ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

Jul

27

2024

Toumani Diabaté: the famed musician from Mali who took the kora to the world

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE world has lost a significant musical ambassador for the Mande people of West Africa – the virtuoso kora player, composer, and collaborator from Mali, Toumani Diabaté. He died on 19 July, just short of his 59th birthday, at the peak of his career. When Toumani was born in Bamako in 1965, neither his surname Diabaté nor his instrument, the kora, an iconic 21-stringed African harp, was familiar to anyone outside the Mande region. By the time Toumani passed, his father Sidiki Diabaté Sr had been known as “the king of the kora” and Toumani himself was world-famous, representing the…

Jul

27

2024

By IBRAHEEM ADESINA KUKOYI

Nigeria’s Ojude-Oba festival celebrates heritage with colourful parades and horsemanship: how it could be used to attract tourists

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE Ojude-Oba festival is a vibrant annual celebration that has become an integral part of the identity of Ijebu-Ode, a city in south-west Nigeria. This colourful event, famous for its cultural displays and public parades, has been observed for nearly two centuries. Though the festival had its origin in Islam, it brings together people from all walks of life, regardless of their religious beliefs. At its core, the Ojude-Oba festival is a grand homage-paying ceremony to the Awujale, the king of the Ijebu people. The earliest documented reference to the Ijebu kingdom is a Portuguese source of late 15th-century context.…

Jul

13

2024

By MBALI MAZIBUKO

Brenda Fassie’s 1997 hit song Vulindlela still raises questions about South Africa as a nation

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IN 1997, South Africa’s most famous music star had a huge hit. Brenda Fassie’s Vulindlela became a national pop anthem, played especially at weddings and celebrations. Vulindlela can be loosely translated from the Zulu language as an instruction to “make way” or, if you like, “clear the path”. The song is about making way for the groom (and bride) at their wedding. In 1997 South Africa was emerging from the racist apartheid system and was celebrating its own “wedding” across the colour bar after democratic elections in 1994. Apartheid and its policy of separate development for different ethnic groups made…

Jun

28

2024

By PHENDU KUTA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Telling African stories through African spaces, Bheki Dube is revolutionising inner-city African hospitality

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

SITUATED in the creative hub of Maboneng and capturing Johannesburg's vibrant urban culture with its bike-friendly outdoor spaces, a pool, a bar, a rooftop and a spacious common area for creative and engaging experiences, it would seem only fitting that Curiocity Joburg, the flagship hotel for Curiocity Africa and one of a chain of city hotels, would provide a hybrid offering to appeal to digital nomads, the local startup scene and local and international tourists, alike. Yet, when founder Bheki Dube created Curiocity Africa, hybrid hotels were virtually unheard of on the continent. Hotels that blend the traditional hotel model…

Jun

25

2024

By VALMONT LAYNE

Goema superstar: how composer Mac McKenzie reshaped the sound of Cape Town

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

GERALD “Mac” McKenzie passed away on 29 April 2024. He will be remembered as a renegade spirit and innovator in South African music. The composer and bassist changed Cape Town’s goema music tradition forever. Growing up in the city’s carnival culture, he helped form The Genuines, combining styles like rock, punk, classical and jazz with the music of his childhood. Valmont Layne has studied Cape Town’s music history, including McKenzie’s contribution. We asked him three questions. Firstly, what is goema? The word describes a musical style from Cape Town that’s linked to the city’s slave heritage and to the drum…

Jun

20

2024

By BONFACE ORUCHO AND FISKE NYIRONGO

bird TenX: Top African skit makers

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE rise of skit-making in Africa underscores the depth of the continent’s digital revolution. With over 526 million internet users in 2021, Africa has seen a surge in content creators harnessing social media’s vast reach. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok serve as stages for skit makers to showcase their talent, in some cases resulting in viral fame and even fortune. Skit-making also adds substantially to the bottom line of Africa’s creative sector. Projected to reach US$12 billion by 2025 in East, West and Southern Africa alone, the sector is increasingly driven by online video content. Skit makers stimulate job…

Jun

20

2024

By IAN-MALCOLM RIJSDIJK

Mother City: a tough, passionate film about the battle for affordable housing in Cape Town

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

A third of the way into Mother City there’s a scene that characterises this tough, passionate film about Cape Town and its paradoxes of beauty and hardship, wealth and poverty, and the way it excludes the working poor. Two women talk in a room, while one has her hair braided in anticipation of a celebration. They are occupants in the former Helen Bowden Nurses Home, an abandoned building near the South African city’s elite Waterfront precinct. The right half of the frame looks through the open window over the sea, where a luxury yacht cruises past. “How can they ever…

Jun

19

2024

By PHENDU KUTA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Visual artist Bambo Sibiya celebrates everyday women in “Ngemva Kokuqubuka – After Precarity

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

INSPIRED by his single mother, who raised three children while working as a domestic worker, visual artist Bambo Sibiya has framed her as a superhero for his solo exhibition, “Ngemva Kokuqubuka – After Precarity.” Sibiya’s exhibition, currently showing at Circa Gallery in Johannesburg from June 1 to July 27, is an ode to the beauty, dignity, and strength of everyday women, representing them in a regal manner and challenging societal constructs of power and status. The exhibition includes deconstructed garments as part of the overall showcase, adding a tangible dimension to the visual narrative. Before crafting the artwork, Sibiya designed…

Jun

15

2024

By Mpho Rantao

South African film ‘Face Deep’ exposes the lies in the hunt for love.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

The South African thriller film 'Face Deep' delves into the deception and betrayal often found in the pursuit of love. Directed by Vuyani Bila and produced by Mathabo Bila, the independently made movie tackles themes of love, trust, secrets, and family that resonate with audiences both online and in real life. The film introduces us to the picturesque lives of lovebirds Luna (Lerato Makala) and her older partner Noah (Phillip Tindisa), enjoying their bubble of love. When Noah’s estranged daughter Bonnie (Mohau Sonny) arrives and cracks their bubble, and with Bonnie come a lot of secrets as she reconnects with…

Jun

14

2024

By JEN SNOWBALL

South Africa’s biggest arts festival turns 50 – we assess its impact

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE National Arts Festival was established in 1974 in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Each year, in winter, the rural town transforms into a hive of theatres, galleries, markets and eating spots. South Africa’s longest-running festival has lived through and reflected a turbulent history: from the height of the racist apartheid system and the advent of democracy to life today in what remains a deeply unequal society. How does one assess the impact of a festival like this? Jen Snowball is a cultural economist who’s set out to answer that question. She’s also the co-founder of…