Arts + Culture
Francis Bebey: the Cameroonian musician, writer and thinker who played the world’s instruments
Francis Bebey was a Cameroonian guitarist, composer, novelist and musicologist. He wrote the prize-winning novel Agatha Moudio's Son,…
AfroYard.net — African Music News, Releases & Artist Profiles
Latest Stories
Music
Bobby Benson: the Lagos bandleader who helped build Nigerian highlife
Bobby Benson returned to Lagos after years at sea and formed one of Nigeria's first modern dance bands.…
Arts + Culture
The return of Dahomey’s 26 royal treasures: France’s 2021 restitution to Benin
In November 2021, France returned 26 royal treasures looted from Abomey in 1892 to the Republic of Benin.…
Arts + Culture
Asante gold returns to Kumasi: the 2024 loan of looted royal treasures
In 2024, 32 gold and silver objects taken from the Asante court during British colonial wars went on…
Arts + Culture
The Great Mosque of Djenné: the mud building a whole town replasters every year
The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali is the largest mud-brick building in the world. Its current structure…
Arts + Culture
The Royal Palaces of Abomey: the bas-reliefs of the Dahomey kings
The Royal Palaces of Abomey in Benin were the seat of the kings of Dahomey from the seventeenth…
Arts + Culture
The Igbo-Ukwu bronzes: West Africa’s oldest known bronze art, found by a man digging a cistern
In 1938, a man digging a water cistern in Igbo-Ukwu, in today's Anambra State, found bronze objects of…
Arts + Culture
The Kofar Mata dye pits: Kano’s centuries-old indigo tradition
The Kofar Mata dye pits in Kano are among the oldest working dye pits in Africa, with tradition…
Music
Semba: the Angolan rhythm behind kizomba and the songs of independence
Semba is a dance music from Luanda that rose in the mid-twentieth century and became tied to Angola's…
Music
“Malaika”: the Swahili love song from Kenya that Miriam Makeba took around the world
"Malaika", a Swahili love song recorded in Kenya by Fadhili William around 1960, became one of the best-known…