Culture & Literature
Articles and readings on African culture and literature.
Thousands of Mali’s ancient transcripts go digital
Google has partnered with Mali’s traditional leaders to digitise tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts from the city of Timbuktu....
Read moreDetailsBenin: President Talon inaugurates exhibition with returned artworks
The President of Benin, Patrice Talon, inaugurated an exhibition on Saturday showcasing 26 royal treasures returned by France last November....
Read moreDetailsNigeria’s looted Benin bronzes returned, more than a century later
Two Benin bronzes have been returned to a traditional palace in Nigeria, more than a century after they were pillaged by British...
Read moreDetailsSwahili gradually becoming a language for all of Africa
With more than 200 million speakers, Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world's 10 most widely...
Read moreDetailsSurge in ancient Ethiopian manuscripts and scrolls for sale
In Ethiopia, the latest victims of the year-long war in Tigray are the country’s rich artefacts. Centuries-old manuscripts and scrolls...
Read moreDetailsA new film about Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections is worth watching, but flawed
By David B. Moore* Danish director Camilla Nielsson’s documentary President (2021) is an up-close, intimate tale. It follows the election travails of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party the...
Read moreDetailsGhana’s politics has strong ties with performing arts.
Towards the end of the Kwame Nkrumah era in 1966, a number of highlife artists wrote songs critical of him...
Read moreDetailsNgũgĩ wa Thiong’o: ‘Monolingualism is the carbon monoxide of culture’
Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is well known for his promotion of the use of mother tongue languages, but he...
Read moreDetailsSeizing art: One African man’s protest against colonial ‘pillagers’
In June, Mwazulu Diyabanza stood in a Paris museum next to a 19th century funerary post from central Africa, and...
Read moreDetailsBackground on Yoruba Tonal System and its Acquisition
Mastering tones represents an integral aspect of Yoruba language acquisition as it constitutes the basis for an in-depth appreciation of...
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