ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

Nov

13

2023

Video: Award-winning sculptor gives modern voice to a tradition of Great Zimbabwe

ARMED with a small hammer and chisel, Dominic Benhura – a renowned Zimbabwean stone sculptor – meticulously carves a towering figure of a life-size animal from a piece of serpentine stone. As he chisels delicately, bits and pieces of sharp greyish stone fragments fall off to the ground, and a figure of a bison slowly takes shape. For him, sculpture is the ultimate reflection of physical reality, and one does not need to be a connoisseur to appreciate his dynamic art. "I started sculpting when I was four or five years [old] whilst moulding clay while herding cattle. But with…

Nov

12

2023

By SETH ONYANGO AND BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Africa’s creatives converge in Nairobi

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NAIROBI'S skies, a canvas of moody grays, occasionally part to let the sun toss a warming glance at the vibrant city below. This is the backdrop for a gathering of some of the continent’s most creative minds as Nairobi this week hosted the inaugural Africa No Filter Summit. Here, journalists, content creators, filmmakers, and a kaleidoscope of creatives convened armed with the power of multiple approaches seeking to drive alternative narratives seeking to redefine Africa's global image. Themed #AsWeAre, the summit was more than an event; rather, a movement celebrating the rich, nuanced stories of Africa. According to Moky Makura,…

Nov

11

2023

By The African Mirror

Nyege Nyege music festival in Uganda continues despite terror warnings – and with less pressure from morality police

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

FIRST staged in 2015, the globally touted Nyege Nyege Festival in Uganda is an annual four-day dance party featuring hundreds of deejays. It’s also a major tourism drawcard that caters to 15,000-odd lovers of electronic dance music. However, Nyege Nyege is most often in the headlines for creating controversy. Last year the event, the first after a three-year break due to COVID-19, nearly didn’t happen. Uganda’s parliament banned it – and not for the first time – on the grounds that it promoted “sexual immorality”. Eventually, the prime minister gave it the go-ahead. This year the festival, being held at…

Nov

11

2023

By The African Mirror

Kora: in search of the origins of west Africa’s famed stringed musical instrument

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

“HOW come we’ve never heard of this beautiful instrument until now?” This was posted by a first-year college student to my world music course discussion board recently. He voiced what many of his peers probably felt after watching the extraordinary documentary Ballaké Sissoko, Kora Tales. The film, available for free online, follows Sissoko, a world-class musical artist, from his home in Bamako, Mali to a sacred well and baobab tree in The Gambia on the Atlantic coast. In the film, the award-winning Sissoko revisits his childhood homeland and traces the origins of the instrument that became his destiny. ERIC CHARRY,…

Nov

10

2023

By TAKUNDA AARON CHIMUTASHU, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Amid industry challenges, film festivals offer vital support to female filmmakers

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

FOR award-winning Zimbabwean film producer, feminist activist, author and film festival organiser, Amanda Marufu, also known as Amanda Tayte-Tait, media revelations regarding the abuse of women in the industry come as no surprise. “People make snide comments almost implying you can't be good enough, you know, and then there's the whole boys club aspect where you meet a co-worker and suddenly they're hitting on you. You also get excluded from opportunities. There's one man who literally told me I can’t have a job if I have a baby, which led me to wonder if he would say anything of that…

Nov

07

2023

By MIKE SABURI, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Award-winning sculptor gives modern voice to a tradition of Great Zimbabwe

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ARMED with a small hammer and chisel, Dominic Benhura – a renowned Zimbabwean stone sculptor – meticulously carves a towering figure of a life-size animal from a piece of serpentine stone. As he chisels delicately, bits and pieces of sharp greyish stone fragments fall off to the ground, and a figure of a bison slowly takes shape. For him, sculpture is the ultimate reflection of physical reality, and one does not need to be a connoisseur to appreciate his dynamic art. "I started sculpting when I was four or five years [old] whilst moulding clay while herding cattle. But with…

Oct

31

2023

By The African Mirror

Shepherd Ndudzo’s celebrated sculptures tell an untold history of southern African art

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE work of award-winning Zimbabwe-born sculptor Shepherd Ndudzo is instantly recognisable. Fluid, elongated black bodies and body parts flow from white rock in a typical work. The bodies are dancing or praying, holding hands or reaching out. BARNABAS TICHA MUVHUTI, Rhodes University These figurative sculptures, carved out of stone (marble and granite) and wood (ironwood), were recently shown along with his abstract wooden sculptures (titled Seed) at the FNB Joburg Art Fair in South Africa by Botswana’s Ora Laopi contemporary art gallery and research project. The work by the artist (born in 1978) was displayed as a celebration of the…

Oct

28

2023

By The African Mirror

El Anatsui review: the great Ghanaian sculptor is the talk of London

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE international art world is celebrating the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui in London. On 9 October, a gigantic installation of three new works – Behind the Red Moon – opened at the Turbine Hall at the prestigious Tate Modern, displaying what Anatsui is most famous for: unique, large-scale sculptural hangings. AMUCHE NNABUEZE, Lecturer in Art and Researcher, University of Nigeria Behind the Red Moon is the 2023 Hyundai Commission, an annual exhibition where a globally important artist is invited to stage an installation at the gallery. The exhibition also kicked off the annual Frieze Week of art shows in the…

Oct

27

2023

By THANDO HLOPHE

South African violist tackles legacy of alcohol payments to labourers

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

A South African violist has used music and art to explore the painful legacy of how labourers at wineries in the Western Cape province were for centuries given wine as part of their payment, a practice known as "the Dop System." The system, which began at the time of slavery in the 17th century and persisted until the recent past despite attempts to abolish it, caused high rates of alcoholism among mixed-race workers who for historical reasons were the main labour force at the wineries. Violist Lynn Rudolph said they wanted to expose how the practice, introduced by Dutch colonialists and maintained…

Oct

24

2023

By The African Mirror

Community radio: young South Africans are helping shape the news through social media

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE number of South African internet users has nearly doubled in the past decade. One 2023 study of 45 developed countries suggests that South Africans even lead the world when it comes to the amount of time spent in front of screens, at 58.2% of the day. SISANDA NKOALA, Senior Lecturer, University of South Africa BLESSING MAKWAMBENI, Senior Lecturer in Communication Science, Cape Peninsula University of Technology TRUST MATSILELE, Lecturer in Journalism, Cape Peninsula University of Technology This digital transformation has significant implications for the country’s media. Particularly for newsrooms that want to engage online audiences in a time when…