ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

Sep

29

2023

Queer film in Africa is rising – even in countries with the harshest anti-LGBTIQ+ laws

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, LGBTQIA+

A recent book, Queer Bodies in African Films, studies the growing LGBTIQ+ output from filmmakers around the continent, from Morocco to South Africa. In the process, it analyses what queerness is and means within the context of African countries. Its author, Gibson Ncube, is a lecturer and scholar who focuses his research on queerness in African cultural production – from literature to films. We asked him four questions. GIBSON NCUBE, Lecturer, Stellenbosch University Is there a growing queer representation in films from African countries? Yes, the last decade has seen a proliferation of these films. Nigeria’s Nollywood has produced a…

Sep

28

2023

By TATENDA KANENGONI, BIRD STORY AGENCY

This classical musician is using music as a force for life

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IT'S 48 hours before Thembani Mhambi is due to perform at the Securities Exchange Commission in Harare and the 39-year-old violinist has muted her social media as she mentally prepares for the event. “Every person we communicate with is giving us a part of themselves and taking a part of ours. If I want to give a good performance, where I leave the audience feeling like ‘she made us feel good’ then I have to do that. I cannot have negative energy.” said Mhambi who goes by the name ‘Adora Lee’ on stage. At the age of 13, while in…

Sep

28

2023

By EL TAYEB SIDDIG

Forced to flee war, Sudanese band spreads musical message

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ON a dusty plot in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, General Kidi and Ganja Farmer perform tracks and rap with hand-held mics as people in the audience clap, dance and ululate. The founders of the "Nuba Mountain Sound" band come from South Kordofan, a southern state long in rebellion against the government, and moved to the capital, Khartoum when former president Omar al-Bashir was overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. Four years later the musicians, part of a cultural scene that opened up after Bashir was ousted, found themselves on the move again after war erupted in…

Sep

27

2023

By The African Mirror

Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s powerful personal journey as a photographer in South Africa

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

LINDOKUHLE Sobekwa has been awarded South Africa’s 2023 FNB Art Prize. He becomes the first artist using documentary photography as his primary medium to win the prestigious competition. Born in Katlehong in 1995, Sobekwa began learning photography skills in 2012, through the Of Soul and Joy photography education programme in Thokoza township, where his family had moved. He knew, as a young boy, that he thought in images, visualising what he experienced. Encountering cameras, he realised there was equipment – a small machine, a perforated roll of clear plastic, and a chemical reaction – able to externalise his thought processes.…

Sep

22

2023

By The African Mirror

Somalia’s voice of hope: a tribute to Axmed Naaji, legendary singer and trailblazing composer

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

SOMALIS are natural-born critics, yet for over six decades, Axmed Naaji Sacad (Ahmed Naji Sa'ad) was almost unanimously revered. A household name in urban Somalia, the popular singer and poet has passed away at the age of 84 in London. Venerated as an elder of the country’s cultural life, Axmed Naaji Sacad Cali Naasir was not merely a singer, composer and musician who played guitar, lute, mandolin, piano and violin, he was also a radio host, playwright and a poet. MOHAMED HAJI INGIRIIS, Fellow, King's College London First known for his love songs like Garan Waaye (I Couldn’t Know), he…

Jul

12

2023

By The African Mirror

How an African collection of art in Canada is celebrated with care and community

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

A significant collection of traditional African art has had a home in Canada for almost a hundred years. At Agnes Etherington Art Centre, we are working on new, more hospitable practices of care for this collection. This means that we are attentive to the unmet needs of the collection and are taking responsibility for responding to these in ways that encourage community access and inclusion. QANITA LILLA, Associate Curator Arts of Africa, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Ontario We are located at Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ont., on the territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat, in a city…

Jul

12

2023

By NGOUDA DIONE and JOEL KOUAM

Senegal’s lone developer fights to revive photography with film

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

FROM a concrete jetty on Dakar's sun-baked coastline, Senegalese photographer Amy Saar clicked the shutter of her vintage Pentax camera, capturing the light of the horizon on colour film purchased from the country's only developer. "Dakar looks great with certain coloured films because they really bring out the warm, vibrant colours," Saar said, loading a fresh roll into the camera. "Film can be really great in Africa because in general, it’s sunny (and) very colourful.” Saar is part of a growing resurgence of analogue photography enthusiasts in Senegal, nurtured by Le Sel studio in the capital’s Ouakam neighbourhood. Founded two…

Jul

11

2023

By The African Mirror

The fascinating Cameroonian art of spider divination is on display at London exhibition

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

TOMÁS Saraceno In Collaboration: Web(s) of Life, which opened at London’s Serpentine South Gallery in June, explores how humans relate to spiders. It features installations of spider webs displayed and lit to be viewed as sculptures. There are also films: one made about Saraceno’s work with groups battling lithium mining in Argentina and another about spider diviners from Somié village in Cameroon. DAVID ZEITLYN, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford That’s where I came in. ?gam dù (the Mambila term for spider divination) is one of many types of oracle or divination used by Mambila people in Cameroon. It…

Jul

11

2023

By The African Mirror

Unicorns in southern Africa: the fascinating story behind one-horned creatures in rock art

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ONE-HORNED creatures are found in myths around the world. Although unicorns in different cultures have little to do with one another, they have multiple associations in European thought. For example, the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder wrote about unicorns in the first century AD. The unicorn features in both medieval Christian and Celtic beliefs and is Scotland’s national animal. The unicorn’s prominence in European culture spread across the globe with colonisation. DAVID M. WITELSON, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of the Witwatersrand In southern Africa, colonial European ideas encountered older indigenous beliefs about one-horned creatures. I’ve highlighted this in a…

Jul

06

2023

By The African Mirror

Dancing the blues away: Nigerian salsa teacher fights mental health stigma

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NIGERIA'S Emeka Adindu says salsa saved his life. Growing up in a country with a deep-rooted stigma against mental health issues, Adindu, 35, found solace in the popular Latin dance as he battled abuse, depression and suicidal thoughts. He now helps others do the same - with free dance classes in the capital city Abuja. "Salsa was the only thing that could make me smile all those days that I was battling, fighting with my demon," he says. A 2021 UNICEF report shows one in six Nigerians aged between 15 and 24 are depressed, anxious or have other mental health…