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...
Held annually across three continents, in London, New York and Marrakech, 1-54 is the leading global event series dedicated to modern and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. This year’s New York edition features over 30 galleries hailing from across Africa, Europe and the U.S. Celebrating its 10th year, this itiration will be held at the Starrett-Lehigh Building, 255 11th Avenue for the first time. Founded in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui, 1-54 is the first and only international fair...
Held annually across three continents, in London, New York and Marrakech, 1-54 is the leading global event series dedicated to modern and contemporary...
If you are in London, go and see this extraordinary exhibition at the Larkin Durey gallery. Marc Padeu (1990) is a Cameroonian artist who says: “I want to paint the everyday life of the people around me, my family and friends. Since we all live together, I share their moments of joy, but also their sadness.” Marc Padeu A l’ombre de la lumière, 2024. Acrylic on canvas 78 3/4 x 102 3/8 in 200 x 260 cm (03209). Image courtesy of Larkin Durey. Copyright of the artist. Photographer Oliver Durey About...
If you are in London, go and see this extraordinary exhibition at the Larkin Durey gallery. Marc Padeu (1990) is a Cameroonian artist who says: “I want...
It is up to your imagination to interpret the South African photographer’s quest into exile. The True America , a recently published book of works by South African photographer Ernest Cole, lacks captions. There is no indication of time or place. The book only distinguishes between the first section, which is set in New York (remarkably with one section in colour), and the second section about beyond – California, Ohio, Alabama, and Mississippi. Cole, who travelled to the United States in 1966 and...
It is up to your imagination to interpret the South African photographer’s quest into exile. The True America , a recently published book of works by...
Just before the festive season, a 3-day exhibition opened in the ZAM editorial room. Visitors found themselves in a newly created home of prominent artists, a showcase of diverse pieces that traverse the African diaspora. Visitors to the studio were invited to explore the dynamic interplay of works that echo the rich stories of African creativity. At first glance, the disparate nature of Sindiso Nyoni's digital strokes, Desiree Dolron's socio-political commentary, and Du Jie's meditative...
Just before the festive season, a 3-day exhibition opened in the ZAM editorial room. Visitors found themselves in a newly created home of prominent...
Who could have thought that a world polluted by colonial exploitation would present such a wealth of creative expression? Well, meet Nigerian artist Wilfred Ukpong. Utilising aspects of Afrofuturism and mysticism, this Nigerian artist creates compelling and poetic reflections on the crisis of environmental degradation and exploitation in the Niger Delta. Drawing on historical and personal archives, ecology politics and indigenous environmentalism, his work demonstrates how artmaking can be used as...
Who could have thought that a world polluted by colonial exploitation would present such a wealth of creative expression? Well, meet Nigerian artist...
From March 20 to 24, Cinedans FEST celebrates 20 years of daring, beautiful and fascinating dance films. Join Cinedans in Eye to experience films in which artists playfully reframe existing meanings, uplifting and reminding us of the power of dance! In this celebratory edition, we take you on a captivating journey through lively perspectives of our ever-changing world, with more than 100 films that are bold, inspiring, striking and hit home with their humor, vulnerability and urgency. The central...
From March 20 to 24, Cinedans FEST celebrates 20 years of daring, beautiful and fascinating dance films. Join Cinedans in Eye to experience films in...
Moving from Tate Modern in London to the Rotterdam Wereldmuseum, a celebration of the varied landscape of contemporary African photography. With Aida Muluneh, Samsom Kambalu, Santu Mofokeng, Atong Atem amongst many others. Aida Muluneh, Star Shine Moon Glow, Water Life 2018. Commisioned by WaterAid. Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, A World in Common Exhibition. 2024. Bringing together a group of artists from different generations, this exhibition will address how photography, film, audio, and more have been...
Moving from Tate Modern in London to the Rotterdam Wereldmuseum, a celebration of the varied landscape of contemporary African photography. With Aida...
Benoit Collombat and Grégrory Mardon revive the investigation into the murder of a South African anti-apartheidactivist in Paris in 1988. An activist killed not so much for the stories she might tell in the present, but for what she might reveal in the future, writes Leonard Cortana in a review of a recently published graphic novel on the assassination of South African anti-apartheid fighter Dulcie September. Thirty-five years after the murder of Dulcie September on 29 March 1988, and following the...
Benoit Collombat and Grégrory Mardon revive the investigation into the murder of a South African anti-apartheidactivist in Paris in 1988. An activist...
It is time to celebrate the elders of African literature. Time to exchange memories of our first reading experiences. To take a look at our bookshelves or at those in public libraries: where can we find those orange coloured, cheap paperbacks of the African Writers Series? Which book was it again that impressed me most? Write to us. On this site of the ZAM Boekenclub van lezers en schrijvers (ZAM Bookclub of readers and writers) and during live events we will pitch our favorites from the series....
It is time to celebrate the elders of African literature. Time to exchange memories of our first reading experiences. To take a look at our bookshelves...
The singer and guitarist grew up in the Eastern Cape of South Africa but later moved to Johannesburg to pursue his career. Despite this change, he continued to sing and write in Xhosa, his mother tongue. He has since released three albums and has won multiple South African Music Awards (SAMAs). With his refreshing approach to African music, Bongeziwe Mabandla is now heard worldwide and has also appeared on the latest single ‘Apho’ by Alfa Mist. Last year, Mabandla drew huge audiences to Dutch music...
The singer and guitarist grew up in the Eastern Cape of South Africa but later moved to Johannesburg to pursue his career. Despite this change, he...
Stevenson Amsterdam hosts an exhibition ‘as a gesture of protest.’ Rooted in South Africa, the organising gallery is ‘particularly familiar’ with rising ‘nativist and xenophobic’ tendencies. On 22 November, a political party that compares the Quran to Mein Kampf, and would like to ban the construction of mosques, won the Dutch elections. They propose to strip people with dual citizenship of their Dutch nationality if convicted of a crime, and, using vulgar slurs, have floated a tax on the wearing...
Stevenson Amsterdam hosts an exhibition ‘as a gesture of protest.’ Rooted in South Africa, the organising gallery is ‘particularly familiar’ with rising...
Was het toeval dat Nelson Mandela de Nederlandse regering niet bedankte voor de solidariteit met de strijd tegen apartheid bij zijn eerste bezoek aan Amsterdam in juni 1990? "Toen ik opgroeide in Deventer, vond ik het vaak verrassend dat er beperkt bewustzijn was van de historische verbinding tussen Zuid-Afrika en Nederland. Mijn doel met de podcast was om deze kloof te overbruggen en te benadrukken wat voor significante invloed beide landen hebben gehad op mijn kijk op politiek, identiteit en...
Was het toeval dat Nelson Mandela de Nederlandse regering niet bedankte voor de solidariteit met de strijd tegen apartheid bij zijn eerste bezoek aan...
30 record sleeves by Fela Kuti’s cover designer have been brought together in a spectacular catalogue. The King of Covers is the concluding part of the month long Lemi Ghariokwu exhibition that ran at the Amsterdam Rush Hour store between 1 and 28 November, 2023. The exhibition was an initiative by Afrodelic in collaboration with ZAM. The 30 sleeves that were at display are now nicely bundled into this full colour 70 page booklet. Each sleeve comes with a story by Saffa Khalil, who analysed the...
30 record sleeves by Fela Kuti’s cover designer have been brought together in a spectacular catalogue. The King of Covers is the concluding part of the...
