Marietou Ba

Creator

Marietou Ba

Fickle singer: Ivorian Aicha Kone hold a photo of herself and Niger’s leader General Abdourahamane Tiani. Photo: Issouf Sanogo/AFP

Diva to junta: the singer praising West African putschists

How musical icon Aicha Kone has turned her back and microphone on the old political class in West Africa

Marietou Ba

This 1997 image was created during an investigation into an outbreak of monkeypox, which took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, and depicts the palms of a patient with a case of monkeypox in Lodja, a town in the Katako-Kombe health zone. (Photo by: CDC/IMAGE POINT FR/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

New strain of mpox cases surge in DRC and neighbouring countries

The Clade Ib strain has already jumped borders, with cases being reported in Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Kenya in the last two weeks

Marietou Ba

British-Gambian musician, singer, and griot Sona Jobarteh plays kora (a 21-string, West African Mandingo harp-lute) during a World Music Institute concert at Symphony Space, New York, New York, June 23, 2019. Jobarteh is the first female from a griot/jali family to perform publicly on the kora. (Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images)

Player adds a string to women’s bows

For Sona Jobarteh, Africa’s first woman to play the sacred kora professionally, breaking with tradition has not been easy

Marietou Ba