Afro Sides

26 min, weekly, 12 episodes

Afro Sides finds the African side of the world's great cities: music, fashion, film, cuisine.

Afro Sides is GA's weekly magazine on Africa helping to shape the cultural code of the world's great cities. Afrobeats in London clubs, African designers on the runways of Paris and Milan, films from the continent at Cannes and Berlin, artists in the galleries of New York, kitchens, bookshops and dance floors from Berlin to São Paulo: African culture is no longer an inspiration the world borrows, it is a force that sets trends, moves markets and changes how cities live. Each week, Afro Sides goes to one of those cities and follows one of those currents — the artists, the producers, the labels, the festivals, the entrepreneurs behind it — and asks what it builds between the continent and the world: audiences, revenues, influence, a different image of Africa. The city is the stage and the culture is the subject; the people appear through what they create, which is what sets Afro Sides apart from the portraits of Diaspora: The African Edge. It is not an arts programme; it is a magazine about influence, of which culture is the terrain. Its question never changes: where is Africa writing the culture of the world's cities, and who is making the most of it?

01 — African Beats, Global Streets — Afrobeats, amapiano, highlife in New York, London and Paris: the nights, the festivals, the streaming numbers, and the business behind the sound. Pilot.

02 — Fashion Capitals, African Lines — African designers at the fashion weeks of Paris, Milan and Tokyo: the houses that hire them, the trends they set, the market they open.

03 — African Film on the World Stage — Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Toronto: African cinema at the festivals, on the streaming platforms and in the co-production deals.

04 — The Art Market — Contemporary African artists in the galleries, museums and fairs of London, New York and Venice: who buys, who shows, and what the prices say.

05 — Cuisine Without Borders — African chefs and kitchens in the world's restaurant capitals: the ingredients, the stars, the supply chains that reach back to the continent.

06 — African Letters Abroad — Authors, publishers, prizes and translations: how African storytelling reshapes the literary life of London, Paris and New York.

07 — Dance and Performance — African dance in theatres, ballet companies and street culture, from Paris to Berlin to Brooklyn.

08 — Creative Hubs — Diaspora studios, agencies and labels exporting African creativity: the entrepreneurs who turned a scene into an industry.

09 — Digital Africa — Creators, platforms and online communities: African influence on the world's screens, and the audiences that follow it.

10 — Festival Season — The international festivals built around African culture, from Afro Nation to Afropunk: who organises them, who attends, what they earn.

11 — The African Neighbourhood — Château Rouge, Peckham, Matonge, Little Senegal: how African communities shape the districts, the trade and the public life of the cities they live in.

12 — What Africa Means Abroad — Season synthesis: perception, soft power and the value of culture. What the world's capitals now owe to Africa, and what Africa gets in return.

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