A Zion Christian Church choir performs.
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Christianity is evolving. Mainstream churches like the Methodists and the Catholics are losing ground to indigenous and pentecostal groups.
Independence hero Patrice Lumumba’s mausoleum stands at the Limete Tower, built by Mobutu Sese Seko.
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The nationalist art of Mobutu Sese Seko and the art nouveau style of King Leopold II both live on in Kinshasa in fascinating ways.
Portuguese map of the east coast of Africa, 1630.
Joao Teixeira Albernaz/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
The history of the coastal communities of east Africa shows how ethnic groups and their languages were shaped.
Mpho Molutsi from the Children’s Radio Foundation during a live community broadcast in Johannesburg.
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With a dramatic political history, radio is today the number one source of news in Africa.
Henri Lopes wrote about the complexity of mixed race identity.
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Driven by social justice, he showed that all people are capable of both good and evil.
Zimbabwean author of We Need New Names, Noviolet Bulawayo.
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Variations of English names reveal the enduring effects of British rule - but there’s also a return to tradition.
Wreck of the British ship Charlotte in Algoa Bay, South Africa, 1854.
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The word shows that language isn’t static, it evolves to reflect developments in a society.
Images of one-horned rain-animals have been found in the northern parts of the Eastern Cape province.
Courtesy David M. Witelson
Some explorers believed they had found unicorns depicted on rocks. The truth behind the paintings is far more interesting.
Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images
In over 30 countries LGBTIQ+ people would face imprisonment. Progress has been made but there is still a long way to go.
An illustration of an antique photograph of the British Empire’s mission work among the Zulu people of then-Natal province.
ilbusca/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images
Missionaries and African translators working on local versions of the Bible divided South Africa’s ethnic groups by language.
Pretty Yende performs at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in 2019.
Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
Singing at King Charles III’s coronation tells a story of global histories coming full circle.
Choreographer and dancer Gregory Maqoma helped create the production.
Stella Olivier/The Head & The Load
The Head & The Load finally reaches Johannesburg after delays caused by the COVID pandemic.
Moffat Takadiwa, left, and curator Fadzai Muchemwa in front of the work Bhiro ne Bepa on his solo show Vestiges of Colonialism.
Images courtesy Lifang Zhang
Using found materials from dump sites, the large scale works examine the residues of colonialism.
Chief Aùtshumao! Francisco MacKenzie (front) protests the Amazon headquarters development in Cape Town.
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The British empire brought the practice of commons enclosure to Africa to claim land. Its effects continue today at sites like the Liesbeek River in Cape Town.
Land reform remains a divisive subject 23 years after democracy in South Africa.
Filckr
After South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, the previously oppressed and dispossessed black majority hoped for constitutional restitution of their land. This has largely failed.
How do leaders find authority as discerners of evil?
Wellcome Library, London.
Witch-finders of early modern Europe and modern Africa made themselves indispensable by showing people a threat of a growing crisis of threatening evil.