Africa gets new football kits

November 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

By Basia Lewandowska Cummings

It is (sort of ) a nice project. Puma Creative invited ten artists to design a new football kit that ‘celebrates Africa’s unique visual identity and culture’, with a strip for each of the partnering African national football teams: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa and Togo. The launch happened this week in London and the kits look alright when they are on, and from far away.

But up close, the 10 artists stuck to the format: for Ivory Coast we’ve got an elephant with a really long trunk across the chest:

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Filed Under: SPORT Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Edgar Sekloka wrote a book

November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Taking up the fashionable concept of the book trailer, Edgar Sekloka, one half of French hip hip duo Milk Coffee & Sugar,* here previews, through a powerful poem, his recently released Adulte à Présent, a teenage novel about 15-year old ‘la cadette’ [the youngest] from Douala, Cameroon, and 13-year-old ‘le fils’ [the son] from New York, whose paths cross in the U.S. after ‘la cadette’ flees from her home country.  Here’s my translation of the preview poem:

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Filed Under: BOOKS, MUSIC Tagged With: , , ,

Music Break. Nkunkuma

October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Cameroon (‘Kamer’) hip hop is churning out lots of videos lately. Like this one by Nkunkuma. A nice track, if you make it past the intro.

Filed Under: MUSIC Tagged With: , ,

Cameroon and the President

October 9, 2011 By 1 Comment

Cameroonians went to the polls today. In an interview with SlateAfrique, Achille Mbembe (b. 1957, Cameroon ) explains why no one else but the 78-year-old incumbent Paul Biya stands a chance to win. “Having stripped society of all security, [the current regime] now holds the entire population by the balls”:

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Filed Under: JOURNALISM, POLITICS Tagged With: , , ,

Music Break / Kastra

September 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Video for Douala rapper Kastra. I haven’t yet figured out what he means with “I’m your brown cacao in your black cappuccino.” And what’s with the line ” … call me Chris Brown only if you’re Rihanna”? But the music pushes all the right buttons.

Filed Under: MUSIC Tagged With: , , ,

National Pride

September 22, 2011 By 4 Comments

I’ll take any excuse to post about football.

Fifa, football’s world controlling body, announced the latest rankings for world football this week.

Not surprising are the top five nations: Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay and Portugal.

We of course care about the African rankings.

The African teams in the top 50 are: Cote d’Ivoire (no. 16, down one place) followed by Egypt (36th, down 2 places), Ghana (37th, down 1), Burkina Faso (41th, down 1), Senegal (42nd, up 7), Nigeria (43rd, down 5), Algeria (46th) and Cameroon (48th).

My team, South Africa, is just outside the top 50: they’re 51st, down 4 places. (Didn’t they draw and beat Egypt in recent African Nations Cup qualifiers eliminating the 6-time continental champions from next year’s finals?)

Sierra Leone (now 68th, up 24), Togo (95th, up 26) and Namibia (119th, up 24) are three of the six teams outside the top 50 who improved their position on the rankings by more than 20 places.

Sources: Here and here.

Filed Under: FEATURED, MISC Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Music Break / Lalcko

August 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

French-Cameroonian rapper Lalcko released a strong record earlier this year: ‘L’eau lave mais l’argent rend propre.’ Ever seen this video he recorded ‘between Yaoundé and Douala’ for his 2007 track ‘Lumumba’? It’s dedicated “to all my Lumumbas born of aggression and cemented by the fight.”

Filed Under: MUSIC Tagged With: , , ,

Music Break

June 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Nice video for “Bienvenue au Cameroun”, a track by Cameroonian (yeah) artist Ayriq Akam.

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Coming Out in Cameroon

March 30, 2011 By 4 Comments

One of the human rights activists featuring in the 2009 documentary Cameroon: Coming Out of the Nkuta is Alice Nkom. The film sketches the daily struggle of young gays and lesbians in Cameroon. Nkom was in The Netherlands this week to talk about their fight.

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Filed Under: FILM, POLITICS Tagged With: , , ,

No Art On $2 A Day

March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In memory of Cameroonian artist Goddy Leye (1965-2011).

Filed Under: ART, EVENTS Tagged With: , , ,
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