By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) marked its 75th anniversary with a star-studded cast of artists and world leaders. Among the participants was American actor Forest Whitaker, a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation since 2011. His organization, the Whitaker Peace […]
Moving Tributes for South Africa’s Iconic Composer
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Two anthems, one country. Such was the inspiration for President Nelson Mandela in 1994 to declare that both “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” (Lord bless Africa) and “Die Stem van Suid-Afrika” (English: “The Call of South Africa”)—the state anthem inherited from the previous apartheid government—would be the […]
Zimbabwean Novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga Called ‘Voice of Hope’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — For her “ability to capture and communicate vital truths even amidst times of upheaval”, Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga will receive the PEN Pinter prize in memory of the Nobel laureate Harold Pinter. Dangarembga is the author of Nervous Conditions, which she wrote when she was […]
Corona May Shutter South Africa’s Beloved Heritage Museums
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Popular exhibits at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg and other legacy museums are barely surviving and may close over funding shortfalls due to COVID-19. A pair of boxing gloves worn by Nelson Mandela at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, one of […]
Noted Kenyan African ‘Gikuyu’ Writer Listed for Literary Prize
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Some two decades ago, Ngugi wa Thiong’o challenged African writers to break their colonial chains and write in African languages. He then shocked the literary world and took on the challenge himself. Although he continued to write nonfiction in English, Ngugi wrote his novels and […]
Senegalese Singer Thione Ballago Seck Recalled As “A Legend”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Thione Ballago Seck, born in a family of praise or “griot” singers and one of Senegal’s beloved music stars over the last four decades, has died at the age of 66 in Dakar on March 14. Tributes poured in after his death was announced with […]
Tributes Pour in for South Africa’s Musical Genius Dr Khumalo
By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE (IDN) – President Cyril Ramaphosa has paid tribute to Jazz and Opera Musician, Dr Sibongile Khumalo, for advocating the rights of performing arts, women, as well as human rights. Khumalo passed away on January 28, at the age of 63. She was an esteemed member of the Order of Ikhamanga, a […]
“The Hill We Climb”: A Poem by Amanda Gorman
NEW YORK (IDN) – Amanda S. C. Gorman is an American poet and activist from Los Angeles. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. She was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book “The One for Whom […]
Reviewing the Book ‘Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era’
By Kannan Salazar BANGKOK (IDN) – With Julian Assange’s “show trial” in progress in the UK for alleged national security breaches in the US, and a cold war era propaganda campaign between the Anglo-American media and China gathering momentum, a timely new book sheds some light on how the so-called “free media” has ditched its […]
Anglo-Nigerian Writer Awarded Major Literary Prize
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – England’s most prestigious literary prize has been awarded to Bernadine Evaristo, an Anglo-Nigerian writer, for her eighth work of fiction, to be shared with Margaret Atwood, author of “The Testaments” in a surprise double award approved by the judging panel. Of Nigerian and British parentage, […]