When restrictions were introduced in Nigeria, Nollywood filmmakers bore the brunt. Filming stopped and Africa’s biggest movie industry ground to a painfully slow halt. We spoke to some creatives in the industry to discuss how the pandemic has affected their work.
Lifestyle Isolation love: The odds are good, but the goods are odd
As singles flooded dating sites to find lockdown love last year, the pandemic heightened the stress points of modern dating and presented sobering revelations in equal measure. Let’s discuss how.
Politics and Society Cartoon: Hogging the shots
In an unequal world, it is deeply concerning but not surprising that vaccines are being rolled out in an unequal way. Rich countries are well into the process of inoculating their populaces, while poorer countries are still on the starting blocks.
Arts, Culture and Sport Afrojazz innovator meditates mortality and pandemic creativity
Vital Signs, the critically acclaimed pandemic album by Zimbabwean jazz innovator Vee Mukarati, masterfully negotiates the lockdown dilemma of being relevant to your time while staying true to your art. Mukarati swings, meditates and sings on mortality, precarity and alienation on an album that is, at once, deeply personal, richly Zimbabwean and unmistakably global. The Switzerland-based artist discusses navigating the challenges of lockdown creativity in this exclusive interview with This Is Africa.
Arts, Culture and Sport Is’xaxa: How to do it for the culture — while trying to stay alive
How a collaborative music project spanning three countries over two continents was made in the depths of a global pandemic.
Politics and Society Whose mental health suffered the most during COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria
In Nigeria, the unmarried, the unemployed, the less educated and those from the northern parts of the country were most susceptible to psychological challenges associated with COVID-19 lockdown.
Arts, Culture and Sport A fight against HIV hindered by a global pandemic
A decade ago, Zimbabwean sports administrator Chris Sambo founded Positive Women League, a thriving social football league for women living with HIV, and those at risk of contracting the virus. For a year now, the initiative has been halted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Sambo himself died of COVID-19 in July 2020.
African identities How the pandemic has complicated life for LGBT communities
“The pandemic has restricted movement and, by extension, community with chosen family. The absence of this means exposure to distress with little support,” says Aanu Jide-Ojo, a clinical psychologist working with the LGBT community in Nigeria.
Politics and Society Cartoon: Tanzanian President John Magufuli and COVID-19 denialism
For months Tanzania’s government has insisted the country was free from COVID-19, so there are no plans for vaccination. As other African countries are beginning to rollout vaccination programmes there is little testing and no clear plans for a vaccination programme in Tanzania.