Tag: South Africans in America

Sho Madjozi: South African Star Signs to Epic Records in USA

By SAPeople

Crowned “a new kind of global pop star” by The New York Times, award-winning South African rap disruptor Sho Madjozi has officially signed to Epic Records. She joins the label’s esteemed roster as the only South African act in North America.

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Jessica Sutton: South African actress says playing the role of a witch in Fantasy series is her ‘dream job’

By Sam Spiller  | iol

Imagine a world where witches took up arms in service of their country. That is the premise of the new fantasy TV series Motherland: Fort Salem. South African-born actress Jessica Sutton plays witch cadet Tally Craven. She stars alongside Taylor Hickson and Ashley Nicole Williams.

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Netflix renews South African ‘Blood & Water’ for a second season

by Herman Eloff | Channel 24

It’s official. The South African Netflix series Blood & Water has been renewed for a second season.

According to a statement released by Netflix the second season will see Puleng and Fikile deal with the consequences of their explosive confrontation as more mystery and drama unfolds.

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Zozibini Tunzi: South Africa’s first black Miss Universe joins Black Lives Matter Protest in New York to fight racism

By Kim Harrisberg | IOL

When Zozibini Tunzi marched in the Black Lives Matter protests in New York City, the latest Miss Universe kept thinking how young people in her native South Africa died fighting for the same cause 44 years ago.

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Wines of South Africa USA Launches Industry Podcast and Virtual Tastings to Support Sommeliers

By wineindustryadvisor

New York, NY, June 11, 2020 – Wines of South Africa (WOSA) USA, the industry association that promotes the exports of South African wine, is proud to announce the launch of two initiatives aimed to offer continued education and awareness of South African wines, as well as support out-of-work sommeliers: the Wines of South Africa Podcast and WOSA Somm Sessions. The latter offers consumers a sommelier-led virtual tasting experience geared to their own tastes and selection of South African wines.

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Elon Musk: South African-born billionaire says ‘America is the land of opportunity – there is no other country where I could have done this’

By Taylor Locke | CNBC

Growing up in South Africa, Elon Musk  read plenty of books but was especially inspired by science fiction.  The genre motivated him to create “cleaner energy technology or [build] spaceships to extend the human species’s reach” in the future, according to the book “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance.

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South African designer Thebe Magugu’s creation featured on hit HBO show, Insecure

BY NOMVELO MASANGO | Sowetan

When it comes to South African designers who are flying the country’s flag high, Thebe Magugu is undoubtedly among the best. The LVMH prize winner, who was the first in Africa to ever receive the prize, has become a household name and continues to shine bright.

In this week’s episode of Insecure, American actress Issa Rae wore a red cold shoulder safari jacket from Magugu’s ‘African Studies’ collection.

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South African-born Elon Musk sends Americans to space with Falcon Dragon rocket

Netflix renews South African Spythriller ‘Queen Sono’ for second season

By Jake Kanter | Decider

Netflix has renewed its first African original Queen Sono for a second season. Starring Quantico‘s Pearl Thusi, it centers on a highly trained spy who takes on dangerous missions, while also facing challenges in her personal life. The second season will see her search for the truth as her newfound need for revenge takes her on a mission across Africa.

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South African series, Blood & Water, Lands Number 1 Spot On Netflix’s Top 10 In US

By Ebimo Amungo

Netflix has a new hit and it is from Africa. Blood and Water has taken the world by storm since it made its worldwide debut on the streaming platform on May 20. In only a few days the series now holds the number 1 spot among the Top 10 most streamed shows on Netflix in the United States.

Blood and Water is also the most watched series in France, Libya, Nigeria and a number of countries across the world.

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South Africans are making waves in North American mining

By Ciaran Ryan  | Moneyweb

Covid-19 economic crisis has given it new impetus to firms North America, to hunt for local sources of key raw materials that have traditionally come from East Asia. So things are looking up for the Tamarack nickel-copper-cobalt exploration project in the state of Minnesota in the US. What makes this perhaps even more interesting from a South African point of view is that the project is managed by Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Talon Metals (TLO.TSX), which has deep South African attachments.

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South Africans begins repatriating citizens from US


The South African government has started repatriating its citizens who have been stranded in the United States back home. The first flight with 275 South Africans has arrived the Johannesburg. Two other flights are scheduled.

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Inside Queen Sono, Netflix’s First African Original Series

When we think of the spy genre, the icons that come to mind first are often the white, male masters of espionage, the James Bonds and Jason Bournes. But the new Netflix series Queen Sono offers its own take on the genre in the platform’s first fully produced African original series.

By TIME MAGAZINE

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Life in New York and the year ahead: 10 questions with Zozibini Tunzi, South African Miss Universe

In December 2019, Zozibini Tunzi’s life changed when she became the third South African to win the Miss Universe title. She now spends most of her time in New York.

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Greg Joseph’s influence on South Africa’s love for American football

South Africa’s Love for American football is Growing due the exploits of the Tennessee Titans  kicker Greg Joseph

 By The Spread  

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Minnesota singers welcome South African choir into their homes

Back in August 2018, in a South African school, a pair of sopranos sang and swayed together. Maya Tester and Thulisile Ntetha were from different choirs, different continents. But minutes into their first rehearsal, they were chatting and laughing.

“We just clicked,” said Ntetha.

More than a year later, the pair giggled as they told the story in a very different setting: Tester’s south Minneapolis kitchen.

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South African DJ Tira appears on Beats 1 Radio to push amapiano & gqom in America

BY MASEGO SEEMELA

DJ Tira is making major moves in the US, and it is all in the name of pushing SA music.

Makoya Bearings, as he refers to himself, made a guest appearance on Beats 1 Radio, hosted by Ebro Darden.

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‘Zulu Wedding’ Director Eager For South  Africans To See Movie

By Fatima Moosa

The Zulu Wedding is finally releasing in cinemas. The movie’s release has been delayed many times in the past two years. The movie is about Lu (Nondumiso Tembe) a dancer from South Africa who is currently working in America. She falls in love with Tex (Darrin Dewitt Henson). However, there’s a problem – Lu has been promised to marry a Zulu prince (Pallance Dladla). Returning home to South Africa with Tex, Lu has to navigate the complication that is her life. The Daily Vox team spoke to about the film’s director Lineo Sekeleoane. 

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South African swimmer Ali Basel takes on senior year at Iowa State

By Megan Teske

Ali Basel came to the United States from South Africa without her parents and overcame shoulder surgery her sophomore year. Now a senior, Basel is looking to help lead her team in what she calls a “comeback season.”

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Hundreds of South African Women Gather in New York’s Times Square Against Gender-based voilence

By Ted Botha

About 200 South Africans from numerous states across America gathered in the very heart of New York, Times Square, to hold a silent protest against gender-based violence in their home country.

The protest on Saturday was organised by South African cultural exchange visitor Iman Jeneker, who said that she was so moved by what was happening in South Africa that she posted something on Facebook.

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The seminal Hollywood movie on apartheid South Africa and its pioneering black female director

By Nadia Neophytou

When Euzhan Palcy released the second film she’d ever made, A Dry White Season, in 1989, she wrote herself into the history of filmmaking, becoming the first black female filmmaker to helm a studio movie—one with big name actors and a budget to go along with it. It should have heralded a new era in her life, as a filmmaker of note, but it’s only now, 30 years later, that she looks set to return to her love of cinema.

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They may not have won America’s Got Talent, but Ndlovu Youth Choir stirred our souls

By Aisha Salaudeen, CNN

Their incredible run on America’s Got Talent may have come to a halt in Wednesday night’s final but Ndlovu Youth Choir succeeded in winning hearts and minds around the world with their soul-stirring performances.

The South African youth choir’s powerful rendition of ‘Toto’s Africa’ on launched them into the finals, making them the first African act to do so.

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Wynton Marsalis and More Celebrate the Sounds of Post-Apartheid South African Jazz in New York

The story of South African jazz has been told in venues across New York City since the ’60s, when the likes of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba came to the town as exiles from Johannesburg. The part of the story that came after the country found democracy hasn’t had as much stage time as fans of the genre would say it deserves. It’s this part of the story that Jazz at Lincoln Center’s new series of concerts, the South African Songbook, chose to spotlight to kick off its 2019-2020 season.

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South Africa’s Youth Choir through to Finals of America’s Got Talent

By Amenna Dayo 

The Ndlovu Youth Choir from Limpopo, South Africa has made it to the finals of America’s Got Talent.

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South African introduces Taste of Soweto as part of food festival in Colorado Springs

By Nick Puckett

A south African chef is hoping to introduce his Kalahari chicken wings, from his A Taste of Soweto restuarant to visitors of the Annual A Taste of Colorado Food Festival in Colorado Springs. Mpho MaPoulo wants to introduce the taste of his home country to Americans with his start-up food business A Taste of Soweto. MaPoulo and his wife, Ocean, hope to have their own food truck at the festival come October.

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Ndlovu Youth Choir once again outshines others in America’s Got Talent Read

South Africa’s Ndlovu Youth Choir has once again wowed audiences – this time with their gorgeous rendition of U2’s Beautiful Day in the America’s Got Talent’s quarter-finals. The choir is a huge hit with both American and Mzansi fans and they’ve come a lot further than people thought a choir would go in the competition.

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Meet the SA choirmaster who has ‘America’s Got Talent’ in rhapsodies

BY ALEX PATRICK  | Herald Live

“Just because you’re born in poverty doesn’t mean you are poverty.”

These were the powerful words of the Ndlovu Youth Choir choirmaster Ralf Schmitt after the Limpopo-based group knocked the socks off the judges at America’s Got Talent in July. The choir had been selected to perform at the show, and on Wednesday, after making it through a second round of the competition, they leave for Hollywood and the finale.

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South African Airways Cuts Washington To Dakar Flights

South African Airways has two destinations in the US — New York JFK and Washington Dulles. They fly nonstop between New York and Johannesburg and fly between Washington and Johannesburg with an intermediate stop in Accra, Ghana, and Dakar, Senegal

As of next month, South African Airways will fly daily to Washington via Accra. This is coming at the expense of the Dakar to Washington route, which will operate for the last time on September 1, 2019.

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Fake news on social media is eroding trust in media, especially in sub-Saharan Africa

Study finds that significant amount of educated people in Sub-Saharan Africa distrust news on social media platforms

By  University of Houston


As many as 90% of Kenyans, 93% of Nigerians and 76% of South Africans believe they are exposed to false news about politics on a fairly regular basis. This is the findings of a study by Dani Madrid-Morales, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Houston’s Jack J. Valenti School of Communication and Herman Wasserman at the University of Cape Town.

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WATCH: South African icons that were involved in ‘The Lion King’

As the live action movie for “The Lion King” is taking the world by storm, South Africans have even more to be proud of as a number of local icons have worked the new version.

Dr John Kani plays Rafiki, the mandrill with an unnaturally long tail. Rafiki performs shamanistic services for the lions of Pride Rock and is a great martial artist. Kani was working on the set of Black Panther and playing none other than King T’Chaka when he was approached to voice Rafiki.

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