CULTURE & SOCIETY

The first Togo Festival in Germany (FESTOA), organized by Togo Goes On e.V., took place in Berlin on Saturday. The festival, which was held simultaneously with the annual Kenako Africa Festival at the Alexanderplatz, featured a diverse range of activities, including symposiums, a fashion show, a traditional masquerade performance, and a music concert. A captivating masquerade dance transformed Alexanderplatz into …

Berlin’s largest public square, Alexanderplatz, will transform into a vibrant African cultural fair when the 2024 Kenako Africa Festival kicks off on Friday, 23 August. This annual celebration, running until 1 September, features a rich array of activities, including live music, dance, fashion shows, culinary experiences, and craft markets. The 2024 musical lineup boasts artists from across the continent, showcasing …

Afro-Pop stars to perform at Berlin’s international music festival Pop-Kultur Berlin’s Pop-Kultur Festival, holding from 28-30 August, is set to dazzle attendees with an electrifying lineup of performances, featuring some of Africa’s brightest stars. Among the headliners is Yemi Alade, the Nigerian Afro-pop sensation whose energetic performances have captivated audiences worldwide. Known for her vibrant stage presence, Alade will bring …

On Saturday 24 August 2024, Alexanderplatz in Berlin will transform into a vibrant cultural melting pot as FESTOA, the Togolese Festival in Germany, kicks off as part of the KENAKO Africa Festival. This special event, organized by the non-profit organization Togo Goes On e.V., offers a unique opportunity to highlight and celebrate the cultural, historical, and political connections between Togo …

An event celebrating the culture of Africa’s most populous country will hold in the German city of Potsdam on Saturday, 17 August. Organised for the second time by Deutsche und Immigranten e.V., ‘WAZOBIA Nigerian Day 2024’ will feature, among others, a podium discussion, music and dance performances, a fashion show, culinary specialities of Nigeria, an exhibition of products from Nigeria …

The annual season of African music and culture in Germany is slowly, slowly.. drawing to a close. Here are Festivals you don’t want to miss before the season ends: Afrikanisches und Karibisches Kulturfest Frankfurt 12 – 13 August / Frankfurt, Rebstockpark Live music, discussions in the forum tent, children’s program, performances by numerous artists, as well as the popular bazaar …

From 19 to 29 September 2024, the Africa Film Festival Cologne (AFFK) will celebrate its 21st edition. This year’s festival promises an exceptional programme with 70 feature films, documentaries and short films that offer a compelling insight into the diverse realities of Africa. From compelling narratives to thought-provoking documentaries, each film reflects the depth and diversity of African and Afro-diasporic …

By Nefeli-Anna Tatsi Munich-based music producer and musician TonyB Gaskyani started the summer season by releasing his first personal EP “New Age”. The title is his fresh start into the German music industry. His EP marks the beginning of a transformation from successful beat maker and music-producer to solo musician and a performer. As a Nigerian born and raised artist, …

The 13th Afrika Festival Potsdam/Brandenburg at the weekend was a complete success – around 2,000 visitors flocked to Potsdam’s Luisenplatz (Luisen Square) on each of the two days of the festival. The festival kicked off on Friday with a lively and colourful street parade through the streets of Potsdam, featuring traditional African music, dance and costumes, showcasing the vibrant spirit …

Hi there, I’m Nesa. If you haven’t read the previous episodes, I advise you to stop reading. Go back, read them, and then come back. Don’t worry; I’ll be right here waiting for you. And if you’ve already read the previous episodes, buckle up, and let’s continue our journey. I would not call myself a DADA BEE (a Ghanaian colloquialism). …

Wole Soyinka, the literary giant and human rights icon, turns 90 on 13 July. Considering the gamut of his creative work as a dramatist, poet, novelist, essayist, memoirist and wordsmith, the emeritus professor of comparative literature could arguably be described as Africa’s greatest man of letters ever. In 1986, Soyinka became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize in …

At the heart of Wole Soyinka’s whole corpus of work is man, mankind with all his intelligence and stupidity, writes Atim Ani*. The Nobel laureate pictures man, an African, in his constant struggle of adjustment to his changing environment, she posits in this essay on the significance of Soyinka’s body of work. Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for Literature …

For a continent whose merits have been overshadowed by wars, natural disasters, poverty and human displacements, the Nobel Prize for literature awarded to the Nigerian Wole Soyinka in 1986 must have come as a shock to those audiences with little knowledge of the presence of a wealth of contemporary African literatures. This shock could only be the result of years …

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka turns 90 on 13 July. Femi Awoniyi and Michael Nnaji look at the life of the literary giant as a political and rights activist in the service of humanity. Born Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka on 13 July 1934 in Abeokuta, south-western Nigeria, this truly great man of many parts is often wrongly reduced to the Nobel Prize …

Hi again, Nesa here. Welcome back to the second episode of my journey. Today, we dive into my experience relocating from Ghana to Germany, a journey that redefined my path and taught me invaluable lessons about resilience, starting afresh, and seizing opportunities. To be honest, I never imagined I would settle in Germany. Born here but raised in Ghana, I …

ANNOUNCEMENT After some anxiety about the future of the African Music Festival, we are now all the more pleased to be able to present this year’s wonderful programme (1-4 August) under the motto “We are one”! Thanks to the great support of many people who donated, contributed to the crowd-funding campaign and took part in the benefit concerts, we were …

The Africa Centre London has rolled out an elaborate programme to celebrate the life of Wole Soyinka, the first African Nobel laureate in Literature (1986), to mark the Nigerian writer’s 90th birthday. From Friday, July 19 to Saturday, July 27, The Africa Centre will come alive with exhibitions, roundtables, film screenings, live music performances and poetry recitals to celebrate the …

In her new short autobiographic book, Cologne-based legal scholar and creative author Nesa narrates her story, of an African girl who was born in Germany but raised in the continent and now lives in the country of her birth. This is the first episode of Nesa’s chronicle Hi, I’m Nesa, and over the next ten weeks, I’ll be taking you …

Our contributing editor Tina Adomako reviews “Afrika in Mode. Luxus, Handwerk und textiles Erbe”, a new book written by Ghanaian designer Ken Kweku Nimo, in which African fashion designers narrate African fashion history. “African” fashion has found its way into the Western fashion world for over a hundred years. Even when Black people were downgraded as primitive, it was and …

The Association of Yoruba Progressive Community (AYPC) Bayern e.V. is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its founding. The group’s members are from the Yoruba-speaking areas of Nigeria living in the state of Bavaria and they support each other as well as promote their culture in Germany. Events commemorating the milestone commenced on 1 June in the Bavarian city of Munich …