‘CONCERNING VIOLENCE: NINE SCENES FROM THE ANTI-IMPERIALISTIC SELF-DEFENSE’
Director: Göran Hugo Olsson

“We can do anything today provided we do not ape Europe…Humanity is waiting for something other from us.” – Frantz Fanon, ‘The Wretched of the Earth’

This is a co-production by Goran Olsson - the director of ‘The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975’ from a couple of years ago - and among others Joslyn Barnes & Danny Glover from Louverture Films. As with his previous film Olsson trawls through archive Scandinavian footage shot between 1966-84 which many in Britain will be seeing for the first time. This time the focus is Afrika’s independence movements filtered through the 1960 text of Afrikan psychologist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon’s seminal ‘The Wretched of the Earth’. Ironically, this was rejected as his doctoral thesis by French colonial education authorities. Narration is skilfully handled by Lauryn Hill in one of the first works she did on leaving prison after her three-month spell over her back tax issues.

There are 10 sections: Decolonisation; Indifference; Rhodesia; A World Cut in Two; Lamso, Liberia, 1966; That Poverty of Spirit; The Fiat G.91 [referring to the make of NATO planes used to drop napalm bombs on anti-imperialist fighters.]; Defeat; Raw Materials; and the Conclusion. The film has rare pre-independence interviews with the current Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and the former leader of the PAIGC Amilcar Cabral, along with MPLA and FRELIMO fighters. There are also colonisers from the then Rhodesia, the Portuguese army looking bedraggled and demoralized just before the 1974 coup and the owners of the Lamso mine in Liberia sacking union activists for going on strike for better pay. It took an hour to drive the workers and their families off the Swedish company’s concession and dump them in the wilderness. That is a clear example of why Fanon writes that capitalists have behaved like war criminals regularly engaging in deportations, land dispossessions and slavery of the local population.

One of the most poignant interviews was conducted by Leyla Assaf Tengroth and Ulf Simonsson with Thomas Sankara in 1987, only four months before he was deposed in a western-backed coup by Blaise Compaore. Sankara is explains why he is loath to request intervention from the IMF and how the aid that his country needed was to help them develop the economy and add value to their products rather than food aid handouts which increase dependency and destroy the local economy.

The role of the church and the Christian religion also comes under Fanon’s forensic analysis. The footage used is a very revealing interview with a Scandinavian couple who were overseeing the building churches in Tanzania. They felt that churches were a bigger priority before schools and hospitals even though they were preaching a theology they themselves were not expert in. This is a reflection of how settlers see their lives as ‘epic’ – the beginning of history and all else is lost if they are not there to order matters as the ‘saviours’ and sole visionaries of the entire human race.

‘The Wretched of the Earth’ is still a hugely relevant text for understanding and illuminating the neo-colonialism happening today. Fanon always maintained that the role of the colonised is to reintroduce mankind into the world devastated by colonialism and imperialism. Below are some quotes from the book:

"Colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state, and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence."

“For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity.”

“Europe has stuffed herself with the gold and raw materials of the colonized countries.”

"Come comrades, the European game is finally over; we must look for something else. We can do anything today provided we do not ape Europe, provided we are not obsessed with catching up with Europe. Europe has gained such a mad and reckless momentum that it has lost control and reason and is heading at dizzying speed towards the brink from which we would be advised to remove ourselves as quickly as possible."

“Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions”

“I speak of the Christian religion, and no one need be astonished. The Church in the colonies is the white people's Church, the foreigner's Church. She does not call the native to God's ways but to the ways of the white man, of the master, of the oppressor. And as we know, in this matter many are called but few chosen.”

“The settler makes history and is conscious of making it. And because he constantly refers to the history of his mother country, he clearly indicates that he himself is the extension of that mother-country. Thus the history which he writes is not the history of the country which he plunders but the history of his own nation in regard to all that she skims off, all that she violates and starves.”

“The missionaries find it opportune to remind the masses that long before the advent of European colonialism the great African empires were disrupted by the Arab invasion. There is no hesitation in saying that it was the Arab occupation which paved the way for European colonialism; Arab imperialism commonly spoken of, and the cultural imperialism of Islam is condemned.”

“The native must realize that colonialism never gives anything away for nothing.”

“Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you really want them to understand.”

OBITUARY

Ruby Dee (née Wallace, Oct 27 1922 – June 11 2014). Actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and activist. Ruby Dee has passed away at her home. She was born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio in 1922 to Gladys Hightower and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace, a cook, waiter and porter. After her mother left the family, Dee's father remarried, to Emma Amelia Benson, a schoolteacher and she was raised in Harlem, New York where she attended Hunter College graduating in Romance Languages in 1945.

She joined the American Negro Theater as an apprentice, working with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Hilda Simms ad it was here she met Ossie Davis who was to be her second husband for over five decades. Her first TV role was in ‘That Man of Mine’ in 1946 but she received national recognition for her role in the film ‘The Jackie Robinson Story’ in 1950. In another biopic, ‘St Louis Blues’ (1958), she played the patient fiancee of the musician WC Handy, played by Nat King Cole, but she was finally allowed some eroticism in ‘Take a Giant Step’ (1959), in which, as a widowed housemaid, she is the confidante of a mixed-up 17-year-old played by the actor turned soul and reggae-lite singer Johnny Nash.

Throughout her career she appeared in over 50 films and a took on a vast amount of plays and TV roles including Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking Broadway drama ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ both on stage and in film for which she won the National Board of Review award for best supporting actress. In 1965, Dee performed in lead roles at the American Shakespeare Festival becoming the first Afrikan actress to portray a lead role in the festival. She appeared in over 20 episodes of ‘Peyton Place’. Her choice of roles often reflected her political convictions. She appeared as Cora Sanders, a Marxist college professor loosely based on Angela Davis in season one of ‘Police Woman’ which was called ‘Target Black’. She played Queen Haley in ‘Roots: The Next Generations’ and appeared in Spike Lee's films ‘Do the Right Thing’ and ‘Jungle Fever’.

In 1970, she won the Frederick Douglass Award from the New York Urban League. That same year she won an Obie opposite James Earl Jones in Athol Fugard's anti-apartheid play ‘Boesman and Lena’ and a Drama Desk Award for her role in ‘Wedding Band’. With her husband Dee co-hosted a radio show, ‘The Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee Story Hour’, that featured a mix of Afrikan-centred themes. Davis also directed one of their joint film appearances, ‘Countdown at Kusini (1976)’ and together they set up Emmalyn II Productions Co., Inc. and Dee-Davis Enterprises “with the goal of creating exciting entertainment — be it comedy, drama, variety, or documentary — through language, images, and the sharing of ideas from all corners of the world”.

Ruby Dee won an Emmy as supporting actress in a miniseries special for 1990's Decoration Day. In 1995, she and Davis were awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. In 2003, she narrated a series of stories of enslaved Afrikans in the HBO film ‘Unchained Memories’. In 2007 the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album was shared by Dee and Ossie Davis for ‘With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together’ and former President Jimmy Carter. Dee was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2007 for her portrayal of Mama Lucas in ‘American Gangster’ and won the Screen Actors Guild award for the same performance.

Dee was a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1963, Dee emceed the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Dee and Davis were both personal friends of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, with Davis giving the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965. In 1999, Dee and Davis were arrested at 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York Police Department, protesting the police shooting of Amadou Diallo. In November 2005 Dee along with her recently departed husband was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award, presented by the National Civil Rights Museum located in Memphis. Dee, a long-time resident of New Rochelle, New York, was inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame which honors the most notable residents from throughout the community's 325 year history. She was also inducted into the Westchester County Women's Hall of Fame on March 30, 2007. In 2009 she received an Honorary Degree from Princeton University. Recently, Dee performed her one-woman stage show, ‘My One Good Nerve: A Visit With Ruby Dee’, across the US. The show was a compilation of some of the short stories, humor and poetry in her book of the same title.

Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis had three children: Blues musician Guy Davis, and two daughters, Nora Day and Hasna Muhammad. She will be cremated and her ashes held in the same urn as that of Davis, with the inscription "In this thing together". We at Nubiart salute a true Afrikan patriot and cultural activist.

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JUNE PROMOS

~ ‘TZENNI’ – Noura Mint Seymali [Glitterbeat – Released 23 June 2014] This Mauritanian singer from a family of griots releases her 10-track debut album drawing on the desert rock and blues. Whereas some of the other desert rockers focus on the more melancholy sounds Noura Mint Seymali’s songs are full of uptempo uplifting grooves from the opener ‘Eguetimar’, a song of migrants missing the familiarity of their homeland and families. The songs were recorded in New York City, Dakar and Nouakchott and the themes range across a longing for the past, imprisonment, love and tenderness, praise to the Prophet Muhammad, advice for healthy living and purification and invocations to traditional dance. In her Hassaniya language 'Tzenni' means 'to circulate', 'to spin' and 'to turn'. It's the name for a whirling dance performed to the music of Moorish griots, often under khaima tents thrown up for street gatherings in the sandy quarters of Nouakchott and out across the wide deserts of Mauritania. The turning is not just physical but also the way that the wheel of life and the earth in general turn. On this outing there is a bright future in the musical firmament for Noura Mint Seymali.

~ ‘FULTON BLUES’ – Corey Harris [Music Avenue – Out Now] We picked up this Blues album from the Afrikan-American troubadour on his recently sojourn through London for a series of gigs, talks and the release of his book, ‘Jahtigui: The Life and Music of Ali Farka Toure’ [Ed’s Note: See review below.] While Harris’s inspirations and influences stretch far and wide across time, genres and continents apart from the two bonus live reggae tracks everything else here is Blues. If you like any of Taj Mahal’s output this 16-track album will be right up your street. Some of the stand out tracks include ‘Underground’, ‘Black Woman Gates’, ‘Tallahatchie’ (about a journey Harris made to the town where Emmett Till was lynched and meeting some of the relatives of those involved in the killing), the title track ‘Fulton Blues’ (about Fulton, Virginia, the first place in the US where enslaved Afrikans were landed), ‘Devil Got My Woman’, ‘That Will Never Happen No More’ and ‘Lynch Blues’. A solid album reclaiming the Blues from some of the staid clichés that have been turning many younger Afrikans in the diaspora away from the music in the past five decades.

We managed to catch Corey Harris at one of his book launches in south London where he spoke about his life as a Bluesman and his travels to west Afrikan, particularly his stays in Cameroon and Mali. He ran through a list of the history of the Blues and his influences from the first time he saw Muddy Waters aged 15 to touring with the great Bluesman as part of his band. He explained that to truly play the Blues you have to know who you are first.

NUBIART LIBRARY – JUNE 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 film production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.

~ ‘JAHTIGUI: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF ALI FARKA TOURE’ – Corey Harris [Corey Harris. ISBN: 978-1-495453-42-7] From the book’s title you may be expecting some dry analysis of the late Malian musician Ali Farka Toure’s playing style and influences or a straight ahead chronological biography but this book is neither. You know this from the outset as Harris starts with a history of the last three years in Mali since the most recent round of Tuareg rebellion, the Islamic takeover of the north banning musical and artistic expression and the migration of many Malians out of the north either southwards towards the capital Bamako or more ominously over the border to the burgeoning refugee camps and all the uncertainty of exile.

This recurring theme is interspersed throughout the book alongside Harris’s own biography and musical development, his meetings and playing with Ali Farka Toure, what he learnt of Ali’s history and the musicians around Ali including Afel Bocoum, Bassekou Kouyate, Samba Toure and Ali’s own son Vieux Farka Toure who are the younger generation of stars who are now spreading Ali’s message to the world.

‘Jahtigui’ means 'Father Lion' in Bamana, one of the Manding languages of Mali. It was a term used repeatedly to Harris while he was interviewing those who were close to Ali. As well as a musician the late noble Ali Farka Toure was a farmer, hotel owner, travel entrepreneur and, latterly in his life, the Mayor of Niafunke in northern Mali. Harris says he would have been severely disturbed by the way his country has gone in the last few years. Ali’s Blues was to unite all Malians and he sang in all the languages of the region - Peul, Bamana, Dogon, Songhai, Zarma, Bozo and Tamasheck - though the majority of his repertoire was in Songhai and Peul.

The West Afrikan / Saharan / Sahelian musical and cultural traditions were carried by the enslaved Afrikans when they were wrenched from their homelands and scattered across the western hemisphere and Europe. America, as one of the few countries where the Afrikan drums were banned (except at New Orleans’ Congo Square), thus had a strong focus on the stringed instruments either as straight replication for Afrikan stringed instruments or as replacements for other instruments that would be played first on the banjo and violin / fiddle and then on the acoustic guitar and, since the 1950s, the electric guitar, which is currently the instrument of choice for most Blues artists across the world.

Djeli (griots) are the living memory of the Mali Empire and Mandinka culture. The word literally means blood and one does not become a djeli by the choice but rather must be born into it. The role of this most ancient of professions includes ‘advising kings and accompanying them into battle, deciding proper protocol in royal and noble households, recording the history and genealogy of the people, mediation and arbitration of disputes and contracts, bestowing blessings at marriages, births, baptisms, funerals, as well as playing music.’ A djeli is considered unable to lie and they remember everything so that when a djeli passes away people say it is like a library has burned to the ground. However, they are only one caste higher than ‘slaves’ and many Malians use the two words interchangeably. Although not a djeli, Ali Farka Toure played with all the great djeli ngoni players of his era and he drew on this in his guitar style. He was the only surviving son of ten siblings and his elders initially discouraged him from playing music which was considered to be below his status.

Though he was born into Islam, he also revered the indigenous Songhai belief system that is closely connected with the powerful, life-giving waters of the Joliba (Niger) River. Ali's grandmother Kounandi Samba was a renowned priestess of the Ghimbala famous for her connection to these river spirits. Ali spent many hours listening to the sacred musicians as they performed on the njarka (one-stringed violin), the djerkel (one-stringed lute) and the ngoni. In 1968 he was selected along with the legendary balophone Keletigui Diabate and the virtuoso guitarist Djelimady Tounkara to represent Mali at an international festival of the arts in Sofia, Bulgaria where Ali bought his first guitar. This was his first appearance overseas and their repertoire of traditional music with Ali on guitar, flute, djerkel and njarka was well received.

Throughout the 1970's Ali worked in Bamako at Radio Mali as an assistant sound engineer to Aboubacar Traore. Everyone in Mali who had a radio soon became familiar with Ali Farka Toure's voice and guitar. It was during this time that he began to send recordings of his broadcasts to the Son Afric record label in Paris who released seven of his albums between 1976 and 1988. By the mid-1980s his music was attracting attention around the world and World Circuit Records from London travelled to Bamako to find this mysterious farmer / musician from Niafunke as the Son Afric albums had carried no sleevenotes. This was to mark the beginning of the most successful and financially rewarding period of Ali’s life as a musician. Albums for World Circuit included ‘The River’, ‘The Source’ and ‘Talking Timbuktu’, the Grammy award-winning collaboration with Ry Cooder.

In 2004 he was elected mayor of Niafunke, the northern Malian city where he grew up. The next year saw the release of the first of three records recorded at Bamako's Hotel Mande, ‘In the Heart of the Moon’, featuring Toumani Diabate. The record received another Grammy award making Ali the only Afrikan to receive two Grammys. He then embarked on an extensive European tour with Toumani and the ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate, who worked with Ali on ‘Savane’, the third album in the Hotel Mande series. Ali then cut more tracks with Toumani and the Cuban bassist Orlando 'Cachaito' Lopez.

“To me blue is just a colour. My music came long before the blues was born.” Ali said that his music began long before the blues was born. When he drove across the expansive desert of northern Mali in his Land Rover, he listened to the music of Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Bobby Blue Bland and other blues and soul artists. Thus Ali Farka Toure represented the missing link between Afrikan and Afrikan-American music. To know his music is to know the source. Ali passed away in Bamako on Mar 7 2006 from bone cancer and he is buried in Niafunke.

Updating the Mali story 28 hostages abducted by Tuareg rebels in northern Mali last Saturday have been freed. The hostages, most of them civil servants, were taken when rebels launched an attack on the key northern town of Kidal to coincide with a visit by the PM Moussa Mara who was there to try to revive peace talks. The rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) confirmed that its members had delivered the hostages to aid workers and peacekeepers. The army said eight soldiers and 28 rebels were killed in Saturday's fighting, but the MNLA denied losing any fighters. A Senegalese peacekeeper was also killed. The rebels continue to occupy the governor's office in Kidal - a move the Malian government denounced as a "declaration of war". Three Tuareg rebel groups signed an agreement after talks with African Union chairman Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. The separatists have gained control of much of northern Mali in recent days. The government has yet to sign the agreement which includes a pledge to revive talks and the release of 300 Tuareg prisoners held in the capital.

Meanwhile, Mauritanian-Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako’s feature film ‘Timbuktu’ was one of the first films shown at this year's Cannes Film Festival and it remains one of the most praised. The film is a fictional retelling of the chaos that has engulfed Mali in the last three years and specifically when the jihadis took over this ancient town in Mali and imposed all manner of rules including banning music and football, and introduced lashings and stoning. In 2013, the French government launched Operation Serval, to counter al-Qaeda linked groups in northern Mali.

Abderrahmane Sissako says his idea initially was to make a documentary about the influence of groupings whose foreign members may include Libyans and Algerians. He said at the screening: "I thought at first I could just go with my video camera and talk to people about what they think of foreigners telling them they're bad Muslims if they play football or sing or don't wear modest clothing.
Then I started to worry what might happen to them afterwards. The jihadists would find out what had been said so I realised no one would be free to speak their own mind."

But the director admits he also had concerns for his own safety and that of his crew. “The filming was almost all in Mauritania where the authorities were helpful. But we also shot for two days in Timbuktu. One of the reasons I made the film was to encourage Mali's rulers to do more to deal with the problem of the north. I was delighted the film was chosen to compete here in Cannes: it has focused attention on an area the outside world finds baffling and maybe tiresome. Dire poverty provided fertile ground for the groups we show in the film. None of that is very hard to understand. The international community is now spending tens of millions of euros in Timbuktu and Kidal and Gao. If that investment had come years ago, many of the problems in northern Mali could have been avoided.”

Nubiart Diary

~ NARRATIVE EYE PRESENT ‘IMAGINING TUDOR ENGLAND’. ‘Blackamoores, Africans in Tudor England, Their Presence, Status and Origins’ is the result of 10 years of research by Onyeka and shows that Afrikans in England had important occupations in Tudor Society and were employed by powerful people because of the skills they possessed. This dispels the myth that the Afrikan presence in England began with slavery. The inclusion of African Tudors as part of the National Curriculum is of particular significance as the Tudor period cannot continue to be studied in its current format without exploring the presence of Afrikan people during this time. On Thurs 19 June at 1pm at National Portrait Gallery, London, WC2H 0HE. Adm: Free. E-mail: info@narrative-eye.org.uk Web: http://narrative-eye.org.uk/events.html

~ TEDXEUSTON SALON 2014 PRESENTS ‘RIPPLE EFFECT: EDUCATION AND THE NEXT GENERATION.’ This year’s speakers are passionate about making a real difference through education and engaging with the next generation from their unique perspectives of urbanization, health, empowerment and mentoring. Speakers include: Naana Otoo-Oyortey MBE, Health Research and Development (FORWARD); Kunle Adeyemi (NLE Lead Architect / Project Manager of Makoko Floating School); & Precious Simba (Founder and Programs Director of the Girls Development Initiative). All three speakers will surprise you with their unique perspectives on education that will get you thinking and hopefully doing. On Sat 21 June at 5.30–11pm at British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC2.
Booking: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tedxeustonsalon-2014-ripple-effect-education-and-the-next-generation-tickets-11300384755

~ CELEBRATING SANCTUARY LONDON PRESENT REFUGEE WEEK UK ‘NEW VOICES’. Forming part of Refugee Week and Celebrating Sanctuary London, Praxis and New Voices will be taking over the V&A Museum of Childhood with a programme of live music from around the globe - including Family Atlantica, Shane Solanki aka Last Mango in Paris and London Lucumi Choir - as well as interactive activities for all the family. A photographic exhibition developed by young refugees and Simona Aru - a world renown photographer - will tell the story of the often dangerous journey young people have to make to find sanctuary within the UK. On Sat 21 June at 12–7pm at V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA. Adm: Free. Web: http://newvoicesfestival.org.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/271038713079115/ Twitter: @Praxis_Projects #NewVoices2014

~ ‘THE SPIRITUAL HIGHWAY: RELIGIOUS WORLD MAKING IN MEGACITY LAGOS’. A photography project by Akintunde Akinleye and Marloes Janson. The 120km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway that connects Nigeria’s economic hub with the city of Ibadan is considered the most important and busiest road in Nigeria. It was opened in 1979 at the peak of the oil boom but while it has failed as the artery linking the north and the south of Nigeria, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has succeeded as a stage for the performance of public religiosity to the extent that it can be described as a ‘Spiritual Highway’. Since the late 1980s numerous Christian and Muslim movements have cropped up along the highway. Akintunde and Marloes explore and record these ‘prayer cities’ concentrating on the Christian Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries or MFM Prayer City and the Muslim Nasrul-Lahi-Fatih Society of Nigeria, which translates as ‘There is no help except from Allah’ (abbreviated to NASFAT). These prayer cities have congregations of tens of thousands, competing with each other for new converts by offering a range of facilities and services from faith healing to education and health care. Challenging conventional assumptions of Christianity and Islam as bounded and distinct traditions, this project focuses instead on the convergence between Pentecostal Christianity and revivalist Islam. Until Sat 21 June on Tues-Sat at 10.30am-5pm at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Soas.Brunei.Gallery

~ BRITISH BLACK MUSIC MONTH 2014 EVENTS

- ‘Journey To Justice’ Launch on Sat 21 June at 7.30-10pm at Conway Hall, London, WC2.
‘Journey to Justice (JtoJ)’ was created to inspire and support people to become active in social justice movements by learning from past and present human rights struggles. They are a group of educators, youth, community, human rights and faith organisations, artists, film makers, lawyers, musicians, historians, curators and trade unionists. Patrons are Lord Herman Ouseley, former Chair of the Commission of Racial Equality and founder of Kick It Out – an anti-racist football project. Paul Stephenson OBE, community worker, civil rights activist and leader of the successful 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott against the colour bar. Join their launch, which will be a night of music, song, dance, poetry, film and stories to celebrate those who have worked and still work for social justice. Here's the big question: The day the Bristol Bus Boycott ended was the same day Martin Luther King gave his famous 'I Have A Dream' speech in Washington DC - what was the date?

- ‘Reggae’. Films, Music & Fun for the whole family! On Sat 28 June at 3-7pm at Flash Musicals, Edgware. Adm: £5 / £2. Tickets: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reggae-film-music-fun-tickets-11821260709?aff=eorg

For more info check: www.BBM.eventbrite.com / www.BritishBlackMusic.com

~ KISKIRINE EVENTS PRESENT AFRICAN SHOWCASE MARKETS & FESTIVALS

- On Sat 21 June at 10am-6pm at Romford Town Centre, 97 Market Place, RM1 3ER. Adm: Free. An outdoor event with cultural and artistic representations from 8 participating Afrikan countries. The market promises to have on display the best of Afrikan artifacts, music, food, dance and other cultural memorabilia. The Afrikan market will attract people from all walks of life, e.g professional men and women, families, business people and the everyday people.

- On Wed 13 Aug at 10am-7pm at Market Square, Town Centre, Barking, IG11 8DQ. Adm: Free.
The market promises to have on display the best of Afrikan artifacts, music, food, dance and other cultural memorabilia. There will be live performances by artistes from North, East, South and West Afrika: We will also have drum workshop, acoustic, Kente workshop, choreographer. And head-gear wrapping seminar, drumming workshop crash course and many other Afrikan cultural classes. There will be over 40 market stalls all displaying authentic Afrikan products and services. Be sure to be part of the fun-filled event. And let us use the opportunity to showcase the inherent beauty of Afrikan cultures to the Afrophiles who live in the great borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Tel: 020 8904 4514 / 07956 675 412. E-mail: info@kiskirineevents.org Web: www.kiskirineevents.org / www.africanshowcasemarket.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9097817831

~ ‘CHRIS MARKER: A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT’ EXHIBITION. Widely credited with inventing the essay film, Marker brilliantly treads the line between documentary and personal reflection. This long overdue retrospective screens seminal sci-fi short ‘La Jetée’ - with an alternative intro - and excerpts from his hypnotic meditation on memory, ‘Sans Soleil’. One of the most powerful films here is ‘Statues Die Also’ which explores the denigration and commodification of Afrikan cultural and spiritual traditions. The title film is a three-hour examination of the role of radical politics in France. There are also photos, texts, his cover art, and a guided tour of Marker's Second Life museum led by his cat. You should put aside a whole day for the exhibition or schedule a return visit. Until 22 June at Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX. Tel: 020 7522 7888. E-mail: info@whitechapelgallery.org Web: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/chris-marker-a-grin-without-a-cat

~ ‘BEAUTY IS…’ SCREENINGS AND EVENTS

- On Mon 23 June at 7–9pm at Hackney, London. The ‘Beauty Is…’ Campaign is hosting an informal meeting to discuss our anti-skin bleaching campaign in Hackney. Remember: If anyone comes across harmful illegal cosmetic products they can contact their local Trading Standards services, every local authority has one.

- London (West). On Thurs 26 June at 7-10pm at Ankh Wellbeing Centre, 10 Adelaide Grove, London, W12 0JJ.

- London (South). On Wed 2 July at 7-10pm at CL Art Cafe, 133 Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST.

- London (North). On Sun 13 July at 3-6pm at Voluntary Action Islington, 200a Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JP.

If you are serious about getting involved to help tackle skin bleaching in our community. E-mail: beautyis@ligali.org Web: www.beautyis.org.uk

~ FRONTLINE CLUB SCREENINGS

- ‘Shado’man’ + Q&A. On Mon 23 June at 7pm. At night, a group of young men and women gather on the street corners of Freetown, Sierra Leone. These Freetown Streetboys, as they call themselves, are amputees of the civil war that ended 10 years ago. ‘Shado’man’ closely follows the lives of this tight community and delves into the inner world of each character to reveal the dignity of humans surviving under inhumane conditions. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Boris Gerrets.

- ‘Seeds of Hope’ + Q&A. On Mon 14 July at 7pm. ‘Seeds of Hope’ follows multiple rape victim Masika Katsuva, who has rescued some 6,000 women and children in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by offering them shelter in her centre. Filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies follows Katsuva and the centre’s inhabitants, as they reshape their lives to build a new future. The film also speaks with the perpetrators, among them soldiers from the Congolese army, who give extraordinarily open testimony as to why they rape and their attitudes toward their horrific acts. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Fiona Lloyd-Davies.

Both events at the Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London, W2 1QJ. E-mail: events@frontlineclub.com

~ NATIONAL AFRICAN RELIGION CONGRESS / NARC WORLD INTERNATIONAL PRESENT THE ‘ELEVENTH AFRICAN RELIGION CONFERENCE AND WORLD CEREMONY OF CEREMONIES: SPIRITUALITY IN WORLD CONNECTION - HEALTH, FAITH & WEALTH’. Within the United States, Afrikan-based religions are poorly understood and are often subjected to persecution and prejudice. The National African Religion Congress / NARC World International certifies priests and priestesses to assure that they have been properly trained according to the traditions of their respective religions and that they uphold the moral and ethical standards of their religion. The Afrikan-based religions represented are: Lucumi / Regla de Ocha / Santería (Cuba / Puerto Rico), Candomble (Brazil), Orisa (Trinidad & Tobago), Voodoo (Haiti), Ifa / Isese / Yoruba (Nigeria) and the Akan (Ghana). On 26–29 June at Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. Registration: $325 - NARC Members / $350 – Non-NARC Members. Contact: National African Religion Congress / NARC World International, 5104 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA. Tel: 215 455 0815. Fax: 215 455 0818. E-mail: narcworld@aol.com Web: www.narcworld.com

~ FIND YOUR VOICE PRESENTS ‘THE TRUTH ABOUT PROSTATE CANCER’. With Vasco Stevenson. On Sat 28 June at 4.30–7pm at Park View Academy, West Green Road, London, N15 3RB. Adm: £5. Tel: Douglas on 07960 239 493 / 07882 403 871. E-mail: findyourvoice@hotmail.co.uk

~ LONDON CAMPAIGN AGAINST POLICE AND STATE VIOLENCE STOP & SEARCH ‘KNOW YOUR RIGHTS’ WORKSHOP. London Campaign Against Police and State Violence are a group of families, campaigners and people affected by police brutality. Their ‘Know Your Rights’ workshops offer experience and training on what to do and what your rights are on stop and search and were devised with Newham Monitoring Project. The group are running the workshops in Brixton in response to the recent "Brixton Unite" operation in March when police randomly stop and searched lots of black people outside Brixton tube station. On Sat 28 June at 2–4pm at Lambeth UNISON, 6A Acre Lane, Brixton, London, SW2 5SG. E-mail: lcapsv@gmail.com Web: http://londonagainstpoliceviolence.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/stop-and-search-training-in-brixton/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/786406698036663//

~ SISTER HEALTH FORUM IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CONSCIOUS VIBES MAGAZINE AND DIASPORA DEBATE ASSOCIATION INVITE YOU TO A WOMEN AND MEN DEBATE CONFERENCE ON ‘IS IT WRONG TO WANT PERFECT SKIN?’ Exploring skin health implications, skin bleaching, sun beds and tanning injections. Guest Speakers: Toyin Agbetu, community educator, ‘Beauty Is…’ filmmaker and founder of LIGALI: Sara Ellis, certified Hypnotherapist and Eating Disorders Counsellor. Followed by women only health seminar with traditional Afrikan herbalist Ras Daniel Babu from Japan. Topics: fibroids, blood pressure, diabetes, FGM, menopause, children’s health, high blood pressure, breast cancer and endometriosis. On Sat 28 June at 3-8pm at The Old Fire Station, 84 Mayton Street, London N7 6QT. Adm: £10 / £7 adv. E-mail: sisters4health@gmail.com Twitter: @sisters4health Facebook: www.facebook.com/sisters4health

~ ANCIENT SOULS GATHERING (TO FACILITATE PEACE). Drums, percussion, dancing, general peaceful thoughts are welcome. Souls are the cosmic architecture that weaves us to everything. They connect us to the Universe. We are healed and loved. When we participate, we offer an opportunity to... On Sat 28 June at 6pm at The Pagoda, Battersea Park, Wandsworth, London, SW11.

~ CHI CREATIONS EVENTS

- Sponsored Walk: Nurture Your Nature Family Retreat. On Sun 29 June at 8am at Epping Forest.

- Graduates of The Griot Way Training. On Tues 1 July at 6.45-9.15pm at Canada Water Theatre, Canada Water Library, 21 Surrey Quays Rd, London, SE16 7AR. With guest storyteller Sandra Agard.

- The Family Retreat. On Fri 25 - Mon 28 July at Etherly Farm, Dorking, RH5 6PA.

- The Griot Way Storytelling Training. On 17-19 Oct, 13-15 Feb 2015 and 15-17 May 2015 at Etherly Farm, Dorking, RH5 6PA.

E-mail: Info@shanti-chi.com Web: www.shanti-chi.com

~ BUNDU DIA KONGO (BDK). Afrikan cultural and spiritual group working towards the spiritual and psychological growth and development of Afrikans all over the world. Let us make a positive change now. Learn about Afrikan prophets, Afrikan history and Afrikan spiritual practices at our weekly Zikua.

- Sun at 1.30–4.30pm at Chestnuts Community & Arts Centre, 280 St Ann’s Road, Tottenham, London, N15 5BN. Tel: Makaba - 07951 059 853.

- Sun at 12.30–3.15pm at Malika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham, B19 1Sl. Tel: Mbuta Mayala – 07404 789 329.

~ THE AUSAR AUSET SOCIETY GI GONG CLASSES. Every Monday at 7.30–9pm at Hazel Road Community Centre, Hazel Road, Kensal Green, London, NW10 5PP. Adm: £5 per class. Tel: 07951- 252-427. E-mail: Tauinetwork.europe@gmail.com

Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.com NB: Nubiart Diary can also be read at www.ligali.org