News & Events, February '09

Chimurenga Online

"I wrap myself around the curvaceous bodies of women all over Africa/ I am the perfect nightdress on those hot African nights... " Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo responds to the verdict in her rape trial against Jacob Zuma.

Bloke Modisane, Kwani? & Bamako

Get to The William Bloke Modisane Public lecture: "Bloke Modisane: The Eternal Alien" by Dr. Sam Raditlhalo (Senior Lecturer, UCT Department of English, Language & Literature), February 18, 5.30pm for 6pm, Iziko The Barry Lecture Theatre, South African Museum, Cape Town.

Now out: Kwani? 5, Part 1 Beyond The Vote: ‘Maps and Journeys’, the first of a twin edition that examines Kenya in the context and violent aftermath of its 2007 elections featuring over 50 writers, photographers, poets and cartoonists. Part 2 of Kwani? 5 :Beyond The Vote: Revelations and Conversations will be in bookshops on March 21.

Forthcoming: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck.

A call for proposals for the 8th Bamako Encounters / African Photography Biennial, Bamako, November 7 - December 7, 2009. The theme is Borders. African photographers and video directors are invited to submit their work for consideration. Deadline: April 20, 2009. Details here and here.
or

2009 FESPACO Film Festival, Revolutionary DVDs, African Poetry & Youtube Videos

African cinema, film screenings, conferences and a tribute to Ousmane Sembene at the 2009 FESPACO Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, February 28 - March 7. "African cinema: tourism and cultural heritage" is the theme of this years 40th anniversary edition. View this year’s official selection here or visit the FESPACO website.

"Culture is political, but it's another type of politics. In art, you are political, but you say, 'We are' and not 'I am.'" Ousmane Sembène: Interviews, Edited by Annett Busch and Max Annas now out. The book collects conversations from the mid-1960s to 2005, and spans the breadth of his filmmaking career while also touching on his literary work and his role as a public intellectual.

"What is a revolutionary? The writings of Marx and Engels both use the metaphor of revolution as the ‘locomotive of history’. Is, then, the revolutionary a standard bearer of progress, a pace setter, a frontrunner?" Alexander Kluge's 570-minute long film of Marx's Kapital now out on DVD.

See the US premiere of director Akosua Adoma Owusu’s 22-minute documentary film Me Broni Ba (My White Baby) (2008, Ghana/USA) on February 19 & 20 at MoMA’s annual Documentary Fornight. More here.

South African and Cuban poets team up on an anthology for the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. More here.

African-American and African literary journal, Callaloo, Volume 31, Number 4 - Cutting Down 'The Wrath Bearing Tree', The Politics Issue now available. Includes poetry by Fred D'Aguiar, Angela Jackson, Kangsen Feka Wakai, Derek Walcott and more; interviews with Munir Akram, Jagdish Bhagwati, Bernardine Evaristo and more; prose by Jagdish Bhagwati, Thomas Glave, David A. Hollinger and more; and a special section on Aimé Césaire: In Memoriam.

A final calls for entries to the 2008/09 European Union Literacy Award. Have your first novel published and win R25,000. The award is open to all South African writers residing in South Africa. The closing date for all entries is February 16. For the full entry details go to www.jacana.co.za.

First it was the video now Binyavanga Wainaina teams up with Patrick Gathara and Daniel Muli on an illustrated book: How to Write about Africa, Oxfarmmed and other stories. 

February’s Kwani: Poetry Open Mic, at the Club Soundd, Hamilton House Kaunda Street, Nairobi on February 3 features "Number 8" the winner of Kwani? Poetry Slam 2008

Zoe Wicomb will be reading from her most recent collection, The One that Got Away (2008) at the Centre for Humanities Research Seminar Room, UWC, Cape Town February 12 at 2pm.

Mark Lilleleht has started a "best of African Poetry" project. He is encouraging submissions on his blogsite.

Zakes Mda - Reading from Cion: Alden Friends of the Libraries Room, Ohio University, February 3, 7-9 p.m. Zakes Mda will read from his book and answer audience questions about the story, its history, its symbolism, and its meaning. Check out the Cion Blog here.

What does living in two worlds mean to an immigrant? Read: Somali author Nuruddin Farah 2009 Winternachten lecture.

"Who is reading me? Do I have readers? Do I write and publish 'nonsense'? Why don't I get more feedback from readers?" How Seleke Botsime was named “Free State Columnist of the Year (2008).

Filmmakers Against Racism (FAR) – an initiative launched last year in response to the wave of xenophobic violence hitting South Africa - have released Reflecting On Xenophobia, a DVD featuring a selection of their recent films. More here.

Dollywogs, Black History, Black Rebels & Music

The Wooster Collective in Kenya: 2000 square meters of rooftops in Kibera have been covered with photos of the eyes and faces of the women of Kibera. The material used is water resistant so that the photo itself will protect the fragile houses in the heavy rain season. The train that passes on this line through Kibera at least twice a day has also been covered with eyes from the women that live below it. The work can be seen from space and will be seen in Google Earth. More here.

Fong Kong Bantu Sound System presents another Fong Kong Session At Zula Sound Bar (196 Long Street, Cape Town) on February 14. Expect the unexpected in funkadelicafrojazzdancehallsoul from selectors Real Rozzano, Ntone Edjabe, Boeta G and Dubmasta China, with Vicks dropping in on sax and flute, includes special guest DJ Astroboy (Departure Lounge - UK).

"Ranging from the exquisitely delicate to the fascinatingly grotesque, fetished with a multifarious assortment of objets trouves..." Catch Dollywogs & Collectables by Jamaican born poet/visual artist Jimmy Rage & Kato Tan at Gallery WM Amsterdam, January 24 – February 15. . Also: download of an African hip hop show for Dutch radio station FunX Lijn5 featuring Jimmy Rage as co-host. 

Afrikan/BleK History Manth: Starting on February 3, the House of Nsako in Brixton, Johannesburg, invites all the people of Jozi to a "skop of note, a totally 100% Bantu-Boere Jol! to celebrate Afrikan/BleK History Manth" with a range of musicians, film-makers, DJ’s, poets, MCs, dancers, visual artists and writers.

Catch Qilombo Cuntry, a film about the black rebel villages of Brazil at Taller Latino Americano in NYC, February 6. Q&A plus discussion on filmmaking with director Leonard Abrams.

Get to Evo lokxion Sundaze Featuring Ba4za, DJ Zan D, Evo Lokxion All-Stars and deck wrecker DJ BlaQt, February 1 at Aldo’s Lounge, Naledi Mall in Vosloorus. And download EvO Lokxion Sundaze Mix-Tape. 

Mary Manzole, Steve Bandoma, Heeten Bhagat, Julia Raynham, Athi-Patra Ruga and more at Infecting the City in the Cape Town CBD from 21-27 February 2009. More here.

Calls, conferences & conversations

Almost Island Dialogues: Three, India-China takes place at India International Centre New Delhi February 12-15. Writers include Bei Dao, Xi Chuan, Ge Fei, Kunwar Narain, K. Satchidanandan, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Sharmistha Mohanty, Vivek Narayanan, Ashis Nandy and more. View the invitation here.

Also read a talk by Italian writer Claudio Magris from Almost Island Dialogues:Two, New Delhi, March, 2008: “It is not easy to talk of oneself, of the self that writes. Every time I find myself in this position I feel like Scipio Slataper, a Triestine writer who at the beginning of this century, in 1912, in some way invented, created, the literary landscape of Trieste..." More. 

The BASS festival in the UK seeks proposals for their month-long string of events in June 2009. The theme is Inspired by Africa and Africans. Already on the programme: the Emcees for Life conference featuring Africanhiphop, Bashy, Ben Sharpa, Lord Finesse, Ursula Rucker and more.

A call for submissions from the Writing Queer Kenya editors: “We lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, in a word, queers, have had the distinct un-pleasure of being told we don’t exist... Well, we do. We want Kenyan stories by Kenya-based and Kenya-born queers. About everything.”

Diversity in Place - Making Documentaries on the Multicultural City: Call for submission of video and photo documentaries whose emphasis is on exploring multicultural cities and processes of place-making.

Grassroots Struggle Against Sexism and Racism: an International Comparison; Iraq, Haiti, Palestine – Occupation is the Crime; Rediscovering Tanzania’s Ujamaa and more at The Struggle Against Poverty, War & Occupation in London until February 8. Full programme here.