds Gather. Evoking both the stormy Cape — where the clouds indeed always gather — and the seventeenth-century arrival of European men with guns, Harris dressed in their likeness. Lace inner sleeves of a uniform cupped her hands, while mineworkers’ gumboots anchored her feet. In doing so, she connected local visitors to the city’s Spirit Festival with the spirits — sometimes demons — of colonising seafarers and the early inhabitants of Harris’s native Cape Town...

Read the full article on zammagazine.com

Photos by Charlotte van der Gaag and the Spirit of Amsterdam Festival .amsterdam

22/12/2025

Benin | The opaque networks of ivory poaching

Ivory trafficking in the West African country of Benin is endangering the elephant population, causing losses to the tourism sector, linked to terrorist activities, and driving the outflow of millions of dollars that fuel international organised crime. Yet these trafficking networks continue to evade justice...

To read the full story visit zammagazine.com

Written by Aziz Badarou and Matin Libre

02/12/2025

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders recently declared that development aid should be redirected to domestic priorities, adding:

“Then they’ll just be a little hungrier in Africa, but not here.”

ZAM asked the Kenyan author Oyunga Pala , based in the Netherlands, to dive under the surface and find out what's really going on...

Read the full Op-Ed by Oyunga Pala on zammagazine.com

12/11/2025

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 side: at least one crew has returned home, leaving Western Europe to contend with its own labour shortages in the fishing sector.

Fisherman Anthony Appiah* often felt he was risking his life when sent out in storms off the coast of Denmark, with waves pounding against the hull of the Dutch-owned vessel and ropes snapping across the deck like whips. A single mistake could mean being dragged overboard. Videos shared by Appiah show men straining to haul heavy baskets of crab as the sea churns perilously close. “I was always afraid something would happen to us,” he says.

His colleague, James Ewuah, was asleep on an Irish ship when it struck a rock and began to sink. “The captain told us to go back for our passports, but the ladder was broken...

Read the full article on zammagazine.com

Article by Stijn Bakker, Parcival Weijnen, Marian Ansah, and ZAM

Photography by Parcival Weijnen

05/11/2025

Remembering ourselves | a conversation with Thania Petersen

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 belonging across the Cape Flats and the Indian Ocean, through a lens that refuses marginality.

Thania Petersen: I was born in 1980, and my dad went into exile when I was four, so I kind of grew up mainly with my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle on weekends because they would help my grandparents. So, we were always kind of in a state of exile. Even when we were in South Africa. I think everyone was in a state of exile, in a way during apartheid because nobody was where they were meant to be. Everybody was put where they were...

Read the full interview with by on zammagazine.com

Image credits: Courtesy of Thania Petersen

ZAM partners with the Thami Mnyele Foundation .mnyele.foundation who hosted Thania Petersen during a short artist’s residency in Amsterdam in October 2025.

05/11/2025

Remembering ourselves | a conversation with Thania Petersen

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 belonging across the Cape Flats and the Indian Ocean, through a lens that refuses marginality.

Thania Petersen: "I was born in 1980, and my dad went into exile when I was four, so I kind of grew up mainly with my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle on weekends because they would help my grandparents. So, we were always kind of in a state of exile. Even when we were in South Africa. I think everyone was in a state of exile, in a way during apartheid because nobody was where they were meant to be. Everybody was put where they were..."

Read the full interview with Thania Petersen conducted by on zammagazine.com

Image credits: Courtesy of Thania Petersen

ZAM partners with the Thami Mnyele Foundation .mnyele.foundation who hosted Thania Petersen during a short artist’s residency in Amsterdam in October 2025.

03/11/2025

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 experimental happening, featured Natalie Paneng , Lindiwe Mngxitama , Thulisile Binda , and P_ssy Party , each offering distinct perspectives on art, technology, and decolonial futurity.

Conceptually, we explored Labour, Love, and Liminality: examining AI and automation’s effects on work and wages; probing the shifting depths of human connection online; and reflecting on the environmental, ethical, and cosmic stakes of digital infrastructure, but each of us coming from distinct departures...

Read the full article by Thembeka Heidi Sincuba on zammagazine.com

Images by Lethabo Motseleng

The Glitching the Future project and the symposium are made possible through the support of the Creative Industries Fund NL

17/10/2025

In Met het oog op morgen om te praten over de recrutering van jonge Afrikaanse vrouwen voor de Russische oorlogsindustrie.

Dat Afrikaanse mannen met de Russen meevechten in Oekraïne, dat was al bekend. Maar ook Afrikaanse vrouwen spelen een rol in deze oorlog. Ze worden aan het werk gezet in dronefabrieken. Zuid-Afrika heeft daarom een onderzoek ingesteld. Te gast is Bart Luirink van ZAM magazine, platform van Afrikaan...

15/10/2025

ZAMxOpenArtExchange fundraising exhibition – 4 days to go!

The Art for ZAM collection is now showing at OpenArtExchange — stunning works donated by artists from our global network to fuel and drive ZAM’s mission. Artists include Meschac Gaba, Anton Corbijn & Berend Strik, Patricia Kaersenhout, Ruan Hoffman, Desirée Dolron and many more.

Every artwork purchased helps us provide a safe platform for journalists, amplify new voices, and stage events that unite and inspire. From posters to originals, there’s something for everyone. Since this is a fundraiser, many prices are negotiable.

Join us for Caribbean vibes, live DJ and snacks on Sunday 19 October from 14:00 – 17:00 for the closing day. OpenArtExchange
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HU15kyzXdz4ZyVnv9 Hoogstraat 85, Schiedam, the Netherlands.

Buy what you love. Back those who dare.

Together we’ll keep glitching the systems standing in the way of equality, freedom, democracy and justice for all.

Photo credit:
New work made specially for the exhibition by Heidi Thembeka Sincuba.
Photo: ZAM reporter.

ZAMxOpenArtExchange tentoonstelling – 4 dagen te gaan!

De Art for ZAM-collectie is nu te zien op OpenArtExchange – prachtige werken door kunstenaars uit ons netwerk die ZAM’s missie ondersteunen. Te zien, en aan te schaffen, zijn onder meer werken van Meschac Gaba, Anton Corbijn & Berend Strik, Patricia Kaersenhout, Ruan Hoffman en Desirée Dolron.

Elk gekocht kunstwerk helpt ons journalisten een veilig platform the bieden, nieuwe stemmen te versterken en evenementen te organiseren die verenigen en inspireren. Van posters tot originele exemplaren, er is voor elk wat wils. Omdat we hiermee fondsen werven voor ZAM, valt over de vraagprijs te onderhandelen.

Kom op zondag 19 oktober van 14:00 tot 17:00 uur met ons de closing van de tentoonstelling vieren in Caribische sferen, met hapjes, een live-dj en snacks. OpenArtExchange
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HU15kyzXdz4ZyVnv9
Hoogstraat 85, Schiedam, Nederland.

Koop wat je mooi vindt. Steun hen die durven.

Samen dwarsbomen we de systemen die in de weg staan van gelijkheid, vrijheid, democratie en sociale rechtvaardigheid voor iedereen.

10/10/2025

Glitching the Future at Fak'ugesi 2025
Opening Between Here and Now

Today October 11th, we plug into Power Surge at the Fak'ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival in Johannesburg, and online in Schiedma where African futurism meets digital rebellion.

This time, ZAM Magazine's ongoing project Glitching the Future, brings together visionary creators like Natalie Paneng, Lindiwe Mngxitama, and P_ssy Party, live-streamed from Jo'burg to the Open Art Exchange exhibition opening in Schiedam featuring artists like Farren van Wyk and Heidi Sincuba.
Expect a charged mix of art, code, and collective dreaming. A glimpse into the radical futures being harnessed across the globe.











This event has been made possible by the Creative Industries Fund NL.