July 31, 2023
Nigeria: Kole Omotoso, the Nigerian Writer, Scholar and Actor Who Inspired a Continent
Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso, better known as Kole Omotoso, the Nigerian novelist, playwright, journalist, scholar and actor, died on 19 July 2023. His son Akin Omotoso, a filmmaker,… Read more »
July 25, 2023
Africa: Computer-Written Scripts and Deepfake Actors - What's At the Heart of the Hollywood Strikes Against Generative AI
For the first time in 60 years, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) are simultaneously facing off against the Alliance of Motion Picture and… Read more »
July 27, 2023
Africa: Deaf Rappers Who Lay Down Rhymes in Sign Languages Are Changing What It Means for Music to Be Heard
In April 2023, DJ Supalee hosted Supafest Reunion 2023 to celebrate entertainers and promoters within the U.S. Deaf community. Read more »
Egypt: How Hidden Details in Ancient Egyptian Tomb Paintings Are Revealed By Chemical Imaging
The walls of ancient Egyptian tombs can teach us much about the lives of the pharaohs and their entourages. Tomb paintings showed the deceased and their immediate family members… Read more »
July 17, 2023
Africa: Actors Are Demanding That Hollywood Catch Up With Technological Changes in a Sequel to a 1960 Strike
For the first time since 1960, actors and screenwriters are on strike at the same time. Read more »
July 14, 2023
Africa: Contemporary African Photography - Tate Modern Show Celebrates New Generation of Artists, but Misses a Trick
The last large survey exhibition of African photography by a major western gallery was In/Sight at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1996. Twenty-seven years later, Tate Modern… Read more »
June 21, 2023
Ghana: Ama Ata Aidoo - The Pioneering Writer Left Behind a String of Feminist Classics
Prolific author and former Ghanaian education minister Ama Ata Aidoo passed away on 31 May 2023 at the age of 81. News of her death reverberated around… Read more »
July 12, 2023
South Africa: Sindiwe Magona's New Book of Essays Tackles Issues South Africans Aren't Talking About
Sindiwe Magona - who turns 80 this year - is a celebrated South African writer, storyteller, speaker and activist. In 2022 Magona, once a domestic worker, received her PhD in… Read more »
July 10, 2023
Africa: How an African Collection of Art in Canada Is Celebrated With Care and Community
A significant collection of traditional African art has had a home in Canada for almost a hundred years. Read more »
July 06, 2023
East Africa: Kiswahili - How a Standard Version of the East African Language Was Formed - and Spread Across the World
Kiswahili originated in east Africa, spreading around the continent and the globe. It's been adopted as a working language at the African Union and there's a push for it to become… Read more »
July 05, 2023
Africa: Africa's Linguistic Diversity Goes Largely Unnoticed in Research On Multilingualism
Language is a uniquely human skill. That's why studying how people learn and use language is crucial to understanding what it means to be human. Given that most people in the world… Read more »
July 04, 2023
Cameroon: The Fascinating Cameroonian Art of Spider Divination Is On Display At London Exhibition
Tomás Saraceno In Collaboration: Web(s) of Life, which opened at London's Serpentine South Gallery in June, explores how humans relate to spiders. It features installations… Read more »
Mozambique: Paulina Chiziane, Mozambique's Grand Novelist, Finally Receives Her Prestigious Award
Paulina Chiziane, the first woman to publish a novel in Mozambique, has become the first African woman to receive the most important award for Portuguese literature, the… Read more »
Africa: Belgium's AfricaMuseum Has a Dark Colonial Past - It's Making Slow Progress in Confronting This History
Racist displays and stories remain on display in several western European museums. They include grotesque objects depicting African people as "savage" and "wild". Narratives of a… Read more »
July 02, 2023
South Africa: Zondo At Your Fingertips - New Book Offers an Accessible and Condensed Version of South Africa's Ambitious Corruption Inquiry
Anti-corruption activist Paul Holden has done South Africa a great favour by summarising the work of the judicial commission that probed massive corruption under former president… Read more »
June 23, 2023
Africa: The Folly of Making Art With Text-to-Image Generative AI
Making art using artificial intelligence isn't new. It's as old as AI itself. Read more »
June 21, 2023
Southern Africa: Unicorns in Southern Africa - the Fascinating Story Behind One-Horned Creatures in Rock Art
One-horned creatures are found in myths around the world. Although unicorns in different cultures have little to do with one another, they have multiple associations in European… Read more »
June 20, 2023
South Africa: Milisuthando - a Powerful Documentary That Will Get South Africans Talking About Identity
Milisuthando is a debut feature length documentary film by Milisuthando Bongela. Taking the form of a personal essay, it's an intimate story about family and ancestors, about… Read more »
Sierra Leone: African Leaders in Sierra Leone Played a Key Role in Ending the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone on the west African coast, was named for the freed slaves who were returned to Africa by British members of the movement to end slavery.… Read more »
West Africa: Last of West Africa's Legendary Wax Cloth Traders Has Left Her Mark
Dédé Rose Gamélé Creppy, who has died aged 89, was one of west Africa's most influential wax cloth traders. She was the youngest, and the last living,… Read more »
June 09, 2023
Egypt: Never Mind Cleopatra - What About the Forgotten Queens of Ancient Nubia?
Jada Pinkett Smith's new Netflix documentary series on Cleopatra aims to spotlight powerful African queens. "We don't often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that… Read more »
June 13, 2023
South Africa: South African Activist Frank Anthony Wrote a Novel That Has Been Forgotten - Why It Shouldn't Have Been
How does it come about that a man who dedicated the greater part of his life to a vision of a just South Africa, and sacrificed his family and personal relationships to do so,… Read more »
South Africa: Shaka Zulu Is Back in Pop Culture - How the Famous King Has Been Portrayed Over the Decades
Shaka Zulu is one of the most famous figures in South African history, even though not much is actually known about him. The subject of a hit 1980s TV show and of many books, Shaka… Read more »
June 11, 2023
Zimbabwe: Animal Farm Has Been Translated Into Shona - Why a Group of Zimbabwean Writers Undertook the Task
Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has in some ways become like Animal Farm. Like the pigs in the classic 1945 novel by English writer George Orwell, the country's… Read more »
June 07, 2023
Ghana: Ama Ata Aidoo - the Pioneering Writer From Ghana Left Behind a String of Feminist Classics
Prolific author and former Ghanaian education minister Ama Ata Aidoo passed away on 31 May 2023 at the age of 81. News of her death reverberated around the world, proof of her… Read more »