Trailer for the Waris Dirie biographical film “Desert Flower”
FILM: Desert Flower. Waris Dirie’s book of her escape from Somalia, rise to supermodel superstar-dom and later fight against female genital mutilation gets the Hollywood treatment. Ethiopian Liya Kebede stars.
Screenshot from Suresh Natarjan’s portfolio site on the Behance Network
Screen shot from BBC News photo essay on Congolese migrants in South Africa
PHOTO ESSAY: Congolese migrants in South Africa staged a La Sape fashion show as a way to increase understanding between their community and their Johannesburg hosts in the wake of the deadly violence against immigrants there in 2008.
While America is preoccupied with the war in Iraq (cost: half a trillion dollars and counting), and while think-tank economists continue to spit out papers debating whether vital resources are running out at all, China’s leadership isn’t taking any chances. In just a few years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become the most aggressive investor-nation in Africa. This commercial invasion is without question the most important development in the sub-Sahara since the end of the Cold War — an epic, almost primal propulsion that is redrawing the global economic map. One former U.S. assistant secretary of state has called it a “tsunami.” Some are even calling the region “ChinAfrica.”
There are already more Chinese living in Nigeria than there were Britons during the height of the empire. From state-owned and state-linked corporations to small entrepreneurs, the Chinese are cutting a swath across the continent. As many as 1 million Chinese citizens are circulating here. Each megaproject announced by China’s government creates collateral economies and population monuments, like the ripples of a stone skimmed across a lake.
Beijing declared 2006 the “Year of Africa,” and China’s leaders have made one Bono-like tour after another. No other major power has shown the same interest or muscle, or the sheer ability to cozy up to African leaders. And unlike America’s faltering effort in Iraq, the Chinese ain’t spreading democracy, folks. They’re there to get what they need to feed the machine. The phenomenon even has a name on the ground in the sub-Sahara: the Great Chinese Takeout.
Herewith, a randomly ordered year end list of stuff of note from 2008 here at casa forota.
1. MUSIC: Post everything music: BLK JKS, Esau Mwamwaya, Santogold, Vampire Weekend, Radioclit, Diplo, et al found new ways to mash up musical, cultural, epochal influences to create music influenced by everywhere, but of nowhere. Brilliant soundtracks for our rootless time.
2. PHOTOGRAPHY: Most Favorite Image: “Blue Print, Rio” at Sartorialist. Not sure why but I kept coming back to this image.
3. PHOTOGRAPHY: Second Most Favorite Image: “Kwaito in the streets of Alexandra” by Krisanne Johnson from FADER 52. Another image I cannot get enough of.
4. POLITICS: Obama vs Palin. A vote for the open, interconnected, inclusive future vs the insular, backward looking, divisive past. Choice was pretty clear.
5. MAGAZINES: Vogue Italia: A Black Issue. Proved it is still an issue to be black in the beauty business if one needs an issue for black people. Intriguing step forward, though.
6. BOOKS: Chemise by Malick Sidibe. Hipsters, on perusing Sidibe’s images: “Oh look, African hipsters from long ago!”
7. RACE: Black but not Black: Rising Black American middle class, emergence of “Afropolitans” or second generation African immigrants, growing awareness among Afro-latinos is rendering the label “Black” and its connotations pretty obsolete. See also: The End of the Black American Narrative by Charles Johnson.
8. ART/MUSEUMS: “Flow” at Studio Museum of Harlem. Nicely curated collection of Afropolitan art. Also cool: Exhibitions of works by Kehinde Wiley and Barkley L. Hendricks.
Kenyatta, Mboya and Kibaki are overwhelmed with joy on hearing that K.A.N.U. had won the election. From the book “Kenyatta: A Photographic Biography” by Anthony Howarth.
This is the image that has been floating around in my head since Obama’s election victory and the resulting celebrations. It is one of those iconic images I remember from my childhood that condenses the import of a certain moment in history. Something in the image speaks to the start of a new era, to overwhelming joy that what seemed impossible to visualize at some point has come to pass.
If I was more eloquent, I would be able to describe why a historic image from independence-era Kenya can stand in for a just completed election in the United States. I would be able to discuss the complex relationship between Kenya and the United States, about how Kenya saw fit to declare a national holiday to celebrate the results of an American election. But, for now, I will just let that picture stand in for all those words and for how I feel.
… these looks are the sole creation of the Surma and Mursi tribes of East Africa’s Omo Valley. Inspired by the wild trees, exotic flowers and lush vegetation of the area bordering Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, these tribal people have created looks that put the most outlandish creations of Western catwalk couturiers to shame.
Ory Okolloh’s talk at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha Tanzania, 2007
TECHNO-ACTIVISM: Ory Okolloh: The Making of an Activist. Ory’s site Kenyan Pundit was the site of record for information on the post-election fracas in Kenya, she practically live blogged the events on the ground. In her talk she makes a great point about Africans creating original content or forfeiting the right to complain about how others portray us (a big reason that blog exists). She discusses how she became an activist as well as her work with the site Mzalendo that monitors the doings in Kenya’s parliament. More on TEDGlobal 2007: Africa the Next Chapter including writer Chris Abani’s talk on the importance of storytelling in rethinking the African narrative.
Trailer for Jerusalema directed by Ralph Ziman
FILM:Jerusalema. Tsotsi’s Rapulana Seiphemo switches sides from outraged middle class husband/dad to gangland boss ala Scarface in post-apartheid Hillbrow in Johannesburg. Mines the same themes of urban poverty and its repercussions as Fernando Meirelles’ Cidade de Deus Gavin Hood’s Tsotsi, Jose Padilha’s Tropa de Elite. Can’t wait to see this, will keep eyes peeled for Stateside release. [via afripop!]
See also: Johannesburg Series by South African Guy Tillim, a great photo essay on the decaying center of Jozi that forms the main location and is a central part of the plot in Jerusalema.
PHOTOGRAPHY: WNYC Culture: Streetshots Jamel Shabbazz at work in Central Park.
Screenshot from 21st Century Maroon Colony website FASHION: 21st Century Maroon Colony Fall/Winter 2007 Collection. Great photography/styling highlighting this streetwear fashion collective repping the “Afro-triangle”. Not sure about pangas as props, though, (too much of a negative connotation to me, given the panga-executed violence in Kenya recently) [via EA collective]
Screenshot of slideshow on website for “Curse of the Black Gold” PHOTOGRAPHY: New book: Curse of the Black Gold: 50 years of Gold in the Niger Delta [quicktime movie]. Photography and audio commentary on the impact of oil on the land and people of the Niger Delta.
Recently the songs of Mahmoud Ahmed (Ethiopiques Vol. 1) have been on heavy rotation here at casa forota. It is amazing that Ethiopia and Kenya are neighbors, but I know next to nothing about this amazing 3,000 year old culture. In fact, a straight line that runs through Isiolo and Lamu forms a cultural barrier for those, like me, who have a world view shaped by all south and west of that line.
In truth, that isolation is the result of the geography of Ethiopia (fortress-like highlands), but also a chauvinistic attitude towards outsider cultures, African or not. The results of this isolation can be seen in the Ethiopian music of a period that began in the 1960’s and ended in 1974, a time when the country’s capital was called “Swinging Addis”. Like all the youth of this time everywhere, Ethiopian musicians were influenced by rock, jazz and funk, even though their music is not quite recognizable as such. It is completely unique, completely Ethiopian: hypnotic, weird, soulful, passionate, irresistible. Until recently, modern Ethiopian music was for locals only consumption, although that is slowly changing thanks to the brilliant Ethiopiques series. Mulatu Astatque did receive some notoreity recently, when his music featured prominently in the Jim Jarmusch film “Broken Flowers”, and legends like Mahmoud Ahmed have been touring the west playing to more than just Habesha crowds.
Source: Francis Falcet in an excellent 2 part interview about the musical history of Ethiopia: part one part two
GO SEE: if you live in the NYC area, there will be a free concert at the Damrosch Park Bandshell near Lincoln Plaza featuring Mahmoud Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete and Gétatchèw Mèkurya, details here.
screenshot from Jim Chuchu’s site
PHOTOGRAPHY: jim chuchu {photography}. Photographer, animator, musician Jim Chuchu’s photography site. [via Ntwiga]
MUSIC: Iwinyo Piny: Just A Band. Music and visuals by aforementioned Jim Chuchu who is also a member of JAB. Band member Dan posts on kenyananimation blog their thinking process in creating the video. He also discusses how JAB had a rough time pitching this video to Kenyan TV stations: one Program Manager responded that they couldn’t air it as it would alienate their viewers since it was 5 years ahead of its time. You know you are doing something right when you get a response like that. [kenyanimation blog link via paula callas].
screenshot of Ian van Coller’s photo essay, “Interior Relations”
PHOTOGRAPHY: Ian van Coller: Interior Relations (portraits of black South African domestic workers taken in the homes of their white employers).
FILM: Tropa de Elite (The Elite Squad). High concept: “City of God from the police perspective, but with more brutality and violence and less nuance”. Director Jose Padilha meant to shoot this story as a follow up to his acclaimed documentary “Bus 174″, but chose to fictionalize it based on interviews and a book by 2 ex-BOPE cops. Raises some serious moral questions about how to combat out of control urban crime in townships/favelas/slums that have been criminally ignored by governments. Showed (not so) recently at Tribeca film festival, not sure when it will get wide release.
