For the final assignment of a class I teach on Media and Africa at The New School I asked students to make short video profiles of African immigrant experiences in New York City. Most, if not all, of the students had never blogged before, nor filmed, much less edited something for public viewing. None of the films are longer than 7 minutes. The films are equally powerful and involved immense effort on the part of the students and I have links to all the videos here, but let me highlight two of them in this post. The short film above, “The Big Dreamer,” above, tells the story of Lookman Mashood, co-owner of Buka, a Nigerian restaurant that opened this year in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn. (Robert Sietsema, Voice food critic, checked it out already.)
Music Break. Simphiwe Dana
Does it matter whether we know where a music video was shot? Probably not, but watching this first clip for Simphiwe Dana’s new album Kulture Noir, I can’t help but stare at the steel barred windows of the police holding cells in the background. Daily, around that corner, you find people on the sidewalk exchanging messages with their imprisoned friends or family members. It thus makes for a weird block party in Cape Town’s City Bowl. Fortunately, there is the music. That’s London-based South African bandleader Adam Glasser on the harmonica, by the way.
No Sense
Some rappers should just stay away from politics. Take T-Pain’s endorsement of “a conversative [Republican] victory [in] 2010.” (If you forgot, watch Jay Smooth break down T-Pain’s nonsense here.) Then there’s of course the Senegalese-American R&B singer, Akon, who imagines himself some kind of African political leader. (That’s Akon and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, above, earlier this year in New York City announcing Wade’s vanity project, the World Festival of Black Arts, taking place now through the end of the month in Dakar.)
‘Haiti in Africa’
Sketch by the UK comedy sketch group, “The Unexpected Items,” filmed in front of the School of Oriental and African Studies (yes, that still what it’s called).
H/T: Konwomyn.
The Indians are Coming
This is an ad to promote the wares of Willow TV–the California-based portal for live Internet streaming of big cricket matches-ahead of India’s tour of South Africa, a tour that kicks off today. I’ll let the stereotypes of South Africa (Afrikaner farmers, coloured klopse and Zulu fighters) and the idea of cricket as a white sport (at the crease and on the oval at least it is the preserve of white men and boys), impugn itself. Or maybe the client or the creatives behind the commercial were just trying to be honest. (BTW, I am going to hedge a bet: this commercial was conceptualized and made by a South African production company. I hope I am wrong.)
H/T: Omar Karim
Music Break
The guys from Fresk have opinions, but we will go into that another day. Until then, this song by Brazzaville’s Fredy Massamba, Mad Pluma and Steve Mavoungou (and friends) will do. You get the message. – Tom Devriendt
Giant Killers
[The wealthy Congolese club and current African Champions League cup holders] TP Mazembe Englebert have produced the biggest shock in the history of the FIFA Club World Cup, beating the Brazilian team Porto Alegre 2-0 to become the first team from outside Europe and South America to qualify for the final [of the tournament that is scheduled for this weekend in Abu Dhabi].
The Fire Next Time
Some Brooklyn business. You know I live here. Read it here.–Sean Jacobs
Vanishing Africa
It’s old news. Africa – this zebra-gazelled hunterland, home of the majestic painted tribesman – is disappearing. But it’s funny how galleries in London will still create a space for that Africa: cheetahs backlit by a setting sun; zebra turning heads, glory in their asymmetrical unity; glistening, naked (and sometimes naked-and-wrestling) black bodies.
