Art & Culture

Art & Culture Music & Film

Benga’s Journey from East Africa, to Zimbabwe, and the Dance Floors of Colombia

Benga arrived in Colombia after Osman Torregrosa, a businessman of picó dances in Barranquilla who, looking for music, had gone to Aruba and Bonaire, then Martinique, Suriname, New York and Paris to look for music that would cause a sensation, for a sound that was modern and traditional at the same time. In Colombia, Benga is known as ‘música rastrillo’.

by Barbara Wanjala
Art & Culture Book Reviews & Literary Criticism

Book Review: Father Gabriel Dolan’s “Stories of Freedom in A Shackled Society”

Father Gabriel Dolan, a renowned clergy and human rights activist in Kenya, has a new memoir: Undaunted: Stories of Freedom in A Shackled Society, narrating his coming to Kenya in the heat of the 1982 failed coup against President Daniel Moi, his relentless fights for the rights of the oppressed and voiceless in the Kenya. It is a story full of courage, bravery and lessons to upcoming activists seeking to change the state of affairs in their society.

by Barack Oduor
Art & Culture Fiction & Poetry

Weight of Grief

As he boards a Nairobi-bound Kangaroo Shuttle, her teary face is on his mind. She stands there motionless, looking on. The Shuttle leaves as the stage is ruffled with hooting vehicles, revving car engines, stale sweat and farts from touts, and the scramble for passengers.

by Wafula Khisa
Art & Culture Fiction & Poetry

The Day of the Python

Miss Duduzile Zwane is a modern young woman with the perfect life in Johannesburg. But she is troubled by persistent strange feelings. Following an encounter with a soothsayer, she embarks on a pilgrimage to a sacred cave - where she finds an unexpected source of enlightenment.

by Tom Learmont