News & Events, July '09

Festivals & events

The 11th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival runs until July 19 in Cape Town. Catch Ntokozo Mahlalela's Tribes And Clans, which deconstructs the complexities of self, culture and identity using the voices of some of the continent's more radical thinkers; Francois Verster's Sea Point Days and Youssou N’dour's I Bring What I Love and many more.

Luanda International Jazz Festival, July 31 to August 2 features pianist McCoy Tyner (US), saxophonist Gary Bartz (US), Paulo Flores, Afrikkanitha, Sandra Corderio, Dodo Miranda and Totó (Angola) Vanessa Da Mata (Brazil), Jimmy Dludlu, Lira, Freshlyground, Marcus Wyatt and Afrobeat (SA). Details here.

Acoustic Africa features South African singer/ songwriter Vusi Mahlasela, Malian composer, guitarist and singer Habib Koite and Ivorian singer Dobet Gnahore. Johannesburg, July 31, Swaziland on August 2, Namibia on August 5, Mozambique on August 7 and Oppikoppi Festival at Northam Farm on August 9.

Habib Koité, Dobet Gnahoré, Vusi Mahlasela, Busi Mhlongo, Nana, Hip Hop Pantsula, Aly Keita, Timbila Ta Venancio, Radio Marrabenta, Bhunya Bombers, Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuza, Jose Chameleone, Aldo Brincat, Jose Macavale, DJ Kenzhero and more at Bushfire Festival at Swaziland’s House on Fire from July 31 to August 2. Book here.

Urban Voices poetry fest includes performances by Marc Bamuthi Joseph (USA), Abena Koomson (USA / Ghana), Willie Perdomo (New York) and Stacyann Chin (Jamaica). Bassline in Newtown, Jozi on July 25 and Baxter Theatre Concert Hall, Cape Town on July 26.

2nd Pan-African Cultural Festival, Algiers, July 5 to 20, 2009. Ouarda El Djazairia, Youssou Ndour, Cesària Evora, Amazigh Kateb and the actress Isabelle Adjani are amongst the participants. Programme here.

Conferences, calls & grants

IFRA (Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique) is holding a conference on Nigeria Pidgin in the University of Ibadan from July 7 to 10 to explore the various dimensions of Nigeria Pidgin and produce a teaching method for Nigeria Pidgin.

Achille Mbembe, Michael Hardt, Shalini Randeria, Ackbar Abbas, Zackie Achmat, William Kentridge , Adi Ophir, Jeremy Cronin and more offers a rethinking of the political under late capitalism at the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Critic, Workshop Session 2009, July 6 - 15 in th July 2009.

SMS Obama: Barak Obama’s New Media invites you to submit questions and comments (in English and in French) to the US Pres ahead of his visit to Ghana using a local SMS short code in Ghana (1731), Nigeria (32969), South Africa (31958) and Kenya (5683), as well as a long code across the rest of the world (61418601934 and 45609910343). SMS participants will also be able to subscribe to speech highlights in English and French. More here.

Video Art Exhibition: Call for participation. The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos will be hosting the first video art exhibition in Lagos in October/November 2009. Video artists of African descent or artists of any nationality exploring these themes in relation to Africa are invited to make a submission.

Call for papers (book project): Perspectives On Modern African Currencies seeks texts that analyze the life and careers of modern African currencies from diverse perspectives, most especially history, economics, sociology and culture. These can be from country studies or from comparative perspectives. Deadline August 1. Email olutayo27@yahoo.com for details.

Alter-Ciné Foundation Documentary Film Grants are available for young film and video makers born and living in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to direct a documentary film on the theme of rights and freedoms, including social and economic rights, women's rights, the right to culture, and artistic creation. The Foundation will award a grant of CDN$10,000 to a video or filmmaker to assist in the production of a documentary project. Deadline:  August 15, 2009. E-mail: alter@mlink.net

Film Festival Africa in Motion 2009 is calling for abstracts for a symposium exploring various realities and representations (trauma, war, peace and security; film, literature, theatre, art, music, media and journalism;  politics, immigration and geography) of reconciliation in Africa.  Deadline August 1. symposium@africa-in-motion.org.uk.

Writing, books & DVDs

Zimbabwe International Book Fair starts July 27 under the theme "Reading and Writing, Zimbabwe". Authors appearing include Shimmer Chinodya, Ignatius Mabasa, Charles Mungoshi, Chirikure Chirikure and Virginia Phiri among others.

E.C.Osondu's Waiting, published in Guernicamag.com, has taken the 2009 Caine Prize for African Writing.

Filmmaker, writer and artist Aryan Kaganof's short film, Blue Notes for Bra' Geoff: a free jazz tribute to Geoff Matlherane Mphakati is now available on DVD. Get a copy. Read more here and check out Gwen Ansell's review.

The Jozi Book Fair 2009, August 8 & 9 at Museum Africa in Newtown is open to publishing houses which are committed to a social justice agenda and who feature contemporary and cutting-edge writing internationally and regionally.

Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah's An Elegy for Easterly has been shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor Award for short story collections. Details here.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie launches Farafina's edition of The Thing Around Your Neck at the Silverbird Lifestyle Store at the Silverbird Galleria, Lagos next Saturday, July 11th, at 4pm for a book-reading.

Nigerian author, publisher and editor Amatisoritsero Ede releases a new book of poems that explore immigration, race and otherness titled Globetrotter & Hitler's Children. His first collection of poems, Collected Poems: A Writer’s Pains & Caribbean Blues, was published in Germany and Nigeria and won the All Africa Christopher Okigbo Prize for Literature. His work has appeared in anthologies in England, Germany, Nigeria and Canada where he is based. 

"I will never be happy/ till I find the poem/ that I lost - / the poem of how I loved you/ how I loved the way/ we kissed/ on our first day" (I Lost A Poem, Mzwandile Matiwana – Deep South Books). RIP poet, activist Mzwandile Matiwana who pasted away on the 11th of June.

The Penguin Prize for African Writing, a new literary award for writers from the continent is calling for previously unpublished full-length works of adult fiction and non-fiction. The prize in each category will be R50 000 and a publishing contract with Penguin Books South Africa, with worldwide distribution via Penguin Group companies.