Arts + Culture
MASA: the Abidjan market where African performers meet the world’s programmers
The Marché des Arts du Spectacle d'Abidjan, known as MASA, has brought African musicians, dancers and theatre companies…
Arts + Culture
Dive into a world of boundless creativity and diverse perspectives with our Arts + Culture corner. Explore the latest in visual arts, literature, and cultural trends
Arts + Culture
Akan goldweights: the tiny brass sculptures that weighed gold dust and carried proverbs
For centuries, Akan traders weighed gold dust using small brass weights cast in geometric shapes and figures of…
Arts + Culture
The Kano Durbar: horsemen, emirs and centuries of Sallah tradition in northern Nigeria
During the Eid festivals, Kano and other northern Nigerian cities hold durbars, grand processions of horsemen in colourful…
Arts + Culture
The djembe: how a Mande drum became one of the world’s most popular instruments
The djembe, a goblet-shaped drum from the Mande world of West Africa, is played with bare hands and…
Arts + Culture
The balafon: the West African xylophone and the legendary Sosso Bala
The balafon, a wooden xylophone with gourd resonators, is one of the oldest instruments of the Mande world.…
Arts + Culture
Lalibela: the rock-hewn churches carved downward into Ethiopian stone
The eleven rock-hewn churches of Lalibela in northern Ethiopia were carved out of solid volcanic rock, tradition says…
Arts + Culture
The Timbuktu manuscripts: how librarians smuggled a city’s books away from jihadists
Timbuktu holds hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, some centuries old, on subjects from law and astronomy to medicine.…
Arts + Culture
Great Zimbabwe: the stone city that gave a nation its name
Great Zimbabwe, a vast stone city near Masvingo built between roughly the 11th and 15th centuries, was the…
Arts + Culture
The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove: the forest shrine and sculptures of Susanne Wenger
The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, a forest on the banks of the Osun River in Osogbo, is dedicated to…
Arts + Culture
Les Ballets Africains: the Guinean troupe that brought West African dance to the world’s stages
Les Ballets Africains, founded by Fodéba Keïta in Paris in the early 1950s, became Guinea's national ballet after…