What has murdered Black Consciousness activist Steve Bantu Biko to do with the beginning of spring in the Netherlands? Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything in school. Steve Biko has indeed nothing to do with the new season here whatsoever. Still, this didn’t stop a bunch of yuppies and hipsters to organize a party in […]
On the first of July this year the Netherlands are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the abolishment of slavery in their former colonies Suriname and their dependencies: the Dutch Antilles. The mayor of Amsterdam considered it a good time for a celebration. So he decided to think big and invited the US First Lady Michelle Obama, […]
Imagine you are a person in the Netherlands interested in African events or at least cultural events where Africa is (supposedly to be) prominently featured and you pick up a flyer of an event saying in Dutch: ‘Afrika! Het Oude en Nieuwe Afrika’ (Africa! The Old and New Africa). Your curiosity has been triggered and […]
For those planning to visit Amsterdam anytime soon, there is no need for a Lonely Planet guide. Just have a listen to Papa Ghana’s new track ‘Damsco’ (slang for ‘Amsterdam’) which he just released. In case you don’t speak any Dutch (slang): the ‘Damsco’ lyrics read as an ode to the city. The track starts […]
The most talked about film in the Netherlands now is the comedy Alleen Maar Nette Mensen (“Only Decent People”), which, to be blunt, may shape Dutch views of its black citizens, and Afro-Surinamese in particular, in very negative ways from which we may not recover for a while. The film is already a smash hit. […]
ZAM is an international multimedia platform celebrating African creativity and new thinking, priding itself on a network of over 500 African journalists, photographers, writers, artists, academics, visionaries, doers and hundreds of peers in Europe and elsewhere. (Which we can attest to.) The original Dutch version of ZAM Magazine has been around for a while but […]
What’s Up Africa describes itself as “Europe’s first video blog focused on Africa.” Produced in the Netherlands by lawyer-turned-broadcaster Ikenna Azuike, it is slowly building an audience, bringing us “… what’s hip, creative and making the news in Africa.” 26 episodes later this is the place where the new land grab by European firms of African agricultural […]
If you’re anticipating Finland-based, South African Mustafa Maluka‘s New York solo show, “A Place So Foreign” at the Jack Tilton Gallery, his new work (“The Rhetoric of Sincerity / The Sincerity of Rhetoric”) is opening in Switzerland later this week.
