https://afrym.org/Stories of Africa's cultures, crafts, music and ideas enhttps://afrym.org/posts/ugali.html https://afrym.org/posts/ugali.htmlThu, 29 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 A firm, white mound of maize meal, eaten by hand with stew, greens or grilled meat. Ugali feeds millions every day from Kenya to Zambia, where it goes by many names. Here is its story.https://afrym.org/posts/tuareg-people.html https://afrym.org/posts/tuareg-people.htmlThu, 29 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 Camel caravans, men who veil their faces, women who own the family tent, and an alphabet older than most nations. Meet the Tuareg, the people who made the Sahara their home.https://afrym.org/posts/dashiki.html https://afrym.org/posts/dashiki.htmlThu, 29 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 A loose, colourful tunic from West Africa became a statement of Black pride in 1960s America, and its famous "Angelina" print is now worn worldwide. Here is the story of the dashiki.https://afrym.org/posts/agojie-dahomey-women-warriors.html https://afrym.org/posts/agojie-dahomey-women-warriors.htmlThu, 29 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 For nearly two centuries, an all-female army fought for the kings of Dahomey in what is now Benin. Here is the true history of the Agojie, the women behind The Woman King, with its glory and its hard truths.https://afrym.org/posts/makossa-music.html https://afrym.org/posts/makossa-music.htmlThu, 29 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 Born in the bars of Douala, Cameroon, makossa mixed local rhythms with rumba, funk and brass. One 1972 song, "Soul Makossa", carried it to New York dance floors and into pop history.https://afrym.org/posts/suez-crisis-1956.html https://afrym.org/posts/suez-crisis-1956.htmlWed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 In July 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that Egypt would run the Suez Canal itself. Within months, three armies invaded. Here is how an African country faced down two empires and won.https://afrym.org/posts/ghana-movie-posters.html https://afrym.org/posts/ghana-movie-posters.htmlWed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 In the 1980s and 1990s, travelling video clubs in Ghana hired local painters to advertise films on flour sacks. The results were wild, bloody, funny and brilliant, and now hang in galleries around the world.https://afrym.org/posts/ajami-script.html https://afrym.org/posts/ajami-script.htmlWed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 For centuries, people across West and East Africa wrote Hausa, Wolof, Fula and Swahili in an adapted Arabic script called Ajami. Colonial officials barely noticed. Here is the hidden story of Africa's other literacy.https://afrym.org/posts/africas-hidden-archives.html https://afrym.org/posts/africas-hidden-archives.htmlWed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 Family manuscript libraries in Mali, parchment books in Ethiopian monasteries, colonial files hidden for decades in an English country house. Africa's written past is far bigger than most people think.https://afrym.org/posts/zera-yacob-hatata.html https://afrym.org/posts/zera-yacob-hatata.htmlMon, 26 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 In the 1600s, an Ethiopian scholar hid in a cave and asked how anyone could know which religion was true. His answer, the Hatata, is one of Africa's most remarkable works of philosophy, and one of its most debated.https://afrym.org/posts/vodun-days-ouidah.html https://afrym.org/posts/vodun-days-ouidah.htmlMon, 26 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 Every January, drums, masquerades and pilgrims fill the coastal town of Ouidah. Benin's Vodun Days honour a religion that is often misunderstood, and show what it really means to its followers.https://afrym.org/posts/thieboudienne.html https://afrym.org/posts/thieboudienne.htmlMon, 26 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 Stuffed fish, vegetables, tomato-red rice and a crispy crust everyone fights over. Thieboudienne is Senegal's national dish, recognized by UNESCO, and every family thinks theirs is the best.https://afrym.org/posts/detty-december.html https://afrym.org/posts/detty-december.htmlWed, 31 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000 Concerts, weddings, beach parties and homecomings. Every December, Lagos and Accra fill with visitors from the diaspora for a festive season known as "Detty December". Tonight, it reaches its peak.https://afrym.org/posts/kinyarwanda.html https://afrym.org/posts/kinyarwanda.htmlMon, 29 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000 Almost every Rwandan speaks Kinyarwanda, making Rwanda one of the few African countries where a single indigenous language is shared by nearly everyone. Here is its history, its poetry and a few words to begin.https://afrym.org/posts/kwanzaa.html https://afrym.org/posts/kwanzaa.htmlFri, 26 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000 From today until 1 January, millions of people of African descent light the candles of the kinara and reflect on the Nguzo Saba, seven principles drawn from African values. Here is the story of Kwanzaa.https://afrym.org/posts/christmas-in-africa.html https://afrym.org/posts/christmas-in-africa.htmlWed, 24 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000 Beach braais in South Africa, homecomings in Igboland, all-night church services in Accra, and Genna on 7 January in Ethiopia. Christmas in Africa takes many forms.https://afrym.org/posts/oral-tradition.html https://afrym.org/posts/oral-tradition.htmlMon, 22 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000 Epics, genealogies, praise poems and folk tales have carried African history and wisdom for centuries without being written down. How does oral tradition work, and can it be trusted as history?https://afrym.org/posts/matoke.html https://afrym.org/posts/matoke.htmlFri, 19 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000 Peeled, wrapped in banana leaves, steamed for hours and mashed into a golden mound. Matooke is the heart of Ugandan cooking, and its story reaches back more than a thousand years.https://afrym.org/posts/zouglou.html https://afrym.org/posts/zouglou.htmlWed, 17 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000 Born in the crowded dormitories of Abidjan's university in the early 1990s, zouglou mixed humour, social criticism and street slang. Its biggest hit, "Premier Gaou", went around the world.https://afrym.org/posts/kanga-cloth.html https://afrym.org/posts/kanga-cloth.htmlMon, 15 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000 A rectangle of printed cotton with a bold border, a central design and a Swahili proverb. The kanga is worn, gifted and used to send messages along the East African coast.