Two and half years after launching their podcast which unpacks unexplored stories of African independence — over a drink or two, Line Talla and Sarah Masiyiwa’s Bar Afrique Podcast has returned for its second season and this time, it’s sharper, braver, and more intentional than ever.
The podcast sits at the intersection of storytelling, education, and entertainment. It reclaims history from the archives and brings it to the bar counter, where reflection, vulnerability and humour coexist. Whether they’re dissecting the complexities of post-colonial leadership or the shades of “grey” in revolutionary movements, Line and Sarah are creating a space where learning feels as natural as conversation.
Hosted by two young women rooted in Cameroonian and Zimbabwean heritage, Bar Afrique has built a community that stretches from Africa to North America. Its audience, a mix of the African diaspora and history lovers, tune in not just to learn, but to feel seen.
Line and Sarah gave us an exclusive on how the podcast idea initially came about, bringing it back, and balancing authentic storytelling and entertainment without making the podcast overwhelming. This is what they had to say:
Q: What made you decide to bring Bar Afrique back, after a long hiatus and how did you know it was the right time?
Sarah: I think we missed it. There’a high to doing the podcast, every time you finish recording a story, there’s this high you get; and I feel like I missed that.
Line: I listened once (the first season) then I relistened and I was like ‘wow, we have so much fun.’ And we sounded like we liked doing it. It was something we really enjoyed doing. We missed it.
With Line and Sarah living on two different countries, Canada and the UK respectively, the timing worked well when Sarah was on Line’s side of the world which made season two possible.
Q: You describe Bar Afrique as “sharing unexplored stories of African independence, over a drink or two.” How did that concept come about?
Line: I remember the night we went to dinner in New York and you [Sarah] said, ‘I have an idea of us doing this podcast about telling these African stories’ because that’s all we used to talk about and you were like, ‘I think we should do this!’ We spent the entire night talking about how we were gonna do this.
Q: As young African women living abroad, how has your perspective on colonial history and independence been shaped by your experiences in the diaspora?
Line: I always wanted to feel closer to my homeland and for me to be able to do that was to read history and understand my history and where I come from and understanding how it’s connecting to the land I’m currently living in.
Q: What can listeners expect from season two?
Sarah: There’s no country that I’m afraid of telling a story about. I feel less intimated (compared to first season). I love the bravery of that, I think that comes from a place of doing so much research. We’ve done a lot of work to understand the stories we’re telling and to be aware of the perspectives we’re telling them from. I’m much more open to embracing the grey, a lot of times in African history we have heroes and villains but this season we go into spaces where you have independence leaders or revolutionaries who do things that are questionable or you have people who lead independence movements and then become autocratic leaders.
Line: Even in a couple of episodes you can hear us and see us grappling with this grey and trying to understand it for ourselves. It’s also vulnerable to be able to do that on a platform like this but I think it also invites our audience to be able to do the same thing because history can also lie in that grey area. We’re braver, we feel more confident in the stories we tell because we did the work, we did the research.
Q: Colonial history can be heavy or intimidating, for some people podcasts are a way to escape, how do you make these conversations approachable and not overwhelming for your listeners?
Sarah: From a host perspective, we’re always looking for ways to be able to pull people back from the ledge and always make space and encourage our guests to express how they’re feeling. We’ll go to the dark places but we also really, really always want to find the the lavity in a situation. I think it’s about finding those little pockets of things you can laugh at even in really dark stories.
Line: Also making it approachable is key in this because I don’t think people take time to to learn about African history because it’s heavy. For us it was about making it accessible and fun to learn about, even the crazy outrageous things. I think it’s very unique in that way.
Sarah: I think the stories that we tell….African history can be traumatic, the topics we’re often talking about are of autocracies and dictators and massacres and independence movements that failed and it can feel really heavy. For us we always want it to feel approachable and make people feel like you can listen to an episode and feel the very complex range of emotions that come with it but at the end of it still feel like you had a good time.
Q: How do your Cameroonian and Zimbabwean backgrounds influence your storytelling and themes?
Line: I think I like stories that are a little bit dramatic, Cameroonians love drama. I think also for Cameroon and Zimbabwe there is a communal aspect of it, the fact that we have guests on the show shows that communal aspect of storytelling that a lot of Africans can relate to. It makes our dynamic unique and we’re not afraid to react to the different stories that we tell.
Sarah: All my stories are all about dictators. I talk about a lot of dictators.
Q: How do you navigate the balance between storytelling, educating and entertainment?
Line: The most important thing for us is that we make sure that we do a lot of research, what we talk about and the direction we want the story to go. It’s like a month of research for a recording of an hour. There’s a lot that goes into us crafting and shaping a story. Not only do we want it to be fun but we also want people to learn.
With Season Two, Bar Afrique isn’t just back, it’s evolved. Line and Sarah are embracing complexity, challenging the binaries of heroes and villains, and allowing history to live in its contradictions. Their chemistry, curiosity, and courage continue to push the boundaries of what an African history podcast can be.
As they look ahead to live recordings across the continent, Bar Afrique is shaping up to be more than a podcast but a platform to reclaim and reimagine how African stories are told, one episode (and one drink) at a time.
The Bar Afrique Podcast is available on all streaming platforms where podcasts are found.
You can watch the first episode below:
