Ciku Kimeria

Ciku here, the newly appointed editor of Quartz Africa.

African art sales, though they are on the rise, still currently account for less than 1% of the $50 billion global art market. What if there was a way for African artists to profit from their work in perpetuity while also growing their piece of the pie?

Sotheby’s recently concluded its bi-annual Modern & Contemporary African Art auction, exceeding the lower end of its pre-sale estimate by over 40% to net £2.7 million ($3.7 million). Participants hailed from 34 countries, with over a third of buyers transacting with Sotheby’s for the first time, making the auction houses’ third online-only auction of contemporary African art a major success.

“They said, ‘you are a savage and dangerous woman.’ I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous.” This line from the novel Woman at Point Zero, by Egyptian doctor, feminist and writer, Nawal El Saadawi, who recently passed away at 89, probably speaks best about the author’s pioneering life.

A few recent discoveries of long-lost works by Africa’s greatest contemporary artist, Ben Enwonwu, are leading to a reexamination of his legacy. How is it that the works of a man who in 1949 would be named Africa’s greatest contemporary artist by Time magazine, would decades later be gathering dust, long-forgotten in an apartment in London or in a family house in Texas?

Queen Sono, Netflix’s first script-to-screen African original production, is being renewed for a second season based on the success of the first season.

Ten days ago, the British government issued a directive stopping all gatherings of more than two people in public in order to slow the spread of coronavirus that currently stands at 34,000 infections and 3,000 deaths in the country.

Within its first few weeks of release, Queen Sono, Netflix’s first fully produced African original series, shot to #1 in viewership in several African and Caribbean countries and at one point in its first week it was ranked 7th  on Netflix in the United States, according to a tweet by Pearl Thusi, the show’s star.

Senegal has confirmed it has two confirmed cases of coronavirus with two French nationals in the West African country.

Last February, Dr. Njoki Ngumi, a Nairobi-based physician and filmmaker, noticed a trending hashtag on her Twitter timeline. Hundreds of women were sharing horror stories of their experiences with Procter & Gamble’s flagship menstrual pads, Always, under the hashtag #myalwaysexperience.

The first work exhibit you come across at the Prête-moi ton rêve (lend me your dream) exhibition in Dakar’s Museum of Black Civilizations might be one of giant matchsticks by Senegalese artist, Mansour Ciss Kanakassy. The matchsticks, some of them lit, others yet to be ignited represent the Berlin conference of 1884-1885 and the eventual Scramble for Africa.

*Updated with comments from Ethiopian Airlines executive

With the death toll of Coronavirus now having passed 300, and more than 14,000 infections confirmed, WHO has declared the virus a global health emergency.

YouTube’s comments section is widely acknowledged in modern internet culture as one of the worst places on the Web. Even the most benign videos of a tech toy’s unboxing all too easily descends into vitriol, sexism and discriminatory outbursts. 

In 1890, the French staged a bloody siege in the Segou royal palace, the capital of the Toucouleur empire that spanned modern day Guinea, Senegal and Mali. This siege and the violent capture of the city of Ouossebougou in 1890 marked the end of the Toucouleur empire and the transfer of control of the region to French colonial rule.

For decades, the innovation and formal research on products for black skin and hair was limited on the global stage as beauty brands multinationals focused their research on caucasian skin with only slight modifications to products for potential customers with darker skin.

When a man found the almost forgotten portrait of his mother in their family house in Texas, he had no idea just how life-changing his discovery would be.

The concept of nation states in Africa is only a bit over a century old, arising after the 1884 Berlin Conference and the subsequent Scramble for Africa by European superpowers of the time. It is therefore not surprising that the names of most African countries are remnants of a colonial legacy.

Some 67 million tourists visited Africa in 2018, representing a rise of 7% from a year earlier, making Africa the second-fastest growing region when it comes to tourism, after Asia Pacific.

When Beijing-born video producer, Fyjo Molly, relocated from Berlin to Johannesburg three years ago, she was enthusiastic about the move. It would be her first time in Africa, but as someone who enjoys immersing herself in different cultures, she was looking forward to the new experience.

The long-awaited on-screen adaptation of Chimamanda’s bestseller, Americanah, is finally coming to life as a ten-episode HBO series starring Lupita Nyong’o and directed by Danai Gurira.

A night out in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial capital, is not complete until you find yourself in a line of Ivorians, all standing side by side facing the giant mirrors that line every dance floor in the city, dancing to a DJ Arafat song.

When footage circulated last week of a Kenyan lawmaker, Hon. Zuleikha Hassan, being kicked out of parliament for coming in with her baby, reactions across the country were mixed, but mostly muted. A home emergency left the Kwale county women’s representative with no one that she could leave her five-month old baby with.

Imagine finding an almost-forgotten portrait of your mother in your family house, doing a Google search on the artist’s name and discovering that what you own is a precursor to the artist’s best-known work that sold in 2018 for $1.6 million.