Africa Is a Country

tom-devriendt

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Tom Devriendt

Tom Devriendt was an editorial board member of Africa is a Country before there was an editorial board.

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Arab Women Filmmakers in Berlin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg1IHGKPoQg 'A Game' is a short fiction film from 2010 by Sudanese director Marwa Zein, based on Italian novelist Alberto Moravia's story 'Let's play a game'. Zein is one of the 'Arab Women Filmmakers' whose work will be screened and discussed at the Cervantes Institute in Berlin (with many of the directors attending). Other (older and new) films and directors are: Forbidden (Amal Ramsis), Kingdom of Women (Dahna Abourahme), Neither Allah, Nor Master (Nadia El Fani), Letter to my Sister (Habiba Djahnine), Damascus Roof and Tales of Paradise (Soudade Kaadan) and Lemon Flowers (Pamela Ghanimeh). A great selection. The series started earlier this week and runs till March 6. Details here. Trailer for the 'festival' here.

Bilingual MC’s

On 'Super Mc', a group of rappers (Omar Offendum, Lou Piensa, Ceschi, Jarabe Del Sol, M.O.A, Hadjii -- all residing in the US -- and Outspoken, above-- from Zimbabwe) flex their bilingual skills in a single verse over beats and cuts by Dj Nio and Dj Boo. Nomadic Wax has the details. 'Super Mc' is one of 38 tracks on the second volume of the Internationally Known mixtape series. here.

Marrakech Biennale looks North

Kicking off this week is the 4th Marrakech Biennale. The opening days will see performances, debates, talks and screenings as well as the opening of the main 'Higher Atlas' visual arts exhibition. "Through partnerships with African and international voices," the Biennale hopes to "promote the status of the artist and contemporary culture in North Africa and to dynamize the regional creative scene." Looking at the list of artists participating in the Higher Atlas exhibition, one could get the impression the intended "dialogues that [will] produce new, consensual realities" will most likely reflect a North Atlantic triangular reality with a tiny Moroccan base, since most of the contributing artists are European or American. The Moroccan artists that were included are Younes Baba-Ali, Faouzi Laatiris and Hassan Darsi. South of Morocco, they seem to have only found one artist: Pascale Marthine Tayou. So much for the African voices. Among the movies scheduled to show in the Biennale's film section are the dubious 'I Am Slave' (from 2010; Basia promises to put up a review soon), Moroccan Narjiss Nejjar's new film 'L'Amante du Rif' but also writer and director Hicham Lasri's first feature, 'The End', set in a postapocalyptic 1999, on the eve of the death of King Hassan II: http://vimeo.com/33211464 In the literature section, we find writers Latifa Baqa, Omar Berrada, Zahia Rahmani, Abderrahim Elkhassar and litfest veterans Ben Okri and Rian Malan. Anybody in Marrakech to give us some feed-back? The Official Parallel Projects look interesting.

Music Break. Cabo Snoop

http://youtu.be/pAa8wYe0XbA An older Cabo Snoop tune (kuduristas in Angola and elsewhere have been dancing to 'Zagala' since 2010) but it comes with a new video in which he gets away with dropping his name (and record) among the Kenyan Maasai, while effortlessly branding the South African clothing label Amakipkip in a next shot.

BBC’s Special Focus on Africa

To mark 80 years of international broadcasting, the BBC World Service is hosting a day of live programming today. And we're part of it. During the 5-6pm time slot (that's 5-6pm GMT; 12-1pm EST) Focus on Africa will take a look at "the creative energy and entrepreneurship coming out of Africa." Some topics up for discussion are: Whether the world still needs an international broadcaster; What is the role of the BBC?; What are the stories the BBC should cover, and the voices you should hear?; What values and ideas do we all share, and are these the same as our audience? Sean Jacobs will be guest editing the program (and repping Africa is a Country), looking at the role social media has played in news reporting. He will be joined by blogger Tomi Oladepo. Twitter handles to follow and participate in the discussion are @BBCAfrica, @BBCAfricaHYS, @bbcworldservice and @AfricasaCountry. * Update: you can now listen to a recording of the program here.

Friday Music Bonus Edition

It's a mixed bag this week. Kenyan artist Ato Malinda created a video for one of the tracks of last year's BLNRB album (music is by the Teichmann Brothers, vocals are by Alai K): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM29sCSG-y0 Also from Kenya comes 'Radio Love' by J'Mani, Collo and Lyra Aoko. (Only including this because of the "jabulani swagger" line.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8KG8ZuwRv0 French-Malian rapper Mokobe shared a new video for 'Boombadeing': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jkkrEixEcY More hip hop from Raashan Ahmad (who seems to be spending a lot of time in Europe lately), Rita J and Moe Pope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7DlwS-EVgo And to slow it down, Y'akoto's got a new video out too. We're still waiting for that debut album of hers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdU9hOKz4g8

Rare: Conscious Kwaito

http://youtu.be/1uxP28i7U8k South African kwaito house with an explicit message: we don't get to hear it often. Shota's Etshwaleni has been playing in clubs for months, I'm told. Its straightforward lyrics make it stand out: have fun while still respecting others ("hlonipheni abanye abantu") and drink responsibly ("pasop ugu dakwa") during sleepless ("asisalali") weekends. But you figured that much from the video.

Do people believe ex-prisoners can change their ways?

http://youtu.be/fhlR7EOHnws That was the question asked to people in Cape Town, South Africa, by the Prison Broadcasting Network (PBN), "a non-profit rehabilitation programme that teaches prisoners the skills to become employable when they are released." I found the responses unsurprising. But the video has a twist. There's also this, as pointed out by Osocio, the blog that monitors non-profit advertising and marketing: (spoiler alert) "It’s a shame, though, that we didn’t get to see this fact revealed to the interview subjects themselves. Watching their reactions would have made this much more memorable."

Friday Music Bonus Edition

So drawn into the video (a plethora of faces, personalities and historic moments) Atlanta trio Algiers made for 'Blood', I forgot to pay attention to the lyrics the first time seeing it: http://vimeo.com/35896162 Yanigga recorded the video for 'Dans un ghetto près de chez toi' ("In a ghetto near you") in Logbaba (Douala, Cameroon):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CshAyHSnGKo Fatoumata Diawara's been busy touring since releasing her first album last year. Translation of her lyrics on 'Sowa' can be found here. Unplugged in Holland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3OOYABPijE Michael Kiwanuka's song 'I'm Getting Ready' comes with a new video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHRKdpR1E6Q That new video (we blogged about here) for K'Naan's "Nothing to lose" featuring Nas, shot in Toronto. The video, in which Nas, K'Naan and an entourage of young Somali-Canadians, includes a visit to the Somali Social Club and K'Naan making a plug for countries in the Horn of Africa: http://youtu.be/kn3TFkxFKeE And, finally, AIAC favorite and Nas collaborator Damian Marley's latest 'Affairs of the heart': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT2789urycI