"The Afropean.com team is excited to be continuing our Best of…End of Year tradition in 2025... Returning to the fold after a lengthy hiatus is prodigal sister, Abena Wariebi with her top picks for 2025. Happy New Year to our readers." afropean.com/best-of2025-...

"Across Uganda, a new wave is taking shape: Young people stepping boldly into the political arena. They're restless, ambitious, and convinced the country is at a turning point that demands their ideas and energy." www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN0Y...

"In 2020 ... Gbemisola Ikumelo, now 39, made a decision. 'I had this soul-destroying experience on a job,' she says... She decided to post online about the micro-aggressions she had endured while appearing in a play some years before... " www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Happy 2026 to one and all! We are excited to be continuing our tradition of end of year playlist. On the first day of 2026 we present Tola’s (our Editor) musical review of 2025 – accompanied by listening links to her 2025 mixtapes. afropean.com/best-of-2025...

"On one side, Caribbean states, African governments and diaspora movements are consolidating claims. On the other, Britain continues to blithely bat the issue away. The gap between the two positions is now the story." www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

"2025 was a year marked by the audacity and brilliance of young Africans, as well as their creativity. Across music, art, film, politics, and more, they broke records, achieved incredible feats, and captured the hearts and attention of the world..." www.okayafrica.com/okayafricas-...

Sharpening our focus as we look back at the year that was 2025, here's part two of our "Best of... 2025 Playlists". This selection features a heartfelt tribute to the late Michael ‘D’Angelo‘ Archer, from Kahlea Williams. afropean.com/best-of-2025...

"He was a musician, composer, poet, sound healer and producer—a South African cultural hero. Mohamed dedicated 50 years of his life to music, releasing 20 albums and sharing the stage with iconic musicians." africasacountry.com/2025/12/the-...

"Africa has given so much culturally to the world. It is not being recognised as it should be recognised." www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKtr...

Getting deeper into the _hibernation season_, here's another best of 2025 list from OkayAfrica: this one focuses on feature films... www.okayafrica.com/the-ten-best...

"Over the years, Black winemakers have carved out remarkable spaces in American viticulture, despite staggering odds...these establishments offer some of the country’s most innovative, soulful, and delicious wines." travelnoire.com/best-black-o...

Highlights from "Africa Is a Country Festival 2025" youtu.be/BZYUTlajbrk?...

"As the White House hypes “Christian genocide” and floats military action, northern Nigerians are responding with satire." africasacountry.com/2025/12/call...

Afropean.com is excited to be continuing our Best of…End of Year tradition in 2025. We have a few new names all up in the mix this year, too. Below is the 2025 selection from the team’s newest contributor, Chanelle Patterson. Happy Christmas to all our readers. afropean.com/best-of-2025...

"A new statue at the U.S. Capitol honors a teenage girl whose defiance helped to end segregation and spark the Civil Rights Movement. The display recognizes a woman who played a key part in the fight for equal rights..." blavity.com/barbara-rose...

Tis the season for rewinds/reviews/re-visitings of the year that was. Here's @okayafrica look back at music in 2025... www.okayafrica.com/okayafricas-...

"These days, rather than head to the bar just to drink, you also show up to hear a lecture on a chosen topic.... you’re ready to think and speak freely. A proper dialectic ensues. Ideas are exchanged, arguments are sharpened, questions asked..." africasacountry.com/2025/12/pint...

Chimamanda is here (and there would be hell to pay if she wasn't!) Good to see Ta Nehisi Coates and Zadie Smith getting the nod, but It's a struggle to understand how "Girl, Woman, Other" is not on this list.. observer.co.uk/culture/book...

"...a young Somali woman on TikTok claiming that Minnesota was promised to Somalis 3,000 years ago. Since then, Somalis have been joking that they want a two-state solution, that Americans have 49 other states they could choose from, so why not give them one..." africasacountry.com/2025/12/minn...

"Pan-Africanism denotes the ‘politico-cultural phenomenon’ according to Peter Esedebe, which holds that the unity of African individuals across the continent is essential to the ‘regeneration and uplift of Africa’. However, how do we turn theory into praxis?" afropean.com/decolonising...

"Fela Kuti made timeless music. That much is clear, given the reverence he earned during his career and after he died in 1997, as well as the contemporary movement of Afrobeats that continues to pay homage to the iconic musician." www.okayafrica.com/5-essential-...

"...in my mind her true wealth comes from the levels of cultural capital she has acquired through this melting pot of difference she has lived her whole life. It is my hope and belief that this is what will mitigate against any racism she will experience." afropean.com/bursting-the...

"In this unfiltered episode of Don’t Hold Back, Nozibele Qamngana-Mayaba sits down with Phenyo Moletsane — a proud Black, gay man living openly with HIV in 2025 — for a powerful conversation that goes beyond labels, beyond fear, beyond silence." www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu0a...

"Três mil pessoas podem ter fugido de barco do Recife com ajuda de Gertrudes e clube de abolicionistas" apublica.org/2025/11/gert... "Three thousand people may have fled Recife by boat with the help of Gertrudes and an abolitionist club." apublica-org.translate.goog/2025/11/gert...

"Ismail Mohamed-Jan – better known by South African jazz fans as Pops Mohamed – has passed away at the age of 75. His life in music represented a struggle against narrow, oppressive definitions – of race, instrumental appropriateness and musical genre." theconversation.com/pops-mohamed...

"From rooftop beginnings to open mics that echo on the streets, Kenya’s newest literary collective shows how art can archive struggle and energize dissent." africasacountry.com/2025/09/the-...

"These traditions often trace their origins to bountiful harvests, wartime victories, ancestral reverence, or spiritual encounters, some passed down through oral history, others mythologised over centuries. Yet, what binds them all is continuity." afropean.com/curating-the...

"Storytelling dance powerhouse ZooNation give Dickens’ classic a hip hop makeover" Playing NOW @ Saddler's Wells East, London www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrbb...

"Donald Trump’s call for US military intervention to protect Christian communities in Nigeria is sparking debate. Would the move effectively disrupt terror networks?" www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVP6...

Bridges between Two People, Two Continents and Two Worlds Walter Thompson-Hernandez researches multiracial realities in Ghent, Belgium afropean.com/black-and-be...

"African scholars update a monumental book that sets out the continent's global contribution across thousands of years. " www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z15...

"Hysteria over small boats is hiding the real roots of disaffection – inequality, poverty and unaffordable housing " observer.co.uk/news/columni...

"Thousands of years before Janet Jackson popularized the term box braids, women and young ladies in southern Africa were rocking the hairstyle. Jackson’s gorgeously braided hair in the classic film Poetic Justice brought a heightened level of visibility..." www.okayafrica.com/the-ancient-...

National Identity, Citizenship, and Belonging: Afro-descendants in Spain and Catalonia. "To be an Afro-descendant here is hard. Like I’ve explained, you never feel this is your place… " afropean.com/national-ide...

"Pero antes de que los europeos impusieran su modelo biomédico como verdad absoluta, el África subsahariana contaba con sistemas de salud comunitaria sofisticados." afrofeminas.com/2025/11/20/l...

"Half a century after the Soviets built their base on the Gulf of Aden, the same strategic coastline is once more drawing in foreign powers, old and new." africasacountry.com/2025/11/when...

"Coleridge-Taylor’s first visit to America occurred at a critical moment when African-Americans desperately needed something or someone to restore faith in themselves. They needed reassurance they were on the path to a brighter future ..." afropean.com/profound-mut...

"Myths, inconsistencies, and many negative perceptions are often associated with hair and hairstyles, particularly those deeply rooted in African and Black traditions. Crowns of Africa... explores the origins of hairstyles that started in Africa..." www.okayafrica.com/celebrating-...

Just in case the previous post has sparked your interest in Sister Rosetta Tharpe ... www.npr.org/2017/08/24/5...

Coming to London in 2026: new musical based on the life of the legendary Sister Rosetta Tharpe. #MUSTSEE!!! sohoplace.org/shows/marie-...

"Within the last decade and half, African creatives have played a central role in some of the most culturally significant fashion moments — from editorials, to campaigns, runway shows, among others." www.okayafrica.com/the-african-...

"As the Siyah series draws to a close – one of the most consistently popular features on Afropean.com – it feels like the end of an era. Visionary of the series, Adama Munu reflects on the past five years; from genesis to conclusion." afropean.com/siyah-final-...

"Two-and-a-half years ago, I returned home to South Africa after more than a decade in Europe and North America working as a museum and heritage consultant, and a bruising and short-lived stint as the director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art ..." africasacountry.com/2025/11/who-...

"There’s an endearing way Tems writes about love. It’s from a perspective that demands the best behaviors of the people involved. For her, it seems relationships are not dreamy spaces where butterflies play in the sunset ... " www.okayafrica.com/tems-navigat...

youtu.be/oYmluP55nn0 These episodes of AAHIAH spotlight incredible Black figures often left out of U.S. classrooms — from educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune to Lucius Amerson, the first Black sheriff in the Deep South since Reconstruction, to sculptor and arts advocate Augusta Savage.

"Donald Trump’s call for US military intervention to protect Christian communities in Nigeria is sparking debate. Would the move effectively disrupt terror networks?" www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVP6...

"The Story of UK Soul - In episode 1 we head back to the late sixties and very early seventies. From the dancehalls of Wigan and the sound systems of Notting Hill, this landmark series looks at the roots of UK soul." HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! hellorayo.co.uk/jazz-fm/show...

#Legend #RestInPower www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Dreamers" Directed by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor. "After undocumented immigrant, Isio is discovered by British authorities, she is remanded at Hatchworth Removal Centre, where deportation looms. Fortunately, her roommate Farah is there to keep her spirits up." www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dbo...

"Touring all-Black theatre company, Tangle put their distinctive, multi-lingual stamp on one of Shakespeare’s best known and oft-quoted historical dramas." afropean.com/theatre-revi...