LIFESTYLE - The African Mirror

Aug

12

2025

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

05

2025

By ALESSANDRO ARDUINO

Drones, disinformation and guns-for-hire are reshaping conflict in Africa: new book tracks the trends

LITERATURE

ALESSANDRO Arduino has researched Africa’s security affairs with a particular focus on the use of private military companies and other guns-for-hire across the continent. In his latest book, Money for Mayhem, Arduino examines how military privatisation intersects with international power dynamics. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews and firsthand data, he tracks actors from Russia, China and the Middle East to explore how they profit from instability across Africa. What war trends did you identify in your book? In Money for Mayhem, I chart the rise of mercenaries, private military companies and hackers-for-hire, alongside emerging technologies like armed drones. Nowhere does this…

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 -…

Aug

02

2025

By TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU

A university bookshop in Ibadan tells the story of Nigeria’s rich publishing culture

LITERATURE

DRIVEN by a desire to explore Nigeria’s literary and cultural history beyond the metropolis of Lagos, I took a road trip to Ibadan, once the most important university town in the country. Ibadan, in Oyo State, was the first city in Nigeria to have a university set up in 1948. Ibadan is where the Mbari Club once gathered, an experimental space where Nigerian writers, artists and thinkers – among them Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, JP Clark, Christopher Okigbo, Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Mabel Segun and South Africa’s Es'kia Mphahlele – met, debated and dreamed in the 1960s and 70s. It’s…

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

26

2025

By MARY MUNDEYA

African content creators are redefining travel

TRAVEL, MULTIMEDIA

KIMORA Smith Mensah is a Ghanaian travel storyteller and tour guide known as Efyakimora on TikTok, where she has more than 100,000 followers. Her journey is rooted in a deep curiosity about Africa and a mission to inspire others to explore it. For Mensah, food has become a vibrant entry point into understanding culture. “When I started exploring, I also started trying new things, especially food. I love it,” she explained. “Culture isn’t just about dance or tradition, it’s also about what people eat and how they eat it. Respecting culture means respecting food.” She recommends following social media content…

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

17

2025

By ELIZABETH ANGIRA

East Africa’s fashion identity emerges, spurred by integration policies

BEAUTY AND FASHION

“EVERY fabric I use has crossed a border, carrying culture, craft, and connection,” remarked fashion designer Mary Wamboi. Wamboi received a shipment of earthy Ugandan bark cloth just hours after the arrival of a consignment of vibrant Tanzanian kanga fabrics. The fabrics, along with an order of Kenyan Maasai beads, are for her latest connection. She described the clothes that she makes as “East African stories.” “We are building something bigger than ourselves,” she says, “This isn’t just about fashion, it is about who we are as a region.” Wamboi exemplifies the burgeoning cross-border collaboration among players in the East…