Benjamin Fogel

Paris

Fondateur des éditions Playlist Society / Auteur chez @EditionsRivages (La Transparence selon Irina + Le Silence selon Manon + L'Absence selon Camille)

Articles

Our Authoritarian Atrocity

1 week ago | dissentmagazine.org | Patrick Iber |Meaghan Winter |Benjamin Fogel |Andre Pagliarini

Our Authoritarian Atrocity Trump’s goal is blood-and-soil nationalism. The only choice is opposition. &squarf; Spring 2025 March 26, 2025: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stands in front of the prison bars of an overcrowded cell at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. The scene is staged: Noem wears a $50,000 Rolex and a tight-fitting white shirt, while the men behind her have been ordered to stand, their own shirts and masks removed to display their body and face tattoos.
Jacob Zuma’s enduring relevance

Jan 28, 2025 | africasacountry.com | Samuel Anim |Christopher McMichael |Benjamin Fogel |Murray Hunter

Leading a nation is hard work. It is unsurprising that former leaders devote post-presidential life to rest and reflection. Unlike their Western counterparts, who retire to lucrative book deals and endowments to establish centers and institutes, African presidents have little to look forward to after active politics.
What is free and fair?

Oct 23, 2024 | africasacountry.com | William Shoki |Benjamin Fogel |Sean Jacobs |Lena Império

In an unprecedented election year, more voters than ever in recorded history will have headed to the polls by the end of 2024—in at least 64 countries, with over half of the world’s population involved. In the last six months alone, pivotal elections have occurred in India, South Africa, Mexico, the UK, France, and the European Parliament. In two weeks, the US heads to the polls for a historic presidential election.
Corruption kills?

Jun 5, 2024 | africasacountry.com | William Shoki |Michael Smith |Michaël Smith |Noah Tsika |Benjamin Fogel

Nigeria has a corruption problem—this is hardly breaking news. Less often acknowledged, however, is the fact that Nigeria has long had a vibrant and sometimes powerful anti-corruption movement. What are the origins of this movement? What has it achieved? Can it be rescued from the perennial limitations of anti-corruption (anti-)politics identified elsewhere in Africa and across the world?
The future starts in South Africa

May 17, 2024 | newstatesman.com | Benjamin Fogel

In Cape Town on 2 January 2022, a mysterious fire broke out in South Africa’s parliament. According to the subsequent testimony by Zandile Christmas Mafe, the man accused of torching the National Assembly, he said that he started the fire to prevent President Cyril Ramaphosa from delivering his State of the Nation address. A psychiatric evaluation diagnosed Christmas Mafe with schizophrenia.
L'absence selon Camille

Mar 12, 2024 | fnac.com | Benjamin Fogel

Offres sur ce produit avec le retrait magasin FNAC Bénéficiez de 5% de remise sur toutes les commandes de livres réalisées sur fnac.com (hors marketplace) et retirées en magasin Fnac. 2060 : la vie en ligne a supplanté la vie réelle. « Malgré la transparence, on vous ment » : ce slogan qui vient d'apparaitre sur les murs de Paris inquiète les forces de l'ordre.
Punching above its weight

Jan 31, 2024 | africasacountry.com | Juan Acevedo-Ossa |Vishnu Bachani |William Shoki |Benjamin Fogel

On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed suit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of genocide. South Africa has relatively limited economic and military resources. Its material power capabilities are comparable to those of small countries such as Malaysia or the Philippines, but the ICJ action is just the latest example of the country’s ability to act as a normative superpower, exceeding even the great powers in its capacity to shape the global moral discourse.
Bayard Rustin’s Zimbabwe

Nov 22, 2023 | africasacountry.com | Brooks Marmon |Rory Pilossof |Benjamin Fogel

On November 17, Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, released Rustin on Netflix. The film focuses on the efforts of the American civil rights activist, Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), to organize the 1963 March on Washington (where Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech). The film’s director, George C.
Reimagining non-alignment

Sep 29, 2023 | africasacountry.com | William Shoki |Benjamin Fogel

I find myself reflecting again and again on the work of Eusebius McKaiser, one of South Africa’s most visible political analysts and public intellectuals. I knew him only a little, but for a long time. It was enough for his passing this year to feel devastating. He was so young, and after all the loss we endured during the height of the pandemic, it felt as though he was one of those who had survived, who was with us to stay. I, like so many others, wanted to carry on disagreeing with him.