Long Read | Chéri Samba, king of Kinshasa
The Congolese painter’s work is part of the Kings of Kin exhibition at Galerie Magnin-A in Paris. In this interview, Chéri Samba talks of his beginnings and how art and politics are always connected.
Culture
The magic and meaning of Dolly Rathebe
Despite being a pioneer of the film and music industry, her career output lacks a proper archive, reflecting the difficulties of life as a black performance artist during apartheid.
Album Review | Access Denied by Asian Dub Foundation
Celebrating a 25-year career in music, Asian Dub Foundation are back with their best album in more than a decade. This latest sound will have your feet moving and your mind thinking.
Queer activist Bev Ditsie amplifies her voice
Twenty-five years after her historic address at the United Nations, the South African rights icon and filmmaker celebrates the event with an insightful documentary.
Text Messages | The words of Che Guevara
His image may be instantly recognisable as the face of revolution but Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s words are no less powerful, guided as they are by ‘great feelings of love’.
Givon broke down art barriers and built up artists
Linda Givon founded the Goodman Gallery and showed works by artists of all races when it was illegal to do so. Her death is a loss to the artists and institutions she championed.
Sfiso Atomza’s experiments in being
Like the cover art, Atomza’s new EP presents multiple reflections of the artist, who celebrates South Africa’s musical archive and pushes the creative process beyond the usual limits.
Life and labour in Ndlulamthi’s ‘The Substance’
The celebrated rapper’s new release turns inward as he explores the pressures black men experience living in townships.
Nomcebo Zikode’s chant of hope
Following the global smash hit Jerusalema, the chart-topper is riding high on the success of her latest album. She talks about how her spiritual lyrics resonate with millions.
Mourning, lament and magic in UPRIZE! soundtrack
SPAZA’s musical improvisation to Sifiso Khanyile’s 2017 documentary, which depicts the history of the 1976 uprisings in Soweto, creates songs for the past and present.
From slave to major composer – then erased again
Like most contributions made by black people to the classical canon in Britain, Ignatius Sancho’s work has been overlooked, even though he had a hand in shaping musical culture.
Deaf community hails new children’s book
The story of friendship brings inclusion and diversity into children’s literature, while highlighting the fight to officially recognise sign language in South Africa.
Afro-Italian artists stake their claim with music
A new generation of artists is using their songs to not only voice the lived experience of Italians of African descent but also spread the word to the rest of Italy.
Text Messages | Alexander, the great or not so great?
Biographers and historians through the ages have veered from admiring the Macedonian leader ungrudgingly to questioning the nature of his character and achievements.
Mhlambi’s images conjure jazz call-and-response
Renowned South African photographer Siphiwe Mhlambi’s Expressions exhibition of 90 large-format images takes jazz photography beyond historiography and the stage.
Poetry Review | An Illuminated Darkness
Jacques Coetzee’s crystalline poetry collection marks a new and exciting moment for publishing and accessibility in South Africa.
Biddy Partridge’s photographic archive of exile
The photographer and musician’s negatives reveal moments of artistic exile in Harare. Years later, she is tracking down the people in these images and their kin, exploring the memories they trigger.
Isaac Zavale’s visual ode to Joburg’s multiplicity
The artist’s first solo exhibition is an ode to and examination of Johannesburg’s central business district that skirts the glitz and normalises the grit and realities of the city.
Singing with words: Recalling Keorapetse Kgositsile
The Poet Laureate focused on truth, meticulous craft and the political nature of cultural creations – but was never romantic about the struggle that forced him into 30 years of exile.
Letters Zimbabweans wrote to Dambudzo Marechera
Even after the enigmatic writer’s death, thousands of people harrowed by war and discarded by society corresponded with him in recently unearthed missives.
Mncedisi Shabangu, theatre’s all-round master
The multi-award-winning actor cannot wait to perform in the William Kentridge epic The Head & The Load, but meanwhile the multidimensional artist continues to awe while honing his craft on television.