“One of life’s great hacks is having an older sister.†It’s a simple line from Tyla, but it says so much about where her beauty story begins. Before the glam, the campaigns and the global spotlight, there were shared moments, early lessons and quiet influences that shaped how she sees herself today.
In her i-D Beauty Zine cover feature, she reflects on those formative memories, tracing her routines back to the people and experiences that defined them. It’s a reminder that beauty is often inherited in the most personal ways, passed down through sisterhood, observation and time.
May is gearing up to be an eventful month for African cinema across the continent and diaspora. With Egyptian and Tunisian directors presenting at Cannes, theatrical releases across Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Senegal, plus streaming premieres from Kenya and Tanzania, filmmakers across the continent showcase their talents.
Meanwhile, the New York African Film Festival brings 100 films from Africa and its diaspora to international audiences. Here's OkayAfrica’s guide to what's showing where this month.
North Africa — By Amuna Wagner
Cairo Cinema Days (Egypt)
Until the end of May, downtown Cairo's independent Zawya Cinema invites audiences to enjoy the eighth edition of the Cairo Cinema Days. The program showcases the latest Arab productions across the region to highlight acclaimed works from filmmakers shaping contemporary Arab cinema. One of the Egyptian must-watch films in this year's selection is Laila Abbas' Thank you for banking with us: After finding out that their father left a huge sum of money behind after his death, Mariam and Noura come up with an elaborate scheme to abscond with the money before their brother — who is legally entitled to half the inheritance — finds out about their father's death.
Where to watch: Zawya Cinema Cairo
Fanon (France, Tunisia)
Filmed in Tunisia but set in 1950s Algeria, Fanon is inspired by the life of the revolutionary psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, author of the seminal works "Black Skin, White Masks" and "The Wretched of the Earth." Fanon moved to Algeria when it was still a French colony and dedicated himself to the anti-colonial struggle. Directed by Jean-Claude Flamand Barny and starring Alexandre Bouyer, the film's storyline follows him and his wife Josie as they join Algeria's fight for independence.
Where to watch: Moroccan cinemas and other French-speaking countries in Africa
L'BUZZ (Morocco)
This comedy, directed by and starring Moroccan actor Dimna Bounaylat, tells the story of young people's desire to enter the world of celebrity through social media, by way of showcasing real or fictional talents and taking advantage of any opportunity to make money against the backdrop of a harsh, unstable life.
Where to watch: Moroccan cinemas
East Africa — By Paula Adhis
'The Mommy Club Tanzania' (Tanzania)
The hit South African reality series The Mommy Club expands east with The Mommy Club Tanzania, bringing the franchise's signature glamour and drama to Dar es Salaam. This new chapter follows five influential moms — actress and entrepreneur Rose Ndauka, comedian Pili Kitimtim, brand ambassador Marry Mtemi, humanitarian Riyama Ally, and fashion mogul Mwanahamisi Mziray — as they juggle parenting, power, and prestige in one of East Africa's most vibrant cities.
Where to watch: Showmax, new episodes on Fridays
'MTV Shuga Mashariki' (Kenya)
The iconic MTV Shuga franchise returns to Kenya with MTV Shuga Mashariki, a powerful new season that dives deep into the raw, unfiltered realities of campus life. Set at Enkare University, the series follows a group of students navigating love, betrayal, identity, mental health, and sexuality while balancing family expectations, social media pressures, and economic struggles. A wild night at Club Baze sets off a chain reaction of secrets, heartbreak, and life-altering choices, forcing each character to confront who they are when no one is watching.
With a stellar young cast of rising talent, the vision of well-respected Kenyan directors June Ndinya, Mkaiwawi "Mkay" Mwakaba, andLikarion Wainaina, and production by acclaimed producerReuben Odanga, MTV Shuga Mashariki blends compelling drama with urgent social commentary, tackling issues like consent, sexual health, gender norms, and financial independence.
Where to watch: Citizen TV, BET, and globally on YouTube from May 13.
West Africa — By Nelson C.J
My Mother Is A Witch (Nigeria)
My Mother Is A Witch follows the rupturing of a relationship between a woman and her daughter and the world of misremembering and hurt that follows. After an ailing woman tricks her estranged daughter into returning home to see her, the painful history between them unfurls into a return to the past and its complicated impact on the present. It's a film about memories, moving places, and finding new demons in old places. Set between London and Benin, Nigeria, the film stars Efe Irele (Hey you!, The House of Secrets, Farmer's Bride, 2 Weeks in Lagos), Mercy Aigbe (Ada Omo Daddy, 77 Bullets, Lagos Real Fake Life, Palavah!), Timini Egbuson (Big Love, A Tribe Called Judah, Breaded Life), and others.
Where to watch: Now showing in cinemas
Check-In (Ghana)
Welcome to a day at Adinkra Hotel, a quaint hotel in Ghana, home to a world of hilarious and intriguing stories unfolding over 24 hours. This comedy flick follows the stories of different people who check into the hotel and the various troubles and situations they get into. The film stars Bella Agyeman, Clemento Suarez, Clinton Odoi, Felicia Osei, Fiifi Jefferson Pratt, Gideon Kojo, Priscilla Okpoku Agyeman, and others.
Where to watch: Silverbird Cinema Accra
Timpi Tampa (Senegal)
Adama Bineta Sow's latest film is a startlingly gorgeous satire that makes bold statements on beauty standards and socio-cultural pressures. Timpi Tampa follows a young man whose mother poisons herself after years of using bleaching creams and forcefully lightening her skin. With a sordid view of how punishing Western beauty standards can be, the man enrolls in a beauty pageant disguised as a woman to make a statement. Timpi Tampa is darkly funny, frank about the weight of its subject, and socially aware. The film examines the many ways beauty can be interpreted while training its eye on the cost of making a statement. The film stars Pope Aly Diop, Yacine Sow Dumon, Awa Djiga Kane, Jean Pierre Coly, and others.
Where to watch: Pathé Cinema
Southern Africa — By Tseliso Monaheng
Unseen Season 2 (South Africa)
One of the most streamed shows on the African continent when it debuted two years ago, Unseen is back for an action-packed second season that will leave your seat's edges in tatters. Based on the Turkish series Fatma, the show follows Zenzi (played by Gail Mabalane), an isolated prisoner who must navigate harsh conditions by forging uneasy alliances. Following a betrayal, she escapes prison in search of freedom and vengeance.
Where to watch: Netflix
'Sabbatical (South Africa)
Sabbatical is a film about the emotional cost of success. Lesego, played by Mona Monyane, is a fast-rising executive on track to become CEO at the company she works for. A night out ends up with her back in her mother's place. Dazed, she wakes up to a series of calls and messages from her workplace. There is a scandal that threatens to destroy all that she has worked for. Will she sink or swim? Sabbatical is writer and director Karabo Lediga's debut feature film, and it received rave reviews when it premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in February. Produced by Diprente (Catching Feelings, Matwetwe), the film also stars Clementine Mosimane as Lesego's mother, Doris, and renowned comedian Loyiso Gola, who plays the shrewd detective Percy Mthimkhulu.
The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) returns for its 32nd edition, running from May 7 under the theme "Fluid Horizons: A Shifting Lens on a Hopeful World." This year's festival celebrates the resilience of African youth and young filmmakers, with 100 African and diaspora films being screened.
The festival opens with Afolabi Olalekan's fast-paced thriller Freedom Way, while Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine's Memories of Love Returned is the centerpiece film. Other noteworthy films include Black Tea by Abderrahmane Sissako, Juju Factory by Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, and Furu by Fatou Cissé.
The festival closes with "In the Arms of the Mother," a shorts program highlighting films by or about African women, including the world premiere of Kounkou Hoveyda's We Will Be Who We Are and the U.S. premiere of Zoé Cauwet's Le Grand Calao.
Currently, no African head of state is more popular and beloved than Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traoré. Last Wednesday, in Ouagadougou, thousands of Burkinabes poured out into the streets for rallies in support of Traoré, who came into power in September 2022 through the second coup in the country that year.
The rallies followed the announcement of a foiled coup plan and statements by General Michael Langley, commander of U.S. Africa Command, critical of Traoré and his governing style. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in early April, Langley accused Traoré of misusing Burkina Faso’s substantial gold reserves to protect his military regime, rather than benefiting his country’s citizens.
Always spotted in his army fatigues, with a gun at his waist, Traoré is widely valorized as a living revolutionary, an ideal figure in times when Africa’s leadership crisis has only deepened. Since ousting Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, Traoré - who, at just 37, is the world’s youngest head of state - has presented himself as a leader guided by his dedication to transforming Burkina Faso, while taking a stance against neocolonialism.
Similar to Mali and Niger, both junta-ruled allies and co-founding members of the Alliance of Sahel States, Traoré has severed Burkina Faso’s ties with former colonial rulers France, and has publicly denounced Western imperialism. His primary missions are to stabilize the country’s dire security concerns due to Islamist insurgency and improve his country’s economic fortunes, where over 60 percent of the population is multidimensionally poor.
To achieve his goals for economic growth, Traoré’s government has nationalized two gold mines, stopped the exportation of unrefined gold, and started work on a refinery expected to process 150 tonnes of gold annually. In addition to gold, Burkina Faso is rich in minerals, including zinc, manganese, copper, and phosphate, as well as untapped reserves of diamonds and bauxite.
Between his charisma as a self-proclaimed revolutionary, noble intentions, and defiant stance towards Western powers, it’s not surprising that Traoré has attracted the adulation of millions of Africans, despite being an autocratic ruler.
Shortly after Langley’s comments, Traoré bluntly stated that democracy was out of the question in Burkina Faso’s near future as far as he’s concerned. “If we have to say it loud and clear here, we are not in a democracy, we are in a popular, progressive revolution,” he said, adding that freedom of expression in this system is “[how] we end up with a society of disorder.” While these statements, which seem despotic, should drum up loud criticisms, Traoré is immune due to being placed on the revolutionary pedestal.
The zeal behind the support for Traoré is also tied to the many accusations and conspiracies of Western powers antagonizing African and Global South leaders, heralded as revolutionaries. For instance, Traoré has been hailed as the reincarnation of Captain Thomas Sankara, the revered Burkinabe military leader and revolutionary killed in a coup allegedly sponsored by France and the West.
From Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah to DR Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, the role of Western and former colonial powers in removing beloved leaders and potentially destabilizing African countries has made many disillusioned and defensive when it comes to beloved leaders. That’s why criticisms instantly trailed Langley’s comments, especially as they were framed within the context of U.S. interests in West Africa and junta-ruled states allying with Russia and China.
Traoré is inching towards three years in power, and has about four years left as Burkina Faso’s military president. Last year, he upended his initial promise to return the country to democracy in July 2024, and a national dialogue, which civil society groups largely boycotted, recommending that he remain in power for five more years. The recommendation cites the country’s security situation and allows Traoré to run for election after the transition period.
The Islamist insurgency in Burkina Faso, which was cited as the main reason for both 2022 coups, has yet to get any better since the military came into power. About 40 percent of the country is still out of government control, and the army has barely gained ground in recovering areas taken by insurgents. Damningly, military forces have allegedly contributed to the deaths and rights abuses of civilians.
A Human Rights Watch report alleged that over 200 people were summarily executed by security forces based on accusations of collaborating with Islamist groups. In the last decade, tens of thousands have been killed, and over two million people have been displaced due to the insurgency. Traoré and his military government have yet to find a solution to the security concerns, and there’s no stated timeline against which to measure his performance.
For the most part, the adulation and acclaim for Traoré are primarily ideological, which raises skepticism about what he can achieve on a tangible scale. History also shows that African military leaders and revolutionaries tend to reveal a darker side as they spend more time in power. In Uganda, long-term President Yoweri Museveni came into power as a revolutionary and is now known as a strongman despite the East African country nominally operating as a democracy. It’s similar to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, who was forced to step down after decades of bad economic policies that continue to haunt the southern African country.
Generally, military governments in Africa have failed to yield positive outcomes. Even when they start with widespread support, they often leave citizens disillusioned. Across the continent, the second half of the 20th century was defined by militarism, an “ideology of rule by soldiers,” according to Samuel Fury Childs Daly in his bookSoldier’s Paradise, which examines the patterns of African military governments. “Nearly all militaries wanted to transform their countries, even though they didn’t always spell out exactly what they wanted them to become,” Daly writes.
The last thing Africa needs is leaders who can’t be held accountable and can lord their power over citizens without checks, even if they present themselves as crusaders. Having that level of power can corrupt, as the past has shown.
Traoré could very well be the type of leader who breaks the wheel, but he’s dabbling in established behaviors typical of military governments, especially restricting the country’s social and political atmosphere. Media in the country is also tightly controlled; the junta suspended a handful of media outlets for reporting on the alleged massacre, as published in the Human Rights Watch report.
In 2023, Traoré signed a general mobilization decree that allows the government to randomly conscript people aged 18 and above to fight against insurgents. Critics have decried the implementation of the decree as a way to target independent voices, such as journalist and activist Daouda Diallo, who was abducted and held to be conscripted for four months.
Amidst celebrating his anti-Western stance and autocratic leadership, the jury is still out on Captain Traoré’s legacy as an African leader. The next few years will show whether he’s truly earned the revolutionary tag or is in the same lineage as his predecessors across the continent over the decades.
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