World renowned South African poet James Matthews has died at 95. His was the last great voice of an era of writers who worked against South Africa’s repressive and racist system of apartheid, which resulted in him being relentlessly harassed, detained by police and his work banned. In February, 2020, a special video with James Matthews reading his poem Freedom Child was screened at the ZAM Nelson Mandela Lecture at the International Theatre Amsterdam. South African singer Melanie Scholtz sang the...
World renowned South African poet James Matthews has died at 95. His was the last great voice of an era of writers who worked against South Africa’s...
In August and September, Nigerian photographer Stephen Tayo will be staying at the BijlmAIR studio in Heesterveld at the invitation of the Amsterdam Buro Stedelijk. Tayo is a self-taught fashion, art and cultural photographer who uses his work as a platform for social commentary on wealth, class, race, gender and identity. The artist occupies his surroundings as his photo studio, a method he will also use in the Bijlmer. BijlmAIR (Bijlmer Artist-in-Residence) is the residency program of CBK...
In August and September, Nigerian photographer Stephen Tayo will be staying at the BijlmAIR studio in Heesterveld at the invitation of the Amsterdam Buro...
The internet is awash with descriptions of the space that South African documentary photographer and journalist Gopolang Ledwaba set up at 9737 Cemetery Road, Braamfischerville, Soweto, earlier this year. The Mandebele Photo Gallery, we read, is a space for education, “incubatorship”, and upliftment; a resource centre; a project space; a cultural hub; and a café. Ultimately, the space, not much bigger than a garage, is a community centre . Multi-purpose spaces are not unique; you find them in...
The internet is awash with descriptions of the space that South African documentary photographer and journalist Gopolang Ledwaba set up at 9737 Cemetery...
Read the Dutch version below [We] begin to expand that archive with the aim of ensuring that it will no longer be what it was,” says artist/photographer Andrea Stultiens about the impressive exhibition and publication in which, in collaboration with numerous African creatives, the work of colonial photographer and anthropologist Paul Julien is re-viewed. It began with the discovery of one of Paul Julien's books at a second-hand market. Images of a trip through an African country. One of the...
Read the Dutch version below [We] begin to expand that archive with the aim of ensuring that it will no longer be what it was,” says artist/photographer...
The highly anticipated second volume in the widely acclaimed and celebrated self-portrait series, Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness by Zanele Muholi, which it's first book won the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation award as the best photography book award and the second edition is here. In Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II, Zanele Muholi explores and expands upon new personas and poetic interpretations of personhood, queerness, blackness, and the possibilities of self. Since the...
The highly anticipated second volume in the widely acclaimed and celebrated self-portrait series, Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness by Zanele...
The Swahili film industry is undergoing a makeover and stands to gain significantly if an Idris Elba mega studio comes to fruition. The project recently received a major boost with the allocation of an 80-hectare site in Zanzibar. The allocation of an 80-hectare parcel of land in Zanzibar to Hollywood star Idris Elba to build a film studio marks a new milestone in efforts to develop a regional film industry - efforts that are being supported by local government. "Idris Elba will be building a...
The Swahili film industry is undergoing a makeover and stands to gain significantly if an Idris Elba mega studio comes to fruition. The project recently...
Nurturing Ghana's Creative Future. In this interview, Chantal Akworkor Thomson speaks about the launch of the Young Artists Series by La Foundation of the Arts in Accra. La Foundation for the Arts has launched an exciting initiative called the Young Artists Series, designed to uplift and empower young artists in Ghana. Spearheaded by Chantel Akworkor Thompson, this program aims to provide a platform for emerging talents to showcase their work and gain the recognition they deserve. Chantel was...
Nurturing Ghana's Creative Future. In this interview, Chantal Akworkor Thomson speaks about the launch of the Young Artists Series by La Foundation of...
Inspired by a tapestry of Bantu folk stories, the video game 'Tales of Kenzera: Zau' is rich with mythology that many Africans know as our heritage. Since playing it, Tales of Kenzera: Zau has never left me. Grief is life’s inevitable tragedy, and until this game, I’ve never felt it adequately explored in the medium. It’s odd because death is everywhere in video games. It’s an incentive or an insignificant punishment without consequence: numbered hearts, a health bar, a kill streak, or a Dark...
Inspired by a tapestry of Bantu folk stories, the video game 'Tales of Kenzera: Zau' is rich with mythology that many Africans know as our heritage....
In 2001, when Lindokuhle Sobekwa was 6, his sister disappeared. Ziyanda, 12, witnessed her little brother being hit by a car in Khumalo Street, Thokoza, a township east of Johannesburg. In Lindokuhle's blurred memories, a young woman was standing over him after the hit – but he is not sure if that was Ziyanda. With a broken spine, he was carted off to the hospital, where his recovery took three months. Once back home, Ziyanda was nowhere to be found. It was 11 years before Lindokuhle was able to...
In 2001, when Lindokuhle Sobekwa was 6, his sister disappeared. Ziyanda, 12, witnessed her little brother being hit by a car in Khumalo Street, Thokoza,...
How many meanings does colour have? What is its hidden power? And what do artists do with that? For readers of ZAM, the True Colours exhibition is, as far as African artists are concerned, a feast of recognition. Over the years, ZAM has published some of the works of Otobong Nkanga, Buhlebezwe Siwani and Zanele Muholi. The exhibition features works from the collection of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation . Under the inspired leadership of Hester Alberdingk Thijm, art was acquired over the past 30 years....
How many meanings does colour have? What is its hidden power? And what do artists do with that? For readers of ZAM, the True Colours exhibition is, as...
While most of his iconic images have returned to South Africa, some remain in European institutions. Ernest Cole was an acclaimed apartheid-era South African photographer who died in exile in New York 34 years ago. The recent return of vintage Cole images to South Africa from Sweden needs to be seen in the context of a recent wave of repatriation of valuable African heirlooms. The Cole saga is not yet over, involving a tussle over rights of ownership of his remarkable legacy. This is a close-up...
While most of his iconic images have returned to South Africa, some remain in European institutions. Ernest Cole was an acclaimed apartheid-era South...
They are from Egypt, Sudan, South Africa and the DRC and Farren van Wyk, who is also ZAM’s photo- and webeditor, is one of them. Check out the amazing photography of 4 of the 5 winners Ahmed Khirelsid, Tshepiso Moropa, Kriss Munsya and Farren van Wyk. The winners of the 13th cycle of CAP were announced on Saturday 6 July at the international photo festival Rencontres d’Arles in France. The prize is directed at photographers who engage with the African continent or its diaspora. The five winning...
They are from Egypt, Sudan, South Africa and the DRC and Farren van Wyk, who is also ZAM’s photo- and webeditor, is one of them. Check out the amazing...
Ammar Abdallah and Ahmed Khirelsid, both from war-torn Sudan, are on the short list for the Contemporary African Photography Prize 2024. Their images show a poignant reality that seems to escape the world's attention. A story of immense brutality and displacement. The 5 winners of CAP 2024, out of the 25 photographers nominated with ZAM editor Farren van Wyk amongst them, will be announced on 5 July, 2024. Ammar Abdallah, ‘Home’, 2024 It's almost two days without food, and my body and mind feel...
Ammar Abdallah and Ahmed Khirelsid, both from war-torn Sudan, are on the short list for the Contemporary African Photography Prize 2024. Their images...
Tutu Puoane’s new album wraps South African poet Lebo Mashile’s words in rhythm. Where does this deep-seated urge to compare come from? It is Sunday morning, and as I write, I listen again to Tutu Puoane’s new album, Wrapped In Rhythm, Vol. 1. Billie Holiday springs to mind. Nina Simone. Sade. But far more than the sum of voices, Puoane is still, above all, Puoane. What you hear is a rare, flawless musical flexibility combined with an ability to tell a story in ever-changing keys, in a completely...
Tutu Puoane’s new album wraps South African poet Lebo Mashile’s words in rhythm. Where does this deep-seated urge to compare come from? It is Sunday...
The South African musician kept the Cape goema music alive after the apartheid regime destroyed the cities’ famous District 6, a multicultural home to the Kaapse Klopse rythms. Samuel ‘Mac’ McKenzie died on April 29. His band, The Genuines, was formed in 1986 and moved between Cape Town and Johannesburg enjoying widespread support and varied audiences. McKenzie, the band’s singer and banjo player, was more than a goema pioneer. He was also a jazz front man, A symphony composer as well as a master...
The South African musician kept the Cape goema music alive after the apartheid regime destroyed the cities’ famous District 6, a multicultural home to...
The artist was announced as the 2024 winner of the prestigious £30,000 prize at a special ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery, London on Thursday 16 May 2024. The influential prize, in partnership with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, rewards artists and their projects recognised as having made the most significant contribution to international contemporary photography over the past 12 months. Lebohang Kganye was awarded the Prize for the exhibition Haufi nyana? I’ve come to take you...
The artist was announced as the 2024 winner of the prestigious £30,000 prize at a special ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery, London on Thursday 16...
In Nigeria where same-sex marriage is criminalised and the larger part of society is openly discriminatory and violent to queer folk, the underground ballroom scene provides a community for queer Nigerians to discreetly gather to express themselves through dance, fashion and language. When Countess Sasha Seduction, a Nigerian non-binary drag queen, got to attend their first ballroom experience, a 2022 Halloween ball in Lagos, Nigeria, it felt like a dream. This year, they got to attend two and were...
In Nigeria where same-sex marriage is criminalised and the larger part of society is openly discriminatory and violent to queer folk, the underground...
“I was named after Yasser Arafat,” writes Capetonian photographer Yasser Booley. From a young age he recorded the signs of solidarity with a people living under circumstances that clearly resonate with those who experienced the apartheid system in South Africa. There is an understandable thinking that the solidarity movement with Palestine in the Bo-Kaap started with Nelson Mandela and his coupling the Palestinian cause with ours. This thinking would not be accurate. One of the five pillars of...
“I was named after Yasser Arafat,” writes Capetonian photographer Yasser Booley. From a young age he recorded the signs of solidarity with a people...
Starting this week, Dutch cinemas are screening the film debut of Belgian-Congolese artist Baloji. It is a wondrous spectacle, a creation that is strongly and deftly socially aware. A touching scene: in front of a mirror in Belgium, the protagonist Koffi is practising how to say in Swahili that his soon-to-be-born twins will bear his parents’ names. It is a gesture, a sign of attachment. I may have left for Europe 18 years ago, but I have not left you behind. Where I came from lives on in me. The...
Starting this week, Dutch cinemas are screening the film debut of Belgian-Congolese artist Baloji. It is a wondrous spectacle, a creation that is...
Themes like belonging and migration turn many of the African pavilions at the upcoming 60th edition of this international arts arena into a moving experience. Ethiopia Ethiopia Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2024 Contemporary artist Tesfaye Urgessa will be the first Ethiopian artist representing his country’s official participation. Award-winning author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay OBE FRSL has been appointed as the curator for this historical moment. Urgessa (1983, Addis Ababa) studied art and...
Themes like belonging and migration turn many of the African pavilions at the upcoming 60th edition of this international arts arena into a moving...
In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built around white tribal affiliation. Absent Presences, launched in March 2024, is published on the occasion of the House’s centenary. Contributions by Nathan Tantraal, Ronelda S. Kamfer, Pieter du Plessis, Christi van der Westhuizen, Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, Manon Braat, Marian Counihan, Nkule Mabaso, Tycho Maas. Contributions by our editors Farren van...
In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built...
