Somalia/ Libya/ U.S: Drones Over Mogadishu and Other Shadow Wars

Courtesy of a $45 million Pentagon terror aid package, African peacekeepers fighting al-Qaida’s allies in Somalia are about to get their first drones  - the hand-launched Raven RQ-11. Spencer Ackerman over at Wired's Danger room blog, explains:

But neither the U.S. military nor the CIA will be flying the four-pound, hand-launched Raven. Instead, some of the 1200 peacekeepers from both nations manning checkpoints and patrolling the streets of Mogadishu will be its operators. They’ll likely be using it in the same way U.S. soldiers and Marines flew the Raven in Afghanistan and Iraq: for aerial recon over the city, to trace al-Shabaab’s movement of fighters and weapons through the Somali capitol. (No missile strikes from the small drones, in other words.) That’s consistent with the “outsourced” approach the U.S. has adopted to confront al-Shabaab. Although outsourcing has its limits, as when an occasional mystery airstrike slams a convoy of militants. The whole idea behind the Ravens is to allow small units to rapidly acquire and act on their own overhead intelligence without going through the cumbersome military bureaucracy necessary to fly larger, more expensive spy aircraft. But neither nation’s forces have used small drones before. And the first Marine battalions to use Ravens in Iraq found them underwhelming.

We don't know about those American soldiers in that "underwhelming" video, but the R-Q 11 replica built according to spec by the nitroplane guys in the clip below flies just fine, and the footage obtained is captivating.



Army Times adds that part of the $45 million aid package also includes goodies for the following African al-Qaida-challenged countries:

...funding a number of other North African countries, including several where there is a continuing terror threat from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. The plan includes:
• $22.6 million for Mauritania for a turbo prop aircraft for troop transport and surveillance, and necessary maintenance and training; and $8.1 million for airfield systems and construction and communications equipment to develop a forward operating base in the country.
• $17.7 million for an aircraft for Djibouti, where the U.S. has its only Africa military base.
• $12.1 million for helicopter upgrades and training for Kenya.
• $1 million for Mali for mine detector kits.

Speaking of an ever expanding drone warfare and the whole White House vs. U.S Congress debate over whether or not what the US is doing in Libya constitutes a war not approved by congress, Matt Yglesias over at Think Progress' pointed out:

...Part of what the White House is saying about the War Powers issue seems to rely on the idea that it makes a big difference if you're not dispatching actual human beings into an area of armed conflict. After all, everyone recognizes the difference between participating in a war and providing military equipment to someone. And a drone is just that, a piece of equipment rather than a soldier.

The Atlantic's Ta-Nehesi Coates concluded:

I understand this from the perspective of making an argument to Congress and the American people. But there's implicit message here to the rest of the world. Perhaps Americans don't consider it war, unless actual American soldiers are endangered. But why should, say, these guys draw the same conclusion? I assure you if I were in Libya and my baby sister was killed by a NATO bombing, I would conclude, whatever my hatred of Gaddafi, that America was at war with me, that it had, indeed, commenced hostilities. I don't think I'd be wrong in that.

pic: ISAFMedia 

Sierra Leone: Ever Sustaining Mangoes

One mango tale illuminates another. Watch an inspiring look at mangoes, economic development zones, value added jobs and foreign investment in Sierra Leone in the CNN report below.

Almost a decade later, the report is the positive addendum to true tales like the one told in the 2008 book "The Bite of the Mango" about12-year-old Mariatu, making her way through the bush during Sierra Leone's civil war with her hands severed off by rebel soldiers. Clutching mangoes to eat with bloodied arms, she describes "the sweet taste of [same] mangoes, her first food after the attack, reaffirming her desire to live."



Oswald Hanciles piece in Sierra Leone's Concord Times on the country's first post war economic zone - here.

Kenya: Sneak Peek at Binyavanga Wainaina's Debut Memoir...

... One Day I Will Write About This Place, (July) from Graywolf Press Assistant Editor Steve Woodward.

A while back Bomb magazine put up Rob Spillman's talk with Binyavanga about the memoir and pretty much everything else. An excerpt on the impact of the internet and social networks on African writing:

BW Every break I’ve had somehow came via the Internet. When I first wrote “Discovering Home” I sent that by email to this guy called Andrew Unsworth. He was like, “How much do you want to get paid?” That was a break. “Discovering Home” I think, was the first work in the world published online to win a major literary prize. And since, with this younger group of writers, the biggest thing is a massive network of connected writers producing, creating, starting magazines, starting outlets online and offline, knowing each other. They’re African but they are not waving an African banner. You have all these young writers in Nigeria who know writers in Kenya because they met on Facebook and so-and-so’s workshop. You start to get the sense of this piling up of power and production, which is now larger than the sum of any parts you can see. That certainly has meant more to writing out of the continent than any other thing. There are 19–year–olds who’ve read all your work and they’re based in Zimbabwe.

RS When I was in Nairobi, it was amazing to see everybody reading online just because it’s so hard to get books or magazines across the borders. Kenyan readers were reading a lot of Nigerian writers, but online.

BW We’ve all got to go digital. There’s no question about it anymore. Print has to die. (more)

And the making of the famous "How to Write abt Africa" email - here.

Kenya: African Guitars

Gear gossip's Thomas Schuber on a line of guitars built in Kenya. Jazz guitarist John Abercrombie test drives:

Ghana: "A Self-Invented Bicycle Culture"

A short documentary from Accra about the self-taught, self-invented bicycle culture which young people in Accra have created and passed on to their younger contemporaries over time. It follows crews of these young bicycle gurus as they try and use their skills to make money, gain recognition, and live on their own terms/ Bikelordz

Come to think of it, Accra would make for a bewildering bmx obstacle course. Towards the end of the clip below, Wanlov the Kubolor, one half of the Ghanaian rap duo, Fokn' Bois, explains how the architectural layout of the city allows for a maze of shortcuts and backways referred to as lungu lungu:

H/T: Benjamin Lebrave/ Fader

Kenya: Lots of Masai Shukas at the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012 Menswear Fashion Show

LV men's style director, Kim Jones, explains why the fashion trendy keffiyeh was colliding with iconic masai patterns at last week's Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012 Menswear Fashion Show...

...According to Grace Kerongo in the Nairobi Star:

At its simplest level, it is about the idea of travel and what it means at this point in time. After all travel forms the foundation of the Vuitton brand. (more)

Come to think of it, doesn't LV have its own icons which they don't take kindly to others appropriating? Anyway, the group of Moroccan women, captured in 2000 by photographer Hassan Hajjaj, flip the coin and script when they appropriate LV to the hijab.

Senegal: Fanaan Jamm - Ad Love

Watch a charming 2010-2011 television PSA from Senegal. Malaria No More's Yacine Djibo explains:

YD: In September 2010 we launched Nightwatch. In Senegal it’s called Fanaan Jamm, meaning, “Sleep Peacefully.” The idea is, “It’s 9 pm. Are you and your family safe under your bed net? This is Youssou NDour. Fanaan Jamm.” It came from the awareness campaign in the U.S., “It’s 10 pm, do you know where your children are?” Now every night at 9 pm, these PSAs air on three national radio stations and many community radio stations.

Q: Why 9 o’clock?

YD: From 9 o’clock on is the time when people are at risk of malaria, and that’s when we want people to be under their nets. We know that not everyone is going to bed at 9 pm but it’s a reminder – even if they’re not going to bed yet – that if their children are going to bed, they should remember to put up the nets.

South Africa: The Revolution will be Embedded

First listen off SA rapper/DJ Spoek Mathambo's forthcoming album "Put Some Red on It" from Indy label Subpop -- follow up to 2010 album "Mshini Wam" (here/ here) and its Pieter Hugo and Michael Cleary helmed video, "Control", which just won a young directors award @ Cannes. Subpop's got the rest of the skinny:

The entire Put Some Red On It EP was produced by Spoek Mathambo in collaboration with Copenhagen-based future-bass artist, Chllngr. They succeeded in creating works that show exciting signs of the maturity that Spoek is reaching in both his songwriting and production work. The track “Put Some Red On It” is a wildly-performed, sleazy and bass-y take on the usually all-too-macabre story of conflict/blood diamonds. Written and sung with Spoek’s spouse, Ana Rab, the dark duet cleverly articulates the tensions that lie behind the diamond market, while slyly telling a true South African story (more)

Africa/ China: "How Africans Want to be Seen Rather than how They are Forced to be Seen"

Watch the April 2011 Beijing photography exhibition: Africa: See You, See Me! tagged Postcolonial African Photography and its Global Influence of Representing Africa and its Diaspora. It includes photographs by Angele Etoundi Essamba (Cameroon), Majida Khattari (Morocco) and Marco Ambrosi (Italy), Mario Macilau (Mozambique)... Over at WSJ Asian Scene blog, Lara Farrar quotes the curator Awam Amkpa:

Africa: See You, See Me!” features the work of 36 African and non-African photographers, including Angele Etoundi Essamba from Cameroon, Moroccan Majida Khattari and Italian Marco Ambrosi. China, which has a growing business presence in Africa, seemed an important place to display the photographs, said Awam Amkpa, the exhibition’s curator, who described the images in the show as an illustration of “how Africans want to be seen rather than how they are forced to be seen.” The Chinese “don’t know the diversity, the robustness of African culture,” Mr. Amkpa, a Nigerian, said. “I think it is an opportunity for us to show this Africa that is a very modern and diverse continent…. We are not always at war. We are not always starving.” (more)

Slideshow of the exhibition - here.

Uganda: The Pink Revolution is Personal

New York Times' Josh Kron on why the feud between Museveni and the Besigye-led opposition is personal:

[Museveni's] critics [...] also say that the feud is personal, tied to the president’s relationship with Mr. Besigye and his wife, Winnie Byanyima, whom Mr. Museveni has known since childhood and, many say, once wanted to marry. The history may shed light on the depth of the political movement. It was the winter of 1980, after nearly a decade of Idi Amin’s brutal dictatorship, when Mr. Besigye, then a young doctor, started attending rallies for a popular and charismatic new political figure, Mr. Museveni.

Michael Mubangizi writes in Kampala's Observer how Besigye is intent on continuing the 'walk to work' protests, even against his party's wishes.

Kenya: Not Your Parents' Chief Justice

An interesting look behind the scenes at Kenya's first pro-gay rights chief justice, Willy Mutunga, sworn a few days ago. You've got to love the backpack, and the cameras will never let you forget the stud in his ear. His nomination drama - here.

Nigeria: Okri, Azaro and Twins Seven Seven

Booker prize winner Ben Okri at the RSA back in April to read from his new book and discuss his perspective on the current climate and the ‘state we’re in’...

Over at Next, in a tribute to the Nigerian visual artist and icon Twins Seven Seven who passed away last week, Molara Wood underlines the magical realist and "abiku" connection:

Grown up, I became aware of Twins Seven-Seven’s achievement as a visual artist; and have seen at least four of his pieces sold at Lagos auctions in the last year alone. I came to understand why he held adults and children in thrall all those years ago; and why his death is such a huge loss. A massively imitated artist, he stayed ahead of the pack and remained unique. In his fantabulous painted woodcuts, I see the world of D.O Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, Asiru Olatunde and Ben Okri. Okri may have written about Azaro, but Twins Seven-Seven - born Taiwo Olaniyi Osuntoki - was Azaro personified. Editing a feature on the artist about a year ago, I decided to make it the cover story. On the cover, I wrote: Magical Realist - for that is what Twins Seven-Seven was. (more)

Above, wood carving - "healing of abiku children" (1973) 

South Africa: Bishop to Queen 4...

Queen kicks bishop's ass.

Friday

“Annie” the musical is coming back to Broadway. The producers of the show, which is set to open in the fall of 2012, were looking for girls ages 6 to 12 to audition for the roles of Annie and the orphans. NY Times did an interesting interactive feature on the diversity of 43 of the hundreds of girls who were waiting in line to audition for Annie, the iconic white girl role, in an open casting call on the Upper East Side:

However, if you were a fan of Boston Legal you are laughing your head off right now at the idea of an open call and possibility of a black Annie, because the "black orphan Annie" episode, "Headcases," from season 2, which aired in 2004 already went there and done that. The episode had everything, the kitchen sink--plus Al Sharpton playing himself--thrown in. The good folks at Annieorphans cut together the "black orphan Annie" (played by Jadzia Pittman)  parts into a clip. Enjoy:

Friday

NYT's A.O Scott on Bunuel's and Dali's Un Chien Andalou (1929). But the most surreal effect we've seen of late is the return of animated gifs, especially when they are used to create silent eerie contrasts like those  here or here.

Nigeria: The Revolution will be Embedded

"Bad belle headquarters"... Awesome animation bursting with ideas for...



Action Film - M.I feat. Brymo. Album: Action Film. Label: Chocolate City Music, 2011.

South Africa: Power Class

Images in reference to the rise of South Africa's black elite class and displays of power, especially the kind that comes from the right to bear arms. Above a TimesLive slideshow of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema arriving for his hate speech case (blogged here/ he has now apologized - here) at the Gauteng South High Court with a coterie of seven bodyguards toting brand new assault rifles on Monday. Below, a clip from Simon Wood's new documentary, Forerunners: South Africa's New Middle Class.

Africa: State of Comics on the Continent

Issue 84 of the French journal, Africultures, is all about African comics. Editor Cassiau-Christophe Haurie features more than 150 illustrations and interviews thirty-three artists from every part of the continent. The interviews are followed by summaries of the status of the ninth art in these countries. See BDZoom for an overview/ Translation link to list of content - here.

Algeria/ Mali: Urban Saharas

Placing side by side links to Dutch photographer Jeroen Evers photos, taken in small towns in the Algerian Sahara where the neighboring Arab Springs feel like galaxies away, and Brent Stirton's National Geographic photoessay gaze at Timbuktu posted back in January.

But the real keeper is Peter Gwin's accompanying article about One-Eyed AQIM godfathers, ancient books buried in the desert and doomed love btw native girls and American soldiers that comes riddled with paragraphs like the one below:

As she spoke, Aisha noticed tears had fallen onto the letters. She smoothed them into the paper and then carefully folded up the documents. She said she would continue to wait for David to send for her. "He lives in North Carolina," she said, and the way she pronounced North Carolina in French made me think she imagined it to be a distant and exotic land. I tried to lighten her mood, teasing that she had better be careful or Abdel Kader Haidara would hear of her letters. After all, they are Timbuktu manuscripts, and he will want them for his library. She wiped her eyes once more. "If I can have David, he can have the letters."

Italy: The Rare Heroine in "Gabma Trista"

A 2D children animated film from Italian Studio Mistral about a boy with rubber legs also has the rarest of Italian heroines. Her name is Rose Kebe...



"Bellissima!" awwww. lol. 

Ethiopia: "Pleasing Some of the Most Discriminating Manhattan Brides"

Amsale Girls, a reality show about the girls working at Ethiopian wedding dress designer Amsale Aberra's flagship store, premiered June 12th on WeTV.



The show claims to be about the non-stop pressure of pleasing some of the most discriminating Manhattan brides. CNN African Voices profiled the show back in January:

H/T: Nazret

Angola: Hoji Fortuna on Hoji Fortuna

In our interview with Viva Riva! director Djo (Joe) Tunda Wa Munga a few weeks back, he spoke at length about Fortuna's performance - here.

H/T: S&A

Libya: Fighting Gaddafi with 'Google Earth' and Video Games

Libyan rebels talking about (above) finding uses for online apps like Google Earth in their battle against Gaddafi's better equipped military. Over at The Australian a few days ago, Tom Coghlan describes how the rebels use "Google Earth" and the compass app on their iPhones to drop their shells--as well NATO's--on Gaddafi's tanks. Excerpt on video games:

Many of the rebels cite the sophisticated computer war game Call of Duty as their first resource of tactical military knowledge. (more)

Africa: Preserving the Africa Centre

Over at African Arguments, Richard Dowden writes about the history and efforts to save the long dormant Africa Center at 38 King Street in Covent Garden, London - once the auction house for the sale of ancient Egyptian treasures in the 19th Century, it was given by the Catholic Church in perpetuity to the people of Africa in 1962.

Above, authors Ngugi wa Thiong'o & Abdilatif Abdalla back in May 2011 share fond memories about the Africa Centre.

Egypt: Not Your "Typical" Electronic Musicians

Yara Mekawie and Ola Saad make conceptual video art with electronic music soundtracks and have named their experimental electronic group after the color model, RGB. Above, they performed at the 100 Live Electronic Music Festival held btw 9th and 10th of June at the Rawabet space in downtown Cairo. Al-Masry Al-Youm's Abdel-Rahman Hussein writes about the group - here. Cairobserver has more pictures of the festival (photo: Abdel-Rahman Hussein).

Hawgblawg blog observes ...

Most interesting, perhaps, is that the duo claim that the fact that they are women, and the only women in the festival, is "irrelevant." "The important thing is what we do." The fact that they wear "Islamic dress": not even mentioned. At all.

Ethiopia: Influence of Malatu Astatke

BBC's Will Ross visits the Mekane Yesus Jazz Music School in Addis Ababa... (more)

Nigeria: "Boko Haram" in the Heart of the Capital

Witnesses report the blast occurred less than 5 mins after the inspector general's convoy arrived the Louis Edet House. Abuja. Below, a witness tells the BBC what he saw:

Ever prescient Sahel Blog's recent posts over at al-Wasat on patterns of violence and state response to violence in Northern Nigeria

South Africa: Youth "Uprising"

Today is the 35th anniversary of "June 16" - a 1976 youth uprising forever singed into the present by this iconic photograph. How far have black South African youth come since then? As part of a Virgin Unite sponsored 2010 study, the Branson centre of entrepreneurship decided to ask the youth just that. In the 5 clips posted a few days ago, South African youth share their thoughts on:

Becoming young entrepreneurs?





To be bossed about or be the boss?





What are the challenges women face?

How do your dreams differ from reality?





What part do role models and mentors play?

Ghana: Multimedia and Indepth Narratives

Over at Guernica, Glenna Gordon--Scarlett Lion, we presume--interviews Peter DiCampo abt his 2006-2008 photojournalism series, “Life Without Lights," which captures a village in Northern Ghana, where, despite no electricity, life goes on. On the part about the depth multimedia brings to context driven journalism:

Guernica: Let’s switch gears a little bit. A lot of photography of Africa is labeled “poverty porn.” You obviously are working in a very different aesthetic and tackling the issue of poverty. Is this something that you’re thinking about when you’re shooting?

Peter DiCampo: Well, what I think has been the biggest thing for me getting around this is to use so-called multimedia—which, speaking of terms I’m not crazy about, that’s another one. How often do you see video or any other form of interview that, for really a very lengthy period, that allows African people to talk in their own language and kind of describe in an in-depth way how they feel the issue affects them. That was an extremely important thing for me to do, and I’m really glad I did it. It’s still my favorite way or viewing the project—this five-minute photo film or short film that has three people sitting down and discussing not only the things that the lack of electricity prevents them from doing, but it also has them saying, It’s true that we’re happy anyway, it’s true that there are a lot of things that we’re able to do anyway, which I think shows a certain strength which is very present in African culture that a lot of photojournalism overlooks because it’s so kind of victim-oriented.

Guinea: Origins of a Chambermaid, Cont'd

Recent video reports from VOA and Al Jazeera about the maid from Guinea and abused maids in general  + more reports from the  NY Times and the Telegraph.



Over at Jezebel, Anna North sees a flawed media narrative or pattern of reporting coalescing around the maid from Guinea - that of an African bumpkin with zero agency:

Before her alleged assault by the then-chief of the IMF, the accuser was a mom, a maid, and a person. Now she's being portrayed as a type — as a wide-eyed bumpkin in the big city, as a dutiful working-class woman, as an untutored immigrant from a mud hut. Some of these portrayals reveal enduring prejudices about Africa; there's more than a little of the noble savage in the "village girl" portrait the Times and Reuters paint. There's also a tendency to set her up as a "perfect" rape victim: innocent, guileless, silent, incapable of "asking for it" because she barely even has her own identity with which to ask. In a disturbing trade-off, the accuser appears to become more sympathetic even as she's erased as a human being.... Absent real information, all the press have are stereotypes about hardworking immigrant women and about people from darkest Africa. This could end up being good for the accuser's case — the more prosecutors can portray her as without any agency, the more trouble the defense will have supporting its argument that DSK had consensual sex with her. But it's sad that being stripped of personhood makes someone a more sympathetic rape victim, as though anything that makes her actually human also makes her at fault. And it's sad that once she enters the public eye, a woman can so easily become a canvas for preconceived notions. (more)

Oh, the many stereotypical tales we can tell you about the complicated maid from the village arriving in the big city. Take it away Hunta:

South Africa: Halle Berry and the Sharks of False Bay

Apart from underwater scenes shot at Paddock Tank, Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, IMDB indicates the rest of the film was shot in Cape Town and Seal Island, False Bay, South Africa.

This cut of the trailer sucks. But our guess is all the tension here will come from the entangled fascination, horror and longing to see a shark take a bite out of her. Who won't pay to see that. Tambay knows the rest.

Nigeria/ Britain: The Revolution will be Embedded

New video from Yinka Oyewole and East London rock group, Sabatta, shot guerilla style on the streets Hackney, London. 



Genre?

 Grunge soul ...kinda like Otis redding fronting Nirvana or Fela Kuti jamming with Kyuss or Bob Marley meets Bon Scott."

Dunno, they sound like a metal Bloc Party circa 2007. Older "bad girl" mash up video for the track "Super Nastee"...



New album preview here or below...


Sabatta Album preview 2011 by Sabatta

H/T: Afropunk

Africa: Fashion's Black Model

19 year old UK model Leomie Anderson's open letter about race and the fashion industry appeared in Sunday Times Style Magazine's 'Inner Style' section/ blogged here. Excerpt:

In any time of rapid social change, people stick to what they know, and in fashion that’s the white girl. “Shadeism” definitely exists: there are different attitudes to different shades of black. Lighter-skinned models are used more than darker-skinned ones, and if darker models are used, it tends to be for a traditional African look. When designers create an African or tribal print, they’ll get a black girl to model it. I’d say I was in the middle of the spectrum — I’m dark-skinned, but I don’t have traditional African features, so I tend not to be stereotyped. There can also be problems with hair and make-up. Hair stylists never pack black hair products, because they don’t expect to see black girls. They can be scared to work with our hair. I wouldn’t call it racism; it’s just that finding real black hair is rare. Make-up is improving — girls such as Jourdan Dunn and Ajak doing well has helped — but sometimes, when my make-up is finished, it doesn’t look as nice as it does on white skin. They don’t know how to adjust to our skin tone.

Africa: Francophone African Music Night @ Stade de France

Promo clip featuring some of the stars who performed at the night of Francophone African music last Saturday @ Stade de France. Profiles of select artistes from the build up to the concert blogged - here. Below, Malian grammy winner Oumou Sangare - "Wassoulou":

.

More clips from the night - here.

Guinea: Origins of a Chambermaid, Cont'd

NY Times' Adam Nossiter visits/reports from the village of Thiakoulle, Guinea (The Telegraph got there weeks ago) where the hotel housekeeper who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault grew up. Commenter #8 on the digging up of stuff by the press and especially DSK's lawyers, who are going after her credibility:

What I want to know is why we should care what her family, who haven't spent a significant amount of time with the alleged victim ... the past decade, have to say. What does it matter if she was a quiet, unassuming teenager? What if she had been rebellious and promiscuous? Would it have made the allegations less believable? And don't even get me started on DSK's lawyers. Unless the alleged victim has a history of accusing wealthy guests of sexual assault, anything else they bring to the fore will be irrelevant. Did she overstay her original visa? Irrelevant. Did she have a string of "boyfriends" who helped pay her rent? Irrelevant. Is he daughter a truant and a rude, backtalking teen? Irrelevant.

Mali: The Revolution will be Embedded

"Tenere Taqqim Tossam", new track from desert rockers Tinariwen and features TV On the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone. From Tinariwen's new album - Tassili.



Pitchfork's got ur skinny.

DRC: Writer Judd Winick on the "African Batman"

 Winick

In September, DC Comics introduces David Zamvimbi as Batwing, the first black man to be Batman as part of DC Comics mind boggling relaunch of 52 of its titles, re-starting all of them at issue #1.

For those who don't keep up with race and the funny books, DC's PR dept has had some fires to put out lately. Back in May, DC released a map for its Flashpoint mini series. The map labels the African continent as "Ape Controlled." Even before the map came out, 4th Letter blog warned about the whole gorilla Grodd thing:

Seriously DC Comics: get a black friend. Male or female, it doesn’t matter, just get one. We’re easy to find. Get one and then ask him if it’s cool to have Africa ruled by a monkey. Just run it by them, real casual-like. “Hey man, what do you think about this?” If they give you the gasface or their eyebrows narrow… change your plans. How come Africa is always the one continent that someone gets to rule ALL of? No one rules an entire continent in the real world, and Africa has dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct peoples and cultures. I get that treating it as something other than a homogeneous Dark Continent would require, I dunno, opening Wikipedia or something, and that it’s just easier to make up a country with an African sounding name.

Anyway, DC comics now puts the first black man in the cape and cowl, and over at Newsarama, Vaneta Rogers interviews the "Batwing" writer and DC editor, Judd Winick, who sheds more light on where in homogeneous Africa this is taking place. Excerpt:

Nrama: You mentioned a city. Does Batwing have a base of operations? 

Winick: Yes, he's based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and his city is called Tinasha, which is a fictional city based on a real city in the country. Africa is a continent, so in comparison, think about Batman in relation to North America, and how often you see Batman in Canada or Mexico. Not often. So in that sense, Batwing will actually be localized to one city and one country in Africa, with some zipping around here and there. 

Nrama: Have you been to the Congo? 

Winick: No, but I'm thinking DC should send me there to check it all out. I think I'd need a month or so to really soak it up.

... and on the approach:

Winick: Yeah. I think the more it was thought about, it makes a bit of a statement. It's the first time that a black man has been Batman. It was a bit of a "eureka" moment, to realize we could actually do Batwing and have him be in Africa. Not bring him to America or something, which we never really considered it. He's an African living in Africa, fighting the fight for his country. It's a truly international book. It shouldn't feel like a book that could just happen in America. I'm hoping this feels like a book that can't happen anywhere but Africa. This is truly an African story. 

Nrama: It totally removes it from that Western view of the world. 

Winick: Yeah, and the volatile nature of this country lends itself really easily to the big superhero stories. Big battles are still being waged there. On this continent you have dictators and warlords and entire armies populated by children. Entire kingdoms being overthrown. These are crazy, insane ideas that are actually happening day-in and day-out, and that's non-fiction. We don't have that here in America. In our superhero stories, we have to create fabrications of criminal organizations and gangsters and battles and wars. But that's part of the fabric of Africa. So for this title, we're going to tap into that in a superheroic way. It's also the cradle of civilization, still fertile and rich and really, in some places, untouched by humanity. So we're hoping to tap into that too.

You get the feeling Batwing is going to be a little of everything you might have wished for and everything you're going to hate. If nothing else, hopefully it keeps that "eureka" light bulb on, passing along to other writers the same realization that every African country has all it takes to support a rich comic narrative and superhero universe.

South Africa: Youth Sex Survey Infographic

Praekelt Foundation released the results of a groundbreaking Youth Sex Survey, conducted on its YoungAfricaLive mobile platform, that gives fascinating insight into the sexual behaviour and beliefs of South Africa's youth. Based on over 50 revealing questions and over 138 954 frank responses, the YoungAfricaLive Youth Sex Survey reveals that whilst South Africa's youth are unquestionably sexually active (44%), they have strong views on the role of HIV/AIDS in sexual encounters, with a massive 81% equating 'not telling a sexual partner that you carry the virus' to outright murder... (more)

H/T: 10 and 5

South Africa: Advertising Development, Cont'd

British animation student Tim Wheatley's Cyclotrope animation--a take on the Zoetrope--gets adapted by Saatchi & Saatchi agency for “Africa is Moving” United Nations HIV/AIDS ads spot below:



See the making and more details over @ Cartoon Brew.

CREDITS
Client: United Nations
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Geneva
Chief Creative Officers: John Pallant & Derek Green
Creative Director: Leon Jacobs
Writer: Fréderic Bry
Art Director: Fréderic Doms
Production Company: 7Films, Cape Town
Director: Wednesday
Producers: Jason Plumbly, Lourens van Rensburg, Ben Kaufmann
Animation consultant: Tim Wheatley (Cyclotrope)

DRC/ Mozambique: Breaking Down Beyonce's Dance Moves

Sekamoke.org lays Beyonce's "Run the World (Girls)" video over a Werrason track, identifies the dance moves and points to their African inspirations - everyone from DRC dancing girls to Mozambique's Tofo Tofo Boys. As for the Pieter Hugo photography adapted for the video, Scarlett Lion points to a quote from Hugo over at the New Yorker blog:

“It isn’t the first time someone has used my images for a music promo,” Hugo told me when I asked him about Beyoncé’s video. “Nick Cave’s Grinderman project used much more than stylistic reference for his ‘Heathen Child’ video. I can count at least a dozen direct visual copies from my ‘Nollywood’ series in the video. I am a huge fan of Nick Cave, so in that instance it’s flattering. I don’t particularly like the Beyoncé song. It all seems so derivative—the music, the imagery… I’m sure the Hyena Men are wondering if they’re going to get paid!”

We're sure he prefers Spoek's ... 

Kenya/ UK: Middle Class Mombasa

Though it's reality television, you still get a rare foreign media glimpse into middle class Kenyan lives in Series 3 of the BBC reality show, "World's Strictest Parents," which aired in the UK November 2010. Two teenagers from Surrey get shipped off to Mombasa, Kenya, to live with new parents. Series synopsis - here. Part 2 below. Parts 1 - 6 @ jambonewspot.

Egypt: Cairo's Al-Darb-al-Ahmar

Oliver Wilkins' 2009 short documentary looks at Al-Darb-al-Ahmar, a district in Cario where in the past highly skilled artisans plied their trade creating some of the world's most beautiful Islamic architecture.

Since left behind by modernization, the doc looks at how conservation, restoration and the publicity generated is bringing new sorts of demand.

H/T: CairoObserver

Nigeria: The Revolution will be Embedded

Some sick live sessions...



Love Song (in Yoruba)  - Janelia Live @ Recher Theater, 2011.



The Cure  - KUKU. Feat. bassist Nya M'sk. @ the Stop Child Soldier benefit concert at Le Réservoir, Paris France on February 12, 2011.

H/T: Africa Unchained

Friday

Jugaad Urbanism — an exhibit featuring the work of urban designers inspired by the resourcefulness of ordinary citizens in India - from solar powered rickshaws to a canopy made of recycled oil cans...

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

H/T: Cairo Observer

Friday

Never get tired of watching this...

Source

Friday

Summer in DC y'all



Sunlight - Tabi Bonney. Album: A Place Called Stardom, 2011.

Africa: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun Vs. Fespaco - Fespaco 2011 Postmortem

Two must-read pieces from Olivier Barlet over at the French journal, Africultures, translated to English. 1) An interview with Chadian director and Cannes winner Mahamat-Saleh Haroun about his pronouncement in March (blogged - here) that he won't be attending the continent's preeminent film festival again. Excerpt:

If its filmic dimension was managed better, wouldn't the question of things like hotels be more relative? Of course. In September 1997, we set up the Guild because we faced the same problems. We had no rooms and spent the night around the Hotel Indépendance poolside talking till six in the morning. Today, the same things are happening again! These small, incidental [hiccups] take[...] on huge proportions when the problems cumulate. In his opening speech at the stadium, the Minister of Culture didn't seem to think fit to talk about film; he spoke about Burkina's culinary specialities, such as "bicycle" and rabilé chicken. I know the Minister of Culture is also the Minister of Tourism, but the Fespaco is first and foremost a film event. Does this festival truly respect cinema, or is it simply a popular festivity people come to for the sun and millions distributed in special awards? Must we continue to accept this due to an essentialism that is specific to us? It's a typically African social comedy, rooted in our traditions, in which there is no solidarity between the filmmakers. And we sustain this farce by our presence. I get the impression that there is no longer any reflection on film here, and if we don't reflect on film, it's difficult to take it elsewhere and to escape the ghetto we are shut in. We become just image-makers. In Burkina, since Idrissa Ouedraogo stopped shooting, there's no cinema anymore.. (more)

2) Barlet then follows up with observations and analysis of what really ails the festival. Money quote:

Fespaco has become a huge machine that is struggling to stay focused on cinema. This is the crux of the debate that emerged from the Haroun-Ouedraogo face-off. All the same, it would be wrong to enter into an opposition between auteur and popular cinema. In our interview, Haroun clearly states that in the history of cinema, popular cinema is not a poor-quality cinema. In his article An Unkept Promise published in the Cahiers de cinéma in February 2011, he sees in the confusion between video and cinema the expression of a sustained marginality, as if Africa had nothing to say to the world, and already denounced the Fespaco as "an audiovisual festival". He sees the source of this in the fact that grants "are not concerned with accompanying auteurs, but in favouring the production of African images". He calls for "culture, training, art history, in short film culture to be put back at the heart of our cinema", and thereby to break out of this marginality. (more)

Usually after every Fespaco, one or two journalists writes a gripe piece about the festival's shortcomings. For example, you can wince at Aidan O'Donnell's sum up for RFI on Fespaco (2009) :

The festival-goers seem generally unimpressed with the organisation this year, with copies of films not turning up at their respective cinemas, filmmakers left stranded without plane tickets and movies playing in cinemas where the lights don’t actually go down. You do get the feeling something’s slightly amiss when an actress like Mali’s Maimouna Helène Diarra – known from films like Bamako and Sembène Ousmane’s Mooladé - is seeking out journalists rather than the other way round. She was here this year with the Malian television series Duel a Dafa from director Ladji Diakité and described herself as “disgusted”. “The organisation is rubbish,” she said.

But, perhaps, because of what the idea of Fespaco symbolizes for postcolonial Africa and Africa cinema, it seems everyone shrugs, gathers again in Burkina Faso in two years and the cycle repeats itself. Looks like Haroun is putting his foot down - enough! From our faraway perch, we would argue that the festival, at its core, is disconnected from any economics of filmmaking and exhibition supply tied to any robust pan-African audience demand. Thus whatever sustains it and brings it back every 2 years isn't rooted in the kind of economic forces or pressures that forces a film festival to either get better organized or go extinct.



Above: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun on the jury at this year's Cannes film festival. Actually, when you think of it, Haroun's fight, apart from trying to preserve cinema in the realm of Nollywood, touches on something else. To go from jury member on an operation and organization like Cannes back to turning a blind eye to fespaco's recurrent failings or to accepting the festival's absurd organizational standards will be nothing less than, well... colonial.   

Kenya: Ballet in the Slums

AFP just dropped this report on some of Nairobi's less privileged kids taking ballet classes in the slums and how the discipline of the craft affects the rest of the lives. Reminded us of other black ballerinas from the slums stories, this time from the favelas of Rio in dir. Beadie Finzi's '09 documentary "Only When I Dance":

South Africa: Walls of an Exhibition/Closet Space

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Tholi Tshabalala's "Fashion Meets Architecture" at Arts on Main, The Maboneng District, Johannesburg. Garments on display will be changed every week so that visitors will get an opportunity to see new and unique designs should they visit the expo more than once. The exhibition features eleven South African designers who are normally only accessible during fashion weeks hosted throughout the country.

Uganda: Rural Libraries as Community Ground Zero

Fabulous blog Friends of African Village Libraries points to an '09 video and paper by Hunter College's Kate Parry. She tells the tale of a small village library somewhere in Southern Uganda and how rural libraries double as ground zeroes for every other manner of  enabling and empowering activity in the community. 

Carribean/France: "Black People Can't Fuck Around With Time Machines..."

... the quote comes from comedian Louis C.K. Casé Départ, a French film mashing time travel and slavery, comes from comedians Fabrice Eboué and Thomas N'Gijol (remember N'Gijol him from "immigration blues duet"?). It opens in France July 6th. Self explanatory trailer below:



Variety sees potential for a remake:

Paris-based Other Angle Pictures has acquired international rights to "Case depart," a comedy from Alain Goldman's Legende Films ("La Vie en rose"). Co-produced by TF1 Films Prod. and Mars Films, "Case" marks the feature debut of leading Gallic actors/comedians Fabrice Eboue and Thomas N'Gijol, who co-helmed, scripted and star in the pic. Lionel Steketee ("Fatal") co-directs. Eboue and N'Gijol play ignorant French step-brothers who travel to the Caribbean to pick up an inheritance, and are cursed by their aunt to return to the 18th century when their ancestors were slaves. They attempt to escape slavery and get back to the present day (more)

Eboue and N'Gijol on France 3:

Nigeria: Two Looks at a Petro-State

Over at the Atlantic, 31 larger than life photos of some scenes from Nigeria's long, disastrous relationship with the crude oil industry:

Fortunately, for more insight as well as context, Naijablog just posted recent UC Berkley lecture on by Michael Watt ("Curse of Black Gold" editor) on the challenges facing Nigeria and other Petro-States.



Watts frames the lecture with David Harvey's take on Neo-Liberalism (blogged here or Harvey's "neo-liberalism and city" which traces IMF predatory lending and SAP conditionalities to banking measures taken during New York fiscal crisis in the early '70s). Watts insists other takes like Paul Collier's idea of a "Resource Curse" lumps these states together and blinds us to the local politics and problems of resource revenue allocation unique to each petro-state.

South Africa: What to Show of the Mob to the Mob

Over at NYT blog, The 6th Floor, an interesting side note on the ethics of how much of the video at the core of Barry Bearak's article to show to readers. Bearak's piece, "Death by a Thousand Blows" in last weekend's New York Times magazine, puts a cellphone video capturing mob violence in context. Excerpt:

So what about our readers? What, if anything, and how much should we show on the Web site? Barry; Dave Mayers, a videographer in South Africa; and The Times’s video unit produced a video — with interviews of Farai’s brothers and a discussion of anti-immigrant feeling in South Africa — the final version of which accompanies the article. Some online readers have questioned the decision to include scenes of the beating, as did this reader from Seattle who, while acknowledging not having watched it, asked: “What is next, pictures of a rape? Where is the line drawn these days?” This is a fair question, and one we struggled with as the video was being made.