Out of Africa Redux

September 30, 2010 By 2 Comments

Every Journey Began in Africa. Oh, really?

Checking in from that mythical magical place known as “Africa” (or, as Women’s Wear Daily reports, an “arid South African vista”) are Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, founders of the fashion brand, Edun, for which the above campaign was shot. The campaign is part of a push to relaunch the brand, which Bono and Hewson founded in 2005 with, as the Wall Street Journal reports, “the lofty mission of revitalizing apparel manufacturing in sub-Saharan Africa.” Trade, not aid. That’s what “the Africans” tell Bono, anyway.

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Music Wednesdays

September 29, 2010 By 2 Comments

The video for the remix of the song “Champion,” the tune by Nigerian reggae fusion artist, Pype, this time featuring other Nigerian heavyweights Dagrin, Vector, Naeto C, Sasha and GT.

Filed Under: MUSIC

The ‘Touareg’ Show

September 29, 2010 By 3 Comments

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The Nollywood Recipe

September 29, 2010 By 2 Comments

Nigerian director and producer, Ade Adepegba, speaking ahead of the new film festival, Nollywood Now–apparently the first entirely dedicated to the genre–that takes place in London from 6-12 October:

Nigerians are the largest group of Africans living in the UK, and the majority of them live in London … Nigerian films still hold their strongest appeal to first generation immigrants who feel a deep attachment to their homeland. So, at the moment nostalgia is the main reason for the appeal of Nollywood.

And Nollywood Now’s creative director, Phoenix Fry:

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Filed Under: FILM Tagged With: , ,

Where does the money go?

September 29, 2010 By 6 Comments

Brett Davidson
How transparent are governments? How easy is it for citizens to get hold of information about how governments are spending their money?

It is this question that a recent international research project set out to answer.

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Manifest Destiny

September 28, 2010 By 10 Comments

Chief Boima
Earlier this week I attended a panel at the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Summit on inclusive employment in Africa with participants that included such high profile figures as Mo Ibrahim, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda.  So what is “inclusive employment”?  Basically to ensure that we develop other sectors of society outside of resource extraction favored by multinational firms and African governments, so the benefits can be felt by everyone.  Because we can and should question the merit of wealthy people sitting around talking about what poor people need, I feel that it’s important to share back when given an opportunity to gain some insight on what our African leaders are thinking.

One constant refrain throughout the panel was the importance of investing in youth when creating these inclusive employment initiatives.

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Jacob Zuma Time

September 27, 2010 By 2 Comments

Sean Jacobs
Note from a friend who closely watches the South African political scene:

Below [the link follows] is a JZ [Jacob Zuma] post-Durban posting [the ruling party, the ANC, held its policy conference there last weekend], on Baobab, The Economist‘s Africa blog. Am I wrong to scratch my head at everyone claiming JZ emerges from Durban with his power reasserted? Is all it takes one speech where JZ wields the rhetorical hammer and tells the [trade] unions what they want to hear. Is this what he always does to everyone, save [ANC Youth League leader Julius] Malema?. I am just thinking about the media’s really zero-sum coverage of [Zuma] … He is either a dead man walking or the undisputed leader of the party. I actually got the same sense when reading [say Mail & Guardian political reporter] Mandy Rossouw‘s coverage of the NGC [that's the national general council of the ANC, the aforementioned policy conference] … ‘JZ is back.’ Am I missing something here? Was there more going on behind the scenes than just this speech? Sure Malema got the public slapdown, but that has happened before.

Comments?

Filed Under: JOURNALISM Tagged With: , ,

Everyone’s an African

September 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Brett Davidson
Regional lobby group, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), has drafted an equal rights manifesto in conversation with civil society, cultural and religious leaders from around the continent. It presents the arguments for why equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are a crucial element of African culture and Christian philosophy, in addition to being a public health and human rights imperative.

The manifesto goes into detail on four aspects  of homophobia in Africa:  African Culture, Christianity, Public Health, and Human Rights.

ARASA is calling for comments on the document by the 14th of October, after which they will invite individuals and organizations to endorse it and make use of it to begin changing attitudes and policies. Go check it out.

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White People Eat Fried Chicken

September 27, 2010 By 6 Comments

Allison Swank
Just as Nelson Mandela went underground as the Black Pimpernel in 1961 to evade the white apartheid government, in this TV ad for  a popular South African fast food chain, this white Afrikaner family goes underground in 1994 to escape Mandela’s black government–what?

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Music Break

September 26, 2010 By 3 Comments

This is hipster stuff you can dance to at least. “Boomslang” (literally tree snake) by LV and Okmalumkoolkat.  The latter is one half of the new South African band, Dirty Paraffin.

Filed Under: MUSIC Tagged With: ,
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