Guest Post by T.J. Tallie and Maria Hengeveld
This week BBC News reported on the rise in Cape Town’s status as a premiere international gay tourist destination. The article itself went on to report at length from gay South African hoteliers and organizers, many of whom lavished praise on the progressivism enshrined in the country’s constitution, and the comparative sense of freedom that South Africa in general (and Cape Town in particular) provided for LGBT-identified people. While it is undeniable that South Africa can boast one of the most inclusive constitutions in the world, particularly in regard to protecting the rights of those with different sexual orientations, the BBC article and much of the rhetoric surrounding ‘Cape Town as gay paradise’ obscures far more complex realities.
Pinkwashing South Africa
The geo-branding war
Geo-branding is a serious thing. It is particularly serious when people from other geographic areas decide to brand your geographical area and the people in it, the way they see fit and the way that fits their purposes. No other country, region or continent, I’d argue, suffers from other peoples’ nonsense as much as the continent of Africa. Actually, the reason why people generally and casually talk about Africa as one place is because of what Nigerian-American author C. P. Eze refers to as “their geo-branding war”. [Read more...]
Guggenheim’s map–Where is the rest of Africa?
Guest Post by Jennifer Bajorek and Erin Haney
The recent announcement of the Guggenheim Foundation’s new “Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative” bears all of the hallmarks of the present era. It is funded by a bank. It has the word “global” in its title. It claims explicitly to challenge “a Western-centric view of art history,” according to the Foundation’s director, Richard Armstrong, in a piece by Carol Vogel recently published in The New York Times. The project will mount this challenge by investing in series of linked-up residencies, exhibitions, acquisitions for the museum’s permanent collections, and public programming with artists, curators and educators in parts of the world hitherto largely ignored by the museum. The modus operandi is encouraging, particularly when compared with late-20th-century attempts to bring non-Western art into dialogue with institutions in the North. The list of regions is long, and includes South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. One thing it is not, however, is global: Africa south of the Sahara, and thus 2/3 of the continent, has been excluded.
Cape Town: Beautiful Ugly
Post by Olufemi Terry (text) and Marco Lachi (photographs)
In 2008, while living and studying in Cape Town, I heard, over and over, two observations about the city: it was a place of singular beauty, perhaps even the world’s most captivating city. Visitor and local alike seemed incapable of seeing other landscapes than the physical one, and some claimed that the city’s insularity was a result of the mystical, domineering influence of Table Mountain. The second perception, loosely related to the first, was that Cape Town was not an African city or, at least, not a “real African city.”
Film: The talented Tajdin sisters
Filmmaker Amirah Tajdin and her producer sister Wafa Tajdin are currently working on their first feature, titled “Walls of Leila,” and are running a Kickstarter campaign to help launch their production. For two young, clearly talented filmmakers, this is a film project worth backing. You can visit their kickstarter page here. The film is described as “… a love story set in Cape Town South Africa that chronicles the life of Leila, a young Cape Malay girl who falls in love with an American boy, Derek, who happens to be black. When the intricacies and prejudices of race and religion (which are still very prominent in postcolonial Cape Town) throw Leila off balance, she finds herself forced to make difficult decisions as well as questioning her own degree of prejudice. She is ultimately caught between breaking the hearts of her family and/or her lover.” The trailer reminds me a bit of what Andrew Dosunmu visually achieved with “Restless City”:
My favorite photographs N°2: Scott Williams
Westridge. Mitchells Plain
Krumping Africa
American photographer David LaChapelle’s 2005 krump documentary, “Rize,” (trailer here) included a laughable section that invented a history of the dance genre among “traditional” Africans.* I guess since the dance originated and was popular among black teenagers and young adults in poor parts of Los Angeles, it had to have African origins. But not even LaChapelle would have guessed his documentary’s enduring legacy back on the continent. Take this recent four minute video, above, about krump’s popularity among teenagers in Liberia. Then there’s this video shot in Cape Town of “krump crew” Royal Fam Kings (R.F.K.) [H/T: Dylan Valley]:
Cape Town African Swag
(Photo by @ Luke Daniel)
The first time I heard about rapper Youngsta (government name Riyadh Roberts) was during Public Enemy’s tour of Cape Town, in a club awkwardly named @mospheer. Chuck D and Flavor Flav rocked the crowd that night, with a high-energy performance lasting longer than two hours (according to Flavor Flav’s giant clock necklace). In the middle of their set they invited a few local MCs to get on stage and drop a couple of verses. A lanky and charismatic young man with a big grin, introducing himself as Youngsta, stole the show. His warm engagement with the crowd and funny, witty freestyles made him the clear favorite. This guy was going places. The next time I heard of him he was opening for Lil’ Wayne.
‘South African History !X’
Fresh off a Japanese tour, Capetonian jazz musician Kyle Shepherd returns with a third album entitled ‘South African History !X,’ which, he explains in the video above, “pays homage to the languages of the first nation people” and brings to the front’s South Africa’s slave holding past. Featuring an all star cast of Jono Sweetman on drums, Shane Cooper on bass, Buddy Wells on sax and the late South African jazz legend Zim Nqawana, this looks like it’s going to be a great listen. [Read more...]
Cape Town Leather
The Rupert clan of South Africa owns a few businesses that make a lot of money: Cartier, Dunhill, Montblanc and Piaget, etcetera. Their fortunes began with Anthony Edward Rupert, who could not finish medical school “due to lack of funds,” but thanks to apartheid magic (and business smarts) he began manufacturing cigarettes in his garage. He eventually built this into the tobacco industrial conglomerate The Rembrandt Group, which made him a billionaire. In the late ’60s (think the time of the Rivonia Trials), a scion of the family purchased the L’Ormarins wine estate in Franschhoek in the then Cape province. The family’s fortunes continued, with the addition of another wine estate, La Motte. One could say that Franschhoek’s current stature is probably owed in large part to the efforts of the Ruperts to promote the district as a little corner of France, replete with cheeses, fruits, herbs, mushrooms, nuts, olives, coupled with the exotic appeal of the bush: ostrich and crocodile steaks. Of course, there’s also the poorly paid coloured labour, but that’s not in brochures intended to lure visitors.
