ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

Apr

29

2023

South Africa’s hidden jazz history is being restored album by album

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IT'S fitting that Johannesburg is among 12 cities featured in the 2023 Unesco International Jazz Day, themed “jazz journey around the world”. The day, established in 2011 to celebrate the role of jazz in “uniting peoples across the globe”, is now marked annually on 30 April in close to 200 nations. It would have been hosted by Cape Town in 2020 had COVID-19 not intervened. Author GWEN ANSELL, Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science, University of Pretoria Even so, many jazz lovers elsewhere may be aware of the long history and uniqueness of South Africa’s jazz legacy through…

Apr

27

2023

By The African Mirror

Nollywood could see a major boost from Nigeria’s new copyright law – an expert explains why

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NIGERIA has finally updated its 2004 copyright law, bringing it into the digital era – where the entertainment industry has been for decades already. Before the late 1990s, it was difficult even to get telephone services in Nigeria. And it was very expensive for private enterprises to make films. Since then, digital technology has unleashed a multitude of ways to receive information and entertainment. Author SAMUEL SAMIAI ANDREWS, Professor, University of Gondar With the arrival of digital technology, all a filmmaker needed was a simple video recorder and a group of talented creatives. Thus modern Nollywood – the Nigerian film…

Apr

27

2023

By The African Mirror

Tender Photo: the newsletter that’s creating a new conversation about African photography

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NIGERIA'S Emmanuel Iduma is many things: writer, editor, publisher, critic and photographer. In 2022 he combined these skills to introduce a newsletter, Tender Photo, sent to subscribers twice a week. It has since become an important platform for African photographers, writers, critics and curators. Published on Substack, it has become so widely popular that it was a featured publication on the online newsletter support site. Author TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU, Junior Research Fellow, University of Oxford Iduma is the author of three books: I Am Still With You, a memoir on the Nigerian Civil War; A Stranger’s Pose, a travelogue; and The…

Apr

27

2023

By The African Mirror

Moffat Takadiwa’s landmark exhibition uses found materials to comment on Zimbabwe’s colonial hangover

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MOFFAT Takadiwa is a Zimbabwean artist famous for creating work from found materials. His exhibition Vestiges of Colonialism, curated by Fadzai Muchemwa, opened at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe on 16 March. This is the 40-year-old Takadiwa’s first solo show in Zimbabwe in a decade. Having exhibited around the globe, he’s best known for his sculptures made from consumer waste and urban residues such as toothbrushes, computer keyboards and cheap perfume bottles. Author LIFANG ZHANG, PhD candidate in Art History, Rhodes University As an art historian focusing on contemporary Zimbabwean art, I have been researching the artist’s work for the…

Apr

27

2023

By DORCAS BELLO AND SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

From notebooks to Netflix: Azzez Korede, the Nigerian filmmaker reimagining African folktales

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

"I started writing fiction stories at the age of ten. And even though I didn't continue, it was enough to help me understand I loved storytelling," says Azzez Korede, whose evocative short film, "Halima's Choice," launched on Netflix in March, after earning her a well-deserved place among the six victorious filmmakers of the groundbreaking 'African Folktales, Reimagined' competition. Despite thwarted ambitions to study theatre arts at university and a subsequent career in mass communication, Korede never gave up on her early storytelling ambitions, which began with stories penned in a personal notebook. And her subsequent career, it turned out, provided…

Apr

22

2023

By The African Mirror

Ghetto Kids: what’s behind the moves of the Ugandan dance troupe that stormed the world

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

A group of young dancers from Uganda, Triplets Ghetto Kids, went viral across the world when they earned the “golden buzzer” mid-performance on the TV show Britain’s Got Talent. The golden buzzer sends a shower of gold confetti onto the stage – sending the contestants straight through to the show’s final rounds – and it had never been pressed in the middle of a performance before. Author FRANCESCA NEGRO, Associate research scientist, Universidade de Lisboa In fact, the dance group have been an internet sensation for some years already. They dance with contagious positive energy to hit songs with steps…

Apr

22

2023

By GWLADYS FOUCHE

‘Art is continuous resistance’: Sudanese cartoonist draws to bring hope, truth

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IN his living room in Norway, while the TV broadcasts pictures of the violence back home in Khartoum, Khalid Albaih does what he has become known for in the Middle East and beyond: draw cartoons. His latest, entitled The Dog Fight, depicts the two main Sudanese foes, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, as dogs fighting over a piece of meat in the shape of Sudan. "Art is needed in times like this because it is important to show people art is about hope, art is about showing there is a different way to talk…

Apr

18

2023

By FIONA RAMSAY

Africans in World War 1: artist William Kentridge’s epic theatre production restores forgotten histories

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

SOUTH African artist William Kentridge became world famous for his charcoal drawings and hand-drawn animated films, but his work continued to grow in scope and he began staging performances. Today he also creates operas and collaborative stage productions combining numerous art forms. William Kentridge. Stella Olivier One of his largest productions to date, The Head & The Load, tells the forgotten stories of Africans in World War 1, who served mostly as porters for European armies on the continent. The production was first performed in London in 2018; its South African premiere was delayed by three years because of the…

Apr

15

2023

By The African Mirror

El Anatsui creates gigantic artworks from recycled materials – why the world fell in love with him

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE artist El Anatsui was born in Ghana and has spent the bulk of his career in Nigeria, but is a citizen of the world. News of a major new installation of his work coming to the prestigious Tate Modern gallery in London is just one in a string of major international exhibitions and awards in the past decade. Author AMUCHE NNABUEZE, Lecturer in Art and researcher, University of Nigeria The 79-year-old artist has become so renowned that in art circles his brand of work is a kind of art movement with its own name, Elism. His work is influenced…

Apr

11

2023

By The African Mirror

Winky D is being targeted by police in Zimbabwe – why the music star’s voice is so important

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

WINKY D, a 40-year-old Zimdancehall artist, is hugely popular in Zimbabwe. He’s also increasingly in the news for the messages in his songs, some of which address social injustice and corruption under a regime that stifles freedom of expression. There have been threats to ban his music and claims that his life is in danger. On 4 March 2023, during a concert in the city of Chitungwiza, police removed Winky D from the stage. He had just sung his latest hit, Ibotso, from his 12th album, Eureka Eureka. Videos shared online capture him being manhandled as he walks from the…