AfricaIs aCountry

'Africa Uploaded'

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

'Africa Uploaded'

By
Sean Jacobs

These photographs (above and below) by South African Rushay Booysen (from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province) forms part of the  “Africa Uploaded: Experiences Through The Lens” (offline) exhibit next month–December 7 till 31, 2010–in the United Arab Emirates “… curated by Annabelle Nwankwo-Mu’azu and under the patronage of Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka.”  The rationale for the exhibit: “… This exhibition focuses on the work of a groundbreaking generation of artists, capturing their experiences as ‘Afrophiles’ and cultural trailblazers. The experience is multi-sensory and employs photography, video projections and film.” Apart from Booysen, the featured artists–all photographers–are Angèle Etoundi Essamba (Cameroon), Uche James Iroha (Nigeria), Antony Kaminju (Kenya), Mandla Mbyakama (South Africa), Aida Muluneh (Ethiopia), Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Uganda/USA) and Lindeka Qampi (South Africa). Anybody passing through the UAE this month?

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.