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BURBANK, CA - NOVEMBER 27: General views of the Batman bronze statue on the AMC Walkway in Downtown Burbank, home of Warner Bros studios on November 27, 2020 in Burbank, California.

South Africa's Loyiso Mkize Reveals Momentous DC Comics Debut

South African visual artist Loyiso Mkize has pencilled an episode for DC Comics' 'Batman: Urban Legends #4'.

South African storyteller and visual artist Loyiso Mkize has revealed his exciting new debut for DC Comics. The Eastern Cape-born creative pencilled the penultimate chapter for DC Comics' Batman: Urban Legends #4 featuring the fictional characters Luke Fox and The Riddler. Part of the DC Universe of superheroes including Wonder Woman, Superman and the Justice League, and rivalled only by the Marvel Universe, landing this opportunity is a major win not only for Mkize, but African comic book artists looking to showcase their talent internationally.


READ: Ethiopia's First Female Superhero Comic 'Hawi' Nominated for 'Best Graphic Novel'

Mkize recently shared the news via Instagram.

Written by American creator and actor, Camrus Johnson, the episode is described as the ultimate tussle between Grifter, Lucius Fox, HALO, Batman and Red Hood as well as Tim Drake who "has returned to the streets of Gotham City and is seeking a new purpose, but what he finds is a string of young adult kidnappings committed by someone known only as "The Chaos Monster"".

Mkize is a prolific visual artist who is also behind the teen superhero comic book series,Kwezi,alongside Afro-futurism writer and author of Intruders, Mohale Mashigo. The comic follows a narcissistic teenage boy named Kwezi as he discovers his superhuman abilities and strengths in the bustling city of Johannesburg. Speaking in an interview with Design Indaba back in 2015, Mkize described the comic book scene in South Africa as "still at [the] crawling stage." While that reality may still hold true almost six years later, his international debut for one of the biggest comic book industries that exists certainly goes a long way in turning the attitudes around the art form in South Africa.

DC Comics' Batman: Urban Legends #4 is currently available for pre-order and will go on sale in the US on June, 8.

Photo by Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images via Getty Images

5 Designers to Watch at South African Fashion Week SS23

Here are five designers to watch at South African Fashion Week SS23.

From April 20 to 23, South African Fashion Week will hit Johannesburg for its spring summer 2023 showcase. More than fulfilling the need of a fashion show, SAFW has accelerated the growth of South Africa’s fashion scene, by creating avenues to discover local talents, promoting local craftsmanship, boosting the retail economy, and triggering conversations like sustainability. SAFW is also responsible for launching the labels of prominent homegrown designers like Rich Mnisi, Thebe Magugu, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Reggi Xaba, and Sindiso Khumalo.

As one of Africa’s leading fashion event, SAFW now enters its 26th year. And over three days, it will host 11 shows and showcase 39 collections at Mall of Africa, its official venue partner. The SS23 show will see it join forces with contingents from Mozambique (Chibai, Mabenna, and Cuccla). It’s a first time collaboration, syncing Mozambique Fashion Week with South Africa’s, which will close out the show.

Going strong is SAFW’s New Talent Search, a local-run competition to discover fresh and under-the-radar talents. Returning as a headline sponsor of this segment is fashion retailer Mr Price. From Mmathoo Silika to Sifiso Kunene to Kuhle Phumzile Zondo, this year’s entrants will open proceedings at SAFW and may the best talent win. On the other hand, there are other designers we have on our radar. Not only have they been impressive in the past, we just love the mystery of not knowing what to expect.

Here are five designers to watch at South African Fashion Week SS23.

Thando Ntuli (Munkus)

After winning SAFW’s talent search competition in 2022, Thando Ntuli became a national buzz. Her womenswear brand, Munkus, was created in 2019 and has been a time capsule of '80s and '90s Soweto style influences. From its playful, whimsical silhouettes to bold and daring prints, the brand is bridging wardrobes across generations of women.

Further, a sustainability narrative has governed Ntuli’s approach to making garments. Involving technical details that imbue sentimentality, the brand prides itself on quality over quantity. In doing so, the garment’s shelf life can be extended enough to be passed down. Munkus has also adopted layering cues, allowing customers to style with other pieces. At SAFW SS23, the designer is slated to appear on day one, debuting the brands’s Isikhathi/Time SS23 collection.

Fikile Sokhulu

A 2021 WWD profile had spotlighted Fikile Sokhulu as a designer to watch. Indeed, the Durban-based designer finished as a finalist at the 2018 SAFW talent search contest. Launched in 2018, Sokhulu’s eponymous brand was among the selected few for the Fashion Bridges project in 2021. A collaboration between South Africa and Italy, the cultural exchange initiative saw Sokhulu unveil a new collection during Milan Fashion Week.

The brand’s romantic aesthetic (ruffles, frills, pleats, ruching) and feminine tailoring tap into soft sensibilities. When the brand started out, it had heavily featured white, which can still be found in recent collections.

Sipho Mbuto

Durban-based Sipho Mbuto created his self-named, androgynous brand in 2018. A finalist at the 2021 SAFW New Talent Search, Mbutho also participated in the Fashion Bridges project. And this is only a few of the recognitions he has. The brand’s aesthetic tows the line between understated and dramatic, mix matching and clean monochromatic lines.

In Mbuto’s world, he has been sustaining a dialogue around the gender question of clothes, prioritizing self-expression, functionality, movement, and durability. At SAFW 2021, he showcased a collection made out of upcycled denim, second hand jeans sourced from street markets and then deconstructed. At the core of the brand are zero-waste measures informing its production method.

Ntando Ngwenya (Ntando XV)

Photo by Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images

Ntando Ngwenya isn’t a new name in South African fashion. A self-taught designer, he showcased his debut capsule collection in 2015 at the Johannesburg Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. In 2017, he became the winner of David Tlale’s The Intern, a South African reality show with contestants competing to be Tlale’s next assistant designer.

In the years that have followed, Ngwenye has found a niche in menswear with Ntando XV, created in 2015. The experimental label has been inclusive nonetheless, combining wardrobe essentials with postmodern techniques. A visual signature is the contrasting white piping that wreathe around garments. In the SS23 SAFW designer lineup, Ngwenya showcases on the last day, and we look forward to it.

Gugu Peteni (Gugu by Gugu)

A finalist in the 2020 and 2022 SAFW’s Scouting Menswear competition, Gugu Peteni established Gugu by Gugu in 2019 as a streetwear label. Her experience designing for Mohair South Africa for three years helped the designer to navigate Gugu by Gugu in the streetwear market. It also explains her love for mohair, and how the material has crept into her own label.
From colorful knits, denim, velvet dungarees, mohair coats, jumpers to bomber jackets, embossed logos and hand-painted essentials, Peteni has created a wide range of streetwear pieces. For SAFW’s AW22 showcase, she collaborated with South African artist Moagi Letseki to render paintwork on some offerings. It was also a collection that used sustainable techniques and materials used in Peteni’s home. Gugu by Gugu will showcase on April 22, the last day of SAFW.



Film
Photo courtesy of Prime Video.

The 10 Best Horror Movies to Stream in South Africa

It doesn’t take much to make a good horror film – often the most thrilling of scares come from the simplest of ideas. Here are our picks for 10 of the best horror movies to stream in South Africa.

As far as African cinema is concerned, no one does horror quite like the South Africans. OkayAfrica crawled through the major streaming platforms to bring you a list of some of the finest horror titles, plus where to watch them.

From survivalist screamers to ecological horrors, these titles are guaranteed to scare your socks off.

'African Folktales Reimagined' (2023)

Netflix partners with UNESCO to present a potentially exciting initiative, a lore anthology series from six different African countries (Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda), each one reinventing a familiar folktale through the filmmaker’s unique lens. Covering a range of genres from romance to horror, the project is Netflix’s attempt to support the next generation of storytellers, arming them with resources including mentorship and a healthy budget of $90,000 following a competitive process. Dive in and get your scare on.

Where to stream: Netflix

'Beast' (2022)

Idris Elba versus a rampaging CGI lion in a duel to the death – what’s not to love? Baltasar Kormákur's high-concept thriller is a classic man vs. nature survival fable that delivers exactly what it promises, nothing more or less. Shot in the provinces of Limpopo, Northern Cape and the city of Cape Town, Beast also features South African star Sharlto Copley in a supporting role. Elba plays Nate Samuels, a widowed surgeon who meets his worst nightmare — a rogue man-killing lion — when he visits a game reserve with his family.

Where to stream: Prime Video

'The Domestic' (2022)

Bradley Katzen’s single-location chiller stars Thuli Thabethe and Tumisho Masha as an upper-class couple who hire the daughter of their recently deceased housekeeper as their new help. Things soon take a macabre turn when the new help (played by Amanda Du-Pont) seemingly makes it her personal mission to destroy them from within. The Domestic is a suburban horror caper that explores class differences as well as the continuum that links the living with the ancestral plane.

Where to stream: Prime Video

'Fried Barry' (2020)

Barry (Gary Green) is a loser; a heroin addict who has stretched his long-suffering family to their breaking point. Following yet another bender, Barry is abducted by an alien, and he surrenders his body to the visitor who then goes on a joyride through Cape Town, discovering the messy and wonderful world of humankind. Ryan Kruger’s madcap adventure, which has amassed somewhat of a cult following, employs drugs, sex, and violence to comment on human follies and dissatisfactions.

Where to stream: Shudder, Showmax

'Gaia' (2021)

A trippy ecological cautionary tale, Gaia broke through at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in 2021. Directed by Jaco Bouwer, Gaia tracks an injured forest ranger, Gabi (Monique Rockman) who, on a routine mission, is rescued by two off-the-grid survivalists. What starts out as a timely rescue soon grows into a hellish nightmare for Marie as she observes a cultish devotion to the forest among her hosts. Meanwhile, the cabin is also being attacked by a strange presence. Cue the screams.

Where to stream: Showmax, Hulu

'Glasshouse' (2021)

Kelsey Egan’s dystopian debut was a big winner at the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) following its premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2021. As a dementia-like toxin that has the effect of wiping people's memories spreads, a family of five isolates itself from this devastating pandemic in a dreamy greenhouse. Their ritualistic idyll is endangered when one of the daughters invites a wounded stranger into this sanctuary. Glasshouse recalls Sophia Coppola’s The Beguiled, only with more chills.

Where to stream: Showmax

'His House' (2020)

Written and directed by Remi Weekes, this elegant and eloquent debut which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival stars British actors of Nigerian descent, Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu as a refugee couple from South Sudan, struggling to adjust to their new life in an English town that appears to have evil lurking beneath the surface. His House is a terrifying look at the refugee experience, situating the indignities and the abuse within the traditional structure of a haunted house horror.

Where to watch: Netflix

'Nanny' (2022)

Sierra Leonean American filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu made her feature debut with Nanny, a visually arresting horror fable about an undocumented Senegalese woman (a convincing Anna Diop), working as a domestic help to a wealthy couple in New York City. Nanny emerged the big winner at Sundance, winning the U.S. Dramatic Competition. The film is a visual delight, with Jusu’s singular vision emerging through the crisp photography and engagement with West African folklore.

Where to stream: Prime Video

'Prey' (2007)

Another (wo)man versus wildlife adventure, Prey directed by the veteran maestro Darrell Roodt (Yesterday, Sarafina!) stars Bridget Moynahan as an American woman trapped by a pack of hungry lions inside a car alongside her two stepchildren, while holidaying at a South African game reserve. The film was inspired by the true story of the Tsavo Man-Eaters during the colonial era, and was filmed on location in Gauteng and Limpopo.

Where to watch: YouTube

'Trees of Peace' (2021)

Trees of Peace contends with a different kind of horror, a not-so-distant example of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Based on true events, writer-director Alanna Brown makes a fictional account of three Rwandan women and an American who hideout in a tiny underground crawlspace during the 1994 genocide that pitted Hutu and Tutsi sects against one another, leading to the massacre of over 1 million people. Brown’s filmmaking is quite heavy handed but look beyond her reliance on closeups and cliches, and you might find something inspiring about Rwanda’s reconciliation efforts led by women.

Where to watch: Netflix

Music
(YouTube)

The Best Amapiano Songs Right Now

Featuring De Mthuda, Pabi Cooper, Kabza De Small, Maphorisa, Major Keys and more

Here are the new amapiano songs and music videos that caught our attention this month. Read ahead below for the latest hits and noteworthy tracks from the South African electronic genre taking the world by storm.

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Music

Mr Eazi Launches New Group ChopLife Soundsystem

Listen to the new 14-song album Chop Life, Vol. 1 Mzansi Chronicles.

Mr Eazi, the acclaimed music superstar, business visionary, and globe-trotter, extends a heartfelt invitation to music enthusiasts to embark on a sonic journey to South Africa with the release of Chop Life, Vol. 1: Mzansi Chronicles (Choplife Limited/emPawa Africa), the inaugural offering from his newly-formed pan-African music collective, ChopLife Soundsystem.

Crafted amidst the vibrant locales of Cape Town and Johannesburg, this 14-track album serves as an exuberant tribute to amapiano, the electrifying dance music genre that has burst forth from South Africa and garnered international recognition. Joining forces with an excellent lineup of South African music luminaries such as Moonchild Sanelly, Focalistic, Nkosazana Daughter, Ami Faku, and Major League Djz, alongside a host of emerging talents, Mr Eazi presents his interpretation of the scene's captivating elements.

Mzansi Chronicles is an ode to the amapiano sound that has been the soundtrack to my parties and me going to clubs,” Mr Eazi said of the project. “It’s me working with some of my favorite artists and capturing my interpretation of elements I love from the scene.”

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Rosine Mbakam on the Power of Family and Returning Home in Filmmaking

The Cameroonian filmmaker uses her documentary skills to create her first fictional feature, Mambar Pierrette, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

The Songs You Need to Hear This Week

Featuring new African music from Mr Eazi, DJ Edu, Rema, Asake, Olamide, Adekunle Gold, Kel-P and more.

Afro Nation Detroit Lineup: Davido, Burna Boy, P-Square & More

Afro Nation has released a line up of the artists who will be performing at the event.

5 Standout Moments From ‘Young, Famous and African’ Season 2

The return of the Netflix reality show sticks to its template, but trades more screen time for bigger, buzzier moments.

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Places in Lagos to Have Fun this Weekend

From festivals to live shows from Seyi Vibes and Johnny Drille, here are the events you shouldn't miss in Lagos this weekend.