LIFESTYLE - The African Mirror

Mar

29

2023

Africa music revenues record over 30% growth

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

BIRD STORY AGENCY THE viral nature of African tunes is not only creating a broader audience for African artists but also unleashing an unprecedented revenue boom. The fastest-growing market region in 2022 was Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report. Growth in the region, which recorded a 34.7% rise in music sales, was largely driven by a booming music market in South Africa, where sales were up by more than 30% year-on-year. This is according to a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents over 8000 record company members worldwide, including all three major labels,…

Mar

16

2023

By The African Mirror

Toyin Falola: 3 recent books that explain the work of Nigeria’s famous decolonial scholar

LITERATURE

TOYIN Falola, distinguished professor of history, is one of Africa’s most accomplished intellectuals. Born Oloruntoyin Falola in 1953 in the Nigerian city of Ibadan, he grew up in a sprawling, polygamous household that practised Islam, Christianity and ancient Yoruba spirituality. Author SANYA OSHA, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town This confluence of multiple worldviews and religions reflects in his thinking and in his massive academic output. Falola has produced something like 200 books in all areas of the human and social sciences and travels widely to deliver lectures at conferences and public events. Africa…

Mar

24

2023

By The African Mirror

Bowscapes review: album celebrates new traditions in South Africa’s ancient bow music

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MUSICAL bows are among the oldest instruments in southern Africa. Musicologists think the “ping” a bowstring makes when an arrow is released inspired early hunters (as far back as the Khoi and San nations) to use it for music-making in ritual and, later, other contexts. Author GWEN ANSELL, Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science, University of Pretoria The passing, in 2022, of South Africa’s bow virtuoso Latozi “Madosini” Mpahleni reminded South Africans of traditional bow music’s significance in the region’s intangible cultural heritage. When you pluck, strike or stroke the string of a musical bow, you get not…

Mar

29

2023

By The African Mirror

Ghana’s plan for a grand new national cathedral is controversial – but will it attract pilgrims and tourists?

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

FREDERICK DAYOUR and FRANCIS KOFI ESSEL THE building of Ghana’s spectacular $400 million national cathedral designed by famed architect David Adjaye has stalled amid an economic crisis. The plan has drawn sharp public criticism but the president says it will be a significant tourist attraction and should go ahead. We asked two experts: Frederick Dayour heads his university’s department of tourism and hospitality where Francis Kofi Essel lectures in tourism. Essel is also a registered tour guide with intimate knowledge of Ghana’s religious sites and their tourism potential. What will be on the proposed new site and who will visit…

Mar

29

2023

By The African Mirror

The world’s first Islamic art biennale shines a light on African artists

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale is underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Biennales are large and prestigious international art exhibitions held every two years.) This important new event for the Muslim world features numerous African artists. And the biennale’s artistic director is Sumayya Vally, a South African architecture professor and principal of Counterspace design studio. A rising star in the art and architecture worlds, Vally was intent on creating the biennale to connect with the diverse experiences of being Muslim through ritual, practices and philosophies. The Conversation Africa asked her five questions about the biennale. Author SUMAYYA VALLY, Honorary Professor of…

Mar

28

2023

By The African Mirror

Gloria Bosman: a personal reflection on the loss of a South African jazz great

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

WE have no idea what we have just lost. None. Prolific singer, composer and educator Gloria Bosman, who passed away on 14 March 2023, was someone I could only describe as South Africa’s most interactive artistic archive. Interactive not because she housed so much knowledge about the unique relationship between music and South Africans as a people, but also because she transmitted this knowledge to others at every opportunity. If you ever found yourself in the same room with Gloria, you were in for a lesson of a lifetime. Author NOMFUNDO XALUVA, Senior Lecturer, South African College of Music, University…

Mar

22

2023

By The African Mirror

Calm Down: how a Nigerian singer and a Cameroonian dancer inspired a powerful protest in Iran

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ON 8 March 2023, five teenage girls uploaded on social media a video of themselves performing the Calm Down Dance Challenge. This is the choreography for the first verse of the Afrobeats hit Calm Down by Nigerian singer Rema (Divine Ikubor). Author ANANYA JAHANARA KABIR, Professor of English Literature, King's College London The girls were following people across the world who’ve made this dance challenge go viral for over a year by uploading videos of themselves dancing to it. With one difference, though: they were dancing in Iran, where it is forbidden to dance in public, especially without the mandatory…

Mar

21

2023

By The African Mirror

Gloria Bosman was more than a South African jazz vocalist, she was a guiding light

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE immediate public reaction to the death of Gloria Bosman from a short respiratory illness on 14 March 2023 was shocked disbelief. The multiple award-winning South African jazz vocalist, composer and teacher was only 50. She had just launched a new album, Live, her first in a dozen years, and was on the eve of a promotional tour. Author GWEN ANSELL, Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science, University of Pretoria Warm tributes followed, from family, friends and industry colleagues, and from a whole generation of singers for whom – directly and indirectly – she had served as a…

Mar

16

2023

By The African Mirror

Walid Kilonzi is telling the African story with virtual reality

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

BIRD STORY AGENCY YOU find yourself on the second highest peak in eastern Kenya, in the thick of the Iveti forest, with its famed cedar and pine trees. Near the top of a rise, you come upon the famous 'miti muonza', the seven trees that have stood there for over eight decades. With a move of your head, you leave the forest and are transported to the inside of a workshop, where woodcarvers are busy at work. After appreciating the finished bags, baskets, wood, and stone carving designs on display at the over-50-year-old Wamunyu Handcrafts, you can choose to go…

Mar

16

2023

By The African Mirror

The true taste of Chamarel: Colours, flavours, music and history

LIFESTYLE

JACQUES ACHILLES FOR BIRD STORY AGENCY WHEN we hear Mauritius, we imagine clear warm coloured blue turquoise waters and endless white beaches—a true picture, of course, but an incomplete one. The country has much more to offer. The true Mauritian experience possibly lies on the road to Chamarel. Located halfway between the upper lands and the coastal region and surrounded by rivers, mountains, forests, sugar cane and pineapple fields is Chamarel- a village in the southwestern part of Mauritius. Unlike many Mauritian villages, which sacrificed their cultures and structures at the altar of 'responding to tourists' needs,' Chamarel refused to…