Blue Note

June 30, 2010 By 3 Comments

Master musician Dudu Pukwana, he played the  saxophone, who was part of a great generation of South African jazz musicians (I blogged about them a few days ago), died on this day in 1990.

An appropriate time to post this clip, above, that appear  to be from a documentary about the Blue Notes, the seminal 1960s South African jazz, led by Chris MacGregor, that Pukwana was a part of.  The group later became Brotherhood of Breath outside South Africa. Louis Moholo and Pukwana’s wife, Barbara, talk about the band and its impact.

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Obrigado, Pelé

June 30, 2010 By 3 Comments

What if Pelé had scored his final goal for Brazil, against Argentina? That’s the premise of 1284, the new short film starring 69-year old Pelé himself, which is ultimately a really touching tribute to the greatest footballer that ever lived.

The film was created by Young and Rubicam Brazil for Brazilian mobile telecommunications company and official national team sponsor, Vivo, and produced by Fernando Meirelles. It’s enough to make me forget The Constant Gardener.

h/t Shadow and Act

Filed Under: FILM Tagged With: , , , ,

‘The new model for African democracy’

June 30, 2010 By 1 Comment

“… This model of negotiations leading to a coalition government in the wake of a violence-plagued [December 2007] election [in Kenya] is being tried in Zimbabwe and has been recommended in Madagascar. The model is an inclusive one, and has been championed in some academic and political circles as the new model for African democracy. It is no such thing. These coalitions are the result of democratic failures, not successes. Throughout Africa, uniting belligerents under one roof has resulted in policymaking paralysis and resentful voters, angry that the governments they have are not the ones any of them elected.”

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El Negrito

June 30, 2010 By 7 Comments

In Argentina, a country where class and race is not far from the surface, someone who comes from the Buenos Aires slums is known as El Negrito.  As writer Colm Toibin wrote in a profile of Diego Maradona in Esquire in 1991, that refers to someone with darker skin than the ruling class, specifically someone “from the shanty towns beyond the city, with Bolivian or Paraguayan blood, perhaps with Indian blood.”

It’s a testament to Maradona’s talent and nous that this black, who is arguably the world’s greatest player of all time (of course Pele’s supporters would disagree), could still lead his country (incidentally, with another negrito, Carlos Tevez, leading his attack), this time as coach, to its 3rd World Cup in South Africa.

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Journalism

June 30, 2010 By 2 Comments

“… If the media covered America the way we cover Africa, here’s what we would know of the United States over the last decade. That in 2000 there were fiercely disputed elections in which the presidency was seized by the candidate who won fewer votes than his rival. That a year later, one of the country’s major cities was rocked by a devastating terror attack, costing thousands of lives. And that in 2005 another key city was submerged in record floods, destroying homes and leaving a thousand dead after the dominant tribe left the minority tribe to their fate. Surely we would speak of America as the dark continent, cursed to face constant suffering.”

Source.

Filed Under: JOURNALISM Tagged With: , , , , ,

Just add some Africa

June 29, 2010 By 7 Comments

An ad for multinational Orange to grab customers in a Middle Eastern country for some strange reason features a weird narrative of Africans happy that their homes get flooded. What does this have to do with the Middle East? (Or with Africa, for that matter?)

Perhaps all the commercials around the World Cup in South Africa has now made  ‘Africa’ such an empty sign  that it can just be appropriated and used whenever some feel-good effect is desired.  It’s becoming a recipe: take a product, add African kids, bare feet, smiles, sunshine, glamourized poverty – and voila, there you go.  Your product will change the world.  For the better, of course. Because you care.

-Herman Wasserman

 

Filed Under: FEATURED

Weekend Snapshot

June 29, 2010 By 7 Comments

The young people in Brooklyn continually amaze me.

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Hold On To Your Hat

June 29, 2010 By 3 Comments

South African football fans (well, boosted by corporates) have brought the world the plastic vuvuzelas. There’s one other invention of local football that might catch on: Makarapas, the elaborately decorated construction hard hats that now come in national colors.

There’s an interesting history about the origins of makarapas and the man who invented it, Alfred Baloyi.

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Who will play George Weah?

June 28, 2010 By 6 Comments

Liberia and Friends report that the Hollywood actor/director Dermot Mulroney (what does he know about football?) will develop and probably direct a biopic on the life of Liberian football legend George Weah.

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The Daily Show takes on the World Cup

June 28, 2010 By 3 Comments

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart sends “correspondent” John Oliver to Johannesburg to learn “… about the rich African culture at the World Cup.”

Brilliant piece. It strikes the right balance between on the one hand, the disdain most fans feel about FIFA, and, on the other, the passion associated with the World Cup. It is also satisfying to see Rich Mkhondo, the spokesperson for organizing committee, exposed as a windbag and making up a “cultural tradition” for the vuvuzela.

– Sean Jacobs

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