LIFESTYLE - The African Mirror

May

09

2023

Children’s book revolution: how East African women took on colonialism after independence

LITERATURE

AS independence from British colonial rule swept across East Africa in the early 1960s and freedom was won in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, parents and teachers worried about what their children were reading. Most children’s books on the market were dominated by European writers like Enid Blyton. One of Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiongo’s most stringent criticisms of colonialism was the explosive effect of this “cultural bomb” in the classroom, as missionaries taught African students Western cultures and foreign histories. This, according to Kenyan publisher Henry Chakava, was producing a new breed of black Europeans, who began to despise their…

May

05

2023

By The African Mirror

Accra: the Ga people’s annual ban on noise restores a spiritual connection with the sea

LIFESTYLE

ACCRA, Ghana’s capital, is a noisy cosmopolitan city of almost three million people. Its active nightlife, commercial markets and factories create a deafening mix of sound trails day and night. These synthetic sounds have practically drowned out the natural everyday sounds of Accra. And the most important of these is the steady drone sound of the sea, now usually subdued to a mere background hush. Author LARYEA AKWETTEH, Assistant lecturer, University of Ghana As the local Ga people say, Ga efee hoo (“Accra has become noisy”). The Ga, who are made up of Ga Mashie, Osu, La, Teshie, Nungua, Tema,…

May

02

2023

By The African Mirror

Ethiopians savour first night of annual ‘Addis Jazz Festival’

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

YOUNG Ethiopians packed into the compound of the Swedish embassy in Addis Ababa to savour an "Ethio Jazz" performance, an annual festival that celebrates Ethiopia's love for the musical genre. On a neon-lit stage in the country's capital, artists played various Ethiopian jazz music pieces as hundreds of revellers danced, mimed and quaffed beer to celebrate the second edition of the so-called Addis Jazz Festival (AJF). AJF debuted in 2019 and was conceived as a platform to promote Ethiopian jazz as well as to bring international jazz to Ethiopia. The event is the brainchild of Muzikawi, an Ethiopian music and…

Apr

30

2023

By SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Billionaire collectors set their sights on Africa’s art

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

AFRICA'S fine art market is emerging from obscurity, fueled by a surge of demand from international and, increasingly, local collectors. According to the Africa Wealth Report 2023, published by Henley & Partners with New World Wealth, the continent's fine art market is valued at just over US$1.8 billion as of December 2022. The figure indicates the annual combined value of artworks traded at auction, highlighting art as a symbol of social status and luxury and a promising investment opportunity. Works by African artists such as Irma Stern, El Anatsui and Ben Enwonwu are especially popular among art collectors worldwide. "Irma…

May

02

2023

By The African Mirror

Amma Darko uses fiction to portray the real plight of women and street children in Ghana

LITERATURE

AMMA Darko is one of Ghana’s leading novelists, known for exploring gritty social issues and the lives of women. There is much to be unearthed in the childhood narrative of deprivation and danger that she tackles in her 2003 work Faceless. Authors PULENG SEGALO, Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair, University of South Africa THERESAH PATRINE ENNIN, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Cape Coast Faceless is the story of an investigation into the death of a young girl called Baby T, a child sex worker whose naked body is found dumped behind a marketplace, beaten and mutilated. During the progression…

Apr

29

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s hidden jazz history is being restored album by album

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IT'S fitting that Johannesburg is among 12 cities featured in the 2023 Unesco International Jazz Day, themed “jazz journey around the world”. The day, established in 2011 to celebrate the role of jazz in “uniting peoples across the globe”, is now marked annually on 30 April in close to 200 nations. It would have been hosted by Cape Town in 2020 had COVID-19 not intervened. Author GWEN ANSELL, Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science, University of Pretoria Even so, many jazz lovers elsewhere may be aware of the long history and uniqueness of South Africa’s jazz legacy through…

Apr

29

2023

By The African Mirror

Guinea book festival hopes to turn the page on low literacy rate

LITERATURE

SOULEYMANE CAMARA GUINEA'S national sports stadium buzzed with people seeking a different kind of workout this week, as minds flexed and stretched in pursuit not of muscle gains, but literary enrichment. The 15th edition of Guinea's "72 Hours of the Book" festival unfolded in venues across the capital Conakry, bringing together a wide array of writers, publishers, and readers from the West African country and across the continent. The annual three-day event is aimed at celebrating books and promoting literacy in a nation where over half the population is illiterate, according to World Bank figures, and access to libraries is…

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…

Apr

27

2023

By The African Mirror

Nollywood could see a major boost from Nigeria’s new copyright law – an expert explains why

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NIGERIA has finally updated its 2004 copyright law, bringing it into the digital era – where the entertainment industry has been for decades already. Before the late 1990s, it was difficult even to get telephone services in Nigeria. And it was very expensive for private enterprises to make films. Since then, digital technology has unleashed a multitude of ways to receive information and entertainment. Author SAMUEL SAMIAI ANDREWS, Professor, University of Gondar With the arrival of digital technology, all a filmmaker needed was a simple video recorder and a group of talented creatives. Thus modern Nollywood – the Nigerian film…

Apr

27

2023

By The African Mirror

Tender Photo: the newsletter that’s creating a new conversation about African photography

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NIGERIA'S Emmanuel Iduma is many things: writer, editor, publisher, critic and photographer. In 2022 he combined these skills to introduce a newsletter, Tender Photo, sent to subscribers twice a week. It has since become an important platform for African photographers, writers, critics and curators. Published on Substack, it has become so widely popular that it was a featured publication on the online newsletter support site. Author TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU, Junior Research Fellow, University of Oxford Iduma is the author of three books: I Am Still With You, a memoir on the Nigerian Civil War; A Stranger’s Pose, a travelogue; and The…