Africa
10 Questions for Alexander McCall SmithTuesday, 23 April 2013
Alexander McCall Smith is Scottish, and writes fiction, but he doesn’t write “Scottish fiction” as most of us understand the term. In his world view there are no used needles and discarded condoms littering tenement stairwells, no spotty hedonists... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Zanzibar: The Nightingale Still SingsSunday, 10 March 2013
A crowd of men and younger women in full burkahs gathers, bewildered by the sight: an African woman, in West African “Mumu” (khaftan) and a covered head, playing Ghazals (Islamic calls to prayer). Accompanied by an acoustic guitar, a clear voice,... Read more... |
Mary and Martha, BBC OneSaturday, 02 March 2013
It is now part of the fixtures and fittings on British television. Its original stars, once alternative comedians, have become leathery gerontosaurs of the establishment. And yet on Comic Relief the grammar of giving has been largely immune to... Read more... |
DVD: The Claire Denis CollectionTuesday, 26 February 2013
Inevitably, in box sets collecting the works of a single director one film will overshadow the others. So it is with the four discs of The Claire Denis Collection, where 2009’s White Material expresses the temperament, texture and compositional... Read more... |
CD: Ballaké Sissoko - At PeaceMonday, 04 February 2013
Toumani Diabaté is the uncontested star of the Malian kora, but his Bamako neighbour Ballaké Sissoko is a close rival. His natural modesty, reflected in the coolness of his musicianship, has prevented him from acquiring the international status of... Read more... |
Global Music: The Best of 2012Sunday, 30 December 2012
For years there have been pundits predicting that just as our high street restaurants and football teams represent a much more globalised world, surely pop music would follow suit. Fifteen years ago my local high street had a Wimpy Bar, a curry... Read more... |
Give Me The Money, BBC FourMonday, 26 November 2012
Not the least interesting aspect of Give Us The Money, an examination of the effectiveness of famous pop stars campaigning to end poverty in Africa, was how historical it felt. Homing in specifically on Bob Geldof and Bono, who between then have... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Africa Express: Bound for GlorySunday, 16 September 2012
The carriage swayed violently, sending a bottle of Perroni sliding across the Formica table top and into the quick hand of Malian guitarist Afel Bocoum. As we sped along, the sun sent flecks of light up the walls, across the ceiling, along the... Read more... |
Photo Gallery: Everything was Moving - Photography from the 60s and 70s, Barbican GalleryFriday, 14 September 2012
Take the day, and a stiff drink afterwards, as you’ll need it for this thoughtful and deeply disturbing exhibition. A picture, goes the cliché, is worth a thousand words, and nowhere more so than in this heartbreaking, beautiful and affecting... Read more... |
TabuSunday, 09 September 2012
A wondrous antidote to digital movies’ colonisation of the darkening continent of cinema, Miguel Gomes’s luminously black-and-white Tabu is a tripartite paean to the past: to the perils of Portuguese imperialism in Africa; to Hollywood silent movies... Read more... |
CD: Staff Benda Bilili - Bouger Le MondeThursday, 30 August 2012
With the overwhelming acclaim that welcomed their first album, Très Très Fort, the musical paralympic champions Staff Benda Bilii faced a challenge with their second. Would their unusually stirring backstory as disabled polio victims and destitute... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Tripoli: Photographing a RevolutionSunday, 26 August 2012
The most striking thing about the first photographic exhibition to specifically address post-revolution Libya is that there is no blood. Libya: A Nation Reborn is situated in the marbled ballroom of Tripoli’s five-star Corinthia Hotel – a long way... Read more... |
