ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

Jul

18

2026

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

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

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,…

Jun

30

2026

By STEPHANIE VOS

Abdullah Ibrahim in the 1960s: how the famous pianist began to shape an African jazz sound

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE 1960s are a significant era in Abdullah Ibrahim’s story. It’s a time when the South African master’s international career as a jazz pianist was gradually established and he laid the foundations for the signature sound that is recognised today as people reflect on his passing. He is best remembered for evoking soundscapes that are recognisably South African: harmonisations of church hymns, Cape Town’s ghoema rhythms and Islamic calls to prayer. His delivery in performance was characterised by a sophisticated simplicity and spaciousness. This musical turn is mimicked by a spiritual one that culminated in his conversion to Islam and…

Jun

26

2026

By The African Mirror Entertainment Desk

Nasty C, Skwatta Kamp and DJ Tira set Constitution Hill alight as Basha Uhuru turns 50 years of freedom into one giant street party

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THERE are festivals, and then there is Basha Uhuru - the one day a year when Constitution Hill, the very fortress that once locked up the country’s freedom fighters, throws open its gates and lets the youth of South Africa turn its courtyards into a dancefloor. On Saturday, 27 June, the 14th edition of the Sounds of Freedom Music Festival lands at the People’s Park from 10 am, and organisers promise it will run hot well into the early hours - a fitting, full-throttle finale to four days of music, memory and youth-powered mayhem. Headlining the main stage is a…

Jun

18

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

The Nollywood plot nobody wrote: a Nigerian artist, the Obamas, and a wall that lasts forever

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

LET’S get the obvious joke out of the way first: somewhere in Lagos right now, a Nollywood scriptwriter is kicking themselves for not thinking of this plot first. Nigerian girl, daughter of a formidable public servant, grows up, moves to Los Angeles, becomes one of the most sought-after painters on the planet, and then gets handed the single most coveted commission in contemporary American portraiture - immortalising Barack and Michelle Obama, forever, in their own museum, for free entry, for everyone. Fiction couldn't have written it better. Reality, this week, did. On June 14th in Chicago, Njideka Akunyili Crosby -…

Jun

19

2026

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

After Showmax, MTN tests telecom-led distribution as Africa’s streaming wars intensify

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE battle for Africa’s streaming market is increasingly being fought beyond content libraries and into distribution systems and payment infrastructure. MTN Group has recently launched MTN One TV, a new entertainment proposition combining live television, local storytelling, international programming, and flexible viewing models across African markets. “MTN One TV is more than just another streaming platform entering a competitive market,” Chomba Victoria Mkasanga, founder of AFRO Magazine, said in an exchange with bird story agency. It represents a broader shift in how African companies are approaching content ownership, distribution, and digital ecosystems,” she added. She also noted the entry of…

Jun

19

2026

By FINLEY MARANGA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

She left TV to build an animation dream

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ON Saturday mornings growing up in Kenya, Mary Wanjiku would settle in front of the television to watch cartoons such as Johnny Bravo and Ed, Edd n Eddy. Like many children, she was captivated by the stories unfolding on screen. Unusually, perhaps, she also spent years wondering how they were made. The universe that made up her cartoon world seemed distant and unattainable. "It seemed like magic," she says. "I didn't know how people made cartoons. It felt like a dream that was very far away." Today, Wanjiku is one of the people creating that magic. The 30-year-old producer is…