26 October, 2008

29 African Artworks To See Before You Die

This post is a re-mix of The Guardian’s 1000 artworks to see before you die.

I like this article by Jonathan Jones because he alludes to what I consider to be 2 essential issues with regards to African works of art:

a) There’s an abundance of African ‘art’ sitting in Euro-American museums (British Museum, I am pointing at you mainly) that was attained under, shall we understatedly say, unjust circumstances. There’s been a counter-argument that some of these items were willingly given as gifts, but still no talk of repatriation for even those that were blatantly forcefully attained. Please don’t get me started on the argument that they are in safe-keeping and that we Africans wouldn’t have the know how to take care of them.

A swift, related diversion: I had an incredibly odd feeling in my stomach at the Hazina Exhibition (hazina is the Kiswahili word for treasure) in Nairobi a couple of years ago that featured East African objects on loan from the British Museum (curated by National Museums of Kenya). I call them objects because that is how these items were viewed in an African context - they were used in day-to-day activities and not put aside as admirable works of art. Which brings me to my next point-

b) There’s been a loss of meaning of masks whose use in specific rituals / masquerades gave them meaning, due to their impact on modern art. Masks are now widely viewed as exotic objects that adorn walls for aesthetic pleasure. Not to say that it is entirely wrong to appreciate masks as objets d’art, but I do think a genuine interest and/or understanding of the meaning and the communities behind the mask is warranted.

The Kingdom of Benin gets special attention:

Queen Mother commemorative head / Brass figure of a Portuguese / Brass helmet mask for the Odod

Queen Mother commemorative head / Brass figure of a Portuguese / Brass helmet mask for the Odod

The art of Benin is at once graceful and fierce. It has power that is emphasised by the artists’ favourite materials, metal and ivory. The royal heads of Benin rulers cast in metal are elegant portraits of beauty, assertions of power and instruments of magic. Most astonishing of all are the brass reliefs from the Oba’s palace: their dramatic intensity is something you need to take in over time. With repeated looking, the greatness of Benin’s art sinks in, a style of immense impact whose mass and tension prevent its beauty becoming too easy on the eye.

Ivory salt cellar / Ivory mask

Ivory salt cellar / Ivory mask

• Oba sacrificing leopards, brass plaque from Benin City, Nigeria, now in British Museum (16th century)
• Brass figure of a Portuguese soldier holding a musket, now in British Museum (16th century)
• Two chiefs in pangolin costumes, brass plaque, now in British Museum (16th century)
• Ceremonial presentation of box, brass plaque, now in British Museum (16th century)
• Chief in war dress, brass plaque, now in British Museum (16th century)
• A palace entrance with a turret, brass plaque, now in State Collections, Berlin (16th century)
• Oba’s palace, brass plaque, now in British Museum (16th century)
• View of the City of Benin, published by Olfert Dapper (1668)
• Commemorative head for an altar of a queen mother, brass, now in British Museum (before 1897)
• Brass head encrusted with animals, now in British Museum (before 1897)
• Ivory waist pendant worn by the Oba, now in British Museum (before 1897)
• Brass mask with towering cylindrical helmet, now in British Museum (before 1897)
• Brass mask with crested helmet, now in British Museum (before 1897)
• Bronze box depicting section of the Oba’s palace, now in State Collections, Berlin (before 1897)
• Ivory leopards, now in British Museum (19th century)

Benin was one of the world’s great visual civilisations… But nothing in the history of Benin is as harsh as what the British did to it. In 1897, after an envoy was killed, Britain announced a “Punitive Expedition” against this “city of death”. Artillery was trained on the city so admired by earlier Europeans. The palaces were set on fire and Benin largely demolished. Today it is a major Nigerian city but many of its art treasures were seized by the expedition and sold in London. Among the treasures now in Europe are two ivory leopards with spots made from European bullets. They show Benin’s art was still vital in the 19th century. The leopards were presented by the commander of the British raid to Queen Victoria as the spoils of war; today they can be seen in the British Museum, on loan from the Royal Collection.

African Masks:

Bedu cult wooden mask (Nafana) / Vegetable fibre, hair & red abrus seeds (Angas people) / Epa masquerade wooden mask (Yoruba)

Bedu cult wooden mask (Nafana) / Vegetable fibre, hair & red abrus seeds (Angas people) / Epa masquerade wooden mask (Yoruba)

The formal creativity of traditional African sculpture is formidable, and nowhere is this more evident than in the inexhaustible variety of masks. African “masks” can range from replica faces to immense, heavy costumes that cover the entire body, with designs from horned beasts to crocodiles to white ghostly beings to towering baskets. In the late 19th century, at the zenith of the European colonial “scramble for Africa”, these masks reached the European art market and caught the attention of artists especially in Paris, including Derain and Picasso.

(Thank you for concurring Mr Jones)

• Mask with multiple horns, made by the Bambara (now in the British Museum)
• Mask with bulging cheeks and beard, made by the MaKonde (British Museum)
• Mask with sharp nose, prominent breasts and raffia hangings, made by the Baga (British Museum)
• Mask with almond-shaped face, made by the Fang and given in 1905 or 1906 to Maurice Vlaminck, who sold it to André Derain (Pompidou Centre)
• Mask with crest on top of cylindrical head, made by the Vai (Manchester Museum)
• Mask with realistic painted face made by the Yoruba (Manchester Museum)
• Mask with two faces, one horned, from Cross River State, Nigeria (Manchester Museum)
• Mask with a squatting figure on top of a tall oval head, made by the Afikpo Igbo (Manchester Museum)
• Mask with horns, made by the Igala (National Museum, Lagos)
• Mask depicting an antelope with leopard’s teeth, made by the Guro (British Museum)
• Purple and blue mask portraying a gorilla, made by the Yoruba (Hunterian Museum, Glasgow)
• Hybrid animal mask with hyena jaws and warthog tusks, made by the Senufo (ArtInstitute of Chicago)
• Horned animal mask with open jaws, made by the Baule (British Museum)
• Horned mask made by the Northern Igbo (National Museum, Lagos)

What attracted modern painters to this object? It turns a human face into an abstract design with great audacity and confidence: the long nose and narrow mouth, curved eyebrows and small eyeslits all mirror the long curving shape of the mask itself, rather than being tied to appearances. In other words, the art of the carver finds form in the material that is carved; as wood is smoothed into a convex curve, the facial features replicate this same elegant rotundity…The sense of play in African masks makes them some of humanity’s richest visual creations.

If like me you’re questioning Jones’ authority to come up with this list, all I could find on him is that he writes on art for the Guardian (UK newspaper) and is on the jury of the 2009 Turner Prize. I can’t say the latter helps much. I must admit given the European locales of ALL (update: pardon the Freudian slip, that should be almost ALL) of the suggested works for this list, I was surprised there was no mention of anything from the Horniman Museum. And nothing from across the pond, e.g. the Met either? Also I am wondering if the location of the author of this article and most of these works (London) is a chicken-or-egg situation in terms of: are these the suggested top African works of art because they are easily accessible to a European audience (not only is the British Museum awash with worldly loot, it is also free to visit the permanent collections) OR is it because majority of the genuinely best African wood, metal and ivory sculptures are not on the African continent?

Aha! I like Jonathan Jones already -

Our series is not an exhaustive list but a guide based on personal passions…The view of art this list takes is anything but Eurocentric, yet it avoids a by-the-numbers list of what “should” be included. But … that also means annoying some of the people, some of the time. So here is the place to register that annoyance - or point to additional wonders of human creation.

Inset images are courtesy of the British Museum

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22 October, 2008

Film::Africa

The London Film Festival is underway and I spotted a few African films (8 to be precise) whilst trawling through the programme guide.

So what African stories are being told at the pictures this year?

Divizionz: Uganda-South Africa (Dir Yes! That’s Us)
An authentic portrayal of Kampala’s inner city, in which 4 friends set out to make it as hip hop musicians.

Divizionz

Divizionz

Teza: Ethiopia (Dir Haile Gerima)
Set in 1970’s Ethiopia, the story of a young man returning home after studying at university in Germany.

Teza

Teza

Victoire Terminus: DRC (Dir Renaud Barret, Florent De La Tullaye)
A documentary portrait of female boxers in Kinshasa as they spar in the Tata Rafael stadium, better known as the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ stadium where Muhammad Ali KO’d George Foreman in 1974. Juxtapositioned with political rallies for the presidential election in the same stadium.

Victoire Terminus

Victoire Terminus

Hassan and Morcos: Egypt (Dir Ramy Imam)
Egyptian screen icons Omar Sharif and Adel Imam team up for the first time in this razor-sharp satire about religious intolerance. Apparently it’s been very successful in Egypt and has stirred national debate between the country’s minority Christians and majority Muslims.

Hassan and Morcos

Hassan and Morcos

Eye of the Sun: Egypt-Morocco (Dir Ibrahim El-Batout)
A hypnotising journey through modern day Egypt and Iraq that veers between documentary and fiction. Won Best Film at the Taorima Film Festival.

Eye of the Sun

Eye of the Sun

Goodbye Solo: Senegal/USA (Dir Ramin Bahrani)
The pairing of a Senegalese taxi driver and a grumbling old timer in North Carolina is the basis of this insightful portrait of human behaviour.

Bahrani’s style is usually visually and emotionally engaging when telling immigrant’s stories (I balled my eyes out during Man Push Cart). I cant wait to see this one.

Goodbye Solo

Goodbye Solo

Short:

Expectations: Chad (Dir Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
A masterful and visually pleasing short film tells a poignant story of a man shamed by his inability to leave Chad for greener pastures in Europe.

I ♥ Haroun’s work. He is gifted in telling a seemingly simple and realistic story with socio-political relevance with visual elegance (e.g. Abouna).

Expectations

Expectations

Treasure from the archive:

Touki Bouki: Senegal (Dir Djibril Diop Mambéty)
Sumptuous colour restoration of an exhilarating, semi-surreal classic arthouse favourite from Senegal, in which young rebels dream of escaping to Paris and prosperity.

Despite only having done 2 films, Mambéty is renown for his avant garde style. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on this film for ages - a must see if you’re an arthouse buff like me. Check out the trailer. Amazing that this was in 1973!

Touki Bouki

Touki Bouki

Source: BFI

Click on hyperlinks / images for more detailed reviews, screenings and booking information.

Also, coming soon:

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19 October, 2008

Film::Diaspora

Diaspora Diaries (directed by Ghanaian-British all round artist Robert ‘Beyonder’ Asare) is an engaging docu-film that captures the broad meaning of the term and experiences of the people who refer to themselves as the African Diaspora by exploring the thoughts and opinions of a wide range of people of African ancestry born in East and Central Africa, Ghana, Madagascar, Egypt, Brazil, the US of A and Barbados, living in London.

Although released in 2007, this apparently timeless film, takes the viewer on a journey that starts in pre-colonial Africa and its present day political boundaries with ensuing consequences and weaves diverse yet interconnected experiences that people of varying degrees of African extraction / connections have and continue to have in Europe.

Albeit the challenges of a self-defined united, collective African Diaspora, given the myriad of routes and timescales taken to gather under this bountiful, diverse umbrella, (i.e. descendants of African slaves in the Americas and Caribbean and African-born immigrants to Europe as well as 2nd/3rd generation European-born West-Indians and Africans), I think this was a brilliant intertwining of voices that Beyonder facilitated (more remarkably so on a shoe-string budget), which could be brilliantly sequeled with the experiences of different stages of the reaspora (i.e. returning of Diasporan Africans to Africa), and the Africans who never left.

Trailer:

In relation, the short film African Booty Scratcher (written and directed by Sierra Leonian-American Nikyatu Jusu), despite the uh, controversial title, looks like a good platform for a topic worthy of discussion, particularly for 2nd generation teens with African-born parents who are conflicted by Euro-American and ‘traditional’ African values / identity that their parents want them to embrace during a life stage that is marred with finding one’s true, authentic voice as well as identifying with friends. Impressively, African Booty Scratcher has been screened in top festivals in USA, won a host of awards and has made it onto HBO for screenings in November 2008.

African Booty Scratcher-Trailer

Pop’Africana’s interview with Nikyatu Jusu.

==
“Something so powerful as film should be celebrated and understood” - Anthony Minghella

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15 October, 2008

Poverty: You and I are the Solution

Warning: This is not about wallowing in the ‘poverty in Africa’ cliché but superficially examining what went wrong and more importantly how you and I can fix it. Starting today.

First, let’s be clear, we are talking about economic poverty as Africa is full of other diverse riches which I believe this blog is a witness to. There are a number of theories as to why there is a significant excess of economic poverty in Mother Africa, including the tragic and swift loss of resources during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialisation.

The slave trade was abolished 200 years ago (on paper anyway) and Ghana, the first African country to attain self-rule recently celebrated 50 years of independence from British rule, with a stream of countries following on its heels.

So, isn’t that long enough to recover?
Answer: Yes BUT No.

It is a fact learned through hands-on experience that hand-outs (aka aid) don’t work. The irony of the G8 nations is that they are part of the problem, by endorsing the unfair trade rules that then lead them to debating how much aid to give; plus give loans that are inextricably tied to extortionate interest rates, which are in some cases passed on to profit-making vulture funds, e.g. in Zambia. This is like smiling at someone in a friendly manner and beckoning to hug them whilst simultaneously locating a tender place in-between their ribs on their back to drive in your knife.

Ian Berry/Magnum Photos - part of the Disposable People exhibition

Imported American rice and Italian tomatoes in Ghana, which are cheaper than local produce, thus putting local farmers out of business. Copyright: Ian Berry/Magnum Photos - part of the Disposable People exhibition

But there is hope with the growth of micro-financing initiatives, which are even more credible to cynics and have gained a huge global presence after Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Prize. Even larger mainstream organisations are changing their tune now that they realise that it can be profitable for them. In Kenya, banks are starting to cast their eyes to potential customers in the informal economy, beyond their usual middle class clientele. The power of the internet is also flourishing the concept of microloans from individuals through organisations such as

With regards to Fair trade, what then are the solutions besides storming the streets with Marxist placards? I reckon we take the ‘easy’ route. We play along. ‘The system’ [read: capitalism and democracy] is such that you and I are the most powerful people on the planet. Yes, you and I. Just sit with that for a moment and let it simmer.

Caveat: If only we get our act together.

In the capitalistic world in which we live, you the consumer, has the power to demand that whatever commodity you want is

I’m no economist, but it is crystal clear that if you and I don’t buy, businesses will collapse. They set out to please us because without us, they are, well, nothing.

In a democratic system, technically speaking the government is a euphemism for us. Which means that we have the right to demand that our respective governments trade fairly with African countries. In a country like the UK which can barely support itself and has supermarket shelves teeming with produce from all over the globe, in effect it is at the mercy of the developing world for commodities such as fruit, vegetables, flowers and even its recently booming café culture.

I struggle with being congruent sometimes. I love shopping in the local, independent grocers, but I realise that they can’t afford to go Fairtrade if it is not a mainstream practice. So I guess in order to compete with supermarket giants, the big corporations need to go Fairtrade first, and consequently make it mainstream. To our favour, there is more pressure on corporations to be socially responsible, which includes trading fairly. But this would work hand-in-hand with government policy. So this is where we come in. We put pressure on governments and supermarkets and we support microloan initiatives.

I know I have used words like ‘demand’ and ‘pressure’ which bear connotations, but it’s not all about being militant. Infact, I think asking nicely is more likely to get what you want by not antagonising others. During a conversation with a friend after being moved to tears of frustration by the docu-film Black Gold, based on Ethiopian coffee farmers and the global coffee industry, it emerged that Starbucks will serve Fairtrade coffee if you ask for it when making your order. I don’t frequent Starbucks and so this is unverified, but imagine the impact that would have, given that they are on almost every street in central London. It’s all about reaching the tipping point. If you doubt this, just look around now at the global economic bubble that burst after an increasing number of people were unable to pay their mortgages in the USA. Over-simplified, yes, but you get the drift: we the consumers have the power to change things.

A well-known British supermarket’s slogan is ‘Every little helps’. Given their reported profits in the £Billions, perhaps we should pay attention to this seemingly simple slogan and make it our own.

The more synergistic tactics we apply, the better chance we have to fix this. What do you reckon are other ways?

Shifting focus back to the start of this post - the African continent - how can we add value to our commodities such as coffee so that we may compete on an equal playing field?

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on practical action - both in the short and long term.

Normal posting resumes shortly.

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14 October, 2008

Africa + Funky Trendy Über Cool Popular Culture = Pop’Africana

I’m a bit late with this post, but there are so many wonderful on-goings in the Afroculture domain that I can barely keep up! And that’s a good thing.

, the Africana global book of style, is a bi-annual fashion.art.style magazine that recently had its online debut (hat tip Afripop!).

Pop’Africana is a collaborative effort which aims to re-introduce and re-define all aspects of “Art Africano” . Not only will the magazine aim to re-educate the globe on African ideas of style and individualism it also aims to serve as a robust, visual guide for understanding the “Africano pshyce” from an all inclusive perspective. Pop’Africana sets the standard for iconic style and individualism

The most creatively accurate and engaging review-part tribute I’ve come across so far is by Kitty, and rather than try to come up with a wittier one, I will take the easier route and plagiarise paraphrase:

Part National Geographic, glossy art-zine & soft porn periodical

What I love about this e-zine is that it is about celebrating the très, très chic style in and of Africa and Africans, both in the diaspora and the continent. Find out more about this visually stimulating, creatively uplifting zine - a behind the scenes journey as it were - from Pop’Africana founder, editor and photographer, Oroma’s blog.

[the] next issue is going to be amazing because we get to travel to collect content. if we are in the business of Africa then we must travel to her isn’t that so?

Also, Pop’Africana TV is coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled for it and more importantly show your support and subscribe to the zine.

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13 October, 2008

Fe-la-bration Time C’Mon!*

If there’s a time to be in Naija, it would be during the annual celebration of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s life, due to peak on 18th October. This year he would have been 70. Imagine that. Femi and Seun are guaranteed to be in Lagos celebrating their father’s life alongside a distinguished list of other African musician bigwigs such as Baaba Maal, Amadou and Mariam, Tony Allen. Apparently the African and British gathering of musicians who are doing this for love not money, under the collaboration ‘Africa Express’ will then head out to an equally spontaneous jam in London, minus Femi.

I was intrigued to find out that Africa Express is Bob Geldof’s brainchild, as penance for his sins and the (deserved) gra-gra he got for snubbing African artists at Live 8 (2005).

Source

Update: Correction - Africa Express was conceived by Damon Albarn and not Bob Geldof - Source.

See: Africa Express (a lovely welcome by Salif Keita)

There’ll be other Felabration happenings besides live gigs. Anyone who dey London wey wan come, click for details: Fela Kuti 70 at Cargo

This is an afrobeat extraveganza celebrating Fela Kuti’s birthday - he would have been 70. Although many people know Fela’s recording from the 1980’s and beyond, this night is about Fela at his funkiest - the 1970’s.

There will also be an exclusive exhibition showing 70 (keeping with the theme) original Fela Kuti vinyls, as well as never-before-seen photographs and some Fela inspired art.

I leave you with one of my Fela favourites: Lady

If you call a woman African woman no go ‘gree
She go say I be lady o

She go say him equal to man
She go say him get power like man
She go say anything man do himself fit do

She go wan make you open door for am

[The best bit]
I never tell you finish
I never tell you finish

==
* To the tune of Celebration by Kool and The Gang

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10 October, 2008

Our Stories As Told By Us

As we evolve and define, reassess, re-evaluate and re-define our identity as a nation, the thing called Kenya (46 years old this December and therefore relatively young), it is crucial that we grapple with our contradictions and influences, both ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ that may be internal and/or external both on a micro and macro level, on an individual and collective basis. That we stand up to speak for ourselves and share our stories, first, with each other and the world at large. It is up to us Africans to address Africa’s image in the global psyche. But to do so, first, we need to know who we are.

Screen shot of 24 Nairobi by Allan Gichigi (please dont sue me)

Screen shot of Nairobi at dusk from 24 Nairobi by Allan Gichigi (please dont sue me)

This is why I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the wonderful ongoing initiatives that combine LOCAL writers and LOCAL photographers, like Kwani Trust, Story Moja, Generation Kenya, Wajibu, heck even True Love, and more recently 24 Nairobi (hat tips Kenyan Pundit via JKE via Ntwiga). The latter is a pilot project of Kwani Trust for greater scope: 24 Kenya. This is also being addressed on a wider Pan-African scale, e.g. Chimurenga Magazine’s African Cities Reader.

The fantastic thing about the marriage of words and images taken from multiple sources and therefore presenting multilateral points of view is that they do not lie. They can not. They present the real, unadulterated thing by juxtaposing diametric opposites, as well as those sometimes intangible or undefinable  bits in between, or bits that we take for granted about who we are and what we represent – the good with the bad, the pretty with the ugly, the pristine with the grotty, the mediocre and mundane with the drama. They explore us in our totality, they validate us, they remind us who we are, they remind us we are not alone. More importantly, they prompt us to question who we are and what we’re about. Granted, the online documentations, books and magazines are not accessible across the board and beyond literary circles. But it is a start, a thread in the web, and it does not preclude their proliferation through word of mouth. Because in places like Nairobi, word gets around. Fast. Nairobians, people in other metropolises dotted around Kenya and smaller localities alike get around too, carrying their internalised stories. So if people read the stories and it triggers a conversation in Maralal, Mwingi or Moyale, then that’s just brilliant.

Screen shot of 24Nairobi by Allan Gichigi (please dont sue me)

Screen shot of Nairobi at dusk from 24 Nairobi by Allan Gichigi (please dont sue me)

Special treatment because Nairobi is a place dear to my heart:

24 Nairobi brings together local, regional and international creative professionals to interact and work to evolve powerful, realistic images and narratives that would reflect the life, diversity, cultures, energy and dimensions of a city in Africa. The team will develop, create, produce, showcase, publish, distribute and archive a body of artistic work that portrays the immense dynamism and depths of facets of Nairobi’s life.
24 Nairobi will display the work of contemporary image and story creators, who will portray, interrogate and communicate the immense dimensions and varieties of life, expression, meaning and being in Nairobi in gritty, realistic imaginative and stimulating ways. The project uses the work time formula to reveal Nairobi and its distinct urban character. It is the first stage of an image and narrative project that shall engage artists and others to explore, subvert, challenge and transcend prevailing image and narrative stereotypes.

In relation, the time is here that we go to mainstream bookshops (read: Text Book Centre and Books First) and have the shelves of the Africa section packed with fiction and non-fiction books by Kenyan (and other African) authors as opposed to the obligatory coffee table photography books of Tribes and Wildlife in Forests and Savannah that only fuel the uni-dimensional, stereotypical image of Kenya Safari and Diani Beach. I’m not convinced by the counter-argument that it is simply an issue of supply and demand when the option of catering for a wider clientele is not glaringly evident. Of course Kenya is strikingly beautiful and diverse and has all those wonderful things (Biased? Who me?) and yes, our GDP partly relies on the revenue brought in through the foreign tourist industry. But do the prospective readers whose fingers gently stroke the spines of these books wonder who are these people called Kenyans? What do they think, what are they passionate about, what is important to them and why?  Ya basta, enough already with the ‘I-came-to-Africa-on-holiday-and-married-a-Maasai Warrior’ and ‘Why-Africa-is-so-corrupt’ and ‘Tribal Feuds Explained’ Euro-American authored books. Now is the time for the Ngugi wa Thiong’os, Grace Ogots, David Maillus, Francis Imbugas of our generation to rise up and be visible. But more importantly with these non-elitist initiatives (because frankly writing / writers can be elitist), it is time for whosoever from whatever walk of life who has a story to tell to be visible and to be listened to. Then they stand a chance of being heard.

Exciting times.

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7 October, 2008

Things that make you go hmmm…Exhibit A

I was on iTunes when I was struck by the Confrontation album cover. I love Kehinde Wiley’s work, but clearly Bob was wayyy ahead of his time (although this album was released posthumously in 1983, 2 years after his death).

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6 October, 2008

Traditional African Spirituality.::.Africa to Latin America to Going Global to Africa

Keeping in with the Afro-Latino theme from my previous post, the London Lucumi Choir will be performing at the Royal Festival Hall on 12th October 2008.

Having taken part in their workshop during the recent Open Rehearsal Weekend (part of the Cultural Olympiad), I have no doubt it will be an exhilarating experience to be in a room awash with animated songs of praise to Orishas (deities) of the Yoruba tradition, to a rhythmic accompaniment of Afro-Cuban percussion including Batá drums.

The word ‘Lucumi’ derives from Yoruba and is how the Yoruban people used to salute each other in Cuba in the early days of slavery: it roughly translates as ‘My friend’. These days, the word Lucumi is used to describe the practitioners of the religion Santeriá or Regla de Ocha (the rule of the Orishas), a religion now spread worldwide which has its roots in West Africa.

The fascinating thing, I find, is the literally and metaphorically arduous journey that frequently ill-understood Traditional African Spirituality that was exported from West and Central Africa through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, took to Latin America, was absorbed and integrated by virtue of the strength of the bearers and descendants of this tradition, and inevitably evolved and manifested into distinct but related forms – Candomblé in Brazil, Santeriá in Cuba, Haitian Voodoo, amongst others - through the organic syncreticism of a ‘pure’ African practice with the then current local culture and tradition, which constituted the indigenous populations (aka ‘Indians’) and the Roman Catholic faith imported by the Spanish Conquistadores.

These newly formed, unique religions in their own right (aka New World religions), have since been exported by significant numbers of the Latino and Caribbean diaspora, e.g. to the USA, thus inevitably spreading their practice to non-Caribbean / non-Latino converts. Interestingly, on the African continent, Benin is the only country that recognises Voodoo as its official religion.

If it hasn’t yet been assessed, it would be a fascinating ethnographic enquiry to explore the exportation of these Afro-Latino / Afro-Caribbean religions to Africa or their practice by Africans in the diaspora. Afterall, the merging of Christianity with Traditional African Spirituality is not a novel concept in post-colonial Africa. (Any ideas Native Anthropologist?)

Quoting Anani Dzidzienyo whose sentiments accurately resonate with mine,

That these institutions moved from the clandestine to the marginal to their present day status as national institutions [in Latin America] is indeed remarkable.

For me, the survival and proliferation of these syncreticised religions with African roots is even more jaw-droppingly remarkable as I reflect on my personal circumstance as an East African who went to a Catholic primary school in Nairobi and had a short stint in not-overtly-Catholic-’modern’ Spain, participating in a West African-via-Cuba spiritual tradition that emanated from a region that was historically colonial French West Africa (i.e. Dahomey), conducted in an archaic West African patois that has since evolved, in the former HQ of the British Empire. In addition, the London Lucumi Choir is itself a cosmopolitan mestizo of various nationalities. If this is not a powerful attestation to globalisation, then I don’t know what is.

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5 October, 2008

Latin America and the African connection

Cinema of Brazil: Afro-Brazilian Perspectives is a film festival at the Barbican that seeks to celebrate ‘the nation’s foremost Afro-Brazilian actors, directors, intellectuals and musicians’. This is one of the features of the Brazil season in London, courtesy of the Brazilian embassy that is ‘adding a splash of [welcomed, needed, appreciated and valued] colour to [a typically grey] autumn in London’.

Inevitably this thematically diverse series of films both provides a platform to shed light on, and create a foundation, for an equally well-rounded discourse on socio-political and cultural issues that are relevant to Afro-Brazilians today. The line up of films therefore look to, in my view, divert from the generalised / stereotypical perceptions of the black Brazilian experience that has pervaded the global psyche partly due to the success and consequently wide accessibility of the explicitly violent films that portray gang sub-culture in the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro, such as the avid-shooting-and-dropping-like-flies Cidade de Deus (City of God) and its sequel Cidade dos Homens (City of Men). On a brief but related digression, in this regard, these generalisations apparently parallel with the success of the South African film industry through Tsotsi and Jerusalema. A strikingly analogous portrayal and likewise perception of the Black British inner city experience is suggestive of the films Kidulthood and its sequel Adulthood. In all these world-apart instances (geographically, politically, culturally, socially, etc) oxymoronically, the success of these films is also their own nemesis. I say this not to belittle or deny the presence of violence in these innately complex communities and the powerful and positive use of a far-reaching and visually engaging medium to convey an urgent message to the masses on a global scale. The way of addressing this, to my mind, beyond contextualised debate is at the root – the film industry, which includes the funders.

But without digressing too much from the main objective of this post, the definition of Afro-Brazilian, and on a larger scale, Afro-identity in Latin America and its nuances struck me. This is addressed in the report by Minority Rights Group International titled ‘No Longer Invisible: Afro-Latin Americans Today’, which presents an elaborate discourse that pervades the historical, cultural, socio-economic conjunctions of an incredibly complex and unique experience with an expansive, inclusive approach that nourishes and encourages comparative enquiry both within the diverse Latin American population and without, e.g. the United States and the Afro-Latino diaspora.
The following patchwork of excerpts by Anani Dzidzienyo, to my mind, capture the intrinsic, expansive complexity of Afro-identity in Latin America.

On race and colour of the Afro-Latino:

On matters of race and color, the novice does well to tred lightly when approaching societies and systems such as those in Latin America. Non-whiteness and blackness, one quickly learns, are not interchangeable concepts; never assume blackness, and determine, with delicacy, the individual’s personal identification, which may not be consistent with that assigned by him or her by others. For the Latin American, a similar challenge awaits in North America, say or continental Africa, where what is perceived as ‘white’ may very well be, to the person concerned, ‘black’.

In connection with the afore-mentioned Afro-Brazilian film festival:

That Afro-Latin Americans have consistently developed cultural initiatives in response to their predicament is testimony to their unwillingness to embrace victimhood. Yet those initiatives in no way address issues of political and economic power and representation, nor do they resolve tension between actual power and symbolic power.

This, in my view, mirrors the foray of African cultural initiatives, such as the recent Lagos-Abuja-Washington DC-London tour of ThisDay Africa Rising Music and Fashion Festival – a celebration of Africa by showcasing Africa’s popular culture icons. Indeed such initiatives are not the solution but constitute a distinct, palpable thread that contributes to the web of initiatives that construct the multi-faceted solution.

On the historical presence of Africans in Brazil:

Is slavery still relevant? Yes and no. To argue that one cannot continue to talk back to slavery and its socio-racial economic structures to account for the conditions of Afro-Latin Americans does not mean that it ipso facto ceases to be relevant, especially in the view of the images and roles linked to slavery.

The icing on the cake in this analysis (I saved the best for last):

Of particular interest are the multiple meanings of Africa for the Afro-Latin Americans. Nowhere in the Americas has there ever existed a undimensionally positive image of Africa…Fundamental to any understanding of Afro-Latin Americans is, I believe, the question of Africa. Deeply embedded in centuries-old shame, the idea of this continent has a central, though rarely considered role in the complex relations among its descendants in the diaspora and the larger societies in which they live. The real and imagined meanings of Africa in all its richness and contradictoriness beg to be contemplated not as aspects of a single phenomenon but as factors in the dynamic of Afro-Latin American life today.

Dzidzienyo’s recommendation offers a ray of hope:

A program that seeks not just to catalogue distinct historical events but, first and foremost, to identify and monitor (currency being of primary importance here) the intersections of history, economics, politics and culture among nations with populations of African descent, [such as] The African Diaspora Research Project…Africa and Afro-Latin America: reconnecting the two through mutual exchanges of learning and information would surely count as one of the more fruitful outcomes of any effort to shed light on Afro-Latin Americans.

Article in full.

Postscript: Dzidzienyo’s use of ‘Latin America’ encompasses the geographical region of the Americas where the Latin-derived languages French, Spanish and Portugese are spoken, and therefore includes the Caribbean islands such as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti.

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