Eileen Perrier, a thousand small stories
Is it a performance, a theatrical show or a real truth commission after all? Directed by Chokri Ben Chika, the first ever Truth Commission in the Netherlands, Flemish theatre company Action Zoo Humain calls attention to the underexposed, colonial legacy of the human zoo. Deep into the 20th century, the Netherlands too exhibited thousands of men, women and children as "exotic," "wild" and "primitive" in so-called "human zoos.” Think for example of the Surinamese and Indonesians exhibited at the...
Is it a performance, a theatrical show or a real truth commission after all? Directed by Chokri Ben Chika, the first ever Truth Commission in the Netherlands, Flemish theatre company Action Zoo Humain calls attention to the underexposed, colonial legacy of the human zoo. Deep into...
All Nollywood fans out there, we have good news for you – Amsterdam will host the next Nollywood Travel Film Festival between October 5th and 7th! Organised in collaboration with Africadelic, the festival’s screening will take place at De Melkweg Cinema and will showcase the best of Nigeria’s booming film industry. The Nollywood Travel Film Festival represents a unique vision that is strategically geared towards promoting films by Nigerians living across the globe to new and existing global...
All Nollywood fans out there, we have good news for you – Amsterdam will host the next Nollywood Travel Film Festival between October 5th and 7th! Organised in collaboration with Africadelic, the festival’s screening will take place at De Melkweg Cinema and will showcase the best of...
Holding significance because of their history as currency during times of colonialism, beads bring to life the vast range of colours of the ocean. The Indian and Atlantic Oceans were sites of vast displacement of peoples, slavery and the extraction of human beings and goods. In many African traditions too, the oceans and water are also material for healing, fluidity, for cleansing rituals and regeneration. The depths and shifting form of the ocean and its conjoining of cultures finds a powerful...
Holding significance because of their history as currency during times of colonialism, beads bring to life the vast range of colours of the ocean. The Indian and Atlantic Oceans were sites of vast displacement of peoples, slavery and the extraction of human beings and goods. In many...
This exhibition by the Belgian Congolese artist David Katshiunga sheds a powerful light on the shadows of the colonial past and its lasting effects. "I didn't really know any of this," says David Katshiunga (b. 1987), who moved to Belgium when he was six. No stories in family circles. No attention to King Leopold who made Katshiunga's homeland his personal wingnut. The exploitation, the segregation, the murder of freedom fighter Patrice Lumumba. Nothing. Until, in 2020, the world was rocked by the...
This exhibition by the Belgian Congolese artist David Katshiunga sheds a powerful light on the shadows of the colonial past and its lasting effects. "I didn't really know any of this," says David Katshiunga (b. 1987), who moved to Belgium when he was six. No stories in family...
Free to be Free is the latest site-specific performance by the Sites of Memory Foundation about freedom and resistance. It takes the audience along stories and places that are connected to the colonial history in Amersfoort, Deventer and Utrecht. We can learn a lot from the freedom fighters of the past and from the people who are fighting for freedom today. How was freedom fought then and now? What forms of revolt and resistance are known? In this performance, stories about freedom and resistance...
Free to be Free is the latest site-specific performance by the Sites of Memory Foundation about freedom and resistance. It takes the audience along stories and places that are connected to the colonial history in Amersfoort, Deventer and Utrecht. We can learn a lot from the freedom...
This year’s edition will open with the screening of Tirailleurs, Omar Sy’s epic tribute to the Senegalese soldiers’ participation in World War I. Experience the transformative power of the iAfrica Film Festival set to revolutionize the way we perceive the African continent. The festival offers a journey into the world of visionary creators who are reshaping the narrative and empowering the youth. Be inspired by stories that push boundaries, bridge cultures, and touch hearts. This year’s edition...
This year’s edition will open with the screening of Tirailleurs, Omar Sy’s epic tribute to the Senegalese soldiers’ participation in World War I. Experience the transformative power of the iAfrica Film Festival set to revolutionize the way we perceive the African continent. The...
African Architecture Matters, presents a day of presentations and talks dedicated to critically exploring and (re)imagining the future of African cities. This programme accompanies the exhibition Water Cities Rotterdam. In four different panel conversations, twelve artists and four mentors situated in the African context discuss the paradox between various cities’ present conditions and the ‘prescribed’ futurity of ‘the African city’. They will look at how the proposed future of the African city is...
African Architecture Matters, presents a day of presentations and talks dedicated to critically exploring and (re)imagining the future of African cities. This programme accompanies the exhibition Water Cities Rotterdam. In four different panel conversations, twelve artists and four...
South African public life is rife with revisionism, often opportunistic. Take the case of Mangosuthu Buthelezi. While South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) is now in decline, between its founding in 1975 and the run up to the first democratic elections in 1994, it played a key, but complicated role in South African politics. For all that time, it was led by Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who as leader of the KwaZulu bantustan at various times collaborated with the apartheid state and the African...
South African public life is rife with revisionism, often opportunistic. Take the case of Mangosuthu Buthelezi. While South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) is now in decline, between its founding in 1975 and the run up to the first democratic elections in 1994, it played a key,...
Executive summary Do-it-yourself mining in rural areas could trigger grassroots development, say policymakers, community leaders and NGOs. Sadly, those in power often continue to enable crude exploitation of the villages with wealth beneath their feet. Shady officials, ruling party members, at least one “impersonator”, a war veteran and, in Zimbabwe, a government-linked mafia, obtain mining rights in communities where mineral wealth is found, then partner with foreign companies to get rich...
Executive summary Do-it-yourself mining in rural areas could trigger grassroots development, say policymakers, community leaders and NGOs. Sadly, those in power often continue to enable crude exploitation of the villages with wealth beneath their feet. Shady officials, ruling party...
The Casbah of Algiers, the formidable citadel and its surrounding traditional quarter, is a testament to Algeria's rich history and an architectural marvel of immense cultural significance. It needs to be saved from falling apart. In 1992, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee declared the Casbah of Algiers a World Cultural Heritage site, acknowledging its remarkable remnants, including the citadel itself, ancient mosques, Ottoman-style palaces, and a traditional urban structure that resonates with a...
The Casbah of Algiers, the formidable citadel and its surrounding traditional quarter, is a testament to Algeria's rich history and an architectural marvel of immense cultural significance. It needs to be saved from falling apart. In 1992, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee...
Building collapses, and the tragedy of groups of survivors digging through rubble and shoving broken concrete beams to unearth relatives, friends and neighbours, have long been a familiar sight in places like Nairobi, Lagos, Dakar, and Accra. There have been hundreds of such disasters that weren’t prompted by an earthquake or flood, but were simply due to sloppy construction. Data is sparse, but the number of victims, from deaths to severe injuries to people who lost homes and livelihoods, likely...
Building collapses, and the tragedy of groups of survivors digging through rubble and shoving broken concrete beams to unearth relatives, friends and neighbours, have long been a familiar sight in places like Nairobi, Lagos, Dakar, and Accra. There have been hundreds of such...
Ugandan-born, Amsterdam-based curator and researcher Musoke Nalwoga spoke to ZAM's Anna Kućma about her recent photography exhibition, titled “Brave Beauties in Communion: Imaging Black Queer Liberation”. The exhibition is presented by Motormond, an Amsterdam art space founded and directed by Nalwoga and dedicated to circulating a critically-grounded Pan Diasporic Culture. What inspired you to create “Brave Beauties in Communion”? Brave Beauties in Communion came out of a sense of helplessness for...
Ugandan-born, Amsterdam-based curator and researcher Musoke Nalwoga spoke to ZAM's Anna Kućma about her recent photography exhibition, titled “Brave Beauties in Communion: Imaging Black Queer Liberation”. The exhibition is presented by Motormond, an Amsterdam art space founded and...
It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin. And O Quilombismo, new director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung’s inaugural exhibition, feels good. How do you create a space free from domination, where unfamiliar cultures can see, hear, and meet one another as equals? Especially if the ground you stand on is marred by imperial and colonial ideology? The HKW’s re-opening exhibition O Quilombismo: Of Resisting and Insisting. Of Flight as Fight. Of Other Democratic...
It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin. And O Quilombismo, new director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung’s inaugural exhibition, feels good. How do you create a space free from domination, where unfamiliar cultures can see, hear, and meet one...
An obsession with decolonisation freezes African cultures in colonial frames, Nigerian professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University) argues in a recent interview with the Dutch daily NRC. The basic principles for which Africans are immolating themselves, risking life and limb in standing up to dictatorial/authoritarian regimes and generally insisting that they, too, must be free are shared with other oppressed humanity from Denmark to Myanmar, from Eswatini to China. The discourse on decolonisation...
An obsession with decolonisation freezes African cultures in colonial frames, Nigerian professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University) argues in a recent interview with the Dutch daily NRC. The basic principles for which Africans are immolating themselves, risking life and limb in...
Arusha, the seat of the East African Community Legislative Assembly (EAC), bustles with its sleepy rhythms and cosmopolitan air. I am here to attend the 2nd Africa Drive for Democracy Conference both as a guest and speaker. The Africa Drive for Democracy Elders Retreat and Annual Conference, which took place between 17-21 July 2023 is meant to facilitate dialogue and engage grassroots movements, giving citizens an opportunity to be heard and to collaborate and innovate on strengthening democracy....
Arusha, the seat of the East African Community Legislative Assembly (EAC), bustles with its sleepy rhythms and cosmopolitan air. I am here to attend the 2nd Africa Drive for Democracy Conference both as a guest and speaker. The Africa Drive for Democracy Elders Retreat and Annual...
Movies that Matter is pleased to announce the next edition of Cinema without Borders in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The five-day workshop programme on how to organise a human rights film festival or mobile cinema project will take place from December 10 – December 14, 2023. We will bring together starting and more experienced film festival professionals from West Africa. Participants will gain practical knowledge and get fresh ideas and possibilities to strengthen their network. By exchanging...
Movies that Matter is pleased to announce the next edition of Cinema without Borders in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The five-day workshop programme on how to organise a human rights film festival or mobile cinema project will take place from December 10 – December 14, 2023. We will...
Nigerian writer Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ took the literary world by storm with her debut novel Stay With Me in 2017. Six years later, she has followed up with an equally brilliant second novel, A Spell of Good Things , which has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023. Just as with her first novel, A Spell of Good Things delves masterfully into the complexities of polygamy and problems with patriarchy while also exploring the corrosive effects of Nigeria’s political corruption on ordinary and,...
Nigerian writer Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ took the literary world by storm with her debut novel Stay With Me in 2017. Six years later, she has followed up with an equally brilliant second novel, A Spell of Good Things , which has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023. Just as with her...
The House of Guramayle , an Ethiopian LGBT QAI+ platform, condemns the recent escalation in attacks on individuals in Ethiopia based on their real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. In the last two weeks alone, House of Guramayle and LGBTQIA+ activists have documented over a dozen TikTok videos displaying pictures of people who may or may not identify as LGBTQIA+, including those who live in Ethiopia. Violence against those individuals - killing, burning, beating - is being...
The House of Guramayle , an Ethiopian LGBT QAI+ platform, condemns the recent escalation in attacks on individuals in Ethiopia based on their real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. In the last two weeks alone, House of Guramayle and LGBTQIA+ activists have...
The winning projects of the CAP Prize were announced on 7 July 2023 during the opening week of Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France. This year marks the 12th edition of the prize. The jury of twenty photography industry professionals selected these exciting and thoughtful series by photographers engaging with the African continent and its diaspora. The awarded stories, in alphabetical order, are: Hond (2023) by Nadia Ettwein “ I was told my mother threw me away like a dog – I’ve never...
The winning projects of the CAP Prize were announced on 7 July 2023 during the opening week of Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France. This year marks the 12th edition of the prize. The jury of twenty photography industry professionals selected these exciting and...
How the killing of a Cameroonian journalist silenced investigations into plunder by an internationally-connected elite, eliminated a rival for the succession of an ageing president, and sidelined a tax director. A dossier full of bank slips, payment instructions, and tables of sums amounting to tens of millions of dollars, printed by government printers and handed to a journalist, became the downfall of an upstart candidate who had been positioned as a possible successor to ageing autocrat...
How the killing of a Cameroonian journalist silenced investigations into plunder by an internationally-connected elite, eliminated a rival for the succession of an ageing president, and sidelined a tax director. A dossier full of bank slips, payment instructions, and tables of sums...
The Columbia Journalism Review recently published a report on the ZAM and NAIRE 'Arizona Project' that investigated the murder of journalist Martinez Zogo in Cameroon. With the CJR's permission, we are republishing it below: In January, Martinez Zogo, the director of the Cameroonian radio station Amplitude FM, was found dead near Yaoundé, the capital . His body reportedly showed signs of torture: his foot was broken, several of his fingers had been cut off, and his tongue was deformed. A few weeks...
The Columbia Journalism Review recently published a report on the ZAM and NAIRE 'Arizona Project' that investigated the murder of journalist Martinez Zogo in Cameroon. With the CJR's permission, we are republishing it below: In January, Martinez Zogo, the director of the Cameroonian...
