Like many people growing up in Africa, I was fed a diet of US-driven popular culture. I’ve watched, over the years, how this has been embraced and reshaped by local cultural practices. We’ve seen, in recent decades, how Latin culture came to rise to prominence in pop music, followed by a trend of South Korean K-Pop. Now, it seems, it’s Africa’s turn, driven by Afrobeats music. It’s easy to be cynical about it - how culturally bankrupt western cultures are turning to foreign cultures to give themselves meaning (and unlock new audiences to exploit). But then a phenomenon like the Calm Down Dance Challenge comes along and turns my frown upside down.

Calm Down is a song by Nigerian singer Rema with a simple, spicy, boy-meets-girl storyline. When a Cameroonian dancer, Loïc Reyel, put moves to it and released a video of his dance steps, the song went global, with social media users posting themselves doing the dance. But it’s one thing to dance to Calm Down in America. It’s altogether another to dance publicly to it as an Iranian girl - and especially without wearing a hijab. Ananya Jahinara Kabir explains how this African dance challenge took hold in Iran and drove fresh energy into women’s protests against a conservative regime.

Of course, faith is a burning issue around the world. In Ghana, a predominantly Christian country, the president made a public oath to God to build a national cathedral for devotees, pilgrims and tourists. But amid an economic crisis, building on the grand project has been halted as Ghanaians question why so much money is being spent on what appears to be a vanity project. But in fact, write Frederick Dayour and Francis Kofi Essel, there may be solid reasoning behind it as sites like this can attract considerable tourism and create jobs - if they’re handled with accountability and transparency.

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