Issue # 09
Sindiso Nyoni - Riot by Design
Returning The Gaze and iAfrica Film Festival
The 19th edition of Afrovibes presents the first solo exhibition of graphic designer, artist and activist Sindiso Nyoni. His work fits perfectly into the wider festival, whose packed schedule of more than 15 theatre productions from 10 countries explores the synergy between rapture and rupture. A poster featuring South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela holding his trumpet like a weapon sets the tone for Sindiso Nyoni's exhibition Riot by Design. There is wit, but there’s also a dedication to art as...
The 19th edition of Afrovibes presents the first solo exhibition of graphic designer, artist and activist Sindiso Nyoni. His work fits perfectly into the wider festival, whose packed schedule of more than 15 theatre productions from 10 countries explores the synergy between rapture...
Huge amounts of capital were accumulated through colonial trade. So what happened to it? How many generations of families have benefited from these terrible histories, and at the expense of what and who? Returning the Gaze is the latest site-specific performance by Amsterdam-based Sites of Memory . It's about whose voice is heard, ignored or acknowledged, whose face is seen, or erased and covered up. The dominant gaze, often white, versus the suppressed perspective from which colonial history is...
Huge amounts of capital were accumulated through colonial trade. So what happened to it? How many generations of families have benefited from these terrible histories, and at the expense of what and who? Returning the Gaze is the latest site-specific performance by Amsterdam-based...
Gulu, the de-facto capital of Northern Uganda, looks a lot better than it did twenty years ago when Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army was ravaging the region. A World Bank-aided roadbuilding programme and sudden booms in investment bring new possibilities for development, revenue collection and funding sources. If managed well, Gulu City will continue to become a metropolis. But the city’s administration continues to frustrate progress, threatening future development and sometimes even claiming...
Gulu, the de-facto capital of Northern Uganda, looks a lot better than it did twenty years ago when Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army was ravaging the region. A World Bank-aided roadbuilding programme and sudden booms in investment bring new possibilities for development, revenue...
Senegalese film director and screenwriter Alain Gomis, Moroccan visual artist Hassan Darsi and Egyptian architectural engineer May al-Ibrashi are among the six winners of the Prince Claus Impact Awards, which were announced on Tuesday September 6 2022. Other winners include Brazilian indigenous leader, poet and writer Ailton Krenak, Cuban performing artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, and Argentinian writer, poet and activist Maria Medrano. The Awards recognise artists, creatives and inspirational...
Senegalese film director and screenwriter Alain Gomis, Moroccan visual artist Hassan Darsi and Egyptian architectural engineer May al-Ibrashi are among the six winners of the Prince Claus Impact Awards, which were announced on Tuesday September 6 2022. Other winners include...
Inside the Brain Drain Destroying Zimbabwe's Health System After Zimbabwe reached independence in 1980 the state introduced free health care for citizens, with new clinics and immunisation available countrywide. But then training of doctors and upkeep of hospitals stalled, and three decades of neoliberal reforms and widespread corruption, in concert with sanctions targeting the ruling ZANU-PF party, have left the health system ravaged. Now many medical workers are voting with their feet. Zimbabwe’s...
Inside the Brain Drain Destroying Zimbabwe's Health System After Zimbabwe reached independence in 1980 the state introduced free health care for citizens, with new clinics and immunisation available countrywide. But then training of doctors and upkeep of hospitals stalled, and three...
The festival opens with JUWAA, a film by Congolese filmmaker Nganji Mutiri. Shot in Belgium and the DRC, Juwaa is a subtly powerful drama portraying African characters with a complexity rarely seen on screen. An award-winning artist born in Bukavu and currently living in Belgium, Mutiri works in theatre, film, poetry and photography and is always looking for connections and perspectives between the special and the universal. JUWAA is his first feature film as a writer and director. Each year, a...
The festival opens with JUWAA, a film by Congolese filmmaker Nganji Mutiri. Shot in Belgium and the DRC, Juwaa is a subtly powerful drama portraying African characters with a complexity rarely seen on screen. An award-winning artist born in Bukavu and currently living in Belgium,...
The recent eleftion of Colombia’s first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, and first black vice-president, Francia Márquez, creates a new opening to revitalise ties with Africa. Colombia is often overlooked as a nation of interest because of its reputation of violence. Its negative standing results mainly from the decades-long armed conflict between previous governments and the Marxist-Leninist group FARC. The conflict has been linked to the production and export of illicit drugs. It ended with...
The recent eleftion of Colombia’s first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, and first black vice-president, Francia Márquez, creates a new opening to revitalise ties with Africa. Colombia is often overlooked as a nation of interest because of its reputation of violence. Its negative...
Why do many journalists fill hours of airtime about the British royal family without critically questioning the significance of the institution for its former colonies? Dutch journalist Bram Vermeulen calls upon his colleagues to explore this colonial legacy. Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, hours of broadcast time have been filled with what anybody could see with their own eyes in recent years, provided you weren't living under a rock. That she had been faithful to her royal duties for...
Why do many journalists fill hours of airtime about the British royal family without critically questioning the significance of the institution for its former colonies? Dutch journalist Bram Vermeulen calls upon his colleagues to explore this colonial legacy. Since the death of...
While institutions continue to drag their feet over returning looted heritage to Africa, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are bringing art home, one digital scan at a time. Standing in front of the Benin bronzes in the British Museum room, Chidi Nwaubani uses a LIDAR scanner to scan the artefacts one by one. The scanner is an advanced scanning technology used to generate high resolution three-dimensional digital models, but Chidi is neither an archaeologist nor a restorer from the museum. Instead, the...
While institutions continue to drag their feet over returning looted heritage to Africa, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are bringing art home, one digital scan at a time. Standing in front of the Benin bronzes in the British Museum room, Chidi Nwaubani uses a LIDAR scanner to scan the...
When British mining outfit Gemfields Group Ltd launched a local partnership in Northern Mozambique, hopes were high that the taxes earned from this new company’s operations would help a historically disadvantaged region to develop. Several years down the road, amid a series of broken promises, hope is waning. But what went wrong? How millions of dollars don’t end the misery on the ruby fields. "We could say that there was an error," says Vicente Chicote, the police commissioner of Mozambique’s...
When British mining outfit Gemfields Group Ltd launched a local partnership in Northern Mozambique, hopes were high that the taxes earned from this new company’s operations would help a historically disadvantaged region to develop. Several years down the road, amid a series of...
Inspired by Fela Kuti, 31 artists from 11 countries explore the power of art as a transmitter for social change. ‘Our histories never unfold in isolation. We cannot truly tell what we consider to be our own histories without knowing the other stories. And often we discover that those other stories are actually our own stories.’ These words, by African-American activist and academic Angela Davis, accompany a statement by Princess Ayoola and Jana Terblanche, the curators of a new group exhibition...
Inspired by Fela Kuti, 31 artists from 11 countries explore the power of art as a transmitter for social change. ‘Our histories never unfold in isolation. We cannot truly tell what we consider to be our own histories without knowing the other stories. And often we discover that...
Thanks to the growing economies and population of Africa, the needs of the continent's built environment are offering architects a unique opportunity to influence how the cities of the future look and feel. Here are some examples of a new wave of inspiring African architects and architecture. When Diébédo Francis Kéré was handed the Pritzker Prize on May 27, the moment was of far more significance than an African-born architect winning the world's most prestigious architecture prize for the first...
Thanks to the growing economies and population of Africa, the needs of the continent's built environment are offering architects a unique opportunity to influence how the cities of the future look and feel. Here are some examples of a new wave of inspiring African architects and...
As a collaboration between Afrovibes & ZAM, the upcoming Afrovibes Festival will host an exhibition with the works of artist and designer Sindiso Nyoni. Nyoni is a self-taught Zimbabwean artist who also works as a contemporary illustrator, activist, street artist, and multidisciplinary graphic designer. He has collaborated on projects that have won two Cannes Lions Awards. His work has been exhibited in the Guggenheim Bilbao, The Vitra Design Museum, The Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City and...
As a collaboration between Afrovibes & ZAM, the upcoming Afrovibes Festival will host an exhibition with the works of artist and designer Sindiso Nyoni. Nyoni is a self-taught Zimbabwean artist who also works as a contemporary illustrator, activist, street artist, and...
In his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, artist Moshekwa Langa (1975, South Africa) turns his eyes towards the county of his birth, and especially to his hometown of Bakenberg in Limpopo province, which did not appear on official maps during the apartheid era. Langa makes drawings, collages, photographs, paintings, videos and installations. His personal history is a common thread in all his work. He grew up in South Africa in the era of apartheid – the system of racial separation that...
In his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, artist Moshekwa Langa (1975, South Africa) turns his eyes towards the county of his birth, and especially to his hometown of Bakenberg in Limpopo province, which did not appear on official maps during the apartheid era. Langa makes...
85 artists participate in a city-wide exhibition in Saint-Raphaël in France celebrating the 60th anniversary of Algerian independence. To celebrate the 60 years of the Evian Accords and the Independence of Algeria, eight historic buildings in the city of Saint-Raphaël, France, has been chosen by Simone Dibo-Cohen, directrice of UMAN in Nice. The city gave Dibo-Cohen carte blanche to display works by 85 artists of all ages and from all over the world, united under the theme of “Exodes”. The result...
85 artists participate in a city-wide exhibition in Saint-Raphaël in France celebrating the 60th anniversary of Algerian independence. To celebrate the 60 years of the Evian Accords and the Independence of Algeria, eight historic buildings in the city of Saint-Raphaël, France, has...
Despite her key role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, details about Lilian Ngoyi’s life remain sparse. The short paragraphs on her legacy repeat a few well-worn phrases. South Africa’s “mother of the black resistance”, a widow and rumoured lover of Nelson Mandela, and the first woman member of the national executive committee – the core leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), the resistance movement that would later become the government of a democratic South Africa....
Despite her key role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, details about Lilian Ngoyi’s life remain sparse. The short paragraphs on her legacy repeat a few well-worn phrases. South Africa’s “mother of the black resistance”, a widow and rumoured lover of Nelson Mandela,...
Movies that Matter’s Cinema without Borders new edition will take place from 28 November – 1 December, 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya. This multi-day interactive workshop programme for film festival organisers aims to strengthen new human rights film festivals and enhance the sustainability of existing festivals. In addition to connecting with like-minded festivals, sharing ideas and building new networks, participants get inspired and assisted. Deadline for applications : Sunday 11 September at midnight...
Movies that Matter’s Cinema without Borders new edition will take place from 28 November – 1 December, 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya. This multi-day interactive workshop programme for film festival organisers aims to strengthen new human rights film festivals and enhance the sustainability...
The new South African director of the Prince Claus Fund wants to create a self-sustaining ecosystem of the arts. Coming from a musical family of 21 and growing up with his mother at his granny’s place in Mamelodi, Pretoria, Marcus Tebogo Desando was not encouraged to be a quiet child. “The quieter you are, the more they forget you’re there.” So, you have to fight for your own space, which is what he did. Enter the school choir, then the church choir. Desando would eventually become a professional...
The new South African director of the Prince Claus Fund wants to create a self-sustaining ecosystem of the arts. Coming from a musical family of 21 and growing up with his mother at his granny’s place in Mamelodi, Pretoria, Marcus Tebogo Desando was not encouraged to be a quiet...
Just as Black people have been dispossessed of their land, Ubuntu has been dispossessed of its deeply radical demands for ethical historical and social relations among people, Panashe Chigumadzi argues. Under a 1986 newsletter headline, ‘Ubuntu, Abantu, Abelungu’, Black Sash, the anti-apartheid organisation founded as the vanguard of white liberal women’s opposition in South Africa, reported surprising findings from a white fieldworker in their programme against forced land removals – Black people...
Just as Black people have been dispossessed of their land, Ubuntu has been dispossessed of its deeply radical demands for ethical historical and social relations among people, Panashe Chigumadzi argues. Under a 1986 newsletter headline, ‘Ubuntu, Abantu, Abelungu’, Black Sash, the...
In recent decades North Korean-made monuments have been unveiled in many African countries, honouring independence leaders and celebrating an African Renaissance. The South Korean photographer and filmmaker Che Onejoon has been documenting the monuments and the histories around them, their cultural significance and the relationships that they symbolize between two continents. The outcomes of his long-term exploration were recently published in a book titled International Friendship. The Gifts from...
In recent decades North Korean-made monuments have been unveiled in many African countries, honouring independence leaders and celebrating an African Renaissance. The South Korean photographer and filmmaker Che Onejoon has been documenting the monuments and the histories around...
Not every civil servant in Malawi is corrupt- many just want to do their job and be paid. But rot within Malawi’s state systems makes honesty very difficult. How ‘the cartels’ protect their grip on power. As a van with ‘Central Medical Stores’ written on its side in bold text arrives at the health centre in Nsanje, the southernmost district in Malawi, residents quickly surround it. They are surprised, because actual deliveries of health supplies to the area are a rarity. But disappointment quickly...
Not every civil servant in Malawi is corrupt- many just want to do their job and be paid. But rot within Malawi’s state systems makes honesty very difficult. How ‘the cartels’ protect their grip on power. As a van with ‘Central Medical Stores’ written on its side in bold text...
