African Diaspora

‘I relished how familiar it all felt’ … Eric Otieno Sumba. Photograph: Supplied image

I wrote the first draft in a ghetto in Lagos, working on it at 4am. With its publication the life I was meant to live began. Family legend has it that I began reading the Times at around the age of four. At school in London I was that…

His death last year at 41 left a chasm in the industry. In a new BBC documentary, director Cassie Quarless explores the legacy of one of the most important – and controversial – designers of the 21st century ‘There is a whole generation…

Compassion and empathy really lacked for me in that environment (boarding school), and so to have someone that said to me: "Don't worry about school. It is not about the grades, focus on your health." That was the first time I felt heard…

Michaela Coel doesn’t like to sit still; she’s a self-​described mover, the type to run a half-​marathon in the middle of the night for fun. So I’m not all that surprised when the 35-year-old actor-writer-​director suggests meeting for a…

Viola Davis is tired. I know because she has told me – “Let me just be honest, I’m tired,” she says at one point, with all the heartfelt emphasis of those Academy Award-winning eyes – but I also know because I’ve seen her latest film, and…

"For us here in Tanzania, it would have been the end of the world." The father of Tanzania's first Olympic swimmer is talking to his daughter, confessing in truth, as he tries to explain why he hid a condition that killed at least five…

Tamara Walcott can still remember the first time she set foot in a powerlifting gym: the chalked hands, the strapped wrists, the yells and screams as lifters heaved weights off the floor. As she took in the scene, Walcott's competitive…

After leaving school, against the wishes of his family, Michael K Williams began working as a backup dancer and model, working with 90s cultural icons including Madonna and David LaChapelle. His film debut came in Bullet (1996) opposite…

It might be the medical breakthrough the world has been waiting for. Based on a sample size of one, it appears that an Emmy nod can cure Covid. Sarah Niles was laid up in bed at home in London when she heard that, 5,000 miles away in Los…