LIFESTYLE - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Can low-budget, high-quality films help African filmmaking?

A collaboration between Netflix, South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and distribution partner, Indigenous Film Distribution, has resulted in the unveiling of 6 films debuting on Netflix. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the film industry, showcasing the transformative power of micro-budget yet high-quality filmmaking across the continent. Oluwanifemi Obaba, a Nigerian entertainment lawyer, underscores the significance of this as a milestone for the filmmakers, explaining that “securing the necessary resources to finance a movie can be quite tedious, to say the least.” “Funding needs are dynamic and they become necessary at different stages of a film’s…

Apr

2024

By BRONWYN LAW-VILJOEN

Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility

LITERATURE

IVAN Vladislavic is Johannesburg’s literary linkman. He tells us, in the first pages of his new book, The Near North, that before cities were lit, first by gaslight and later electricity, people of means paid torchbearers to escort them through dark and perilous streets. “In Paris,” he observes, “these linkmen were often police spies or informers, while in London they were more likely to be in league with criminals”. For his part, Vladislavic believes that the real linkmen are Johannesburg’s car guards. They emerge from the darkness not so much to guard cars as to give middle-class drivers the illusion…

Apr

2024

By SIFISO NDLOVU

Esther Mahlangu: how the famous South African artist keeps her Ndebele culture alive

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ESTHER Mahlangu is having a retrospective of her world-famous art in Cape Town. Now 88, the South African visual artist is best known for her colourful large-scale murals in the traditional patterns and colours of the Ndebele people of South Africa – once famously displayed on a BMW as part of a global advertising campaign. But how is she regarded by her people and what does her work represent? We asked Sifiso Ndlovu, an expert in the art and identity of the Ndebele people, to tell us more. Who is Esther Mahlangu? Esther Nostokana Mahlangu was born on 11 November…

Apr

2024

By IRIS PACHECO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

This popular Brazilian street food is a delicious link to its African heritage

FOOD

LIVELY conversation blends with the rhythmic sizzle of hot oil in Itapuã, a neighbourhood near the coastal city of Salvador in Bahia State, northern Brazil. The golden brown fritters Ivana Muzenza makes at her stall, known locally as Acarajé, represent more than a tasty snack. Muzenza is a “Baiana”, a Portuguese word that describes an exclusive community of Bahian women who sell street food while dressed in traditional attire; typically a white flowing lace dress, beaded necklaces, and jewellery, with colourful headscarves. Muzenza’s great-great-grandmother arrived in the region towards the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. She became a "Ganhadeira…

Apr

2024

By ADWOA OWUSUAA BOBIE

West Africa’s fashion designers are world leaders when it comes to producing sustainable clothes

BEAUTY AND FASHION

EVERY few weeks global fast fashion brands mass produce their latest clothing, pumping out garments to be sold around the world. There is growing criticism that it’s socially irresponsible to produce such large volumes of clothes so often. It leads to surplus and waste that takes a toll on the environment. And by requiring new styles so often it also stifles designers’ creativity in an industry that thrives on it. Sustainable fashion means clothes being produced and consumed in ways that are socially responsible. However, the conversation about sustainable fashion has centred mainly on the Western and Asian fashion industries.…

Apr

2024

By PIERRE-PHILIPPE FRAITURE

Beyond images of war: Sammy Baloji’s work captures DR Congo’s vibrant arts and culture, challenging Western views

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is all too often associated with violent conflict, at the expense of its positive aspects. Reports on this huge country, the second largest in Africa after Algeria, and nearly twice the size of South Africa, tend to overlook its intellectual and artistic vibrancy. My research has focused on this part of the continent. This article is based on two recent contributions in which I examine the DRC’s cultural richness and explore the role and place of mineral extraction in its literature and art. The contribution of the DRC to Africa’s culture is immense. In…

Apr

2024

By NOMFUNDO XALUVA

Tutu Puoane: the South African singer on creating her new album out of Lebo Mashile’s poetry

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

FROM her base in Belgium, proudly South African singer, artist and actor Tutu Puoane has carved an international career predicated on consistency and mastery. Her new album, Wrapped in Rhythm Vol 1, features the writing of South African poet and cultural activist Lebo Mashile. Born Nonthuthuzelo Puoane in May 1979, she was raised in the Pretoria township of Mamelodi. Townships are urban black areas created under the apartheid policies of South Africa’s former government. Puoane began her artistic training at Fuba (the Federated Union of Black Artists), founded as an alternative training academy for artists denied access to whites-only institutions.…

Apr

2024

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Kenyan-made dramas, comedies rival foreign sports in viewership numbers

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

KENYAN viewers are beginning to show a strong preference for locally-produced content, regional giant MultiChoice has revealed, with the appetite and consumption of Kenyan-made films now second only to foreign sports content like the UEFA and English premier leagues. “Some classic shows like 'Hulabaloo', 'Njoro wa uba' in the last six months attracted more than 5 million viewers. Record viewership of 'Kasiri', 'Zari' and the growing dominance of 'Kina' is just amazing. Kenyans are not only watching local content they are actually paying for local content,” said MultiChoice Managing Director, Nzola Miranda during the company's early April Kenya Content Showcase.…

Apr

2024

By JOSH OPOKU BREW

How to keep your music career going: 3 tips from a Ghanaian star

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

GHANAIAN parents have historically discouraged their children from becoming musicians or marrying musicians. A music career is still not seen as one that can provide a steady income to support a family, and the behaviour of musicians is seen by some as deviant. These attitudes stand in the way of musicians wanting to make a career out of their art. I am a professional musician, music scholar and environmental activist who’s interested in the global challenges that musicians face. In a recent paper, I examined the strategies adopted by Okyeame Kwame (OK), one of the pioneers of hiplife music in…

Apr

2024

By STEVEN FRIEDMAN

Good Jew, Bad Jew: new book explores why the West views brutality against Ukrainians and Palestinians differently

LITERATURE

IN a recently published book Steven Friedman, who has written extensively on the political and social aspects of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, explores the racist underpinnings of the West’s responses to Israel’s war in Gaza. This is an extract from the book, Good Jew, Bad Jew. Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani sees a link between the violence of the coloniser and the slaughter of Jews and Slavs by the Nazis. The racial theories of Houston Stewart Chamberlain and others who claimed the Aryan race was superior meant that Jews and Slavs, who were both regarded as not Aryan, could be…