September 22
Africa: Caine Prize for African Writing - Nadia Davids On Her Winning Story About Women and Freedom
South African playwright, academic, novelist and short story writer Nadia Davids is the winner of the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing. It's an important award that has played… Read more »
September 19
South Africa: Mysterious South African Cave Painting May Have Been Inspired By Fossils
A mysterious animal painted on a cave wall in South Africa's Free State Province has long baffled scientists. Is it a walrus? It looks like one, but there are no such animals in… Read more »
September 12
South Africa: Johannesburg's Underbelly Is Explored in Niq Mhlongo's Fresh New Novel About a Messy Break-Up
Niq Mhlongo was born in Soweto, Johannesburg in 1973 and grew up under apartheid, South Africa's institutionalised racial segregation under white minority rule. He graduated in… Read more »
September 10
Sudan: Looting of the Sudan National Museum - More Is At Stake Than Priceless Ancient Treasures
Reports continue to emerge of the alleged looting of tens of thousands of artefacts from the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum. The museum, near the confluence of the White and the… Read more »
September 08
South Africa: James Matthews - the Rebel Writer Who Was South Africa's Voice of Resistance
World renowned South African poet James Matthews has died at 95. His was the last great voice of an era of writers who worked against South Africa's repressive and racist system of… Read more »
September 04
Africa: Looting of African Heritage - a Powerful New Book Explores the Damage Done By Colonial Theft
European colonisation of Africa was not only about armed conquest, massacres and the exploitation of resources. It was also about the appropriation of spiritual and political… Read more »
South Africa: South African Heritage Tourism Could Uplift Rural Communities, With a Little Help - the Case of Sekhukhune
Imagine visiting a remote valley surrounded by mountains, hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest city, listening to local people explaining hundreds of years of history to… Read more »
Kenya: Kenyan Artists Reflect Gen Z Hopes and Frustrations in New Exhibition
As young protesters in Kenya took to the streets in June to demand the government account for its spending of taxpayers' money, the Wajukuu Art Project was opening a new exhibition… Read more »
August 15
Africa: Learning a Language? Four Ways to Smash Through the Dreaded 'Intermediate Plateau'
How can I improve my English? This was a question frequently posed by my students in South Korea. My initial advice was straightforward - dedicate time and effort. Read more »
August 27
Africa: Rock Painting Is the Oldest Image of an African Rail, a Bird That May Have Had a Special Meaning for the SAN People
The African rail (Rallus caerulescens) is a handsome bird, with a blueish breast, red legs, eyes and bill, prominent barring on the flanks, chestnut upper parts, and long toes. It… Read more »
August 22
Africa: Spontaneous Acts By Yoko Tawada - an Adroit Poetic Novel About Connection Post-Pandemic
Spontaneous Acts by German-Japanese writer Yoko Tawada follows a fierce and scrupulous search for connection and meaning in a noisy and overwhelming world emerging from the… Read more »
August 19
Niger: Onyeka Onwenu Remembered - Nigerian Pop Star, Activist and Voice of National Unity
The news of the death of Nigerian musician Onyeka Onwenu on 30 July 2024 hit me, as a musician and popular music scholar, like a thunderbolt. I have listened to and appreciated… Read more »
August 08
South Africa: Sexual Abuse and Bad Pay - Women's Struggles in South African Live Music Exposed
Women working in live music as performers and in other onstage and behind-the-scenes roles in South Africa experience exclusion from decision-making, unequal pay, pressure to fit… Read more »
August 06
Mali: Mali's Kora Star Toumani Diabaté - a Personal Reflection By His Music Producer
The untimely death of Mali's Toumani Diabaté at the age of 58 has shocked the music world. The sheer number of tributes, including those from superstar African musicians… Read more »
July 31
Africa: German Colonialism in Africa Has a Chilling History - New Book Explores How It Lives On
Germany was a significant - and often brutal - colonial power in Africa. But this colonial history is not told as often as that of other imperialist nations. A new book called The… Read more »
Nigeria: Fela Kuti Is More Famous Today Than Ever - What's Behind His Global Power
Almost three decades after his passing in 1997, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the legendary Nigerian musician and activist who created the Afrobeat music movement, remains the subject of… Read more »
July 25
Nigeria: Nigeria's Ojude-Oba Festival Celebrates Heritage With Colourful Parades and Horsemanship - How It Could Be Used to Attract Tourists
The Ojude-Oba festival is a vibrant annual celebration that has become an integral part of the identity of Ijebu-Ode, a city in south-west Nigeria. This colourful event, famous for… Read more »
Mali: Toumani Diabaté - the Famed Musician From Mali Who Took the Kora to the World
The world has lost a significant musical ambassador for the Mande people of west Africa - the virtuoso kora player, composer, and collaborator from Mali, Toumani Diabaté. He… Read more »
July 23
Africa: Pandemic Effects Linger, and Art Invites Us to Pause and Behold Distance, Time and Trauma
When I finished the manuscript for my book The Pause, which looked at the COVID-19 pandemic through the idea of "pausing," a notion frequently invoked in pandemic discussions of… Read more »
July 14
South Africa: How Old Are South African Fossils Like the Taung Child? New Study Offers an Answer
One hundred years ago the discovery of a skull in South Africa's North West province altered our understanding of human evolution. The juvenile skull was dubbed the Taung Child by… Read more »
July 12
Nigeria: Wole Soyinka At 90 - Writer and Activist for Justice
Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, the legendary African author and activist, is proof of what words and acts can achieve in the struggle for justice and human rights. Soyinka, aged 90,… Read more »
July 11
South Africa: Brenda Fassie's 1997 Hit Song Vulindlela Still Raises Questions About South Africa As a Nation
In 1997, South Africa's most famous music star had a huge hit. Brenda Fassie's Vulindlela became a national pop anthem, played especially at weddings and celebrations. Read more »
July 02
Nigeria: The Road to the Village - Novelist Chigozie Obioma On Nigeria's Brutal Civil War, Love and Redemption
Chigozie Obioma is the Nigerian author of the novels The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize for their unique, folkloric… Read more »
June 27
Ethiopia: Lucy, Discovered 50 Years Ago in Ethiopia, Stood Just 3.5 Feet Tall
In 1974, on a survey in Hadar in the remote badlands of Ethiopia, U.S. paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and graduate student Tom Gray found a piece of an elbow joint jutting… Read more »
June 28
South Africa: Ordinary White South Africans and Apartheid - Bound to a Racist System They Helped Prop Up
In South Africa, apartheid was a divisive political system entrenched by a white minority who regarded other ethnic groups as inferior, creating townships on the outskirts of… Read more »