Thandie Newton cast in Biafran War movie; some opposed: she’s “bi-racial” and “not Igbo”
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I confess that I have never been able to finish Chimamanda Adichie’s second novel, “Half of a Yellow Sun,” set during the Biafran War in the late 1960s. (Btw, it won high praise from mainstream Western critics. See here, here and here.) By the time I finally do finish it, the film version will probably be in theaters. The Nigerian-British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (highlights: Dirty Pretty Things and Inside Man) has already agreed to star in the film adaptation, alongside with Dominic Cooper (Captain America). This week Screen Daily reported that Zimbabwean-Brit actress Thandi Newton (credits: Crash, Mission Impossible) will be a female lead. Not everyone is happy with the choice of Newton as a female lead. There’s already a strange online petition to have Newton replaced with a Nigerian actress. The petition notes, among others, that “… Igbo people do not look like the bi-racial Thandie Newton.” You can read similar comments on posts about Newton’s casting at the popular film blog Shadow and Act here and here. [Read More...]
Stop Land Grabs Petition
Several international organizations have been investigating and reporting on the corporate and foreign government’s land grabs happening across Africa. We’ve covered it and the Ethiopian government’s policy of forced villagization here, here and here. Now the Oakland Institute has put together a petition to U.S. president Barack Obama and the USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah, asking them to stop their support to the Ethiopian government while they engage in such deals. You can do something. [Read More...]
The whole ‘Afrobeats’ thing
Two recent features in the mainstream British media turned out to be enough to spur some debate about the so-called “Rise of the Afrobeats” in the U.K. The Guardian interviewed DJ Abrantee (quoting Abrantee as him having coined the term “Afrobeats” — or so the journalist said, which Abrantee later denied, but which didn’t stop MTV Iggy from copying it) while BBC radio aired a one-hour show as “your complete guide to Afrobeats.” Both features came with popular music plugs but also with some ludicrous quotes (such as “Nigerians are just hustlers on a high level… A Kenyan you can just walk by, he doesn’t exude that super star flair”; “male African dancers are much better dancers than the female Africans”; “African music is just beginning, just starting now”; “Africa’s a place full of love, despite it being depicted as war-torn”; “these songs are not about sex, but about love”; etcetera). Host of the show DJ Edu later clarified he wanted to “package African music to the West who loves a story” but it got us thinking. [Read More...]
The whole ‘Afrobeats’ thing
Two recent features in the mainstream British media turned out to be enough to spur some debate about the so-called “Rise of the Afrobeats” in the U.K. The Guardian interviewed DJ Abrantee (quoting Abrantee as him having coined the term “Afrobeats” — or so the journalist said, which Abrantee later denied, but which didn’t stop MTV Iggy from copying it) while BBC radio aired a one-hour show as “your complete guide to Afrobeats.” Both features came with popular music plugs but also with some ludicrous quotes (such as “Nigerians are just hustlers on a high level… A Kenyan you can just walk by, he doesn’t exude that super star flair”; “male African dancers are much better dancers than the female Africans”; “African music is just beginning, just starting now”; “Africa’s a place full of love, despite it being depicted as war-torn”; “these songs are not about sex, but about love”; etcetera). Host of the show DJ Edu later clarified he wanted to “package African music to the West who loves a story” but it got us thinking. [Read More...]
Latest Posts
Thandie Newton cast in Biafran War movie; some opposed: she’s “bi-racial” and “not Igbo”
Zimbabwean-Brit actress Thandi Newton (credits: Crash, Mission Impossible ) choice as a female lead in the screen adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s novel “Half of a Yellow Sun” has some people upset.
Where do footballers playing in the top five European leagues come from?
The CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland (they study football) recently put out an interactive map trying to show where footballers playing in the top five European leagues come from. Unsurprisingly, West Africa’s big five – Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Cameroon – dominate the African numbers, each contributing around 20 players.
Zarina Bhimji: “A photograph cannot give you concrete information”
Zarina Bhimji’s exhibition at The Whitechapel Gallery is the first major survey of her work, documenting 25 years of her artistic practice.
The whole ‘Afrobeats’ thing
Two recent features in the mainstream British media turned out to be enough to spur some debate about the so-called “Rise of the Afrobeats” in the U.K. The Guardian interviewed DJ Abrantee (quoting Abrantee as him having coined the term “Afrobeats” — or so the journalist said, which Abrantee later denied.
The Narcicyst salutes Egyptian life
The Narcicyst, an Iraqi hip hop artist (and scholar!) based in Canada, released this video in honour of the one-year anniversary of #Jan25. Most of the scenes are from around Cairo, though it does dip outside of the city into Nile farming country and what could even be a few shots of the Mediterranean in Alexandria.
Selling Freetown
Kieran Hanson’s documentary “Shooting Freetown” is a short glimpse into the lives of various media creators in Freetown, Sierra Leone during July and August of 2011. I was in the city at the same time this was being filmed, and visited with some of the same people, so I have to say that Hanson did a great job of portraying what Freetown felt like this past rainy season.
Demographics and #OccupyNigeria
Today’s Financial Times, has a full page analysis by Xan Rice on how the failure of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to remove fuel subsidies has raised questions about his abilities to push through “reform.”
Stop Land Grabs Petition
The Oakland Institute has put together a petition to U.S. president Barack Obama and the USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah, asking them to stop their support to the Ethiopian government while the latter engages in exploitative land deals with foreign corporations and governments.
