Culture

My Favorite Photographs: Arnaud Contreras
Since 1999, Contreras has documented, via documentary films, radio programs and photographs, dramatic changes to the Sahara.

The forgotten founding figure of African nationalism
Nokutela Dube wasn't just the wife of John Dube, one of the founders of the continent's oldest liberation movement, the African National Congress.

L’Afrique Est Un Pays
Dutty Artz and Africa Is a Country co-present the EP, "L'Afrique Est Un Pays," as a gift to Africa is a Country readers. For a limited time you can download the EP by liking our Facebook page.

Moonshine Roots Music and Fela Kuti
Valerie June admires Fela Kuti, Ali Farka Toure, Miriam Makeba and a Nigerian blues singer she once heard in her car, but can't remember their name.

A window into South Africa’s jazz history
The first full color photographs of the vibrant, underground jazz scene that flourished in South Africa in the 1960s.

Uploading Revolution in Senegal
A new film makes the case that a combination of hip-hop, new media technology, globalization and youth energy inspired Y’en a Marre.

Who gets the last laugh, again?
There is something out there that we can identify as “really” European or “really” African, is essentially what the ancestry testing industry is selling.

‘Tribal’ Reality Television
A Dutch TV channel created a fictive African 'tribe' for a reality TV show about 'Africa.' It employed an actual Namibian ethnic group to do the job. When will this end?

If This Is Banter
The Newcastle United defender, Steven Taylor, is another no-nonsense (racist) English centre-half.

Trailers are mini movies
Netta Kornberg watches movie trailers, so you don't have to. This edition: 'Mr. Pip,' 'Captain Phillips' and '12 Years A Slave.'

Hollywood Pelé
The news that a major studio is bankrolling a film about the Brazilian Pele, contender for greatest player of all time.



Reimagining Ghana’s Cinemaspace
Ghanaian-American filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu wants to foster a new wave of Ghanaian experimental filmmakers.

Boogie Down Nima in the Bronx
Recognition of the contributions to the New York cultural landscape by African immigrants remains strangely absent from the average New Yorker’s frame of reference.

Three Signs of Ghana’s Art Times
Ghana is currently experiencing a surge of contemporary performing and visual arts. Here are some notes on goings on about Accra-town.