OBITUARY
‘When we lose an elder we lose a library’
CY GRANT (Actor, singer and writer, 8 Nov 1919 - 13 Feb 2010)*
Cy Grant was a qualified barrister, but it is as a singer, actor and broadcaster that he is most famous. In 1957, he began appearing daily on the BBC's ‘Tonight’ current affairs programme giving a calypso rendition of the news. Cy's ability to compose tunes spontaneously and fit the news into verse won him the admiration of viewers nationwide. For the first time, Britain was seeing an Afrikan face on TV on a regular basis.
Born in British Guiana (now Guyana), Cy had two brothers and four sisters. His mother was a talented pianist and he grew up surrounded by music, playing the guitar and singing folk songs. He excelled at school and was keen to study law, but his parents lacked the funds. After working as a civil servant, Cy left for Britain and joined the RAF in 1941, one of 400 men recruited from the Caribbean after the huge losses in the Battle of Britain. He trained as a navigator and in 1943 was shot down in the Battle of the Ruhr, landing in Holland. Joost Klootwijk, the young son of a Dutch farmer, looked on as his parents tried to help the airman. The Gestapo identified Cy as ‘a member of the Royal Air Force of indeterminate race’ and he was held as a PoW for two years. Cy later used that phrase for the title of his book about his war service. Klootwijk's subsequent research enabled his son, Hans, to write a book about Cy's crew, ‘Lancaster W4827: Failed to Return’.
Although he was a qualified barrister in 1950, Cy struggled to get work. But he became a recognisable voice on radio, singing folk songs, and recorded several albums. He also hosted his own TV series, ‘For Members Only’, in the mid-50s, interviewing a variety of guests and playing the guitar. In 1956, he appeared in ‘A Man from the Sun’, a television drama written by John Elliot about the experience of Caribbean migrants to Britain after the Second Imperialist War. He was the voice of Lieutenant Green for Gerry Anderson's ‘Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’ and also appeared in an episode of ‘The Persuaders’, opposite Roger Moore.
Cy successfully auditioned for Laurence Olivier and had stage appearances for Olivier's Festival of Britain company in London and New York. In 1965, he was acclaimed as Othello at the Phoenix theatre, in Leicester. The next year he starred in ‘Cindy Ella’ with Cleo Laine at the Garrick theatre, in London. He also appeared in the films ‘Shaft in Africa’ (1973) and ‘At the Earth's Core’ (1976).
Frustrated with many of the roles he was offered, Cy determined to take on the theatre establishment on his own terms. In order to launch Afrikan artistic talent, in 1973 he founded Drum Arts Centre, in London, with the Zimbabwean actor, John Mapondera, Gus John and others. Drum collaborated with Steve Carter of New York's Negro Ensemble Theatre and staged a number of productions, including ‘Bread’ by Mustapha Matura and ‘The Gods Are Not to Blame’ by Ola Rotimi.
Two major influences in Cy's life, which helped determine the direction of his artistic expression and his later writing, were the poet, politician, philosopher and architect of negritude, Aimé Césaire, and the Tao Te Ching. He produced and performed Césaire's epic poem ‘Notebook of a Return to the Native Land’ as a one-man show, touring Britain for more than two years.
In his book, ‘Blackness and the Dreaming Soul’ (2007), Cy argued that white society must first discover new ways of seeing itself, in order that it might comprehend and value the ‘otherness’ of its Afrikan citizens. In his essay ‘The Way of the West’ (2008), he argued that Afrikans, having reclaimed their authentic history and recovered their lost soul, must not fall into the trap of aspiring to assimilate into the so-called civilised values of his former oppressors.
In his last years, Cy wrote copiously and did everything with a new urgency, especially after he became ill. He particularly wanted to see his war memoirs, essays and poems form part of the curriculums in schools and universities. He is survived by his wife, Dorith, whom he married in 1956, their two daughters and one son; a son from an earlier marriage; and his sister, Valerie.
* This is an edited extract of an obituary by Gus John on www.guardian.co.uk, Wed 17 Feb 2010
EDITORIAL
“None of us ever must forget that Blacks were the only ones who came here [America] in chattel slave status and in chains.” - Alex Haley
On Nubiart, as part of International Afrikan Heritage Month, we played ‘Alex Haley Tells The Story of His Search For Roots’. Alex Haley recounts how the story of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, kidnapped from Afrika, was preserved through the family retelling of the story, first on the birth of a child and then more widely at other family gatherings.
Haley started writing while at sea during the Second Imperialist War. After the war he wrote for Reader’s Digest and then wrote features on Afrikan icons such as Miles Davis and Malcolm X for Playboy. Haley wrote ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’, started before Malcolm’s assassination on 21 Feb 1965 and finished posthumously.
Then Haley decided to start researching his family history. Kunta Kinte was a repetitive escapee who ended up having part of his foot amputated (as an alternative to castration) for injuring a slave catcher in an escape attempt. This lowered his value meaning that he ended up being on one plantation for a long period of time. Kunta Kinte passed on the story to his daughter Kizzy who passed it on to her son ‘Chicken’ George and so it went on down the line.
Haley found more of his family information relating to those who had been enslaved and their descendants in census archives. In the story told by Kunta Kinte (and Haley’s subsequent ancestors) Afrikan language words for things like river, cow, the baobab tree, a drum and a stringed instrument were passed down as Kunta Kinte had been chopping wood for a drum when he was captured.
Haley then met with Jan Vansina, a specialist in Afrikan languages who had lived in Afrika. It was through Vansina’s contacts that the language was identified as Mandinke and that it was most likely to be from the Gambia area due to the word for river being placed next to the word for Gambia and the stringed instrument being a kora.
Haley found an American-based Gambian student who became his guide on his first visit to Gambia. There they met with chiefs, griots and linguists. They recounted as much of Haley’s story as they could and the people promised to look into it for him while Haley returned to the US. After some weeks he was contacted by the Gambians that they had come across a griot who may know of his family as the surname, Kinte, came from particular towns, villages and regions. Haley had spent all his funds on the first journey to Gambia so he looked around for funds. He remembered that the co-founder of the Reader’s Digest, Mrs Wallace, had offered to help him in any way, if she could, so he approached her for funding. Reader’s Digest agreed to fund the journey and print up any info Haley could come up with.
He returned to Gambia and prepared to go upriver to the area where it was thought Kunta Kinte had come from. It turned out that the village was Juffureh and there was a woman there who knew the Gambian side of Kunta Kinte’s story as it had been preserved through the griots.
He explains what happened when he entered the village of about 70 people. He was the first Afrikan to come there from America but the people still remembered those who had been kidnapped centuries before: “Yes, we have been told by the forefathers that there are many of us from this place who are in exile in that place called America and other places.”
The griot, Kebba Kanga Fofana, aged 73, then recounted the history of the Kinte clan. With knowledge of a name, where and when their ancestor was taken from then a griot can trace an exiled Afrikan’s clan. The Kinte clan began in old Mali. The men were blacksmiths and the women were potters and weavers. A branch moved to Mauritania before a branch went to Gambia. Kunta Kinte had three brothers. The griot told how at the time the King’s soldiers came Kunta, the eldest, had gone out to chop wood and was never seen again. This confirmed Haley’s story and was accepted by the griot and interpreter.
Haley had traveled to Juffureh by river but went back by land. This allowed him to understand that those who lived by the river were easily kidnapped and enslaved. Further inland it would be as a result of an attack. They were then put in coffles of enslaved Afrikans up to a mile long before making the long march to the ships. In the barracoons they would be washed, force-fed, medicated, examined and then branded between the shoulder blades with a hot poker.
It was only when the Afrikans were moved from the barracoons to the canoes to take them to the big ships that they then realised that this was no ordinary form of capture and imprisonment but something unimaginable in its horror that involved the removal from the land of their birth. Haley realised that it was a matter of chance which Afrikans were taken overseas and which never left the continent.
It was within the same hour that Haley heard the griot touch on Kunta Kinte that the last of his grandmother’s generation, Cousin Georgia, passed away as if acknowledging that the circle had been completed and she would now be watching him from the realms of the ancestors. Haley told the publishers that he wanted to write the story in a way that it was about one family but it would be a symbol story of the enslavement experience for all Afrikans.
Then Haley talked about the level of research he undertook in Britain and America to trace the ship and its landing point which he had been told was Annapolis, Maryland. He found that British soldiers, led by Colonel Charles O’Hare had gone to Gambia to guard the St James slave fort in 1767. He went to Lloyd’s of London who had access to records of slave ships. “There are more records of slave ships than one would dream. It seems inconceivable until you reflect that for 200 years ships sailed carrying cargo of slaves.”
Haley had to go through 1,023 sets of records in the Public Records Office before he came across the ship, Lord Ligonier. He then used ‘Shipping in the Port of Annapolis’ by Vaughn W Brown to find out when the ship arrived. He traveled to many other archives, crossing the Atlantic three times in 10 days. The ship had left Maryland with rum, sailed to Gravesend in England and used the proceeds to buy slaving hardware, foodstuffs and hire more crew before sailing to the coast of West Afrika.
Haley used his maritime and meteorological experience to track the ship’s journey. This also gave him access to naval officers and librarians who were able to help him with explaining how sailing ships without engines operated at that time and the places and people who had such information.
Of the 140 enslaved Afrikans taken on that ship from St James Fort, Gambia, 98 were declared on arrival at Annapolis - this was an average loss rate. The sale was advertised in the Maryland Gazette. Kunta Kinte was bought by John Waller in Virginia who later sold him to his brother, William, after his foot had been cut off.
Haley ended with this: “And then I reflected about how it seems to me that all of us, everyone of us, it does not matter who, have a stake in something that I thought to be one of the most stirring, moving dramatic, heartrending things I came upon in the study of the culture of Afrika for the book, ‘Roots’. And that was the thing that had to do with how babies were named.
“In this land that we have all heard about as heathens, savages peopling it. That in this land 200, 300, 400 years ago in any little village when a baby was born the people of the village would not see much of the father for seven days because he was occupied with going about keeping pretty much to himself, thinking up a good meaningful significant name for this infant. And bear in mind these ‘heathens’ and ’savages’ we’ve heard so much about, that these babies are the ancestors of we Black people here in the United States today.
“On the eighth day the people of the village would gather at that particular little circular mud wall home with the thatched roof and there would be a stool sitting just outside. The people brought with them, in the Mandinka culture anyway, a jaliba, a drummer, who brought a cylindrical drum called the tan-tan. And then they had another man there, the equivalent of our minister, they called him the alimamo. And the jaliba would give a roll on his drum and the people would stand rigidly at attention. A second roll on the drum and the mother who had been inside waiting for that signal now would step out and sit herself on this stool. Holding the little eight day old infant – these ‘heathens’ and ‘savages’. The third roll on the drum and the alimamo would step forth and bless the gathering because this had happened to everybody there when they were eight days of age. And then the next roll, the father would come from the bush where he was waiting somewhere, just for this signal. And now this father would walk over with every eye on him – his fellow villagers, his neighbours, his tribesmen – and he would walk over to where the mother sat holding this little eight-day-old infant. And the father now would bend and he would lift up this infant and he would turn it so that one of its ears was very close to his lips and into that tiny ear that father would whisper the name he had selected three times. And the thinking of these alleged heathens and savages in doing it this way was that the individual thus named always would be the first to know who he was.
“Those are the ancestors of us, as a people. And it seems to me that the symbolism for us all having nothing whatsoever to do with our race, whatever race we maybe, but just us people as human beings. It seems to me the potential of us and the symbol for us is contained in the second part of the baby naming ceremony. And that was that night when the father now alone would take his infant a distance away from the village. And he would hold it up so that its face, its eyes, looked up towards the firmament, the stars and the moon. And the father would speak to his infant, again the symbol for us all and our potentials, the quote: ‘Behold, the only thing greater than thyself!’”
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
FEB PROMOS
~ ‘SARAFINI: MUSIC OF AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS’ – Various Artists [Smithsonian Folkway Recordings – Out Now] A compilation of Afrikan artists based in the Northwest Pacific area of the US. Many styles are covered here from the acoustic mbira (Lora Chiorah-Dye & Sukutai) and talking drum ensembles (Obo Addy & Kofi Anang) to the groove-driven Benga (Frank Ulwenya & Afrisound) and Congolese rumba (Wawali Bonane & Yoka Nzenze).
~ ‘AMAN’ – Nawal [Nawal – Out Now] Self-produced acoustic music from the Comoros Islands. This is Nawal’s second album and her voice is as engaging as ever as she takes us on a journey through love, loss, liberation, faith and the denunciations of hypocrisy.
NUBIART LIBRARY – FEB MEDIA
We will try to recommend books we have read and DVD / videos we have seen and that are available in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and production there may be books, games and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘MAISHA: SOLUTIONS - EVERY DOOR HAS ITS OWN KEY’ [The Ligali Organisation] This is the second film in Ligali’s Maisha series was filmed on three continents – Africa, Europe and the Americas. It has a strong focus on some of the solutions we can implement from learning from the structures we had in the past and adapting them to address and alleviate our current condition.
The documentary starts in Senegal on Goree Island, the doorway for many Afrikans exported to the Americas to the horrors of American and Caribbean slave plantations. The section titles give clear insight into the themes – Defending Africa From A History of War; Memory Loss and the African Identity; Guiding Children by Nurturing Talent and Parenting With Discipline; The Growth of Alternative Schools and the Home Education Movement for Independent Learning; The Social and Spiritual Responsibility of the Artist; Traditional Healing Solutions for Positive Mental Health; How Traditional Family Living in a Natural Environment Leads To Positive Health and Well-being; and The Political and Cultural Importance of Language.
Contributors felt that the scramble for Afrika and the war against the political, economic and cultural development of Afrikan and the war on the Afrikan’s psyche was continuing relentlessly. As Diallo Diop, Secretary-General of the RND in Senegal pointed out of the 14 most important raw materials Africa is the main provider in 13 and an important provider of the 14th so the world is not about to see Afrikan control in any way that denies them unfettered access to their lifeblood.
There is extensive use of archive footage and music throughout the DVD and surely one of the most prescient must be where members of Zoe’s Ark from France are caught kidnapping 103 children in Chad. The group falsely claimed they were orphans from Darfur when in fact many had parents in Chad. They had told the children’s parents and guardians that they were taking them to schools in neighbouring towns but intended to fly them to Europe where adopters (and no-doubt paedophiles) were desperately waiting to get their hands on them. As I watched this DVD the story of another group of Euro-American Christians kidnapping 33 Haitian children was unfolding. There the group had scoured orphanages and hospitals looking for children to kidnap. When that proved unsuccessful they eventually duped local villagers into handing over their children. The lawyer for the group, New Life Children’s Refuge, admitted the group knew they needed official approval in writing to remove children but they did not have it. Under UN rules you must wait for two years after a disaster to remove children to allow enough time to conduct an exhaustive search for relatives and explore all in-country options.
Shaka Marday hits the button when he points out the role of language as a vehicle for culture, ideas and ideology. And there is hope for future generations in the passion of Humani Eniolomunda, headmistress of Parkside Prep School, who refuses to give up on any child who comes through her doors. Still, for too many Afrikans, Malcolm X’s speech on poor life chances continues to ring true nearly half a century on.
~ ‘MAISHA: CHOICES - WHEN FEAR ENTERS, TRUTH ESCAPES' [The Ligali Organisation] The Maisha film series places a strong emphasis upon independent learning and the empowerment of young people and women. ‘Maisha: Choices’ contains interviews from many contemporary Afrikan cultural and educational workers and explores themes such as cults, rites of passage, traditional spirituality and continuing oppression.
Cults rightly challenges a propaganda documentary broadcast in the UK by Channel 4 called ‘Christian Cults in Africa’. Healing is at the heart of Afrikan people’s spirituality yet we have been continually exploited by the lie of Christianity, which has to stop. What is significant is the spiritual warfare Afrikans need to face up to. We also need to emphasise the value of embracing life held for centuries by Afrikans. Long before the present western mindset for destruction began ‘Maisha: Choices’ exposes the way children have been targeted in some African communities and abused for being witches, another lie, Toyin has contributed to telling our story.
Rites of passage discusses the value Afrikans throughout the world have for communities, and the individuals within those communities. We need to create spaces to transmit the lost ancient ways. As Sis Affiong states knowledge is the ability to articulate and understand issues and systems of oppression in place to then be able to overcome them. Though not a cure-all rites of passage allows an Afrikan focus and framework for children and adults to link into. Spirit looks at the purpose of inner soul force, as Afrikans we won't forget our way. It contrasts the nonsense of waiting for a messiah. It also questions how, as recently as 2009, a religion can face a court case in Ireland about the wholesale physical and sexual abuse of thousands of children by priest and nuns and still claim authority over anyone.
Important archive footage is included in the section on Leadership, such as Patrice Lumumba’s Independence speech. Different leadership styles are discussed; grassroots group action, women leaders like the Amazons of Dahomey, Jonas Savimbi, Sekou Toure and the impact of Fela Kuti as seen in ‘Music is the Weapon’. Meanwhile, Sis Affiong poses the question to all of us - what is your contribution to the founding and development of an equitable, just and sustainable society?
~ ‘A CERTAIN WOMAN’ – Hala El Badry [Arabia Books ISBN: 978-1-906697-07-5] Beautifully sensual fourth novel from the Deputy Editor of Egypt’s Television and radio magazine. El Badry explores the thorny much troubled (and much traveled) issues of relationships across ages and cultures. She captures the doubts many have about finding love later on in life and having to cope with the life histories, habits and baggage we accumulate trying to find a place for ourselves. As a parent when do you tell your children about a new relationship and what if they are not of an age or mindset to accept you being with someone else?
El Badry’s main character, Nahid, works for the Egyptian Antiquities Department and her job involves securing finds so that they can be properly archived by the government. Local residents and nomads often feel that as the antiquities belonged to their ancestors they have the right to sell them without government involvement to fund their immediate needs which have been neglected by the central government which has left them marginalised and in poverty. On the wider scale, being set in the Afrikan-Arab borderlands of Egypt allows El Badry to explore issues such as the rise of fundamentalist Islam, the role of literature and censorship, the Greeks in Africa and the foreigners who were expelled after the 1973 war with Israel. Over 22 million bombs were left in Egypt after the Second Imperialist War ended in 1945 which still injure people in the deserts and on the borders. At the time of her writing in 2001 this was one-fifth of the world’s total abandoned ordnance –given the subsequent western aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan you just know that a similar fate awaits generations of nomads and travelers off the beaten path in those countries. ‘A Certain Woman’ won the Best Novel prize at the Cairo International Book Fair.
NUBIART DIARY
~ COCO AND THE HOJA PROJECT present ‘Karamu Afrika’ in aid of the Hoja project’s work in rural Tanzania. With Igbo storyteller, Chi; Meti, an Ethiopian dancer; Ethiopian fashion show; drum workshop; and Afrikan food. On Mon 22 Feb at 7.30pm in Rm G22, SOAS, Thornhaugh St, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Generous donation. Tel: 07584 065 211. E-mail: uk@hojaproject.org Web: www.hojaproject.org
~ B.L.A.K FRIDAY: Sister Sandra Hurst will kick off the 2010 sessions by presenting an open forum to discuss the ‘False Economy’. Everything you want to know about the ‘credit crunch’ but were afraid to ask, Part 2. She will show how banks create money explaining the principles of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ debt and why ‘hard work’ does not always pay! On Fri 26 Feb at 7.30-10.30pm at Unit 9 Eurolink Business Centre, 49 Effra Road, Brixton, London, SW2 1BZ. For more info e-mail: info@nubeyound.com
~ ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT present ‘The Nommo Sessions: USA Atrocities in Haiti Exposed’ with a presentation by Bro Ldr Mbandaka looking at: Child Kidnapping; Stolen Body Parts; US Army Brutality; Corrupt Aid Agencies; and Geo-Warfare. On Fri 26 Feb at 7- 10.30pm at Voice Of Africa Radio, 24 Swete Street, Plaistow, London, E13 OBS. Adm: £3 / U-21s Free. Info: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: arm6227@yahoo.co.uk
~ DJED ENTERPRISE FRIDAY LECTURES
- Fri 26 Feb: David Simon – ‘Ebony Saturday School Creator’
- Fri 5 Mar: Brigitte York - Fibroids Network
At 7.30pm at 10 Adelaide Grove, Shepherds Bush, London, W12. Tel: 020 8743 1985 / 07957 919 877.
~ OUTSIDE THE LAW: STORIES FROM GUANTÁNAMO + DISCUSSION A new documentary telling the story of Guantánamo Bay, including extraordinary rendition and secret prisons, and featuring interviews with human rights lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith and former prisoners Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes. The post-screening discussion with directors, Polly Nash and Andy Worthington will be chaired by Victoria Brittain. On Sat 27 Feb at 2pm at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1. Adm: ₤5. Tel: 020 7928 3232. Web: www.bfi.org.uk/southbank
~ HIDDEN HERSTORIES: WOMEN OF CHANGE CONFERENCE AND FILM PREMIERE. The Octavia Foundation in conjunction with the Heritage Lottery Fund and LSE Arts at the London School of Economics invite you to the film premiere of ‘Hidden Herstories’, a youth-led documentary film about Octavia Hill, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Claudia Jones and Jayaben Desai. Followed by a Q&A with the film-makers, a free lunch and a panel discussion. Confirmed speakers include: Nzingha Assata, Jenny Bourne, Brenda Dean and Vanessa Walters. On Sat 6 Mar at 12-5pm at Hong Kong Lecture Theatre, Ground floor, Clement House, London School of Economics (LSE), Houghton St, London, WC2A 2AE.
Adm: Free. For more info visit: www.hiddenherstories.org / www.octaviafoundation.org.uk
~ THE TRUTH ABOUT HAITI. We are constantly being told by the media that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. We are not told how did Haiti get so poor? Professor Robert Beckford hosts this important exploration of Haiti’s past, present and future. Speakers: Panyin Ewusi (Educator), ‘The Haitian Revolution’; Cecil Gutzmore (Lecturer & Political Activist) ‘Reparations: Haiti First! Haiti Now!’; and Toyin Agbetu (Journalist / Director and founder of Ligali, a Pan African Human Rights Organisation), ‘Media coverage of Haiti Earthquake – Propaganda or Truth?’ On Sun 7 Mar at 2-5pm at The Drum Arts Centre, 144 Potters Lane, Aston, Birmingham, B6 4UU. Adm: £5. All money raised will be donated to the ‘United Haitians in the UK’. Tel: 07867 727 245. E-mail: haitithetruth@gmail.com Web: www.uhuk.org
~ AFRICAN FEVER: PERFORMING ‘AFRICA’ IN EUROPE: In 2008, a number of Afrikan-themed circuses were touring Europe. ‘African Fever; performing ‘Africa’ in Europe’ is a collection of photographs from one of those tours, taken by Jessica Kendall who spent three months with an African-themed circus that took her to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy - first as a PhD researcher, and then as an employee of the circus. Jessica became intrigued by the differences between the ‘Africanized’ aesthetics of the show, and the off-stage lives of the performers. On Tues–Sat at 10.30am-5pm until 27 Mar at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk or cirquebella@yahoo.com Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery
~ EVER YOUNG: JAMES BARNOR STREET AND STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY Autograph ABP and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute jointly present the first exhibition in the US of photographer James Barnor's work. It features a range of archival photographs from a seminal collection that includes street and studio portraits with elaborate backdrops, fashion shoots in glorious colour, and social documentary images from the late 1940s to the 1970s depicting a burgeoning modernity as the Gold Coast becomes Ghana and London becoming a cosmopolitan, multicultural metropolis. Alongside the photographic display, we present the award-winning Black Audio Film Collective feature film Testament (1988), directed by John Akomfrah, an experimental narrative of exile, diaspora and dispossession. Until 26 May at Rudenstine Gallery, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, USA
- Film Screening: ‘Limbo’ by Admas Habteslasie until 30 Apr at The Autograph ABP Photo Lounge, Rich Mix, London
- Exhibition: Santu Mofokeng until 20 Mar at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales.
Contact: Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA. Tel: 020 7729 9200. Fax: 020 7739 8748. E-mail: info@autograph-abp.co.uk Web: www.autograph-abp.co.uk
~ INDIA'S AFRICANS: A presentation on the diverse circumstances of African migration to India and the current situation of Afrikans in India by Dr Shihan de Silva, FRAS, Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies / Rapporteur, UNESCO International Scientific Committee and Slave Route Project (Paris); and Dr Howard Jones (Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies). There will be a screening of two documentary films by Beheroze Shroff (University of California, Irvine, USA) which give insights into the roots of the Sidis (Afro-Indians) and their sense of belonging.
’"We're Indian and African": Voices of the Sidis’ (22 mins).
This film explores the lives of the Sidis in Gujarat. Sidi men and women speak about the challenges they face as caretakers of the shrine of their ancestral saint Bava Gor. The Sidis also discuss their sacred Goma-Dhammal dance performed for devotees and spectators. The film also gives a glimpse into the spiritual legacy of the Sidis through the Parsi devotees of Bava Gor in Bombay.
’Voices of the Sidis: Ancestral Links’ (26 minutes)
In this engaging portrait of an urban Sidi family in Bombay (Maharashtra), Babubhai traces his ancestry to Zanzibar. He also reminisces about his work as a stuntman in Bollywood films. Babubhai's wife, Fatimaben, narrates about her grandmother's work in a Hindu royal court. Their daughter, Heena, speaks about issues of identity in contemporary India.
On Tues 9 Mar (Rm G34) and Tues 16 Mar (Rm G32) at 6.15pm in Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU. The two films will be screened on both days. Adm: Free. E-mail shihan.desilva@sas.ac.uk stating on which date you wish to attend.
~ KARA-DO FITNESS EXPERIENCE Weekend Excursion to Hastings on 18-20 June. For info contact Cecil Hackett on 07984 620 829.
~ CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: The Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Warwick is organising an advanced summer school for early career researchers and academics, including PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, on: ‘Theory for a Global Age: The Place of Africa?'
The place of Africa within theories of the global is usually present only by its absence. Or, if it is present, then Africa is there to provide local colour to an abstract global theory, theorised from elsewhere. Even within theoretical initiatives that primarily address the world beyond Europe and the US, Africa is very often left off the intellectual map. While it is common to describe what is global about processes observed within African societies, it is rare to describe a global process as African in origin. Nor is much consideration commonly given to the implication for global theories of the foregrounding of Africa within them.
In this summer school, we intend to place Africa firmly at the centre of key debates within the humanities and social sciences. We will ask, among other things, how these debates change if the starting point of analysis is located in Africa itself. Participants will also consider whether there is a conceptual language or theoretical framework for addressing Africa’s place in the world. This summer school builds on the summer school run last year on ‘Theory for a Global Age: Postcolonial and Cosmopolitan Perspectives.’
The summer school is from 5-9th July 2010 and will take place at the Wolfson Exchange, Main Library, University of Warwick. The cost of the summer school is £350 which includes 6 nights accommodation, breakfast and lunch, and all course materials. Travel costs and evening meals are not included in the fee.
The school is organised around guest lectures, seminars and workshops by faculty from the University of Warwick as well as by invited academics internationally recognised in their fields. For further details please see the website: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/placeofafrica
Application forms are available from the website and attached here. The deadline for applications is 12 March 2010.
If you have any questions, please contact one of the organisers, Gurminder K. Bhambra, Daniel Branch, Daniel Orrells at the email addresses below.
g.k.bhambra@warwick.ac.uk
d.orrells@warwick.ac.uk
d.p.branch@warwick.ac.uk
Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com Web: www.southwark.tv/quest/aqhome.asp
‘When we lose an elder we lose a library’
CY GRANT (Actor, singer and writer, 8 Nov 1919 - 13 Feb 2010)*
Cy Grant was a qualified barrister, but it is as a singer, actor and broadcaster that he is most famous. In 1957, he began appearing daily on the BBC's ‘Tonight’ current affairs programme giving a calypso rendition of the news. Cy's ability to compose tunes spontaneously and fit the news into verse won him the admiration of viewers nationwide. For the first time, Britain was seeing an Afrikan face on TV on a regular basis.
Born in British Guiana (now Guyana), Cy had two brothers and four sisters. His mother was a talented pianist and he grew up surrounded by music, playing the guitar and singing folk songs. He excelled at school and was keen to study law, but his parents lacked the funds. After working as a civil servant, Cy left for Britain and joined the RAF in 1941, one of 400 men recruited from the Caribbean after the huge losses in the Battle of Britain. He trained as a navigator and in 1943 was shot down in the Battle of the Ruhr, landing in Holland. Joost Klootwijk, the young son of a Dutch farmer, looked on as his parents tried to help the airman. The Gestapo identified Cy as ‘a member of the Royal Air Force of indeterminate race’ and he was held as a PoW for two years. Cy later used that phrase for the title of his book about his war service. Klootwijk's subsequent research enabled his son, Hans, to write a book about Cy's crew, ‘Lancaster W4827: Failed to Return’.
Although he was a qualified barrister in 1950, Cy struggled to get work. But he became a recognisable voice on radio, singing folk songs, and recorded several albums. He also hosted his own TV series, ‘For Members Only’, in the mid-50s, interviewing a variety of guests and playing the guitar. In 1956, he appeared in ‘A Man from the Sun’, a television drama written by John Elliot about the experience of Caribbean migrants to Britain after the Second Imperialist War. He was the voice of Lieutenant Green for Gerry Anderson's ‘Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’ and also appeared in an episode of ‘The Persuaders’, opposite Roger Moore.
Cy successfully auditioned for Laurence Olivier and had stage appearances for Olivier's Festival of Britain company in London and New York. In 1965, he was acclaimed as Othello at the Phoenix theatre, in Leicester. The next year he starred in ‘Cindy Ella’ with Cleo Laine at the Garrick theatre, in London. He also appeared in the films ‘Shaft in Africa’ (1973) and ‘At the Earth's Core’ (1976).
Frustrated with many of the roles he was offered, Cy determined to take on the theatre establishment on his own terms. In order to launch Afrikan artistic talent, in 1973 he founded Drum Arts Centre, in London, with the Zimbabwean actor, John Mapondera, Gus John and others. Drum collaborated with Steve Carter of New York's Negro Ensemble Theatre and staged a number of productions, including ‘Bread’ by Mustapha Matura and ‘The Gods Are Not to Blame’ by Ola Rotimi.
Two major influences in Cy's life, which helped determine the direction of his artistic expression and his later writing, were the poet, politician, philosopher and architect of negritude, Aimé Césaire, and the Tao Te Ching. He produced and performed Césaire's epic poem ‘Notebook of a Return to the Native Land’ as a one-man show, touring Britain for more than two years.
In his book, ‘Blackness and the Dreaming Soul’ (2007), Cy argued that white society must first discover new ways of seeing itself, in order that it might comprehend and value the ‘otherness’ of its Afrikan citizens. In his essay ‘The Way of the West’ (2008), he argued that Afrikans, having reclaimed their authentic history and recovered their lost soul, must not fall into the trap of aspiring to assimilate into the so-called civilised values of his former oppressors.
In his last years, Cy wrote copiously and did everything with a new urgency, especially after he became ill. He particularly wanted to see his war memoirs, essays and poems form part of the curriculums in schools and universities. He is survived by his wife, Dorith, whom he married in 1956, their two daughters and one son; a son from an earlier marriage; and his sister, Valerie.
* This is an edited extract of an obituary by Gus John on www.guardian.co.uk, Wed 17 Feb 2010
EDITORIAL
“None of us ever must forget that Blacks were the only ones who came here [America] in chattel slave status and in chains.” - Alex Haley
On Nubiart, as part of International Afrikan Heritage Month, we played ‘Alex Haley Tells The Story of His Search For Roots’. Alex Haley recounts how the story of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, kidnapped from Afrika, was preserved through the family retelling of the story, first on the birth of a child and then more widely at other family gatherings.
Haley started writing while at sea during the Second Imperialist War. After the war he wrote for Reader’s Digest and then wrote features on Afrikan icons such as Miles Davis and Malcolm X for Playboy. Haley wrote ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’, started before Malcolm’s assassination on 21 Feb 1965 and finished posthumously.
Then Haley decided to start researching his family history. Kunta Kinte was a repetitive escapee who ended up having part of his foot amputated (as an alternative to castration) for injuring a slave catcher in an escape attempt. This lowered his value meaning that he ended up being on one plantation for a long period of time. Kunta Kinte passed on the story to his daughter Kizzy who passed it on to her son ‘Chicken’ George and so it went on down the line.
Haley found more of his family information relating to those who had been enslaved and their descendants in census archives. In the story told by Kunta Kinte (and Haley’s subsequent ancestors) Afrikan language words for things like river, cow, the baobab tree, a drum and a stringed instrument were passed down as Kunta Kinte had been chopping wood for a drum when he was captured.
Haley then met with Jan Vansina, a specialist in Afrikan languages who had lived in Afrika. It was through Vansina’s contacts that the language was identified as Mandinke and that it was most likely to be from the Gambia area due to the word for river being placed next to the word for Gambia and the stringed instrument being a kora.
Haley found an American-based Gambian student who became his guide on his first visit to Gambia. There they met with chiefs, griots and linguists. They recounted as much of Haley’s story as they could and the people promised to look into it for him while Haley returned to the US. After some weeks he was contacted by the Gambians that they had come across a griot who may know of his family as the surname, Kinte, came from particular towns, villages and regions. Haley had spent all his funds on the first journey to Gambia so he looked around for funds. He remembered that the co-founder of the Reader’s Digest, Mrs Wallace, had offered to help him in any way, if she could, so he approached her for funding. Reader’s Digest agreed to fund the journey and print up any info Haley could come up with.
He returned to Gambia and prepared to go upriver to the area where it was thought Kunta Kinte had come from. It turned out that the village was Juffureh and there was a woman there who knew the Gambian side of Kunta Kinte’s story as it had been preserved through the griots.
He explains what happened when he entered the village of about 70 people. He was the first Afrikan to come there from America but the people still remembered those who had been kidnapped centuries before: “Yes, we have been told by the forefathers that there are many of us from this place who are in exile in that place called America and other places.”
The griot, Kebba Kanga Fofana, aged 73, then recounted the history of the Kinte clan. With knowledge of a name, where and when their ancestor was taken from then a griot can trace an exiled Afrikan’s clan. The Kinte clan began in old Mali. The men were blacksmiths and the women were potters and weavers. A branch moved to Mauritania before a branch went to Gambia. Kunta Kinte had three brothers. The griot told how at the time the King’s soldiers came Kunta, the eldest, had gone out to chop wood and was never seen again. This confirmed Haley’s story and was accepted by the griot and interpreter.
Haley had traveled to Juffureh by river but went back by land. This allowed him to understand that those who lived by the river were easily kidnapped and enslaved. Further inland it would be as a result of an attack. They were then put in coffles of enslaved Afrikans up to a mile long before making the long march to the ships. In the barracoons they would be washed, force-fed, medicated, examined and then branded between the shoulder blades with a hot poker.
It was only when the Afrikans were moved from the barracoons to the canoes to take them to the big ships that they then realised that this was no ordinary form of capture and imprisonment but something unimaginable in its horror that involved the removal from the land of their birth. Haley realised that it was a matter of chance which Afrikans were taken overseas and which never left the continent.
It was within the same hour that Haley heard the griot touch on Kunta Kinte that the last of his grandmother’s generation, Cousin Georgia, passed away as if acknowledging that the circle had been completed and she would now be watching him from the realms of the ancestors. Haley told the publishers that he wanted to write the story in a way that it was about one family but it would be a symbol story of the enslavement experience for all Afrikans.
Then Haley talked about the level of research he undertook in Britain and America to trace the ship and its landing point which he had been told was Annapolis, Maryland. He found that British soldiers, led by Colonel Charles O’Hare had gone to Gambia to guard the St James slave fort in 1767. He went to Lloyd’s of London who had access to records of slave ships. “There are more records of slave ships than one would dream. It seems inconceivable until you reflect that for 200 years ships sailed carrying cargo of slaves.”
Haley had to go through 1,023 sets of records in the Public Records Office before he came across the ship, Lord Ligonier. He then used ‘Shipping in the Port of Annapolis’ by Vaughn W Brown to find out when the ship arrived. He traveled to many other archives, crossing the Atlantic three times in 10 days. The ship had left Maryland with rum, sailed to Gravesend in England and used the proceeds to buy slaving hardware, foodstuffs and hire more crew before sailing to the coast of West Afrika.
Haley used his maritime and meteorological experience to track the ship’s journey. This also gave him access to naval officers and librarians who were able to help him with explaining how sailing ships without engines operated at that time and the places and people who had such information.
Of the 140 enslaved Afrikans taken on that ship from St James Fort, Gambia, 98 were declared on arrival at Annapolis - this was an average loss rate. The sale was advertised in the Maryland Gazette. Kunta Kinte was bought by John Waller in Virginia who later sold him to his brother, William, after his foot had been cut off.
Haley ended with this: “And then I reflected about how it seems to me that all of us, everyone of us, it does not matter who, have a stake in something that I thought to be one of the most stirring, moving dramatic, heartrending things I came upon in the study of the culture of Afrika for the book, ‘Roots’. And that was the thing that had to do with how babies were named.
“In this land that we have all heard about as heathens, savages peopling it. That in this land 200, 300, 400 years ago in any little village when a baby was born the people of the village would not see much of the father for seven days because he was occupied with going about keeping pretty much to himself, thinking up a good meaningful significant name for this infant. And bear in mind these ‘heathens’ and ’savages’ we’ve heard so much about, that these babies are the ancestors of we Black people here in the United States today.
“On the eighth day the people of the village would gather at that particular little circular mud wall home with the thatched roof and there would be a stool sitting just outside. The people brought with them, in the Mandinka culture anyway, a jaliba, a drummer, who brought a cylindrical drum called the tan-tan. And then they had another man there, the equivalent of our minister, they called him the alimamo. And the jaliba would give a roll on his drum and the people would stand rigidly at attention. A second roll on the drum and the mother who had been inside waiting for that signal now would step out and sit herself on this stool. Holding the little eight day old infant – these ‘heathens’ and ‘savages’. The third roll on the drum and the alimamo would step forth and bless the gathering because this had happened to everybody there when they were eight days of age. And then the next roll, the father would come from the bush where he was waiting somewhere, just for this signal. And now this father would walk over with every eye on him – his fellow villagers, his neighbours, his tribesmen – and he would walk over to where the mother sat holding this little eight-day-old infant. And the father now would bend and he would lift up this infant and he would turn it so that one of its ears was very close to his lips and into that tiny ear that father would whisper the name he had selected three times. And the thinking of these alleged heathens and savages in doing it this way was that the individual thus named always would be the first to know who he was.
“Those are the ancestors of us, as a people. And it seems to me that the symbolism for us all having nothing whatsoever to do with our race, whatever race we maybe, but just us people as human beings. It seems to me the potential of us and the symbol for us is contained in the second part of the baby naming ceremony. And that was that night when the father now alone would take his infant a distance away from the village. And he would hold it up so that its face, its eyes, looked up towards the firmament, the stars and the moon. And the father would speak to his infant, again the symbol for us all and our potentials, the quote: ‘Behold, the only thing greater than thyself!’”
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
FEB PROMOS
~ ‘SARAFINI: MUSIC OF AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS’ – Various Artists [Smithsonian Folkway Recordings – Out Now] A compilation of Afrikan artists based in the Northwest Pacific area of the US. Many styles are covered here from the acoustic mbira (Lora Chiorah-Dye & Sukutai) and talking drum ensembles (Obo Addy & Kofi Anang) to the groove-driven Benga (Frank Ulwenya & Afrisound) and Congolese rumba (Wawali Bonane & Yoka Nzenze).
~ ‘AMAN’ – Nawal [Nawal – Out Now] Self-produced acoustic music from the Comoros Islands. This is Nawal’s second album and her voice is as engaging as ever as she takes us on a journey through love, loss, liberation, faith and the denunciations of hypocrisy.
NUBIART LIBRARY – FEB MEDIA
We will try to recommend books we have read and DVD / videos we have seen and that are available in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and production there may be books, games and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘MAISHA: SOLUTIONS - EVERY DOOR HAS ITS OWN KEY’ [The Ligali Organisation] This is the second film in Ligali’s Maisha series was filmed on three continents – Africa, Europe and the Americas. It has a strong focus on some of the solutions we can implement from learning from the structures we had in the past and adapting them to address and alleviate our current condition.
The documentary starts in Senegal on Goree Island, the doorway for many Afrikans exported to the Americas to the horrors of American and Caribbean slave plantations. The section titles give clear insight into the themes – Defending Africa From A History of War; Memory Loss and the African Identity; Guiding Children by Nurturing Talent and Parenting With Discipline; The Growth of Alternative Schools and the Home Education Movement for Independent Learning; The Social and Spiritual Responsibility of the Artist; Traditional Healing Solutions for Positive Mental Health; How Traditional Family Living in a Natural Environment Leads To Positive Health and Well-being; and The Political and Cultural Importance of Language.
Contributors felt that the scramble for Afrika and the war against the political, economic and cultural development of Afrikan and the war on the Afrikan’s psyche was continuing relentlessly. As Diallo Diop, Secretary-General of the RND in Senegal pointed out of the 14 most important raw materials Africa is the main provider in 13 and an important provider of the 14th so the world is not about to see Afrikan control in any way that denies them unfettered access to their lifeblood.
There is extensive use of archive footage and music throughout the DVD and surely one of the most prescient must be where members of Zoe’s Ark from France are caught kidnapping 103 children in Chad. The group falsely claimed they were orphans from Darfur when in fact many had parents in Chad. They had told the children’s parents and guardians that they were taking them to schools in neighbouring towns but intended to fly them to Europe where adopters (and no-doubt paedophiles) were desperately waiting to get their hands on them. As I watched this DVD the story of another group of Euro-American Christians kidnapping 33 Haitian children was unfolding. There the group had scoured orphanages and hospitals looking for children to kidnap. When that proved unsuccessful they eventually duped local villagers into handing over their children. The lawyer for the group, New Life Children’s Refuge, admitted the group knew they needed official approval in writing to remove children but they did not have it. Under UN rules you must wait for two years after a disaster to remove children to allow enough time to conduct an exhaustive search for relatives and explore all in-country options.
Shaka Marday hits the button when he points out the role of language as a vehicle for culture, ideas and ideology. And there is hope for future generations in the passion of Humani Eniolomunda, headmistress of Parkside Prep School, who refuses to give up on any child who comes through her doors. Still, for too many Afrikans, Malcolm X’s speech on poor life chances continues to ring true nearly half a century on.
~ ‘MAISHA: CHOICES - WHEN FEAR ENTERS, TRUTH ESCAPES' [The Ligali Organisation] The Maisha film series places a strong emphasis upon independent learning and the empowerment of young people and women. ‘Maisha: Choices’ contains interviews from many contemporary Afrikan cultural and educational workers and explores themes such as cults, rites of passage, traditional spirituality and continuing oppression.
Cults rightly challenges a propaganda documentary broadcast in the UK by Channel 4 called ‘Christian Cults in Africa’. Healing is at the heart of Afrikan people’s spirituality yet we have been continually exploited by the lie of Christianity, which has to stop. What is significant is the spiritual warfare Afrikans need to face up to. We also need to emphasise the value of embracing life held for centuries by Afrikans. Long before the present western mindset for destruction began ‘Maisha: Choices’ exposes the way children have been targeted in some African communities and abused for being witches, another lie, Toyin has contributed to telling our story.
Rites of passage discusses the value Afrikans throughout the world have for communities, and the individuals within those communities. We need to create spaces to transmit the lost ancient ways. As Sis Affiong states knowledge is the ability to articulate and understand issues and systems of oppression in place to then be able to overcome them. Though not a cure-all rites of passage allows an Afrikan focus and framework for children and adults to link into. Spirit looks at the purpose of inner soul force, as Afrikans we won't forget our way. It contrasts the nonsense of waiting for a messiah. It also questions how, as recently as 2009, a religion can face a court case in Ireland about the wholesale physical and sexual abuse of thousands of children by priest and nuns and still claim authority over anyone.
Important archive footage is included in the section on Leadership, such as Patrice Lumumba’s Independence speech. Different leadership styles are discussed; grassroots group action, women leaders like the Amazons of Dahomey, Jonas Savimbi, Sekou Toure and the impact of Fela Kuti as seen in ‘Music is the Weapon’. Meanwhile, Sis Affiong poses the question to all of us - what is your contribution to the founding and development of an equitable, just and sustainable society?
~ ‘A CERTAIN WOMAN’ – Hala El Badry [Arabia Books ISBN: 978-1-906697-07-5] Beautifully sensual fourth novel from the Deputy Editor of Egypt’s Television and radio magazine. El Badry explores the thorny much troubled (and much traveled) issues of relationships across ages and cultures. She captures the doubts many have about finding love later on in life and having to cope with the life histories, habits and baggage we accumulate trying to find a place for ourselves. As a parent when do you tell your children about a new relationship and what if they are not of an age or mindset to accept you being with someone else?
El Badry’s main character, Nahid, works for the Egyptian Antiquities Department and her job involves securing finds so that they can be properly archived by the government. Local residents and nomads often feel that as the antiquities belonged to their ancestors they have the right to sell them without government involvement to fund their immediate needs which have been neglected by the central government which has left them marginalised and in poverty. On the wider scale, being set in the Afrikan-Arab borderlands of Egypt allows El Badry to explore issues such as the rise of fundamentalist Islam, the role of literature and censorship, the Greeks in Africa and the foreigners who were expelled after the 1973 war with Israel. Over 22 million bombs were left in Egypt after the Second Imperialist War ended in 1945 which still injure people in the deserts and on the borders. At the time of her writing in 2001 this was one-fifth of the world’s total abandoned ordnance –given the subsequent western aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan you just know that a similar fate awaits generations of nomads and travelers off the beaten path in those countries. ‘A Certain Woman’ won the Best Novel prize at the Cairo International Book Fair.
NUBIART DIARY
~ COCO AND THE HOJA PROJECT present ‘Karamu Afrika’ in aid of the Hoja project’s work in rural Tanzania. With Igbo storyteller, Chi; Meti, an Ethiopian dancer; Ethiopian fashion show; drum workshop; and Afrikan food. On Mon 22 Feb at 7.30pm in Rm G22, SOAS, Thornhaugh St, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Generous donation. Tel: 07584 065 211. E-mail: uk@hojaproject.org Web: www.hojaproject.org
~ B.L.A.K FRIDAY: Sister Sandra Hurst will kick off the 2010 sessions by presenting an open forum to discuss the ‘False Economy’. Everything you want to know about the ‘credit crunch’ but were afraid to ask, Part 2. She will show how banks create money explaining the principles of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ debt and why ‘hard work’ does not always pay! On Fri 26 Feb at 7.30-10.30pm at Unit 9 Eurolink Business Centre, 49 Effra Road, Brixton, London, SW2 1BZ. For more info e-mail: info@nubeyound.com
~ ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT present ‘The Nommo Sessions: USA Atrocities in Haiti Exposed’ with a presentation by Bro Ldr Mbandaka looking at: Child Kidnapping; Stolen Body Parts; US Army Brutality; Corrupt Aid Agencies; and Geo-Warfare. On Fri 26 Feb at 7- 10.30pm at Voice Of Africa Radio, 24 Swete Street, Plaistow, London, E13 OBS. Adm: £3 / U-21s Free. Info: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: arm6227@yahoo.co.uk
~ DJED ENTERPRISE FRIDAY LECTURES
- Fri 26 Feb: David Simon – ‘Ebony Saturday School Creator’
- Fri 5 Mar: Brigitte York - Fibroids Network
At 7.30pm at 10 Adelaide Grove, Shepherds Bush, London, W12. Tel: 020 8743 1985 / 07957 919 877.
~ OUTSIDE THE LAW: STORIES FROM GUANTÁNAMO + DISCUSSION A new documentary telling the story of Guantánamo Bay, including extraordinary rendition and secret prisons, and featuring interviews with human rights lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith and former prisoners Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes. The post-screening discussion with directors, Polly Nash and Andy Worthington will be chaired by Victoria Brittain. On Sat 27 Feb at 2pm at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1. Adm: ₤5. Tel: 020 7928 3232. Web: www.bfi.org.uk/southbank
~ HIDDEN HERSTORIES: WOMEN OF CHANGE CONFERENCE AND FILM PREMIERE. The Octavia Foundation in conjunction with the Heritage Lottery Fund and LSE Arts at the London School of Economics invite you to the film premiere of ‘Hidden Herstories’, a youth-led documentary film about Octavia Hill, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Claudia Jones and Jayaben Desai. Followed by a Q&A with the film-makers, a free lunch and a panel discussion. Confirmed speakers include: Nzingha Assata, Jenny Bourne, Brenda Dean and Vanessa Walters. On Sat 6 Mar at 12-5pm at Hong Kong Lecture Theatre, Ground floor, Clement House, London School of Economics (LSE), Houghton St, London, WC2A 2AE.
Adm: Free. For more info visit: www.hiddenherstories.org / www.octaviafoundation.org.uk
~ THE TRUTH ABOUT HAITI. We are constantly being told by the media that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. We are not told how did Haiti get so poor? Professor Robert Beckford hosts this important exploration of Haiti’s past, present and future. Speakers: Panyin Ewusi (Educator), ‘The Haitian Revolution’; Cecil Gutzmore (Lecturer & Political Activist) ‘Reparations: Haiti First! Haiti Now!’; and Toyin Agbetu (Journalist / Director and founder of Ligali, a Pan African Human Rights Organisation), ‘Media coverage of Haiti Earthquake – Propaganda or Truth?’ On Sun 7 Mar at 2-5pm at The Drum Arts Centre, 144 Potters Lane, Aston, Birmingham, B6 4UU. Adm: £5. All money raised will be donated to the ‘United Haitians in the UK’. Tel: 07867 727 245. E-mail: haitithetruth@gmail.com Web: www.uhuk.org
~ AFRICAN FEVER: PERFORMING ‘AFRICA’ IN EUROPE: In 2008, a number of Afrikan-themed circuses were touring Europe. ‘African Fever; performing ‘Africa’ in Europe’ is a collection of photographs from one of those tours, taken by Jessica Kendall who spent three months with an African-themed circus that took her to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy - first as a PhD researcher, and then as an employee of the circus. Jessica became intrigued by the differences between the ‘Africanized’ aesthetics of the show, and the off-stage lives of the performers. On Tues–Sat at 10.30am-5pm until 27 Mar at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk or cirquebella@yahoo.com Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery
~ EVER YOUNG: JAMES BARNOR STREET AND STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY Autograph ABP and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute jointly present the first exhibition in the US of photographer James Barnor's work. It features a range of archival photographs from a seminal collection that includes street and studio portraits with elaborate backdrops, fashion shoots in glorious colour, and social documentary images from the late 1940s to the 1970s depicting a burgeoning modernity as the Gold Coast becomes Ghana and London becoming a cosmopolitan, multicultural metropolis. Alongside the photographic display, we present the award-winning Black Audio Film Collective feature film Testament (1988), directed by John Akomfrah, an experimental narrative of exile, diaspora and dispossession. Until 26 May at Rudenstine Gallery, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, USA
- Film Screening: ‘Limbo’ by Admas Habteslasie until 30 Apr at The Autograph ABP Photo Lounge, Rich Mix, London
- Exhibition: Santu Mofokeng until 20 Mar at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales.
Contact: Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA. Tel: 020 7729 9200. Fax: 020 7739 8748. E-mail: info@autograph-abp.co.uk Web: www.autograph-abp.co.uk
~ INDIA'S AFRICANS: A presentation on the diverse circumstances of African migration to India and the current situation of Afrikans in India by Dr Shihan de Silva, FRAS, Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies / Rapporteur, UNESCO International Scientific Committee and Slave Route Project (Paris); and Dr Howard Jones (Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies). There will be a screening of two documentary films by Beheroze Shroff (University of California, Irvine, USA) which give insights into the roots of the Sidis (Afro-Indians) and their sense of belonging.
’"We're Indian and African": Voices of the Sidis’ (22 mins).
This film explores the lives of the Sidis in Gujarat. Sidi men and women speak about the challenges they face as caretakers of the shrine of their ancestral saint Bava Gor. The Sidis also discuss their sacred Goma-Dhammal dance performed for devotees and spectators. The film also gives a glimpse into the spiritual legacy of the Sidis through the Parsi devotees of Bava Gor in Bombay.
’Voices of the Sidis: Ancestral Links’ (26 minutes)
In this engaging portrait of an urban Sidi family in Bombay (Maharashtra), Babubhai traces his ancestry to Zanzibar. He also reminisces about his work as a stuntman in Bollywood films. Babubhai's wife, Fatimaben, narrates about her grandmother's work in a Hindu royal court. Their daughter, Heena, speaks about issues of identity in contemporary India.
On Tues 9 Mar (Rm G34) and Tues 16 Mar (Rm G32) at 6.15pm in Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU. The two films will be screened on both days. Adm: Free. E-mail shihan.desilva@sas.ac.uk stating on which date you wish to attend.
~ KARA-DO FITNESS EXPERIENCE Weekend Excursion to Hastings on 18-20 June. For info contact Cecil Hackett on 07984 620 829.
~ CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: The Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Warwick is organising an advanced summer school for early career researchers and academics, including PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, on: ‘Theory for a Global Age: The Place of Africa?'
The place of Africa within theories of the global is usually present only by its absence. Or, if it is present, then Africa is there to provide local colour to an abstract global theory, theorised from elsewhere. Even within theoretical initiatives that primarily address the world beyond Europe and the US, Africa is very often left off the intellectual map. While it is common to describe what is global about processes observed within African societies, it is rare to describe a global process as African in origin. Nor is much consideration commonly given to the implication for global theories of the foregrounding of Africa within them.
In this summer school, we intend to place Africa firmly at the centre of key debates within the humanities and social sciences. We will ask, among other things, how these debates change if the starting point of analysis is located in Africa itself. Participants will also consider whether there is a conceptual language or theoretical framework for addressing Africa’s place in the world. This summer school builds on the summer school run last year on ‘Theory for a Global Age: Postcolonial and Cosmopolitan Perspectives.’
The summer school is from 5-9th July 2010 and will take place at the Wolfson Exchange, Main Library, University of Warwick. The cost of the summer school is £350 which includes 6 nights accommodation, breakfast and lunch, and all course materials. Travel costs and evening meals are not included in the fee.
The school is organised around guest lectures, seminars and workshops by faculty from the University of Warwick as well as by invited academics internationally recognised in their fields. For further details please see the website: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/placeofafrica
Application forms are available from the website and attached here. The deadline for applications is 12 March 2010.
If you have any questions, please contact one of the organisers, Gurminder K. Bhambra, Daniel Branch, Daniel Orrells at the email addresses below.
g.k.bhambra@warwick.ac.uk
d.orrells@warwick.ac.uk
d.p.branch@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com Web: www.southwark.tv/quest/aqhome.asp
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