News & Events, November '08

Chimurenga Online: Obama

"Finalement, je crois qu’Obama offre à notre regard une certaine figure du monde et une certaine figure de l’Amérique, de son corps et de sa voix..." 

Achille Mbembe writes on Obama a few hours before he is elected. And this photo will never be in the Press.

A Poet of no nation

 "This is about one of the most disorganized travelogue you will ever read, so come along or cut short your ordeal. In any case if you must come along with me may I suggest that you should think of this attempt as a dream sequence; retold by a sojourner who did not have enough of the place he visited but still feels a strong commitment to record his feelings..." Read Kole Odutola's diary-like reconstruction of Poetry Africa 2008.

Last song for Mama Afrika

"I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa, and the people, without even realizing." Makeba: My Story

Miriam Makeba has died aged 76 after being taken ill following a concert for Roberto Saviano, a writer threatened with death by the Mafia. Over a career spanning more than five decades she was a singer, actress, and political activist. She performed for presidents ranging from Fidel Castro to Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and Nelson Mandela. She was "Mama Afrika", the Empress of African Song and the most influential African diva of all time. O e khuditše Mama Africa. Tributes here, here, here, here and here. And watch Miriam perform Pata Pata in Brazil, 1968.

No Pass but 6 Passports - the life and work Miriam "Zenzi" Makeba

A tribute, featuring the voices of Busi Mhlongo, Malika Ndlovu, Ernestine Deane, Tina Schouw, Nhoza Sitsholwana and Nomfusi Gotyana. And nuggets from Mazi's songbook selected by Ntone Edjabe. Sunday 23 Nov 2008 @ the Africa Centre, 44 Long st, CT. From 7:30pm. RSVP: bellsuzy@gmail.com by 4pm Nov 22.

Hamba Kahle Es 'kia Mphahlele

"The imagination is my regular beat as it is also the workshop of my mind; the territory of ideas, knowledge, thought and emotion is my hunting ground." Es’kia Mphahlele.

Mokgaga oa makubela, Es’kia Mphahlele, the African literary giant, has died. Prof Mphahlele who passed in Polokwane, Limpopo Province on October 27 would have turned 89 on December 16. Read tributes from Njabulo S Ndebele, Saint Papa Molakeng, Maureen Isaacson, Leon de Kock. Watch Phakama Mbonani, the editor of the literary journal Words etc and author Mandla Langa paying their respects. And a tribute to Es'kia on a wall in Newtown, Johannesburg. And more on the Prof at the Es’kia Institute.

Angolan cinema, black poetry & sheet music

International Film Festival of Luanda (FICLuanda) runs from November 22 to 29. The festival includes international features and shorts, a conference, screenings of Angolan amateur videos and a photographic exhibition on Angolan cinema. More here. Download the full programme here.
 

Read Molara Wood (Nigeria), Jhumpa Lahiri (United States),  Chika Unigwe (Nigeria), Chimamanda Adichie (Nigeria), Jude Dibia (Nigeria), Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe), Emmanuel Dipita Kwa (Cameroon), Adetokunbo Abiola (Nigeria), Ken Kamoche (Kenya) and more in One World, an anthology edited by Nigerian writer Ovo Adagha. Get it here.

lyrikline.org explores the voices and poetic modes of expression of African American poets from the USA. Features include: Poetry in Motion - Jazz, a homage to the rebellious power of jazz; With every breath, because as Henri Dumas said, "every black poet is a preacher and every black preacher is a poet"; and readings by Derek Walcott, Sapphire, the Granddaddy of Rap, Umar bin Hassan of The Last Poets, Ursula Rucker, Sharrif Simmons,  and Jessica Care Moore.

"His voice is both lyrical and satirical, even as his barbs are sharp and his kisses tender. His beats are complex poly-rhythms that roll on in incantatory style or achieve a mystical brevity." Mphutlane wa Bofelo launches Bluesology And Bofelosophy featuring poems, stories and essays that explore an amalgam of philosophies: Black Consciousness, humanistic Islam and socialism.

"Music - or listening to music - is a profoundly literary experience..." Check The Cape Jazz Collection, a compendium of thirty-nine compositions of twenty-three of Cape Town's leading musicians including Bheki Mseleku, Chris McGregor, Mac McKenzie, Sobukwe, Winston Mankunku & more, published as sheet music. 

African Writing, Red Ants, New Books

Zachariah Rapola has won the 2008 Noma Award  for his "phantasmagoric" book of stories, Beginnings of a Dream, published last year by Jacana. Special commendation went to The Role of the Supreme Court in the Development of Constitutional Law in Ghana by Seth Y. Bimpong-Buta; Die Windvanger [The Windcatcher] by Breyten Breytenbach; Through the Darkness. A Life in Zimbabwe by Judith Garfield Todd, Rivonia: Zebra Press, 2007.

Issue 15 of Farafina magazine  is out. The North Africa section of  the issue was guest edited by Laila Lalami featured writers include Wail Hassan, Ayoola Somolu, Matthew Shenoda, Hisham Matar, Alex Yera, Hoda Mana, Ernest Williamson III, Bada Akintunde-Johnson, Anouar Majid and Karim Kettani, amongst others. A pdf copy of the magazine available here.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Ben Okri and Ondjaki awarded the Grinzane For Africa prize in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. More here. Novelist Lewis Nkosi and current poet laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile received the Order of Ikhamanga for their literary achievements. And debut novelist, Kaine Agary grabs this year's NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature for her book, Yellow Yellow. See Victor Ehikhamenor's images from the award night.

Botsotso is hoding an exhibition on the subject of the RED ANTS, the notorious eviction squads used to clear buildings of "undesirables". The photographs are by Kabelo Mofokeng and writers are invite to send submission of poems and prose-poems on the subject of housing needs and the debacle of eviction. Deadline November 30. More here.
And Botsotso regular Makhosazana Xaba launches her latest volume of poetry, Tongues of the Mothers, November 5, 6pm at the Wits Writing Centre, Joburg.

The latest edition of The growth of Free State Black Writing literary series (2008) includes an essay by Flaxman Qoopane on Free State poets and their books; updates on poets Serame Makhele (Icebound) and Neo Mvubu; articles on Bolaji's latest work of fiction, Tebogo and the Haka (2008); essays on author Thabo Mafike and more. To get your copy phone +27(0)73565778. 

More new books: Poet, dramatist, critic, essayist, Niyi Osundare has a new collection of poetry; Syl Cheney-Coker is back with more poetry emerging from the Creole culture of Sierra Leone; Cameroonian playwright and critic G.D. Nyamndi releases his first novel; Lost Colours of the Chameleon by Mandla Langa is now out ; the skulls laugh back in SA historian Premesh Lalu's The Deaths of Hintsa - postapartheid South Africa and the shape of recurring pasts; Zubeida Jaffer is back with Love in the Time of Treason; amaBooks publishes Long Time Coming: Short Stories from Zimbabwe featuring words by Brian Chikwava, John Eppel, Petina Gappah, Ignatius Mabasa, Fungai Rufaro Machirori, Judy Maposa, Christopher Mlalazi, Pathisa Nyathi and more.

Zwakala Books hosts D-Urban (w)Rites –a showcase of Durban's finest lyrists, word-bombers and raconteurs, October 31 at 4pm at Urban Zulu, Durban. The writers in the house include Adam Knight, Ewok, Bheki Mthembu, Bongekile Mbanjwa, Mphutlane wa Bofelo, and Khulekani Magubane. Contact: Ras Menzi -073 264 6681 or menzi.maseko@gmail.com for more.

The 16th International African Writers' Day Celebrations organized by the Pan African Writers' Association (PAWA) takes place from November 7 in Ghana. Details here. Celebrate International African Writers Day with a talk and a reading to be given by national Poet Laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile in Johannesburg. November 7, 6pm Windybrow Theatre, Cnr Nugget & Pietersen Sts, Hillbrow. And in Cape Town performance poet and writer Malika Ndlovu will launch Truth is Both Spirit and Flesh, her third poetry anthology, this Friday at the Africa Centre. 6pm, 44 Long Street.

Sankara, Xenophobia, Black Panthers & Jozi & the D

"Sankara openly challenged both French hegemony in West Africa as well as his fellow military leaders (Sankara labeled them 'criminals in power')..." Africa is a Country review of Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man, British filmmaker Robin Shuffield's recently released documentary film. And Sankara 20 years later: A tribute to integrity by Demba Moussa Dembele. 

New issue of Journal of Aesthetics & Protest: Issue #6, theory in 3 acts. Over 300 pages of Contemporary action and thought. Check out the website. Also Atlas of Radical Cartography.

The HSRC releases a report on its findings of the causes of the outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa. Click here to download it.

Black Panther: Emory Douglas and the Art of Revolution, the first exhibition by the campaigning US artist Emory Douglas in the UK pays tribute to "an unsung hero of the modern civil rights movement". Opens Urbis Gallery, Manchester, UK on October 30.

Johannesburg artist Mphapho (Ra) Hlasane exhibits I will not move to the outskirts of the city: an ode to the fictitious village of Tiragalong, the cities of Jozi and the D, an exhibition that engages the parallels between Johannesburg and Detroit and to some odd degree, similarities between Detroit and the fictional village of Tiragalong.

Calls: African Literature, Photography, Woman in Film, Dress & Social Action

Call for papers: Africa and blackness in world literature and visual arts for the African Literature Association's 35th Annual Conference, April 15- 19, 2009, University Of Vermont, USA. Plenary speakers already lined up include Wole Soyinka, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Maryse Conde, Michael, Echeruo, V.Y. Mudimbe and Zakes Mda.

"Because body politics are sartorial, the dressed body readily becomes a flash point of conflicting values, fueling contests in historical encounters, in interactions across class, between genders and generations, and in recent global cultural, and economic exchanges..." Call for papers and performances for a conference on Dress, Popular Culture, and Social Action in Africa, March 13-14, 2009, Northwestern University, Evanston/Chicago, USA.

The Women of Color Arts & Film (WOCAF) Festival, Atlanta, USA, March 2009 seeks submissions for its fifth annual film festival. Women of African, African-American, Asian, Middle -Eastern, Afro-European, Australian-Aborigine, Caribbean, Latina and Native American descent are invited to send feature films and shorts. Details here. 

And a call for applications for an artistic director of African Encounters of Photography in Bamako, Mali.