CULTURE - The African Mirror

May

05

2026

By JOSHUA KUMBANI and MARGARITA DÍAZ-ANDREU

Rock art, dance and ritual: what we learned from paintings in Zimbabwe

CULTURE

ROCK paintings are found throughout Zimbabwe. They were made during the last 10,000 years by hunter-gatherer groups and later by farming communities. These came to the attention of the ERC Artsoundscapes project, based in Spain, in 2021. The project brings together experts in archaeology, ethnography, psychology, and acoustic engineering to explore how humans understood sound in prehistoric times. Our team has studied some of the rock art of South Africa in which dance scenes are depicted, and we have begun work on documenting and analysing similar rock art in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s rock paintings are concentrated in the country’s eastern provinces,…

Mar

16

2026

By The African Mirror

The voice that would not be silenced

CULTURE

DAWN had not yet broken over the lagoon villages of southern Ivory Coast when the drum spoke. Its voice - a low, rolling thunder that radiated outward through the tall grass, through sleeping households, through the morning mist - was not music. It was an alarm. It was a command. It was, depending on the moment, a matter of life and death. For the Atchan people, indigenous to what the French would later name Côte d'Ivoire, the Djidji Ayokwè - the Panther-Lion - was never merely an instrument. Stretching more than three metres in length and weighing nearly 400 kilograms,…

Jan

27

2026

By SAM-EZE CHIDERA IFEAKANWA

Heritage preservation through the eyes of a Nigerian cultural activist

CULTURE

IJEOMA Onyejekwe sat at The Village Bistro restaurant in Enugu with a plate of abacha served with fried fish and garden eggs. She sipped fresh palm wine from a wooden cup and noted the nsibidi ideograms etched on the window frames and the raffia mat ceiling. To the casual diner, the popular restaurant might present a rustic aesthetic, but for Onyejekwe, it represents a practical example of her work. The researcher views spaces like The Village Bistro as evidence of her professional philosophy: heritage that generates revenue is heritage that survives. "Culture is a lifestyle. It is our food, our…

Oct

15

2025

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

A digital makeover for Kenya’s cultural heritage

CULTURE

DURING the Magical Kenya Tourism Expo 2025 held in Nairobi early October, Kenya revealed plans to pivot toward digital heritage tourism, eyeing the world’s growing young and tech-savvy travellers. Among the plans is a Digital Heritage Centre, an immersive innovation that will use virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and other interactive technologies to bring Kenya’s cultural heritage to life. The centre will be hosted at the iconic 50-year-old Bomas Of Kenya, known for displaying traditional villages representing several Kenyan ethnic groups and is a home to one of the largest auditoriums in Africa. “At Bomas Of Kenya, we’ve been…

Oct

01

2025

By TIM FORSSMAN

Museum in a box: on the road with South Africa’s heritage

CULTURE

MUSEUMS are usually in cities. So, where transport is poor and it’s expensive to travel, many people can’t visit them. We decided to experiment with a way of getting around the problem: we built a travelling museum. I’m an archaeologist working in the Limpopo Valley, in the north of South Africa, studying hunter-gatherers and the rise of precolonial kingdoms. I am interested in how crafted goods and local wealth shaped social relations and became the pillars upon which the state society was built. Together with Justine van Heerden, I designed a mobile museum to share our research. It’s a sturdy,…

Sep

17

2025

By TOM MBOYA OLALI

Muslim ritual meets Swahili culture at Kenya’s unique annual maulidi festival

CULTURE

LAMU is a historic Swahili port town on an island off the northern coast of Kenya. Each year, it hosts the famous Lamu Maulidi Festival, a sacred Muslim celebration, planned this year for 17-18 September. People come from across the world to attend because in Lamu, maulidi (also known as mawlid) is unique. It’s a blend of cultures, and of pilgrimage, ceremony and carnival. Tom Mboya Olali has spent over 30 years researching the event. We asked him about its fascinating history. How do you describe the Lamu festival? In the Lamu archipelago, the mention of maulidi elicits an aura…

Feb

26

2025

By FISKE NYIRONGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

What is the Ncwala Ceremony? Experiencing a Zambian cultural extravaganza

CULTURE

IT’S 3:55 on a Friday morning at Lusaka’s Intercity Bus Terminus and at one exit a group of men looking more like runners waiting for the starting gun than bus drivers has congregated. Moments later, a rumbling of engines signals their “go" signal. The fleet of buses takes off, all heading for Zambia's Eastern Province. At least ten more buses remain behind, preparing for a later departure. The transport hub is always lively but to see so many fully-booked buses this early in the morning is rare. The throng of people queuing for seats continued to build, however, with some…

Jul

16

2024

By HARRIET OCHARO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

An African in Tokyo: Navigating the world’s most populous city

CULTURE

I moved to Tokyo five years ago, after graduating with a PhD in Information Science from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, a specialised research graduate school, in western Japan. I received a job offer from one of Japan’s top companies and I was happy to move to the big city, having spent close to 5 years in rural Japan. My path to Japan is followed by many fellow Africans. Many of us come to Japan on scholarships to pursue higher education. In 2013, I received the prestigious Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEXT) scholarship. The following…

Jun

15

2024

By BRETT D. MOLTER

Senegal has a rich history of traditional music – how it lives on in modern music

CULTURE

SENEGAL has a rich history of traditional music – and this lives on as it influences the West African country’s modern music today. As a cultural researcher, I set out to explore the social and cultural significance of both traditional and modern music in Senegal. I was able to interview 20 musicians, a mix of traditional and modern, who live and perform in the capital city of Dakar as well as other smaller cities and villages. I define modern Senegalese music as using modern, more Western instruments such as the electric and bass guitar, keyboard and drum set. Traditional Senegalese…

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

CULTURE

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…