Photographic Heritage: Who Owns the Memories of "Before"?

Photographic Heritage: Who Owns the Memories of "Before"? All over Africa there is a certain revival of an industry of culture and memory, or perhaps even the cult of memory. And perhaps that's good news.

Afroscreen

15.05.2012 | by P.J. Marcellino

Right After the Comma

Right After the Comma You will find here the account of a series of journeys which I began in August 2010. You will also find in the text and drawings of Right After the Comma other earlier and later journeys which are not restricted by it and which will orbit and “de-temporalise” its central course.

To read

07.05.2012 | by Mattia Denisse

Yonamine, from Luanda to the world

Yonamine, from Luanda to the world Yonamine is very spontaneous in his work: he thinks about pictures or objects, old photographs, cigarettes packs, or curious textures, then follows their trail to create, to subvert certain applications and to give them other semiotic readings, by reinventing the fragments of different memories in a register of composed intelligibility. Conflict and unpredictability abound in his work and it’s this not classifiable side that troubles, in a good way, who watches it. You can immediately feel the urgency, and this may come largely from living in Angola.

Face to face

14.04.2012 | by Marta Lança

Black archetypes and stereotypes in brazilian films

Black archetypes and stereotypes in brazilian films A frequent charge made about Brazilian cinema by Black intellectuals and artists is that the films do not present truly individualized characters, but rather mere archetypes and/or caricatures. The accusation is pertinent, since Brazilian cinema generally favors character-types, schematic or symbolic, Black or not. In Black folklore in Brazil (1935), anthropologist Artur Ramos observed that orishas (African deities) “passed into Brazilian folklore and maintain close contact with the popular imagination, a magical and somewhat familiar contact, since they survive as symbols of individual complexes”. They appear as much in ancestral African religions (Candomblé), as in the Brazilian religion Umbanda, which absorbed other influences (e.g., indigenous, oriental).

Afroscreen

24.03.2012 | by João Carlos Rodrigues

The Queen of Choreography: Neliswe Xaba

The Queen of Choreography: Neliswe Xaba South Africa´s theatre gains international recognition for its performance arts productions due to applying diverse aesthetics and the search of new stage approaches by many different artists. In addition, regularly scheduled national and international dance, performance art and theater festivals are organized like Invecting the City in Cape Town, Dance Umbrella in Johannesburg, and National Arts Festival in Grahams Town etc.

Stages

07.03.2012 | by Grit Köppen

Making cultural inheritance the theme for contemporary artistic creation

Making cultural inheritance the theme for contemporary artistic creation he ROOTS project approaches the slavery theme through/from a contemporary vision inspired by an archeological discovery in 2008 in the “green circle” in Lagos at the location which was known as the “Vale da Gafaria” (Valley of the Leper Hospital). In the area rescue archeological excavations that preceded the construction of one of the city’s underground car parks enabled the methodological investigation of the whole area affected by the enterprise - one of the ex-libris of urban regeneration that the municipal administration was able to carry out in the decade of the XXI Century.

I'll visit

15.02.2012 | by Rui Parreira

Eight days, six nights: Diary of a first journey to Senegal and Sub-Saharan Africa

Eight days, six nights: Diary of a first journey to Senegal and Sub-Saharan Africa We land in Dakar at 2.30 in the morning. Looking from the plane at the Cap Vert peninsula, the map I had been studying for months now gains life. I know exactly where our hotel is. I come out of the plane looking for the first elemet that will prove I am in Africa. Nothing special, apart from the airport name: Léopold Sedar Senghor, Senegal´s first president, the president-poet.

I'll visit

01.02.2012 | by Maria Vlachou

Nairobi Dancer Irene Renée Karanja and the Dashy Krew – An Interview

Nairobi Dancer Irene Renée Karanja and the Dashy Krew – An Interview The most interesting things happen often completely unexpected. On a trip to Nairobi, being busy with the Solo and Duo Festival of Dance Forum Nairobi I came along the dynamics of inspiring artists in the GoDown Art Centre located in the industrial area of town. There I had the coincidental chance to meet the dancer Irene Karanja in a daily rehearsal program for a dance show choreographed by Fernando Anuang´a. Her artist name is short: Renée.

Stages

28.12.2011 | by Grit Köppen

On Nomadism

On Nomadism Nomads can be understood in different contexts, as in an anthropological sense, nomads as a new concept in philosophy and nomads as a real and metaphorical concept for new artistic praxis both in real and metaphorical senses. The real sense refers to art among nomadic people, while the metaphorical usage pertains to the use of nomadism in new artistic and theatrical creations.

To read

20.12.2011 | by Knut OveArntzen

Rebuilding the Angolan body politic: Global and local projections of identity and protest in "O Herói/The Hero" (Zézé Gamboa, 2004)

Rebuilding the Angolan body politic: Global and local projections of identity and protest in "O Herói/The Hero" (Zézé Gamboa, 2004) This article uses a reading of Zézé Gamboa's award-winning 2004 feature as a basis for an exploration of post-conflict Angolan screen culture and of its impact both at home and internationally. It considers how O Herói‟s depiction of a war-torn nation, and of the impediments to its reconstruction, negotiates between a socially-engaged film-making practice, informed by local tradition and the tenets of „Third Cinema‟, and the demands of a globalised cinema market. The film achieves this compromise by deploying allegorical and symbolic tropes, familiar from the literature, cinema, and political discourse of the era of Angolan liberation (notably, the concept of a socialist „new man‟), to complicate a superficially optimistic story of post-conflict rehabilitation, and to insinuate a critique of the authoritarian practices and neo-liberal policies of the MPLA government.

Afroscreen

19.12.2011 | by Mark Sabine

The woman in Contemporary African Cinema: Protagonism and Representation

The woman in Contemporary African Cinema:  Protagonism and Representation The variety of techniques and approaches to film in use in the present day impedes overarching judgments. Women’s increasing esteem and importance within the world of cinema has led to a diversity of intentions and perspectives; moreover, the character of global culture is such that the lines separating Africa from the West are no longer so clear as before.

Afroscreen

06.12.2011 | by Beatriz Leal Riesco

The Protean Web: Literature and Ethnography in Lusophone Africa

The Protean Web: Literature and Ethnography in Lusophone Africa This book discusses colonial and postcolonial textuality under the theoretical scope of Literary Theory, Cultural Critique and Anthropology. It focuses mostly but not exclusively on Angola and Moçambique. In these countries, Ethnographic Fiction has emerged as a genre that inspired until this day "violent readings" of history and society.

Mukanda

29.11.2011 | by Ana Maria Mão-de-Ferro Martinho

The Sad Story of Our Films

The Sad Story of Our Films In Ethiopia films are financed entirely by private businessmen, who anticipate profit out of film production; in a best case, individuals who want to finance films for the love of the art and as a side business with less anticipation of big profit. Yet both groups of producers want to see their production at least covering its own cost and become a sustainable sector.

Afroscreen

29.11.2011 | by Aron Yeshitila

Feminism and Africa: Impact and Limits of the Metaphysics of Gender

Feminism and Africa: Impact and Limits of the Metaphysics of Gender For the most part, prevailing definitions of gender in African studies have come from disciplines located within the Western body of knowledge. Scholars are often unaware how much these definitions are steeped in the mores and norms of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and the social conventions of European and European American cultures.

To read

01.11.2011 | by Nkiru Nzegwu

The Performance “Kawa” of the Dance Company Chatha (Hafiz Dhaou, Aicha M´Bareck)

The Performance “Kawa” of the Dance Company Chatha (Hafiz Dhaou, Aicha M´Bareck) The stage and the auditorium are darkened. Suddenly a noise of clinking glasses in the audience is to hear. The stage light is slowly moved in, it remains dimmed considerably. The room is bare, dark and corresponds to a black box theatre. One can see a mountain of white cups on the right half of the stage.

Stages

20.10.2011 | by Grit Köppen

Occupy Wall Street: Carnival Against Capital? Carnivalesque as Protest Sensibility at Liberty Plazza

Occupy Wall Street: Carnival Against Capital? Carnivalesque as Protest Sensibility at Liberty Plazza While some commentators and journalists have dismissed Occupy Wall Street as carnival, lawmakers and policemen did not miss the point. Carnival per se, the Shrovetide festival, hardly exists in the United States anymore, save for Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the West-Indian American or Labor Day Parade in Brooklyn, a pan-Caribbean celebration.The carnivalesque, however, as medium of emancipation and instrument of political protest, is alive and well. (...) Carnivalesque protests are a staple of the anti-corporate globalization movement.

City

18.10.2011 | by Claire Tancons

Interview with the South African Performer Sello Pesa in Berlin

Interview with the South African Performer Sello Pesa in Berlin "I think there are so many misconceptions about African cultures. Besides, I use the ideas of used objects for rituals, but the material is different. Sometimes I abstract additionally the movements of such rituals. Anyway, I feel the need to alienate ritual elements; they mainly serve as an inspiration for me".

Stages

11.10.2011 | by Grit Köppen

Angolan origin

Angolan origin My concern is not to say who is and who is not Angolan. In Angola, as in any modern society, being Angolan is defined by the nationality law. Portugal began to nationalize all the native of colonies during the colonial war. Denationalizing them was among the first political acts of the government resulted from the 25th of April.

To read

09.10.2011 | by António Tomás

Risking what opens the way, interview with António Pinto Ribeiro

Risking what opens the way, interview with António Pinto Ribeiro A particular cultural expression results from an expectation that a group has in relation to the culture and the world, but also in its hereditary burden, in what, in the English-speaking world, is well called heritage. Of course, because of tradition or expectation, many of these cultures and groups come into conflict. It may be productive, since it is assumed as a normal part of democracy. As there is negotiation between groups and cultural expressions, where the intervention in the city and political and social issues cannot be replaced by culture, we find ourselves in a rich and democratic situation. Cultural productions should translate that.

Face to face

06.10.2011 | by Marta Lança

Lusosphere is a bubble

Lusosphere is a bubble Lusosphere has a long way to go to become more interesting. If considered from the Portuguese standpoint, lusosphere reverberates the colonial past, people relate to and interest in the stories of each other more forcefully within the boundary of this "imagined community" that, despite this name, does not help them in living conditions and, if a Lusophone project exists, in most respects it has failed miserably.

Games Without Borders

03.10.2011 | by Marta Lança