The Back of the Field

Across Buea, Lagos, Nairobi and Cairo, a running boom is exposing the hidden economics of belonging. Who pays to keep a community free, who profits when it grows, and why not one of six global brands would say what any of it is worth.
Heal by Hair: How Communities, Culture, and Trust Are Redefining Mental Health Across Africa

In Siou, a village in Togo’s Kara region, a week before the Évala celebrations, the Heal by Hair Festival revealed a powerful truth: mental health is not only a medical conversation. It is a cultural, social, and collective responsibility. “We speak a great deal about healthcare infrastructure. We speak far less about infrastructures of trust. […]
At MoMA, a New Exhibition Celebrates West Africa’s Modernist Architectural Legacy

In 1960, 17 African countries gained independence in what became known as the “Year of Africa.” For many of these newly sovereign nations, political freedom was only the beginning. They were confronted with what an independent African nation actually looked like, a question that stretched beyond governance and infrastructure into the continent’s creative life: art, […]
Inside the Most Compelling African Pavilions at the 2026 Venice Biennale

For a long time, Africa’s presence at the Venice Biennale has felt slightly out of place. Even as African artists helped shape contemporary art globally, the continent itself often seemed pushed to the margins, present but not always fully seen, its stories and forms framed through a Western lens or treated as something separate from […]
Huguette Tchiapi’s Debut Begins in Yaoundé

Huguette Tchiapi is continuing an existing convergence, building a fashion brand that brings together the intricacies of her Cameroonian roots and the influence of her British identity. Like most emerging designers, she is deliberate about where her ideas come from. She speaks about influence less as something simply absorbed and more as something that can […]
What Roland-Garros Inherited from Central Africa

Whenever I tell people I was born and raised in Cameroon, the first thing they bring up is the football. The Indomitable Lions. Roger Milla dancing at the corner flag in 1990. Samuel Eto’o at Barcelona, scoring goals against teams whose names we learned to pronounce just for him. The 1990 World Cup quarter-final against […]
Kibonen and the Business of Cultural Authority

How a Cameroonian designer turned a single garment into a cultural and economic system—from New York to Cairo
Africa at the Winter Olympics 2026: The Distance Between Flags and Facilities

From February 6-22, 2026, the world turns its attention to northern Italy for the Winter Olympics, staged across Milan, Cortina
Hub of Africa Fashion Week Centers Ethiopian Manufacturing in Continental Strategy

Hub of Africa Fashion Week concluded its 15th edition last week in Addis Ababa with four days of programming
The Tunnel Is Louder Than the Stadium

How African teams sing their way into battle at AFCON 2025