Arts + Culture
Azonto: the Accra dance craze that spread across the world in 2011 and 2012
Azonto, a dance from Accra built on mimed everyday actions, became an international craze in 2011 and 2012.…
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Arts + Culture
Sarafina!: the Soweto uprising musical that took South African township theatre to Broadway
Sarafina!, created by Mbongeni Ngema, tells the story of students in the 1976 Soweto uprising through mbaqanga music…
Music
Kiki Gyan: Osibisa’s teenage keyboard prodigy and “24 Hours in a Disco”
Kiki Gyan joined the Afro-rock band Osibisa as a teenager in the 1970s and became one of Africa's…
Music
Rachid Taha: the Algerian rocker behind “Ya Rayah” and the Clash cover “Rock el Casbah”
Rachid Taha, born in Algeria in 1958 and raised in France, mixed North African music with punk and…
Arts + Culture
The Ife heads: the naturalistic sculptures that changed how the world saw African art
The copper-alloy and terracotta heads of Ile-Ife, made between roughly the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, are among the…
Arts + Culture
El Anatsui: the Ghanaian sculptor who turned bottle caps into shimmering tapestries
El Anatsui, born in Anyako in Ghana's Volta Region in 1944, spent decades teaching at the University of…
Arts + Culture
The Benin Bronzes: looted in 1897, scattered worldwide, slowly coming home
In February 1897, British forces attacked Benin City and looted thousands of brass, ivory and wood artworks from…
Arts + Culture
Fantasy coffins: how Teshie carpenters turned funerals into sculpture
In Teshie, near Accra, carpenters build coffins shaped like fish, cars, aeroplanes and cocoa pods. The Ga tradition…
Arts + Culture
Guitar bands and dance bands: the two branches of Ghanaian highlife
Ghanaian highlife developed along two main paths: dance bands with horns that played for elites in ballrooms, and…
Music
Sungura: the guitar music of Zimbabwe’s buses, beer halls and Alick Macheso
Sungura, Zimbabwe's most popular dance music, is built on fast interlocking guitars and a busy bass. Stars such…