Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia | AFP | In a small medieval Slovak town, couples are getting ready on Valentine’s Day to make a “deposit” about their romance in a place dedicated to love stories. The “Love Bank” is the main attraction of an exhibition commemorating the world’s longest love poem, “Marina” …
Read More »ARTS: Colours of Turkey
Makerere gallery features explorations of ancient culture through paintings Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Turkey has a rich cultural heritage. It is largely known as part of the cradle of civilization in Europe with recorded history stretching back over 15,000 years ago. It remains a dominant influence on contemporary European social, …
Read More »Nigeria turns the page on literary past
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Mention Nigerian literature and the first names likely to spring to mind are Chinua Achebe, the author of “Things Fall Apart”, or the venerable Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. But Africa’s most populous nation has a new crop of writers whose work is a far cry from …
Read More »COMMENT: Totems under threat
How failure to share family cultural history endangers symbols that represent common ancestral origin COMMENT | NATHAN KIWERE | Writing on page 137 of his book, ‘The Baganda’ (Macmillan and Co., 1911), John Roscoe, a British colonial historian, states that when animals were becoming scarce, Kintu, with the general consent of …
Read More »ARTS: Tadooba Gallery
All about art mentorship, not teaching Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | What can an average art graduate do with twelve bottle-tops? Perhaps, they will look at them idly and think that they’re useless. However, this is not the case with one art graduate who used the twelve bottle-tops to sculpt a …
Read More »Saudi Arabia lifts decades-long ban on cinemas
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP | Saudi Arabia on Monday lifted a decades-old ban on cinemas, part of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s far-reaching liberalisation drive that is shaking up the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom. The government said it would begin licensing cinemas immediately and the first movie theatres are expected …
Read More »Abu Dhabi authorities ‘acquired’ $450 mn Da Vinci: museum
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | AFP | The Louvre Abu Dhabi said Friday that local Emirati authorities had “acquired” a $450-million painting by Renaissance master Leonardo Da Vinci, as reports swirled about the original source of funding. “Louvre Abu Dhabi is looking forward to displaying the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo …
Read More »ARTS: Turning art on its head
How fusing an artist’s personality into art makes it powerful Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Canon Rumanzi’s art is difficult to describe and the same can be said of his rather mysterious personality. He is a photographer and digital artist, and in both genres, he pushes the boundaries and turns art …
Read More »Benin encouraged by Macron’s pledge on African heritage
Cotonou, Benin | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron made a surprise announcement during his recent African tour, saying in Burkina Faso’s capital that one of his priorities was to restore African cultural treasures. African cultural heritage “should be highlighted in Paris, but also in Dakar, Lagos, Cotonou”, Macron told a …
Read More »ARTS: Sanaa and Sane
Showcasing beads and satire at AKAA Paris art fair Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Sanaa Gateja’s art easily captivates with its merging of African traditional art elements with the contemporary. The multi-disciplinary artist creates large tapestries of multi-coloured paper beads- produced from waste paper like magazine and newspapers- stitched on …
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