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Dak’Art: the Dakar Biennale that puts contemporary African art on the map
Dak'Art, the Biennale of Contemporary African Art, is held in Dakar, Senegal. Since the early 1990s it has…
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FESPACO: the Ouagadougou festival that has championed African cinema since 1969
FESPACO, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, began in 1969 and is held every two years…
Music
Who Is Sly Force? The Ghanaian Rapper Who Built a Catalogue One Single at a Time
Some artists arrive with a viral moment. Sly Force has arrived the slow way: one single at a…
Arts + Culture
Mbari houses: the Igbo clay shrines built for the earth goddess Ala
Mbari houses were open-sided shrines filled with painted clay sculptures, built by Owerri Igbo communities to honour Ala,…
Arts + Culture
Seydou Keïta: the Bamako studio photographer whose portraits reached the world’s museums
Seydou Keïta ran a portrait studio in Bamako from 1948, photographing thousands of Malians against patterned backdrops. His…
Arts + Culture
Ghana’s hand-painted movie posters: the video-club art that became collectable
In the 1980s and 1990s, mobile video clubs in Ghana advertised screenings with huge hand-painted posters, often on…
Music
Warda al-Jazairia: the Algerian rose who became a star of Arab music in Cairo
Warda al-Jazairia, "the Algerian Rose," was born in France in 1939 to an Algerian father and Lebanese mother.…
Music
From Outside the Top 30 to No. 4: Kofi Mole’s “Balotelli (Supa)” Takes the Slow Road Up
For most of October the Apple Music Ghana songs chart has belonged to one man. Kweku Smoke has…
Music
Dan Maraya Jos: the Hausa kuntigi master who sang for ordinary people
Dan Maraya Jos, born Adamu Wayya in Jos, played the kuntigi, a small one-string lute, and sang about…
Music
Ayub Ogada: the nyatiti player whose Kothbiro reached Hollywood
Ayub Ogada, a Kenyan musician, played the nyatiti, an eight-string Luo lyre. His 1993 album En Mana Kuoyo,…