The afikra Podcast

Rare artifacts within the vast archives of the Library of Congress (LOC) represent a shift in how our region's history is fundamentally understood. Moving beyond traditional nationalist timelines, Arab World specialist in the African and Middle East division at the LOC, Dr. Muhan ...  Show more

Beyond the Orientalist myth of being seductive, mysterious, and dangerous, what is the reality of Tangier? Professor of anthropology Majid Hannoum deconstructs the invention of the Maghreb and delves into the complex socioeconomic and racial fabric of contemporary Moroccan cities ...  Show more

Modern Egyptian art was not simply an institutional byproduct of the 20th century, but rather a profound ontological shift in how the nature of the art object was fundamentally understood. Moving beyond traditional nationalist timelines, this transformation was deeply intertwined ...  Show more

Unveiling the suppressed history of "Shar," Professor Ali Abdellatif Ahmida details the forgotten genocide of the Libyan people under Italian settler colonialism in 1911. As a distinguished political scientist and historian at the University of New England, Professor Ahmida dedic ...  Show more

Model and entrepreneur Kenza Fourati discusses her origins, growing up 1990s in Tunisia to becoming a trailblazing figure in the international fashion industry. She reflects on how she initially viewed beauty through a French lens and the subsequent realization of how limiting th ...  Show more