We know, Mr. future President of France, that the French slave kingdom in Africa is maintained by thousands of French soldiers stationed here and there the continent: Senegal, Chad, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire. We know that if it weren’t for this military support, the tyrants, those commanders that keep the people in bondage, would have long been toppled by the people. (…) We expect more from you than outrage over the tyrannies that strangle Cameroon and other francophone countries. From you, we expect a withdrawal of the all too obvious support that Paris has always given to some African dictators. From you, we expect a military withdrawal from Africa. But, from you, we also expect strong gestures and concrete support to the African civil society undermined by years of dictatorship and corruption. (…) Mr. future President of France, be more than the Mitterand of La Baule, be more than the Obama in Cairo; be a friend of democracy in Africa.

Read the original letter here or a fair English translation here.

* When you click on the map it expands to show the detail, including troop numbers, military operations, etcetera.

As Osocio — the blog about “marketing and advertising for social issues” — sums up ACF’s campaign here:

To make the people of France aware of the situation ACF use the tagline “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” [pic above]. And for the campaign they use various items like print ads, outdoor ads, web banners, Facebook and a web video. But the two most notable items are the tweet and guerrilla action. ACF asked to use the hashtag #actionsahel to spread the word. This webpage, with some French celebs, bloggers and media channels, is available for making it more powerful. From the webpage [it] is possible to send a tweet to one or more of the mentioned persons. It looks like this:
“@FredCavazza: 15 millions de personnes en danger de mort au #Sahel. Aidez-les à ne pas sombrer dans l’oubli #actionsahel @ACF_France”

On Saturday May 19 all solidarity tweets reveal on a giant billboard. This panel will be visible on the European Night of Museums, at the Cité des Science in Paris.

Here’s the campaign video:

“Un tweet peut tout changer”? Please.

Let’s break it down again:

Cognitive psychologists have long maintained that memory is not hardwired; instead, our memories of events are “imaginative recollections” that are cobbled together, rather than being filed-away blueprints of experiences, imbedded in perpetuity into our memory systems. However, if the tribulation we experienced is great enough, it creates what is known as a “flashbulb memory” — where we remember the minute details of a traumatic event as if a flashbulb-aided photograph of that experience was captured in our memory. #Kony2012 taught us, only a few short weeks ago, that a tweet, a FB post, or a PSA will not change the world. For many of us, #Kony2012 was a disaster of such epic proportions that it created a flashbulb memory: we wince and go into a collective fetal position when someone even suggests that we smile on our brother, love one another (with no kissing of course), and do some tweet-variety cartoon call to action. But it looks like very few had that flashbulb experience, teaching them a good enough lesson that they would never stick their hand into the yaws of a many-toothed charity run when it offered up its compelling grin.

* Sean Jacobs contributed to this post.

* BTW, for those who don’t know anything about Radio Freedom, here’s a snippet, here it gets sampled and there’s also a full album dedicated to it (the image above is from that album cover).

The first speaker, Drucilla Cornell, spoke of the revolutionary communism she had encountered in the uBuntu Township Project, in which ‘armed struggle [and overthrow of the ANC] is always on the table’ and ‘the future is always already being made’. Cornell was full of stories: mentioning, during the Q&A, her brief participation in a Marxist-Leninist cell affiliated to the Black Panthers in Oakland, at a time when the police would ‘spray’ black neighbourhoods with machine gun bullets: ‘white skin wouldn’t get you very far [with the police] when you’re in a Black Panther cell’. She was thrown out of that cell, she said, after refusing orders to sleep with the man, wrote a pamphlet defending this decision, and was thrown out as a ‘deviationist-idealist’. Cornell spoke of a strange amnesia over the history of collective action in the USA, and remembered working with a prostitute’s collective in New York, the prostitutes had developed a contraption to clean and clothe a customer’s member before sex, adding that the machine had developed ‘a couple of little kinks’, which left the men dissatisfied. And then there was the recent Tea Party square dance she had attended …

Rivera: ‘Did you dance?’

Cornell: ‘Of course!’

There she found elderly Americans recruited for oligarchy’s anarcho-capitalism because ‘they were just looking to find a husband aged 73 without going on the internet’. This revelation provoked the declaration, after Emma Goldman: I will not be part of a revolution in which there is no dancing. Cornell suggested that the transformation of capitalism should accommodate a ‘revolutionary communist dating service’.

Next, David Harvey spoke on how to transform capitalism according to a radical reorganisation of the city. We must ask ourselves, Harvey said, ‘what kind of human being is capitalism creating?’ He spoke of bifurcating between checking his pension fund online, the pain at seeing it had decreased by ten percent simultaneous with the thought ‘yay! capitalism is crashing’. The task at hand, he announced, was to work out ‘how to change mentalities’, and described a trade union friend asking him ‘how do you organise a whole city, politically?’ The answer involved working out ‘how the micro-structures [of a city] come together’, looking at Homs today to understand how the city became radicalised. In short, he argued, ‘you can’t transform the human without transforming the urban space’. Riding the E-train from Jamaica into Manhattan at 6 am one morning, Harvey was struck by the demographic of the other passengers – overwhelmingly females of ethnic minorities – and wondered ‘who has the right to the city?’ He spoke eloquently for the need to ‘decenter’ Occupy, to engage workers traditionally ‘excluded’ from union activities, to bring about the end of suburbanisation (which he drily described ‘a small task’), to reorganise the flows of the city, of the food chain and other networks on which the prevailing political order relies.

The event timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Indignados movement, and approach the internationalism of the occupy movement and the Arab Spring. Historical precedents of the Hanseatic League which founded mercantile capitalism in Europe in the early modern age, looking back at the American revolution to understand how ‘the port cities became revolutionary’, the pan-continental revolutions in 1848 and the 1870 Paris Commune. Harvey spoke of his ‘incredible fantasy’ to create ‘a socialist league of cities’, then a man called Kostas (who I’m sure I should have recognised) spoke of the recent ‘victory’ of the leftist coalition in Greece, and the hangover he had sustained in what sounded like the mother-of-all election-night parties.

Lastly, Achille Mbembe was due to speak on the concept of the ‘zero-world’. Except he wasn’t there: Rivera had announced in his introduction that Mbembe hadn’t been able to get a visa (cue world-weary laughter) but that he would joining the conversation from Dakar via Skype. So much for the butterflies image, thanks William Hague. Rivera received a text which said that the political philosopher was trying to find an internet café, then another saying he was trying to find an internet café with Skype, then another saying that he was trying to find an internet café with Skype in a part of the city where there wasn’t a power-cut, until it all started to feel like a practical joke about the exclusion of African intellectuals from ‘global’ conversations, and the connection never materialised.

Tate filmed the event, and there was some suggestion they’d put the video on their website, and promised that all contributions (Mbembe’s included) will be published in book format.

* Photo Credit: Jean-Claude Dhien

Chief Boima (government name: Boima Tucker; and AIAC collective member) was invited to OPEN ARTI in Milan recently to talk about art and politics and to DJ. In the video of the event (above), Boima is joined by fellow DJ, Venus X (profiled here in The New York Times). AIAC gets some shout-outs. A lot of things get referenced: music and race, how we listen to music, Shakira, cumbia, hard style, LMFAO, David Guerra, Rihanna, etcetera. But the elephant in the room is Diplo, the famous DJ and tastemaker. It’s Venus who speaks frankly, and openly, about her run-ins with Diplo (he attacked her on Twitter after she objected to him recording her set and then bringing out a mixtape). Boima discussed the implications of the Venus-Diplo feud in this AIAC post. (At the time Diplo felt compelled to comment on the post; just scroll down.) In the video, Boima also gets to talk about that meeting with Diplo set up by Eddie ‘Stats’ Houghton (of Okayplayer/Large Up) in the wake of our post. This new video–given the viral quality of the web–will sure ignite this debate again.

Below are two other videos of Boima DJ’ing as part of the same series of events:

Video via Palm Wine.

The work seems to speak to the soft drinks company’s attempts to nourish Africa with its addictive drinks and, more importantly, message of spiritual community through global consumer capitalism. I’m also reminded of Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, though this burnished and rough-hewn steel figure clearly rejects the sexualised gaze that figure seems to solicit.

‘It’s Personal’, a new exhibition of work by Sokari Douglas-Camp is on display at Tiwani Contemporary, in London. The Nigerian-British artist is well known for her sculptures in steel, and her public works: in particular, the bus she designed as a “living memorial” to Ken Saro-Wiwa.

As the artist comments in this brief BBC radio feature, the works explore a painful moment for the late middle aged female body, with sculptures of the female body wrought in steel adorned with uncomfortable apendages (tin cans, buckets, bottles). These embodiments, the artist explains, are efforts to exorcise the evil spirits.

‘Middle Age, Middle Rage’, the paint-on-steel triptych (above) of the artist and her husband as a the young man and woman they were when they married (right and left panel) and as now (centre panel) repeat this concern with an angry intensity. Here the red strip through their face is not rage or Coca-Cola but (according to the gallery) a reference to her husband’s football team (Arsenal, naturally), and a joke about her husband’s fervent love for the north London side, coursing through the middle of their marriage.

The exhibition is open until late May; see the Tiwani website for news on their forthcoming schedule of events and talks.

Thinking about ways that Africa is represented by NGO’s and other international organizations (reference: various posts at Africa is a Country), it was nice to run into this project put together by UNICEF that seeks to find new ways of representing crises in Africa.

In order to re-orient our perspectives on the drought and pending food crisis in the Sahel, UNICEF went up to Harlem to find people from the region, and ask them about their experience with the crisis and their memories of living back home. The video doesn’t go too far into the details of the campaign, and what the international community might actually do to avert a long-term food crisis. But, by allowing for those who are directly effected (in our hypothetical backyards) to speak their own voice, it’s a step in the right direction towards facilitating genuine empathy, and away from the sensationalistic portrayals that have come to define awareness campaigns.

Watch part two of “Memories of the Sahel” here.

10. Cheikh Tiote vs Arsenal (5 Feb 2011)

Arsenal had been four up at half time at St James’ Park, but Abou Diaby’s red card and a couple of generous penalties put away by Joey Barton left Newcastle trailing 4-3 in the dying minutes. Gael Clichy headed Barton’s free-kick high into the air, and when the ball dropped steeply towards the lurking Tiote, the Ivorian simply battered a crushing left-foot volley into the bottom corner. The goal Paul Scholes wishes he’d scored, it’s safe to say the strike was well-received on local Geordie radio (“Boom, Boom, Cheik Cheik the Room!”).

9. Michael Essien vs Arsenal (10 Dec 2006)

Another late equaliser against Arsenal, this goal was so good it had Andy Gray pulling out the “Take a bow, son” routine that the old growler usually reserved for Steven Gerrard. With six minutes left, Chelsea’s seemingly interminable undefeated home run under Jose Mourinho looked like finally coming to an end. Essien’s strike was as sweet as it was sudden, and the curve of the ball bent so far outside of Jens Lehmann’s far post that the mad German never had a chance of reaching it.

8. Didier Drogba vs Everton (17 Dec 2006)

Drogba is the leading African scorer in Premier League history with 100 goals. None have bettered this late winner at Goodison Park, which came just a week on from Essien’s effort above. The Guardian’s Dominic Fifield described the goal in his match report: “It was Didier Drogba who settled this glorious contest. The hosts were still coming to terms with the reality that their resilience had not been enough to retain an advantage, Frank Lampard having plucked an equaliser across Tim Howard and into the corner six minutes earlier, when the Ivorian gathered Andriy Shevchenko’s flick. The ball cannoned up from his chest, Drogba spinning instinctively to hammer a wondrous volley which soared for 35 yards then dipped over the goalkeeper at the last. Jose Mourinho tore off down the touchline, arms pumping in celebration, as those present gasped or wailed at the splendour of the winner.” Fast forward to the 8:56 mark in the video:

7. Emmanuel Adebayor vs Tottenham Hotspur (15 Sept 2007)

The trouble with Adebayor playing for Tottenham is that he only seems to play really well when he’s playing against them. Arsenal were leading 2-1 late into a game that would see Martin Jol fired as Spurs manager. Cesc Fabregas fired a firm pass to the feet of Adebayor, standing with his back to goal on the edge of the box, a couple of yards ahead of Michael Dawson. Rather than hold up play and look to play in Alex Hleb, who was unmarked on the Arsenal left, Adebayor gently scooped the ball up across his body and in one fluid movement blasted it in right-footed. The two touches could hardly have been more different. What made the goal even better was that just seconds earlier, Denilson had squandered a one-on-one in the most pitifully apologetic fashion. The Brazilian’s timidity made the sheer conviction of Adebayor’s strike all the more awesome.

6. Peter Ndlovu vs West Bromwich Albion (18 Jan 1995)

In the first Premier League season, 1992-1993, there were, I think, only three Africans in the competition, and incredibly two of them were Zimbabweans: Bruce Grobelaar and Peter Ndlovu.*  Ndlovu, endlessly mispronounced “Und-love” by commentators, was a star of the Coventry side of the mid-90s. Nicknamed the “Bulawayo Bullet”, his goal against West Brom in 1995 was a vintage example of the relish with which he tormented opposing defenders. Fast forward to the 1.45 mark.

Andy Morrison, who had to mark Ndlovu while playing for Blackburn in 1994, recently said he thought the Zimbabwean had single-handedly wrecked his career: “I was at Blackburn, had broken into the first-team squad and was in the plans of the manager, Kenny Dalglish. But I got ripped to shreds by Peter Ndlovu… Blackburn still had a chance to win the title and were pushing for an equaliser. Time and again I was left one-on-one with Ndlovu and he tore me to pieces. He beat me on the inside and the outside until I was put out of my misery after 80 minutes. I came across him a few years later and told him that he had ruined my career. He, of course, had no idea what I was talking about.”

5. Jay Jay Okocha vs West Ham (19 April 2003)

So good they named him twice. Or as the Telegraph match report had it, “almost too classy for the Premiership”. This was a six-pointer between two clubs fighting relegation. Picking up a loose ball, Okocha surged towards the West Ham goal from deep inside his own half, shrugged off Joe Cole, before steadying himself and lashing the ball into the roof of the net from 25 yards. The Nigerian legend scored other great goals in England, but this was his best.

4. Papiss Demba Cisse vs Chelsea (2 May 2012)

A goal so good it made hardened journeyman striker Steve Claridge throw up his hands and whimper with fear on live radio. The wow-factor of the goal lies in just how implausible it was, at the moment when Demba Ba chested the ball down for Papiss Demba Cisse (this manœuvre is now known as the “Double Demba”), that Cisse could possibly beat Petr Cech from a position wide out on the left wing by striking the ball with the outside of his right foot. But that’s exactly what he did.

3. Tony Yeboah vs Liverpool (21 Aug 1995)

“Yeboah’s two goals against West Ham on Saturday were spectacular enough,” wrote Guy Hodgson in The Independent, “but last night’s had a quality that threatened to defy physics. Tony Dorigo crossed from the left, Rod Wallace headed back and Yeboah, showing no compromise to a range of 25 yards, thumped a right-foot volley that hurtled through the sultry air and crashed past David James with awesome ferocity.”

“I hate that goal,” said David James recently. ”At the time, I spent quite a few weeks afterwards moaning about the fact that I should have saved it.”

It’s difficult to imagine how he would have done that. Watch it again, and bear in mind: Yeboah is left-footed. If you can’t wait, fast forward to the 3:24 mark.

2. Nwankwo Kanu vs Chelsea (23 Oct 1999)

Two nil down at Stamford Bridge, with 15 minutes left, Kanu came up with an incredible match-winning hat-trick. Great goals can be judged in lots of ways. One is their level of difficulty, and what Kanu did against Chelsea in the dying minutes of that match was something just extraordinarily difficult. Chasing an overhit Davor Suker pass, Kanu somehow kept the ball in play as he blocked Albert Ferrer’s blasted clearance at point blank range with a stretch of his long left leg. Chelsea keeper Ed De Goey charged out and cornered him on the by-line, and it seemed Kanu’s only option was to try to cut the ball back for Overmars and Suker waiting in the middle. Perhaps that’s what De Goey thought too, because Kanu sold him the Dutchman the most languid, the most delicious of dumbies. As De Goey slid for the ball, Kanu danced inside him, trod in a large puddle that gave up a visible splash, and from the narrowest of angles sent the ball skimming just over the heads of Marcel Desailly and Frank Lebouef and into the top corner of the far post. Watch from the 8:16 mark.

It was the best goal the great man would score for Arsenal, though this against Spurs and this against Middlesborough were also pretty special.

1. Tony Yeboah vs Wimbledon (23 Sept 1995)

“It’ doesn’t need any words,” reflected Sky’s commentator at Selhurst Park that day, “just wonderment, really. The two goal cushion is restored.  It could not have been restored more emphatically.”

Now who did we miss?

* The third African to play in that inaugural 1992 season was the Nigerian Efan Ekoko, who was born and grew up in the UK and played for Norwich City in 1992. It’s a shame Nayim, the Spanish midfielder who played for Tottenham, does not count as African. He’s from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the North African coast at the edge of Morocco. Anyway, he could score amazing goals, like this.

Sean Jacobs contributed to this post.