Five for the weekend. First up, via AfriPOP!, Nomswa Mazwai’s new video for her song ‘Nguwe.’ (The video comes with a translation.) Then, Vox Sambou (below) and The Narcicyst tell how they read ‘Article 14′ and its relation to Haiti’s recent history (channeling Noam Chomsky).
Some mellow Togolese sounds and a sunny video.
‘Ya Foye’ will be on Togolese Elom 20ce’s (“Elom Vince”) album Anagezik that comes out in February. Elom calls himself a ‘contemporary griot’ and an ‘arctivist’. All of which sounds very promising.
A Belgian organization (backed by a smart advertising agency) “is calling on unborn babies in Belgium, to do something about the thousands of unborn babies in Africa that do not survive their own birth.” [Read more...]
There’s a fast growing collection of cross-over hip hop songs produced by Central and West African artists making a living in the diaspora (especially in French-speaking hotbeds like Marseilles, Paris or Brussels), lyrically reaching back to the countries they’ve left. This collaboration between Togolese artist YaoBobby (rapping in Mina) and the prolific Fredy Massamba (singing in Lingala) on ‘(R)Evolution’ is another example. (You recognize the shirts.)
Kungobram, an ensemble of French musicians, has teamed up with Togolese slammer Nëggus (here reminiscing about “his land”). Their live act sounds slick. And they’re asking for our help to wrap up their first album:
If you’re in London, “Reflections on the Self ,” an exhibition of “African women’s visual narratives, as told through self-portraits and portraits of other women,” will be at the Royal Festival Hall till April 4th. It features the work of photographers Hélène Amouzou (Togo; lives and works Belgium); Majida Khattari(Morocco; lives and works France); Zanele Muholi (South Africa); Senayt Samuel(Eritrea, lives and works in the UK; image above); and Nontsikelelo Veleko (South Africa).The curator is Christine Eyene (references: Gwanza, Month of Photography 2011 in Zimbabwe as well as African section of Photoquai 2011 at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, France).
Via Christine Eyene
Hélène Amouzou was born in Togo but has been living and working in Brussels for a while now. Some years ago, she took up photography. The results are self-portraits taken “mostly in her attic”.
The tragic attack on the Togolese football team bus (three people were killed and one player seriously injured) on the eve of the African Nations Cup in the disputed Angolan province of Cabinda, is just that: tragic.
What’s even more tragic is that it took a random attack on a football team to get the media to give attention to the conflict in Cabinda. Then there’s European observers who can’t help themselves in exploiting the tragedy, making connections to South Africa’s ability to host the World Cup next year. In the process they let their racism get the better of their knowledge of geography.
