DRC/ United States: Senator Dikembe Mutombo (R-CO)???

What if 7ft. 2 DRC-born NBA star, Dikembe Mutombo, was also the Republican senator from Colorado?

Over to The Onion.

Kenya: Corruption-Inspired

(click to enlarge)

H/T: nairobinotes

Ethiopia/Israel: Contraceptives and Accusations Fly

According to Russia Today, a feminist movement has accused the Israeli government of deliberately allowing a controversial contraceptive drug to be given to the country's Ethiopian Jews to bring about a drop in their population. The Israeli government denies. But then the accusers stats are damning...

... Dr. Yee-fat Bitton from the Israeli Anti-Discrimination Legal Center “Tmura”, says it’s not a matter point of view, but of the statistics.“The statistics are, that 60 percent of the women receiving this contraceptive, this controversial one, are Ethiopian Jews,” Bitton told RT. “And you have to understand that Ethiopians in Israel… […] consist of up to only 1 per cent of the population, so the gap here is just impossible to reconcile in any logical manner that would somehow resist the claims of racism.” Professor Zvi Bentwich, an immunologist and human rights activist from Tel-Aviv, doesn’t think there is any ground to suspect a certain negative official policy towards Ethiopian Jews. “I’m not against looking and inquiring into the claim. If there is a claim, one should investigate,” Bentwich told RT. “But when asked about official attitudes, official policy, official medical policy, I am very reluctant that that is indeed a policy of racism on that part.

H/T: Abbay Media

Nigeria: This Revolution Will Be YouTubed

Jo oo by Jahbless, featuring Lord of Ajasa and Reminisce. Label: Yes Records, 2010. Dir. Lanre Tyson. (Shot in Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria).



Translating this ingenious piece of Yoruba play on words and absurdities to English does it no justice. Let's just say Soyinka would be proud.

"...boiling ring ni nu bar beach/...o de le lo gba account number alamgba.." - lol

H/T: Dj Mighty Mike

Friday

Stop by The Bots. Album: The Bots - Self Titled Album. Label: Vital Records, 2009.

Nigeria: This Revolution Will Be YouTubed

We Are Africans ("The Back to Naija Remix") by JJC, featuring Femi Kuti, Dagrin, Eldee, DJ Zeez, Kel, Ay.com, Moe Money & Ragga Remi. Label: Big Boyz Entertainment, 2010.



No sign of this black migrant pride train slowing down. The diaspora remix was just as good.

H/T: Dj Mighty Mike

Friday

The Ventures's Diamond Head by U900. Album: Ukelele Ventures.

Not the first time a Venture's track has been featured here.

Morocco/ Mali: Falling Heavens

What's with all these collapsing (here & here) mosques?

Friday

Babylon by Congorock. Label: Fool's Gold, 2010.

Egypt: Jazz

Preview of the 2010 Cairo Jazz Festival.

Nigeria: The Case for a Mortgage Sector...

... being made in the ABNDigital report on Lagos' housing market, I think underscores and gives credence to what the CBN governor was saying here (6:07mins in) about Nigerian banks building up a lot of capital and liquidity but have no outlets in the real economy.

South Africa: Humour in the Context of Black Modernity

Still on humor's role in South Africa's post-apartheid sincerity , reconciliation and therapy, this video report from LG in Cape Town for Metropolis TV will have you in politically incorrect stitches.

South Africa: 20 Years Later - This Revolution Will Be YouTubed

Tears for Johannesburg by Max Roach Quintet with Abbey Lincoln. Album: We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite. Personnel: Abbey Lincoln (Vocals), Max Roach (Drums), Clifford Jordan (Tenor Sax), Coleridge Perkinson (Piano), Eddie Kahn (Bass). "SWF TV Studio", Baden-Baden (Germany), 1964.

H/T: nunoalpi

DRC: "Cheka"

"We Are Congo" - Oxfam coffee table book of Rankin's photographs.



Very JR; no one wants to be Hornsleth.

Africa: Who Watches the Watchmen? - Refugees International Report

In the just released Refugees International report, outlining concrete steps that the UN Security Council, the U.S. and other UN member states can take to improve peacekeepers’ ability to keep people safe in times of armed conflict, one problem the report addressed was the need to better define the peacekeeper's "scope of responsibility":

One prototypical example is Security Council Resolution 1590 (March 2005), when the UNSecurity Council authorized the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan (UNMIS ) to: '...take the necessary action, in the areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its
capabilities, to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations, and equipment, ensure the security and freedom of movement of United Nations personnel, humanitarian workers, ...and, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of Sudan, to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence...' This short paragraph places a huge burden of responsibility on the mission. In fact, given limited resources and difficult operational environments, the scope of tasks that can be associated with a mandate like this often puts peacekeepers in the difficult and controversial position of needing to prioritize certain elements of their protection duties over others, invariably leaving someone or something unprotected... In October 2008 a crisis in North Kivu in the eastern DR Congo ...in spite of having a peacekeeping base nearby... the small number of peacekeepers deployed to each of the bases in the flashpoint areas, roughly one third were tied up in force protection activities and unable to support wider civilian protection efforts.

Also, the report touches on the issue of the peacekeepers working closer with the local authorities, who in cases of dispute will be called upon to protect the peacekeepers' lives as this video report from Petina in Goma, Eastern Congo, illustrates:

Nigeria: She Sings the Body Electric

Classical music and diplomatic chanteuse, Abiodun Koya.

South Africa: Muholi on "Muholi"

South African activist photographer Zanele Muholi talks to Times Live about turning the tables on how black women’s bodies are perceived in regards to her upcoming exhibit at the Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town (April 22 to May 29 2010).

Niger: The Good Coup?

Below, VOA's Mariama Diallo's reports the Putschists want to erase Tandja's memory with a new constitution. The report reiterates the events of the past few days.



Want a time line since shit hit the fan last August? Click - here. In the report Howard University's prof. Abdul Karim Bangura gets to the bottom of it when he points the finger at the culprits - France (and Areva). Barry Manson, over at WSWS.Org, follows the money:

France’s monopoly on uranium production in Niger is being challenged by China. It secured the right to prospect for oil in the Agadem oilfield in the east of the country near its border with Chad and in two uranium deposits at Azelik and Teguidda. As in so many areas of Africa, the arrival of China on the scene has caused a shift in power relations, meaning that France no longer has sole claim to Niger’s resources. The political and military elite of this former colony now sees an opportunity to renegotiate deals for resources. Control of the government ensures access to big money from the uranium revenue and any future income from oil. The prospect of Tandja getting control of that wealth and consolidating his position at the expense of other factions of the elite has led to the coup. So far the new junta has not shown itself hostile to French interests. Areva says that uranium production is continuing as usual. But if there were a perceived threat, France would not hesitate to intervene militarily. As Stratfor, an organisation with close ties to American security circles, has pointed out, France has forces in neighbouring Gabon, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire.

Nigeria: When the President Calls In Sick, Do You Fire Him? Cont'd

DRC: A Good Sign That Eastern Congo is Like Anywhere Else?

Michael Jackson Impersonators:



I've derived tremendous insight and enjoyment watching Petna Ndaliko Katondolo personal video reports from Goma, Congo, for Metropolis TV.

Cape Verde: This Revolution Will Be YouTubed

Tchápu na bandera by Mayra Andrade. Album: Stória, stória... Label: Sony Music, 2009.

Egypt: Thoughts on ElBaradei's Return

The Guardian's coverage of the return home last week of Nobel peace prize winner, former head of the IAEA and Egypt's opposition's dream candidate, Mohammed ElBaradei - here. Over at The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan, still caught up in Iran, is already calling ElBaradei's growing base "The Greens of Egypt":

This ... could turn into a slo-mo Arab version of the Iranian democracy protests -- and unlike in Iran, the US can actually have an impact here. 

After parsing through such optimisms, The Arabist  agrees that whether he runs or not, ElBaradei and his supporters might succeed in widening the debate and destabilizing Egyptian politics so that:

...the entire point of the ElBaradei campaign is to gain enough symbolic / moral capital to force a change from the regime through a combination of public pressure, international concern and leveraging whatever regime splits that exist. Ultimately, I'm sure some of his supporters hope, the aim is to create enough disturbance to encourage force majeure: an intervention, most probably

Africa: Vintage Sesame Street Education

In late 80s Nigeria, way back when (before DSTV satellite dishes were everywhere) the state-owned television station in your neck of the savannah only broadcast from 4pm to 12 midnight and the announcer for the day started the broadcast by reading the day's already stale news followed by the line up of programs, 70s Sesame Street and big blue marble re-runs were some of the few fun things that came on local television.

This clip of Franklin and the muppets who make up Franklin Roosevelt elementary school recovers some of my deleted childhood files.



"You and Tarzan Are Both Wrong" - You tell em Franklin (lol).

H/T: PostBourgie

Kenya: Churches and Cellphones

Fredrick Nzwili writes for the Ecumenical News International about churches in Kenya using mobile phones to pour old wine into new skins?

'The Church sees the mobile phone as a blessing and a gift from God," says the Rev. Martin Wanyoike, national secretary of the Social Communications Commission of the Roman Catholic Church's Kenya Episcopal Conference. "We must use it for the service of the world.' Recently, mobile phone companies introduced money transfer services, which some Christians now use to tithe or give offerings. The churches only need to inform the congregation of the required cell-phone number for this service.

DRC/ Norway: "Conradian Norwegian Hearts" - An Anthropology

For those with library access, word on the street is this essay, Heart of Darkness Reinvented? A Tale of Ex-Soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo” by Sindre Bangstad and Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, in the current issue of Anthropology Today, (Vol.26, No.1, February 2010), is well worth the read. Meh? Check out the abstract:

This article presents the contemporary case of two Norwegian ex-soldiers sentenced to death for murder, espionage and mercenary activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It analyses the wider context of the historical roots of Norwegian engagement in the Congo (now DRC) as well as the mass-mediated discourses centring around the tropes of a Conradian 'Heart
of darkness'. Further, using the insights of Johannes Fabian's seminal work on exploration, ethnography and representation (2000), it argues that contemporary Norwegian discourses on the Congo are steeped in the tradition of travelogues. Secondly, also drawing on Fabian, it argues that by representing the DRC as a topos - a space without a place - these discourses uncritically reproduce notions of decontextualised radical alterity.

For those of us who totally slept on the "May 2009 incident in which two Norwegian nationals—Tjostolv Moland, 28, and Joshua French, 27—hired a Congolese taxi driver from Kisangani (Abedi Kasongo, 30), murdered him, fled with his car, and were arrested afterwards," read Alex Engwete's powerful breakdown.

Once again, Achebe's prescience with regards to Conrad--which I don't totally agree with--still gives one a moment of  pause.

Cote d'Ivoire/ Egypt/ Germany: This Revolution Will Be YouTubed

To the Bone by Okou. Album: Serpentine. Label: Universal Music, 2009

MySpace:

Okou is a new adventure: Tatiana Heintz & Gilbert Trefzger met 3 years ago. From a French father and an Ivorian mother, she lived her young life in West Africa. In a bar she meets Gilbert Trefzger, a Swiss guitarist with Egyptian roots who plays the Oud, Slide Guitar and Banjo.

Africa: Journalists Discuss Local and Western Media Coverage of Anti-Homosexuality Bill and Protests

Strap in!

RFI's Zenaat Hansrod moderates a heated discussion over the media (West and Local) coverage of the imbroglio over gay rights in Kenya, Uganda and Malawi.

She talks with Timothy Kalyegira, editor of the online news site Uganda Record; Muthoni Wanyeki, columnist on Kenya for The East African and executive director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, and Kondwani Munthali, reporter at The Nation in Malawi and blogger.

Find RFI audio link here or listen here:

Film Criticism: Johnathan Jones on Criticism

The Guardian's Johnathan Jones on Film Criticism:

The other day I wrote that Michael Haneke is not just a good film-maker, but a great one. Apparently, not everyone agrees. But if we can't stand back for two seconds from the rush of new films and new stars, to acknowledge the genuinely worthwhile and insist on its specialness, where will we be? I say it again: Haneke is a contemporary great, and a study of his films is worth 50 trips to the cinema. I believe this to be the very function of criticism. Real criticism is not about distinguishing good from bad; it is about distinguishing good from great. There's plenty of terrible art around, but it usually finds its level in the end. The curse of our time, in the arts, is mediocrity and ordinariness: the quite good film that gets an Oscar, the OK artist who becomes a megastar. Truly remarkable art is rare and to see it when it comes, to fight for it, to hold it up as an example for the rest – that is the critic's true task.

He has a point and also totally on point about Haneke. Just saw The Piano Teacher and Cache again and kept thinking, especially in regards to Funny Games and more so Cache, that this is not just cinema tackling  philosophy, but doing it within the formidable constraints that's always brought to bear by the needs of drama and an efficient plot.

Africa/ France: "We work here! We live here! We will stay here!"

France 24 reports on a three minute film that has given a face and a voice to some of the estimated 6,000 illegal workers who have been on strike since Oct. 12 in a bid to obtain the holy grail - French working permits:



French filmmakers and May 68 all over again, and Matthieu Amalric's "dagger" of a quote captures "the system in which these immigrants are trapped":

When you have the right papers, they (employers) don’t hire you... If you are illegal, they will hire you, but they will pay you what they want... [It's] Kafkaesque... And then these people are accused of not integrating!

South Africa: "Malema Mia..."

BBC on new accusations against ANC bruiser Julius Malema:

[He is] been accused of making 130m rand (£11m; $17m) from state contracts since 2008... Mr Malema was throw into the spotlight by media reports on the weekend claiming that SGL Engineering Projects, a company he reportedly holds a stake in, had won millions of dollars in government contracts to provide services. He reportedly used some of his earnings to buy two lavish homes and three luxury cars, including an Aston Martin. But Mr Malema denies being a millionaire and says he has done nothing wrong.

Rehash? Or enough hard evidence to warrant a "Debora Patta versus Julius Malema - the Sequel"?

Even though Malema came out on the other end of the Patta interview by using the problems of race and ideology to hide the incongruity between a lavish lifestyle that doesn't necessarily mean he stole a dime and his credibility in being an advocate for disenfranchised blacks, Janice Winter, writing in M&G's Thought Leader, finds the hole in both Malema's rhetoric and that of a new lavishly wealthy black political class (or "PDIs", I gather):

It is not Malema’s unbridled pursuit of wealth that I find so offensive. In some respects I agree with his statement that there is nothing wrong with a flashy lifestyle “if you can afford it”. My primary problem is with the political avenues through which such wealth is acquired and

East Africa/ United States: Swahili in America

American students demand for Swahili is reported to be growing. VOA's Aaron Ochieng visits a Swahili class at Howard University, in Washington, D.C.

Ghana: Classical Pianist, William Chapman Nyaho

Ghanaian-American classical pianist William Chapman Nyaho specializes in keyboard music written by composers of the African Diaspora.

In the February 2006 NPR session in honor of black history month, Nyaho chats with NPR's Fred Child and plays two movements from Nathaniel Dett's Suite In the Bottoms: His Song, and Honey: Humoresque and Margaret Bonds' spiritual Troubled Water. He breaks down the African musical patterns you find recurring in the works of composers in the diaspora.

Kenya: Kibera Film School

...seems unconnected to this. The "Dickensian" aside, is slumspliotation trope or film genre?

Africa: This Revolution Will Be YouTubed

All Africa by Max Roach Quintet with Abbey Lincoln. Album: We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite. Personnel: Abbey Lincoln (Vocals), Max Roach (Drums), Clifford Jordan (Tenor Sax), Coleridge Perkinson (Piano), Eddie Kahn (Bass). Belgian TV BTR2, 1964.



H/T: nunoalpi

Africa: Putschists and Rank

Elizabeth Dickenson on why coups in Africa are often led by those in the mid-ranks:

Why not the generals? At least in the countries I know in West Africa, this makes perfect sense. Generals are often close to the leadership; their appointments are usually somewhat political and come with the benefit of a bit of patronage and a lot of pomp and circumstance. I met Generals in Nigeria who led more comfortable lifestyles than some Lagos bankers. They're educated, often cosmopolitan, and know that they have more to lose through a coup than by simply staying put. They have no reason to upset the status quo. And at least in countries where there is a history of coups, politicians are also equally wary of annoying their military upper ranks for a similar reason.

So why not the little guys? Well, because they could never do it. The usual ranking soldier is underpaid, if paid at all. They're often undertrained, and couldn't mobilize the resources or strategy to get the job done. (Having said this, the little guys do often go along with a coup once it's happening ... nothing like the sense that your paycheck or next meal is moving to make you want to follow it.)

So the middle guy is the one left. They're paid better than some, but not good enough for most. Like the coup leader in Niger, they've often had foreign training. They control strategic components of the miltiary -- in Guinea's case, the petrol procurement, and in Niger's case, a platoon in the capital. They know enough people to mobilize the ranks, but they are not as politically tainted. They're well connected but not appointees; they've often just risen through the ranks.

H/T: Loomnie

Mali: This Revolution Will Be YouTubed

Pitchfork's review of Ali Farka Toure's last album, Ali and Toumani, the final collaboration with fellow Malian  Toumani Diabate. World Circuit's short film to go with the album:

Africa: Diaspora @ BAM

Tunde Kelani's Arugba (2008)/ADFF

New York Magazine has a slideshow of some of the films (including trailers) showing at the screening of the Best of the African Diaspora Film Festival showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Egypt: Limp Anti-Smoking Ad

You have to contend with the fact that Africa is not a monolithic mass when it comes to preventing smoking; every region has its own disparate history, culture and attitude in relation to tobacco consumption. Global Post's Jon Jensen on smoking in Egypt:



VOA and The Economist have ran special reports on Africa's smoking habit. When it comes to smoking though, Egyptians seem to be more like the Greeks.

Africa: Mazuri on African Politics

VOA asks African historian and documentary filmmaker Ali Mazuri his thoughts on 50 Years of independence in Africa:

“I personally believe the political news is better now than it was 20 years ago. So between the first quarter of independence to the second quarter of independence, there has been some improvement in political openness, in multi-party governance, in the collapse of the apartheid system in South Africa. In general, although not everything has gone well in every country there has been indication that Africans are learning to govern themselves,” he said.
Mazrui said he partly agrees with those who continue to blame Africa’s post-independence
problems on colonialism. But he said 50 years after independence Africans should have by now learned what is rational and what is not. “Part of it is fair because colonialism did draw the boundaries of the different countries....

Below is a rare clip from Mazuri's 9 part 1986 BBC documentary The Africans: A Triple Heritage, which, imho, does for Africa what Carl Sagan's 13 part PBS series "Cosmos" did for space.

South Africa: William Kentridge on Order and Disorder...

...and the distortion between:

South Sudan: Alex de Waal Makes a Case for Having Double Standards

Alex de Waal on South Sudan versus Sudan:

One opposition politician berated me yesterday for being, he said, tougher on the opposition parties than on the government. I responded that, being a democrat was no excuse for having lower standards of conduct. To the contrary, those struggling for democracy, or fighting for liberation, should hold themselves to higher standards than those who took power by military coup.

What he also says about "whether the southern Sudanese want to govern southern Sudan as an independent state, or as part of a united Sudan..." recalls this op-ed by Zechariah Manyok Biar in the Sudan Tribune in the wake of the passage of the South Sudan and Abyei Referendum Bills by Sudanese Parliament last year.

H/T: Nairobinotes

Africa: Hebrew Lyrics. African Rhythms. A California Band

Fool's Gold/ from "Surprise Hotel"

LA Times blog: Fool's Gold is a:

...L.A.-based group, which can swell to include as many as 15 players in concert, acquired a manager in Troubadour booking head Brian Smith and decided to record their long-gestating, self-titled debut album, which was released in September. Comprising eight warm and sprawling songs, the collection amalgamates Ethiopian folk, Ghanaian Highlife, the Malian desert rock of
Tinariwen, roller-skate rink R&B and the early '80s punch of Adam Ant and Duran Duran. Anchoring the brew is Pesacov's squiggly lead guitar lines and Israel native Top's melismatic vocals, nearly all in Hebrew.

Interview

South Africa: 20 Years Later - Class License to ILL

As the 2010 World Cup nears and South Africa gets scrutinized by the rest of the world to within an inch of her life, these two recent stories, both about transportation to some extent, come together like a pair of bifocals.

First lens. Two ANC party VIPs after a lavish wedding last week decided  to race their yellow Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and red Ferrari F430 along Kangella street  in the small town of Eshowe in Kwazulu-Natal province and from the look of the pictures in Pragg, the race ended badly as both 300,000 dollar cars got totaled. Pragg adds that some white dude trying to take pictures of the crash was told, "What you want here, white man, you can't afford a car like this!" More pics - here

praag.com.uk

Compare that episode of a new black political and wealthy class invoking a license to exclude and misbehave to today's NYT front page piece (video + slide show) by Celia Dugger and Dave Mayers about how SA's government, via its new Bus Rapid Transit system, now connects communities that have been divided for so long by residential segregation, and the suburbanites who have raised opposition to--or have a concern about the implications of --these buses passing through their neighborhoods.



Again, the argument boils its way past race and simmers down to class, wherein a class of people are protecting their interests and in doing so are invoking their license to exclude and, perhaps, misbehave:

Already, residents are raising money for legal battles. 'We do have individuals in the suburb who would be willing to pay anything to protect it,' Mrs. Turvey said. Mrs. Turvey, who is white, was dismissive of those who contended that the suburbs were guarding white privilege, noting that much of the black political elite, including Nelson Mandela, now lived in these same neighborhoods. “This is not a race issue,” she said indignantly.

Uganda/ United states: Gay Crimes Punishable by Death, Cont'd

Apart from Uganda:



And in the United States, some in the Christian far-right still think Uganda anti-gay legislators are right:



H/T: Daily Dish

Nigeria: John the Reformed Scammer

The scam detectives site has been running a series telephone of interviews with an alledged ex-scammer now studying in the UK. An excerpt on what I call the "spaghetti effect" from part one:

John: First you need to understand how the gangs work. At the bottom are the “foot soldiers”, kids who spend all of their time online to find email addresses and send out the first emails to get people interested. When they receive a reply, the victim is passed up the chain, to someone who has better English to get copies of ID from them like copies of their passport and driving licenses and build up trust. Then when they are ready to ask for money, they are passed further up again to someone who will pretend to be a barrister or shipping agent who will tell the victim that they need to pay charges or even a bribe to get the big cash amount out of the country. When they pay up, the gang master will collect the money from the Western Union office, using fake ID that they have taken from other scam victims.

Scam-Detective: But where do the “foot soldiers” find the email addresses?

John: Lots of people sign guestbooks online and leave their email addresses all over the internet on forums and websites. We would just visit the guestbooks, forums and websites and harvest the email addresses. Some gangs have software that collects these emails automatically, so it cuts down on the work.

Scam-Detective: What percentage of emails would get a response?

John: Maybe 9 or 10 out of every thousand emails. Then maybe 1 out of every 20 replies would lead to us getting money out of the victim in the end.

Most of what John had to say sounded very public domain knowledge to me, but, hey, I'm sure others can figure out if he's really who he says he is. Part two and three.

Zanzibar: Sauti za Busara Zanzibar Music Festival - Postmortem

Above, member of Zanzibar's Tausi Women's Taarab: an all female Taarab music orchestra. BBC pic gallery of the recently concluded Sauti za Busara Zanzibar or the Zanzibar music festival (11-16 February); Sci-Cultura blog has - lots more; and May Van Gent's vimeo channel has been uploading video:

South Africa: Film and Television Awards Red Carpet

Gabiville has the details.

Zimbabwe: Leftover Tender

Zimbabwe Telegraph

Zimbabwe has since changed to the U.S dollar and South African Rand, but apparently the old Zim dollar is still good for bus fare.

Niger: I Call Your Constitutional Change, and I Raise You a Coup d'etat - Cont'd

The junta is calling itself the "Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy." France 24 has video of weekend rallies in support for the reigning "putschists" and Mahaman Tidjani Alou, a political science professor at the University of Niamey tells NYT's Adam Nossiter:

...the most visible members of the junta so far were not among the country’s top military leaders. 'One has the impression that this is a fringe element,'...

Clobberin' Time

Just had to stash this classic bit of "racial silliness" here:



Epic Beard Man's interview is even better than the fight.

DRC: AFP Report on Kinshasa's Symphony Orchestra

United States/ Africa: Talking (Baby) Heads

Flip diamonds from Sierra Leone for baby skulls from Angola and the Onion's theater of the absurd strikes - again:



 Old thoughts about Africa and the comedy of the Surreal?

Niger: I Call Your Constitutional Change, and I Raise You a Coup d'etat - Cont'd

CNN's Christian Purefoy files. For those wondering how we got here - click here

Nigeria: Sade - "Staying Ahead of the Law..."

... that controls the careers of musicians. NYT review of "Soldier of Love."

Africa/ Denmark: Before "Out of Africa"

Out of Africa (1985)/ dir. Sydney Pollack

Plans to make a Danish bio-pic of author Karen Blixen early life - before she set forth for (Out of) Africa.

From the way the bio-pic's described, it sounds less like the "how the maker made the work" sort of author bio-pics we've become used to: such as The Hours, Miss Potter or Finding Neverland or even The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Rather, this sounds more like the "making preparation of the maker" sort of bio-pic, e.g. Curtis Hanson's 8-Mile (2002). Just sayin' the later sort rocks is all.

Ghana: The Palm Wine Guitar

Over at Open Source, Watson Institute visiting fellow Christopher Lydon has a hour long kickass conversation with Ghanaian Highlife music legend, Koo Nimo, whose guitar sound and singing epitomizes a Palm wine style of Ghanaian Highlife music.

As Lydon notes in his write up, Koo Nimo's music also represents "the circular Gulf Stream of musical influences from West Africa to Brazil, the Caribbean, Havana, New Orleans and New York — and endlessly back and around."

Palm wine sound... Palmwine Drinkard... wondering if West African literature has a palm wine sub-genre?

H/T: Global Voices

Africa: Paging Ngugi

In response to the question of "why do we still partition the literary canon according to nationalist traditions," Kenyan blogger Keguro, over at Gukira, points to what he calls the questioner's assumed "language-nationality suture" and lays out the subtle distinction that "Anglophone literatures are not, by any easy measure, English literature." Hence:

I am suggesting that “African literature,” as an area of study, has a lot to teach scholars who want to teach “beyond” the nation. That, in fact, the “making” of African literature offers broader lessons into the making of literature itself, in its multiple spatial and temporal varieties. While I do support Edelstein’s call for students to be able to read in more than one language, I worry about the flattening of categories such as anglophone and francophone, when they are taken as monocultural rather than richly diverse. Are Anglophone African literatures foreign literatures when taught in English departments? I suspect the answer to this might allow a more complex view of literary studies than the current monolingual vs. multilingual debates suggest.

H/T: Global Voices

South Africa: White Elephants and White Whales.

One of the documentaries not mentioned in the Variety report blogged yesterday is Craig Tanner's Fahrenheit 2010 (2009):



H/T: thanks Michael

Kenya: Arts and Literary Scapes

With a growing middle class and big corporate players like Safaricom dipping their toe, Rachel Keeler speculates in Ratio Magazine on the future of the East African art market:

...[James] Muriuki [curator at the Ramoma modern art museum in Parklands] also says East Africa is commanding more attention now from big-time curators and buyers in Europe. This is where the real money is. The shift dates back, he says, to the Africa Remix show put on by Simon Njami at London’s Hayward Gallery in 2005. The mix featured work from across the continent, not just traditional stars from the west and south. 

South Sudan: Birthing Pains

Fingers crossed, South Sudan will soon be born. But, according to John Vidal in The Guardian, its prenatal care is going badly and the World Bank is, partly, to blame:

Complex rules imposed by the World Bank on the government have also seriously hindered development, say experts. In a paper published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last month, Fiona Davies, until recently UN development programme adviser in the southern Sudanese government's ministry of finance, said the bank requires up to 62 separate steps to procure anything, leading to inordinate delays and frustration. "World Bank procedures are not designed for rapid delivery. 

Competitive procurement using World Bank procedures is unable to deliver swift results. The government of southern Sudan had nowhere near the capacity to navigate complex procurement and contracting procedures," she said. Non-government groups also accuse the bank and donor governments of imposing complicated rules on competitive tendering. "Senior donor representatives based in Khartoum spent too little time in southern Sudan. A fundamental lack of understanding of the local context [has] further contributed to unacceptable delays in [aid] delivery," said Mayer Mailer of Oxfam, author of a recent report on southern Sudanese progress.

Brings back Chris Blattman's funny take on UN bureaucracy.

Africa/Peru: Peruvianess

Jump to 13:22 mins in for the Strand's take on African-Peruvian singing legend, Arturo "Zambo" Cavero, who died last October.



Call them victims of slavery and a pigmetocracy, but last November, BBC reports the Peruvian government apologised for the first time to its citizens of African origin for centuries of "abuse, exclusion and discrimination".

Nigeria: How is Nollywood Handling the Recession?

Some micro-trends. Are Nollywood stories now yielding diminishing returns?

...some stakeholders said, Nollywood has taken stories that were original in the nineties and early 2000 and told them so many times that now we are now exhausted...

That's one theory - yet, even though one can't jump to the obvious conclusion that that is why it's being reported "Ghanaian movies now sell more than Nollywood movies in America," but the theory does explain the rough times for Nollywood and gives credence to the "1 million Naira upfront" practice Vanguard's Benjamin Njoku wrote about last month:

...Nollywood industry is being dominated by a handful of Ghanaian actors... N1.m is in the heart of the matter, or as one actor puts it. Our producers have sold their souls for a N1m. One particular marketer who was quoted to have attested to this is Abdusallam, Ghana’s most prominent movie marketer. Abdusallam reveals how Nollywood producers use Ghanaians and

DRC/Belgium: Tintin

AFP reports one of the original 500 copies of Herge's second in the Tintin series, the still controversial 1931 Tintin in the Congo - complete with Herge's signature, goes on sale.

Like with all things Congo, TiA has - more.

Ghana: "Official Thuggery"

WSJ reviews a recent deal in Ghana in which ExxonMobile got the short end of the oily stick and the Journal goes on to accuse a "leftist" Ghanaian government of "official thuggery":

...Speaking to the parliament in Accra, Mr. Obama praised the country's growth and its example that "development depends on good governance." Eight months later, Ghana's government is turning the nation into a cautionary tale for foreign investors. Exhibit A is the case of Kosmos Energy, a U.S. company based in Texas, which has lately seen capricious government meddling in a deal to sell a $4 billion stake in a Ghanaian oil field to ExxonMobil Corp. Ghanaian Energy

Kenya: Hawa Essuman and Tom Tywker on "Soul Boy"

Soul Boy (2010)

Tom Tywker, who directed the postmo darling film Run Lola Run (1998) and the recent Euro-mod-thriller The International (2009) is the producer [along with Ginger and Guy Wilson (from the Nairobi-based production company, Ginger Ink)] behind, and attracting all the flash bulbs to, Kenyan writer Billy Kahora and young Ghanaian-Kenyan director Hawa Essuman's short film, Soul Boy.Variety review - here.

Soul Boy was shot in Kenya in 2008 and had its world premier at the Göteborg International Film Festival in January and then won the Dioraphte audience Award for the most highly regarded film made with a contribution from the Hubert Bals Fund at the Rotterdam Film Fest.

 Essuman and Tywker at  Göteborg:



Yes, never underestimate the power of Africa-loving girlfriends to coax director boyfriends into coming to Africa to set up film workshops - remember Lee Issac Chung and how the Rwandan film Munyurangabo (2007) got made?

Kenya Imagine blog has reviews and a lot more - here; Behind the scenes pics of Soul Boy - here; other African short films and features screened at Rotterdam - here; more video of Essuman answering a series of inane questions - here.

Niger: I Call Your Constitutional Change, and I Raise You a Coup d'etat

A coup d'etat underway in Niger.

South Africa: "...Portrait of the Cyclical Nature of Power and Violence"

After listening to J.M. Coetzee's novel, "Disgrace," panned for the umpteenth time as "rascist," Moroccan-American author, Laila Lalami, penned this explanation:

In Disgrace, Coetzee uses a third-person limited point of view, so the thoughts we are reading are Lurie’s. And Lurie is very much an apartheid-era man, someone who believes that European colonization of Africa served the larger, nobler goal of ‘civilizing’ the natives. The rape of his daughter further solidifies his views, however ignorant or incorrect they may be. But in fact Coetzee subverts the narrative of ‘black sexual predators’ much earlier on, when he presents us with an identical, inverted story. Notice, for instance, that the professor refuses to acknowledge that he has assaulted Melanie, who, we are told, is a woman of color (”Meláni, the dark one.”) When Lurie forces himself upon Melanie, he describes the scene as “not rape, not quite that.” Again, the use of the third-person limited point of view allows us to see that Lurie forgives himself for the sexual assault while at the same time he is outraged at his daughter’s fate. These complexities are, I think, what make the novel a subtle and compelling portrait of the cyclical nature of power and violence.

Kenya: Springboks? What Springboks?

Though they lost in the USASevens' to New Zealand, the Kenyans relish the fact that, acccording to the IRB Sevens World Series table, they are currently numero uno in Africa:

Senegal: Saint Louis Blues

Another clip from Dyana Gaye's musical and Sundance selection - Saint Louis Blues (2009):



More from this scene - here.

Africa: Budgets and Deficits

On ABNDigital Standard Bank's Yvonne Mhango waxing eloquently on the budgets and deficits in Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana....



South Africa finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his team explaining the fiscal path out of a deficit of 7.3% of GDP - here. Complete budget speech - here.

South Africa: Media Industry and the World Cup

Kevin Kriedmann writes in Variety on why South Africa media--especially big production outlets--may benefit very little during the World Cup:

To their disappointment, South Africa's service industry has discovered that, for the most part, they're too advanced for the needs of the incoming journalists, who are more interested in hiring fixers. Local crew and suppliers seem more likely to benefit than the production companies themselves. Service producers are also finding that the Cup is pushing up prices for essential services. As Chris Roland of ZenHQ Films (Uwe Boll's "Darfur") says, "We are scheduled to shoot a film in May and June where the unit will need to travel from one province to another. In checking the airfares for this time period, they have more than tripled since budgeting the film."

Local producers like Michael Murphey ("District 9") and Film Afrika's David Wicht ("Endgame") are rescheduling projects requiring cityscapes before or after the World Cup and are booking their flights as far in advance as possible. However, Lance Samuels of Out of Africa is less worried: "Barring flights and accommodation in the very popular areas, I think it'll be fine to shoot -- just avoid the stadiums and the inner cities." Still, others see a positive in all of this, as Moonlighting's Philip Key ("Invictus") points out, "The World Cup could not be at a better time -- when normal film activity is at an annual low due the winter months." However, the World Cup has already had some positive spinoffs. There has been a flood of soccer-themed films and documentaries... (more)

South Africa: 20 Years Later, Cont'd

France 24 talks to Carmen Stevens , who is referred to below as the first black woman to be appointed as a winemaker in SA,and others about how much blacks have been empowered in South Africa:



Speaking of wine and claims to "firsts," recall Ntsiki Biyela is referred to as SA's first fully-fledged black female winemaker and the first to singlehandedly take charge of a cellar.

Africa/France: More on the Death of Françafrique

France 24 is running a series of articles on "Africa, 50 Years of Independence," and David Thompsom repeats some of the things Stephen Smith already said in this piece in LRB on the decline of Françafrique, but also adds:

France has never managed to stay out of Africa for long. Paris is suspected of supporting Chad’s leader, Idriss Déby Itno, with decisive military and logistical support in 2008 when his administration was under attack by rebels in the east of the country. In August 2009, Joyandet, now Sarkozy’s official Africa advisor, announced in French daily Le Monde – a day before Gabonese elections to determine a successor to Bongo – that his preferred candidate was the late president’s son, Ali Bongo. Joyandet’s statement once again called into question claims of French neutrality in the continent’s politics, and fuelled anti-French sentiment among Gabon’s youth. Similar simmerings of resentment rose to the surface in Ivory Coast in 2004 and Togo in 2005 during disputed presidential elections. For all of France’s recent attempts to disengage itself from its African past, the roots of its relationships still run deep.

Ethiopia/United States: Child Harvesting

This aired on CBS News on Monday. According to Armen Keteyian:

In the last year adoptions from Ethiopia to the U.S. have skyrocketed – growing faster than any other country in the world. They have risen from 731 in 2006 to more than 2,200 last year. That’s nearly six children per day. Now a CBS News investigation has discovered that growth has turned Ethiopia into fertile ground for child trafficking – a country in which some American agencies and their staff engage in highly questionable conduct. Adoptive families allege that many children brought to the U.S. are not even orphans, that prospective parents are misled about a child’s health and background, that local families are recruited – and sometimes even paid – to give up their kids. Which the Bradshaw sisters say is exactly what happened to them.

Back in Sept of 09, ABC Australia aired this piece and must-see video on Ethiopia's adoptions also fingering the Christian World Adopt agency, and last month it appears ABC reporter, Mary Anne Jolley, had a sit down with CWA's attorney Curtis Bostic:

Ghana: Fear of Being "Mutallab-ed" - Excuse Me Stewardess! But the Gentleman in 19A... His Balls Are On Fire, Contd.

Ken Maguire writes in Global Post that investigators have descended upon Nima, a heavily Muslim slum in Ghana, and Ghanaian Muslims fear a connection will be conjured up between them and the G-String bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Welcome to the list.

South Africa: Zapiro on Madiba

Kenya: This Revolution Will Be YouTubed

Ni imbie by Juacali, ft. Enika. Album: Ngeli ya Genge. Label: Calif Records, 2008.



... video for Ngeli ya Genge is still fun to watch.