Music, book and film reviews from the last 3 months
In novels and plays, in politics and in university classrooms. A lifetime of fighting for Pan-Africanism and women’s rights. A model artist and activist for multiple generations. On May 31, Ama Ata Aidoo passed away; an African postcolonial writer, feminist and activist who played a very important role in the cultural history of the continent…
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What is the importance of time to the Asheninka, an Amazonian people of western Peru? Let’s find out. In the Amazonian world, time is marked by elements that can be stars, plants, animals, and others. The day is marked by the sun. The sun is what largely determines the conception of time and consequently the…
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The young Yazidi Janan Shaker Elias has opened a bookshop in a village on the Nineveh Plain that suffered the invasion of Isis: “When we returned, I decided that reading was among the essential necessities”. On the white shelves are volumes of fiction and nonfiction, history books and biographies of famous people, philosophical texts, and…
Read moreThe music industry is experiencing the fastest global growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (+34.7%). The Spotify platform recorded 13.5 billion streams last year. The musical trend of the moment comes from Africa and is called Afrobeats. One of the genres most in vogue globally. And not just today, but for many years already. Such is the…
Read moreThe plant is widely used in traditional medicine to treat and prevent a wide range of diseases like dementia, Alzheimer, gastrointestinal disorders, as well as epilepsy, headache, asthma, inflammation and malaria. Dichrocephala integrifolia (Family Asteraceae) is an erect or spreading, aromatic annual plant growing to an average of 40cm in height. It often branches freely…
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The most important and sacred Asante stool is the ‘Golden Stool’. It represents the authority of the Asantehene (king), enshrines the soul of the nation, and symbolizes the kingdom’s unity. Among the Asante and other Akan peoples, stools play an important role in each person’s life. When children learn to crawl, they receive stools as…
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To a large extent, the ancestral medicine of the Ashaninka, an indigenous Amazonian ethnic group that lives in western Peru, revolves around the Ayahuasca ceremony, the name that is currently used to name an ancestral practice of the original peoples of the Amazon. It is a ritual practice performed by the shiripiare healers or shamans…
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Northeast of Lagos (Nigeria), near the city of Osogbo (also spelled Oshogbo), the last sacred forest of the Yoruba culture resists the advance of time and ‘civilization’. We are talking about Osun-Osogbo, a suggestive place, where the force of wild nature coexists with the beauty of art shaped by the human being. According to historical…
Read moreOn 21 June, the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere, Andean cultures celebrate the new year. Fire, music, fruit and corn are the symbols. And open palms to thank and welcome. On 21 June, the winter solstice, Andean cultures celebrate the beginning of a new year, 5531. In Cochabamba-Bolivia, in the province of Quillacollo, the…
Read moreIt is a series of six short films produced by Netflix made by young directors of the Continent. The project, supported by UNESCO, aims to enhance African cultural wealth. The young African cinema grows and develops in a feminine way. Netflix has produced six short films shot by six young male and female directors from…
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During the month of June, various traditional festivals are celebrated, including Inti Raymi, thanksgiving to the sun and the earth, for the abundance of crops. The history of these festivals dates back to the Inca empire when they were established to venerate the Sun King and Mother Earth (Pachamama) for the favours received in the…
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Between 1600 and 1900 the city of Abomey was the pride of the kingdom of Dahomey (today’s Benin). Court art developed there, in which genius, talent, and inspiration served above all to exalt the figure of the king. Dahomey, also known as the kingdom of Abomey, after the capital, occupied the south-central part of what…
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For more than twenty-five years, Sr. Nelly Leòn Correa from Chile has accompanied inmates in and outside the prison and created the "Mujer, Levántate" (Woman,…
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It was a scorching dawn. Scattered across the vast grassy savannah beyond the rocky mountains, the villages seemed to bleach under the thick blanket of clay…
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As the 2024 European elections approach, COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union) has released the ‘Catholic Toolkit for Young Europeans’. This comprehensive toolkit…
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