Before the House of Vlam, Cape Town’s Queer History Made Space for Ballroom
Editor’s note: Michael van Niekerk is the Mother and founder of the House of Vlam and founder of Keep The Energy. This essay draws on his experience within Cape Town’s ballroom community alongside interviews and historical sources. Cape Town’s ballroom scene is young, but viciously resilient and viciously talented. It is a scene of houses, […]
African Art Doesn’t Need the White Cube
For centuries, African art has thrived through colour, movement and ritual. But as contemporary African galleries rethink how work is shown, the white cube is no longer the only option.
How Brands Sell Belonging
Belonging is the new currency of African fashion, and the labels that trade in it are turning shoppers into believers.
Holy Dress Codes: What Comes to Mind When You See the Garment?
There is usually something immediately legible about religious dress codes. When I see a woman in a hijab, a man in a yarmulke, or a Black American Southern Baptist church hat, I have some sense of who they are — their values, their community, their relationship to God, defined largely on their own terms. In […]
The Brutal History of African Architecture
A cylindrical tower and a stepped concrete pyramid impose themselves on the skylines of Nairobi and Abidjan. Built in the years after independence, both were enlisted to project progress and permanence, giving physical shape to the ambitions of newly sovereign nations. Half a century on, one still hosts the political life of a capital. The […]
Before Arthur Ashe Was a Stadium, He Was a Problem for Apartheid
Every late August in New York, Arthur Ashe becomes a place. More than 23,000 people fill the stadium carrying his name. Players walk through its tunnels, and commentators use the name as geography: Night session at Ashe. Meet me outside Ashe. Fifty-three years ago, another country was trying to keep Arthur Ashe out. South Africa […]
Adirẹ and the Wrapper-Wearers
My relationship to adirẹ is perhaps an unusual one; it begins not with indigo, but with cassava. In 2024, I returned to Nigeria for a two-month residency with the G.A.S. Foundation to study cassava’s role and cultural significance in the country. It was the longest I had spent in the country since leaving at five […]
How Lagos Moves
There are two words I’ve long used to describe Lagos: beautiful chaos. They may read like an oxymoron, but they are the closest thing the city has to a definition. To understand Lagos, you must first allow that contradiction to settle in your mind. Only then does the city begin to reveal itself, not as […]
The New Stewards of El Fenn
It requires remarkable restraint to be uncharmed by El Fenn. Hidden behind rosy, sun-drenched walls inside the centuries-old medina, the hotel has long existed as one of Marrakech’s defining creative addresses, where the cedar doors and tadelakt walls feel less like a hotel than a private home opened to the world. From the rooftop, the […]
How Nigeria Was Everywhere and Nowhere at the World Cup
Where the 2026 World Cup rank in recent history is discourse for another time, there’s no doubt that it has uniquely taken its place as a cultural tentpole. A reason for this? The host nations, particularly the United States, which, months before the tournament kicked off, was speculatively doomed because of anti-immigration sentiments, ICE crackdowns, […]