Meet Baddo’s new alter ego: Alagemo Merindinlogun, the visual-art identity behind his latest creative experiment Olamide has spent more than a decade turning Yoruba language, street culture and Nigerian life into music that travels. Now, the YBNL founder is moving into another form of expression: the canvas. The rapper has unveiled Alagemo Merindinlogun by Olamide, a new visual-art identity […]
Half melancholic, half haunting, wholly human and it has a Shadow too. (Caveat: I have tried as much as possible to keep this largely spoiler-free, especially around the film’s more important turns and revelations. But because I’m talking about the story, some context is unavoidable) Akinola Davies Jr.’s My Father’s Shadow (2025) is the kind of film that does […]
Kenya has chosen a story rooted in the Maasai community to carry its cinema to the 99th Academy Awards. One Woman One Bra, written and directed by Kenyan filmmaker Vincho Nchogu and produced by Nigerian filmmaker Josh Olaoluwa, was selected on 23 September as Kenya’s official submission for the International Feature Film category. The Kenya Oscars Selection Committee considered […]
Adekunle Gold’s “Many People” is taking its journey from Nigerian streets and Fuji traditions into one of the world’s most recognisable gaming environments. The song has been selected for the official eFootball 2027 soundtrack, placing the Nigerian singer-songwriter’s music alongside an international line-up of artists whose records will soundtrack matches played by millions of football fans and gamers around […]
Long before sculpture became a familiar presence in Nigeria’s public spaces, Felix Idubor was already asking a more interesting question: what happens when art becomes part of the building itself? For Idubor, sculpture was never confined to the gallery or the pedestal. It could live in an entrance, occupy a wall, define a civic space or become part of […]
For David Jonsson, the journey to Wakanda began far from Hollywood. It began in East London, in Custom House, where the British actor grew up in a community he has described with affection but without romanticising its difficulties. Now, at 32, Jonsson stands at the centre of one of cinema’s most consequential casting decisions: he has been chosen to […]
The most influential African artists rarely abandon tradition in pursuit of modernity. They reinterpret it. That philosophy sits at the centre of Bobo Wê’s creative identity. The Beninese rapper, songwriter and performer has emerged as one of West Africa’s most distinctive musical voices by developing Gangan Trap, a sound that brings together hip-hop, trap production and the unmistakable rhythms […]
The story of Njideka Akunyili Crosby challenges one of the most enduring assumptions about success: that the path is always planned. At 16, she left Enugu for the United States with the intention of pursuing medicine. When she was not admitted into her preferred medical school, her future took an unexpected turn. She chose art instead. That decision would […]
The most enduring sculptures do not simply preserve a likeness. They preserve a feeling. Nigerian figurative sculptor Ejiro Fenegal has built her artistic practice around that conviction, creating works that invite viewers to confront emotion as carefully as they observe form. Through intricately crafted busts and expressive human figures, she explores identity, memory and vulnerability with a sensitivity that […]
Some artists become successful by fitting comfortably into a genre. Pongo has built her career by refusing that approach. The Angolan-born, Portugal-based singer has quietly assembled one of the most distinctive catalogues in contemporary African music, combining Kuduro, electronic production, Afro-pop and global dance influences into a sound that feels unmistakably her own. Yet, despite critical acclaim across Europe […]