Made in Africa
January 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Hélène Amouzou
January 27, 2011 By 4 Comments
Hélène Amouzou was born in Togo but has been living and working in Brussels for a while now. Some years ago, she took up photography. The results are self-portraits taken “mostly in her attic”.
A Message from Abidjan
January 26, 2011 By 2 Comments
Zepekenio, an Ivoirian-based artist has just released a track called “No Stress” a timely message out of Abidjan. This party rap track on the label Frimaur is part of a genre Zepekenio’s calling “Le Chocogangsta Rap.”
Listen and download here:
Market Values
January 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Since the coming of the nineties, things seem to change within [South Africa]. A new culture arrived with the nineties. It brought and legitimated the “market”. And in a very short space of time it took control of practically every aspect of our lives. Though the market had been with us for a long time it remained condemned, the domain of decadent white society. And whereas some of us were quite sceptical about it at the beginning, we eventually succumbed. Today it regulates and controls all of our lives. It determines how we conduct our politics. It writes the scripts of our locally produced soapies. Increasingly our young minds at school are imprinted with the dictates of the market. Drilling them in the art of selling themselves. It influences the way we play sports, the way we speak, the way we dress. Our public appearances are carefully choreographed. These are the requirements of the market. It demands that we present ourselves as saleable commodities. As functionaries we are required to possess a certain measure of exchange value, like any other commodity for sale. Such are the dictates of the “market”.
Coming Out in Uganda
January 26, 2011 By 2 Comments
Frank Mungisha, an Ugandan gay rights activist included in The Advocate’s “Forty Under 40” list last year, will speak at The New School in Manhattan tomorrow night about his experiences. From the promotional material:
He has played a leading role in combating the “Anti-Homosexuality” bill proposed by the Ugandan legislature that threatens lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and their family members, with harassment, imprisonment and even death. In November 2010, Mugisha was targeted for elimination by the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone, which urged the public to hang him along with 100 other suspected homosexuals.
More information here.
Joseph’s Journey
January 25, 2011 By 2 Comments
Al-Jazeera follows Joseph, a Liberian man on his journey to New York City. He gets randomly selected in the US green card lottery system. The 22-minute film is currently showing on their English language broadcast station. (Most cable TV providers are coy about carrying Al Jazeera–they’re apparently terrorists–but you can stream the channel online on Livestation.com). On See more info here. It’s quite a journey and a must watch for anyone interested in the realities of contemporary immigration. Joseph really experiences it all.–Chief Boima
T.I.A., Sudanese TV (in Dubai)
January 8, 2011 By 10 Comments
I came across a concert on Sudanese television station Blue Nile TV while flipping through channels in Dubai (lot’s of great music on there).
Shameless Self Promotion
January 8, 2011 By 3 Comments
My interview with South African photographer David Goldblatt about cultural amnesia. It appeared in my favourite “serious” online journal, “The Johannesburg Salon.”
–Neelika Jayawardane.
T.I.A., Dubai Edition
January 7, 2011 By 2 Comments
Dubai is a diverse international city that has become an important economic, immigration, and transportation hub for Asia, Africa, and Europe. The demographics of the place reflect this as over 80% of the population is non-Emirati. So when the Mall of the Emirates created a “high end” food court representing its diverse population with cuisine from countries like India, Japan, Lebanon, Egypt, France, and China, they had to make an effort to represent Dubai’s numerous African residents.
So what is Dubai’s premier African restaurant representing an entire continent named?
