Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. It’s always hard, and a little presumptuous, to predict on 1 January what will matter for the next 365 days, but the start of the new year is the best time to look ahead.
To that end, this week’s newsletter is a non-exhaustive curation of things to keep your eye on in 2025. From the return of Caryl Phillips to the Met Gala, it’s shaping up to be another monumental year for Black culture across the diaspora. But first, here’s the weekly roundup.
Weekly roundup
Trinidad and Tobago declares state of emergency | The government of the dual-island republic declared a state of emergency after a weekend of violence brought the number of murders in 2024 to 623. The state of emergency is the first in T&T since Covid pandemic restrictions in 2021.
Aid reaches besieged Khartoum area | An aid convoy has reached a conflict zone in Sudan’s capital for the first time since civil war broke out in April 2023, bringing food and medicine into a country where half the population are at risk of starvation. According to the World Food Programme, 28 trucks arrived carrying 750 tonnes of food on 25 December.
Ivorian women march against violence | In Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, nearly 200 women marched to mark the end of 16 days of activism against sexual violence. The action started on 25 November and was organised by a coalition of women’s right organisations in a country where gender-based violence is still prevalent.
Tanzanian rapper defies authorities | Nay Wa Mitego has been making hip-hop critical of the Tanzanian government, calling out abductions and killings – and accusing the police of being involved. Despite previously spending two nights in jail and being charged by the country’s art council with incitement and misleading the public, Nay refuses to be silenced.
Snoop Dogg samples song by disability charity | Snoop Dogg has sampled the song Watermelon Fantasy, released by the charity Daylight Studio in 2018, on his single Outta Da Blue from the rapper’s 20th studio album, Missionary. Since its release, Outta Da Blue has been featured in the trailer for the Netflix film Back in Action and the American football video game Madden NFL 25.
In depth: What we’re looking forward to in 2025
Books
This year promises to be a bumper year in books. There is much fanfare around the return of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with Dream Count, her first novel in a decade, which follows four women between Nigeria and the US as they navigate hardship, motherhood, love and heartbreak.
Caryl Phillips returns from a seven-year hiatus with Another Man in the Street, which explores the life of a Caribbean migrant and aspiring journalist in London during the swinging 60s.
Natasha Brown, whose critically acclaimed debut, Assembly, led her to feature in 2023’s Granta Best of Young British Novelists, will publish her next work, Universality, in which a young journalist seeks to uncover the truth behind a brutal attack.
Literary festivals
The Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad and Tobago and the Calabash international literary festival in Jamaica will take place this year. I’m envious of anyone who gets to attend either, let alone both.
Calabash, hosted biannually on Treasure Beach, will feature writers, poets and authors such as the TS Eliot prize winner Roger Robinson, Kei Miller, Yvonne Bailey-Smith and Carolyn Cooper taking part in readings, interviews and open-mics. Though the lineup for the Bocas Lit Fest has yet to be revealed (last year featured Afua Hirsch and Alex Wheatle), the winner of the annual OCM Bocas prize for Caribbean literature will be announced at the event.
Film
I’ve grown sceptical of the biopic format, particularly where family involvement leads to hagiographies with no real exploration of people’s flaws and ugliness (I’m looking at you, Bob Marley: One Love).
There’s a risk of this in the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, where the King of Pop is played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson. The singer’s estate has reportedly handed over the reins to the producer Graham King and not involved itself with the project, and King says he aims to “humanise but not sanitise”. We can judge for ourselves in October.
I’m also looking forward to the release in March of Ryan Coogler’s horror film Sinners, starring Michael B Jordan as twins, and Golden, which is scheduled for May and stars Kelvin Harrison Jr and Halle Bailey – and promises to be a celebration of Black life and culture.
Television
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Boarders, which follows five inner-city Black children who win places at a British boarding school, will return for a second season, and Marlon James’s Get Millie Black, about a detective who returns to Jamaica to join the police force after being booted out of Scotland Yard, will air on Channel 4 in the UK (it is already available via Max in the US).
And while we don’t yet have a date for Michaela Coel’s First Day on Earth, filming is expected to begin this year.
Music
In London, the African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall, created by the musician Rebeca Omordia, will include performances of piano music from Ethiopia and performers of the ọjà flute of Nigeria’s Igbo people. It will be a big year for Afro Nation, the world’s biggest African music festival, which will celebrate its fifth anniversary in Portimão, Portugal, in July with a lineup that features Burna Boy, Vigro Deep and Franglish.
We can also look forward to album releases from A$AP Rocky, Davido, FKA Twigs and Doechii. And what’s this Beyoncé’s teasing for 14 January? The Cowboy Carter tour? The long-rumoured Vegas residency? Act III?
The Met Gala
This year’s Met Gala theme is Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, based on Monica L Miller’s book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
The book traces the cultural history and emergence of the black dandy from the Enlightenment in England to contemporary celebrities such as Andre 3000. Co-chaired by the titans of Black male fashion Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton and the Louis Vuitton men’s creative director Pharrell Williams, the event promises to be one to watch for enthusiasts of Black fashion history and sartorial excellence.
The Museum of West African Art
In May, the Museum of West African Art (Mowaa) will open in Benin City, Nigeria, for its inaugural exhibition. While Mowaa is not expected to hold repatriated Benin Bronzes (more than 900 sit at the British Museum), the impetus behind the museum’s founding is born from conversations around the capacity to preserve. As such, Mowaa boasts the potential “to be among the best in the world for holding returning objects”.
Over a 6-hectare campus, Mowaa is a spread of buildings and outdoor performance spaces. In November it opened its institute building – “a research, conservation and collections centre equipped with climate-controlled storage rooms, cutting-edge labs and exhibition spaces”.
Afcon 2025
Nesrine (who’ll be back next week) counts the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), kicking off in Morocco on 21 December, as one of her most anticipated cultural events of the year. She says:
It’s far away, but Afcon for me is a little bright spot on the horizon. Sudan, despite the war that is ravaging the country, has qualified. Since the war started many of the players have been unsettled, have no permanent base and have lost family members. Their coach, Kwesi Appiah, says he motivated the players by telling them: ‘Wherever you go, that place is our home. Go out and play for your family, yourself and the country.’ I choked up seeing the players’ celebrations after qualification. The first time the national anthem plays during the tournament will set off millions of Sudanese around the world.
