Beignets and Nigerian meat pies
Nollywood, the world’s second largest film industry, produces over 2000 films annually, and now, seven of its best will be screened at France’s first ever NollywoodWeek Paris.
Blog
Freedom Day
The ways in which Nelson Mandela’s image as a referent of South Africa's recent past has been appropriated, signified and transformed into material form as commemoration.
Weekend Music Break, N°40
South African kwaito group Mafikizolo underscored their comeback this week with the release of the video for “Khona” off their new album, Reunited. The video which also features vocals from Uhuru and Mapiano, takes the group back to the village with brightly colored Ndebele wall paintings, Basotho blankets and flamboyant dancing. Since its debut in […]
5 New Films to Watch, N°25
The Supreme Price is ambitious both in its scope and its intentions: “Following the annulment of her father’s — Moshood Abiola — victory in Nigeria’s 1993 Presidential Election and her mother’s — Alhaja Kudirat Abiola — assassination by agents of the military dictatorship, Hafsat Abiola faces the challenge of transforming a corrupt culture of governance into […]
Joyce Banda has bigger problems than Madonna
After years of being frozen out by Bingu wa Mutharika’s administration, President Joyce Banda has restored the IMF to the top table of Malawian policy-making and pushed through a sweeping reforms at their behest.
VICE and the “new journalism model”*
The business of journalism as we know is in trouble and there’s a scramble for a “new journalism model,” with VICE.com held up as the latest prototype (see here, here and here). I am not so sure VICE is the new journalism–it’s partnership with “old media” (CNN, HBO) is old fashioned, it mostly produces sponsored content (nothing new there), owns an advertising agency and makes nice with Rupert Murdoch. Of course, VICE’s style represents something fresh. With its diversity of topics and irreverence, it is a vast improvement on the talking heads of cable news. But, there is also much to dislike about Vice.
How to text someone you love
An interview with the American-Nigerian-Jamaican artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi.
Where the thing in her head translated well
An interview with the filmmaker Dehanza Rogers, about the film "Sweet, Sweet Country," a fictional film capturing the harsh personal choices of Africans in Clarkson, a town in Georgia known for its large immigrant population.
The new “Celebrity Map of Africa”
It's not just Euro-Americans who want to save Africa. Celebrities and entertainers from Asia and Eastern Europe want in too.
Right in front of your eyes
Claudio Silva emailed fellow Angolan, photographer Rui Sérgio Afonso, to tell us about his favorite images.
Two index fingers
Our weekly update post of things we did not blog about includes a derby goal, a film about the Williams sisters and the passing of a major 20th century South African intellectual.
RIP Bi Kidude, Empress of East Africa
Bi Kidude, who died on April 17, 2013, was probably Tanzania's foremost singer and performer of Taarab music.