Africa

Dear Glasgow theatre season focuses on Middle East and North Africa

New project from Oran Mor’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint strand

21 Mar 2012

With the Syrian crisis showing no sign of abating, the human story behind the various conflicts and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa has seldom been so urgent. It’s an issue that David MacLennan, artistic director of Oran Mor’s A Play, a…

Un Fou noir au pays des Blancs

French language show details tumultuous arrival in Europe from Congo

29 Feb 2012

Having already toured extensively since 2001, taking his intriguing personal show from France to Guadalupe, Martinique and Canada, writer, storyteller, psychotherapist and professor of humanities Pie Tshibanda gives his debut performance in the UK at…

Angelina Jolie dreams of move to Africa

Celebrity Gossip

5 Dec 2010

Angelina Jolie wants to move to Africa in the future. The 'Tourist' star - who raises six children, Maddox, nine, Pax, seven, Zahara, five, Shiloh, four, and two-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, with her partner Brad Pitt - plans to move her brood…

Tabu Ley Rochereau - The Voice of Lightness Vol 2

23 Nov 2010

(Sterns) World music is as much about back catalogue as innovation and London-based Sterns has a formidable reputation as the pioneer shop and label. In this panoramic collection, bridging 1977-81 and 1983-93, Zaire’s singer-songwriter Taby Ley…

AfroCubism latest project from makers of Buena Vista Social Club

Musicians from Mali and Cuba record album and play live dates

19 Nov 2010

AfroCubism was for several years one of world music’s great what-ifs? In 1996, Nick Gold of World Circuit Records invited the Malian musicians Djelimady Tounkara and Bassekou Kouyate to Havana to record with the cowboy-hatted Cuban singer and guitarist…

Original Broadway Cast Recording - Fela!

16 Nov 2010

(Cast Records) If you can’t get to London’s National Theatre to see the phenomenal show telling the extraordinary life of Afrobeat’s Fela Kuti, look no further than this tremendous recording of the original Broadway show. It evokes Lagos in…

Zambezi Express

Talented performers bring warmth to cold Fringe

9 Aug 2010

Feet stomp, drums resound and mouths scat and sing to conjure a vibrant, joyful Africa through dance, percussion, a cappella vocals and acrobatics. A nominal storyline fails to hinder the packed dance card of contrasting pieces, which errs on the side…

Various Artists - Yes We Can: Songs About Leaving Africa

2 Jul 2010

(Out Here Records) Pulsing beats from hip hop to dance make up this stirring collection, telling contemporary stories of today’s Africa. Most compilations are an easy forage through label back-catalogues. All salutations to Rose Skelton then…

Lionel Loueke

25 Jun 2009

Guitarist Lionel Loueke came to jazz via an early immersion in African music in his homeland of Benin, a grounding that has contributed to the distinctive style that caught the ears of Herbie Hancock and Terence Blanchard, both of whom have called on…

Africa

1 Jun 2009

Deciding that he needed a radical change of scenery, Neil Ratley travelled to Africa in search of adventure - and he sure found it. Here’s a snapshot of his escapes

Annie Lennox

Festival of Politics

22 Jul 2008

Ex-Eurythmics leader raises the often neglected issue of HIV and AIDS. With a comfortable haul of 80 million album sales to her name so far, Annie Lennox has recently turned her voice from pop music to hollering in support of a far nobler cause: that of…

Afr-I-Can

17 Jul 2008

Running between June and September, Afr-I-can is a loose series of events, talks, workshops and concerts led by artists of African origin and celebrating African achievement. Although the events are mainly aimed at families of African and Caribbean…

Azur and Asmar: The Prince’s Quest - interview with Michel Ocelot

31 Jan 2008

Name Michel Ocelot Born Villefranche-sur-Mer, France in 1943 Background While Ocelot spent much of his childhood in Guinea, West Africa and his teenager years in Anjou, he now lives in Paris. He made his name by writing and directing the Kirikou…

Ben Okri

19 Jul 2007

Impoverished student, witness to the Nigerian civil war, paint shop employee, poetry editor for West Africa magazine, and BBC broadcaster, Ben Okri is now a much-lauded writer. Five years in the writing, his latest novel Starbook is a tale of slavery in…