ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

May

23

2026

African filmmakers are experimenting with AI as Hollywood debates its risks

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

WHEN 17-year-old Zara Sodangi earns admission to Nigeria’s most prestigious fictional tech academy, Makemation, her world suddenly shifts from survival in a poor Lagos neighborhood to the demanding universe of artificial intelligence, product design, and data analytics. The coming-of-age feature film follows the brilliant but financially struggling teenager as she navigates elite technology education, class barriers, and self-doubt while trying to transform her family's fortunes through innovation. But beyond the emotional storyline, 'Makemation' itself represents something larger now unfolding across African cinema. As filmmakers gathered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to debate whether generative artificial intelligence threatens the future…

May

20

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

South Africa throws a party for its soul – and the ancestors showed up too

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THERE is something wonderfully, gloriously South African about a national honours ceremony where the living share the stage - and the citation scrolls - with the dead. At Sefako Makgatho Guest House in Tshwane on Tuesday morning, President Cyril Ramaphosa presided over what amounted to a national reckoning with the country's creative conscience. Part investiture, part séance, part jazz festival in absentia, the 2026 presentation of National Orders reminded South Africans of something they periodically forget: this is a country of staggering, embarrassing, almost unreasonable cultural wealth. The ancestors, it must be said, were the stars of the show. Kippie…

May

19

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

From the studio to the stage of nation-building: Zakes Bantwini’s foundation is a gift to South Africa’s future

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THERE is a particular kind of greatness that does not rest at the summit. It turns around, looks down the mountain, and extends a hand. That is the image conjured by the official launch of the Zakes Bantwini Foundation - an event held last weekend at the Saxon Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg, that was years in the making but felt, in the moment, both urgent and overdue. Zakes Bantwini - Grammy Award-winning artist, producer, entrepreneur, and one of the defining architects of South African Amapiano and Afro-House on the global stage - has done something remarkable. He has chosen, at…

May

14

2026

By Mpho Rantao

The song of Maria McCloy

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IF there is a name associated with a city, it's Maria McCloy. Maria didn't just love Johannesburg, she breathed it; she was part of the heartbeat of the city. A child of Africa, growing up in Maseru, Lesotho, and Maputo, Mozambique, she wanted to create and curate a space of stories told from an African perspective. She did just that. If you needed information for a cultural event, wanted details on an artist, or a story about the city's latest cultural growth, Maria was the answer. As someone just over half her age, I saw McCloy as a gatekeeper of sorts…

May

14

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The last curtain call: A nation weeps for Alexx Ekubo

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE news did not creep in; it crashed. Like a furious harmattan wind sweeping through the market stalls of Lagos, the whisper turned into a wail on Tuesday, May 13, 2026. Alexx Ekubo, the dazzling light of Nollywood, had taken his final bow at just 40 years old. For a man who had been silent - his last Instagram post a ghost from December 2024, a relic from a time before his world quietly unravelled - the silence was now deafening. He had slipped away after an undisclosed illness, a battle fought in the shadows that the gossip pages never…

May

07

2026

By NIKITA HEAVEN, BIRD STORY AGENCY

A new rhythm for Kigali as rap takes the stage

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ANGELL Mutoni, known by her stage name as Angell, stands before a wall-length mirror in a rehearsal studio in Nyamirambo, running through the final lines of her performance. She looks confident and professional. Chin lifted, shoulders squared, eyes locked straight ahead. The verses spoken out loud land flawlessly. "I've been told that I look like I'm not nervous," she says. "But deep inside I am," she said, taking a break from the intense delivery. Nyamirambo is where Kigali generates its creative energy. The neighbourhood has produced some of Rwanda's sharpest rap talent, and Mutoni knows every corner of it. This…

May

06

2026

By MEL HERVE, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Lens Queen Breaking Barriers

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE roar inside the stadium rises and collapses in waves. On the sidelines, photographers adjust their positions as the ball moves fast across the pitch, their shutters clicking in bursts to keep up with the speed of the game. In the stands, young men are singing, blowing whistles, and dancing, their energy levels rising and falling with every attack and counterattack, turning the match into a dynamic wall of sound and colour. Among the photographers tracking the action from the edge of the pitch is Béatrice-Nicole Kouadio. Camera raised, body angled slightly forward, eyes moving before the play fully unfolds,…

Apr

27

2026

By The African Mirror

The king never left the stage

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

LET us begin with a confession. When Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba - the man the world knew simply as Papa Wemba - collapsed on the stage of the Festival des Musiques Urbaines d'Anoumabo in Abidjan on the evening of 24 April 2016, many in the crowd initially assumed it was part of the show. Because with Papa Wemba, you never quite knew. He was that good. He was that theatrical. He was, in the fullest and most literal sense of the word, extra. Ten years later, the Head of State of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi, made…

Apr

25

2026

By ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT

Ferre Gola brings the soul of Kinshasa to the City of Gold – and the continent holds its breath

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THERE is a sound that rises from the banks of the Congo River at dusk - a sound as wide and ancient as the river itself. It is the sound of rumba, of soukous, of guitars that seem to speak in tongues, of voices that carry grief and celebration in the same breath. For generations, that sound has defined the heartbeat of Central Africa. This May, it arrives in Johannesburg. Ferre Gola - Le Padre, the patriarch of a new Congolese golden age - will step onto a Joburg stage for the first time in his storied career. The date…

Apr

17

2026

By The African Mirror

Grammy-nominated R&B queen Tamia headlines Epic Women’s Month tour in South Africa

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

SMOOTH as Cape velvet and fierce as a Joburg sunrise, Grammy-nominated R&B superstar Tamia is set to set South African stages ablaze this August, headlining The Biggest Women’s Month Celebration Tour Experience - a glittering ode to sisterhood, soul, and unapologetic power. The tour’s itinerary is locked and loaded: 6 August at Grand Arena, GrandWest in Cape Town; 7 August at Durban ICC in KwaZulu-Natal; and 10 August at SunBet Arena, Time Square in Pretoria. Tamia, whose honeyed hits like "Officially Missing You" and "Imagination" have amassed billions of streams, promises a sensory explosion of live vocals, high-energy choreography, and…