African presidents have reached a strong consensus to focus on regional integration, inclusive growth and youth empowerment in order to achieve continued and sustained growth on the continent at the Africa 2017 Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of Egypt hosted African heads of state and business leaders including President Alpha Condé of the Republic …

The sudden death of Mike Reichel, a leading member of the Black Community in Germany, has been announced. Reichel (54), who tragically ended his own life in Berlin last week, was one of the pioneer members of the Initiative of Black People in Germany (Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland or ISD) and was a co-founder of the Black History Month …

The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE), Hon. Kenneth Gbandi, has called on Nigerians travelling home for Christmas to be good ambassadors of the Diaspora. In his end-of-the-year message to Nigerians living in Europe, Gbandi pleaded with his countrymen and women travelling home for the yuletide to use the opportunity “for knowledge transfer, mentoring, empowerment and to …

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier signed a multi-million dollar partnership deal with Ghana on his first trip to Africa since taking office. Germany hopes the accord might help curb migration to Europe. Germany has agreed to grant Ghana $118 million (€100 million) to promote renewable energies, energy efficiency and vocational training. The two countries signed the “Investment and Reform Partnership” agreement …

Liberia will hold a delayed presidential run-off vote on 26 December, the electoral commission chief said on Tuesday (12 December). Former football star George Weah faces Vice-President Joseph Boakai in the poll that was held up for several weeks by a court challenge by the candidate who came third in round one. The winner will replace Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as …

Mohamed Salah has won BBC’s African Footballer of the Year for 2017 award after impressing in the Premier League for Liverpool and leading Egypt to the World Cup for the third time in their history The 25-year-old forward beat Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Guinean Naby Keita, Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Nigeria’s Victor Moses to be named the continent’s greatest player by …

Last week, YouTube released its annual Rewind lists. These lists are separated by country and showcase the moments that captured the attention of YouTube users around the globe this year. The Nigerian section of these list made for some interesting viewing by giving an insight into what Nigerians like to watch on YouTube. The top 10 videos (excluding from major …

“Press Statement of the Central Council of the African Community in Germany e.V. (Zentralrat der afrikanischen Gemeinde in Deutschland e.V.) on the murder of Oury Jalloh. Fixed to a fireproof mattress with his hands and feet shackled, Oury Jalloh was found burnt in cell N ° 6 of the Dessau police station on 7 January 2005. The horrible image of …

The wave of protests against the enslavement of African migrants in Libya continued on Saturday (9 December) with demonstrations in the British capital and the German city of Hamburg. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Libyan embassy in London to demand an end to slave auctions in the North African country. Carrying placards reading “End the Damn Slavery!!” and “Human …

In the 13 years since Oury Jalloh’s death, his case has been shuffled from one prosecutor’s office to another. Now a state justice minister has stepped in. And a murder allegation has been filed at the federal level. Lea Fauth of Deutsche Welle (DW) reports. In the latest twist surrounding the investigation into the mysterious death of Sierra Leone asylum …

Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, will travel to Ghana and Gambia on 11-14 December 2017 on state visits. He will be accompanied by a delegation, including the Federal Minister for Economy and Energy, Mrs Brigitte Zypries, the Deputy Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Friedrich Kitschelt, the State Minister at the German Foreign Office, Maria …

Black organisations in Hamburg are calling for a public demonstration in the Merchant city on Saturday (9 December) against the enslavement, torture, rape and murder of Africans in Libya. “The Black Community in Hamburg invites all Black organizations, groups, movements, activists and individuals and their friends and supporters to a demonstration in front of the political and consular representations of …

Leaders of Germany’s CDU, CSU and SPD are set to meet next week to discuss a roadmap for upcoming coalition talks, following approval by the SPD party congress on Thursday to allow talks on forming a new ‘Grand Coalition’. Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats agreed Thursday to open talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU on whether to renew their governing …

Cameroon-born, Berlin-based scholar Julien Enoka Ayemba traces the history of the African film industry from the 1960s and its decline as a result of reduced European financial support to the emergence of the locally financed Nigerian video films in the early 1990s. Nollywood “symbolises the hope for independence” of African film, he concludes. Since its existence, the African film production, …

Bic Leu* on how the Nigerian film industry is creating new distribution channels to circumvent the pirates, who deny practitioners of the revenue legally due to them. The domestic and international media have been buzzing about the emergence of a New Nollywood. A wave of recent features – including Kunle Afolayan’s The Figurine and Chineze Anyaene’s Ijé – flout traditional Nollywood …

The Masters of Nollywood are those powerful creative hands behind the scene who make it possible for the stars to shine. They are top-rated producers and directors whose works are celebrated around the globe. —————————————— TUNDE KELANI Interview with Tunde Kelani / Courtesy of NdaniTV The internationally acclaimed director Tunde Kelani is the standard setter in Nollywood. His production company …

While it is true that there is much to celebrate in Nollywood’s first 25 years, Aderinsola Ajao, a Lagos-based art critic and keen follower of the Nigerian movie industry, argues that the time has come to think more about the fate that awaits the industry in the years ahead. For the past two decades, almost everything about Nollywood has evolved …

The Nigerian film industry has been described as a phenomenon, an original African invention that has taken the world by storm. How did it all begin? Sunny Okim, one of the first set of Nigerian journalists to focus on Nollywood, traces the history of the movie industry.   Living in Bondage Some 25 years ago, a young Nigerian university graduate …

Femi Awoniyi on how the Nigerian film industry created a new popular African art form in only twenty-five years. “Africans are not banished to the margins of narrative or subsumed in landscape. Rather they become the movers of our story. Their humanity is not negotiable; it is not in the story teller’s gift to bestow, to withhold or to grant …

Thousands of people are fleeing villages in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon less than a week after President Paul Biya declared war against Anglophone separatist groups. Fleeing villagers complain troops are engaging in rape, killings, and harassment, but the military says they are out to defend the population. The number of people travelling along the Kumba Mamfe Road in the …