African Arts Journal

08/09/2026

It’s Happening This Month: Namibia’s Doek Literary Festival Returns to Windhoek Sept 30–Oct 3

Seven years ago, if you had asked Rémy Ngamije to point you toward Namibian literature, he would have struggled to give you an answer. Not because Namibians weren't writing. Because almost nothing existed to catch what they wrote and hold it up to the light. "There was not much of a 'Namibian literary landscape,'" he has said of the years before he started publishing....

Seven years ago, if you had asked Rémy Ngamije to point you toward Namibian literature, he would have struggled to give you an answer. Not because Namibians weren’t writing. Because almost no…

07/09/2026

The WhatsApp Book Club: How Nigeria’s Reading Culture Moved Onto the Phone

There is a version of Nigeria's reading culture that still looks the way reading cultures have always looked. Somewhere in Ikoyi, on a rotating basis, a group called Lagos Books & Cocktails gathers over drinks to argue about a novel. In Enugu, the Coal City Book Club meets at a fixed address on Mgbodedo Street to talk through African authors and the questions their work raises....

05/09/2026

From Our Shelf to Yours: Mansa Musa: The Richest Man in History by Young Trees Education

By Eyitayo Ogunleye, Editor-in-Chief African Arts Journal — September 6, 2026 It is Saturday. The children are home. And this week's pick from our shelf answers a question that every African parent should want their child to be able to answer: who was the richest person who ever lived? Not Elon Musk. Not Jeff Bezos. Not any of the names that appear in modern wealth rankings....

By Eyitayo Ogunleye, Editor-in-Chief African Arts Journal — September 6, 2026 It is Saturday. The children are home. And this week’s pick from our shelf answers a question that every African …

04/09/2026

The Doctor Nollywood Never Shows You — But Cannot Work Without

There is a version of Nollywood that the audience sees — the finished film, the red carpet, the box office numbers, the stars. And then there is the version that exists before any of that, in the long hours of a production day that begins before sunrise and ends after dark, in the heat of a location shoot, in the physical demands placed on crew and cast across weeks of filming....

There is a version of Nollywood that the audience sees — the finished film, the red carpet, the box office numbers, the stars. And then there is the version that exists before any of that, in the l…

03/09/2026

🎬 THE ARTIST | PILOT EPISODE — COMING SOON

Every story has a voice. Every culture has a custodian. Every idea deserves to be heard. 🌍

Introducing THE ARTIST, a new video interview series from African Arts Journal — bringing you closer to the people shaping Africa’s cultural and intellectual landscape.

We sit down with authors, musicians, professors, educators, scholars, filmmakers, poets, historians, artists, cultural practitioners, traditional knowledge holders and other remarkable voices whose work helps us understand, preserve and reimagine Africa.

For our Pilot Episode, we meet Professor Kayode Eesuola, Research Professor at the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies, University of Lagos. 🎙️

From Fela and political thought to gardening, Kalakuta, Ifá, indigenous knowledge, Nigeria–Benin cultural connections and the fascinating intersection of Ifá and Artificial Intelligence — this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

🌱 The Artist is about the person behind the work.
📖 The knowledge behind the story.
🎨 The culture behind the creation.

🎥 This is only the teaser.

The full Pilot Episode is coming soon on Rayany Entertainment.

👉🏾 Subscribe now and turn on your notifications:
http://youtube.com/

Watch this space. The Artist is coming.

THE ARTIST
African Arts Journal
Your Story. Our Platform. Lasting Impact.

AfricanKnowledge AfricanArts AfricanScholarship IndigenousKnowledge Ifa YorubaCulture AfricanVoices CulturalHeritage CulturalJournalism Nigeria BeninRepublic AfricanStorytelling AfricanIntellectuals AfricanCreativeIndustry

03/09/2026

They Have Been Sitting in European Museums for Over a Century. Ghana Is Finally Getting Them Back.

Somewhere in the World Museum in Leiden, in the Netherlands, there are 2,000 objects that do not belong there. Ceremonial pieces. Traditional regalia. Cultural artifacts taken from Ghana during the colonial era and carried across the ocean to sit in European collections, labelled and catalogued and exhibited to audiences who were never told the full story of how they got there....

Somewhere in the World Museum in Leiden, in the Netherlands, there are 2,000 objects that do not belong there. Ceremonial pieces. Traditional regalia. Cultural artifacts taken from Ghana during the…

02/09/2026

Your September 2026 African Reading List: The Books Worth Your Time This Month

September arrives with a quietly powerful literary lineup from African and African diaspora authors. From a debut Ethiopian political satire that has been generating serious pre-publication buzz to a prize-winning Kenyan novel about identity, sexuality and the weight of belonging, this month's reading list covers territory that is both geographically and emotionally wide. Here is what to add to your shelf....

September arrives with a quietly powerful literary lineup from African and African diaspora authors. From a debut Ethiopian political satire that has been generating serious pre-publication buzz to…

01/09/2026

September Belongs to Them: Celebrating African Women Who Are Rewriting the Story

September is here. And with it comes something African Arts Journal is proud to mark — the International Month of Black Women in the Arts, observed every year throughout September, recognising the creative achievements of Black women across visual art, literature, music, dance, theatre, film and the healing and culinary arts. For African Arts Journal, this observance is not an obligation....

September is here. And with it comes something African Arts Journal is proud to mark — the International Month of Black Women in the Arts, observed every year throughout September, recognising the …

29/08/2026

A Book Every Young African Reader Should Discover: La Case des ancêtres ( The Hut of the Ancestors)

A captivating story of family, tradition, inheritance and the enduring presence of the past. What if a story could entertain a young reader while quietly opening a window into African history, culture and tradition? That is what makes La Case des ancêtres by Beninese author Serge Adjaka an intriguing addition to a young reader’s bookshelf. Set in Gbolli Kpodji, a village in the former Kingdom of Danxomè, present-day Benin, the story follows Saka, a young man who inherits two palm plantations from his late father....

28/08/2026

Africa Had the Internet Before the Internet Existed. It Was Made of Wood and Animal Skin.

Before the telegraph. Before the telephone. Before the fibre-optic cables that now carry billions of messages across continents every second. West Africa had a communication system that could transmit complex information across distances of up to twenty miles in real time — and then relay that information further, station by station, until a message had travelled hundreds of miles in the time it took a horse to cover a fraction of that distance....

Before the telegraph. Before the telephone. Before the fibre-optic cables that now carry billions of messages across continents every second. West Africa had a communication system that could trans…