Articles

It Begins with a Place

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts’ first book, Harlem Is Nowhere fuses seemingly disparate elements of history, philosophy, journalism and prose in an attempt to untangle the myth and meaning of Harlem’s legacy. Formally, she never tires of digression, evoking voices from Harlem’s past and present to convey a reality that is multidimensional and complex in its simultaneity, as well as demonstrate the breakdown of community and continuity in contemporary life. At stake is not only the future of Harlem but also its echoes and implications in black creative and political life everywhere.

We caught up with Sharifa at the PASS Studios during a recent visit to Cape Town to talk about the book and its place in her broader projected exploring black utopia.

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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 camarade Goddy. Douleur sourde, de celles qui ne passent pas. Qui ne peuvent et ne doivent pas passer.
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Fifty Years Of African Decolonisation

by Achille Mbembe (translated by Karen Press)

Here we are in 2010, fifty years after decolonisation. Is there anything at all to commemorate, or should one on the contrary start all over again?

Here restoration of authoritarian rule, there administrative multi-partyism, elsewhere minimal, easily reversible advances, and just about everywhere, extremely elevated levels of social violence – cyst-like situations, larval conflicts or open warfare – based on an extraction economy that, following the logic of colonial mercantilism, continues to favour predation – this, with scant exceptions, is the overall landscape.

Sortir de la grande nuit. Essai sur l’Afrique décolonisée

Entretien de Norbert N. Ouendji avec Achille Mbembe

« Sortir de la grande nuit. Essai sur l’Afrique décolonisée ». Tel est le titre du dernier livre d’Achille Mbembe qui paraît aux Éditions La Découverte à Paris le 14 octobre. J’ai eu le privilège de lire de manière attentive cet ouvrage riche et très documenté écrit en mémoire de Frantz Fanon et Jean-Marc Éla, deux « penseurs du devenir illimité ». Malgré son agenda chargé, l’auteur, actuellement en mission d’enseignement aux USA (Duke University), a accepté de fournir des éclairages utiles qui permettent de mieux comprendre sa philosophie et sa démarche. Dans cet entretien accordé à Norbert N. Ouendji, il va au-delà du texte et aborde des questions centrales du débat africain de l’heure.

Vous sommez le continent de « sortir de la grande nuit ». Son état de somnolence actuelle vous préoccupe. Tout au long de votre nouvel ouvrage, vous rejoignez Fanon lorsque vous invitez les Africains à « regarder ailleurs » qu’en Europe s’ils « veulent se mettre debout et marcher »…

Like Words For Weapons

Interview with Samm Farai Monro aka Comrade Fatso by Unathi L Sondiyazi 

It was during this year’s World Economic Forum that the rulers of “small people” convened on the snow capped city of Davos in Switzerland to ‘rethink, redesign and rebuild’ their economies after 2008’s financial market catastrophe.  Zimbabwe’s powerless prime minister; Morgan Tsvangirai attended the summit too; to plea with the heads of global financial institutions to have mercy on his broken country.

The Aesthetics Of Vulgarity

(With Thanks To Achille Mbembe)

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On the Current Censorship Crisis in Kano, Nigeria

By Carmen McCain, Director, Hausa Home Video Resource Center, Bayero University; Nazir Ahmed Hausawa, Manager, Golden Goose Studio; and Ahmed Alkanawy, Director, Center for Hausa Cultural Studies

Nigeria’s northern city of Kano was until last year the home of a thriving film industry in the Hausa language. Hausa language “video-films” are similar to the larger “Nollywood” Nigerian film industry but are stylistically different from their southern cousins, with most films including song and dance sequences influenced by Indian films and hiphop music videos. In August 2007, a sex scandal involving a leaked cell phone video of a Hausa film actress Maryam “Hiyana” Usman having sex with her boyfriend Usman Bobo instigated a change in the leadership of the Kano State Censorship Board.

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African Contemporary Art

Negotiating the Terms of Recognition: Achille Mbembe in conversation with Vivian Paulissen

Africa Remix was an international success. The Johannesburg Art Fair is becoming a fixture in the international art circuit. Major academic interventions such as Sarah Nuttall’s Beautiful/Ugly are redefining the boundaries of African aesthetics. William Kentridge, Penny Siopis and countless  individual African artists are making a name of their own in the world market. A silent revolution in contemporary art is in the making.  Its ramifications extend to other domains such as literature, fashion, music, architecture and design. As jazz and cubism in the 20th century, it is to a large extent engineered by African forms.

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I am Khanga

Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo (From the Dutch-language ZAM Africa Magazine): 

On May 8, 2006, the South African Judge Willem van der Merwe ruled that ANC leader Jacob Zuma was not guilty of the rape of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, the daughter of his late friend Judson Kuzwayo, his fellow prisoner on Robben Island who died in exile in 1985. Zuma did not deny having sex with her, but claimed since the victim wore a khanga, a wraparound cloth, she had “asked for it.” Following the verdict, Kuzwayo, moved to Amsterdam prompted by persistent threats from Zuma’s supporters. There she gained political asylum, partly through assistance from the AIDS Fonds and people involved in the former anti-apartheid movement. On September 26 [2008] Kuzwayo performed, dressed in a khanga, the poem below at the opening of the exhibition “Identity, Power and Connection,” on the eve of the bi-annual Afrovibes Festival. In this way, she responded for the first time to the court’s verdict:

10 Questions For Mukoma Wa Ngugi

By Jennifer Bryant

A Beautiful Blonde is Dead. This image is the spark that ignites the international crime drama Nairobi Heat, the debut novel by acclaimed Kenyan writer Mukoma wa Ngugi. From the evocative title of the first chapter to the last line readers are  forced to grapple with the touchy subjects of race, class, and the sometimes relative concept of justice. I recently had the pleasure of dialoguing with Mukoma about his new novel, his thoughts on writing, and his plans for the future.

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