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, […]
Cotonou Knows Exactly What It’s Doing
Cotonou Knows Exactly What It’s Doing Amazone Statue, Cotonou, Benin. Photo: Présidence du Bénin. Every West African knows Cotonou, whether or not they have ever stopped to think about why. The auntie who goes for fabric knows it. The trader who crosses the border from Nigeria knows it. The goods that show up in Lagos […]
Best of Culture 2025
2025 was the year African culture stopped explaining itself. The shift was visible
The Cloth That Holds the Dead
An Egungun is not a costume. It’s a technology for making ancestors show up. Outside the communities that practice it, Egungun gets misread
Egungun: The Cult of Ancestors
In Benin, the Egungun festival is one of the most striking expressions of Yoruba culture, a ceremony where memory, artistry, and spirituality move together in vivid, commanding form. In his new photographic series, Stephan Gladieu captures this world with an extraordinary sense of presence, offering a window into a tradition where ancestors return not as […]