Podcast

African Women's Art

Celebrating African women’s art, stories and knowledge — past, present and future, across the continent and the diaspora.

The African Women’s Art Podcast grew from my own journey of searching for the stories and creative practices of African women. In 2020, inspired by Beyoncé’s Black Is King, I began exploring the artistic traditions of my Nigerian heritage, particularly Igbo and Idoma arts.

I found that women’s creative practices were often harder to find and told through other people’s perspectives. Learning about uli, the communal body and wall art practised by Igbo women including my foremothers, opened new worlds for me and started me on a deeper journey of learning.

This podcast is part of that journey.

I have inspiring conversations with artists, researchers and knowledge holders from Africa and the diaspora. We explore the many facets of African women’s creativity — from painting, textiles and communal crafts to music, writing and beyond. I’ll also share reflections from my own journey as an artist.

This is a space for curiosity, connection and celebration of African women’s creative knowledge.

I’m so glad you’re here :-)

The podcast cover: a bright yellow square with AFRICAN WOMEN'S ART in heavy black capitals. Below, a semicircular photograph of Grace Browne smiling in an orange polo neck beside a spray of dried grasses. A pink circle sits top right and an orange triangle bottom right. Beneath, the words WITH GRACE BROWNE.

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Guests

Jackie Kay

Poet, playwright and novelist. Makar of Scotland, 2016–21.

Professor Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi

Artist, scholar and writer on uli and the Igbo heritage crisis.

Dr Tracie Chima Utoh-Ezeajugh

On uli and the Igbo body art’s relationship with healing, identity and the land.

Professor Herbert M. Cole

Professor Emeritus, University of California Santa Barbara. Taught the history of African art and architecture for thirty-five years.

Everlyn Nicodemus

Artist, writer and curator. One of the strongest feminist voices to come out of Eastern Africa in thirty years.

Dr Jareh Das

Researcher, writer and curator working between West Africa and the UK.

Okwoli Moses Elaigwu

Educationist, writer and historian on Idoma body arts.

Ebun Sodipo

Artist and writer working across performance, installation, video and text.

Zoë Zo, Zoë Tumika & Zoë Guthrie

Glasgow-based multidisciplinary artist.

Kialy Tihngang

British-born Cameroonian visual artist working in sculpture, video, textiles and animation.

Mae Diansangu

Queer poet and spoken word artist from Aberdeen.

Beulah Ezeugo

Researcher and curator working with postcolonial geographies, archives and memory.

The Psyber Giantess

Interdisciplinary dance artist, painter, writer and musician.

Dorine Mugisha

International performer, instructor and retreat leader.

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

Kenyan writer and author of Dust and The Dragonfly Sea.

Banji Chona

Artist, researcher, curator and scholar of Zambezian earth.

Femi Bajulaye

Yoruba visual artist, writer and filmmaker, on the language of Orisa paintings.

Adura Onashile

Film-maker and theatre-maker. Writer and director of Girl, 2023.

DYLEMA

Multidisciplinary artist, poet, musician and writer.

Nyokabi Kariũki

Kenyan composer, sound artist and artistic researcher.

Carina Haouchine

Scottish Algerian filmmaker, writer and musician.

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