Reviews dominate this year’s most-read stories on Bakwa magazine. When our readers aren’t reading reviews, they are reading about the Anglophone Problem in Cameroon. The recent protests in the English-speaking parts of Cameroon, resulting from a language crisis (which was…
Akua Naru’s Poetic Discourse on Love and Black Suffering
Why does Akua Naru accept Africa’s music and spirituality, and neglect its people’s voice in her poems? The 1997 film Love Jones features a scene in a dark jazz club at an open mic night where a young black man,…
[Short Review] Fatoumata Diawara Channels the Innocence and Power that History Associates with her Name
Serubiri Moses ‘Fatou’ is the short form for Fatoumata or Fatouma where I come from. Her name alone has a long history within Islamic cultures: a city was named Fatimah in Portugal during the Moorish period; Fatimah is the name…
The Aesthetics of Lugaflow Subculture and (Inter)National Representation
Serubiri Moses Can Lugaflow represent Uganda nationally or internationally in the same way Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart represents Nigeria nationally and internationally? “I’m just trying to shape my own destiny, I’m trying to be my own Museveni.” – Karama…
BrymO's Lagosian fiction in Merchants, Dealers & Slaves
Serubiri Moses [Music Review] Reading BrymO’s Lagosian fiction in Merchants, Dealers & Slaves Serubiri Moses Merchants, Dealers & Slaves evokes the confident move of the artist defining their own journey as a songwriter and performer. This is what…
[Photography] Dakar Street Series by Serubiri Moses
The work explores the relationship between the graffiti in the Point E and Ouakam area with Senegal’s history, literature and politics.
A Ugandan MC's intimate keyboard Hip-Hop
Serubiri Moses Originally published in Start When we meet at 2:45 pm, I’m sitting at the grand piano in the Green Room, behind the stage of the National Theatre wondering whether he will make it through the rain, but I’m…
Photography by Serubiri Moses
Maureen Rutabingwa is a jazz saxophonist, pianist and vocalist based in Kampala. Her Soul Deep band reworks Rihanna, Erykah Badu and the jazz of George Benson and Roy Hargrove. Dancers along Kampala-Jinja Road during the…