Items by sci-culturist

SCI-CULTURA

• For the River

  Posted: May 19, 2011, 6:53 pm by sci-culturist

  Currently obsessed with this song by the outstanding self-proclaimed African Gypsy, Wanlov the Kubolor. I can’t think of a city that I have loved that doesn’t have a river running through it. Water is the second element of the cosmological wheel of the Dagara of Burkina Faso, and is said to be the medicine which [...]

• African Alchemy

  Posted: March 25, 2011, 9:40 pm by sci-culturist

  Self-critique: Although I talk about the intersect between art and science, they were never separate. It is us who have made it seem that way when we observe it through the lens of our Western-educated minds.

• The Original [African] Sci-culturists

  Posted: March 13, 2011, 12:00 am by sci-culturist

  Sci-culturist [sahy-kuhl-cher-ist] - noun 1. A person who uses scientific principles to examine cultural knowledge 2. A person with scientific training who probes a specific aspect of culture (with or without scientific principles and language) 3. A bridge builder of science and cultural pursuits This post seeks to document scientists in Africa and the African diaspora [...]

• Sona Jobarteh :: Female kora virtuoso

  Posted: March 9, 2011, 10:34 am by sci-culturist

  (ht loomnie)     Sona Jobarteh hails from a long West African tradition of Griots and kora players; her grandfather was the master Griot Amadu Bansang Jobarteh (and cousin to the celebrated Kora maestro Toumani Diabaté). Creating her own history, she has broken from the male-dominated kora tradition to become the family’s first female virtuoso [...]

• Un homme qui crie :: The screaming man

  Posted: March 2, 2011, 5:09 pm by sci-culturist

  Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s film Un homme qui crie (A screaming man), which was the only African film in competition at Cannes, 2010 – the first in over a decade, got a standing ovation at Cannes and won the Prix du Jury (Jury Prize). Irony, because despite being a former French colony, there is no cinema in [...]

• African Bloggers Statement on David Kato and Uganda

  Posted: March 2, 2011, 10:19 am by sci-culturist

  “We the undersigned wish to express our deep sadness at the murder of Ugandan human rights defender David Kato on 26th January 2011. David’s activism began in the 1980s as an Anti-Apartheid campaigner, where he first expressed a strong passion and conviction for freedom and justice, a passion which continued throughout his life. David was [...]

• Magazine throw-backs!

  Posted: February 9, 2011, 4:06 pm by sci-culturist

  I’m not one who goes on about 80′s popular culture, but I was inspired by @KateBomz‘s recent throw-back post on VIVA magazine, the Kenyan fashion portal for the 60′s into the 80′s, and was reminded of these images from Drum Magazine and Raymonds suits advert in The Weekly Review, in the 80′s. (ht @Intelligensia). As [...]

• The Image of Black

  Posted: February 8, 2011, 4:08 pm by sci-culturist

    Founded by Art Historian Temi Odumosu (PhD), The Image of Black is an online resource in the form of talks, exhibitions and links, which encompasses and represents an under-represented area of discourse that we seldom engage with in great depth – the history of African representation in Western culture. Needless to say, this is [...]

• Bongo Flava na kadhalika*

  Posted: December 6, 2010, 3:03 pm by sci-culturist

  Representing Nairobi | Johannesburg | Lagos | Dakar | Maputo | Dar es salaam | Addis Ababa | Accra | Kinshasa & Beyond   There are days when all I want to hear is local tunes with local languages, about issues affecting local people. Admitedly some issues are universal, but their expression resonates differently. Get [...]

• African Fabric Art

  Posted: December 1, 2010, 3:50 pm by sci-culturist

  So it’s no secret that ‘African fabric’ is really Dutch. People like Yinka Shonibare have explored the implications of African identity and cultural authenticity using African fabric as a muse. One of the pioneering Dutch companies of the 19th century, Vlisco, is making sure it doesn’t get left behind or forgotten in its recent prolific [...]

• South Africa :: Intelligent Street Art

  Posted: November 5, 2010, 11:43 am by sci-culturist

  Since I moved back, I no longer ponder on an African identity as I am no longer confronted with it. I dont even like to use the term ‘African’ any more. And yet it is all over this blog. I daresay I now find it a mild irritation when I hear it. Like a subtle [...]

• Friday Music :: The Pan African Space Station

  Posted: September 24, 2010, 4:24 pm by sci-culturist

  —>>>  Click to listen to the live stream The Pan African Space Station (PASS) is an annual 30-day music intervention from September 12 to October 12, 2010 , on the internet, as well as live in venues across greater Cape Town The highlight of the project is a unique freeform music radio station broadcasting 30 [...]

• London :: African and African-Caribbean Design Diaspora

  Posted: September 23, 2010, 4:40 pm by sci-culturist

  This Sunday (26th September), the London Design Festival is officially launching, for the first time, a  dedicated space to promote African and Caribbean artists, based in the UK or overseas. A point of celebration is required to demonstrate the quality of creative thinking derived from the small but significant African and African-Caribbean design communities in [...]

• Friday Music :: Tinashé

  Posted: September 17, 2010, 12:07 pm by sci-culturist

  Tinashé, the lovable geeky-looking, pop-rocking Londoner from Hackney via Harare, dropped his debut album, Saved, earlier this week. Check out his interview with afriPOP! to see for yourself why he is lovable. Now all I ask is for God to set up  a collabo with Spoek Mathambo and I’ll be happy. Ok… I’ll shut up… [...]

• Nairobi :: Photography x Art

  Posted: September 6, 2010, 7:47 pm by sci-culturist

  image via NMK A favourite of mine, The Nairobi Gallery, has a new exhibition opening on Friday 10th September, 2010. In Kenya, photography as a medium has been important, but rather as press, fashion and advertisement photography and studio photography. Photography as a medium has been rarely used by Kenyan artists. Mwangalio Tafauti which translates [...]

• Kenya :: New Constitution

  Posted: August 31, 2010, 6:43 pm by sci-culturist

  I was in Uhuru Park on 27th August for the promulgation of Kenya’s new constitution. Rather than post  pictures from the day, or write – and I am still reflecting on the experience -this collage came to mind. The image on the right from the book “Kenyatta A Photographic Biography” by Anthony Howarth is  © [...]

• Nairobi :: Photography x Style

  Posted: July 22, 2010, 10:51 am by sci-culturist

  screenshot from thestingo.com STINGO is a creative collabo between 5 Kenyans who are at the forefront of contemporary creative expression (ht African Digital Art) Styling: Kepha Maina and Sunny Dolat Makeup/Grooming: Kangai Mwiti Photography: Jim Chuchu Production: Lucille Kahara Stingo? Stingo means “style” – or at least, it did, sometime in the 80s. Check out [...]

• Nairobi :: Photography + Film

  Posted: July 22, 2010, 10:42 am by sci-culturist

  ::Photography::[Greg Constantine x UNHCR] Kenya’s Nubians Then and Now is an advocacy campaign for basic rights, inclusion in Kenya’s census, and the issuance of Kenyan ID cards for Nubians. The exhibition shall portray the statelessness and the denial of citizenship on Nubians in Kenya with rare historical photographs and documents from their personal collections. This [...]

• Zanele Muholi | Faces and Phases

  Posted: July 9, 2010, 1:33 pm by sci-culturist

  © Zanele Muholi It’s been a new experience to be in a fear-filled environment where a seemingly majority out rightly condemn people’s private life choices as immoral, ‘unAfrican’ and at worst condemn them to death. Photography is growing as a profound medium of expression by the African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community [...]

• Haiti::Kanaval

  Posted: July 8, 2010, 5:31 pm by sci-culturist

  © Leah Gordon via The Guardian Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti described as “performance ethnography” and occupying “a space between documentation, public memory and the phantasmic theatre of the historic imagination”,  is a captivating photoessay of images taken over 15 years, by Leah Gordon of carnival revellers in Jacmel, before [...]

• SA TV::Jacob’s Cross

  Posted: July 7, 2010, 11:37 am by sci-culturist

  South Africa is on everyone’s minds right now for obvious reasons. If you like football. I’m quite amazed at how the world dynamics have shifted in my lifetime. One day I will tell my children/nieces/nephews et al,  how I vividly remember repetitively examining my first Kenyan passport that declared in a purple-blue stamp that I was free [...]

• Pilgrimages::African Travel Writing by Africans

  Posted: July 6, 2010, 7:01 pm by sci-culturist

  WE DO NOT KNOW OUR OWN CONTINENT, YET WE CONTINUE TO BENEFIT FROM IT I am a bit late with this as it coincided with the worldcup kick-off, but do indulge me as I am (not so) secretly dreaming of becoming a travel writer across Africa…and I felt a woosh of giddy warmth traverse my [...]

• Review :: Paul Sika : At The Heart of Me

  Posted: May 12, 2010, 9:52 pm by sci-culturist

  Paul Sika, easily the hottest  artist out of the African continent right now, has today launched his new photobook, At the Heart of Me –> see his website and check out the trailer. The befittingly self-proclaimed ‘Andy Warhol’s grandson’ refuses to fit in a box (he negates that there is such a thing as a [...]

• Stocktown Africa

  Posted: May 5, 2010, 10:29 am by sci-culturist

  Stocktown Africa is a documentary portrait about the lively,creative and social contemporary culture blossoming in Africa’s big cities today. Stocktown Africa will bring you face to face with the new urban Africa, where fashion creators, mobile phone journalists, cultural entrepreneurs, music producers and guerilla filmmakers define what it is to be young, talented and passionate [...]

• Through African Eyes

  Posted: April 30, 2010, 5:54 pm by sci-culturist

  Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present caught my eye (ht my girl S.A.I.) as it is not the immediate representation of African art that comes to mind. Inevitably the arrival of the Europeans in Africa was expressed and immortalised in art. It is curious what was and what wasn’t drawn [...]

• Urban Africa | Ancient Africa

  Posted: April 18, 2010, 4:47 pm by sci-culturist

  Bamako, Mali © David Adjaye Urban Africa The renowned architect David Adjaye has beaten me to one of my dreams, but has left me even more inspired to visit each of the 53 African capitals and get a taste for life there. Adjaye refers to the advent of digital camera as an architect’s sketch book [...]

• Africa Knows

  Posted: March 18, 2010, 2:03 pm by sci-culturist

  Two young Africans that I hold with much admiration and respect, who also happen to be dear friends,  Sheila Ochugboju and Joshua Wanyama, are the founders of Africa Knows. I imagine that they put their heads together to brainstorm how they can combine their gifts – Sheila’s an eloquent communicator and Josh a talented photographer [...]

• Zanzibar::Sauti za Busara Festival

  Posted: February 21, 2010, 4:02 pm by sci-culturist

  I am beaming on the inside (and outside), having freshly returned from the outstanding Sauti za Busara Festival (translates to “Sounds of Wisdom”) held in the atmospheric Old Fort of Stone Town, under the star-filled skies, which means I have crossed off one of the things to do before I die off my list. Save [...]

• Photography::Art Imitating Life

  Posted: January 26, 2010, 8:29 pm by sci-culturist

  I love the Nairobi Gallery, one of Nairobi’s unknown treasures which, paradoxically, is adjacent to the city’s main artery, Uhuru Highway. Not only is it a quiet, still oasis sitting in the hustle and bustle of the Central Business District, it also usually has permanent exhibitions (1 year+), unlike most artistic spaces in Nairobi. This [...]

• Vogue Africana

  Posted: January 18, 2010, 4:55 pm by sci-culturist

  © Dazed Digital A little over a year ago (where does the time go?), I blogged about the Afro-inspirational fashion e-zine, Pop’Africana. Remember the “all black issue” of Vogue Italia (July 2008) that had many an afrophile in a tiz? Well, browsing through the sassy and sexy Pop’Africana blog, which is pushing boundaries of Afro-chic, [...]

• Contemporary African Art Since 1980

  Posted: December 22, 2009, 8:26 pm by sci-culturist

  Nandipha Mntambo, “Europa,” 2008 Contemporary African Art Since 1980 [by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu] is the first major survey of the work of contemporary African artists from diverse situations, locations, and generations who work either in or outside of Africa, but whose practices engage and occupy the social and cultural complexities of the continent since [...]

• Digital.Africa

  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:37 pm by sci-culturist

  It’s that time of the year again. Now an annual delight, the London African Film Festival is soon upon us. This year focuses on the signifcance of digital technology and it’s irrevocable impact on African cinema, no doubt showcasing the ubiquitence of Nigerian films. Feature films and documentaries include: UK Première of Tariq Teguia’s INLAND [...]

• Photography::Rencontres de Bamako::Bamako Encounters

  Posted: November 6, 2009, 7:49 pm by sci-culturist

  image credit: Rana El Nemr (Egypt) Olympic Garden 17, 2008 (40×50 cm). Panafrican exhibition – Bamako 2009 © Rana El Nemr (CC: attribution-noncommercial-no derivatives license) The 8th African Photography Biennial in Bamako, Mali, starts on 7th November to 7th December 2009. I am particularly drawn to it as it uses one of my growing passions, [...]

• Focus10::Contemporary African Art Fair

  Posted: November 4, 2009, 7:15 pm by sci-culturist

  Following my recent post, which was an attempt to dissect the challenges that contemporary African artists face, the good folks at FOCUS10 – Contemporary African Art Fair wrote in to highlight a contemporary art fair that is geared to African artists. I am not in any way connected, I am simply passing on the message [...]

• Sexe, Gombo et Beurre Salé::Sex, Okra and Salted Butter

  Posted: October 30, 2009, 12:07 pm by sci-culturist

  Image credit: © placeinsun Disclaimer: It is no secret that I am the number the one fan of the Chadian-French writer and film director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. This man has inspired me to no end. It is therefore perhaps biased that for me, his recent (2008) film Sex, Okra and Salted Butter was my highlight at [...]

• First Kenyan Sci-Fi::Pumzi

  Posted: October 22, 2009, 3:13 pm by sci-culturist

  © Photos courtesy Inspired Minority Pictures and One Pictures In the world of film, 2009 certainly looks like the year of African Sci-Fi. Before the pomp and accolade from District 9’s release in the (northern hemisphere’s) summer has entirely dissipated, the Kenya International Film Festival kicked off to a refreshing start with the premiere of the [...]

• The 4th Kenya International Film Festival

  Posted: October 16, 2009, 9:48 pm by sci-culturist

  Photo credit: Looking Glass on Flickr (CC) Theme: Africa and the Diaspora Dates: 21st to 31st October 2009 Location: Alliance Française (main venue & registration), National Museum, 20th Century Cinema, Silverbird Cinema, Italian Cultural Institute, Nairobi Safari Club and Chester House Features: Screenings, Workshops, Forums, Music performances, Exhibition on African cinema [...]

• Open Forum::Contemporary African Art

  Posted: October 5, 2009, 3:57 am by sci-culturist

  I am still pondering on the contents of a link Potash posted on Twitter a while back, entitled ‘African artists poor unlike their cousins’ by Osei G. Kofi. Among the many godchildren of Globalization is the art business. It has grown from several hundred million dollars a year into a multi-billion dollar industry in a little [...]

• Film.::.Forget Africa.Not.

  Posted: September 17, 2009, 4:11 pm by sci-culturist

  Gertjan Zuilhof is a programmer for the Rotterdam International Film Festival, who like many others, recognises the paucity of African cinema on the world stage. With a view to do something about this, and bring Africa to the big screen in Rotterdam in early 2010, Zuilhof has proactively set off to a number of African [...]

• Corpus Scientificus

  Posted: September 8, 2009, 1:13 am by sci-culturist

  A few people have been slightly confused by the name of this blog. It is not about science per se, but about using scientific principles of observation and deduction (minus experimentation), to examine expressions of African culture. In short, applying critical thinking/analysis to cultural expressions that grab my attention, which are almost exclusively the arts- [...]

• Yinka Shonibare MBE

  Posted: August 22, 2009, 8:58 pm by sci-culturist

  Scramble for Africa © the artist; Photo: Stephen White Yinka Shonibare is a Nigerian-British multi-media artist (photography, painting, sculpture, installations) uses his work as a platform to explore the issues that construct identity – globalization, colonialisation, trade, migration – raising the question of cultural authenticity. His instantly recognisable allegorical trademark has become the headless Victorian [...]

• Documenting Africa’s Image

  Posted: July 30, 2009, 7:55 pm by sci-culturist

  As an avid fan of documentaries, I look forward to watching two recent productions that use the power of film to contribute to the evolution of Africa’s image on the world stage. This is My Africa (Dir Zina Saro-Wiwa) is essentially a space for expression of what Africa means to different people, thus painting an image [...]

• M’Afrique Est Chic

  Posted: July 12, 2009, 11:14 pm by sci-culturist

  Shadowy collection by Tord Boontje, using a hand-weaving technique employing the plastic threads traditionally used for making fish nets © yatzer.com Oh la la! The thing about the M’Afrique exhibition by Moroso, an Italian avant-garde furniture-making company (hat tip Timbuktu Chronicles), is that it’s an innovative, contemporary body of work that shouts art. The ubiquitous [...]

• Some Thoughts on African Film

  Posted: July 6, 2009, 2:47 pm by sci-culturist

  Anyone who’s read the recent posts on this blog will know that I am enthralled, intrigued and besotted by the use of film as a medium to convey stories. This year has been good for raising the awareness of Kenya in the world of film. This time, not just as a location for big shot [...]

• House of the Holy Afro

  Posted: July 5, 2009, 1:17 pm by sci-culturist

  © Arts Project Australia This avant-garde ‘temple of the modern African groove’ is a South African music production by Third World Bunfight featuring DJ Dino Moran, which has been on tour and soon heading to London’s Rich Mix theatre (5th – 8th August 2009) caught my eye as I am interested in the transition from [...]

• Afro-Culture Quick Hits

  Posted: July 2, 2009, 3:06 pm by sci-culturist

  I know, I know, I haven’t blogged on here in a month and it’s too easy to blame it on Twitter, as micro-blogging is so much easier and quicker, but life has also been a little hectic, with changing of jobs, location and what not. I’m in Nairobi for ‘a little while longer’, but will [...]

• Africa in NYC

  Posted: May 23, 2009, 3:23 pm by sci-culturist

  I am a tad late with this, but not if you can get to the  Africa Dance Festival in Brooklyn (hat tip Sean Jacobs). The New York  African Film Festival is currently underway. I spotted the Emerging Female Kenyan Directors and New Contemporary Works on the programme and wish this is a forum we could have [...]

• Kenya::Kalasha Film and TV Awards

  Posted: May 19, 2009, 2:34 pm by sci-culturist

  I’m impressed with the increasing value being given to the arts in Kenya. Well, more accurately, that would be Nairobi. The Kenya Film Commission is set to launch Kenya’s own first film & TV awards on 27th June at the Carnivore in Nairobi. The award night promises to be a glamorous affair, showcasing Kenyan entertainment. Voting [...]

• Uganda::Maisha Film Lab

  Posted: May 12, 2009, 8:01 pm by sci-culturist

  I was chuffed to discover that Mira Nair, the acclaimed Indian-born film maker of Mississippi Masala fame and more recently The Namesake, amongst others, founded and has been intimately involved in running two annual 3-week long film labs in Kampala, Uganda since 2005. Although originally founded to address the dearth of East African film production, [...]

• Kenya::Fashion for Peace 2009::Part Deux

  Posted: April 28, 2009, 9:58 pm by sci-culturist

  Thula Sindi If Fashion for Peace 2009 was the litmus test, it may very well be that the Festival of African Fashion and Arts (FAFA) is well on it’s way to establishing Nairobi as a centre for all things creative on the continent, as intended by its organisers. A diverse collection of fabrics and style was on [...]

• Literary Liaison

  Posted: April 24, 2009, 4:54 pm by sci-culturist

  I can’t get enough of the arts as a powerful tool for self-examination, self-expression and healing. Story Moja, which seeks to increase readership in Kenya (and more), has recently produced ‘Cut off my Tongue’, a series of poems by Sitawa Namwalie, brought to life by a talented cast that delivers a humorous, poignant, emotional and [...]

• Afro-Bolivians

  Posted: April 19, 2009, 5:47 pm by sci-culturist

  King Julio Bonifaz Pinedo, Afro-Bolivian King © Guardian Having arrived to Bolivia as slaves over 5 centuries ago, the Afro-Bolivians seek to be recognised in the South American country which has made great strides in that they voted in their first indigenous president and have a multiethnic and pluricultural constitution. Julio Bonifaz Pinedo, the first Afro-Bolivian King in 500 [...]

• Kenya::Fashion for Peace

  Posted: April 19, 2009, 2:31 pm by sci-culturist

  The Festival for African Fashion and Arts (FAFA) was born out of a tragedy; the post-election blood spillage that took a grip on Kenya in December 2007 / January 2008. Despite this, FAFA takes a positive approach to building the future, whilst honouring the need to heal the wounds of the past which continue to haunt [...]

• African.Digital.Art

  Posted: April 5, 2009, 7:56 pm by sci-culturist

  African Digital Art is the brainchild of Kenyan digital artist Jepchumba, who seeks to bring together a collective of the inspiring works of other African digital artists, thus filling a gap in the blogosphere. The term digital art is permeating through the web even though the precise definition is unclear. Digital art covers a wide range [...]

• Afro-Peruvian Sounds

  Posted: April 4, 2009, 9:05 pm by sci-culturist

  Tags:   
  I recently heard about the Peruvian band Novalima through the BBC World Service, which made sitting in Nairobi’s infamous bumper-to-bumper traffic, I daresay, a pleasant experience. Novalima do not claim African ancestry, however, they have an appreciation and hold great value of the sounds and rhythms exported to Latin America by African slaves brought over [...]

• I.Wear.African

  Posted: April 4, 2009, 8:10 pm by sci-culturist

  The I Wear African Campaign, an African fashion initiative of African Vibes e-zine which is all about celebrating African Glamour is coming soon (18th April 2009). A campaign about individual expression, contemporary style and cultural heritage. The goal of this campaign is to celebrate the beauty of Africa through fashion and to promote the glamour and [...]

• Black British.Photography

  Posted: March 9, 2009, 2:05 am by sci-culturist

  I found Professor Paul Gilroy’s book to be a very informative, elegant and intriguing visual portrayal of the arrival of Empire Windrush, the mass immigration of Afro-Caribbeans in 1948 and the time that ensued for the newly Black British arrivals and their descendants.  I found it surprising and disappointing, however, that Gilroy overlooked the subsequent [...]

• Africa.Film

  Posted: March 8, 2009, 1:05 am by sci-culturist

  Le Festival Pan-Africain du Cinema et de la Television de Ouagadougou (FESPACO) , aka The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou has recently concluded. The biennial film festival that celebrates African cinema gave tribute to the legendary Ousemane Sembene who pioneered the festival and passed away in 2007. It’s been evident that the contenders for [...]

• Black British.Actors

  Posted: March 2, 2009, 1:29 am by sci-culturist

  I’ve been pondering exceptionally lately on what the label Black British means; the baggage it weighs on the shoulders of those who carry it, those who embrace it and those who reject it, the images and stereotypes it conjures in one’s mind, the connotations it evokes and the incessantly evolving characteristics that define Black British [...]

• Fashion::Africa.Asia

  Posted: February 5, 2009, 2:56 am by sci-culturist

  © Wafrica.jp Wafrica Kimono (hat tip Kamau) represents the marriage of cultural icons from Japan and Africa, the creation of Tokyo-based Cameroonian Serge Mouangue through merging the Japanese kimono and quintessential African cotton, colourful, patterned fabric. This seemingly effortless physical expression of Japanese and African culture attests to a far-reaching similarity into the characteristics of [...]

• Why I Blog About Africa

  Posted: December 8, 2008, 2:11 am by sci-culturist

  This post is in response to a meme that is making its way through the Afroblogosphere, having been tagged by Afromusing. Why do I blog about Africa? To be honest, this is one of my most difficult posts because there are a multitude of reasons and layers within layers that  I couldn’t possibly convey effectively in [...]

• Africa in London

  Posted: November 30, 2008, 5:33 pm by sci-culturist

  The London African Film Festival hopes to disrupt old perceptions about Africa as well as offering visitors the opportunity to see the compelling stories that African film-makers are bringing to the cinema. The film festival includes a number of African greats by legendary African directors, as well as recent films such as the Ugandan film Divizionz, [...]

• Things That Make You Go Hmm…Exhibit B

  Posted: November 25, 2008, 1:21 am by sci-culturist

  I’m back! Thanks for checking back in. I thought it would be good to come back with some lively afrobeat from the inimitable Black President. Food for thought that traverses many layers: GENTLEMAN 04:40 I no be gentleman at all o I be Africa man, original 07:19 He go sweat  all over He go faint right down He go smell like shhh*t He go piss for [...]

• 29 African Artworks To See Before You Die

  Posted: October 26, 2008, 9:57 pm by sci-culturist

  This post is a re-mix of The Guardian’s 1000 artworks to see before you die. I like this article by Jonathan Jones because he alludes to what I consider to be 2 essential issues with regards to African works of art: a) There’s an abundance of African ‘art’ sitting in Euro-American museums (British Museum, I am pointing [...]

• Film::Africa

  Posted: October 22, 2008, 7:26 pm by sci-culturist

  The London Film Festival is underway and I spotted a few African films (8 to be precise) whilst trawling through the programme guide. So what African stories are being told at the pictures this year? Divizionz: Uganda-South Africa (Dir Yes! That’s Us) An authentic portrayal of Kampala’s inner city, in which 4 friends set out to make it [...]

• Film::Diaspora

  Posted: October 19, 2008, 4:53 pm by sci-culturist

  Diaspora Diaries (directed by Ghanaian-British all round artist Robert ‘Beyonder’ Asare) is an engaging docu-film that captures the broad meaning of the term and experiences of the people who refer to themselves as the African Diaspora by exploring the thoughts and opinions of a wide range of people of African ancestry born in East and [...]

• Poverty: You and I are the Solution

  Posted: October 15, 2008, 11:39 pm by sci-culturist

  Warning: This is not about wallowing in the ‘poverty in Africa’ cliché but superficially examining what went wrong and more importantly how you and I can fix it. Starting today. First, let’s be clear, we are talking about economic poverty as Africa is full of other diverse riches which I believe this blog is a witness [...]

• Africa + Funky Trendy Cool Popular Culture = Pop’Africana

  Posted: October 15, 2008, 2:21 am by sci-culturist

  I’m a bit late with this post, but there are so many wonderful on-goings in the Afroculture domain that I can barely keep up! And that’s a good thing. , the Africana global book of style, is a bi-annual fashion.art.style magazine that recently had its online debut (hat tip Afripop!). Pop’Africana is a collaborative effort which aims [...]

• Fe-la-bration Time C’Mon!*

  Posted: October 13, 2008, 3:20 am by sci-culturist

  If there’s a time to be in Naija, it would be during the annual celebration of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s life, due to peak on 18th October. This year he would have been 70. Imagine that. Femi and Seun are guaranteed to be in Lagos celebrating their father’s life alongside a distinguished list of [...]

• Our Stories Told By Us

  Posted: October 10, 2008, 3:53 pm by sci-culturist

  As we evolve and define, reassess, re-evaluate and re-define our identity as a nation, the thing called Kenya (46 years old this December and therefore relatively young), it is crucial that we grapple with our contradictions and influences, both ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ that may be internal and/or external both on a micro and macro level, [...]

• Things that make you go hmmm…

  Posted: October 7, 2008, 12:38 am by sci-culturist

  I was on iTunes when I was struck by the Confrontation album cover. I love Kehinde Wiley’s work, but clearly Bob was wayyy ahead of his time (although this album was released posthumously in 1983, 2 years after his death).       

• Traditional African Spirituality.::.Africa to Latin America and the Caribbean to Going Global to Africa

  Posted: October 6, 2008, 4:34 am by sci-culturist

  
  

  Keeping in with the Afro-Latino theme from my previous post, the London Lucumi Choir will be performing at the Royal Festival Hall on 12th October 2008.

  Having taken part in their workshop during the recent Open Rehearsal Weekend (part of the Cultural Olympiad), I have no doubt it will be an exhilarating experience to be in a room awash with animated songs of praise to Orishas (deities) of the Yoruba tradition, to a rhythmic accompaniment of Afro-Cuban percussion including Batá drums.

  The word ‘Lucumi’ derives from Yoruba and is how the Yoruban people used to salute each other in Cuba in the early days of slavery: it roughly translates as ‘My friend’. These days, the word Lucumi is used to describe the practitioners of the religion Santeriá or Regla de Ocha (the rule of the Orishas), a religion now spread worldwide which has its roots in West Africa.

  The fascinating thing, I find, is the literally and metaphorically arduous journey that frequently ill-understood Traditional African Spirituality that was exported from West and Central Africa through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, took to Latin America, was absorbed and integrated by virtue of the strength of the bearers and descendants of this tradition, and inevitably evolved and manifested into distinct but related forms – Candomblé in Brazil, Santeriá in Cuba, Haitian Voodoo, amongst others - through the organic syncreticism of a ‘pure’ African practice with the then current local culture and tradition, which constituted the indigenous populations (aka ‘Indians’) and the Roman Catholic faith imported by the Spanish Conquistadores.

  These newly formed, unique religions in their own right (aka New World religions), have since been exported by significant numbers of the Latino and Caribbean diaspora, e.g. to the USA, thus inevitably spreading their practice to non-Caribbean / non-Latino converts. Interestingly, on the African continent, Benin is the only country that recognises Voodoo as its official religion.

  If it hasn’t yet been assessed, it would be a fascinating ethnographic enquiry to explore the exportation of these Afro-Latino / Afro-Caribbean religions to Africa or their practice by Africans in the diaspora. Afterall, the merging of Christianity with Traditional African Spirituality is not a novel concept in post-colonial Africa. (Any ideas Native Anthropologist?)

  Quoting Anani Dzidzienyo whose sentiments accurately resonate with mine,

  That these institutions moved from the clandestine to the marginal to their present day status as national institutions [in Latin America] is indeed remarkable.

  For me, the survival and proliferation of these syncreticised religions with African roots is even more jaw-droppingly remarkable as I reflect on my personal circumstance as an East African who went to a Catholic primary school in Nairobi and had a short stint in not-overtly-Catholic-’modern’ Spain, participating in a West African-via-Cuba spiritual tradition that emanated from a region that was historically colonial French West Africa (i.e. Dahomey), conducted in an archaic West African patois that has since evolved, in the former HQ of the British Empire. In addition, the London Lucumi Choir is itself a cosmopolitan mestizo of various nationalities. If this is not a powerful attestation to globalisation, then I don’t know what is.

        

• Latin America and the African connection

  Posted: October 5, 2008, 11:20 pm by sci-culturist

  Cinema of Brazil: Afro-Brazilian Perspectives is a film festival at the Barbican that seeks to celebrate ‘the nation’s foremost Afro-Brazilian actors, directors, intellectuals and musicians’. This is one of the features of the Brazil season in London, courtesy of the Brazilian embassy that is ‘adding a splash of [welcomed, needed, appreciated and valued] colour to [...]

• AfriPhotography::The 2 Andrews

  Posted: September 30, 2008, 2:23 am by sci-culturist

  Esiebo Dosunmu I remember reading an article in the late 90’s that suggested there was a boom in the naming of baby boys Michael, as inspired by the legends Mr Jordan, Mr Jackson, Mr Johnson and Mr Tyson (in no particular order). I am tempted to suggest the same should be so for Andrew, although the [...]

• DRC::Fighting the Silence

  Posted: September 23, 2008, 7:51 pm by sci-culturist

  More than 80,000 women and girls were raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the war that raged there in the late 1990’s. A taboo subject in the Congo, as in many countries, victims were often shunned by their families and communities. As a result, rape has now become not just a weapon of [...]

• Nigeria::Osun-Osogbo Festival Sponsorship

  Posted: September 19, 2008, 11:04 pm by sci-culturist

  The annual Osun-Osogbo festival in Nigeria has been and gone, but it is inevitable that next year will bring the recurring topic of corporate sponsorship and its increasingly larger role in this 600 year old ritual that pays homage to the Yoruba Orisha (Goddess) of the Osun River. One of the sponsors, the phone company MTN [...]

• Western Medicine::Traditional African Medicine

  Posted: September 19, 2008, 9:01 pm by sci-culturist

  I’m not usually a fan of reality TV, especially when depicting indigenous people, and I have ranted about it before. Channel 4’s Medicine Men Go Wild - I can’t tell you enough how the title irked me and what I think the insinuations are in this context, but that’s worthy of a separate post – included an [...]

• Feel the Beat

  Posted: September 14, 2008, 3:49 pm by sci-culturist

  
  

  The sabar dance from Senegal which has traditionally been a female dance and an overt expression of female sexuality (notably paradoxically in an Islamic country) to a cacophony of uplifting, energising sabar drum beats has evolved into multiple forms through its organic transformation by men into a dance for them as well, and now features in music videos and contemporary African dance schools. Here’s an informative excerpt from anthropologist Sophie Schouwenaar’s thesis (via Roots & Wings Movement). The actual sabar dancing doesn’t start until 03:53 but it’s well worth the wait and meanwhile gives background on the dance, drums and community.

  It reminded me (in a round about way) of an article I saw on the Boboraba (Djoula for ‘big bottom’) dance craze in Côte d’Ivoire , which as the name suggests is in praise of a large derriere and reportedly created business in the cosmetic industry by targeting gullible women. An elaborate account on the female posterior in popular culture, inspired by the same article is available on T’ings n’ Times. But just so you know what I am referring to, here’s the Boboraba music video by DJ Mix and DJ Eloh. For me, it’s reminiscent of ndombolo from the Democratic Republic of Congo. As you can probably already guess, it’s not safe for work (NSFW).

• Western Sahara Blues::Tiris

  Posted: September 13, 2008, 1:05 am by sci-culturist

  Tiris are certainly doing their bit for putting Western Sahara on the map. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Singing in Hassaniya, their sound is distinctive and carries unmistakably Arab and even Spanish flamenco influences - a reflection of Western Sahara’s colonial history. Listening to this fills me with a formidable sense of awe at what an [...]

• Africanized Simpsons::Why?

  Posted: September 8, 2008, 2:46 am by sci-culturist

  Ok, so The Simpsons are not new to controversy and are possibly in competition with Family Guy as the most unPC and dysfunctional family on tv. But this image of the Africanized Simpsons (hat tip White African) made me feel uncomfortable and I started to reflect on this as an image for Africa. The chicken and [...]

• Chad in Film::Abouna

  Posted: September 7, 2008, 11:46 pm by sci-culturist

  This is one of those films that I can watch over and over again. More so on a grey, chilly Sunday afternoon. It’s not often that you hear of Chad in an artistic context, less so in film. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s film, Abouna (Our Father) is a captivating piece of visual poetry, with an enchanting soundtrack by [...]

• Africhic Modahnik

  Posted: September 6, 2008, 12:54 pm by sci-culturist

    If you are in the Chicago area, do check out this up and coming designer label, by Afropolitan in the true sense of the word, Kahindo Mateene. For the sharp ones, you’ll  already have spotted the anagram from her name and first letter of her surname, which incorporates the rather clever use of the Italian word for [...]

• Fela!

  Posted: September 5, 2008, 10:05 pm by sci-culturist

  
  

  
  It’s all the rage and understandably so - the man is a legend and has been a source of inspiration to many, musically and politically. I am not usually a fan of musicals, but this one, I would have LOVED to see and inevitably dance to. Here’s a gold star review in the NY Times (via Africa is a country) of the translation by award winning choreographer and director, Bill T Jones (noteworthy interview above) and the numerous people who bring the late great Fela Anikulapo Kuti and his afrobeat band to life including actor Sahr Ngaujah and Brooklyn band Antibalas in the Lagos club, The Shrine. Details on dates and location here. Anyone who’s seen it, feel free to share your review and make me go green with envy :)

• Africans in France Sans Papiers

  Posted: September 2, 2008, 6:42 pm by sci-culturist

  
  

  An interesting read in the Guardian today that gives a laudable account of Parisian photographer Fabien Breuvart, who in show of solidarity with hard working, tax-paying but non-social-benefits-claiming illegal African immigrants a.k.a sans papiers (without papers) has taken hundreds of photos (500+ and counting) of these workers alongside documented members of the public. The body of work is entitled Vas-y, montre ta carte! (Go on, show your card!) and carries a clear message: ‘the only difference between these two people is a piece of paper’.

  See the article for more of Breuvart’s photos and details on Sarkozy-son-of-an-immigrant’s tough immigration policies that have allegedly resulted in an 80% increase of deportations of the sans-papiers since last year. The article also contains personal accounts of interviewees that reflect France’s colonial history - Algeria, Ivory Coast and Mali. Apparently the French mantra liberté, equalité et fraternité does not apply to the sans-papiers. Domage.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes