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 …

Karamba Diaby, the first African-born member of the German parliament, has announced that he would not run in next year’s federal election. Dr Diaby, who was first elected into the Bundestag in 2013, wants to spend more time with his family and make way for younger politicians. Here’s the public statement he issued on Wednesday to announce his decision not …

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 …

Concerned about their homeland, which is experiencing tough economic times, Nigerians in Germany will gather in Berlin on 27 July. The summit, which will feature expert panel discussions, an exhibition of Nigerian start-ups and cultural events, will produce a communique with recommendations for the Nigerian government. Nigeria is currently experiencing challenging economic conditions due to significant policy decisions implemented by …

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 …

A street has been named after the Afro-American poet and civil rights activist Audre Lorde in Berlin. Audre-Lorde-Strasse was inaugurated with a ceremony on the corner of Audre-Lorde-Str./Muskauer Str on Friday (28 June 2024). Among the personalities who attended the event were Clara Herrmann (district mayor of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg) and Werner Heck (head of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district council) as well as …