AfricaIs aCountry

People's Culture

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

People's Culture

By
Sean Jacobs

[vodpod id=Video.3322857&w=450&h=370&fv=]

Priceless footage of 1980s Community Arts Project in Durban, which, according to one of the founders, artist Bruno Brincat, was “… an idealistic arts project that was ahead of its time and got nixed by the apartheid authorities.”

“… During the making of this video the CAW was in its fourth year and beginning to take shape. Apart from hosting a variety of functions, it offered 20 classes and had 400 members. It had initiated classes to train teachers with a view of setting up satellite township projects. The video was made to help raise funds (primarily from America). Ironically, when the Durban City Council saw the video they withdrew the building and the project collapsed. We had already relocated three times in as many years and were unable to find another suitable location. The video was made with the assistance of the University of Natal and in particular Costa Criticos.”

[Thanks to Bruno Brincat; h/t Duke Bantu X ]

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Reading List: Barbara Boswell

While editing a collection of the writings of South African feminist Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell found inspiration in texts that reflected Ngcobo’s sense that writing is an exercise of freedom.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

An annual awakening

In the 1980s, the South African arts collective Vakalisa Art Associates reclaimed time as a tool of social control through their subversive calendars.

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.