ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

Aug

23

2025

How Nollywood films help Kenyan housemaids make sense of their lives

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NOLLYWOOD, Nigeria’s prolific video-film industry, has been popular in Kenya since it was introduced to East Africa at around the turn of the century. These low-budget, high-output films and TV series immediately struck a chord with ordinary people in lower-income brackets. Although new Nollywood productions can be slick, high-budget affairs, the bulk are not about high production values. They’re about real-life stories and social issues that are easy to relate to. At first, Nollywood films were screened in informal video halls in poorer Kenyan communities, offering a unique going-to-the-movies experience. But in the first decade of the new millennium, TV…

Aug

16

2025

By GARHE OSIEBE

Fela and food: how Lagos restaurants are serving up the music star’s legacy

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

In LAGOS, Nigeria’s commercial and creative capital, food is doing something unusual. It’s keeping alive the spirit of a musician. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, one of Africa’s most influential artists, was the architect of Afrobeat (not to be confused with today’s Afrobeats, which was born from it). Fela pioneered his politically charged, musically expansive sound in the early 1970s by blending jazz, highlife, funk and Yoruba rhythms. He paired these with lyrics that took aim at corruption, oppression and postcolonial disillusionment. His songs were as much rallying cries as they were works of art. Today, dishes named after Fela’s protest anthems –…

Aug

16

2025

By SALIM WASHINGTON

Kippie Moeketsi’s global influence: what made the South African saxophonist so great

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ONE of the most influential artists in South Africa’s rich history of jazz is Kippie Moeketsi. He was born on 27 July 2025 and passed away at only 57. Like Moeketsi, Salim Washington plays the saxophone and composes jazz. As a professor of global jazz studies, he also teaches students about Moeketsi’s work and researches South African jazz. As part of our coverage of Moeketsi’s centenary, we asked him about the music behind the man. Who was Kippie Moeketsi? Kippie Moeketsi was born Jeremiah Morolong Moeketsi on 27 July 1925. He was a jazz virtuoso, a modernist, and a cultural…

Aug

12

2025

By The African Mirror

Basketball Africa League documentary to premiere at Toronto Film Festival

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

A documentary examining the Basketball Africa League's inaugural season will make its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, marking the first comprehensive look at the NBA's ambitious expansion into African professional basketball. "Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League," directed by Richard Brown and Tebogo Malope, documents the creation of the 12-team professional league that represents the NBA's first collaboration to operate a basketball league outside North America. The BAL operates in partnership with FIBA and features the continent's top club teams competing in a season-long tournament culminating in playoffs among the top…

Aug

02

2025

By ESTHER MUSEMBI, BIRD STORY AGENCY

bird TenX: 10 promising animation studios in Africa

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, MULTIMEDIA

1. Triggerfish Animation Studios - South AfricaArguably the biggest and best-known animation studio in Africa, Triggerfish is home to renowned projects such as Kizazi Moto, which put Africa on the map in terms of high-quality and well-scripted animations. Triggerfish Studios is known for its visually innovative animation that speaks to the heart of Africa through its relatable storytelling. Other successful animated films produced by the studio include "Zambezia," “Adventure Time: Distant Lands,” and “Khumba.” For its pioneering work, the studio won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for "The Lost Thing" in 2011. 2. Creatures Animation Studio -…

Jul

30

2025

By GWEN ANSELL

Kippie Moeketsi at 100: the soul-stirring story of a South African jazz legend

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IT’S 100 years since the birth of reedman Jeremiah Morolong “Kippie” Moeketsi on 27 July 1925. He was one of the most influential saxophonists shaping South Africa’s modern jazz style. His death in poverty in 1983, when Black jazz in South Africa remained undervalued outside its community, meant his cultural legacy is only just coming into the light, and there is still no definitive biography. As a researcher and commentator on South African jazz history, I’ve written about the biographical landmarks of his life. A hundred years ago, South Africa was a British-ruled colonial state. Many of the race-based socio-economic…

Jul

25

2025

By TODD PEZZUTI

What makes a person cool? Global study has some answers

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

FROM Lagos to Cape Town, Santiago to Seoul, people want to be cool. “Cool” is a word we hear everywhere – in music, in fashion, on social media. We use it to describe certain types of people. But what exactly makes someone cool? Is it just about being popular or trendy? Or is there something deeper going on? In a recent study I conducted with other marketing professors, we set out to answer a simple but surprisingly unexplored question. What are the personality traits and values that make someone seem cool – and do they differ across cultures? We asked…

Jul

24

2025

By VELMA PAMELA, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Sea shells inspire creative enterprise on Kenya’s coast

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, MULTIMEDIA

IN a modest studio in Bofa, Kenya’s Kilifi County, workers clean and sort sea shells. Unfinished mirror frames sat on one table, while strands of shell earrings adorned another. There was no expensive machinery—only glue guns, sketchy sketches, and time. Pieces came together gradually, sometimes over the course of a few days. The work was systematic and labour-intensive. It may not have looked like much, but it has created jobs in unexpected ways. Kenya's coastline spans along the Indian Ocean, connecting historic settlements: Lamu, Mombasa, and Kilifi. For centuries, the region was part of the Indian Ocean trade routes that…

Jul

23

2025

By MARIAPAOLA MCGURK

Johannesburg’s creative hubs are booming: how artists are rejuvenating a failing inner city

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

JOHANNESBURG is weathering a storm of crises. Nowhere is its complex tangle of challenges more visible than in the inner city, where crime, overcrowding, and infrastructure collapse – such as roads literally exploding – paint a grim picture. Cultural institutions haven’t been spared either, with long-standing landmarks like the Johannesburg Art Gallery caught in cycles of neglect and crisis. Yet, while many avoid the inner city or speak only of its decline, the creative and cultural practitioners of Johannesburg never left. In fact, artists, architects, fashion designers, animators, musicians and the like have been hard at work. They’re building, dreaming…

Jul

19

2025

By TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU

Chimamanda’s Lagos homecoming wasn’t just a book launch, it was a cultural moment

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

WHEN the announcement of Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi’s latest novel, Dream Count, was made, it was regarded as a major event in African literature. The internationally celebrated Nigerian writer had not published a novel in the past 12 years, and her long-awaited return stirred both anticipation and speculation. In the post-COVID context in which the book comes, so much has changed in the world. The first leg of her three-city homecoming book tour coincided with my stay in Lagos as a curatorial fellow at Guest Artist Space Foundation, dedicated to facilitating cultural exchange and supporting creative practices. After Lagos, Chimamanda took…