Author: Ewang Johnson

Having survived nine crash landings, aviator Alfred Buckham created some of the earliest and most awe-inspiring bird’s-eye images. To achieve them, he risked his life, employing perilous, death-defying acts of ingenuity.”What scenes of Grandeur and Beauty!” exclaimed Thomas Baldwin in his 1786 account, Airopaidia, of a balloon journey over Chester during which he created one of the earliest aerial drawings. Everything was “brought up in a new manner to the eye… The imagination… was overwhelmed”. Today, we take aerial views for granted. The advent of drones has popularised amateur aerial photography, while tools such as Google Earth supply bird’s-eye views…

The III Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure Development Investors has closed, with investors having committed US$18-billion to developing African infrastructure.Co-hosted by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) under the theme “Capital, Corridors, Trade: Investing in Infrastructure for the AfCFTA and Shared Prosperity”, the three-day conference drew 2 000 African Heads of State, investors and development partners to Luanda. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a trade agreement that aims to create a single, integrated continental market for goods and services across a combined African market of 1.4-billion people.In a development officially welcomed…

A Moody MasterpieceAnyone who’s ever been a kid knows that a big part of coming to grips with the world is having your wishes collide with reality. Maybe it’s the usual list of casualties: Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, even the slow disintegration of your imaginary friend. Maybe your parents were more literary in their fancies and populated the woods behind your house with goblins, faeries, and elves. Or maybe your heart conjured up a giant pumpkin that showers gifts on the virtuous kid in the sincerest pumpkin patch in the neighborhood.Like its predecessor, A Charlie Brown Christmas,…

In this edition of our arts24 music show, Jennifer Ben Brahim chats with French electronic producer and composer Thylacine. Travel is central to his artistry, having recorded music in unusual locations such as the Trans-Siberian Railway. He is releasing the third instalment of his “Roads” series, which had previously taken him to Argentina and the Faroe Islands. This time, he went to the Namibian desert to record “Roads vol.3”, turning a 1972 airstream caravan into a recording studio. We also talk about the ultimate revenge record by British pop star Lily Allen. “West End Girl” is a deeply personal dive…

The pan-African communications agency strengthens its West African footprint with a new local operation in Accra, deepening its ability to provide market insight and communications expertise in one of Africa’s most dynamic economies.ACCRA, Ghana, 30 October 2025 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/- African Media Agency (AMA), a leading independent pan-African communications and public relations firm with offices in New York, Abidjan, Durban, and local presence in 30 African markets, is proud to announce the launch of its on-the-ground operations in Ghana, marking another milestone in its mission to offer localized, insight-driven communication across the continent.The move comes at a time when Ghana continues to assert…

In this episode of arts24, we’re at Paris Games Week, where the hit French video game “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” has gone from digital epic to musical phenomenon. Composer Lorien Testard’s symphonic tour “A Painted Symphony” is taking sold-out audiences by storm across France. Next, we head to Paris’s newest cultural landmark as the Fondation Cartier unveils its spectacular new home opposite the Louvre – a Jean Nouvel-designed masterpiece blending Haussmannian charm with modernist flair. Finally, Hollywood’s love affair with the musical biopic continues. From Elvis to Bob Marley, we explore why rock legends’ real-life stories keep striking box office gold…

Alamy(Credit: Alamy)Judge Doom shows his true self in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)Robert Zemeckis’s live-action/cartoon Chinatown pastiche highlights the violence and sadism inherent in cartoons, with both “toons” and humans being electrocuted, stabbed, crushed, and generally traumatised in a variety of inventive ways. The final, horrifying scene features Christopher Lloyd’s bad guy Judge Doom being run over by a steamroller, before reappearing the other side as flat as a pancake, revealing himself to be a cartoon in disguise. He peels himself off the floor, walks matchstick-like over to a balloon pump to reinflate himself, and his eyes pop out to reveal…

Every year, January 24 reminds the world of the critical role education plays in building peaceful, equitable, and sustainable societies.For the Regalo Hope Foundation (RHF), this date represents more than just the International Day of Education — it’s a rallying point for action, innovation, and inclusion.Under the visionary leadership of Chinenye Onuorah, the Founder and Project Director of RHF, the organization continues to redefine community-based education initiativesthrough programs that empower teachers, students, and young professionals.From Lagos to Owerri, the foundation’s flagship initiatives — the EduStake Conference, the Youth Development Workshop, and the Educators’ Seminar — are proving that educationaltransformation begins…

Our film critic Emma Jones tells us why the Oscar buzz surrounding Dwayne Johnson’s performance in “The Smashing Machine” is deserved and how the film deviates from the average “in the ring” biopic. We also discuss Jeremy Allen White’s turn as Bruce Springsteen in director Scott Cooper’s “Deliver Me From Nowhere”, which zooms in on a difficult period in The Boss’s career. We then discover a new talent in Laura Carreira, who’s captured the precarity of the gig economy and the weight of loneliness in “On Falling”, a social study with shades of Ken Loach. Plus we check out Guillermo…

The two quillsCompounding that friction between the restless flux and sombre stillness of Marat’s discrepant hands is David’s seemingly redundant decision to insert into the stripped-down scene not one ink-dipped quill, but two. Between the lifeless fingers of his right hand, Marat pinches a writing feather, still wet with ink. Follow its shaft upwards from the floor, past the white plume, to the upturned crate that Marat was using as a desk, and we discover a second quill lying beside the crouching inkpot. This quill’s dark nib points menacingly in the direction of the fatal stab wound, and poses a…