Author: Ewang Johnson

On 12 November 1964, the would-be pop star told the BBC that cruelty to hirsute men “just has to stop”. It was a cheeky stunt, but it hinted at the unconventional spirit that Bowie carried into a career of fearless reinvention.We’re used to seeing awkward high-school yearbook photos of future stars, barely recognisable before fame transformed them. This 1964 BBC television clip is different. The 17-year-old sitting in a current-affairs studio is unmistakably David Bowie, although at the time he was still plain old David Jones. As founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men, he…

For over a decade, the African Poetry Book Fund, founded by Ghanaian poet Kwame Dawes and Nigerian writer Chris Abani, has nurtured Africa’s emerging voices through its New Generation African Poets Chapbook Series. Each beautifully designed chapbook spotlights a poet alongside commissioned visual art, creating a vibrant, accessible archive that now spans over 100 poets. The series embraces both diasporic and continental perspectives, highlighting identity, hybridity, and feminist expression, while fostering intergenerational dialogue. From exploring memory, displacement, and queerness to engaging with socio-political critique, the poets push African poetry beyond national boundaries. By combining thoughtful curation, prizes, and digital preservation, the project…

‘Africa will not be defined by what it lacks, but by the solutions it provides. The continent will not wait for others to act. It will push forward its climate agenda with ambition, urgency, coherence and resolve, while demanding that others meet their respective duties and obligations under international climate agreements’.  This was the resounding message from two consequential climate conclaves held under the banner of the Africa Climate Summit in recent years: the first hosted by Kenya in 2023, and the second by Ethiopia in September 2025. This is also Africa’s message to the upcoming UN global conference on…

New York elected democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani its new mayor, Chinese e-commerce giant Shein faced suspension in France as it opened its first-ever physical store in Paris and a baby hippo made her debut appearance at Berlin zoo. FRANCE 24 takes a look back at the week’s most striking images. Source link

$1.4B investment expands access to evidence-backed tools to help farmers in some of the world’s poorest regions adapt and build more resilience to droughts, floods, heat waves The Gates Foundation today announced a new commitment to advancing climate adaptation, helping smallholder farmers build resilience to a warming world and protect hard-won gains against poverty. Announced at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where leaders are emphasizing locally driven adaptation, the four-year, $1.4 billion investment will expand access to innovations that help farmers across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia adapt to extreme weather. In these regions, where food security and livelihoods depend on agriculture, smallholder…

As Oramah concludes his transformative decade as President and Chairman of Afreximbank, Africa stands visibly reshaped by a visionary who has breathed new life into Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of a united and economically integrated continent. Though never a head of state, Oramah’s legacy stands shoulder to shoulder with the continent’s greatest Pan-Africanist leaders — Haile Selassie, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Julius Nyerere, and Muammar Gaddafi. Over the past decade, Oramah has redefined economic Pan-Africanism — his vision, like Nkrumah’s, knows no borders. Yet while Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism was rooted in political liberation, Oramah’s has been anchored in…

In this edition of Arts24, we meet award-winning actress Diane Kruger as she returns to French screens in HBO’s “Merteuil” or “The Seduction”, a bold reimagining of the novel “Dangerous Liaisons”. The German actress conquered Hollywood with “Troy” and “Inglorious Basterds”; now she returns to screens to explore a different kind of power, one that plays out in whispers, strategies and seduction in a candlelit 18th-century Paris. This new series sees Kruger play Madame De Rosemonde, a woman navigating the perilous games of patriarchy with cunning and elegance. The actress also tells us about returning to German cinema to explore…

Getty ImagesGarfield’s inauguration ceremony in March 1881; he set out as President with an ambitious agenda (Credit: Getty Images)Makowsky’s crucial task was to sift through Millard’s detailed dive into the history of the assassination and construct a narrative appealing to TV viewers. Destiny of the Republic includes sections on Republican Party factionalism, the antiseptics preferred by British surgeon Joseph Lister and Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of an early metal detector, used eventually to search for the bullet in Garfield’s body. Makowsky chose to focus on the contrasting journeys of Guiteau and Garfield. “Both men cared very much about being known,”…

This week, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala sat down with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour at the network’s first Global Perspectives event in London to discuss the big picture on global trade before zeroing in on Africa.The Nigerian economist and World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general called the ripple effect of Trump administration tariffs “the greatest disruption in trade in 80 years.” She also said that she agreed with some of the criticisms leveled at the organization by the US.“The crisis is an opportunity to reform (the WTO),” she said, calling from greater transparency and conceding that decision-making “sometimes … does result in paralysis.” READ MORE | WATCH HERE “In this modern world with AI,…

When Thebe Ikalafeng released his first book, The Traveller: Crossing Borders and Connecting Africa, readers were introduced to a restless Pan-African mind in motion — a man mapping his journey and a continent through experiences, encounters, conversations and reflections that blurred the lines between business, identity, and belonging. It was part memoir, part manifesto: a record of a life spent building a business, building a brand and discovering oneself by crossing borders both literal and metaphorical. With his new work, Rooted & Rising: Reclaiming Our Culture and Redefining Our Global Influence, Ikalafeng has written not a continuation but a culmination…