roundup of documentary photography related links visited recently.
the hyena and other men: pieter hugo’s portraits of a group of gadawan kura (hyena handlers/guides in hausa) who travel from city to city in nigeria entertaining crowds and selling traditional medicines. beautiful, stripped down tonal/color range of images gives them a haunting vibe. [via ffffound]
kings of africa: daniel laine spent 3 years trying to get access to and photograph about 70 monarchs around africa. [via 990000's found]
deep soweto: image series by edward van herk shot in a “decisive moment” style to capture urban life in south africa.
herewith, in no particular order some observations on ideas, trends, programs, music, magazines of note for 2007 here at casa forota, organized as a randomly ordered year end list.
music: east african urban music arrives: although i have limited exposure to music from home, i was quite impressed with collections like urban africa club and nomadic wax’s nomadic mixtape vol. 2 east african hip hop beatdown where music from artists like necessary noize, professor jay, peter miles, xplastaz and others highlighted the fact that east african music has reached a creative watershed where hip hop/dancehall + sheng + bongo flava = globally aware music that distances itself from the pejorative term ‘local music” that has hung over the imitative music available until quite recently.
ideas: the term “afropolitan” enters my lexicon. as described by author taiye tuakli-wosornu a nigerian-ghanaian writer based in New York City, an afropolitan has a hard time answering the question “where are you from?” why? they have lived in multiple places outside africa (boston, brixton, berlin), claim some part of the continent as home (metaphorically) but inhabit a physical/mental space that encompasses all the places they have lived.
print/web: quality africa-related lifestyle/entertaiment magazines online and off: colures, kitu kizuri, jamati, mimi magazine and pan-african clutch magazine all published to highlight the doings of afropolitans in the worlds of art, music, film, fashion, business. trace (now a fashion mag) and clam were there before, but they still best capture the cutting edge of this quintessentially 21st century experience.
music: global album of the year. migration/globalization are annihilating all kinds of cultural/racial/whatever barriers. with “kala“, maya arulpragasm just dives into it all, equally embracing bhangra, dancehall, africa, australia, digeridoos, hip hop, punk, bollywood, politics, guns, violence, boys to create an album that is a hallmark of the dizzyingly disorienting cultural times we now live in. personal highlight: “hussel” a collaboration with ghanaian/brit afrikan boy sounds to me like the de facto soundtrack for new (illegal) immigrants from everywhere hustling and grinding to get a foothold in their new homes, all while trying to evade deportation.
film: ousmane sembene RIP. [ny times registration req'd] the father of african cinema, all other african directors will be measured against him. he was driven by the insight that film was the most powerful method to convey education/entertainment to africans without the formal education to read books. one of the tragedies of his passing must be that his films commenting on post-colonial african society/politics (xala, moolade, faat kine) were never seen widely outside art movie houses in cities like new york and paris during his lifetime. i managed to catch xala at a recent sembene retrospective here in NYC. if you missed it, some of his films are available on netflix.
race/television: pbs’ brazil in black and white. overt racism is receding everywhere (”it never existed in brazil”, as they like to say). however, social/economic exclusion of black folks in brazil and elsewhere is as plain as day. but how to redress this inequality using policy when there has been generations of racial mixing with african descendants and the identification with “blackness” is sometimes a personal/cultural choice, versus a genetic one? relatedly: the debate in the US on a certain presidential candidate’s blackness.
art/museums: “eternal ancestors, the art of central african reliquary“. brilliant exhibit at the metropolitan museum in NYC that displays sculptural pieces that fired the imaginations of the early 20th century art avant garde (among them picasso). inspired by these innovative, expressive religious artifacts from central africa, these artists found a way to break modern art from its representational (renaissance) roots. the exhibit runs until march 2nd, 2008 go. see it.
Posted: December 6th, 2007 | Author:kamau | Filed under:film, politics | Comments Off
i am no fan of thrillers, but i recently purchased the dvd of the last king of scotland as it inspired in me what the brazilians call sodade (nostalgia tinged with sadness). on one level, the movie is a loosely factual biopic on the reign of idi amin. but temporally, it documents the end of the positive growth period, post-independence, that ended with the oil shocks of 1973 and that saw the dawn of 3 dark decades in africa. the producers of the movie were at pains to depict the uganda (africa) of the early 1970’s as a beautiful, glamorous, happy place. the streets were clean, the women dressed in africa-inspired fashions and wore either afros or plaited their hair in fancy designs. it was the time of congolese rumba and ghanaian high-life. there was plenty of optimism, joy and national pride. it is a time i have vague but fond memories of a kid.
as uganda slipped into bloody chaos, investigative news reports of amin’s brutality started to filter out of the country. to this day for me the signature image of the time is the black and white post-execution image of an amin opponent. the images comprised partially/mostly naked bodies, dark hoods tied over heads/torsos. the bodies would be bound to execution posts, slumped on one side, dark streaks of blood flowing down from execution squad inflicted bullet wounds. as a boy living in then idyllic, peaceful nairobi, the violence left a deep impression on me as these things were not happening in far off vietnam, but next door.
at that time i don’t think even the worst pessimists among us would have imagined that this was just the beginning of a dark time and that this decline into chaos and atrophy would be repeated all over africa as idealistic post-independence leaders were pushed aside and “big men” presided over corruption, the crushing of political and intellectual dissent, economic collapse, war, AIDS, famine, and other miscellaneous ills that have been the hallmark of the last 30 years in africa.
so the recent news that this long night may be coming to an end, economically speaking, brings hope that africa and africans can enjoy another period of optimism, joy and pride. while i am sure we will not return to the days of rumba and afros, i am most interested to what kind of cultural expression this time will inspire.
relatedly: a scene from the crappy exploitation movie “idi amin: rise and fall” was filmed in lenana school when i was in 5th form (IIRC). the film crew commandeered part of “tuition block” to film an assassination attempt where they blew up a citroen in the parade area. that was the coolest movie s**t i had seen with my own eyes in my life until that point.
Posted: December 6th, 2007 | Author:kamau | Filed under:internet | Comments Off
year end approaches and with it the endless parade of lists marking the year’s best in this and that. not be left out i have created a list of lists from around the internets of the men and women of the african diaspora that inspire us or just inspire lust in us. will add to the list if i find any additional lists. enjoy.
african fashion model vs. african woman. how the exoticism of african fashion model is not equal to the african ideal of female beauty. [via ladybrille blog]
