Art and Culture

South African football film shines at Zanzibar festival

Tuesday, 17 August 2010 14:02

South African film Themba: A Boy Called Hope, directed by Pretoria-born Stefanie Sycholt, has scooped the Unicef Child Rights Award at the 2010 Zanzibar International Film Festival (Ziff).

(1 Vote)

Tags: Themba: A Boy Called Hope - Stefanie Sycholt - Unicef Child Rights Award - Zanzibar International Film Festival - Golden Dhow - Mother Unknown - Taghreed Alsanhouri - Lutz van Dijk - Nat Singo - Desmond Tutu - South Africa - Zanzibar

Chad film 'A Screaming Man' scoops jury prize at Cannes

Monday, 24 May 2010 12:41

Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's "A Screaming Man" took the jury prize at the Cannes film festival Sunday. The movie was the first made south of the Sahara to be selected in 13 years to compete for the Palme d'Or top prize.

(1 Vote)

Tags: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun - Cannes - prize - film - A Screaming Man - Chad

Moroccan fossil find defines geological era

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 11:15

The discovery of a rich fossil site in south-eastern Morocco provides knowledge of a geological era that so far mostly has been in the dark, the Ordovician. The Fezouata find, still only sparsely mapped, could define the era.

(1 Vote)

Tags: fossil - geological - Ordovician - Yale - Morocco

Africa joins the party at Cannes

Monday, 17 May 2010 13:47

The world's poorest continent joined the glitz of Cannes on Sunday when a rare African contender entered the race for the film festival's top award, the Palme d'Or.

(1 Vote)

Tags: Cannes - film - festival - Mahamat-Saleh Haroun - Chad - Staff Benda Bilili - Oliver Schmitz - South Africa - Democratic Republic of Congo - Africa

Egypt unearths hundreds of 2,000-year-old coins

Friday, 23 April 2010 13:43

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed several hundred bronze coins dating back to the reign of King Ptolemy, who ruled Egypt about 2,300 years ago.

(1 Vote)

Tags: archaeologists - bronze - coins - King Ptolemy - Egypt

African film festival fosters home-grown development

Friday, 16 April 2010 12:22

Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, is set to host a film festival aimed at boosting Africa's self-image and identity. The festival's organizers hope it will spawn a community of African film makers specializing in using cinema for development.

Tags: Addis Ababa - film - festival - image - cinema - Africa - Short Film Festival - Abderrahmane Sissako - Maji-da Abdi - Ethiopia

Uganda tombs to be reconstructed

Thursday, 15 April 2010 14:39

An expert group has concluded that it is "feasible" to reconstruct the Tombs of Buganda Kings, Uganda's only World Heritage List site, lost to fire last month. The Ugandan government has secured UNESCO assistance for the works.

Tags: Kasubi Tombs - Buganda Kings - UNESCO - World Heritage Site - Uganda

Prehestoric snakes still alive in Madagacar

Wednesday, 07 April 2010 12:33

Researchers have studied a rare form of blindsnakes, "not being very pretty", living in Madagascar. It turns out the species is a prehistoric remain from the times Madagascar still was part of the Gondwana continent about 155 million years ago.

(2 Votes)

Tags: research - blindsnakes - fossils - ancient - prehistoric - Gondwana - Penn State University - Madagascar

P-Square pockets $1m at Kora Awards

Tuesday, 06 April 2010 12:18

Nigerian pop group P-Square has been crowned best African artiste of the year at the 8th edition of Kora Awards held in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou on Saturday. $1 million is attached to the prize.

(1 Vote)

Tags: pop - music - Kora Awards - Nigeria - P-Square - Burkina Faso

Scientists discover early dinosaur relation

Thursday, 04 March 2010 15:20

Scientists have uncovered the bones of a dinosaur-like creature that roamed Earth at least 10 million years earlier than the oldest known dinosaur, according to a study published Thursday.

(6 Votes)

Tags: dinosaur - ancient - fossil - history - discovery - Tanzania

Egypt to receive stolen sarcophagus from US

Tuesday, 23 February 2010 15:50

The U.S. will return to Egypt a 3,000 year old wooden sarcophagus confiscated at the Miami airport after being shipped from Barcelona, the Culture Ministry announced Monday.

(1 Vote)

Tags: US - sarcophagus - Miami - Zahi Hawass - customs - Madrid - Spain - stolen - antiquities - Egypt

Music enthusiasts drawn to Mali desert for tenth annual festival

Friday, 08 January 2010 10:30

The tenth edition of Mali's popular Festival in the Desert kicked off Thursday evening on the outskirts of the legendary city of Timbuktu in the Sahara desert.

(2 Votes)

Tags: Festival in the Desert - Timbuktu - Sahara desert - Tuareg - Toumani Diabate - Tinariwen - Ishmael Lo - Mali

Tombs to lift lid on Egypt's ancient middle class

Wednesday, 06 January 2010 11:53

Two 2,500-year-old tombs discovered at a necropolis near Cairo promise to reveal more about ancient Egypt's middle class, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Tuesday.

(3 Votes)

Tags: necropolis - Cairo - tombs - ancient - archaeologist - dynasty - Saqqara - middle class - Egypt

2,500-year-old tomb unearthed in Egypt

Tuesday, 05 January 2010 12:29

Archaeologists have unearthed a 2500-year-old tomb in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, Egypt's Culture Ministry announced Monday.

(5 Votes)

Tags: archaeologist - tomb - Saqqara - Culture Ministry - Cairo - Memphis - Egypt

New dinosaur species discovered in South Africa

Thursday, 12 November 2009 12:11

A newly discovered dinosaur species that roamed the Earth about 200 million years ago may help explain how the creatures evolved into the largest animals on land, said scientists in South Africa.

(5 Votes)

Tags: dinosaur - evolution - Aardonyx celestae - paleontologist - Adam Yates - University of the Witwatersrand - South Africa

Oldest skeleton shines new light on human origins

Friday, 02 October 2009 14:08

Anthropologists took the wraps off the oldest known human ancestor - a 4.4-million-year-old Ethiopian skeleton named Ardi, which challenges many long-held assumptions about how humans and apes evolved.

(9 Votes)

Tags: oldest - human ancestor - humans - apes - evolution - Tim White - University of California-Berkeley - Ardipithecus ramidus - Ardi - Lucy - Afar Desert - Ethiopia

Largest library of African films launched

Wednesday, 30 September 2009 12:48

The African film industry received a boost with the launch of the African Film Library - the largest electronic library of feature films, shorts and documentaries from 50 years of African film production.

(4 Votes)

Tags: African Film Library - M-Net - Ousmane Sembene - Djibril Mambety - Yousef Chahine - Kwaw Ansah - Haile Gerima - film - VOD - archive - South Africa - Africa

Angola a fossil hotspot

Wednesday, 23 September 2009 11:29

After 27 years of civil war Angola is rising from the ashes and, with its vast, previously unexplored expanses, is becoming known as a treasure chest for palaeontologists.

(5 Votes)

Tags: fossils - Louis Jacobs - Southern Methodist University - Dallas - US - PaleoAngola - palaeontologists - Angola

African author Uwem Akpan humbled by Oprah pick

Monday, 21 September 2009 12:29

Nigerian author Uwem Akpan, who is a Jesuit priest, said he was "humbled" that his debut collection of short stories was chosen by influential U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey for her book club.

(2 Votes)

Tags: Oprah Winfrey - book club - US talk show - Jesuit priest - author - Say You're One Of Them - Uwem Akpan - Nigeria

Africa emerges as TV production locale

Thursday, 27 August 2009 11:06

Southern Africa is emerging as a destination for runaway TV production, as the 19 Primetime Emmy nominations for shows shot in the region prove. HBO's "Generation Kill" miniseries was filmed in South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique.

(2 Votes)

Tags: TV - production - Generation Kill - 24: Redemption - No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - HBO - Fox - BBC - Out of Africa - Lance Samuels - location - South Africa - Mozambique - Namibia - Botswana

Pan-African Cultural Festival attracts thousands

Thursday, 16 July 2009 11:07

Thousands of artists and tourists, from a score of African nations, gathered in Algiers, Algeria, to attend the second Pan-African Cultural Festival. The event, which began on Saturday, is set to run through till the 20th of July.