The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival is returning for its 26th edition this summer, with an extensive lineup of films recently announced.

The festival will screen multiple documentaries and films from within and outside the African continent. It will feature thirty-two feature-length films and fourteen short films. Twenty-seven African films and nineteen international films will be screened. Also, forty-three films will have their South Africa premiere at the festival, thirty-seven films will have their first African premiere, and fourteen films will have their world premiere.

Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert’s Mother City has been selected as the festival’s opening film. The feature has been described as a “deeply human and often heart-breaking look at the politics of urbanism” where the filmmakers follow activists of the Reclaim the City movement over six years as they make Cape Town’s abandoned spaces their home, and use it as a base from which to lobby for the needs of the working class.

Explaining the decision to open the festival with Mother City, the festival’s director, Mandisa Zitha, remarked, “It has been selected as our opening film, as it represents the heart of what documentary filmmaking is about. It is dedicated, tenacious, and vociferous in its approach to following a group of activists over a long period, to capture their challenges and frustrations, and indeed their successes. It speaks to the power of film in exposing the arduous journey so many in this world have to embark on to effect change. It is also a universally powerful story of the triumph of the collective.” 

The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival is the country’s formative documentary event, screening contemporary South African and International features and short documentaries since 1999. The festival is supported and funded by: City of Cape Town, Bertha Foundation, National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa,  University of Cape Town and the Centre for Film and Media Studies, Mail and Guardian (Media Partner), Al Jazeera Documentary, Known Associates, Refinery, Goethe-Institut of South Africa, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Heineken Beverages,  Documentary Filmmakers Association, German Films, South African Guild of Editors, anima, and Pressure Cooker Studio.

This year’s edition of Encounters will take place at venues in Cape Town and Johannesburg from 20 to 30 June 2024. 

Click here to see the festival’s complete lineup of films.

Nigerian recording artist Seun Kuti and his Egypt 80 band will embark on a tour of North America from 8 June to 27 July. 

This will be the band’s first appearance in North America since 2022 when they headlined The Independent in San Francisco.

The tour, presented by Django Music, includes 18 dates, of which two performances – in New York and Chicago – will be free. They will join New Orleans-based brass ensemble The Soul Rebels as special guests in San Diego and Los Angeles, and open for Red Hot Chili Peppers in Toronto and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

On tour, the youngest son of Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti will play selected music from an extensive catalogue that perpetuates the genre pioneered by his father, fusing West African rhythms with American funk and jazz, all infused with socially conscious messages.

Seun Kuti, who took over leadership of the Egypt 80 band following the death of his father in 1997, is renowned for his activism and socially conscious music. The 41-year-old has collaborated with acts like Calle 13, Jidenna, Janelle Monae and the late Sinead O’Connor. In 2018 his album Black Times was nominated in the World Music category at the Grammys. In 2019, he was named one of the “100 Most Influential People” by TIME Magazine for his music and activism. 

See more about the tour here.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize has announced five regional winners for this year’s edition, with Mauritian writer Reena Usha Rungoo emerging as the winner in the African region.

The other winners are India’s Sanjana Thakur for Asia, Canada’s Julie Bouchard for the Canada & Europe Region, Trinidad and Tobago’s Portia Subran for the Caribbean Region, and New Zealand’s Pip Robertson for the Pacific Region.

Rungoo, who had been shortlisted for the Prize with 22 other writers (four of whom were African), clinched the regional award for her story “Dite”, an exploration of a Mauritian woman’s love of tea and her ties to the colonial history of tea. Each tea in her collection contains an olfactory memory in which her relationship with education, language, sex and other women is captured.

According to South African writer Keletso (judge for the African region), “From the first time I read it, ‘Dite’ stayed with me. Its brilliance is distinguishable on first reading and even better when read once more. It is intentional and carefully layered. A masterful blend of memories alongside the protagonist’s love for tea. The story demonstrates skill, shifting between points of view and time, depicting generations of women and the strain left behind by colonialism.”

Reena Usha Rungoo is a Mauritian writer, scholar, teacher, speaker, and mother. As an islander, an African and a diasporic South Asian, she uses the language of fiction (whether as a writer or a literary critic) to speak on how colonial violence infiltrates our beings, our languages and our desires, and on the creative ways in which we resist. She is an assistant professor of literature at Harvard University.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States. The Prize is administered by the Commonwealth Foundation. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.

Chaired by Ugandan-British writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, this year’s judging panel includes South African writer Keletso Mopai, Singaporean novelist O Thiam Chin, Canadian writer Shashi Bhat, poet Richard Georges from the British Virgin Islands, and Australian Bundjalung writer Melissa Lucashenko.

“The short story form has neither the luxury of time nor the comfort of space. It is an impatient form; it does not dance around. The punch of a good short story leaves you breathless. As the judging panel, we enjoyed, sorrowed, celebrated and eventually agreed that these stories came up on top of the different regions”, said Makumbi, commenting on the winning stories.

This year’s prize attracted the highest-ever number of entrants (7,359 in total), and the regional winners are writers who are being nominated for the first time. These winners will go through to the final round of judging and the overall winner will be announced on 26 June 2024. Their stories will be published online by the literary magazine Granta.

Click here to read more about this year’s winners.

South African documentary film, Empathy in Africa: Bridging The Healthcare Divide, is set to premiere on Apple TV and other streaming platforms this week.

Diepsloot township, in Johannesburg, South Africa, is known for its challenging infrastructure, overcrowding and limited access to basic resources — but within it exists an oasis that is bringing hope to the community. The Rhiza Babuyile Clinic, founded in 2022, is Diepsloot’s first private brick-and-mortar healthcare facility, offering basic care and paediatrics and reducing inequities for the people of the township. 

Empathy in Africa follows three women empowered by the clinic, who personify resilience in the face of tremendous obstacles. The film shows the many benefits the clinic brings to the community and highlights a nurse who is given the opportunity to build and own a new clinic in a nearby township.

In addition to streaming on Apple TV, Empathy in Africa will be featured on WaterBear Network, the first free streaming platform dedicated to the future of the planet, bringing entertainment and action together. It hosts a diverse array of award-winning documentaries, compelling short films, and impactful series, all created to drive real-world change.   

Empathy in Africa was directed by Dan McDougall (a four-time Amnesty International Award Winner and British Foreign Correspondent of the Year) and produced by Miran Media. McDougall received the Best Director Award at the Barcelona Film Festival for his film on climate change, and won best short film at The Munich Film Awards and The Stockholm Independent Film Festival. 

Empathy in Africa has been selected to screen at the Charlotte Black Film Festival, the People’s Film Festival and the Cleveland International Film Festival’s FilmSlam® Streams Program, a virtual media literacy programme that allows educators to stream films directly in the classroom. The programme encourages teachers to incorporate social impact films into their curriculum and class discussions.

The film was funded and developed by Viatris, a global healthcare company with a mission to empower people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life. Viatris is also a funder of the Rhiza Babuvile Clinic profiled in the film.

Click here to view the trailer. You can also stream the film on Apple TV or on WaterBear.

The 2024 edition of the All African Women Poetry Festival (AAWP Festival) is scheduled to take place in Ghana this week from Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 May, 2024. 

In this four-day thread of events, specifically curated to educate and enhance playfulness, the festival will celebrate the legacy of Ghanaian playwright Efua Theodora Sutherland under the theme “Poetry & Play.” The events will be hosted at the W.E.B Dubois Memorial Centre and the Foundation for Contemporary Art in Accra.

Some of the scheduled guests, panellists and performers at this year’s festival include Moyosola Olowokure, Winnie Madoro, Nyangari Macharia, Claudia Owusu, Deborah Johnson, Effie Nkrumah, Titilope Sonuga, Maryam Bukar Hassan (Alhanislam), Mo’Africa Wa Mokgathi (born Muriel Mokgathi-Mvubu), vangile gantsho, Theresa Ankomah, Agness Panfred and Vivian Boateng, among others.

The noteworthy events in this year’s showcase include an exclusive listening of Sonuga’s latest album SIS (scheduled for Thursday 23 May), the “Writing as an African” panel which features literary experts Prof. Helen Yitah and Prof Anne Adams, and the “Publish Her Inked Realities” panel which features literary experts Ama Dadson, Akoss Ofori-Mensah and Akuvi Agueze. There is also the Voice On Words (VOW) competition, a poetry contest featuring high school students.

 The AAWP Festival seeks to celebrate African literature and literary legends, empower African women, women of African descent and the African Diaspora, educate the youth, and engage with marginalised communities through sustainable events, programming, and projects. The festival hosts poets, spoken word artists and stakeholders in shaping the African narrative from across the continent and the African diaspora, in a bid to foster collaboration, networking, and knowledge sharing. 

One key element of the festival is the annual honouring of one female literary legend. This year, the focus is on Efua Theodora Sutherland (1924-1996), playwright, director, dramatist, children’s author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist. Sutherland’s works include the plays Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967) and The Marriage Of Anansewa (1975).

Visit the festival’s official website to learn more about this year’s lineup of events.

Ghanaian pop star Amaarae has been confirmed as a special guest on U.S rapper Childish Gambino’s upcoming world tour starting next month.

The announcement coincides with the surprise release of Childish Gambino’s album Atavista on Monday. 

Amaarae was named alongside U.S singer Willow for the global marathon, christened The New World Tour, which will include nearly 80 dates and conclude in February 2025.

The 29-year-old confirmed her guest appearance via a post on her official X (formerly Twitter) account.

“On tour w/ childish (@donaldglover) this fall thru to 2025 ! it’s gonna be a wild time!” 

Amaarae’s announcement follows the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA’s) platinum certification of her “Sad Girlz Luv Money” remix featuring Kali Uchis & Moliy, marking more than 1 million unit sales.

Born in New York to Ghanaian parents, Amaarae is known for her fusion of pop, R&B, Afrobeats, and Alté, as well as her fluid representation of gender and sexuality. In 2020, Amaarae released her critically-acclaimed debut album The Angel You Don’t Know, which spawned the global hit “Sad Girlz Luv Money.” In 2023, she released her sophomore album Fountain Baby and later that year she became the first Ghanaian artist to appear on NPR Tiny Desk. In the course of her career, she has collaborated with several leading African acts, including Stonebwoy, Santi, Blaqbonez, Bnxn FKA Buju, Odunsi the Engine, and Wande Coal.

Click here to learn more about tickets for the New World Tour.

Nigerian-born author Atinuke’s book Brilliant Black British History has clinched the prize for Children’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year at this year’s British Book Awards.

This was revealed at the award ceremony held on 13 May 2024 at Grosvenor House, London.

Illustrated by Kingsley Nebechi, the book saw off stiff competition from the likes of Sathnam Sanghera’s Stolen History, Leon Diop’s Black and Irish, Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara’s King Charles Volume 97 and Adam Kay’s Kay Incredible Inventions.

Celebrating her win, Atinuke stressed the importance of documentation and owning narratives:

“For hundreds of years, people, children, men, women, were sold in Britain on the equivalent of eBay, with the excuse being the colour of their skin, and we have stories of children in London being dragged by their hair through the streets when they tried to escape. Me standing here and winning this award for a Black history of Britain would’ve been beyond the wildest dreams of those enslaved people. One of the things that has made this possible is books. The autobiographies of Prince [Olaudah] Equiano and [Frederick] Douglass changed the minds of the British public about the institution of slavery. So, books are incredibly important, stories are incredibly important and we still don’t live in an equal and fair and safe society. But if we keep writing our books and keep telling our stories then maybe one day we will and all our wildest dreams will come true.”

Born in Ibadan and raised in Lagos, Atinuke is an author of children’s books and an oral storyteller of traditional African folktales. She is an award-winning author of over 20 children’s books based on her life in Nigeria and other African stories. Some of her books include Anna Hibiscus, Baby Goes to Market, Too Small Tola, Catch That Chicken and The No. 1 Car Spotter, among others. She lives in Wales

Brilliant Black British History is an eye-opening story of Britain, focusing on parts of British culture that have mostly been left out of history books. The incredible journey through time is brought to life through Atinuke’s fascinating storytelling and illustrated scenes, detailed maps, and timelines. Through her eyes, readers get to learn that the first Britons were Black and that some of the Roman soldiers who ruled Britain were Black, among other previously suppressed facts.

Covering a range of topics from science and sport to literature and law, Atinuke celebrates the brilliant Black people who have helped build Britain. Children can learn about key historical topics such as the world wars, slavery, the Industrial Revolution, Windrush, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The British Book Awards, also known as “the Nibbies”, has been the book trade’s leading awards since 1990. These awards celebrate authors and illustrators, and showcase the industry behind the scenes that help bring the books to readers. Judged by leading industry experts, authors, journalists and celebrities, the Nibbies are regarded as “the BAFTAs of the book trade.’’

Click here to see the full list of winners.

Nigerian pop superstar Ayra Starr has been confirmed as music streaming service provider Spotify’s EQUAL Africa and EQUAL Global artist for the month of May.

This marks the second time the singer is joining the artist development initiative aimed at promoting gender equity in music after her first inclusion in the EQUAL Africa programme in November 2021. She now joins fellow Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage as the only other African artist to be named both EQUAL Africa and EQUAL Global artist by Spotify.

As the latest EQUAL act, Ayra Starr, signed to Nigerian music record label Mavin Records (led by media entrepreneur Don Jazzy), will benefit from Spotify’s global platform through playlists, content hubs and partnerships.

Confirming the announcement, the singer noted: “I am grateful to become a Spotify EQUAL ambassador. It means so much to me to be able to represent women in Afrobeats and African women in general. There are so many women in music today, behind the scenes, in front of the camera, musicians, sound engineers, all these women working hard, and Spotify EQUAL is doing a great job in highlighting all their hard work.”

“Our commitment at Spotify is to support and empower women in the music industry, helping to create a more level playing field,” Spotify’s senior artist and label partnerships manager, sub-Saharan Africa, Monica Kemoli-Savanne, stated. “Seeing artists like Ayra Starr come from the continent to gain global recognition serves as a true testament that Africa is full of talent, all that is needed is a platform. It has been a great journey to witness the growth of female artists who are also inspiring generations to come, which also speaks to our commitment to equally support female artists.”

At only 21 years old, Ayra Starr has quickly blossomed into one of Africa’s biggest pop stars in the space of three years. She was discovered in 2019 via Instagram by Don Jazzy, who had been impressed by the cover performances and an original song she published on her page. Upon signing for Mavin, she released her self-titled debut EP in January 2021, and later that year, she released her well-received debut album 19 and Dangerous, which spawned the smash hit “Bloody Samaritan.”

In 2022, Ayra Starr gained mainstream international recognition with the release of “Rush”, which charted in several territories, including Switzerland, Ireland and the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 24. The song earned her a nomination for Best African Music Performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards, where she lost out to Tyla’s “Water.” Her sophomore album, The Year I Turned 21, is set to be released on Friday 31 May.

Nollywood film Breath of Life pulled off a huge scoop of laurels at the recently-held Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCAs) …

The film clinched five awards on the night out of eleven nominations:

• Best Movie
• Best Lead Actor – Wale Ojo
• Best Supporting Actor – Demola Adedoyin
• Best Supporting Actress – Genoveva Umeh
• Best Director – BB Sasore

Breath of Life follows Timi, a brilliant multilingual man who becomes the first African clergyman in the Church of England. After marrying and having a daughter, he returns to Nigeria, leading a fulfilling life until his family is wiped out by a local thug. He manages to exact vengeance, but his soul is crushed and he stays reclusive for more than two decades until Elijah, a young boy, becomes his housekeeper and helps him rediscover his purpose. The film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

C.J. Obasi’s critically acclaimed fantasy thriller Mami Wata, which has enjoyed an amazing festival run since its premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and which received eleven AMVCA nominations, won only one award which came in the Best Makeup category.

Funke Akindele’s blockbuster dramedy A Tribe Called Judah, which made history as the highest-grossing Nigerian film of all time, shockingly ended up with no awards, despite being nominated in five categories.

The AMVCAs is an award show presented by MultiChoice recognising outstanding performances in television, film, entertainment, and digital content creation throughout Nollywood and the entire African continent. It is widely regarded as one of the most hallowed award ceremonies as far as African cinema is concerned.

This year’s edition was held on 10 and 11 May 2024, featuring a series of events, the highlights of which included the Young Filmmakers Day, the Cultural Day Celebration, and the main Awards Night. These events saw the African film and television industry come together to honour outstanding talent and creativity in the industry.  For the awards, nine categories were subject to audience voting, while seventeen categories were determined by the AMVCA Jury.

Commenting on its tenth edition, Dr. Busola Tejumola, Executive Head of Content and Channels, West Africa, MultiChoice, said, “The Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards was created to honour exceptional achievements in television and film across the continent and we are excited to have been able to keep that fire burning through 10 editions. Year after year, we have received numerous entries and can attest to the growth in the quality of submissions with each edition. While this year’s edition is a milestone edition as it is the 10th, it is also a testament to the growth the film industry in Africa has experienced.”

Click here to see the full list of winners.

The longlist for this year’s edition of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize has been announced …

Two books published by African authors are up for consideration.

The twelve-strong longlist, selected by a panel of librarians and library staff from across the UK, includes works by British, Australian, American, Canadian, Georgian, Indian, Nigerian and South Korean authors. Five of the titles are debut works.

The African books are Blessings by Nigerian writer Chukwuebuka Ibeh, and Shigidi and The Brass Head of Obalufon by Nigerian writer Wole Talabi.

Chukwuebuka Ibeh was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys Quarterly Review, The New England Review of Books, Dappled Things, and Lolwe. He was Runner-up for the 2021 J.F Powers Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the 2019 Gerald Kraak Award and 2020 Morland Foundation Scholarship and was profiled as one of the “Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction” in Electric Literature. His debut novel, Blessings, is a coming-of-age story about a queer teenage boy who has to navigate a hostile society while striving to live his truth.

Wole Talabi is a Nigerian speculative fiction writer, editor and engineer. His fiction has appeared in speculative fiction magazines and anthologies globally and has been translated into 3 languages. He has been shortlisted for several awards including the Caine Prize for African Writing and the Nommo Award, and has won the latter twice – in 2018 (for “The Regression Test”) and 2020 (for “Incompleteness Theories”). His fantasy novel, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, features a disgruntled god and a succubus who team up for a heist across two worlds.

The Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, first awarded in 2016, is an international prize that supports and celebrates “the best adventure writing today.” The prize is named after South African novelist Wilbur Smith and is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English. Awards are presented in three categories: Best Published Novel, New Voices, and Author of Tomorrow. This year, the judging panel features Matt Barr, Lee Craigie, Alasdair Harris, Sarah Outen and Emma Styles.

The prize is powered by the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to empowering young writers, the advancement of the adventure writing genre and the promotion of literacy. Previous winners include Emma Styles, Giles Kristian, Rachel Joyce and Henry Porter.

The prize for the Award is £10,000, and the Foundation defines adventure writing as “a story that conveys the feeling of being on an epic journey.”

The shortlist for the 2024 Best Published Novel award will be announced on Thursday 30th May, and the winning Work will be announced at the Foundation’s Award Ceremony on Thursday 19th September.

Visit the Foundation’s official website to read more about their work and the awards.