In four years as president, Thomas Sankara renamed his country, vaccinated millions of children, planted forests and championed women's rights. Then he was killed. Why does he still inspire so many young Africans?
Slow-cooked in a rich, orange sauce made from palm fruit, moambé chicken is the dish both Congos claim as their national plate. Here is how it is made and why it matters.
On 9 August 1956, some 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest apartheid's pass laws. South Africa celebrates tomorrow as National Women's Day.
In the 1990s, young Tanzanians began rapping and singing in Kiswahili over hip hop and R&B beats. The result, bongo flava, became East Africa's biggest pop sound.
Thousands of flattened liquor-bottle caps, stitched together with copper wire, become vast, glittering "cloths." Ghanaian artist El Anatsui is one of the world's most celebrated sculptors.
Each year in the hills of Akuapem, Ghana, the Odwira festival cleanses the community, honours the ancestors and renews the bond between people and their rulers.
Around the ancient Kingdom of Benin lay a vast network of earthen walls and moats, built over centuries. Estimates put their total length in the thousands of kilometres.
Spoken by the majority of Zimbabweans, Shona is a Bantu language with a rich tradition of proverbs, praise poetry and song. Here is an introduction.
A Kenyan scientist who linked trees, women's rights and democracy, Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement and became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Fried eggs, cabbage, tomato and onion rolled up in a warm chapati: the "rolex" is Uganda's favourite street food, and a lesson in creativity and enterprise.
In Addis Ababa's azmari bets, singers improvise teasing verses about the audience, accompanied by the masinko fiddle. They are heirs to centuries of Ethiopian minstrel tradition.
Today, 18 July, is Nelson Mandela International Day. People around the world are asked to give 67 minutes of service, one for each year Mandela devoted to public life.
