LIFESTYLE - The African Mirror

Aug

01

2021

Ghana’s first openly trans musician fights homophobia with song

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NITA BHALLA GHANA'S first openly transgender musician has released a song to boost the morale of the West African nation's LGBT+ community as it faces a crackdown by authorities and a rise in homophobic persecution. Hiplife and Afropop artist Angel Maxine said she wrote "Wo Fie", meaning "Your Home" in the Twi language, to comfort LGBT+ Ghanaians who were not only facing threats from authorities, but also a surge in verbal and physical attacks from the public. "The situation for the queer community in Ghana is very tense at the moment," Maxine, 35, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from…

Aug

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria makes an international statement with its first feature-length animated movie

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

SETH ONYANGO, BIRD NEWSROOM AFRO-URBAN entertainment powerhouse, Trace, has begun distributing "Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters" – a Nigerian feature-length 3D animated film - after inking a deal with Hot Ticket Productions to distribute the film globally. In May this year, Trace's distribution arm inked a deal with Hot Ticket Productions to distribute Nigeria’s first feature-length 3D animated film, "Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters" worldwide - opening the door to a potential global audience for an animation that was originally conceived in the home of a Nigerian geologist. The wide success of the movie is not only a…

Apr

01

2021

By The African Mirror

Book sheds light on apartheid South Africa’s hidden massacre

LITERATURE

APPALLING atrocities occurred under the flag of apartheid as the white minority government sought to impose a racist system on the majority of South African citizens. Many of the atrocities were subsequently investigated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and are now seared into public memory. MIGNONNE BREIER, Honorary Research Associate, School of Education, University of Cape Town But not all. One of the more notable gaps in the country’s collective memory is a massacre that took place in 1952. It was never officially investigated and few people know about it. I set about trying to rectify this in my…

Jan

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Beauty maven Pat McGrath to receive royal honours – a first for industry

BEAUTY AND FASHION

MPHO RANTAO AMERICAN longtime make-up artist Pat McGrath is set to become a dame, a royal honour by Queen Elizabeth II, as part of the Queen’s New Year list of Honours. It was announced that the veteran makeup artist and businesswoman would be awarded a Dame of the British Empire (D.B.E) for services to the Fashion and Beauty Industry and Diversity. This would be the first time ever for a makeup artist to receive a royal honour. In an Instagram post, McGrath wrote, “Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that one day Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II…

Jan

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Hip-hop artist MF DOOM dead at 49

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MPHO RANTAO AMERICAN-based rapper MF DOOM has died after a career spanning over two decades. View this post on Instagram A post shared by MF DOOM. ALL CAPS. (@mfdoom) The rapper’s wife Jasmine confirmed his death on his Instagram account. In a note addressed to the rapper, his wife paid tribute to "the greatest husband, father, teacher, student, business partner, lover and friend I could ever ask for". Tributes from the hip-hop fraternity have been pouring in for the innovative artist, including tributes from Tyler, The Creator, presenter Zane Lowe, A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip and Run The Jewels. The…

Jan

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Vanessa Mdee Rotimi ring in 2021 with engagement

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MPHO RANTAO TWO of Africa’s biggest stars, Rotimi and Vanessa Mdee, entered the new year on a high, with the announcement of their engagement. The Atlanta-based couple have been together for over a year, having met at the 2019 Essence Festival in New Orleans where Rotimi was due to perform. The Nigerian-American actor (born Olurotimi Akinosho) dropped down on one knee in a ‘Coming 2 America’ setting on December 31, asking his Tanzanian singer girlfriend to marry him. Rotimi and Vanessa Mdee on video. Picture: Instagram The actor posted the video of the proposal on his Instagram page with the…

Jan

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Meghan Markle & Prince Harry abandon social media

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MPHO RANTAO THE Duke and Duchess of Sussex have decided to step away from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for good. Their decision was disclosed by a source close to the couple, who told The Times of London that it is "very unlikely" that the royal duo will not return to social media due to the immense amount of "hate" they have received from online users. The source also informed The Times of London that the couple had no plans to create social media profiles for their Archewell Foundation or return to their personal social profiles for the foreseeable future. The…

Jul

21

2022

By The African Mirror

Remembering Frantz Fanon – six great reads

LITERATURE

FRANTZ Fanon, the Martinique-born psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and leading pan-Africanist, would have been 97 on 20 July 2022. He left a remarkable imprint. His views influenced many in the field of mental illness as well as pan-Africanist thinkers and anti-colonialism and black liberation campaigners. Fanon’s wide-ranging interests can be gleaned from his writings on numerous subjects including politics, psychiatry and even sports. Six articles from our archives attest to Fanon’s influence and legacy. Author THABO LESHILO, Politics + Society, The Conversation Psychiatry in colonial society Fanon highlighted how, by institutionalising patients, psychiatric hospitals tended to further alienate them from their…

Jan

11

2021

By The African Mirror

New Books | Archie Mafeje’s political thought

LITERATURE

BONGANI NYOKA ASPECTRE is haunting the South African academy, the spectre of knowledge decolonisation. Academics and university students are calling for decolonisation, but what they call brilliant is not new, and what they call new is not brilliant. As early as the 19th century, the South African poet William Wellington Gqoba grappled with the impact of Western education on Black people; in the early 20th century, Benedict Wallet Vilakazi and Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo were debating the role of language and modernity in South Africa. Equally, the works of Cheikh Anta Diop on sources of knowledge and social history, Kenneth…

Jul

19

2022

By The African Mirror

Ladysmith Black Mambazo shrug off power cut to sing for Mandela

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

TIM COCKS LADYSMITH Black Mambazo sang their warm-hearted choral harmonies in honour of peace icon Nelson Mandela, with a 45-minute forced intermission caused by one of the power cuts that have become a part of daily life in South Africa. The concert in Johannesburg's main theatre, a day before U.N.-declared Mandela Day, his birthday, celebrated the life of the man who steered South Africa from the manacles of apartheid to multi-racial democracy while narrowly avoiding a civil war. "Madiba has been an inspiration for us," Sibongiseni Shabalala, band member and son of the band's late founder Joseph Shabalala, said, using…