Afropolitan Divas

Numbi, a gathering space for the Somali diaspora artists in the UK, expands its focus to include poetry and music from elsewhere in East Africa and elsewhere at a showcase in East London.

Eritrean-born singer Miryam Solomon. Photo: Cristine Leone.

Numbi is a platform for collaborations between Somali artists and others. It is named after “a kind of dance that happens in Somalia where one lets go of one’s inhibitions and gets free” and was created in 1998 by artist and activist Kinsi Abdulleh. The second Numbi gathering of 2012 happened last Saturday, with undeniable flamboyance, bringing a team of ‘Afropolitan divas’ and an influx of poetry and music from East Africa and elsewhere to East London.

The evening began with a performance from poet-singer Zena Edwards (introduced by novelist Diriye Osman as “our number one soul sister”), and poems, most memorably on bad hair and the slave trade in Bristol (respectively), by Dorothea Smartt and Rosie Martin, who read to rhythmic support from several members of what would later become eleven-piece Afrobeat outfit Bronzehead.

Following these, a quiet and beautiful set by Eritrean-born singer Miryam Solomon and an accompanying guitarist. Solomon’s work seems to be, unfortunately for internet-dwellers, still totally unavailable outside Numbi.

The climax of the whole thing was a performance by Somali singer Maryam Mursal, who stood alone on stage, accompanied by a backing track, her arms outstretched towards the audience in antique admonishment to sing her classic Somali u diida ceeb (‘Somalia, don’t shame yourself’). Mursal – having effortlessly attained diva status with a life of breaking precedents, government suppression, asylum-seeking, collaborations with Nina Simone and Peter Gabriel – departed after only two songs. The night ended with some Afrobeat from the Bronzehead collective, and a dj set of Afropolitan classics by Bradley Zero.

Abdulleh also edits Scarf magazine, which appears yearly, and has published some of the poets involved in Numbi, and diverse other artists, photographers, and writers of poetry, fiction, interviews, and essays. The new edition looks promising, including interviews with Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu (for whose medical sketches see here) and Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, creative writing by Abdulrazaj Gurnah, and a recipe from Edwidge Danticat.

Further Reading

After Paul Biya

Cameroon’s president has ruled for over four decades by silence and survival. Now, with dynastic succession looming and no clear exit strategy, the country teeters between inertia and implosion.

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.