June 08, 2022
South Africa: Senzo Meyiwa Trial Casts Spotlight On Language Use in South African Courts
The murder of football player Senzo Meyiwa in 2014 and its protracted and controversial police investigation involving high profile figures in the South African music industry… Read more »
June 07, 2022
East Africa: Four Novelists, One Ocean - How Indian Ocean Literature Can Remap the World
Novels make worlds. They create an intuitive sense and mental image of a place. And the senses of space produced by fiction shape how readers see the world itself, just like maps… Read more »
South Africa: Legendary Mike Mzileni Captured South Africa's History and Also Its Musical Stars
Sophie Mgcina, composer, educationist and performer, gazes out from the page, uncompromising and direct. She's just swung around from the piano to face us; behind her, a score sits… Read more »
June 06, 2022
Zimbabwe: Artist Richard Mudariki's Vision for a Zimbabwean Contemporary Art Fair
In the past 20 years, a new generation of Zimbabwean artists has attained international acclaim, or emerged as stars with work showing at top galleries and museums, collected by… Read more »
Africa: Queen Elizabeth II - a Reign That Saw the End of the British Empire in Africa
In the UK the Queen's official title is: Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and… Read more »
June 05, 2022
Africa: The Award-Winning African Documentary Project That Goes Inside the Lives of Migrants
For far too long the west has been telling stories about and talking on behalf of Africa. However, a new slate of 25 documentary films by African filmmakers called Generation… Read more »
June 02, 2022
Nigeria: Blood Sisters - Why the Mini-Series On Netflix Sets a New Pace for Nollywood
Nollywood - the Nigerian movie industry - was described as a small screen cinema involving amateurs who produced low budget trashy videos with predictable storylines. Read more »
May 30, 2022
Kenya: How 'Patriotic' Choral Music Has Been Used to Embed a Skewed Version of History
Choral music - patriotic choral music in particular - is a significant genre in Kenya's political history. Read more »
May 27, 2022
South Africa: Spirit of Ntu - South African Piano Maestro Nduduzo Makhathini On His 10th Album
Nduduzo Makhathini is a prolific South African pianist, improviser, healer, educator, scholar and storyteller. He possesses a gift that enables him to articulate a distinct and… Read more »
May 26, 2022
Nigeria: Super Afro Soul - the Music of Orlando Julius, Titan of Nigerian Music
Highlife crooner and Afrobeat singer Orlando Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode died, according to his wife Latoya Aduke, in his sleep on 15 April 2022. Read more »
Ghana: Ghanaian Women in Dance Reality Show Challenge Stereotypes About Obesity
Since the debut of Big Brother Africa in South Africa in 2003, reality television shows have become a common feature on television stations across the continent. They have helped… Read more »
May 20, 2022
Nigeria: Dilomprizulike - Artist Who Mesmerizes and Befuddles in Equal Measure
Nigerian artist and lecturer Dilomprizulike, who curated, among other things, the Junkyard Museum of Awkward Things in Lagos, wages a continuous battle on two fronts. First, as an… Read more »
May 16, 2022
Nigeria: Social Media Can Be a Force for Good in a Crisis - Lessons From Lagos
In times of crisis, it is especially crucial that governments share accurate, up to date information with their citizens. Social media can play an important role in disseminating… Read more »
Senegal: How Senegal Is Decolonising Its Heritage and Re-Imagining an African Future
On the morning of 5 September 2017, the inhabitants of Saint-Louis, a regional capital on Senegal's northwest coast, woke to a strange scene. The statue of Louis Faidherbe that had… Read more »
May 12, 2022
Senegal: Rudy Gomis, a Masterful Collaborator Who Kept the Diversity of Senegalese Music Alive
The world has lost one of the great pioneers of the post-independence movement of modern popular music in Senegal. After a long illness, Rudolphe "Rudy" Clément Gomis -… Read more »
May 09, 2022
South Africa: New Book Unpacks the Complexities of Whiteness in South Africa
In his latest book sociologist Professor Roger Southall, a prolific researcher who has written extensively about political dynamics in Southern Africa, avoids the "negative and… Read more »
June 17, 2021
Africa: Banning African Films Like Rafiki and Inxeba Doesn't Diminish Their Influence
Social media and internet forums function as an important space of contestation for issues relating to queer identities. This is evident in reactions to two fairly recent… Read more »
May 06, 2018
Africa: Why Hip-Hop Needs to Be Taken More Seriously in Academic Circles
Jazz's current generation of stars grew up in these genre-fluid times with hip-hop. Concurrently, a significant number of hip-hop artists have been integrating jazz into their… Read more »