The Toto ‘Africa’ Meme, N°4: The Europe Edition

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I can’t lie, Europeans love Toto’s “Africa.” First up there’s the massive Slovenian a capella choir Perpetuum Jazzile (above) that has been viewed more than 12 million times (when I last counted earlier this week) on Youtube where it attracts comments like “unusual and interesting” or “the two women to our right of the main male singer are hot;” then there’s the Dutch street organ (imagine what Toto would have sounded like in the 19th century), a German trio, and the devotion of Serbian fans who decided to subtitle the original.

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Filed Under: FEATURED, MUSIC, VIDEO Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Afrikaner Bloods

January 17, 2012 By 6 Comments

Now and then I’ll scan the international media for reports about “heightening tensions between black and white South Africans.” They never disappoint. (Serious, try it.) Moreover, it seems to have become standard practice to believe and copy each other’s stories. (Incredibly, even Think Africa Press recently wrote tensions flared.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: FEATURED, JOURNALISM, MEDIA, PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO Tagged With: , , , , ,

Helping Themba

December 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Dutch ‘Stop Aids Now!’ campaigns have a long tradition of appealing to potential donors in Holland’s streets. November and December are the months the posters and TV ads pop up (around World Aids Day on December 1, coinciding with the arrival of Saint Nicholas and his Black Petes, and the ensuing spending spree) — staple NGO tactics this time of year. With governments slashing their international aid budgets, the street is where NGOs will need to scrape their money together. So you tell the Dutch that African kids “Mary and Neema don’t know how to prevent AIDS, but you do.” Or you show them (as in the video above) that while Dutch Alex wants a video game and Esther and Kim want a skippy ball, Themba wants to know “whether kissing will make you HIV positive,” and that “Ayanna wants a long and healthy life.” A reader suggested it was a rather patronizing and regressive campaign. She’s being too kind.

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I remember Black Pete*

November 25, 2011 By 1 Comment

As a child, I never believed in Santa Claus.

I believed in Saint Nicholas and Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). I remember waking up as a child on December 6, 1983, three hours before daybreak. I also remember waking up early on December 6 for years afterwards. Always early, always too excited to go back to sleep the night Saint Nicholas came by our house. Over the years, I got to share this rush of euphoric anxiety with my two younger brothers. We would be jumping on our beds, calling our parents, yelling out to ask whether it was time yet. They were never amused. My brothers and I knew there was no way we could pussyfoot downstairs into the living room to see which presents He had left us. Because each year, Saint Nicholas’s black servants, those sneaky Black Petes (‘Zwarte Pieten’) would have locked the room’s door on their way out. My parents held its only key.

You know Black Pete?

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Can aid organisations still ‘sell’ Africa?

November 15, 2011 By 6 Comments

During the recent Africa Day in The Hague, Holland, BrandOutLoud* director Judith Madigan took part in the second Oude meesters, jonge honden [old icons and generation 2.0] debate on emergency aid in Africa. She spoke about the image of aid provision to the continent and asked whether aid organisations can still ‘sell’ Africa? And she wrote a column about the above video they made: [Read more...]

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The Dutch Disease

October 20, 2011 By 4 Comments

What is it with Dutch cultural elites and South Africa?

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Massage for Africa

October 12, 2011 By 2 Comments

“BE TOUCHED. It touches you, if you allow yourself to be touched. Massage for Africa.“

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Outsourcing Protest

September 26, 2011 By 3 Comments

This is either a bad joke, a brilliant art project or another Dutch viral campaign:

A group called Actie Lab (translated: Action Lab), based in Amsterdam, has found a way for Europeans to ‘help’ Africans by outsourcing protests to Malawi and South Africa. Basically you don’t have to do protesting anymore. You just fill out a form on Aksie Lab’s website and Aksielab “gets a bunch of Africans to protest for you.” They also do birthday greetings. In the video above a group of Africans do an on-demand protest around the Chinese government’s imprisonment of artist Ai Wei Wei. (He is now under house arrest.)

Since they started the “service” in May this year, Aksie Lab has had more than a few clients.

Not everyone thinks its a joke. For example, What’s Up Africa!’s Ikenna Azuike thinks it’s real and skewers it in the latest episode of his weekly Youtube broadcast.

Filed Under: FEATURED, MISC Tagged With: ,

‘Slavery, The Game’

September 22, 2011 By 1 Comment

While watching out for Fifa 12, I got distracted by this Youtube “commercial” for  another video game, “Slavery: The Game.”  Within days it had half a million views. Watch the trailer above. It just seemed to absurd to be true. There was a a website, with a video, ways for you to share it on social media and a phone number. A few websites checked the phone number and the company listed as developer and found it did not exist. They also reasoned retailers here wouldn’t carry it because of its offensive nature. But some commenters on Youtube were actually excited by the prospect of capturing, torturing and making profits off slaves. I suspected if it was the work of Adbusters or The Yes Men.

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“What’s Up Africa!”

August 12, 2011 By 4 Comments

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 land is described as ”buying 10 Hollands,” he skewers leaders like life presidents like Yoweri Museveni, does sketches (since episode 3) and also Ikenna recruits his parents to do silly things on camera. Questlove from The Roots, a fan, has raved on Twitter that “a star is born.” (The right kind of celebrity endorsement always helps.) Anyway, I really enjoy the show, not least because we appear to mostly read the same sources (he shouted us out here), but also also because of Ikenna’s incisive commentary on media and cultural politics delivered with irreverence and humor.  Ikenna agreed to answer some questions for AIAC.

Where did the idea for What’s Up Africa [hereafter WUA] come from?

I got the idea to start WUA after watching US video blogger Ray William Johnson, he’s my inspiration for the style of the videos. I’d go as far as to say he’s defined an entire new media genre. As for the content of my show, I was inspired by one of my comedy heroes Jon Stewart of The Daily Show. I knew about lots of great blogs sharing news about cool stuff going on in Africa but couldn’t find anything offering video content or Daily Show style news satire, so I decided to start myself. I love raising the profile of African creative talent with a wider and international audience. It‘s great for those artists and it’s fantastic for “brand Africa”. But, WUA is not just about pointing out good stuff I use my show to be critical about serious issues, comedy is undoubtedly a powerful tool to change people’s attitudes.

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