This week Nigeria–yes the country whose history Rick Ross mangled in his latest music video (Ross should have taken lessons from Chinua Achebe)–turned 52 to this week. Here, the “First Lady of Mavin Records,” Tiwa Savage sings the national anthem of Nigeria on a Nigerian TV show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOQDPR5cR7o ‘One Man’s Show’ is the latest film by Newton I. Aduaka (probably best known for his 2007 film ‘Ezra’) with Emile Abossolo Mbo as the comedian who has to confront his children and past relationships after hearing he has cancer. (Two more teasers: here and here.) Next, ‘Maj’noun’ by Tunisian director-cinematographer Hazem Berrabah is […]

Among the most striking portraits in South African photographer and filmmaker Sydelle Willow Smith’s online portfolio are those taken in the Western Cape, reflecting much of what Cape Town and the wider province stand for: the engaging (solidarity and protest marches; parades; a reportage about Blikkiesdorp, no longer just a “temporary” village echoing the crudest […]

Forty-two kilometres from Umthatha, the former capital of Transkei in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, is kuTsolo. It’s a small town with a name which means pointed, referring to the shape of the hills characterising the rural landscape. It is far from the scintillating big city lights, and it is home to the young and […]

Here are another 10 films we’re hoping to see in the (near) future. First, three “fiction” films. ‘Winter of Discontent’, a film by director Ibrahim El Batout is set against the backdrop of the 2011 Tahrir Square protests, zooming in on the the lives of activist Amr (Amr Waked), journalist Farah (Farah Youssef) and state […]