The Mask Does Not Arrive Quietly
At the Festival des Masques in Porto-Novo, music, movement and the reaction of the crowd are part of what photographer Kelvin Selasie Quist remembers most. Over two days in July, he photographed the masquerades moving through the festival, the people gathered around them and the moments in between. “I was drawn to the energy, colors, […]
Can a Piece of Clothing Bring You Home?
For Kimanzi, a Kenyan living in Riverside, California, home fits inside a scarf. When she left Kenya for the United States at 17, she had only two suitcases and a carry-on. Every item she packed meant another had to be left behind. Among the things she refused to leave was a kitenge scarf that had […]
What Beadwork Is Worth
It took Noormesuku Kereto more than two months to finish the necklace. It was an Enkarewa, the wide beaded collar a Maasai woman wears at her wedding, and this one was made for a safari camp in the Mara rather than for a bride, which changes who will look at it but not how it […]
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. […]
Six Days on the Zambezi: A Traveller’s Guide to Kuomboka
There is a version of Kuomboka that lives in photographs: a black and white Nalikwanda gliding across a flooded plain, hundreds of paddlers moving as one, red uniforms catching the light. It is genuinely a spectacular image, and it is also, in a real sense, only the final hour of a six-day event that most […]
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 […]
Why Artists Keep Returning to Grand-Popo
When Joshua Gbengene visited Grand-Popo for the third time in December 2025, he was simply keeping a distance from work. After months of working nonstop on a series of creative projects, including a pop-up and an installation, the multidisciplinary artist travelled to the coastal town in search of somewhere quiet enough to slow down, clear […]
In Mwangola, Gelmira Gourgel Exhibits the Music That Fueled Angola’s Independence
Gelmira Gourgel, an Angolan architectural designer and curator, wants people to see Angola in all its depth, not as the country that rarely enters conversations about Africa, but as a nation whose rich cultural traditions, enduring craftsmanship and creative resilience have long shaped the continent’s artistic imagination. In her own words, it is a politically […]
Francis Kéré Builds the Goethe-Institut Dakar from the Ground Up
In Dakar, a new cultural landmark is rising from the soil. Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, the new Goethe-Institut Senegal turns earth, memory, and craftsmanship toward a new era of African architectural possibility. In Dakar’s Fann neighbourhood, a baobab tree stands at the centre of a building that appears to have grown […]
Sanjo Lawal: Artsman the Traveler
Sanjo Lawal works between photography, creative editing, and digital painting. He renders skin in near-charcoal tones so the colors around it can sing harder. Born in Lagos in 1997 and raised in Ijebu Ode, he draws on Yoruba ceremony, the Ojude Oba festival, and the layered textiles of his mother’s wardrobe. His Artsman the Traveler […]