Cape Town Ranked Among World’s Leading Cultural Cities
Cape Town has earned a place on Time Out’s list of the world’s 20 top cities for art and culture, with local residents giving the city an 84% approval rating for its creative scene. Festivals and live music emerged as the most celebrated strengths, cited by more than half of respondents, while an affordability score […]
Mulatu Astatke’s Addis Concert Celebrates Ethio-jazz Legacy
Legendary Ethiopian composer Mulatu Astatke recently returned to Addis Ababa for a rare performance that celebrated both his career and the enduring influence of Ethio-jazz. The 82-year-old musician, widely regarded as the genre’s founder, performed with his band Steps Ahead during the CRAFT Addis creative conference. The concert featured classics including “Yekermo Sew” and highlighted […]
How African Beauty Traditions Inspire Modern Clean Beauty
Long before the global beauty industry popularized serums and trending ingredients, African communities had developed sophisticated skincare traditions rooted in nature, culture, and ancestral knowledge. Across southern Africa, practices such as using ichopho, or pumice stone, for exfoliation and ukugquma, a herbal steaming practice, for cleansing and relaxation, formed part of daily beauty traditions passed […]
Inside Senegal’s Sacred Laamb Arenas
Laamb, Senegal’s traditional wrestling sport, is far more than a physical contest. Rooted in village life and expressed through the Wolof language, it blends athletic competition with elaborate spiritual ritual. Fighters don ornate costumes and protective charms believed to channel spiritual power, performing to the hypnotic beat of sabar drums. Over time, the sport has […]
Nigerian TikTokers Blend Anime Battles With African Rhythms
Young Nigerian creators on TikTok are pairing anime fight sequences from shows like Naruto, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen with Afrobeat, Afropop, and Fuji, creating a fresh cultural crossover that is attracting global attention. The rhythmic intensity of Nigerian percussion aligns naturally with the speed and drama of anime action, making the combination feel intuitive […]
Cesária Évora’s Enduring Morna Legacy Heads to London
Cape Verde, a small archipelago off the coast of Senegal, has permanently altered the global musical landscape, largely due to the late Cesária Évora. Her 1992 breakthrough album, Miss Perfumado, became a massive European hit and cemented her as the best-selling African artist of the 20th century in the US. The album introduced morna, the […]
