FILM AFRICA REVIEWS
We attended several screenings at the Film Africa Festival. There was a wide range of films from across Afrikan and not just the main film producing countries of Burkina Faso, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. All the films are worth seeing - and we will try not to give away too many of the endings.
~ ‘L’Afrique Vue Par’. This was a diverse selection of ten engrossing short dramas and documentaries put together from submissions to film festivals in Morocco. Rachid Bouchareb’s ‘Exhibition’ recounts through archive footage the fake ‘native villages’ set up in western capitals from the middle of the 19th century where Afrikans, Asians and First Nation Americans were forced to ‘exhibit’ their traditional culture and skills for the patronising entertainment of Europeans at expos and fairs. These human zoos helped to fabricate the myth of European superiority and justify colonialism. The growth of cinema early in the 20th century killed off these travelling villages but not the mindset that continues into modern portrayals of non-Europeans in the media and culture. Nouri Bouzid’s ‘Restless Wandering’ is set in Tunisia with the late Sotigui Kouyate, in what must have been one of his last outings, as a griot who shares his wisdom with local children. The reasoning is cut short by the arrival of a local official who struggles to understand the Kouyate’s lack of attachment to material possessions or nationality. Balufu Bakupa Kanyinda’s ‘We Also Walked On The Moon’, is set in 1969 as Apollo 11 approaches the moon. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire as it was then) there is debate between elders who were educated in missionary schools and follow a more Western fundamentalist interpretation of history and progressives who are learning a wider more scientific knowledge. There is also a nod towards the ancient science that allowed Afrikans to know about cosmology and geography millennia ago.
Sol de Carvalho’s ‘The Shell’ looks at the recruitment of child soldiers while Teddy Mattera’s ‘Telegraph Pole’ viscerally reveals the lasting effects of war, loss and injury on a discharged soldier even when his family and friends try to make his homecoming as warm as possible. Mama Keita’s ‘One More Vote For Obama’ reflects the delight felt by Kenyans at the US presidential election campaign of Barack Obama. It raises the hopes of migrant workers as they try to fit into American life. The increased use and thefts of mobile phones across Afrika is central to Abderahmane Sissako’s ‘The Angry Woman’ and Zeze Gamboa’s ‘Wake Up Africa’. Flora Gomes’s ‘Footprint Of All Times’ is a visual feast of the vibrant threads and wools used in traditional clothes making. Gaston Kabore’s ‘2000 Generations of Africa’ rounds of the selection and that sentiment encapsulates the diversity of lives and stories that Afrikans have told and still have to tell in film.
~ ‘Notre Etrangere (The Place in Between)’. This semi-autobiographical feature film tells the story of Amy (Dorylia Calmel) who journeys back to Burkina Faso to search for the mother from whom she was separated when her father took her to France. However, when she returns to the family compound she finds her mum has left and nobody wants to tell her where she has gone. In parallel with Amy’s story we see her mum’s current life as a cleaner having overcome many harrowing experiences. The film raises issues of migration, loss, patriarchy and adoption. The main actress Dorylia Calmel was on hand for a Q&A session afterwards and she said the writer-director Sarah Bouyain, “wanted to talk about the different kinds of motherhood you can find and how to be a woman.”
~ ‘Koukan Kourcia (The Cry of the Turtledove)’ / ‘Body and Soul’. This was part of a double bill. ‘Koukan Kourcia’ tells of the elderly singer Zabaya Hussey’s journey from Niger to Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast to see the lives of the men who left the country over the last four decades – many after being enticed by her songs - and encourage them to return to Niger to see and support their families. It was interesting to see how the hopes of the men had actually panned out and it continues that theme of migration and loss first within the nation state and eventually internationally.
Screening alongside this was ‘Body and Soul’, a documentary following the daily lives of three young disabled Mozambicans - students Victoria Massingue and Mariana Tembe and shoe repairer Vasco Covane. Rather than focus on how they became disabled we see them at work, achieving academically and expressing themselves through dance and drama. The film has been shown on national TV in Mozambique. Mathieu Bron, the French director who has lived in Mozambique for 13 years said, “With a wheelchair everyday is a challenge. But I did not want an institutional angle on their lives.”
~ ‘Microphone’. This is one of the films we had been really looking forward to. It is filmed in a cinema verite style among the musicians, graffiti artists, filmmakers and skaters in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria. It was originally released in Egypt this year on Jan 25, the start of the main series of demonstrations that eventually ousted Hosni Mubarak. So even though it was filmed before the revolution it was seen as accurately representing the frustrations, police brutality and political corruption that fuelled the ‘Arab Spring’ protests.
The story is about the stifling nature of the Department for Culture as young creatives seek approval for their ventures. Venues are too scared to put on events without a permit and the police clampdown on artistic expressions that are not officially sanctioned. Running alongside this (in an engaging reverse order) is the personal story of the main character, the filmmaker Khaled (the only real actor in the film Khaled Abol Naga), who has returned from America just as the girlfriend he left behind seven years earlier plans to go and study for a PhD in England.
Khaled Abol Naga, who was the main actor as well as the co-director, has been touring with the film and he was up for a wide-ranging discussion which was less about the film and more about the current social and political mood across North Afrika and the Middle East. “Egyptians feel they were born on 25 Jan. What it was was a human revolution for basic human rights. Two years before the revolution people were calling for change so the filmmakers were ahead of the street. The slogans were ‘Bread’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Social Justice’.”
We asked how much the people in the Middle East and North Afrika realise the way NATO and the EU are trying to manipulate the uprisings? They never supported the initial uprisings against Mubarak in Egypt and Ben-Ali in Tunisia. They won’t intervene in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and the rebels in Libya only won because of their intervention. Khaled replied that, “The fact you know and talk about it means people are aware. It’s a whole new consciousness - a critical number of people believing.”
His next film ‘Liberating Liberation’ was started on the night of the ‘Microphone’ press launch when he was called to Tahrir Square to film the demonstrations as there was an inkling it could be the start of something big but they weren’t sure how far it would go. Many Egyptian filmmakers are putting out films about the impact of those 18 days before Mubarak resigned on Feb 11. “Politicians dismiss the revolutions in the Middle East as apolitical. The people in power are hiding from consciousness. The people didn’t just oust Mubarak or Ben Ali they ousted fear. Mubarak always was late. But right now is worse than the Mubarak system.”
~ ‘Twilight Revelations: Episodes in the Life & Times of Emperor Haile Selassie’ / ‘Deluge’. These two documentary films made by Ethiopians shown together look at firstly the run-up to the revolution that overthrew Haile Selassie in 1974 followed by a personal story of a family’s involvement in the revolution and the aftermath during the Derg’s Red Terror as a sister searched for her activist brother’s body. Yemane Demissie’s ‘Twilight Revelations’ explores the entire reign of Haile Selassie from his coming to power, his exile during the Italian fascist invasion, the expansion of education, delayed agrarian reforms, corruption, sycophancy, regional divisions, disease and famine. There are many speakers who were close to the Emperor and the political intrigues both as family and in his entourage.
‘Deluge’ is Salem Mekuria’s story of her own political involvement as a student in the 1960s and 70s. Salem, her brother and her group of friends were active in the movement to end Haile Selassie’s reign. Many of them were communists and the discussions were had over whether they should make a tactical alliance with Mengistu’s army or whether to oppose the army outright and risk the failure of the revolution at birth through division. However, by 1977 as Mengistu increased his grip on power even the safety of those who were close to him was not guaranteed. The film was released in 1995 when the current government of Meles Zenawi had only been in power four years after toppling the Derg so it would be interesting to revisit any optimism Salem may have had from today’s vantage point.
The Q&A was with the pan-Afrikan activist Cecil Gutzmore of London Metropolitan University. He immediately brought the Ethiopian situation up to date. “The madness in Ethiopia hasn’t ended. It sees itself as a Christian island in an Islamic sea. Drones are flown from Ethiopia into a neighbouring territory which the West has decided should be run in a certain way.
One person said it was not in the Emperor’s nature to ignore famine and we should not forget the King’s fight against South African apartheid, Rhodesia and anti-slavery. They felt ‘We have lost direction of history. Ethiopians should recover their past. The revolution was brothers fighting brothers’.
Cecil Gutzmore agreed with a contributor who said that Rastafari has upheld positiveness of that culture. “HIM was deified by Rastafari. But he never accepted his own deification. The Emperor’s nature is constructed by those who are constructing it. There are debts of gratitude that should be acknowledged. He was instrumental in creating the OAU but the AU is an abortion.”
Concerns were expressed about the process in Ethiopia among the elite in Addis Ababa of a revision of the success and failures of Haile Selassie making him seen less corrupt. For instance saying the student riots were over the wearing of mini-skirts rather than that issue being part of a wider set of demands based on concrete socio-political, economic and cultural concerns.
The cause of the ‘72-74 famine was felt to be a virus which entered Ethiopia from Red sea ports and attacked livestock. Cecil Gutzmore condemned the repetitive Western coverage of both that and the 84-85 famines which “have cemented into western minds Ethiopia as a place of famine, Biblical famine. His Imperial Majesty’s regime should have done more as he had good information from within the empire.”
Two books to read for those who wish to know more about Ethiopia were ‘Golden Legends: Images of Abyssinia, Samuel Johnson to Bob Marley’ by W B Carnochan and ‘Travels in Ethiopia’ by James Bruce.
~ ‘Lenin’s Children’. Around the same time, 1960-70s, the Tunisian Communist Party was facing major challenges as it was banned by Habib Bourguiba’s regime and that is the theme of this 2007 film by Nadia El Fani, who’s father was one of the main party stalwarts. This gives her access to many former members to explore the history, political strands and the party’s legacy. As with many Marxist-Leninist parties in ‘colonies’ early control was from and tied to the French Communist Party and those activists who were based in France. In the run up to independence the Tunisian-based activists have to deal with the national question of when do you make broad front alliances. Many Tunisians wanted independence and it became increasingly untenable and isolating for the Tunisian Communist Party to maintain a position of waiting for the global proletarian revolution. The issue comes up again over the gender question at the end of the 1960s as women had felt their scope for influence of policy was marginalised within the party. The film takes a forensic look at gender, the Marxist-Leninist legacy. the National Question, the role of exiles, student protests, strategic alliances, the division in liberation movements of the imperialist position of the Israeli occupational regime after the Six Day War in 1967 and the rise of Islam in 1980s. Tunisian Communist Party were mainly atheist but there had always been Muslim members but political Islam was never their core identity it had always been solidarity with the oppressed. Interestingly it was clear that although only four years old none of the interviewees foresaw anything like the Arab Spring happening in their lifetimes. But they were not alone on that!!!
~ ‘Sambizanga’. Earlier this year the Gasworks Gallery in London hosted Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc’s solo exhibition about Sarah Maldoror’s missing film from 1971 ‘Guns for Banta’. The film was funded and by the Algerian government and produced by liberation movements of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau but was confiscated by the Algerian army following a dispute between the director and army generals in the vortex between the revolutionary politics of the time and personal creative artistic freedom. Finding the footage of ‘Guns for Banta’ became a holy grail for those people dedicated to early Afrikan cinema but to no avail.
Part of the exhibition also covered Sarah Maldoror’s follow-up feature from 1972 ‘Sambizanga’ so any opportunity to see this rarely-screened classic is not to be missed. What we saw was the director’s personal copy - which although in a rough condition is essential viewing. Sambizanga is the name of an area in Angola’s capital, Luanda, with a prison where liberation fighters against Portugal’s four centuries of colonialism in the region were detained. The film dramatises white Angolan writer and political activist Luandino Vieira’s novel of the arrest of activist Domingos Xavier and his wife’s search to locate him among the capital’s prisons in the run-up to the attack on Sambizanga Prison in 1961.
We were privileged and honoured to have Sarah Maldoror with us for a Q&A session which lost a bit in translation but was still revealing about many issues such as filmmaking in a revolutionary climate, the role of women filmmakers, anti-imperialist cinema and the current governmental record of previously revolutionary movements and politicians. She studied in Moscow at the same time as Ousmane Sembene, worked on the set of the seminal anti-imperialist film ‘Battle of Algiers’ and has made films about Aime Cesaire and Leon Dumas.
‘Sambizanga’ was made in the Republic of Congo with Angolan exiles, Congolese and a French production team in the Lingala and Lari languages with French subtitles. Sarah said most of the cast were, “non-professional actors. They were living for their cause. “Muhammad V, King of Morocco, was the first to help. Everyone in the movement was a poet. They wanted to make sure Afrikans had their culture. It was important to find Afrikan heroes. The technical team was French with money from France. The French funded it as it was not about their colonies. The film was successful in the States, Afrika and France. People were very moved by the film. I wanted to represent torture in a different way. Not always showing physical abuse.”
On the current state of politics and politicians both on the Afrikan continent and globally she pointed out: “Countries have been liberated but not in the way they thought. Ruling a country is something you have to learn. Obama still has to learn how to become a leader. Angola was rich in diamonds and petrol. In Afrika they are learning to be politicians and do politics.”
Sarah finished with advice to women filmmakers, “There shouldn’t be a revolution without women. Go to cinema and watch as many films as possible. Hear what the audience thinks of the film to improve your work. Learn to dialogue and accept criticism.”
~ ‘Pegasus’. The final film we saw as part of Film Africa was the Moroccan Mohamed Mouftakir’s psychological thriller set in a village and mental hospital. Exploring gender, patriarchy, violence and the role and inefficiency of mental hospital treatments.
~ Two other Afrikan-related films are currently circulating. ‘Blood in the Mobile’ was screening as part of the festival but we saw it the week before. It is a documentary focussing on the Danish multinational mobile phone company Nokia which was a market leader for most of the last decade. There has been a campaign to ethically source the materials for phones which mainly come from the eastern DR Congo which has been a war zone for over a decade. Companies are still refusing to watermark materials in the same way that the ‘Blood diamonds’ campaign led to the Kimberley process, even with its limitations.
Directed by Marc Foster ‘Machine Gun Preacher’ dramatises the true story of Sam Childers (Gerard Butler), a former US drug-dealing biker who becomes a Christian and literally a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children who’ve been kidnapped, abused and forced to become soldiers. While the area is of particular interest to us given the independence of South Sudan earlier this year there are several aspects both about the ‘white Messiah complex’ narrative of the film and the wider global positioning of the Sudanese crisis which we find extremely troubling.
First up is the way that ‘Hollywood’ and mainstream western media always need a white hero to ‘lead’ the Afrikans before a story becomes of interest in terms of financing, distribution and the number of screens it will be shown on.
Sudan has also become a victim of the shifting focus of the western governments from anti-communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to a further Manichean-like ‘clash of civilisations’ anti-Islamism. Whereas the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) was strongly supported by the pan-Afrikan movement it initially shared an anti-imperialist tradition that would have taken in the likes of the PLO, the victims of the imperialist Israeli occupational regime. However as the 1990s moved on American Christian evangelists hitched on to the struggle dressing up their opposition to the genocide and slavery of southern Sudanese by Omar Al-Bashir’s government and pushing it in a more explicitly anti-Islamic direction. Now as an independent country South Sudan increasingly has its political and economic fortunes tied to the American political star. This is starting to put them at odds with many pan-Afrikanists who oppose increased American military involvement and rabid exploitation across Afrika.
STATEMENT FROM ERITREAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
While we hold no brief for the Eritrean government and we have our own political differnces and legitimate concerns about some of their policies we reprint the following press release to highlight the failings and limitations of the so-called ‘international community’.
PRESS RELEASE
To All International Media outlets,
Neither Gabon Nor Nigeria Represent Africa in The UN Security Council
http://alenalki.com/images/stories/201111Nov/Press%20Release%20MOFA%2011%20November%2011.pdf
There are some quarters who try to imply the draft proposal that is being co-sponsored and circulated by Gabon and Nigeria, requesting the UN Security Council to further a sanction against Eritrea, as being presented on behalf of Africa. This insinuation is entirely wrong and sheer deception.
Eritrean issues, in relation to Ethiopia and Djibouti, were discussed and received a decision by AU Assembly in Malabo, this year, in which, there was no indication, whatsoever, for the matter to be reviewed in the Security Council. To this effect, Gabon and Nigeria are neither mandated by the African Union to speak on behalf of Africa in the UN Security Council meeting nor are they Member States of IGAD to symbolise the Authority. For the two countries to make African issue straight into the UN Security Council by side-lining the appropriate instruments of the African Union is procedurally defective. When viewed in light of its attitudinal ramifications, this venture undermines the capacity and degrades the value of the Union in dealing with its domestic problems.
Thus, if Gabon or Nigeria is claiming to speak on behalf of Africa, the action violates basic tenets of the AU rules and procedures. For any matter to be presented to an international forum on behalf of Africa, it must, first, be discussed at the level of Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) or Peace and Security Council (PSC) or Executive Council meetings, and must finally, be endorsed, adopted and decided upon by the Assembly of the African Union.
Therefore, unless mandated and sanctioned by the AU Assembly, all African countries that are non-permanent members to the UN Security Council do not represent Africa but only their own respective countries.
Furthermore, it is legitimate and logical to ask a simple question: why did Gabon and Nigeria decide to present a draft proposal to put additional sanction against Eritrea while they are parties to the decision of AU to lift the sanction against Cuba.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11 November 2011
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
NOV PROMO
~ ‘THE ONE & THE MANY’ - Muntu Valdo. [Warner - Out Now] Cameroonian Muntu Valdo is a true one-man band doing all the composition, playing the instruments and producing the album in his style which he has dubbed Sawa Blues. In the past has played alongside the greats of Afrikan music such as Manu Dibango, Tony Allen, Richard Bona, Ali Farka Toure and Keziah Jones. ‘The One & The Many’, his most recent album contains 10 well-crafted songs with themes ranging from love (‘Ma Ding Wa’, ‘Musseing’, ‘Timba’), parenting (‘Ate Aye’), anti-colonialism (‘Djongo’), wisdom (‘Lemba’) and personal longing and growth (‘Miengu’, ‘No Mercy’ and ‘Na Ma Wolo’).
NUBIART LIBRARY – NOV MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘IN SEARCH OF SALT: CHANGES IN BETI (CAMEROON) SOCIETY, 1880-1960’ - Frederick Quinn
[Cameroon Studies Vol 6. Berghahn Books & Oxford University. ISBN 978-1-84545-006-9]
Republished in 2006 this book looks at the Beti in Cameroon’s history in four periods: immediately before German contact; German contact (1887-1916); French administration (1916-1960); and Cameroon Independence. As the original version of this book was published in the late 1960s it does not cover much of the post-independence period. An inspiration for the book, written by a former US Cultural Attache, was that prior to 1970 very little was written in English about Cameroon. He said, “My goal was to reconstruct Beti society and to follow its changes across several decades.”
NUBIART DIARY
~ MOSIAH’S A.R.M.Y (ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT YOUTH) presents ‘What Is Kwanzaa & How Do You Celebrate It?’ Kwanzaa is an Afrikan cultural end of year celebration that began in the revolutionary 1960’s. Today it is celebrated by over 50 million Afrikans all over the world. Every year, new people are becoming aware of the celebration of Kwanzaa, seeking to learn more about this holiday, its purpose & its origin. How did Kwanzaa begin? Is it a “made up” celebration? Is it a Black Christmas? Is Kwanzaa Authentically Afrikan? How do you set up a Kwanzaa Shrine? On Fri 25 Nov at 7-10pm at Mama Afrika Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London, E10 5PW. Adm: £3 / U-21s Free. Tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: arm6227@yahoo.co.uk
~ MOYO WA TAIFA (PAN AFRIKAN WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY NETWORK) SOLIDARITY FORUM Political Education Seminar and Public Lecture, ‘Collapse of the Euro-American Empires; which way forward for Afrika and Afrikans’ on the 127th Anniversary of the Berlin Conference. Speaker: Asari Sobukwe (AAPRP). On Sat 26 Nov at 5-8pm at Moyo Solidarity Centre, 365 Brixton Road, London, SW9. Adm: £5. Tel: 07903 678 302 / 07958 660 061. E-mail: njeri4freedom@yahoo.co.uk
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~ AUTOGRAPH ABP present a symposium ‘Missing Chapter, Part III: Cultural Identity and the Photographic Archive’. Featuring the photography of artists Colin Jones, Dennis Morris and Monire Childs who will present their work in the context of the archive. Pete James, from Birmingham Library will discuss the archive as a place to not only preserve histories but provide the basis for creating new materials and readings of those histories. There will be a screening of Autograph ABP’s Photographic Road Show, filmed at Hackney Museum in Feb 2011; the evening will culminate with a keynote speech by Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey. On Mon 28 Nov at 6.30pm at Rivington Place. London, EC2A 3BA. Adm: Free, but booking essential on: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2510757744 Tel: 020 7749 1266. Fax: 020 7739 8748. Mob: 07734 682 239. E-mail: emma@autograph-abp.co.uk Web: www.autograph-abp.co.uk/
~ ‘SIDIS OF GUJARAT: MAINTAINING TRADITIONS AND BUILDING COMMUNITY’. Film director Beheroze Shroff highlights distinctive traditions of the Sidis (Afrikan-Indians) of Gujarat in north India. The annual urs celebration to consecrate the sacred stream at the shrine of the Sidi Saint, Bava Gor, the Khichdi (rice) ceremony to Mai Mishra (sister of Bava Gor), the Balka ceremony (where Sidi men & women are initiated as Fakirs) and the goma dance (as spectacle and sacred ritual), are captured. Along with the celebration and festivities, Sidis voice their concerns as they struggle to maintain their traditions and also earn a livelihood with dignity. Themes: ‘Gujarat, the Land, Gujaratis, the People and Gujarati, the Language’ with Bhadra Vadgama, Secretary General, Gujarati Literary Academy; ‘Traditions of the Sidis in Gujarat’ with Shihan de Silva, Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies; and ‘Sidis of Gujarat: Maintaining Traditions and Building Community’ with Beheroze Shroff, University of California, Irvine, USA. Chair: Michael Kandiah, King’s College London. On Tues 29 Nov at 5.45pm at Woburn Suite, G22/G26, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU. E-mail: shihan.desilva@sas.ac.uk Web: http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/eventdetails0.html?id=10932
~ ANCIENT FUTURE AND MUATTA BOOKS PRESENT RUNOKO RASHIDI AND CHIEF BENNY WENDA. Runoko Rashidi is a historian, research specialist, writer, world traveller and public lecturer focusing on the Afrikan foundations of world civilizations particularly in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, and has coordinated numerous historic educational group tours worldwide. Included among the notable African scholars that Runoko has worked with and been influenced by are: John Henrik Clarke, John G Jackson, Yosef ben-Jochannan, Chancellor James Williams, Charles B Copher, Edward Vivian Scobie, Ivan Van Sertima, Asa G Hilliard III, Karen Ann Johnson, Obadele Williams, Charles S Finch, James E Brunson, Wayne B Chandler, Legrand H Clegg II and Jan Carew. As a traveller, Runoko has visited one hundred countries, colonies and overseas territories in a twelve year period beginning in 1999. Dr Rashidi is the author of Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations. He edited with Dr Ivan Van Sertima, ‘The African Presence in Early Asia’, considered “the most comprehensive volume on the subject yet produced”. Dr Rashidi also authored ‘The Global African Community: The African Presence in Asia, Australia and the South Pacific’. In Dec 2005 Dr Rashidi released his first text in French, ‘A Thousand Year History of the African Presence in Asia’. He is the author of the forthcoming work ‘Black Star: The African Presence in Early Europe’. Chief Benny Wenda is from Papua New Guinea. On Fri 2nd Dec at 7pm at Navarino Mansions Community Hall, Dalston Lane, London, E8 1AJ. Tel: 07956 134 370 / 07506 481 509. E-mail: info@ancientfuture.org.uk
~ BTWSC BHM 2011 EVENTS. Overview Of African History Level 2. On Sat Nov 26 and Dec 3 at 2-5pm at Voice Of Africa Radio (VOAR) 94 FM, 24 Swete Street, Plaistow, London, E13 0BS. Cost: £60 incl. registration for accreditation; or £15 per session to sit in without seeking accreditation (£25 registration for accreditation). E-mail: info@btwsc.com
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~ ‘THE STORY OF LOVERS ROCK’. Dir: Menelik Shabazz. Dur: 96 mins. Lovers Rock, often dubbed ‘romantic reggae’ is a uniquely Afrikan British sound that developed in the late 70s and 80s against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems. Live performance, comedy sketches, dance, interviews and archive shed light on the music and the generation that embraced it. Lovers Rock allowed young people to experience intimacy and healing through dance at parties and clubs. It developed into a successful sound with national UK hits and was influential to British bands. These influences underline the impact the music was making in bridging the multi-cultural gap that polarized the times. The film sheds light on a forgotten period of British music, social and political history. For venues across Britain check: http://www.loversrockthefilm.com
~ WEAVING THE THREADS OF LIVELIHOOD: THE AESTHETIC AND EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE OF BERBER WEAVERS. The Sirwa is situated at the junction of the High Atlas and the Anti Atlas mountain ranges in Morocco. The Berber weavers of the Sirwa are renowned for their wide range of textiles and their technical knowledge and artistry. In addition to embroidery and sprang (an ancient precursor of knitting), female Sirwa weavers master several weaving techniques: tapestry weaving, twinning, brocading and knotting, which they use individually or in combination. Since the 1980s weaving production has complemented subsistence agriculture. The central piece of the exhibition will be a special 19th century cloak, the akhnif, (loaned by the British Museum) a garment unique to Morocco that has inspired the production of a new type of carpet in the 1990s. Visitors will be able to watch as the Sirwa weavers demonstrate their technical skills on equipment especially brought from Morocco and can even try their own hand at weaving. A one-day international conference on Moroccan textiles will take place in conjunction with the exhibition. Until 17 Dec at 10am-5pm at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery https://www.facebook.com/Soas.Brunei.Gallery
~ ‘THIN BLACK LINE(S): THE LEGACY OF BLACK WOMEN ARTISTS’
Put together by Tate curator Paul Goodwin and artist Lubaina Himid, MBE, ‘Thin Black Line(s)’ presents a selection of pieces drawn from three major exhibitions of Afrikan and Asian women artists curated by Himid in the early 1980s: ‘Five Black Women’ at the Africa Centre (1983); ‘Black Women Time Now’ at the Battersea Arts Centre (1983-84); and ‘The Thin Black Line’ at the Institute for Contemporary Art (1985). The display includes works by Sutapa Biswas, Sonia Boyce, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Ingrid Pollard, Veronica Ryan and Maud Sulter. Drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs are showcased alongside a video documentary on the ‘Black Art’ scene and archival documents comprising of exhibition posters, invitations, letters, etc. In Britain, the Caribbean Artists Movement (1966-72) and the Black Art (1980s) have enabled Afrikan artists and intellectuals to retain ownership of the discourse on their arts and cultures. Until 18 Mar 2012 at Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7887 8888.
~ REEL TRINI fortnightly screenings. The new rendezvous for local film aficionados on Sundays at 5pm at Trevor’s Edge in St Augustine, Trinidad. Tel: 744-4956. E-mail: caribbeinginc@gmail.com
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
External Links
Afrikan Quest International
We attended several screenings at the Film Africa Festival. There was a wide range of films from across Afrikan and not just the main film producing countries of Burkina Faso, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. All the films are worth seeing - and we will try not to give away too many of the endings.
~ ‘L’Afrique Vue Par’. This was a diverse selection of ten engrossing short dramas and documentaries put together from submissions to film festivals in Morocco. Rachid Bouchareb’s ‘Exhibition’ recounts through archive footage the fake ‘native villages’ set up in western capitals from the middle of the 19th century where Afrikans, Asians and First Nation Americans were forced to ‘exhibit’ their traditional culture and skills for the patronising entertainment of Europeans at expos and fairs. These human zoos helped to fabricate the myth of European superiority and justify colonialism. The growth of cinema early in the 20th century killed off these travelling villages but not the mindset that continues into modern portrayals of non-Europeans in the media and culture. Nouri Bouzid’s ‘Restless Wandering’ is set in Tunisia with the late Sotigui Kouyate, in what must have been one of his last outings, as a griot who shares his wisdom with local children. The reasoning is cut short by the arrival of a local official who struggles to understand the Kouyate’s lack of attachment to material possessions or nationality. Balufu Bakupa Kanyinda’s ‘We Also Walked On The Moon’, is set in 1969 as Apollo 11 approaches the moon. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire as it was then) there is debate between elders who were educated in missionary schools and follow a more Western fundamentalist interpretation of history and progressives who are learning a wider more scientific knowledge. There is also a nod towards the ancient science that allowed Afrikans to know about cosmology and geography millennia ago.
Sol de Carvalho’s ‘The Shell’ looks at the recruitment of child soldiers while Teddy Mattera’s ‘Telegraph Pole’ viscerally reveals the lasting effects of war, loss and injury on a discharged soldier even when his family and friends try to make his homecoming as warm as possible. Mama Keita’s ‘One More Vote For Obama’ reflects the delight felt by Kenyans at the US presidential election campaign of Barack Obama. It raises the hopes of migrant workers as they try to fit into American life. The increased use and thefts of mobile phones across Afrika is central to Abderahmane Sissako’s ‘The Angry Woman’ and Zeze Gamboa’s ‘Wake Up Africa’. Flora Gomes’s ‘Footprint Of All Times’ is a visual feast of the vibrant threads and wools used in traditional clothes making. Gaston Kabore’s ‘2000 Generations of Africa’ rounds of the selection and that sentiment encapsulates the diversity of lives and stories that Afrikans have told and still have to tell in film.
~ ‘Notre Etrangere (The Place in Between)’. This semi-autobiographical feature film tells the story of Amy (Dorylia Calmel) who journeys back to Burkina Faso to search for the mother from whom she was separated when her father took her to France. However, when she returns to the family compound she finds her mum has left and nobody wants to tell her where she has gone. In parallel with Amy’s story we see her mum’s current life as a cleaner having overcome many harrowing experiences. The film raises issues of migration, loss, patriarchy and adoption. The main actress Dorylia Calmel was on hand for a Q&A session afterwards and she said the writer-director Sarah Bouyain, “wanted to talk about the different kinds of motherhood you can find and how to be a woman.”
~ ‘Koukan Kourcia (The Cry of the Turtledove)’ / ‘Body and Soul’. This was part of a double bill. ‘Koukan Kourcia’ tells of the elderly singer Zabaya Hussey’s journey from Niger to Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast to see the lives of the men who left the country over the last four decades – many after being enticed by her songs - and encourage them to return to Niger to see and support their families. It was interesting to see how the hopes of the men had actually panned out and it continues that theme of migration and loss first within the nation state and eventually internationally.
Screening alongside this was ‘Body and Soul’, a documentary following the daily lives of three young disabled Mozambicans - students Victoria Massingue and Mariana Tembe and shoe repairer Vasco Covane. Rather than focus on how they became disabled we see them at work, achieving academically and expressing themselves through dance and drama. The film has been shown on national TV in Mozambique. Mathieu Bron, the French director who has lived in Mozambique for 13 years said, “With a wheelchair everyday is a challenge. But I did not want an institutional angle on their lives.”
~ ‘Microphone’. This is one of the films we had been really looking forward to. It is filmed in a cinema verite style among the musicians, graffiti artists, filmmakers and skaters in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria. It was originally released in Egypt this year on Jan 25, the start of the main series of demonstrations that eventually ousted Hosni Mubarak. So even though it was filmed before the revolution it was seen as accurately representing the frustrations, police brutality and political corruption that fuelled the ‘Arab Spring’ protests.
The story is about the stifling nature of the Department for Culture as young creatives seek approval for their ventures. Venues are too scared to put on events without a permit and the police clampdown on artistic expressions that are not officially sanctioned. Running alongside this (in an engaging reverse order) is the personal story of the main character, the filmmaker Khaled (the only real actor in the film Khaled Abol Naga), who has returned from America just as the girlfriend he left behind seven years earlier plans to go and study for a PhD in England.
Khaled Abol Naga, who was the main actor as well as the co-director, has been touring with the film and he was up for a wide-ranging discussion which was less about the film and more about the current social and political mood across North Afrika and the Middle East. “Egyptians feel they were born on 25 Jan. What it was was a human revolution for basic human rights. Two years before the revolution people were calling for change so the filmmakers were ahead of the street. The slogans were ‘Bread’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Social Justice’.”
We asked how much the people in the Middle East and North Afrika realise the way NATO and the EU are trying to manipulate the uprisings? They never supported the initial uprisings against Mubarak in Egypt and Ben-Ali in Tunisia. They won’t intervene in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and the rebels in Libya only won because of their intervention. Khaled replied that, “The fact you know and talk about it means people are aware. It’s a whole new consciousness - a critical number of people believing.”
His next film ‘Liberating Liberation’ was started on the night of the ‘Microphone’ press launch when he was called to Tahrir Square to film the demonstrations as there was an inkling it could be the start of something big but they weren’t sure how far it would go. Many Egyptian filmmakers are putting out films about the impact of those 18 days before Mubarak resigned on Feb 11. “Politicians dismiss the revolutions in the Middle East as apolitical. The people in power are hiding from consciousness. The people didn’t just oust Mubarak or Ben Ali they ousted fear. Mubarak always was late. But right now is worse than the Mubarak system.”
~ ‘Twilight Revelations: Episodes in the Life & Times of Emperor Haile Selassie’ / ‘Deluge’. These two documentary films made by Ethiopians shown together look at firstly the run-up to the revolution that overthrew Haile Selassie in 1974 followed by a personal story of a family’s involvement in the revolution and the aftermath during the Derg’s Red Terror as a sister searched for her activist brother’s body. Yemane Demissie’s ‘Twilight Revelations’ explores the entire reign of Haile Selassie from his coming to power, his exile during the Italian fascist invasion, the expansion of education, delayed agrarian reforms, corruption, sycophancy, regional divisions, disease and famine. There are many speakers who were close to the Emperor and the political intrigues both as family and in his entourage.
‘Deluge’ is Salem Mekuria’s story of her own political involvement as a student in the 1960s and 70s. Salem, her brother and her group of friends were active in the movement to end Haile Selassie’s reign. Many of them were communists and the discussions were had over whether they should make a tactical alliance with Mengistu’s army or whether to oppose the army outright and risk the failure of the revolution at birth through division. However, by 1977 as Mengistu increased his grip on power even the safety of those who were close to him was not guaranteed. The film was released in 1995 when the current government of Meles Zenawi had only been in power four years after toppling the Derg so it would be interesting to revisit any optimism Salem may have had from today’s vantage point.
The Q&A was with the pan-Afrikan activist Cecil Gutzmore of London Metropolitan University. He immediately brought the Ethiopian situation up to date. “The madness in Ethiopia hasn’t ended. It sees itself as a Christian island in an Islamic sea. Drones are flown from Ethiopia into a neighbouring territory which the West has decided should be run in a certain way.
One person said it was not in the Emperor’s nature to ignore famine and we should not forget the King’s fight against South African apartheid, Rhodesia and anti-slavery. They felt ‘We have lost direction of history. Ethiopians should recover their past. The revolution was brothers fighting brothers’.
Cecil Gutzmore agreed with a contributor who said that Rastafari has upheld positiveness of that culture. “HIM was deified by Rastafari. But he never accepted his own deification. The Emperor’s nature is constructed by those who are constructing it. There are debts of gratitude that should be acknowledged. He was instrumental in creating the OAU but the AU is an abortion.”
Concerns were expressed about the process in Ethiopia among the elite in Addis Ababa of a revision of the success and failures of Haile Selassie making him seen less corrupt. For instance saying the student riots were over the wearing of mini-skirts rather than that issue being part of a wider set of demands based on concrete socio-political, economic and cultural concerns.
The cause of the ‘72-74 famine was felt to be a virus which entered Ethiopia from Red sea ports and attacked livestock. Cecil Gutzmore condemned the repetitive Western coverage of both that and the 84-85 famines which “have cemented into western minds Ethiopia as a place of famine, Biblical famine. His Imperial Majesty’s regime should have done more as he had good information from within the empire.”
Two books to read for those who wish to know more about Ethiopia were ‘Golden Legends: Images of Abyssinia, Samuel Johnson to Bob Marley’ by W B Carnochan and ‘Travels in Ethiopia’ by James Bruce.
~ ‘Lenin’s Children’. Around the same time, 1960-70s, the Tunisian Communist Party was facing major challenges as it was banned by Habib Bourguiba’s regime and that is the theme of this 2007 film by Nadia El Fani, who’s father was one of the main party stalwarts. This gives her access to many former members to explore the history, political strands and the party’s legacy. As with many Marxist-Leninist parties in ‘colonies’ early control was from and tied to the French Communist Party and those activists who were based in France. In the run up to independence the Tunisian-based activists have to deal with the national question of when do you make broad front alliances. Many Tunisians wanted independence and it became increasingly untenable and isolating for the Tunisian Communist Party to maintain a position of waiting for the global proletarian revolution. The issue comes up again over the gender question at the end of the 1960s as women had felt their scope for influence of policy was marginalised within the party. The film takes a forensic look at gender, the Marxist-Leninist legacy. the National Question, the role of exiles, student protests, strategic alliances, the division in liberation movements of the imperialist position of the Israeli occupational regime after the Six Day War in 1967 and the rise of Islam in 1980s. Tunisian Communist Party were mainly atheist but there had always been Muslim members but political Islam was never their core identity it had always been solidarity with the oppressed. Interestingly it was clear that although only four years old none of the interviewees foresaw anything like the Arab Spring happening in their lifetimes. But they were not alone on that!!!
~ ‘Sambizanga’. Earlier this year the Gasworks Gallery in London hosted Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc’s solo exhibition about Sarah Maldoror’s missing film from 1971 ‘Guns for Banta’. The film was funded and by the Algerian government and produced by liberation movements of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau but was confiscated by the Algerian army following a dispute between the director and army generals in the vortex between the revolutionary politics of the time and personal creative artistic freedom. Finding the footage of ‘Guns for Banta’ became a holy grail for those people dedicated to early Afrikan cinema but to no avail.
Part of the exhibition also covered Sarah Maldoror’s follow-up feature from 1972 ‘Sambizanga’ so any opportunity to see this rarely-screened classic is not to be missed. What we saw was the director’s personal copy - which although in a rough condition is essential viewing. Sambizanga is the name of an area in Angola’s capital, Luanda, with a prison where liberation fighters against Portugal’s four centuries of colonialism in the region were detained. The film dramatises white Angolan writer and political activist Luandino Vieira’s novel of the arrest of activist Domingos Xavier and his wife’s search to locate him among the capital’s prisons in the run-up to the attack on Sambizanga Prison in 1961.
We were privileged and honoured to have Sarah Maldoror with us for a Q&A session which lost a bit in translation but was still revealing about many issues such as filmmaking in a revolutionary climate, the role of women filmmakers, anti-imperialist cinema and the current governmental record of previously revolutionary movements and politicians. She studied in Moscow at the same time as Ousmane Sembene, worked on the set of the seminal anti-imperialist film ‘Battle of Algiers’ and has made films about Aime Cesaire and Leon Dumas.
‘Sambizanga’ was made in the Republic of Congo with Angolan exiles, Congolese and a French production team in the Lingala and Lari languages with French subtitles. Sarah said most of the cast were, “non-professional actors. They were living for their cause. “Muhammad V, King of Morocco, was the first to help. Everyone in the movement was a poet. They wanted to make sure Afrikans had their culture. It was important to find Afrikan heroes. The technical team was French with money from France. The French funded it as it was not about their colonies. The film was successful in the States, Afrika and France. People were very moved by the film. I wanted to represent torture in a different way. Not always showing physical abuse.”
On the current state of politics and politicians both on the Afrikan continent and globally she pointed out: “Countries have been liberated but not in the way they thought. Ruling a country is something you have to learn. Obama still has to learn how to become a leader. Angola was rich in diamonds and petrol. In Afrika they are learning to be politicians and do politics.”
Sarah finished with advice to women filmmakers, “There shouldn’t be a revolution without women. Go to cinema and watch as many films as possible. Hear what the audience thinks of the film to improve your work. Learn to dialogue and accept criticism.”
~ ‘Pegasus’. The final film we saw as part of Film Africa was the Moroccan Mohamed Mouftakir’s psychological thriller set in a village and mental hospital. Exploring gender, patriarchy, violence and the role and inefficiency of mental hospital treatments.
~ Two other Afrikan-related films are currently circulating. ‘Blood in the Mobile’ was screening as part of the festival but we saw it the week before. It is a documentary focussing on the Danish multinational mobile phone company Nokia which was a market leader for most of the last decade. There has been a campaign to ethically source the materials for phones which mainly come from the eastern DR Congo which has been a war zone for over a decade. Companies are still refusing to watermark materials in the same way that the ‘Blood diamonds’ campaign led to the Kimberley process, even with its limitations.
Directed by Marc Foster ‘Machine Gun Preacher’ dramatises the true story of Sam Childers (Gerard Butler), a former US drug-dealing biker who becomes a Christian and literally a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children who’ve been kidnapped, abused and forced to become soldiers. While the area is of particular interest to us given the independence of South Sudan earlier this year there are several aspects both about the ‘white Messiah complex’ narrative of the film and the wider global positioning of the Sudanese crisis which we find extremely troubling.
First up is the way that ‘Hollywood’ and mainstream western media always need a white hero to ‘lead’ the Afrikans before a story becomes of interest in terms of financing, distribution and the number of screens it will be shown on.
Sudan has also become a victim of the shifting focus of the western governments from anti-communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to a further Manichean-like ‘clash of civilisations’ anti-Islamism. Whereas the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) was strongly supported by the pan-Afrikan movement it initially shared an anti-imperialist tradition that would have taken in the likes of the PLO, the victims of the imperialist Israeli occupational regime. However as the 1990s moved on American Christian evangelists hitched on to the struggle dressing up their opposition to the genocide and slavery of southern Sudanese by Omar Al-Bashir’s government and pushing it in a more explicitly anti-Islamic direction. Now as an independent country South Sudan increasingly has its political and economic fortunes tied to the American political star. This is starting to put them at odds with many pan-Afrikanists who oppose increased American military involvement and rabid exploitation across Afrika.
STATEMENT FROM ERITREAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
While we hold no brief for the Eritrean government and we have our own political differnces and legitimate concerns about some of their policies we reprint the following press release to highlight the failings and limitations of the so-called ‘international community’.
PRESS RELEASE
To All International Media outlets,
Neither Gabon Nor Nigeria Represent Africa in The UN Security Council
http://alenalki.com/images/stories/201111Nov/Press%20Release%20MOFA%2011%20November%2011.pdf
There are some quarters who try to imply the draft proposal that is being co-sponsored and circulated by Gabon and Nigeria, requesting the UN Security Council to further a sanction against Eritrea, as being presented on behalf of Africa. This insinuation is entirely wrong and sheer deception.
Eritrean issues, in relation to Ethiopia and Djibouti, were discussed and received a decision by AU Assembly in Malabo, this year, in which, there was no indication, whatsoever, for the matter to be reviewed in the Security Council. To this effect, Gabon and Nigeria are neither mandated by the African Union to speak on behalf of Africa in the UN Security Council meeting nor are they Member States of IGAD to symbolise the Authority. For the two countries to make African issue straight into the UN Security Council by side-lining the appropriate instruments of the African Union is procedurally defective. When viewed in light of its attitudinal ramifications, this venture undermines the capacity and degrades the value of the Union in dealing with its domestic problems.
Thus, if Gabon or Nigeria is claiming to speak on behalf of Africa, the action violates basic tenets of the AU rules and procedures. For any matter to be presented to an international forum on behalf of Africa, it must, first, be discussed at the level of Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) or Peace and Security Council (PSC) or Executive Council meetings, and must finally, be endorsed, adopted and decided upon by the Assembly of the African Union.
Therefore, unless mandated and sanctioned by the AU Assembly, all African countries that are non-permanent members to the UN Security Council do not represent Africa but only their own respective countries.
Furthermore, it is legitimate and logical to ask a simple question: why did Gabon and Nigeria decide to present a draft proposal to put additional sanction against Eritrea while they are parties to the decision of AU to lift the sanction against Cuba.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11 November 2011
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
NOV PROMO
~ ‘THE ONE & THE MANY’ - Muntu Valdo. [Warner - Out Now] Cameroonian Muntu Valdo is a true one-man band doing all the composition, playing the instruments and producing the album in his style which he has dubbed Sawa Blues. In the past has played alongside the greats of Afrikan music such as Manu Dibango, Tony Allen, Richard Bona, Ali Farka Toure and Keziah Jones. ‘The One & The Many’, his most recent album contains 10 well-crafted songs with themes ranging from love (‘Ma Ding Wa’, ‘Musseing’, ‘Timba’), parenting (‘Ate Aye’), anti-colonialism (‘Djongo’), wisdom (‘Lemba’) and personal longing and growth (‘Miengu’, ‘No Mercy’ and ‘Na Ma Wolo’).
NUBIART LIBRARY – NOV MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘IN SEARCH OF SALT: CHANGES IN BETI (CAMEROON) SOCIETY, 1880-1960’ - Frederick Quinn
[Cameroon Studies Vol 6. Berghahn Books & Oxford University. ISBN 978-1-84545-006-9]
Republished in 2006 this book looks at the Beti in Cameroon’s history in four periods: immediately before German contact; German contact (1887-1916); French administration (1916-1960); and Cameroon Independence. As the original version of this book was published in the late 1960s it does not cover much of the post-independence period. An inspiration for the book, written by a former US Cultural Attache, was that prior to 1970 very little was written in English about Cameroon. He said, “My goal was to reconstruct Beti society and to follow its changes across several decades.”
NUBIART DIARY
~ MOSIAH’S A.R.M.Y (ALKEBU-LAN REVIVALIST MOVEMENT YOUTH) presents ‘What Is Kwanzaa & How Do You Celebrate It?’ Kwanzaa is an Afrikan cultural end of year celebration that began in the revolutionary 1960’s. Today it is celebrated by over 50 million Afrikans all over the world. Every year, new people are becoming aware of the celebration of Kwanzaa, seeking to learn more about this holiday, its purpose & its origin. How did Kwanzaa begin? Is it a “made up” celebration? Is it a Black Christmas? Is Kwanzaa Authentically Afrikan? How do you set up a Kwanzaa Shrine? On Fri 25 Nov at 7-10pm at Mama Afrika Kulcha Shap, 282 High Road Leyton, London, E10 5PW. Adm: £3 / U-21s Free. Tel: 020 8539 2154 / 07908 814 152. E-mail: arm6227@yahoo.co.uk
~ MOYO WA TAIFA (PAN AFRIKAN WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY NETWORK) SOLIDARITY FORUM Political Education Seminar and Public Lecture, ‘Collapse of the Euro-American Empires; which way forward for Afrika and Afrikans’ on the 127th Anniversary of the Berlin Conference. Speaker: Asari Sobukwe (AAPRP). On Sat 26 Nov at 5-8pm at Moyo Solidarity Centre, 365 Brixton Road, London, SW9. Adm: £5. Tel: 07903 678 302 / 07958 660 061. E-mail: njeri4freedom@yahoo.co.uk
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~ AUTOGRAPH ABP present a symposium ‘Missing Chapter, Part III: Cultural Identity and the Photographic Archive’. Featuring the photography of artists Colin Jones, Dennis Morris and Monire Childs who will present their work in the context of the archive. Pete James, from Birmingham Library will discuss the archive as a place to not only preserve histories but provide the basis for creating new materials and readings of those histories. There will be a screening of Autograph ABP’s Photographic Road Show, filmed at Hackney Museum in Feb 2011; the evening will culminate with a keynote speech by Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey. On Mon 28 Nov at 6.30pm at Rivington Place. London, EC2A 3BA. Adm: Free, but booking essential on: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2510757744 Tel: 020 7749 1266. Fax: 020 7739 8748. Mob: 07734 682 239. E-mail: emma@autograph-abp.co.uk Web: www.autograph-abp.co.uk/
~ ‘SIDIS OF GUJARAT: MAINTAINING TRADITIONS AND BUILDING COMMUNITY’. Film director Beheroze Shroff highlights distinctive traditions of the Sidis (Afrikan-Indians) of Gujarat in north India. The annual urs celebration to consecrate the sacred stream at the shrine of the Sidi Saint, Bava Gor, the Khichdi (rice) ceremony to Mai Mishra (sister of Bava Gor), the Balka ceremony (where Sidi men & women are initiated as Fakirs) and the goma dance (as spectacle and sacred ritual), are captured. Along with the celebration and festivities, Sidis voice their concerns as they struggle to maintain their traditions and also earn a livelihood with dignity. Themes: ‘Gujarat, the Land, Gujaratis, the People and Gujarati, the Language’ with Bhadra Vadgama, Secretary General, Gujarati Literary Academy; ‘Traditions of the Sidis in Gujarat’ with Shihan de Silva, Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies; and ‘Sidis of Gujarat: Maintaining Traditions and Building Community’ with Beheroze Shroff, University of California, Irvine, USA. Chair: Michael Kandiah, King’s College London. On Tues 29 Nov at 5.45pm at Woburn Suite, G22/G26, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU. E-mail: shihan.desilva@sas.ac.uk Web: http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/eventdetails0.html?id=10932
~ ANCIENT FUTURE AND MUATTA BOOKS PRESENT RUNOKO RASHIDI AND CHIEF BENNY WENDA. Runoko Rashidi is a historian, research specialist, writer, world traveller and public lecturer focusing on the Afrikan foundations of world civilizations particularly in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, and has coordinated numerous historic educational group tours worldwide. Included among the notable African scholars that Runoko has worked with and been influenced by are: John Henrik Clarke, John G Jackson, Yosef ben-Jochannan, Chancellor James Williams, Charles B Copher, Edward Vivian Scobie, Ivan Van Sertima, Asa G Hilliard III, Karen Ann Johnson, Obadele Williams, Charles S Finch, James E Brunson, Wayne B Chandler, Legrand H Clegg II and Jan Carew. As a traveller, Runoko has visited one hundred countries, colonies and overseas territories in a twelve year period beginning in 1999. Dr Rashidi is the author of Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations. He edited with Dr Ivan Van Sertima, ‘The African Presence in Early Asia’, considered “the most comprehensive volume on the subject yet produced”. Dr Rashidi also authored ‘The Global African Community: The African Presence in Asia, Australia and the South Pacific’. In Dec 2005 Dr Rashidi released his first text in French, ‘A Thousand Year History of the African Presence in Asia’. He is the author of the forthcoming work ‘Black Star: The African Presence in Early Europe’. Chief Benny Wenda is from Papua New Guinea. On Fri 2nd Dec at 7pm at Navarino Mansions Community Hall, Dalston Lane, London, E8 1AJ. Tel: 07956 134 370 / 07506 481 509. E-mail: info@ancientfuture.org.uk
~ BTWSC BHM 2011 EVENTS. Overview Of African History Level 2. On Sat Nov 26 and Dec 3 at 2-5pm at Voice Of Africa Radio (VOAR) 94 FM, 24 Swete Street, Plaistow, London, E13 0BS. Cost: £60 incl. registration for accreditation; or £15 per session to sit in without seeking accreditation (£25 registration for accreditation). E-mail: info@btwsc.com
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~ ‘THE STORY OF LOVERS ROCK’. Dir: Menelik Shabazz. Dur: 96 mins. Lovers Rock, often dubbed ‘romantic reggae’ is a uniquely Afrikan British sound that developed in the late 70s and 80s against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems. Live performance, comedy sketches, dance, interviews and archive shed light on the music and the generation that embraced it. Lovers Rock allowed young people to experience intimacy and healing through dance at parties and clubs. It developed into a successful sound with national UK hits and was influential to British bands. These influences underline the impact the music was making in bridging the multi-cultural gap that polarized the times. The film sheds light on a forgotten period of British music, social and political history. For venues across Britain check: http://www.loversrockthefilm.com
~ WEAVING THE THREADS OF LIVELIHOOD: THE AESTHETIC AND EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE OF BERBER WEAVERS. The Sirwa is situated at the junction of the High Atlas and the Anti Atlas mountain ranges in Morocco. The Berber weavers of the Sirwa are renowned for their wide range of textiles and their technical knowledge and artistry. In addition to embroidery and sprang (an ancient precursor of knitting), female Sirwa weavers master several weaving techniques: tapestry weaving, twinning, brocading and knotting, which they use individually or in combination. Since the 1980s weaving production has complemented subsistence agriculture. The central piece of the exhibition will be a special 19th century cloak, the akhnif, (loaned by the British Museum) a garment unique to Morocco that has inspired the production of a new type of carpet in the 1990s. Visitors will be able to watch as the Sirwa weavers demonstrate their technical skills on equipment especially brought from Morocco and can even try their own hand at weaving. A one-day international conference on Moroccan textiles will take place in conjunction with the exhibition. Until 17 Dec at 10am-5pm at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery https://www.facebook.com/Soas.Brunei.Gallery
~ ‘THIN BLACK LINE(S): THE LEGACY OF BLACK WOMEN ARTISTS’
Put together by Tate curator Paul Goodwin and artist Lubaina Himid, MBE, ‘Thin Black Line(s)’ presents a selection of pieces drawn from three major exhibitions of Afrikan and Asian women artists curated by Himid in the early 1980s: ‘Five Black Women’ at the Africa Centre (1983); ‘Black Women Time Now’ at the Battersea Arts Centre (1983-84); and ‘The Thin Black Line’ at the Institute for Contemporary Art (1985). The display includes works by Sutapa Biswas, Sonia Boyce, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Ingrid Pollard, Veronica Ryan and Maud Sulter. Drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs are showcased alongside a video documentary on the ‘Black Art’ scene and archival documents comprising of exhibition posters, invitations, letters, etc. In Britain, the Caribbean Artists Movement (1966-72) and the Black Art (1980s) have enabled Afrikan artists and intellectuals to retain ownership of the discourse on their arts and cultures. Until 18 Mar 2012 at Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7887 8888.
~ REEL TRINI fortnightly screenings. The new rendezvous for local film aficionados on Sundays at 5pm at Trevor’s Edge in St Augustine, Trinidad. Tel: 744-4956. E-mail: caribbeinginc@gmail.com
Afrikan Quest
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
External Links
Afrikan Quest International
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