A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHIMURENGA AS A COMMUNAL LABORATORY
by Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga Since the 1970s, Zimbabweans have used the term “chimurenga” to refer to the 1896-1897 and 1960s-1970s wars of independence against the British settlers, but the concept has a much deeper meaning. First, it refers to the arts of war derived from Murenga – another name for Mwari (God) – hence chiMurenga, […]
Poverty is Older than Opulence
Maverick Serbian filmmaker, Emir Kusturica (Time of the Gypsies; Underground), talks with Diego Maradona, the best player EVER and the subject of Kusturica’s documentary-in-progress, about Bush Jr, Castro, John Paul II and the poor of Argentina. Diego Maradona is the man who exploded the shame of the entire world in June 1986, in an historic […]
Zinedine Zidane and and the event of the secret
Grant Farred produces a Derridean reading of Zidane’s world-stopping head butt. When speaking of a voyou, one is calling to order; one has begun to denounce a suspect, to announce an interpellation, indeed an arrest, a convocation, a summons, a bringing in for questioning: the voyou must appear before the law.” – Jacques Derrida, […]
Down the footpath
Emmanuel Iduma in conversation with photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi On a number of occasions, Akinbode Akinbiyi has said he moves quickest on foot. He says this when regarding his life as a photographer working in major African cities. Yet “quickest” contrasts with the rhythm of his work – he spends years, sometimes decades, working on a […]
Home is where the music is
Hugh Masekela (talking to Mothobi Mutloatse) I remember we use to live on isinkwa. When we saw musicians eating fish and chips and being drunk in the streets of Johannesburg you could tell that something had been put on wax. (Laughs). We are laughing now but it’s a sad thing y’know. Gallo makes millions of […]