LIFESTYLE - The African Mirror

Mar

31

2021

Usher’s moves to amapiano drives fans crazy

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER USHER has lit up social media with his crazy dance moves to amapiano. The 'Yeah' singer went viral on Twitter and Instagram when South African fans noticed that the singer’s post on Instagram featured a popular amapiano song called ‘Sponono’ by DJs Kabza De Small and Maphorisa. The video showed Usher dressed in a vibrant Versace outfit while dancing to ‘Sponono’ for a magazine shoot for European fashion magazine L’Officiel Hommes Italia. Amapiano is a hybrid of deep house, jazz and lounge music characterized by high-pitched piano melodies, percussions, Kwaito bassline and low tempo 90s South African…

Mar

29

2021

By The African Mirror

Nawal El Saadawi: Egypt’s grand novelist, physician and global activist

LITERATURE

EGYPTIAN novelist, physician, sociologist and global activist Nawal El Saadawi died on 21 March 2021 at the age of 89. The author of more than 50 books, she told me in one of our many interviews, in 2007, that she self-identified as an African from Egypt, not from the Middle East … I am not from the third world. There is one world, that is a racist, capitalist economic world. I became a feminist when I was a child – when I started to ask questions to become aware that women are oppressed and feel discrimination. ADELE NEWSON-HORST, Morgan State…

Mar

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Artist tackles politics, pandemic with paint

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NELLIE PEYTON and NGOUDA DIONE WHEN Senegal erupted in violent protests this month over perceived injustice and inequality, artist Omar Ba was tackling the issues in his own way, with paint on canvas. "What the youth are doing in the streets is the same thing I'm doing in my studio," said Ba, stepping in black paint and making footprints on a new canvas in his airy workspace outside the capital, Dakar. Ba, one of Senegal's best-known contemporary artists, has often used his art to make political statements. A current exhibit at the Galerie Templon in Brussels, 'Anomalies', critiques power-hungry leaders…

Jul

24

2020

By The African Mirror

Dennis Brutus: South African literary giant who was reluctant to tell his life story

LITERATURE

TYRONE AUGUST, Research fellow, Stellenbosch University THIS is an edited extract from a new biography about Dennis Brutus, the anti-apartheid activist, poet and author. Brutus died in 2009. The extract records Brutus’s reluctance to write about his life when he was still alive. But as Tyrone August, author of the biography, writes, it was inevitable that his life story would eventually be told: “Brutus’s life is woven far too deeply into the fabric of the recent history of South Africa.” Dennis Brutus, the South African poet and veteran anti-apartheid activist, lived in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape, during the…

Jul

22

2020

By The African Mirror

Book Review | The ANC Spy Bible

LITERATURE

JOVIAL RANTAO It’s very rare that an intelligence operative - past or present - unmasks themselves and unveils the going-ons in the dark, cloak and dagger lives of spies. Veteran intelligence operative and political activist Mo Shaik has done this and did it with insight and grace. Shaik’s memoir - The ANC Spy Bible - reads like a true spy thriller, full of intrigue, espionage and the dangers associated with the underground life in intelligence. It is rich in detail about his individual involvement in the ANC intelligence structures and their role in the struggle against apartheid. The book traces…

Jul

18

2020

By The African Mirror

Linton Kwesi Johnson gave poetry back to the people

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

PERCY ZVOMUYA The dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, this year’s recipient of the PEN Pinter Prize, is the third consecutive black winner of the gong instituted in memory of Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter. Johnson, popularly known as LKJ, follows in the wake of British poet Lemn Sissay (2019) and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2018). It’s no exaggeration that LKJ, who went to Britain from Jamaica at the age of 11 to follow his mother, part of the Windrush generation, did more than most to make black “cool” in Britain and beyond. In his music and poetry, he not only…

Jul

15

2020

By The African Mirror

Rihanna announces new skincare line FENTYSKIN

BEAUTY AND FASHION

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER RIHANNA has extended her highly succesful fashion and beauty FENTY brand, jumping into the world of skincare with FENTYSKIN Rihanna announced the launch of her new skincare range FENTYSKIN on Instagram, which will be available from July 31st. The new skincare range is the singer’s fourth venture under her FENTY brand, which consists of her FENTY luxury fashion brand, make-up range FENTY Beauty and lingerie brand Savage x Fenty. The 33-year-old Barbados native posted her announcement on her personal Instagram account: “Ima try my best to be humble about this but, @fentyskin is coming July 31st exclusively…

Jul

14

2020

By The African Mirror

Body of missing ‘Glee’ actress Naya Rivera found

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

A BODY recovered from a lake in California is that of missing "Glee" actress Naya Rivera, officials have confirmed. "We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera," Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub told a news conference on the shore of Lake Piru near Los Angeles. Rivera, 33, was presumed drowned after going missing on Wednesday. She had rented a boat on Lake Piru with her four-year-old son, Josey, who was found unharmed. Her body was recovered early on Monday near the surface of the water in an area where the boat had gone missing that was…

Jul

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Actress Kelly Preston dies of breast cancer at 57

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

AMERICAN actress Kelly Preston who has appeared in films including "Jerry Maguire" and "Twins", has died aged 57 after battling breast cancer for nearly two years, her husband, John Travolta, announced in an Instagram. "It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer," the 66-year-old "Grease" actor said in his post. "Kelly's love and life will always be remembered. I will be taking some time to be there for my children who have lost their mother, so forgive me in advance if you don't hear…

Jul

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Will Smith’s f…k you to 50 Cents over Jada comment

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

OWN CORRESPONDENT WHAT started as a cordial and brotherly text exchange between two Hollywood stars - Will Smith and 50 Cent - did not end well, their conversation suggests. Will, in the news after his wife Jada Pinkett Smith (48) confessed to an affair with R&B singer August Alsina (27), appeared to lose his cool and used an expletive. According to the post shared by 50 Cent, he started by asking: “Yo Will you alright over there?” Will replied: 'Yes, I'm cool. I appreciate your support brother.' 50 Cent asked: 'But why did she tell you that s**t on a…