africa
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Yes, You Can Go Home Again: Model Adwoa Aboah Brings Burberry to Ghana
My mother and I recently decided to do DNA kits together in honor of Mother’s Day. (Please don’t @ me with warnings about how our information will be used; we’re grown, neither of us is a serial killer, and genealogy searches have taken us only so far.) Since we’re decidedly African American and slavery was…
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10 Things I Learned From My 23andMe Results (That May or May Not Be True)
Since I got my AncestryDNA results back, I decided I was going to check out the other services and find out as much information about me, myself and I as possible. I finally got my results back from 23andMe, and they’re interesting, to say the least. Full disclosure: I paid for this test out of…
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Fashion News From the Continent: Rwanda Rising
Africa wants to be a player in the luxury fashion world, and it’s coming into the game strong. Last week alone, Lagos, Nigeria, was host to two separate fashion weeks featuring African designers. Rwanda is now the latest nation to get behind the creative talent in the design and textile industries, with government subsidies like…
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This Account Tweets the Lyrics to ‘Africa’ by Toto Over and Over Again
I was trolling Twitter last night when I stumbled across the best thing I had seen on the internet that entire day. There is a Twitter account that does nothing but tweet the lyrics to the song “Africa” by Toto over and over again. Before I go into my explanation for why this is amazing,…
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I Got My AncestryDNA Results Back, and I’m About 40 Percent African. I’m Going to Wakanda!
I got my results back from AncestryDNA. About damn time, too. I was like a crackhead, checking my email every single day HOPING I’d get an email letting me know that my results were ready and available, and every day there’d be nothing. At some point, I almost called them like they were holding up…
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Whose World Is This? Black Panther Production Designer Hannah Beachler Walks Us Through Wakanda
If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already visited Wakanda—maybe two or three times during Black Panther’s record-breaking opening weekend. Otherwise, I know you wouldn’t want to spoil your upcoming trip by reading the incredible conversation The Glow Up had with the film’s production designer, Hannah Beachler. (Consider yourself warned: There might be spoilers ahead.…
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10 Blackest Things About Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s ‘All the Stars’ Video From the Black Panther Soundtrack
1. The video is directed by Dave Meyers. And the little homies. We’re starting off strong. Real strong. 2. This actual video literally starts out with the throwing of the hands in the air and waving them like you just don’t care. Except all of those hands are a sea of blackness while Kendrick glides…
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The Day It Became Easier to Say He’s Racist
The three television network evening news programs led Thursday with President Trump’s reported statement calling Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shithole” countries and saying the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway. From there the outrage grew in online commentary, in print and on cable talk shows, as well…
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The Counter to Trump’s Xenophobic Racism Is Not Exceptionalist Immigrant Narratives
Sometime Thursday, Donald J. Trump waddled into the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C., and not only blustered that immigrants from the countries of Haiti, El Salvador and the entire continent of Africa are “people from shithole countries” but also encouraged more immigration from countries such as Norway and the continent of…
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Ankara, Ankhs and the Ongoing Appropriation-vs.-Appreciation Argument: Is There a Right Way to Rock African Style?
We’ve been celebrating Kwanzaa Week here at The Root, which, for The Glow Up, also meant thinking up new outfits to wear for each night of the festivities celebrating the seven principles of what many lovingly call “Black Hanukkah.” Fun fact: I love African fashion, iconography and decor; always have. I love wax prints (yes,…