FOOD SECURITY
We attended the ‘Food We Want’ – Sustainable, Local, Fair Project Launch’ workshop organized by the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA) and IIED.
In the developing world there are 800 million children, women and men who are malnourished or starving. This is an immediate challenge to agriculture. Modern agricultural methods have resulted in spectacular increases in productivity in the last decade, however progress in the drive to reduce hunger has been slow and the proportion of undernourished people remains very high. According to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, major adjustments are needed in agricultural, environmental and macroeconomic policy, at both national and international levels, in developed as well as developing countries, to create the conditions for sustainable agriculture and rural development. Sustainable agriculture is adversely affected by degradation of land, loss of biodiversity, environmental pollution, reduction of health standards, and a general decrease in the quality of life for local farmers.
Despite this recognition, the European and international trade policies and the current industrial agriculture model have favoured a technological approach to food production and distribution that undermines the family-based agriculture enterprise that in a continent like Afrika provides more than 90% of agricultural production, employs more than 60% of the population and manages more than 95% of agricultural territory (World Resources Institute).
Panel Discussion: ‘Food Security in Africa - Critical Issues for Small Scale Producers’
Dr. Michel Pimbert (Principal Researcher, Natural Resources Group, IIED) felt that food insecurity is a result of failed policies and the opening up of Afrikan markets to unfair competition is a continuation of colonial schemes. While major western organisations are well-funded there is comparatively little support from donors for local organisations. He said there was a need to strengthen security of tenure over the means of production. Problems affecting food security include inadequate storage, weak supply systems and a lack of price stability. Although this was not an example he gave it is quite common for donors to insist that fund recipients in numerous countries concentrate on a certain type of crop as a way of alleviating poverty but then when the market becomes over-saturated or there is a crash in prices due to speculation and external manipulation in the market communities who have sunk all their time, money and energy into that method or commodity find themselves with even less opportunity to escape poverty. Dr Pimbert did point out that to address some of these situations a Pan-African Farmers Organisation had been formed and there are plans for the UN’s FAO to create a civil society mechanism.
Micheline Ravololonarisoa (International Consultant and former Chief Africa section, UNIFEM) emphasised that women’s participation is an issue that should be the concern of everybody and any policy framework that ignores women is doomed to fail. In many countries 70% of GDP is women’s work in agriculture. Supporting women’s contribution is thus an aid to economic growth yet less than 4% of overseas aid goes to improve women’s agricultural performance.
Women have very little say in the marketing and production of goods. Commercially profitable products are taken over by men and in many policies women are not considered as farmers especially where they operate small-scale plots. There is also the issue of forced eviction and foreclosure of smallholders a trend of confiscation that goes back to the days of colonialism. Globally there is a need to reduce and eliminate trade distortion on subsidies [e.g. a cow in Europe gets a bigger subsidy than Afrikans earn in a year]. She also called for an increase public sector investments in research.
Dr. William Lume (Director, Centre for Inter-African Relations / CEFIAR) pointed out that many people at the primary level of production want to escape it. Intra-community trade is low while international trade for export is high thus development workers need to be able to mobilise communities for intra-community exchange. There is a need to think more about techniques that work rather than technology. There is also a problem that much research is not into long-term foods that people have historically eaten or used locally but grains and cash crops. Dr Lume felt international organisations should limit themselves to advocacy and emergency relief while governments should look at policy and fundraising. He also highlighted the growing obesity problem which exists at the same time as the withdrawal of nutrition as people adopt western diets and lifestyles.
Ethel del Pozo-Vergnes, a researcher from IIED’s Sustainable Markets Group, summed up the presentations. She started by pointing out that 80% of food comes from small-scale farmers and informal markets. Although not raised by the panelists she highlighted the role of climate change in creating food instability and thus there is a need to create resilient systems. Western donors, governments and organisations are still controlling markets and policies even when it is claimed to be sustainable. There is thus a need for the capacity building of organisations to enable them to challenge unfair terms of trade and scale up projects
There is an invisibility of women for instance where access to funds and services are dependent on the use of ID cards which many may not have. Few young people are still in farming with many moving to urban societies and families thus living on remittances. There is a need to create employment for whole families not just one family member. By 2050 70% of people will live in urban areas that raises the questions of who is going to produce the food? Are we going to create policies for what farmers’ lives were 10, 20 years ago - as they want to live on more than $1 a day?
When the issue of gender and land tenure was raised in the Q&A Dr Lume remarked that there was an onus on men not to reinforce stereotypes. Access to cash is access to power and violence. He also highlighted the negative impact of emphasis on an overpriced narrow range of vegetables. Dr Pimbert finished by looking at the issue of patents which he regarded as individualistic inferring monopoly control.
Part II: Food We Want Project Launch
Bereket Tsegay, (Project National Coordinator, UK, Food We Want) outlined the Communication and Campaigning Strategy by remarking that it was a sad situation that people still die for absence of food in a time of technological and economic advancement. The Food We Want Project will focus on media to propagate ideas on sustainable agriculture and the environment. There will be nine partners I different countries including Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya with PENHA as the British partner.
Menbere Hailemariam, (Project Press Officer, UK) said the web portal in five languages will be the main resource of the project. There will be a school education campaign, the development of online training and workshops and a European media contest focusing on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture where the award will be a journalist research grant.
Overall Objectives
To promote the great potential role of sustainable agriculture as a tool to fight hunger and poverty, maintaining a sustainable path for development and avoiding natural resources depletion, both in Europe and developing countries.
To raise public awareness in Europe and developing countries regarding the link between development and sustainable agriculture issues.
To foster synergies between development actors, institutions and civil society for more equitable North-South relations.
Specific Objectives
To mobilize greater support for actions against poverty and empower civil societies to responsibly and sustainably care for development and food security.
E-mail: info@penhanetwork.org
Web: http://www.penhanetwork.org/pages/international-Office.html
- IIED BLOG ON FOOD WE WANT PANEL DISCUSSION
Agricultural development: business as usual is not an option
Nicole Kenton, 5 April 2012
Following the 2008 global food price hikes and riots, national governments and transnational corporations are increasingly interested in investing in large-scale African agricultural projects. While these land acquisitions gather pace, 925 million people remain undernourished worldwide, with 239 million living in sub-Saharan Africa. In this new context, the question is not only how sustainable large-scale industrial agriculture is, but also what model of food production and farming is most effective in addressing the question of hunger – and for whom.
Those people most at risk of going hungry are ironically often directly involved in producing food. Many of them are small-scale African farmers. What needs to be done at micro, meso and macro levels to improve their food security? This question and ways forward were discussed at the Food we want – Sustainable, Local, Fair event held at IIED last week.
Food security is defined as existing when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs” (World Food Summit, 1996 PDF). It’s a complex issue, interlinked with health, sustainable economic development, environment and trade.
The majority of farmers in Africa are women – they contribute 70% of food production and account for nearly half of all farm labour (such as cultivation, weeding, harvesting), and 80–90% of food processing, storage and transport. Yet they receive less than 10% of small farm credit and own just 1% of land because they often lack rights to the land they till. Land rights tend to be held by men or kinship groups controlled by men, and women have access mainly through a male relative, usually a father or husband. Even then, women are routinely obliged to hand over the proceeds of any farm sales to a male and have little say over how those earnings are used.
Giving women farmers more secure access to the land they farm and improving their access to appropriate resources – such as seeds, fertilizers, credit – and to technologies, markets, land and decision making processes – would pay multiple dividends in the form of increased agricultural productivity. It would also be the first step to achieving food sovereignty and ultimately, improve household nutrition.
But how to improve access to agricultural information, services, training and opportunities so that women farmers become better integrated into wider commercial markets? According to panelist Micheline Ravololonarisoa, formerly with UN Women, there is increasing female participation in decision making relating to agricultural practises emerging from grassroots organisations in many regions of Africa.
Changing mind sets is the first step. Agri-businesses must significantly shift their thinking about women in the global marketplace and secure the notion of women as economic agents in agriculture. For this shift in mindset to be effective and sustainable, it must extend beyond the global food trade to the male-dominated arena of politics.
Promising focus: African family farming
A promising focus for reinvestment would be African family farming combined with modern agroecological approaches. One solution put forward by one of the panelists, Michel Pimbert, is an agricultural system that combines modern science with indigenous knowledge systems. These agroecological models would mimic biological processes found in nature, while being supported by cutting edge scientific research. These options would yield income, fulfil cultural and spiritual functions and be more sustainable long term as shown by Jules Pretty in his report. Pimbert emphasises the need to scale up in order to viably produce food for populations who lack access to agricultural land or the means to produce their own food. According to Pimbert, the framework of food sovereignty creates the conditions needed to shape agricultural investments and policies to facilitate more biodiverse, resilient and equitable models of production in Africa.
“Food can only be secure in your own stomach,” said the third panelist, William Lume, Director of the Centre for Inter-African Relations (CEFIAR), who warned that the pursuit of national and international food security was misguided, without first addressing the food and nutritional needs of the individual. Food insecurity in the developing world is a structural issue underpinned by centuries of unfair trade policies and prevalent power structures with transnational corporations and governments at the top and smallholder farmers and food consumers at the bottom. Most of the infrastructure in Africa today has been designed so that each country competes in a race to export, and not to facilitate intra-community trade.
Tracing the history of food production back to colonial times, he described how local sources of nutrition have often been bypassed in favour of international trading priorities. Post-independence political thinkers, such as Kwame Nkrumah, having been educated by Christian missionaries, followed the European / Roman model of food production and consumption: “…wine and cheese and the like, and if you grow food, narrow it to the grains that are fast maturing….anything that takes a long period of time and is sustainable to the locals, do not include it in scientific research.” This thinking was reemphasised by post-independence governments, with the exception of some, such as the African liberator, Amílcar Cabral, who considered agricultural production by individuals to be a political tool.
Complementary to the approach outlined by Michel Pimbert, Dr Lume advocated a focus on “technique rather than technology,” emphasising the importance of indigenous agricultural knowledge, but allowing for affordable technology to be introduced. Lume emphasised that research and interventions to improve food security should remain at the local level and community level, with a focus on improving farmers’ knowledge of nutrition. The nutritional needs of young people and older people are not the same – diverse and sustainable food sources would ensure everyone gets the food they need. In response to a question regarding how to reduce the “food miles” needed to get food onto the average UK dinner table, Lume suggested widespread household “microplanting” of vegetables in homes here in the UK and in Africa would reduce food miles and the market demand for those foods.
Summing up, Ethel del Pozo-Vergnes, a researcher from IIED’s Sustainable Markets Group, highlighted ways forward for a food secure future:
1. With the majority of food in Africa being produced by small scale farmers, it is vital to recognise the importance of local, informal markets as a key method for selling their produce.
2. Creating resilient, sustainable agricultural systems that can withstand stresses such as climate change requires linking agricultural and ecological practices more closely.
3. Food insecurity is often driven by inequitable export policies and trade agreements – farmers need to be considered and involved in policy making in the future.
4. Women’s crucial contribution to food production and the economy needs to be recognised and their visibility raised, particularly at national level.
5. The nutritional needs of individuals and households must be better understood and considered when developing food security interventions.
6. With urban migration, there are fewer young people left in rural areas, leaving mainly older women and children running the farm. Understanding the drivers and innovations that could engage youth in agriculture might help keep them farming in the future.
Sustainable farming systems using indigenous and modern farming techniques can be built on the foundations of the family household and farm. Increasingly involving women and smallholder farmers in agricultural and food trade policy creation is also crucial for addressing hunger, poverty and the effects of climate change, and can begin to build a more food secure future for farmers in Africa.
Find out more
Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
What works for women: Proven approaches for empowering women smallholders and achieving food security
Written jointly by Anthony Stonehouse, a consultant with IIED, and Nicole Kenton, co-editor of Participatory Learning and Action.
Web: http://www.iied.org/blogs/agricultural-development-business-as-usual-not-an-option
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
APR PROMOS
~ ‘GABON - TRADITIONAL SONGS AND DANCES, BWITI TRIBUTE’ – Mbeng-Ntam [ARC Music – Out Now] This album is a powerful, ritualistic song-cycle from the Mbeng-Ntam group, 30 members of the same Gabonese family who identify themselves through their own Bwiti culture. They believe that understanding sacred plants and other living tree species enhances the human family’s health and awareness. In 1998 they set up an art village and organisation around three objectives: to preserve the authentic character of the ‘Bois-Sacre’ (‘Sacred Wood’) through the Bwiti initiation ceremony; to increase the awareness of Gabonese dances through shows, feature clips and traditional evenings; and to develop Gabonese craft industry through making and exhibiting ceremonial and authentic objects. It is worth running through the song titles to get a fuller appreciation of the cultural significance of their work;
1) Mongongo: Enigho (The Universal Unity); Makonga (The Genie Is Standing); Nganga Missoko (The Healers of the Forest)
2) Missoko: Nghouba (The Origin of Life); Tsotso Na Di Koki (Calling The Genie); Mbe Mbe (For Ever) (Tribute To Dibobe)
3) Elomba: Mama Yeni Wouais (The Vision); Ngote Lolo (The Rejoicing); Okouyi Aka Nyama (The Awareness)
4) Alougha: Kara Alere (The Choice); Wayi Nze (The Wealth); Awi Yama (The Beauty)
5) Ngoma: Mazimba (Litany) (Tribute To Dibobe); Nana Male Wa (The Universal Mother); Nana Ane Ngoma (The Female Divinity); Male Ngoma Ening Oya (The Regained Energy); Male Mbeng-Ntam (The Achievement)
~ ‘THE BARIBA SOUND’ - Le Super Borgou de Parakou [Analog Africa – Out Now] Analog Africa revisit one of the bands they featured on ‘African Scream Contest’. Le Super Borgou de Parakou come from what is known as the Islamic Funk Belt that stretches across northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin. The tracks are culled from three labels – Discadam and its subsidiaries, Echos Sonores du Borgou and ISN (Impressions Sonores du Nord) - owned by El Hadj Mama Adam. The band was founded by ‘Franco’ Moussa Mama, who was also a guitarist, singer and organist ‘Congolaise Benin Ye,’ featured on ‘African Scream Contest’ is present here along with 14 other tracks of this raw and psychedelic variant of Afro-Beat.
Their taste for Afro-Beat was inspired during a stint in Nigeria, where they learned to reinterpret the
original style of Fela Kuti. By 1969, Super Borgou began touring Niger and found work as the resident band of the bar “Congolaise” in the capital Niamey. Operated by a former Guinean military man who disagreed with the politics of then president Sékou Touré and consequently fled the country, the venue proved to be a fruitful venture for the band. They made enough to upgrade their equipment and purchased an organ to diversify their sound. Super Borgou’s high-octane live performances were majestic and convinced Celestin Houenou Sezan, co-founder and manager of Albarika Store, that this was the band worthy of releasing the legendary label’s very first EP record. They were very good people so we dedicated a song to them called “Congolaise Benin Ye.”
As Moussa says their songs were about “life in general - day to day problems. Love, life, death and social issues. We also composed revolutionary songs based on socialist doctrines, encouraging people to work harder for the development of our country. We were a band of variety, whatever was in fashion at that time, we had to adopt to satisfy the demand. Often we would adopt the beat but then we added lyrics in our local languages, Dendi or Bariba. We played modern renditions of our folklore.” As Borgou’s emissaries, they paid tribute to those who upheld the historic state’s most revered traditions, such as Bio Guerra, a Bariba warrior who led Borgou’s resistance against French colonial occupation.
Aske – (Moussa – Mama)
Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo, Eh déman labarigo
ganyi dodo, Kiniginari kari ganyi woh, Wenou nari
kari ganyi woh, Mintéribakaté nan ganyi woh,
Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo, Anssari bou guerre
pétépété, An wan ban mari, Wéré ka wéré saro,
Amouda guiri guiri saro, Dété gueri saro ganyi woh,
Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo
Manikamin non na harou yoh beh, Soubouroucouta
kinte non nan haroube, Zarewoh abacouncourido
ganyi woh, Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo, Zougou
bayo man batouman kinin teh, Nanan dirato man
yanleh - aske! Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo
(Instrumental)
“Flash”
The sun has struck.
In the field the rain has struck.
What are we going to do with this adventure?
When you’re not around, they talk badly about you,
and when you are present, they keep silent.
Where are the times, when we knew men?
I´m talking about the kind of men we knew from
Soubouroucouta.
The wise men from Djougou should just give us a
place so that those
“ladies” can entertain themselves. Flash!
Adiza Claire
Orchestre Super Borgou
Adiza Adiza – Adiza Adiza, Oh Claire – oh Claire
Dah honwon ounga Adiza seamon man monrou,
Domi kanssia géré gannan, Dah honwon hékanki
handi montagne bonwon, Bado zinyin séandou banni
Dah honwon hékanki handi montagne bonwon,
Bah héré gaga séan kounwou, Ah hounan zébou
yon – agononon n’bininga, Ah noun diyoh – agonon
n’monga, Ah kpara kpéyoh – aganon n’kéga, Ah
houndé binin – agonon n’kanminga, Adiza Adiza Adiza
. oh oh Claire, Adiza Adiza Adiza . oh oh Claire
(Instrumental)
Oh Adiza ifoh Adéré oun seh. Zari Binin koubé.
Montagne bon Natitingou, abinin séni oun seh dana
diné, Assinko gonan a bonwon, hédinon oun son hini
kakadiké, Donc oun goba an bounon houndé kininh,
assou boriya Adiza.
Dénba yékitéh man yékiteh.
Ah hounan zébouyoh – agonon n’Binin gah, Ah noun
diyoh – agonon n’monga, Ah kpara kpéyoh – agonon
n’kéga, Adiza Adiza Adiza, oh Claire - Adiza Adiza
Adiza, Claire, Ah hounan zébouyo – agonon n’binin
gah, Ah noundiyo – agonon n’monga, Ah kpara
kpéyo – agonon n’kéga, Ah hounde Binin
“Adiza Claire”
When I remember the things you told me up in
the mountains, even if I had been ill, I would have
regained my health. When I remember the things
you told me up in the mountains, even if I had felt
hungry, I would have felt satisfied.
My breath is in your heart, My vision is in your eyes
My traveling is in your toes, My life is in your hands.
Hey Adiza! What did I do to you? Since we last met
on the mountain in Natitingou I told you, if I don’t
see you I don’t feel at ease, but you never returned
since, do you want me to die? Its really bad. Please
come back.
NUBIART LIBRARY – APR 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.
~ ‘OIL ON WATER’ - Helon Habila [Hamish Hamilton. ISBN: 978-0-241-14486-2]
“I’ve seen children snatched away from their mothers, never to be reunited. I’ve seen husbands taken from their wives and kids and sent away to prison. I’ve seen grown men flogged by soldiers in front of their kids. That’s how history is made, and it’s our job to witness it...I’ve also witnessed ordinary bystanders pull passengers from burning cars, I’ve seen judges sentence generals and politicians to hard labour, without fear. I’ve seen students stand up to soldiers and policemen, protesting against injustice. If you’re patient, you’ll see those moments too, and you’ll write about them.” Zaq, p60-61.
We’ve been a big fan of Helon Habila’s writing for the past decade and this is another powerful addition to his canon. ‘Oil on Water’ follows two Nigerian journalists - the young cub reporter Rufus and the seasoned, cynical hack Zaq - as they pursue the kidnappers of Isabel Floode, the European wife of a petroleum engineer. As they weave their way through the chaos and environmental degradation of the Niger Delta they realise the story is not as straightforward as they had been led to believe.
Rebel movements constantly fighting the military have brought new dangers to the Delta and the poor villagers never know who will invade their villages and threaten them next. There are also deadly dangers from the pollution of gas flaring and illegally tapped oil pipes, The local population of fishermen and farmers, with memories of a simpler and healthier life and happier times, are caught in the middle, but also tempted by promised riches from the oil wells on their shores. A village that accepts an oil company payout is initially jubilant but then livestock, crops and finally villagers begin to die, while the survivors are bought off with minor oil company jobs, join militant groups or turn to kidnapping for profit.
“Write only the truth. Tell them about the flares you see at night, and the oil on the water. And the soldiers forcing us to escalate the violence every day. Tell them how we are hounded daily in our own land. Where do they want us to go, tell me, where? Tell them we are going nowhere. This land belongs to us. That is the truth.” - The Professor, p209-10.
~ ‘SOCIETY OF THE DEAD: QUITA MANAQUITA AND PALO PRAISE IN CUBA’ - Todd R Ochoa.
[University of California Press. ISBN: 978-0-520-25684-2] A lot of rubbish has been written, spoken and practised over the centuries in the name of Afrikan Spirituality, Vodun, Santeria, Candomble, Kongo Law, Ifa, Obeah and Ndoki. Ochoa’s in depth account of Palo is an antidote to all that. It is one of the best books we have read that truly explain the Kongo–inspired Palo tradition in Cuba.
As a palero (an initiate of Palo) Ochoa is able to present an insider’s account that is both scholarly and accessible while being published recently allows him to review the best (and worst) of the related literature on the topic and put into context the effects of 50 years of the Cuban revolution on Afrikan religion and healing in Cuba. Through his experiences with the Tata Teodoro (son of Emilio O’Farrill)
and Yaya Isidra of the Munanso Quito Manaquita Briyumba Congo praise house on the outskirts of Havana he outlines the four Palo praise worship traditions (Palo Mayombe, Palo Briyumba, Palo Monte and Palo Kimbisa) and the Kongo-Cuban sacred world of summoned ancestral forces. Palo began as the rule of seven women who wielded seven batons. The men stole the batons during the chaos of enslavement and when Kongo Law emerged in the Americas men were in charge.
Ochoa explains the similarities and differences with the Yoruba-inspired Ocha / Santo (Santeria) and the Fon-inspired Vodun practised among Haitians, many of whom reside in Cuba [cf. Creole Choir of Cuba]. Haitian Rada (Dahomey-inspired) and Petwo (central Afrikan-inspired) Vodoun are closer to the Bembe (from Dahomey Goravodu) of the Cuban countryside which is distinct from both Palo and Ocha / Santo which exist in separate laws. Isidra grew up in the Bembe tradition in Oriente province which is considered less hierarchical and has no initiation but she was later initiated into both Palo and Ocha / Santo. The Ocha / Santo orisas (sovereigns) were closely paralleled to the Christian pantheon of saints so Palo took on the space left to marginalised groups.
We highly recommend this book which greatly expands on Monica Schuler’s ‘Alas, Alas, Kongo: A Social History of Indentured African Immigration into Jamaica, 1841-1865’ for information about the ongoing BaKongo cultural and spiritual influence in the Americas and Caribbean.
NUBIART DIARY
~ GRACE NDIRITU
- ‘African Photography, For Whose Eyes? Constructing And Deconstructing Identities’ Artists include: Philip Kwame Apagya (Ghana), Yto Barrada (Morocco), Nabil Boutros (Egypt), Samuel Fosso (Camaroon), David Goldblatt (South Africa), Seydou Keïta (Mali), Boubacar Touré Mandémory (Senegal), Zwelethu Mthethwa (South Africa), Grace Ndiritu (Kenya), Obie Oberholzer (South Africa), Berni Searle (South Africa), Malick Sidibé (Mali), Djibril Sy (Senegal), Guy Tillim (South Africa), and Iké Udé, (Nigeria). Until 13 May at Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial, Union College, 807 Union St., Schenectady, NY 12308. Web: http://www.union.edu/Resources/Campus/mandeville/exhibits/upcoming/African%20Photography/index.php
- ‘Cotton Global Threads’. Seven contemporary artists working in a range of disciplines: Yinka Shonibare, MBE; Lubaina Himid; Anne Wilson; Malian artists Abdoulaye Konaté and Aboubakar Fofana; Grace Ndiritu; and Liz Rideal’s work illuminates the exterior of the building throughout the hours of darkness. Exhibition runs until 13 May at Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER. Web: http://cottonglobalthreads.com/
~ 8TH IBW FILM FESTIVAL 2012 - APR 13-15. The festival serves as an advocate for ‘cinematic justice’ for Afrikan women, too often invisible, mute and stereotypically represented on the big screen. All screenings are at the Tricycle Cinema, 269 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 7JR. Tel: 020 7328 1000. E-mail: ibwfilmfestival@yahoo.co.uk Web: www.tricycle.co.uk
~ AFRICAN ODYSSEYS DOUBLE BILL: ‘A Hole in Babylon’ (1979) and ‘The Mangrove Nine’ (1973)
Plus Q&A with Horace Ove. ’Hole in Babylon’ is a dramatisation of the 1975 siege when members of the Black Liberation Army robbed the Spaghetti House restaurant in London to raise funds for anti-racist activities. ‘The Mangrove Nine’ tells of the aftermath of a protest against police harassment which led to the arrest of nine people, including Darcus Howe and Frank Chrichlow, and an Old Bailey trial. On Sat 14 Apr at 2-5pm at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1. Adm: £5. Web: www.bfi.org.uk
~ 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
Contact: 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
NB: Nubiart Diary can also be read at www.ligali.org and on the Afrikan Quest website.
External Links
African Quest International
We attended the ‘Food We Want’ – Sustainable, Local, Fair Project Launch’ workshop organized by the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA) and IIED.
In the developing world there are 800 million children, women and men who are malnourished or starving. This is an immediate challenge to agriculture. Modern agricultural methods have resulted in spectacular increases in productivity in the last decade, however progress in the drive to reduce hunger has been slow and the proportion of undernourished people remains very high. According to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, major adjustments are needed in agricultural, environmental and macroeconomic policy, at both national and international levels, in developed as well as developing countries, to create the conditions for sustainable agriculture and rural development. Sustainable agriculture is adversely affected by degradation of land, loss of biodiversity, environmental pollution, reduction of health standards, and a general decrease in the quality of life for local farmers.
Despite this recognition, the European and international trade policies and the current industrial agriculture model have favoured a technological approach to food production and distribution that undermines the family-based agriculture enterprise that in a continent like Afrika provides more than 90% of agricultural production, employs more than 60% of the population and manages more than 95% of agricultural territory (World Resources Institute).
Panel Discussion: ‘Food Security in Africa - Critical Issues for Small Scale Producers’
Dr. Michel Pimbert (Principal Researcher, Natural Resources Group, IIED) felt that food insecurity is a result of failed policies and the opening up of Afrikan markets to unfair competition is a continuation of colonial schemes. While major western organisations are well-funded there is comparatively little support from donors for local organisations. He said there was a need to strengthen security of tenure over the means of production. Problems affecting food security include inadequate storage, weak supply systems and a lack of price stability. Although this was not an example he gave it is quite common for donors to insist that fund recipients in numerous countries concentrate on a certain type of crop as a way of alleviating poverty but then when the market becomes over-saturated or there is a crash in prices due to speculation and external manipulation in the market communities who have sunk all their time, money and energy into that method or commodity find themselves with even less opportunity to escape poverty. Dr Pimbert did point out that to address some of these situations a Pan-African Farmers Organisation had been formed and there are plans for the UN’s FAO to create a civil society mechanism.
Micheline Ravololonarisoa (International Consultant and former Chief Africa section, UNIFEM) emphasised that women’s participation is an issue that should be the concern of everybody and any policy framework that ignores women is doomed to fail. In many countries 70% of GDP is women’s work in agriculture. Supporting women’s contribution is thus an aid to economic growth yet less than 4% of overseas aid goes to improve women’s agricultural performance.
Women have very little say in the marketing and production of goods. Commercially profitable products are taken over by men and in many policies women are not considered as farmers especially where they operate small-scale plots. There is also the issue of forced eviction and foreclosure of smallholders a trend of confiscation that goes back to the days of colonialism. Globally there is a need to reduce and eliminate trade distortion on subsidies [e.g. a cow in Europe gets a bigger subsidy than Afrikans earn in a year]. She also called for an increase public sector investments in research.
Dr. William Lume (Director, Centre for Inter-African Relations / CEFIAR) pointed out that many people at the primary level of production want to escape it. Intra-community trade is low while international trade for export is high thus development workers need to be able to mobilise communities for intra-community exchange. There is a need to think more about techniques that work rather than technology. There is also a problem that much research is not into long-term foods that people have historically eaten or used locally but grains and cash crops. Dr Lume felt international organisations should limit themselves to advocacy and emergency relief while governments should look at policy and fundraising. He also highlighted the growing obesity problem which exists at the same time as the withdrawal of nutrition as people adopt western diets and lifestyles.
Ethel del Pozo-Vergnes, a researcher from IIED’s Sustainable Markets Group, summed up the presentations. She started by pointing out that 80% of food comes from small-scale farmers and informal markets. Although not raised by the panelists she highlighted the role of climate change in creating food instability and thus there is a need to create resilient systems. Western donors, governments and organisations are still controlling markets and policies even when it is claimed to be sustainable. There is thus a need for the capacity building of organisations to enable them to challenge unfair terms of trade and scale up projects
There is an invisibility of women for instance where access to funds and services are dependent on the use of ID cards which many may not have. Few young people are still in farming with many moving to urban societies and families thus living on remittances. There is a need to create employment for whole families not just one family member. By 2050 70% of people will live in urban areas that raises the questions of who is going to produce the food? Are we going to create policies for what farmers’ lives were 10, 20 years ago - as they want to live on more than $1 a day?
When the issue of gender and land tenure was raised in the Q&A Dr Lume remarked that there was an onus on men not to reinforce stereotypes. Access to cash is access to power and violence. He also highlighted the negative impact of emphasis on an overpriced narrow range of vegetables. Dr Pimbert finished by looking at the issue of patents which he regarded as individualistic inferring monopoly control.
Part II: Food We Want Project Launch
Bereket Tsegay, (Project National Coordinator, UK, Food We Want) outlined the Communication and Campaigning Strategy by remarking that it was a sad situation that people still die for absence of food in a time of technological and economic advancement. The Food We Want Project will focus on media to propagate ideas on sustainable agriculture and the environment. There will be nine partners I different countries including Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya with PENHA as the British partner.
Menbere Hailemariam, (Project Press Officer, UK) said the web portal in five languages will be the main resource of the project. There will be a school education campaign, the development of online training and workshops and a European media contest focusing on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture where the award will be a journalist research grant.
Overall Objectives
To promote the great potential role of sustainable agriculture as a tool to fight hunger and poverty, maintaining a sustainable path for development and avoiding natural resources depletion, both in Europe and developing countries.
To raise public awareness in Europe and developing countries regarding the link between development and sustainable agriculture issues.
To foster synergies between development actors, institutions and civil society for more equitable North-South relations.
Specific Objectives
To mobilize greater support for actions against poverty and empower civil societies to responsibly and sustainably care for development and food security.
E-mail: info@penhanetwork.org
Web: http://www.penhanetwork.org/pages/international-Office.html
- IIED BLOG ON FOOD WE WANT PANEL DISCUSSION
Agricultural development: business as usual is not an option
Nicole Kenton, 5 April 2012
Following the 2008 global food price hikes and riots, national governments and transnational corporations are increasingly interested in investing in large-scale African agricultural projects. While these land acquisitions gather pace, 925 million people remain undernourished worldwide, with 239 million living in sub-Saharan Africa. In this new context, the question is not only how sustainable large-scale industrial agriculture is, but also what model of food production and farming is most effective in addressing the question of hunger – and for whom.
Those people most at risk of going hungry are ironically often directly involved in producing food. Many of them are small-scale African farmers. What needs to be done at micro, meso and macro levels to improve their food security? This question and ways forward were discussed at the Food we want – Sustainable, Local, Fair event held at IIED last week.
Food security is defined as existing when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs” (World Food Summit, 1996 PDF). It’s a complex issue, interlinked with health, sustainable economic development, environment and trade.
The majority of farmers in Africa are women – they contribute 70% of food production and account for nearly half of all farm labour (such as cultivation, weeding, harvesting), and 80–90% of food processing, storage and transport. Yet they receive less than 10% of small farm credit and own just 1% of land because they often lack rights to the land they till. Land rights tend to be held by men or kinship groups controlled by men, and women have access mainly through a male relative, usually a father or husband. Even then, women are routinely obliged to hand over the proceeds of any farm sales to a male and have little say over how those earnings are used.
Giving women farmers more secure access to the land they farm and improving their access to appropriate resources – such as seeds, fertilizers, credit – and to technologies, markets, land and decision making processes – would pay multiple dividends in the form of increased agricultural productivity. It would also be the first step to achieving food sovereignty and ultimately, improve household nutrition.
But how to improve access to agricultural information, services, training and opportunities so that women farmers become better integrated into wider commercial markets? According to panelist Micheline Ravololonarisoa, formerly with UN Women, there is increasing female participation in decision making relating to agricultural practises emerging from grassroots organisations in many regions of Africa.
Changing mind sets is the first step. Agri-businesses must significantly shift their thinking about women in the global marketplace and secure the notion of women as economic agents in agriculture. For this shift in mindset to be effective and sustainable, it must extend beyond the global food trade to the male-dominated arena of politics.
Promising focus: African family farming
A promising focus for reinvestment would be African family farming combined with modern agroecological approaches. One solution put forward by one of the panelists, Michel Pimbert, is an agricultural system that combines modern science with indigenous knowledge systems. These agroecological models would mimic biological processes found in nature, while being supported by cutting edge scientific research. These options would yield income, fulfil cultural and spiritual functions and be more sustainable long term as shown by Jules Pretty in his report. Pimbert emphasises the need to scale up in order to viably produce food for populations who lack access to agricultural land or the means to produce their own food. According to Pimbert, the framework of food sovereignty creates the conditions needed to shape agricultural investments and policies to facilitate more biodiverse, resilient and equitable models of production in Africa.
“Food can only be secure in your own stomach,” said the third panelist, William Lume, Director of the Centre for Inter-African Relations (CEFIAR), who warned that the pursuit of national and international food security was misguided, without first addressing the food and nutritional needs of the individual. Food insecurity in the developing world is a structural issue underpinned by centuries of unfair trade policies and prevalent power structures with transnational corporations and governments at the top and smallholder farmers and food consumers at the bottom. Most of the infrastructure in Africa today has been designed so that each country competes in a race to export, and not to facilitate intra-community trade.
Tracing the history of food production back to colonial times, he described how local sources of nutrition have often been bypassed in favour of international trading priorities. Post-independence political thinkers, such as Kwame Nkrumah, having been educated by Christian missionaries, followed the European / Roman model of food production and consumption: “…wine and cheese and the like, and if you grow food, narrow it to the grains that are fast maturing….anything that takes a long period of time and is sustainable to the locals, do not include it in scientific research.” This thinking was reemphasised by post-independence governments, with the exception of some, such as the African liberator, Amílcar Cabral, who considered agricultural production by individuals to be a political tool.
Complementary to the approach outlined by Michel Pimbert, Dr Lume advocated a focus on “technique rather than technology,” emphasising the importance of indigenous agricultural knowledge, but allowing for affordable technology to be introduced. Lume emphasised that research and interventions to improve food security should remain at the local level and community level, with a focus on improving farmers’ knowledge of nutrition. The nutritional needs of young people and older people are not the same – diverse and sustainable food sources would ensure everyone gets the food they need. In response to a question regarding how to reduce the “food miles” needed to get food onto the average UK dinner table, Lume suggested widespread household “microplanting” of vegetables in homes here in the UK and in Africa would reduce food miles and the market demand for those foods.
Summing up, Ethel del Pozo-Vergnes, a researcher from IIED’s Sustainable Markets Group, highlighted ways forward for a food secure future:
1. With the majority of food in Africa being produced by small scale farmers, it is vital to recognise the importance of local, informal markets as a key method for selling their produce.
2. Creating resilient, sustainable agricultural systems that can withstand stresses such as climate change requires linking agricultural and ecological practices more closely.
3. Food insecurity is often driven by inequitable export policies and trade agreements – farmers need to be considered and involved in policy making in the future.
4. Women’s crucial contribution to food production and the economy needs to be recognised and their visibility raised, particularly at national level.
5. The nutritional needs of individuals and households must be better understood and considered when developing food security interventions.
6. With urban migration, there are fewer young people left in rural areas, leaving mainly older women and children running the farm. Understanding the drivers and innovations that could engage youth in agriculture might help keep them farming in the future.
Sustainable farming systems using indigenous and modern farming techniques can be built on the foundations of the family household and farm. Increasingly involving women and smallholder farmers in agricultural and food trade policy creation is also crucial for addressing hunger, poverty and the effects of climate change, and can begin to build a more food secure future for farmers in Africa.
Find out more
Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
What works for women: Proven approaches for empowering women smallholders and achieving food security
Written jointly by Anthony Stonehouse, a consultant with IIED, and Nicole Kenton, co-editor of Participatory Learning and Action.
Web: http://www.iied.org/blogs/agricultural-development-business-as-usual-not-an-option
African Quest International
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.APR PROMOS
~ ‘GABON - TRADITIONAL SONGS AND DANCES, BWITI TRIBUTE’ – Mbeng-Ntam [ARC Music – Out Now] This album is a powerful, ritualistic song-cycle from the Mbeng-Ntam group, 30 members of the same Gabonese family who identify themselves through their own Bwiti culture. They believe that understanding sacred plants and other living tree species enhances the human family’s health and awareness. In 1998 they set up an art village and organisation around three objectives: to preserve the authentic character of the ‘Bois-Sacre’ (‘Sacred Wood’) through the Bwiti initiation ceremony; to increase the awareness of Gabonese dances through shows, feature clips and traditional evenings; and to develop Gabonese craft industry through making and exhibiting ceremonial and authentic objects. It is worth running through the song titles to get a fuller appreciation of the cultural significance of their work;
1) Mongongo: Enigho (The Universal Unity); Makonga (The Genie Is Standing); Nganga Missoko (The Healers of the Forest)
2) Missoko: Nghouba (The Origin of Life); Tsotso Na Di Koki (Calling The Genie); Mbe Mbe (For Ever) (Tribute To Dibobe)
3) Elomba: Mama Yeni Wouais (The Vision); Ngote Lolo (The Rejoicing); Okouyi Aka Nyama (The Awareness)
4) Alougha: Kara Alere (The Choice); Wayi Nze (The Wealth); Awi Yama (The Beauty)
5) Ngoma: Mazimba (Litany) (Tribute To Dibobe); Nana Male Wa (The Universal Mother); Nana Ane Ngoma (The Female Divinity); Male Ngoma Ening Oya (The Regained Energy); Male Mbeng-Ntam (The Achievement)
~ ‘THE BARIBA SOUND’ - Le Super Borgou de Parakou [Analog Africa – Out Now] Analog Africa revisit one of the bands they featured on ‘African Scream Contest’. Le Super Borgou de Parakou come from what is known as the Islamic Funk Belt that stretches across northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin. The tracks are culled from three labels – Discadam and its subsidiaries, Echos Sonores du Borgou and ISN (Impressions Sonores du Nord) - owned by El Hadj Mama Adam. The band was founded by ‘Franco’ Moussa Mama, who was also a guitarist, singer and organist ‘Congolaise Benin Ye,’ featured on ‘African Scream Contest’ is present here along with 14 other tracks of this raw and psychedelic variant of Afro-Beat.
Their taste for Afro-Beat was inspired during a stint in Nigeria, where they learned to reinterpret the
original style of Fela Kuti. By 1969, Super Borgou began touring Niger and found work as the resident band of the bar “Congolaise” in the capital Niamey. Operated by a former Guinean military man who disagreed with the politics of then president Sékou Touré and consequently fled the country, the venue proved to be a fruitful venture for the band. They made enough to upgrade their equipment and purchased an organ to diversify their sound. Super Borgou’s high-octane live performances were majestic and convinced Celestin Houenou Sezan, co-founder and manager of Albarika Store, that this was the band worthy of releasing the legendary label’s very first EP record. They were very good people so we dedicated a song to them called “Congolaise Benin Ye.”
As Moussa says their songs were about “life in general - day to day problems. Love, life, death and social issues. We also composed revolutionary songs based on socialist doctrines, encouraging people to work harder for the development of our country. We were a band of variety, whatever was in fashion at that time, we had to adopt to satisfy the demand. Often we would adopt the beat but then we added lyrics in our local languages, Dendi or Bariba. We played modern renditions of our folklore.” As Borgou’s emissaries, they paid tribute to those who upheld the historic state’s most revered traditions, such as Bio Guerra, a Bariba warrior who led Borgou’s resistance against French colonial occupation.
Aske – (Moussa – Mama)
Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo, Eh déman labarigo
ganyi dodo, Kiniginari kari ganyi woh, Wenou nari
kari ganyi woh, Mintéribakaté nan ganyi woh,
Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo, Anssari bou guerre
pétépété, An wan ban mari, Wéré ka wéré saro,
Amouda guiri guiri saro, Dété gueri saro ganyi woh,
Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo
Manikamin non na harou yoh beh, Soubouroucouta
kinte non nan haroube, Zarewoh abacouncourido
ganyi woh, Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo, Zougou
bayo man batouman kinin teh, Nanan dirato man
yanleh - aske! Eh déman labarigo ganyi dodo
(Instrumental)
“Flash”
The sun has struck.
In the field the rain has struck.
What are we going to do with this adventure?
When you’re not around, they talk badly about you,
and when you are present, they keep silent.
Where are the times, when we knew men?
I´m talking about the kind of men we knew from
Soubouroucouta.
The wise men from Djougou should just give us a
place so that those
“ladies” can entertain themselves. Flash!
Adiza Claire
Orchestre Super Borgou
Adiza Adiza – Adiza Adiza, Oh Claire – oh Claire
Dah honwon ounga Adiza seamon man monrou,
Domi kanssia géré gannan, Dah honwon hékanki
handi montagne bonwon, Bado zinyin séandou banni
Dah honwon hékanki handi montagne bonwon,
Bah héré gaga séan kounwou, Ah hounan zébou
yon – agononon n’bininga, Ah noun diyoh – agonon
n’monga, Ah kpara kpéyoh – aganon n’kéga, Ah
houndé binin – agonon n’kanminga, Adiza Adiza Adiza
. oh oh Claire, Adiza Adiza Adiza . oh oh Claire
(Instrumental)
Oh Adiza ifoh Adéré oun seh. Zari Binin koubé.
Montagne bon Natitingou, abinin séni oun seh dana
diné, Assinko gonan a bonwon, hédinon oun son hini
kakadiké, Donc oun goba an bounon houndé kininh,
assou boriya Adiza.
Dénba yékitéh man yékiteh.
Ah hounan zébouyoh – agonon n’Binin gah, Ah noun
diyoh – agonon n’monga, Ah kpara kpéyoh – agonon
n’kéga, Adiza Adiza Adiza, oh Claire - Adiza Adiza
Adiza, Claire, Ah hounan zébouyo – agonon n’binin
gah, Ah noundiyo – agonon n’monga, Ah kpara
kpéyo – agonon n’kéga, Ah hounde Binin
“Adiza Claire”
When I remember the things you told me up in
the mountains, even if I had been ill, I would have
regained my health. When I remember the things
you told me up in the mountains, even if I had felt
hungry, I would have felt satisfied.
My breath is in your heart, My vision is in your eyes
My traveling is in your toes, My life is in your hands.
Hey Adiza! What did I do to you? Since we last met
on the mountain in Natitingou I told you, if I don’t
see you I don’t feel at ease, but you never returned
since, do you want me to die? Its really bad. Please
come back.
NUBIART LIBRARY – APR 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.
~ ‘OIL ON WATER’ - Helon Habila [Hamish Hamilton. ISBN: 978-0-241-14486-2]
“I’ve seen children snatched away from their mothers, never to be reunited. I’ve seen husbands taken from their wives and kids and sent away to prison. I’ve seen grown men flogged by soldiers in front of their kids. That’s how history is made, and it’s our job to witness it...I’ve also witnessed ordinary bystanders pull passengers from burning cars, I’ve seen judges sentence generals and politicians to hard labour, without fear. I’ve seen students stand up to soldiers and policemen, protesting against injustice. If you’re patient, you’ll see those moments too, and you’ll write about them.” Zaq, p60-61.
We’ve been a big fan of Helon Habila’s writing for the past decade and this is another powerful addition to his canon. ‘Oil on Water’ follows two Nigerian journalists - the young cub reporter Rufus and the seasoned, cynical hack Zaq - as they pursue the kidnappers of Isabel Floode, the European wife of a petroleum engineer. As they weave their way through the chaos and environmental degradation of the Niger Delta they realise the story is not as straightforward as they had been led to believe.
Rebel movements constantly fighting the military have brought new dangers to the Delta and the poor villagers never know who will invade their villages and threaten them next. There are also deadly dangers from the pollution of gas flaring and illegally tapped oil pipes, The local population of fishermen and farmers, with memories of a simpler and healthier life and happier times, are caught in the middle, but also tempted by promised riches from the oil wells on their shores. A village that accepts an oil company payout is initially jubilant but then livestock, crops and finally villagers begin to die, while the survivors are bought off with minor oil company jobs, join militant groups or turn to kidnapping for profit.
“Write only the truth. Tell them about the flares you see at night, and the oil on the water. And the soldiers forcing us to escalate the violence every day. Tell them how we are hounded daily in our own land. Where do they want us to go, tell me, where? Tell them we are going nowhere. This land belongs to us. That is the truth.” - The Professor, p209-10.
~ ‘SOCIETY OF THE DEAD: QUITA MANAQUITA AND PALO PRAISE IN CUBA’ - Todd R Ochoa.
[University of California Press. ISBN: 978-0-520-25684-2] A lot of rubbish has been written, spoken and practised over the centuries in the name of Afrikan Spirituality, Vodun, Santeria, Candomble, Kongo Law, Ifa, Obeah and Ndoki. Ochoa’s in depth account of Palo is an antidote to all that. It is one of the best books we have read that truly explain the Kongo–inspired Palo tradition in Cuba.
As a palero (an initiate of Palo) Ochoa is able to present an insider’s account that is both scholarly and accessible while being published recently allows him to review the best (and worst) of the related literature on the topic and put into context the effects of 50 years of the Cuban revolution on Afrikan religion and healing in Cuba. Through his experiences with the Tata Teodoro (son of Emilio O’Farrill)
and Yaya Isidra of the Munanso Quito Manaquita Briyumba Congo praise house on the outskirts of Havana he outlines the four Palo praise worship traditions (Palo Mayombe, Palo Briyumba, Palo Monte and Palo Kimbisa) and the Kongo-Cuban sacred world of summoned ancestral forces. Palo began as the rule of seven women who wielded seven batons. The men stole the batons during the chaos of enslavement and when Kongo Law emerged in the Americas men were in charge.
Ochoa explains the similarities and differences with the Yoruba-inspired Ocha / Santo (Santeria) and the Fon-inspired Vodun practised among Haitians, many of whom reside in Cuba [cf. Creole Choir of Cuba]. Haitian Rada (Dahomey-inspired) and Petwo (central Afrikan-inspired) Vodoun are closer to the Bembe (from Dahomey Goravodu) of the Cuban countryside which is distinct from both Palo and Ocha / Santo which exist in separate laws. Isidra grew up in the Bembe tradition in Oriente province which is considered less hierarchical and has no initiation but she was later initiated into both Palo and Ocha / Santo. The Ocha / Santo orisas (sovereigns) were closely paralleled to the Christian pantheon of saints so Palo took on the space left to marginalised groups.
We highly recommend this book which greatly expands on Monica Schuler’s ‘Alas, Alas, Kongo: A Social History of Indentured African Immigration into Jamaica, 1841-1865’ for information about the ongoing BaKongo cultural and spiritual influence in the Americas and Caribbean.
NUBIART DIARY
~ GRACE NDIRITU
- ‘African Photography, For Whose Eyes? Constructing And Deconstructing Identities’ Artists include: Philip Kwame Apagya (Ghana), Yto Barrada (Morocco), Nabil Boutros (Egypt), Samuel Fosso (Camaroon), David Goldblatt (South Africa), Seydou Keïta (Mali), Boubacar Touré Mandémory (Senegal), Zwelethu Mthethwa (South Africa), Grace Ndiritu (Kenya), Obie Oberholzer (South Africa), Berni Searle (South Africa), Malick Sidibé (Mali), Djibril Sy (Senegal), Guy Tillim (South Africa), and Iké Udé, (Nigeria). Until 13 May at Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial, Union College, 807 Union St., Schenectady, NY 12308. Web: http://www.union.edu/Resources/Campus/mandeville/exhibits/upcoming/African%20Photography/index.php
- ‘Cotton Global Threads’. Seven contemporary artists working in a range of disciplines: Yinka Shonibare, MBE; Lubaina Himid; Anne Wilson; Malian artists Abdoulaye Konaté and Aboubakar Fofana; Grace Ndiritu; and Liz Rideal’s work illuminates the exterior of the building throughout the hours of darkness. Exhibition runs until 13 May at Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER. Web: http://cottonglobalthreads.com/
~ 8TH IBW FILM FESTIVAL 2012 - APR 13-15. The festival serves as an advocate for ‘cinematic justice’ for Afrikan women, too often invisible, mute and stereotypically represented on the big screen. All screenings are at the Tricycle Cinema, 269 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 7JR. Tel: 020 7328 1000. E-mail: ibwfilmfestival@yahoo.co.uk Web: www.tricycle.co.uk
~ AFRICAN ODYSSEYS DOUBLE BILL: ‘A Hole in Babylon’ (1979) and ‘The Mangrove Nine’ (1973)
Plus Q&A with Horace Ove. ’Hole in Babylon’ is a dramatisation of the 1975 siege when members of the Black Liberation Army robbed the Spaghetti House restaurant in London to raise funds for anti-racist activities. ‘The Mangrove Nine’ tells of the aftermath of a protest against police harassment which led to the arrest of nine people, including Darcus Howe and Frank Chrichlow, and an Old Bailey trial. On Sat 14 Apr at 2-5pm at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1. Adm: £5. Web: www.bfi.org.uk
~ 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
Contact: 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
NB: Nubiart Diary can also be read at www.ligali.org and on the Afrikan Quest website.
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