Meeting Marti, Neruda and Langa in the streets…
Amabhulu amnyama andenzel’ i-worry, Amabhulu amanyama andenzel’ i-worry andenzel’ indlala (White-blacks are the source of my worries; white-blacks are responsible for my poverty), Andile Mngxitama remembers the song, was sung at a march of the Landless Peoples Movement (LPM) in the streets Umtata in 2002. Gauteng Wednesday. About 3000 landless people marched to 30 Simmonds […]
Felasophy Through the Years: Fond Recollections of Fela Kuti
by Tunde Giwa Growing up in post civil-war Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, in the early seventies, I had been vaguely aware who Fela Kuti was when he led a band called Koola Lobitos. But it was not until my mother brought home a copy of the monster hit ‘Jeun K’oku’ and put it at the very […]
No Congo, No Technology
Post-disciplinary artist, Maurice Mbikayi, was born in Kinshasa, in 1974. His country of birth, Democratic Republic of Congo, is the world’s largest producer of Coltan – a key ingredient in many electronic devices. Mbikayi’s work – built from remnants of discarded computer parts, “junk technology” and other materials – asks deeper questions about the networks […]
De l’art de vivre l’art
Dominique Malaquais Goddy Leye nous a quittés. C’était le 19 février 2011, peu après minuit. A Karachi, au bord du désert, où jamais il ne pleut en cette saison, le ciel s’est ouvert. Averse. A l’aube, à l’heure du premier appel des muezzins, il pleuvait encore. J’écris là-bas ces mots pour l’ami, le mentor, le […]
La Puissance De Werewere Liking
One cannot avoid that vocabulary of hyper-inflation of much contemporary cultural or ‘arts and entertainment’ journalism when talking about Werewere Liking: multi-talented, phenomenon. First, both these descriptors are so often cheaply bandied about that they have become meaningless. Second, to use them in describing Liking is almost an insult because, while she is both of […]