When the Instagram page Shades of Injera was started in 2014, the slogan was “We don’t follow the culture, we create the culture.” On the page, they discuss sensitive topics like dating outside the Ethiopian community, sex and nontraditional religions. They also talk about the status of women.
The sound of live music performance and the aroma of authentic Ghanaian cuisine welcomed the over 7000 guests who visited the Ghana Embassy, USA, on Saturday, May 4, 2019 to experience Ghana’s rich heritage and culture.
“Passport DC” was organized as part of the Cultural Tourism DC events that encourages embassies to open its doors to the residents of the Washington DC Metro area to enable them to explore the many cultures represented by the Diplomatic community in the district. Continue reading “Over 7000 guests visit the Embassy of Ghana in US for cultural tourism day”
By Sharon Birch-Jeffrey*
To experience a taste of African culture deep inside the Big Apple, visitors – including many Senegalese – turn to Le Petit Senegal (Little Senegal), a West African neighborhood in West Harlem, New York.
African grocery shops, fabric stores, hair braiding parlors and regional restaurants sit shoulder to shoulder along the streets.
Continue reading “African Migrants Strive to Preserve Their Cultural Heritage”
They gathered in a clearing by a stream in Baltimore County one chilly early-spring day, some in the colorful African head ties known as geles, others wearing bracelets trimmed in shells or carved in wood.
One by one, they stepped forward to toss offerings into the Gwynns Falls – a pineapple, four oranges, a bouquet of tulips.
And when the lead priestess of these African-American women dropped a handful of shells to the ground and scrutinized their pattern, a message came through: Their celebration of the spring equinox was blessed by the divine.
By Samantha Tamplin
Traditional African dancers, drummers, poets and a panel of speakers performed at Eastern Kentucky University’s Africa Today event on March 22.
The event was hosted by the African Student Association (ASA) and was held in the O’Donnell auditorium in Whitlock.
Continue reading “Celebrating Africa Culture at Eastern Kentucky University”
When she arrived at the University, Uma Jalloh, current president of the University’s Organization of African Students, wanted to showcase her personal experience as a first-generation college student.
Her parents are immigrants from Guinea, but Jalloh was born in the U.S. After moving back to Guinea for a brief period of time, she returned to the United States and has lived in America since the age of six. She describes her experience of coming to America as a time of self-discovery and a chance to find her true identity, which blends both African and American culture.
By Owen Fairclough
African music has been influencing Western music for generations. Now, a new wave of musicians are becoming huge stars in their own countries, partly due to the growth of music streaming services. And they’re determined to show the rest of the world a diversity of sound that in the past has been lumped together as simply world music.
Owen Fairclough of CGTN AMERICA reported from the South by Southwest music festival.
Continue reading “African music gaining in popularity in America”
By Jeffery Fleishman
Those times of on-the-fly editing and pocket-change financing have since grown into one of the largest film industries in the world, a quicksilver business that is as attuned to juju priests as it is to the love affairs and nightclubs of the new rich.
The reach of what is known as Nollywood often strikes Kemi Adetiba, one of its most acclaimed directors, when she’s in Jamaica or New York. A taxi driver will invariably say, “Oh, God, I love Nigerian films” while waxing on about how those stories connect him to ancestors who centuries before had been uprooted from Africa by slavery and colonialism.
Continue reading “Watch out Hollywood, Nollywood is coming to town for a festival of African film”
The movie industry in Nigeria (Nollywood) has come a long way from catering to just its local audience.
These days, Nigerian movies are gradually going global and being appreciated in various parts of the globe.
After spreading around Africa through the Africa Magic Channels of Multichoice, Nigerian movies are beginning to find their way to global platforms like Netflix.
The artists helping this global push are spotlighted in this report by Pulse.com
By Eric Sandler
Chef Marcus Samuelsson spent this past weekend in Houston filming for his PBS reality series No Passport Required. Slated to air later this year, the episode will focus on Houston’s West African community and its rapidly growing presence on Houston’s culinary scene.
Houston will be one of six cities featured in season two. The show will also cover Filipino food in Seattle, Italian food in Philadelphia, Armenian food in Los Angeles, Chinese food in Las Vegas, and Brazilian and Portugese food in Boston.
Samuelsson tells CultureMap that he visited a few spots in Houston to complete his tour, including Safari, the Nigerian restaurant that’s operated in southwest Houston for 30 years.
Continue reading “Celebrity chef, Marcus Samuelsson, films in Houston with West African community”
By Nasiba Yakubu
Despite the gloomy commentary Ghanaian music receives, there are twinkle, twinkle little Ghanaian stars in the global music sky that must leave us with satisfaction that Ghana is doing something right to keep the global night bright.
Ghanaian artistes and their counterparts in the diaspora have made impressive strides with their unique talents over the years.
The constant growth witnessed in the industry has pushed Ghanaian music unto one of the world’s renowned music grading charts, The Billboard Charts.
Continue reading “The club of 8 Ghanaian stars to have entered Billboard Chart”
By Jason Farago
Okwui Enwezor, an influential Nigerian curator whose large-scale exhibitions displaced European and American art from its central position as he forged a new approach to art for a global age, died on Friday in Munich. He was 55.
The cause was cancer, said his partner, Louise Neri.
In ambitious, erudite, carefully argued exhibitions staged in Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States, Mr. Enwezor (pronounced en-WEH-zore) presented contemporary art against a backdrop of world history and cultural exchange.
Continue reading “Okwui Enwezor, Curator Who Remapped Art World, Dies at 55”
A new children’s museum in the works for northwest Baltimore is hoping to shed light on a sometimes-forgotten chapter of black history.
“Mama Kiki” Armstrong, originally from Ghana, wants to feature music, drumming and dancing that have influenced American pop culture at the Sankofa Children’s Museum, and bridge the gap of missing history.
“This should help them appreciate the culture,” Armstrong said. “We’re not just talking about African-American kids. We’re talking about all the kids in the community.”
Continue reading “New African Children’s Museum Set To Open In Baltimore, First In The Country”
Eritrian-Americans Tiffany Haddish was the star of the black carpet at the Koshie Mills presents “The Diaspora Dialogues” on Saturday afternoon (March 9) at the Marriott Hotel in Marina del Rey, Calif.
The 39-year-old Girls Trip actress looked pretty in a burgundy, velvet jumpsuit as she stepped out for the event.
The Diaspora Dialogues is a platform and a movement created by Koshie Mills designed to break down barriers, bridge the gap between Africans from Africa and the descendants outside of the continent in the Diaspora.
This year’s International Women Of Power event had a myriad of powerful influential women from Africa, West Indies, UK and America.
When Godwin Jabangwe stood in front of a room full of Hollywood movie executives to pitch his first feature film last November, he knew his idea wasn’t exactly the stuff of a conventional blockbuster.
He wanted to make an animated movie called “Tunga,” he explained, about a young girl who travels to a mythical lost city on a quest to save her village from drought. It would be set in Zimbabwe. Oh right, and it would be a musical.
“Five years ago, with an idea like that, you would have been laughed out of the room,” Mr. Jabangwe says. But his idea immediately caught the ear of a big production company, and last month, after a scrappy bidding war, Jabangwe signed a deal with them. “Tunga” is going to be a Netflix original.
Continue reading “Netflix increases production of African films”