CULTURE - The African Mirror

Apr

10

2024

By MAJDI FALEH, ASMA GHARBI and NOURCHEN BEN FATMA

Tunisia’s El Kef city is rich in heritage: centuries of cultural mixing give it a distinct identity

EL Kef is a city built into the southern face of Jebel Dyr mountain, which is linked to the High Atlas mountains in the north-western region of Tunisia that borders on Algeria. The breeze that sweeps off the mountain and through the city’s streets offers relief from the hot weather and becomes part of the identity of a city whose riches are little known to the rest of the world. El Kef is rarely on the list of tours organised for international visitors who flock to Tunisia every year to enjoy sunny beaches and local culture. The city’s magnificent natural…

Apr

10

2024

By Mpho Rantao

Fluence Africa Festival empowers micro creators

CULTURE

ACCORDING TO IT Web, the creator economy is set to top R 689 million by 2027. The social media landscape is witnessing a meteoric rise in the influencer marketing industry. This shift in consumer behaviour has opened a golden door for brands. Forecasts predict continued explosive growth in influencer marketing, with businesses projected to allocate a significant portion of their marketing budgets to partner with these social media stars. Fueled by the ever-growing user base on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, influencers are no longer just personalities, and brands have responded to the growth with projections of marketing budgets…

Nov

09

2023

By The African Mirror

My parents are from two different African countries: study shows how this shapes identity

CULTURE

MORE than a third of migration in sub-Saharan Africa happens within the continent. This mixing of people means that some children have parents of different national origins. Yet not enough is known about the lives of these children: how they form their identity and what impact migration has on them. The majority of research on second-generation African immigrants focuses on understanding their experiences in the global north. Our research looked at the less studied African context, where the majority of African migration occurs. We are sociologists who study migration and identity and we have seen that studies tend to take…

Sep

23

2023

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwean names are still haunted by the ghosts of colonialism

CULTURE

IN African cultures, the names given to children play an important role because they are often laden with meanings. As a team of professors of literature, linguistics and onomastics (the scientific study of names and naming practices) we have shown in our research that the names parents give their children at birth can help us make sense of many things, including a family’s heritage and events in history. TENDAI MANGENA, Professor of African Studies, University of Leeds Our most recent research paper analyses naming practices in Zimbabwe. It shows that Zimbabweans in the former British colony in southern Africa still…

Jul

11

2023

By The African Mirror

Belgium’s AfricaMuseum has a dark colonial past – it’s making slow progress in confronting this history

CULTURE

RACIST displays and stories remain on display in several western European museums. They include grotesque objects depicting African people as “savage” and “wild”. Narratives of a “continent without history” and fantasies of European superiority are still told in ethnographic museums, like the Humboldt Forum in Berlin and the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. JULIEN BOBINEAU, Assistant Professor, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena These museums have been criticised by scholars and activists since the 1970s. Their handling of objects looted during the colonial period, especially from Africa, is seen as an indicator of the political relations between Europe and African nations. Criticism ranges…

Apr

28

2023

By The African Mirror

Slavery’s historical link to marriage is still at play in some African societies

CULTURE

GOVERNMENTS and religious institutions regulate marriage. Such regulations are heavily laden with specific moral ideas and cultural taboos. There are heated debates around what counts as “proper” marriage: should polygamy or monogamy be preferred? What should be the minimal age for marriage? Despite these debates, all contemporary societies see marriage as a sacrosanct institution that deserves legal protection. Not so slavery. Author BENEDETTA ROSSI, Professor of History, UCL Today slavery is abolished in all countries. But 250 years ago various forms of slavery would have been legal on all continents. During the period of legal slavery, marriage and slavery were…