Dakar celebrates start of long-awaited African art biennale

For the many people who enjoy a casual swim or deep-sea dive off the Senegalese coast, plastic pollution is an increasingly worrying issue. Dakar's oldest diving club has decided to do something about it, by organising ocean clean-up days.

'Yesterday is today's memory': African art comes to Paris

British-born Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare has launched a residency program in the West African country's commercial capital Lagos in the hope that it will help the continent to raise its profile in the global art scene.

Dakar opens International Forum on Peace and Security

The last Dakar-Bamako train ran on 17 May 2018, but the colonial-era station in the Malian capital remains. For almost a hundred years, the service had connected Mali to neighbouring Senegal. Railworkers attempt to preserve the station and its memories.

A dozen graffiti artists in Senegal have created a mural in the heart of the capital Dakar in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The 18th edition of Dakar Fashion Week hosts its main catwalk in a baobab forest in Senegal to maintain some social distancing. "With Covid, we had to be creative, I had to find solutions and above all we had to avoid cancelling the show, and here I think there is enough space so that no one feels cramped," says Adama Ndiaye, producer at Dakar Fashion Week.

She's called herself a "caretaker of memory". Zineb Sedira is as much an artist as she is a researcher, historian and filmmaker. The Franco-Algerian artist is representing France at the 59th Venice Biennale of contemporary art in April. She joins us in the studio to talk about the influence of Algerian activist cinema on her work. We also discuss how the war in Ukraine has jeopardised Pavlo Makov's participation in the Biennale, and she weighs in on the decision of Russian artists to boycott their own, state-sponsored pavilion.

She's called herself a "caretaker of memory". Zineb Sedira is as much an artist as she is a researcher, historian and filmmaker. The Franco-Algerian artist is representing France at the 59th Venice Biennale of contemporary art in April. She joins us in the studio to talk about the influence of Algerian activist cinema on her work. We also discuss how the war in Ukraine has jeopardised Pavlo Makov's participation in the Biennale, and she weighs in on the decision of Russian artists to boycott their own, state-sponsored pavilion.

Kendell Geers and Tsoku Maela are two South African artists taking part in 1-54, the leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora, which is currently on show in Paris. The artists speak to Eve Jackson about their work, which addresses mental health issues in African communities, apartheid and global economic concerns. They also discuss the monolith label of "African art" and how more needs to be done for the restitution of stolen African treasures.

As the international art world flocks to Dakar for its much-anticipated Biennale, Senegalese artist Fally Sene Sow just has to look out the window to find inspiration in the colourful and chaotic market street outside his studio in the capital.

The photography biennale in Bamako, Mali is one of the most important arts events in Africa. Many young artists hope to launch an international career at the event.