AfroPunk took Johannesburg, South Africa by storm (and a little rain) in the final days of 2017. Music, experimental fashion and spoken word were all part of an exhilarating celebration of modern Africa. They say AfroPunk is much more than just a festival – it is a movement. From Brooklyn, NY, where AfroPunk was launched in 2005, it moved to Paris, London, Atlanta – finally landing on African soil in Johannesburg. And for good reason: “Modern South Africa is proof of the victory of otherness over...
AfroPunk took Johannesburg, South Africa by storm (and a little rain) in the final days of 2017. Music, experimental fashion and spoken word were all...
The people's professor The Ghanaian academic Francis Allotey was more than a great scientist, or maybe an example of what this title should entail. Born on August 9th 1932 in Saltpont Ghana, he was 85 years when he suddenly passed away in the evening of November 2nd 2017. During his lifetime 'Prof' not only excelled in the language of Mathematical Physics, understood only by a few, he also managed to speak a language through which he could reach many. A language of passion and for people. He was...
The people's professor The Ghanaian academic Francis Allotey was more than a great scientist, or maybe an example of what this title should entail. Born...
How the photo collections of two families connect worlds apart There was a corner in his grandmother’s house where Farrell Ngilima was not allowed to come even when he was a child. There was a cupboard standing there containing many small yellow boxes. When he got older, he discovered the secret of those boxes: they contained hundreds of negatives, made by his grandfather Ronald Majongwa Ngilima. Farrell realised he had found a treasure-trove. The pictures were made in the fifties and sixties in...
How the photo collections of two families connect worlds apart There was a corner in his grandmother’s house where Farrell Ngilima was not allowed to...
On 20 December 2017, Biram Dah Abeid, leader of the Mauritanian l'Initiative pour la résurgence du mouvement abolitionniste (IRA) met with members of the ZAM Team and Conny Braam, former president of the Anti-Apartheids Beweging Nederland (AABN). Slavery and racism are much alive in todays' Mauritania. While forbidden by law, the practice of enslavement lives on in thousands of households, in factories and in agriculture. “Judges, politicians, the police, they all conveniently look away when asked...
On 20 December 2017, Biram Dah Abeid, leader of the Mauritanian l'Initiative pour la résurgence du mouvement abolitionniste (IRA) met with members of the...
ZAM, the platform for African change, is celebrating Nelson Mandela's centenary with an elaborate program of activities: Mandela100 . This program will inform a yearlong critical search for today's relevance of Mandela's work and ideas. The highlight of Mandela100 will be the Nelson Mandela Lecture scheduled for December 2018. To make this Lecture happen, ZAM is currently looking for a fundraiser in the private sector on a 'no cure, no pay' basis. In Mandela’s life of resistance, strategic insight,...
ZAM, the platform for African change, is celebrating Nelson Mandela's centenary with an elaborate program of activities: Mandela100 . This program will...
The protagonist Moses in Alain Mabanckou’s Black Moses grows up in an orphanage on the outskirts of Pointe-Noire in the independent Republic of the Congo that is on the eve of the creation of the imaginary People's Republic of the Congo, a Marxist–Leninist state. As the novel starts Moses recalls his years in the orphanage from the moment he was abandoned there as a baby to the inner turmoil and desires he experienced as he becomes an adolescent. He recalls a catholic priest Papa Moupelo, a...
The protagonist Moses in Alain Mabanckou’s Black Moses grows up in an orphanage on the outskirts of Pointe-Noire in the independent Republic of the Congo...
Afrofuturism and the grand debate about (post) colonial, fragmented identities,stolen history and shattered dreams Visitors to Creating Other Futures , an exhibition at De Melkweg in Amsterdam, will feelarl a sense of displacement when they are surrounded by the sound, colours and moving images during the exhibition. Fascinated by these converging elements, I was drawn to these works of art, specifically those that use different kinds of montage, like the work of Chinese artist Ming Wong. By using...
Afrofuturism and the grand debate about (post) colonial, fragmented identities,stolen history and shattered dreams Visitors to Creating Other Futures ,...
This short story by Simone Atangana Bekono is one of a recently published anthology Zwart. Afro-Europese Literatuur uit de Lage Landen in the Netherlands . Editors are Ebissé Rouw and Vamba Sherif Nadat oom Frederick rond vier uur ’s middags, zestien dagen voor kerst, zijn laatste adem had uitgeblazen, werden de voorbereidingen voor zijn begrafenis efficiënt in gang gezet. Bella belde direct erna mijn moeder op. Mijn moeder hing haar jurk aan de deur van haar kledingkast en stelde ons een voor een...
This short story by Simone Atangana Bekono is one of a recently published anthology Zwart. Afro-Europese Literatuur uit de Lage Landen in the Netherlands...
Thanks to the courtesy of publisher AtlastContact, we are giving away three copies of Zwart. Afro-Europese Literatuur uit de Lage Landen (ed. by Vamba Sherif and Ebissé Rouw). If you want to win a copy of this anthology of Afro-European Literature from the low countries, the first of its kind, please send an email to info@zammagazine.com before Sunday 11 February, 2018, 12 pm CET. Entry has now closed and the three winners will receive a copy by the publisher. We have published one of the chapters...
Thanks to the courtesy of publisher AtlastContact, we are giving away three copies of Zwart. Afro-Europese Literatuur uit de Lage Landen (ed. by Vamba...
‘Before It Is Completely Gone’ - a solo exhibition by Thierry Oussou, his first with Stevenson gallery, opens in Johannesburg on Saturday February 10, 10am – 1 pm. Oussou will give a walkabout of his exhibition on Friday 9 February at 11am. The exhibition is on view until 16 March 2018 . Described as a ‘social archaeologist’, Oussou combines his immediate context with accumulated personal experiences to craft probing yet poetic commentaries with a global perspective. In this exhibition, the artist...
‘Before It Is Completely Gone’ - a solo exhibition by Thierry Oussou, his first with Stevenson gallery, opens in Johannesburg on Saturday February 10,...
Royalties for shareholders, tainted water for the locals Cameroon’s Gaz du Cameroun and its UK multinational partner fill the pockets of those aligned with kleptocrat ruler Paul Biya whilst an elite military unit oppresses popular protests. As the first rays of daylight pierced a thick haze blanketing the Ndogpassi neighborhood, several dozen angry men appeared, seemingly from nowhere. They formed a human barrier across the main entrance to a natural gas power plant in the east of Douala,...
Royalties for shareholders, tainted water for the locals Cameroon’s Gaz du Cameroun and its UK multinational partner fill the pockets of those aligned...
A remarkable exhibition by fifteen South African artists is presently on view in Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. You can now browse through the works on the exhibition’s website . In addition to the works the site also provides information about the curators Nkule Mabaso and Manon Braat, the catalogue and the symposium that took place after the opening in January, 2018.
A remarkable exhibition by fifteen South African artists is presently on view in Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. You can now browse through...
For the international program Metropolis the VPRO (broadcaster) is looking for new local video journalists, documentary filmmakers and storytellers. From 2008 to 2015 the VPRO produced Metropolis; a TV show in which the editors collaborated with local correspondents to report about remarkable stories from the daily lives of people worldwide. Metropolis compared those stories with each other by using various themes. For example: how do people from Japan and South-Africa experience wedding or funeral...
For the international program Metropolis the VPRO (broadcaster) is looking for new local video journalists, documentary filmmakers and storytellers. From...
"Wise words mistranslated: What can we learn from a pre-colonial Nigerian philosopher?" Pre-colonial Nigerian philosophy? What is it all about? What does it tell us? These are questions philosopher Sophie Oluwole and filmmaker Juul van der Laan explore in a new production with a tantalising working title: Fact is Fiction . It is a new transmedia project inspired by ancient Yorùbá philosophy and an early computer system. While the film is still in the making, you can tag along with the director and...
"Wise words mistranslated: What can we learn from a pre-colonial Nigerian philosopher?" Pre-colonial Nigerian philosophy? What is it all about? What does...
The story of the murders of Dulcie September, Anton Lubowski and Chris Hani From 1988, Evelyn Groenink, ZAM's Investigations Editor, investigated some of the most uncomfortable stories of the Southern African struggle for freedom and independence: the murders of Paris ANC representative Dulcie September in 1988, SWAPO leader Anton Lubowski (1989) and ANC leader Chris Hani (1993). Evelyn Groenink's was launched at ZAM in Amsterdam on Tuesday March 27, 2018 It is often thought that the three...
The story of the murders of Dulcie September, Anton Lubowski and Chris Hani From 1988, Evelyn Groenink, ZAM's Investigations Editor, investigated some of...
A fascinating study into the return of twenty skulls from Berlin to Namibia is now available online In September 2011, twenty Namibian skulls were repatriated from the collection of the Charité University Hospital in Berlin to Namibia. Not everything went smoothly. The Charité was criticized for failing to answer questions about the identity of the remains, and the Namibian government and Nama and Herero representatives failed to agree on their final resting place. In her book and thesis More than...
A fascinating study into the return of twenty skulls from Berlin to Namibia is now available online In September 2011, twenty Namibian skulls were...
Congratulations to Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng who has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town! In September 2015, Phakeng spoke at an event organised by the Drongo Festival, ZAM and Maandblad Zuid-Afrika about 'one country, eleven languages.' Listen to the podcast of the Prof's speech and understand why UCT has appointed the right person.
Congratulations to Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng who has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town! In September 2015, Phakeng spoke...
Two Africa-related productions at this year Movies that Matter film-festival in the Netherlands convincingly move away from the dominant narratives of international aid. You can win two tickets for any of your choice. Send us an email before Thursday 22 March, 12 PM and put 'Movies that Matter' in the subject line This years’ Movies that Matter festival has an exciting selection of new Africa-related film productions. A number of them play into the dominant tendencies in international aid. City of...
Two Africa-related productions at this year Movies that Matter film-festival in the Netherlands convincingly move away from the dominant narratives of...
If economic results are viewed from the secure bubble of the privileged, everything seems fine. This is why data should be disaggregated. As someone who has worked in public health research, and also in global development, I understand the value of data. However, data is like an onion. Until you slice through its layers, your eyes are shielded from the real impact. That's why we disaggregate data. We want to know not just the big picture, but what makes up the big picture. That's also why we test...
If economic results are viewed from the secure bubble of the privileged, everything seems fine. This is why data should be disaggregated. As someone who...
"You were strong when we couldn’t be. You were a rage that sometimes burned too brightly and you showed us how to be brave and be our fearsome best. Lion. Warrior. Mother. Mkhonto (spear)." Sisonke Msimang, South African writer, on Twitter/ @Sisonkemsimang
"You were strong when we couldn’t be. You were a rage that sometimes burned too brightly and you showed us how to be brave and be our fearsome best....
On Saturday 14 April the Foundation Max van der Stoel, in collaboration with FEPS, will host the annual 'Afrikadag' at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam. This year’s theme is new activism. While traditional politics on the continent are often still pretty inaccessible, activists know how to enforce change. At the Afrikadag the activists will be given a platform to tell their stories. On the programme are Moses Isooba from Africans Rising, a continent broad movement, and 27-year-old...
On Saturday 14 April the Foundation Max van der Stoel, in collaboration with FEPS, will host the annual 'Afrikadag' at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT)...
