Eileen Perrier, a thousand small stories
Western “green” funds used for “merrymaking with ministers” while forests are cut down Amid hundreds of millions paid by donors to the Ugandan government for forest-saving projects, a powerful logging syndicate linked to the same government continues the desertification. In Nigeria, also despite much “green” funding, the government itself clears out the trees. Forest communities are impoverished in the process. Selling out the trees and the poor Forests in Nigeria and Uganda disappeared faster...
Western “green” funds used for “merrymaking with ministers” while forests are cut down Amid hundreds of millions paid by donors to the Ugandan government for forest-saving projects, a powerful logging syndicate linked to the same government continues the desertification. In Nigeria,...
Their existential reasons for migrating must be addressed. Since the 1980s , migration has been a part of the Nigerian middle-class psyche , catalysed by the usual suspects: high unemployment, security concerns, infrastructure gaps, and poor governance. Migrants tends to be middle-class since one needs resources to migrate. For many young Nigerians, the bloodshed that ended the 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality proved to be a decisive factor. Their desire to leave the country...
Their existential reasons for migrating must be addressed. Since the 1980s , migration has been a part of the Nigerian middle-class psyche , catalysed by the usual suspects: high unemployment, security concerns, infrastructure gaps, and poor governance. Migrants tends to be...
An in-depth investigation by Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer this week questions whether the Bill & Melinda Gates 'Foundation is doing the right thing with their influential campaigns against poverty, inequality, and climate change. To that, this article casts solid doubt on the value of the Foundation’s work. Band-aids are plastered over complex problems, band-aids that, – at the Foundation's insistence –, have to be sourced from the pharmaceutical industry because developing countries are not...
An in-depth investigation by Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer this week questions whether the Bill & Melinda Gates 'Foundation is doing the right thing with their influential campaigns against poverty, inequality, and climate change. To that, this article casts solid doubt on the...
“I was named after Yasser Arafat,” writes Capetonian photographer Yasser Booley. From a young age he recorded the signs of solidarity with a people living under circumstances that clearly resonate with those who experienced the apartheid system in South Africa. There is an understandable thinking that the solidarity movement with Palestine in the Bo-Kaap started with Nelson Mandela and his coupling the Palestinian cause with ours. This thinking would not be accurate. One of the five pillars of...
“I was named after Yasser Arafat,” writes Capetonian photographer Yasser Booley. From a young age he recorded the signs of solidarity with a people living under circumstances that clearly resonate with those who experienced the apartheid system in South Africa. There is an...
Starting this week, Dutch cinemas are screening the film debut of Belgian-Congolese artist Baloji. It is a wondrous spectacle, a creation that is strongly and deftly socially aware. A touching scene: in front of a mirror in Belgium, the protagonist Koffi is practising how to say in Swahili that his soon-to-be-born twins will bear his parents’ names. It is a gesture, a sign of attachment. I may have left for Europe 18 years ago, but I have not left you behind. Where I came from lives on in me. The...
Starting this week, Dutch cinemas are screening the film debut of Belgian-Congolese artist Baloji. It is a wondrous spectacle, a creation that is strongly and deftly socially aware. A touching scene: in front of a mirror in Belgium, the protagonist Koffi is practising how to say in...
Themes like belonging and migration turn many of the African pavilions at the upcoming 60th edition of this international arts arena into a moving experience. Ethiopia Ethiopia Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2024 Contemporary artist Tesfaye Urgessa will be the first Ethiopian artist representing his country’s official participation. Award-winning author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay OBE FRSL has been appointed as the curator for this historical moment. Urgessa (1983, Addis Ababa) studied art and...
Themes like belonging and migration turn many of the African pavilions at the upcoming 60th edition of this international arts arena into a moving experience. Ethiopia Ethiopia Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2024 Contemporary artist Tesfaye Urgessa will be the first Ethiopian...
In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built around white tribal affiliation. Absent Presences, launched in March 2024, is published on the occasion of the House’s centenary. Contributions by Nathan Tantraal, Ronelda S. Kamfer, Pieter du Plessis, Christi van der Westhuizen, Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, Manon Braat, Marian Counihan, Nkule Mabaso, Tycho Maas. Contributions by our editors Farren van...
In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built around white tribal affiliation. Absent Presences, launched in March 2024, is published on the occasion of the House’s centenary....
Right of reply to ZAM story The following is an addendum, prepared as a right of reply by legal counsel for Dr Aloy Chife and the company Socketworks Limited, to ZAM’s story The Border Control Syndicate – How Plunder Continues in spite of Parliament and the Courts https://www.zammagazine.com/investigations/1414-nigeria-the-border-control-syndicate-how-plunder-continues-in-spite-of-parliament-and-the-courts , which was published on 22 July 2021. The publication of this addendum/right of reply takes...
Right of reply to ZAM story The following is an addendum, prepared as a right of reply by legal counsel for Dr Aloy Chife and the company Socketworks Limited, to ZAM’s story The Border Control Syndicate – How Plunder Continues in spite of Parliament and the Courts...
The historiography of the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij pays scant attention to black workers' resistance to exploitation and oppression. In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built around white tribal affiliation. Absent Presences, launched in March 2024, is published on the occasion of the House’s centenary. Contributions by Nathan Tantraal, Ronelda S. Kamfer, Pieter...
The historiography of the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij pays scant attention to black workers' resistance to exploitation and oppression. In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the...
Near the start of the documentary film The Greatest Night in Pop Music, released at the beginning of 2023, the American singer-songwriter Lionel Richie describes how he and Michael Jackson came up with the melody for “We Are the World,” the charity single recorded by American artists in 1985 to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. “We had to identify right away what kind of song do we want.” For the melody, they rejected an r&b ballad or an anthem style, like “The Star-Spangled Banner.”...
Near the start of the documentary film The Greatest Night in Pop Music, released at the beginning of 2023, the American singer-songwriter Lionel Richie describes how he and Michael Jackson came up with the melody for “We Are the World,” the charity single recorded by American...
Held annually across three continents, in London, New York and Marrakech, 1-54 is the leading global event series dedicated to modern and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. This year’s New York edition features over 30 galleries hailing from across Africa, Europe and the U.S. Celebrating its 10th year, this itiration will be held at the Starrett-Lehigh Building, 255 11th Avenue for the first time. Founded in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui, 1-54 is the first and only international fair...
Held annually across three continents, in London, New York and Marrakech, 1-54 is the leading global event series dedicated to modern and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. This year’s New York edition features over 30 galleries hailing from across Africa, Europe and the...
72 ministers, mayors, members of parliament and businessmen from Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Congo and the Central African Republic, a devastatingly poor central region on the African continent, owned high-end properties in posh neighbourhoods in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the 2019-2020 period. These findings are the result of an eight-month long search, ending in February 2023, of the database of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a US-based organisation that “combats illicit networks...
72 ministers, mayors, members of parliament and businessmen from Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Congo and the Central African Republic, a devastatingly poor central region on the African continent, owned high-end properties in posh neighbourhoods in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the...
Will Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo sign a law passed by parliament that will make life hell for LGBTQI+ people? The president seems to be in doubt. Sixteen Ghanaian civil society organisations are calling on him to show courage and refuse to sign the bill. Ghanaian academics are also speaking out. The country’s new anti-homosexuality bill “violates everyone's rights, not just LGBTQI+ people,” writes law professor Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua in this edition of ZAM. We rightly look at Ghana but there...
Will Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo sign a law passed by parliament that will make life hell for LGBTQI+ people? The president seems to be in doubt. Sixteen Ghanaian civil society organisations are calling on him to show courage and refuse to sign the bill. Ghanaian academics...
The Cameroonian-born academic’s oeuvre “goes beyond a particularised notion of decolonisation to a universalist recentring of the human,” says Heike Krieger, the chairman of the Holberg committee. Achille Mbembe is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent and has received the Holberg Prize for his pioneering research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and social science over the last four decades. Both as an academic and as a public intellectual, he is...
The Cameroonian-born academic’s oeuvre “goes beyond a particularised notion of decolonisation to a universalist recentring of the human,” says Heike Krieger, the chairman of the Holberg committee. Achille Mbembe is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent...
If you are in London, go and see this extraordinary exhibition at the Larkin Durey gallery. Marc Padeu (1990) is a Cameroonian artist who says: “I want to paint the everyday life of the people around me, my family and friends. Since we all live together, I share their moments of joy, but also their sadness.” Marc Padeu A l’ombre de la lumière, 2024. Acrylic on canvas 78 3/4 x 102 3/8 in 200 x 260 cm (03209). Image courtesy of Larkin Durey. Copyright of the artist. Photographer Oliver Durey About...
If you are in London, go and see this extraordinary exhibition at the Larkin Durey gallery. Marc Padeu (1990) is a Cameroonian artist who says: “I want to paint the everyday life of the people around me, my family and friends. Since we all live together, I share their moments of...
Make no mistake, the recent decision by French lawmakers to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution is a historic milestone, especially at a time when this right is under threat in several countries. The main headwind is probably blowing in the United States, where the Supreme Court overturned the famous Roe v. Wade ruling. States can now decide for themselves whether to allow abortion, or not – and many have already criminalised the procedure. French President Macron could well use a...
Make no mistake, the recent decision by French lawmakers to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution is a historic milestone, especially at a time when this right is under threat in several countries. The main headwind is probably blowing in the United States, where the...
It is up to your imagination to interpret the South African photographer’s quest into exile. The True America , a recently published book of works by South African photographer Ernest Cole, lacks captions. There is no indication of time or place. The book only distinguishes between the first section, which is set in New York (remarkably with one section in colour), and the second section about beyond – California, Ohio, Alabama, and Mississippi. Cole, who travelled to the United States in 1966 and...
It is up to your imagination to interpret the South African photographer’s quest into exile. The True America , a recently published book of works by South African photographer Ernest Cole, lacks captions. There is no indication of time or place. The book only distinguishes between...
Just before the festive season, a 3-day exhibition opened in the ZAM editorial room. Visitors found themselves in a newly created home of prominent artists, a showcase of diverse pieces that traverse the African diaspora. Visitors to the studio were invited to explore the dynamic interplay of works that echo the rich stories of African creativity. At first glance, the disparate nature of Sindiso Nyoni's digital strokes, Desiree Dolron's socio-political commentary, and Du Jie's meditative...
Just before the festive season, a 3-day exhibition opened in the ZAM editorial room. Visitors found themselves in a newly created home of prominent artists, a showcase of diverse pieces that traverse the African diaspora. Visitors to the studio were invited to explore the dynamic...
A new abolition movement is gaining momentum in the Igbo region of Nigeria, fuelled by social media.The movement fights old home brew systems of slavery. There are global efforts to fight modern slavery, but a few traditional systems still hold strong in west Africa. These include Osu, Ohu and Trokosi. The Conversation Africa’s Godfred Akoto Boafo spoke to Michael Odijie who has researched one of the systems – Osu – and what can be done to finally put a stop to it. What is Osu? Osu is a traditional...
A new abolition movement is gaining momentum in the Igbo region of Nigeria, fuelled by social media.The movement fights old home brew systems of slavery. There are global efforts to fight modern slavery, but a few traditional systems still hold strong in west Africa. These include...
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has the Constitution on his side if he does not sign a new hate bill into law. Ghana’s new anti-homosexuality bill infringes several rights and freedoms, not only of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people but of heterosexuals too. The bill has been in the works since 2021 when it was tabled in parliament as a private member’s bill . The objective of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill is "to provide for human sexual...
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has the Constitution on his side if he does not sign a new hate bill into law. Ghana’s new anti-homosexuality bill infringes several rights and freedoms, not only of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people but of...
This is Tania Leon (1945-1996). Her image graces the door giving access to a building at the health care campus of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam in the South Eastern part of the city. The artwork was unveiled inJanuary, 2024, an event attended by students and friends of the late South African activist. Running away for apartheid, Leon moved into exile in the early seventies of last century. For many years, she was an active participant in Dutch solidarity campaigns with the struggle against...
This is Tania Leon (1945-1996). Her image graces the door giving access to a building at the health care campus of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam in the South Eastern part of the city. The artwork was unveiled inJanuary, 2024, an event attended by students and friends of the late...
