ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

Sep

06

2025

God and Nollywood: how Pentecostal churches have shaped Nigerian film

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IN Nigeria today, one doesn’t have to attend a church service to hear a sermon. The pulpit has moved – onto screens, into living rooms, and across YouTube. Along with this shift, a fascinating genre has emerged: Nigerian evangelical cinema. These films blend entertainment with Pentecostal spirituality, turning prayers into special effects and spiritual battles into dramatic storylines. This transformation is not accidental. It reflects a wider trend in which religion and media intersect to shape how Nigerians – and increasingly, Africans in the diaspora – understand the spiritual world. As a media scholar, I have been researching the Nigerian…

Sep

06

2025

By ROBIN STEEDMAN; ANA ALACOVSKA; RASHIDA RESARIO, THILDE LANGEVANG

Ghana’s films don’t often make it to Netflix – local solutions may be the answer

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

AFRICAN filmmakers have long faced challenges in securing wide-scale distribution for their films. In this context, digital platforms such as Netflix and YouTube have been hailed as bringing huge new opportunities. This optimism in filmmaking resonates with the hype digital technologies more generally have had in Africa. They have been seen to offer almost unlimited opportunities for African entrepreneurs to transform and grow their businesses. Ghana’s communication minister, for example, declared in 2017, “it’s Digitime in Ghana”. We are researchers in film studies, theatre studies, sociology and geography, and in this study, we set out to understand how platforms were…

Sep

03

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Africa’s creative renaissance takes centre stage as Art Joburg returns for landmark 18th year

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, MULTIMEDIA

IN the heart of Africa's economic capital, a cultural revolution is quietly reshaping the continent's artistic landscape. This weekend, the Sandton Convention Centre transforms into the epicentre of contemporary African art as FNB Art Joburg opens its doors for the 18th consecutive year, cementing its position as Africa's premier contemporary art fair. The significance extends far beyond gallery walls. As African art gains unprecedented global recognition – with works by contemporary African artists breaking auction records and major international museums expanding their African collections – Art Joburg has emerged as the critical launchpad connecting African creativity to worldwide markets. "Johannesburg…

Aug

29

2025

By The African Mirror

When love conquers continents: Africa celebrates Taylor Swift’s engagement

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

The Moment That United a Continent TAYLOR Swift and Travis Kelce confirmed in a joint Instagram post on August 26, 2025, that they are engaged. As the news rippled across the globe, nowhere was the celebration more vibrant than across the African continent, where millions of Swifties erupted in joy. From the bustling streets of Lagos to the townships of Cape Town, from the highlands of Nairobi to the markets of Accra, a collective cheer rose up. This wasn't just celebrity news - this was a moment that touched the hearts of African fans who had been following this love…

Aug

23

2025

By SOLOMON WALIAULA

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…