Lihle Z. Mtshali

2 weeks ago | okayafrica.com | Lihle Z. Mtshali |Zee Ngema

For the first time in the history of the FIFA Club World Cup, four African clubs will take the global stage when the expanded tournament kicks off in the United States on Sunday, June 15. Al Ahly (Egypt), Wydad Casablanca (Morocco), Espérance de Tunis (Tunisia), and Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa) will represent the continent in what is being billed as a new era for club football. The Club World Cup isn't new — it's been around since 2000 — but this year is different.

1 month ago | okayafrica.com | Lihle Z. Mtshali

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o wasn’t just a writer — he was a liberator of language, memory, and imagination. Born in 1938 in Limuru, Kenya, at the height of British colonial rule, he spent his life unlearning the systems meant to erase him and rebuilding a literary world in which African voices, stories, and languages could stand tall. His work made it clear: the pen could be a machete, carving paths to freedom.

1 month ago | okayafrica.com | Lihle Z. Mtshali

Every day, OkayAfrica shares a roundup of news we’re following but haven’t published as full articles. These short updates cover what’s happening on the continent — in culture, politics, and beyond. For more on stories like these, be sure to check out our News page, with stories from across the regions. Former Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has lost his appeal and will serve a 15-year sentence for corruption.

1 month ago | okayafrica.com | Lihle Z. Mtshali

“Who will take care of you when you’re old?” “What’s the point of all your success if you have no one to inherit it?” “But what is your purpose on this earth?” These are the kinds of questions my friends get asked almost every time they reveal that they do not have children and don’t want them. My friends aren’t confessing some shameful secret. They’re sharing a firm, well-considered decision. But in African communities, they are treated as strange, even offensive.

1 month ago | okayafrica.com | Lihle Z. Mtshali

When Nigerian adventurer Ebaide Udoh took off from Kenya in 2023 on a motorcycle she had only just learned to ride, her goal was simple: see Africa before her body gave out. A near-fatal car accident left her with screws in her spine after the vehicle flipped several times, hurling her out and slamming her onto her back when she was just 23. She spent months in a wheelchair and vowed to herself that if she ever got her legs back, she would use them as much as she could.