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The lesson of the turtle and the dove

The South African musician known as Madosini passed away in 2022. She was one of the last of a generation who learnt to play traditional Xhosa instruments, in so doing sharing the spirituality, dignity, and joy of Xhosa culture through her inimitable song.

The empire of words

The fiction of Senegalese writer and filmmaker Khady Sylla not only used speech to create worlds and ways of being in the world, but used speech as a world and a character in its own right.

With respect

A new film by French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis uncovers how American jazz giant, Thelonious Monk, was disrespected by French media at the end of his European tour in 1969.

Dancing the Twist in Bamako

Set in newly independent Mali, 'Dancing the Twist in Bamako' is neither propagandistically praiseful of socialism nor does it present it through a wholly negative lens.