LIFESTYLE - The African Mirror

Jul

25

2026

Streaming platforms in Africa and music artists are embracing live experiences

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MUSIC streaming companies are increasingly taking music discovery beyond smartphones and playlists, creating physical experiences that bring artists and fans together as competition for Africa's fast-growing audience intensifies. Between July 15 and 26, 2026, Spotify transformed Nairobi's Heltz House into a 12-day Greasy Tunes residency featuring live performances, creator workshops, fashion showcases, podcast recordings, and fan meet-ups. The programme follows earlier Greasy Tunes editions in Johannesburg (2023) and Lagos (2025), with each installation adapted to local music cultures and audience habits. "Greasy Tunes brings the energy people experience on Spotify into a shared physical space," according to Agnes Opondo, Spotify's…

Jul

22

2026

By Muchemwa Mugadzaweta, bird story agency

Zimbabwean designers stitch heritage, identity and enterprise into global fashion

BEAUTY AND FASHION

THE world usually sees the finished garment, not the journey behind it. A handbag under the bright lights of London. A model on the runway. A designer accepting applause. Yet every collection is shaped by years of experimentation, cultural memory, entrepreneurship, craftsmanship and quiet determination. This month, that story will travel from Zimbabwe to the United Kingdom as two Zimbabwean designers, Chido Kaseke, founder of the celebrated brand PatCh Maokoe Zimbabwe and Ropafadzo Kuki Mapira, founder and director of SOLEIL, take part in Africa Fashion Week London (AFWL) from August 22 - 23, 2026, one of the continent’s most influential…

Jul

20

2026

By The African Mirror

2026 FIFA WORLD CUP: Africa didn’t play in the final. Africa still stole the show

LIFESTYLE

LET'S get the disappointing part out of the way first, because we are professionals and this is a publication, not a group therapy session: no African team lifted the World Cup on Sunday night. Spain and Argentina took care of that particular piece of business at MetLife Stadium, in the kind of final that will be replayed on highlight reels until the sun burns out. Fine. Noted. Filed. Moving on. Because for eleven-and-a-half glorious minutes at halftime, in front of a global audience numbering in the billions, on what is inarguably the loudest stage on planet Earth, Africa did not…

Jul

18

2026

By MARK TEKENA

Issakaba: what a 1999 Nollywood classic reveals about Nigeria’s security crisis today

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NIGERIA is grappling with banditry, kidnapping and insurgency amid renewed debates over community policing and the creation of state police. A Nollywood classic released more than 25 years ago remains strikingly relevant today. Released in 1999, Issakaba was inspired by the real-life Bakassi Boys vigilante movement. It became one of Nollywood’s defining films, attracting audiences in Nigeria and across West Africa. The story centres on a community overwhelmed by violent crime and let down by an ineffective police force. When a vigilante group steps in to restore order, its success comes at the cost of operating outside the law. The…

Jul

14

2026

By ERIC KAWA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

How Sierra Leone’s traditional textiles are weaving a modern fashion economy

BEAUTY AND FASHION

INSIDE her Freetown studio, Frederica Williams – surrounded by a bustling floor of over 20 tailors and design assistants - displays a vibrant bolt of Krio Print fabric, explaining the cultural significance of its intricate motifs. As the founder of Just Fabulous Heritage and president of the Fashion Design and Textiles Association (FDTA), Williams views each garment as a strategic vehicle for a much larger mission: preserving Sierra Leone's rich cultural heritage while building a formal garment sector capable of creating jobs, reviving domestic cotton production, and tapping into lucrative export markets. “We've been working on rejuvenating traditional designs and…

Jul

13

2026

By OSMAN KARGBO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Young Gambian artist giving traditional printmaking new life

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IN a sunlit studio in The Gambia, layers of ink, carved linoleum and bold patterns draw on centuries of West African tradition while speaking to the realities of life today. Through her distinctive printmaking and mixed-media practice, Gambian artist Anna Isatou Bah is helping to revive traditional artistic techniques, preserve cultural heritage and introduce a new generation to the country's rich visual identity. Her work bridges past and present, using the language of traditional West African motifs and contemporary storytelling to explore culture, identity and social change. Ferenc Donderer, founder of the ART27 Group, posing for a photo. Photo: Supplied…

Jul

06

2026

By CATHY WILCOCK

The rhythms that broke Bashir: how Sudan’s music shaped a revolution

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE revolution in Sudan in 2019 has been eclipsed by the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, which began in April 2023. But the events of 2019 demand greater attention as they hold lessons for a post-war Sudan. Music was central to the protests in 2019. The camp outside military headquarters in Khartoum, where demonstrators gathered for weeks to demand civilian rule, became known as Sudan’s largest ever arts festival. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ep6iEa2_Wh0 Protesters sing along to one of the biggest anthems of the 2019 sit-in. My research on resistance movements has led me to believe that…

Jul

06

2026

By IVANN VODOHI FOR BIRD STORY AGENCY

Cherie Kihato is taking African craft to luxury markets

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

CHERIE Kihato steps outside the workshop, her eyes fixed on her phone. It's noisy; the shop is on Karen Road in Nairobi's Karen neighbourhood, a busy thoroughfare, but Kihato takes no notice. As a busy entrepreneur, she is scrolling through designs, responding to clients and keeping an eye on new opportunities. She's doing business in a fast-changing environment, not just locally but across the continent. And she needs to stay abreast of the changes. “I think we're at the age of the African Renaissance. I really do. There's never been a time before where positive eyes have been on Africa,…

Jul

03

2026

By TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU

Ulysses in isiZulu: why an African translation of the classic Irish novel matters in today’s world

LITERATURE

EVERY year on 16 June, readers around the world celebrate Bloomsday, the annual commemoration of Irish writer James Joyce’s landmark 1922 novel Ulysses. The date marks the single day on which the novel unfolds: 16 June 1904, when its protagonist, Leopold Bloom, wanders through the city of Dublin. What began as a literary observance has become a global celebration of reading. In 2026, the festivities in Johannesburg had a special South African quality to them. At the centre of the event was South African writer and translator Sandile Ngidi’s isiZulu rendering of the character Molly Bloom’s famous soliloquy, the concluding…

Jul

02

2026

By GRACE KHUNOU

Power, pleasure and patriarchy: why The Polygamist on Netflix is captivating viewers

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE Polygamist is a Netflix series that has soared up the streaming platform’s charts and triggered a global conversation about men who cheat in relationships. It tracks the fatal ruptures in what seems like a successful upper-class family, the Gomoras. Although the story plays out in South Africa, the series is adapted from Zimbabwean author Sue Nyathi’s self-published novella. It opens at the funeral of Jonasi Gomora, a self-made man and charismatic banking executive. Flashbacks reveal how his respectable and carefully constructed life falls apart when his social influencer wife Joyce finds out about his secret second wife, his mistress,…