LIFESTYLE - The African Mirror

Sep

03

2025

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

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

30

2025

By TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU

African novels are being translated to English in a bold new trend. We review Ignatius Mabasa’s The Mad

LITERATURE

WHEN it comes to African literature, translation has mostly meant translating work from European languages into African ones. Translation from African languages into English has been long overdue. Now it appears that a shift in the movement of stories across languages is underway. Works first written and published in African languages are increasingly being translated into English for a broader readership. As a scholar of African literature and publishing, I am optimistic about the launch of a new book series called African Language Literatures in Translation by the University of Georgia Press. The series is edited by US-based literary scholars…

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

27

2025

By CAROLINE SÉQUIN

Sex workers in colonial Senegal were policed by France – book explores a racist history

LITERATURE

DESIRING Whiteness is an award-winning book by historian Caroline Séquin. It explores the intertwined histories of commercial sex work and racial politics in France and the French colonial empire, particularly in Senegal. We asked her five questions about her study. How was sex work regulated in France? A new system controlling commercial sex developed during Napoleon’s Consulate in the early 1800s. It was first implemented in Paris, then across France. Known as regulationism, it tolerated, rather than banned, commercial sex. But under specific conditions. It licensed brothels, so long as the women who sold sex (it was assumed men didn’t)…

Aug

25

2025

By The African Mirror

Hilda Baci’s gallant quest: Cooking the world’s largest pot of Jollof rice

LIFESTYLE

IN the vibrant heart of Africa’s culinary scene, a name has risen to global prominence—Hilda Baci. Known not only for her exceptional cooking skills but also for her unwavering determination, Hilda has become a symbol of passion and persistence. Having already etched her name into the annals of history by breaking the Guinness World Record for the Longest Cooking Marathon by an Individual in 2023, she is now preparing for an even more audacious feat: cooking the world’s largest pot of jollof rice on September 12. Jollof rice, a beloved West African dish bursting with rich flavors, spices, and heritage,…

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

23

2025

By PHOEBE RUNCIMAN

Wheelchair basketball: what can be learned from a South African athlete’s journey to France

LIFESTYLE

WHEELCHAIR basketball is one of the fastest-growing Para sports in the world. Over 100,000 athletes compete in national and international competitions and at the Paralympic Games and Commonwealth Games. In Africa, there are 26 national wheelchair basketball federations. But the level of support and resources available for athletes with disability (Para athletes) varies greatly between the global north and south, shaped by gaps in healthcare, infrastructure and policy. In African countries, the sport is often underfunded. In 2022, for example, South Africa’s sports and recreation budget was 15 times lower than France’s. Many Para sport athletes from the global south…

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

16

2025

By TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU

Abdulrazak Gurnah: searching for signs of Zanzibar’s most famous writer, all I found was trinkets and tourists

LITERATURE

ZANZIBAR has long been an island of arrivals for traders, sailors, slaves and, more recently, waves of tourists. I arrived as a wedding guest and a reader of the Zanzibar-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, in search of the literary and emotional landscapes that shape his fiction. For a week, I was part of the tourist economy of this East African island, passively complicit in its curated pleasures. For all its beautiful images on social media, Zanzibar is a site of difficult memory. It was once a central node in the Indian Ocean slave trade, so its past is carved into the…