Issue # 9
Afrovibes 2021
African Artists Centre Stage
Forget about borders, visa restrictions and Fort Europe! At the upcoming 2021 Afrovibes Festival performing and visual artists from Tanzania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and the Netherlands will be centre stage in dozens of shows in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam. and Den Bosch. Issues like climate change, border control, migration, and Black Lives Matter are turning the world upside down. Today, African artists are exploring these watersheds, anticipating immense...
Forget about borders, visa restrictions and Fort Europe! At the upcoming 2021 Afrovibes Festival performing and visual artists from Tanzania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and the Netherlands will be centre stage in dozens of shows in Amsterdam,...
Reluctantly, South Africans are coming to terms with the fact that in the same way that no condition is permanent, no euphoria is permanent either. The innocence of the 1990s and early 2000s, when the country moved from apartheid to post-apartheid, has given way to a gnawing unease about the future of the democratic experiment. Two camps are emerging — there are those whose disenchantment expresses itself in the desire to burn everything, destroy everything, declaim everything. There are, on the...
Reluctantly, South Africans are coming to terms with the fact that in the same way that no condition is permanent, no euphoria is permanent either. The innocence of the 1990s and early 2000s, when the country moved from apartheid to post-apartheid, has given way to a gnawing unease...
On Sunday 5 September, the Nelson Mandela Memorial was unveiled in the South East district of Amsterdam. With over 170 nationalities, the South East is the most multicultural neighbourhood in the city. The creator of the work is South African artist Mohau Modisakeng. The memorial differs from all other Mandela monuments in the world. It is not a statue because, in the words of Modisakeng in an interview with Dutch daily Trouw 'a larger-than-life Mandela does not make one think'. His memorial...
On Sunday 5 September, the Nelson Mandela Memorial was unveiled in the South East district of Amsterdam. With over 170 nationalities, the South East is the most multicultural neighbourhood in the city. The creator of the work is South African artist Mohau Modisakeng. The memorial...
#ImagineMandela – What is your ideal? Thursday 26.08.21, 17h30–20h00 | Livestream – In conversation with Mohau Modikaseng, creator of the Amsterdam Nelson Mandela Memorial. Venue: CBK Zuidoost, Anton de Komplein 120, Amsterdam. Video. Spoken Word. Debate. Drinks & Snacks. Organised by ZAM and CBK Zuidoost.
#ImagineMandela – What is your ideal? Thursday 26.08.21, 17h30–20h00 | Livestream – In conversation with Mohau Modikaseng, creator of the Amsterdam Nelson Mandela Memorial. Venue: CBK Zuidoost, Anton de Komplein 120, Amsterdam. Video. Spoken Word. Debate. Drinks & Snacks. Organised...
A vernacular attempt at a social anthropology of dogs across three countries: Nigeria, South Africa and Canada. I recently moved to a small, cynophilic Canadian city called Kelowna. The first home I visited in this city had a special sofa for dogs. It took me only a few days here to discover that people take their dogs to daycare and that dog doctors are well-to-do. In fact, holding funeral services for demised dogs, adopting stray dogs or financially rewarding lost dog finders are not uncommon...
A vernacular attempt at a social anthropology of dogs across three countries: Nigeria, South Africa and Canada. I recently moved to a small, cynophilic Canadian city called Kelowna. The first home I visited in this city had a special sofa for dogs. It took me only a few days here to...
Ten African investigative journalists who participated in ZAM’s Kleptocracy Project look back on months of risks, hardship and revelations. Bettie Johnson-Mbayo’s worse moment came when she had to print a Freedom of Information request at a print shop in Monrovia, her Liberian hometown. ‘I live in a society where people are interrelated. The print shop owner could be related to a subject in my request’. At the time, Johnson-Mbayo was already receiving threats. Journalists have been killed before in...
Ten African investigative journalists who participated in ZAM’s Kleptocracy Project look back on months of risks, hardship and revelations. Bettie Johnson-Mbayo’s worse moment came when she had to print a Freedom of Information request at a print shop in Monrovia, her Liberian...
Essay – In the late 1990s, Kiza Magendane and his uncle left their native country of Congo to start a new life elsewhere. Kiza ended up in the Netherlands, his uncle in South Africa. Nineteen years later they meet in Pretoria. 'Kiza, the South African dream does not exist.' I have landed. After ten years of Europe, I set foot on the African continent again. The customs lady at Johannesburg airport wants to know everything about the reason for my visit. Patiently I show my travel document and the...
Essay – In the late 1990s, Kiza Magendane and his uncle left their native country of Congo to start a new life elsewhere. Kiza ended up in the Netherlands, his uncle in South Africa. Nineteen years later they meet in Pretoria. 'Kiza, the South African dream does not exist.' I have...
In July 2021, Julie Kretzschmer and Jay Pather presented a three-day programme full of multimedia installations from the field of contemporary dance, performance and visual arts to conclude the Here Comes Africa, Africa 2020 in the La Friche Belle de Mai centre in Marseille. Before Julie Kretschmer—who specialises in making projects in the Arab world, including Algeria and develops new contemporary cultural programmes on the spot—and Jay Pather—curator of Afrovibes and Infecting the City...
In July 2021, Julie Kretzschmer and Jay Pather presented a three-day programme full of multimedia installations from the field of contemporary dance, performance and visual arts to conclude the Here Comes Africa, Africa 2020 in the La Friche Belle de Mai centre in Marseille. Before...
We are shocked by the assassination of our Ghanaian colleague and investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale. Suale was murdered on Wednesday 16 January, 2019 in Madina, Ghana. He was part of the Tiger Eye and the African Investigative Publishing Collective, both partner organisations of ZAM. He contributed immensely to efforts to sanitise governance in Ghana through his work that has exposed corruption, wrongdoing, conflict of interest, waste, maladministration and outright thievery in this West...
We are shocked by the assassination of our Ghanaian colleague and investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale. Suale was murdered on Wednesday 16 January, 2019 in Madina, Ghana. He was part of the Tiger Eye and the African Investigative Publishing Collective, both partner...
On Monday 17 December, 2018, our colleague Estacio Valoi and his team were arrested by the Mozambican army. When investigative journalist Estacio Valoi, known for his reports on plunder of natural resources in northern Mozambique, went to report on the situation in conflict-ridden and desperately poor Chitolo village, he and his team found the road blocked by soldiers upon their return. What followed was a day and night of terror for the team of three -with Valoi were USA-based lecturer and Amnesty...
On Monday 17 December, 2018, our colleague Estacio Valoi and his team were arrested by the Mozambican army. When investigative journalist Estacio Valoi, known for his reports on plunder of natural resources in northern Mozambique, went to report on the situation in conflict-ridden...
What would a borderless world look like? It sounds like utopia but in his essay, South Africa-based Cameroonian thinker Achille Mbeme makes the realities of borders, restrictions and the right to move denied to most people in the world look far more surreal than the alternative. Mbembe identifies three freedoms in liberal thinking: freedom of movement, freedom of capital and freedom of services. Where are the people, he asks. People on the move are seen as a threat to order. The paradox of a...
What would a borderless world look like? It sounds like utopia but in his essay, South Africa-based Cameroonian thinker Achille Mbeme makes the realities of borders, restrictions and the right to move denied to most people in the world look far more surreal than the alternative....
72 hours non-stop shifts, no breaks, no equipment, no salaries. The Nigerian government fails to provide proper services. The country’s doctors seek jobs abroad. One night -he doesn’t remember the exact date- in June 2017 at the Lagos University Teaching hospital in Nigeria’s capital city, three of eight pre-term babies died in the ward where Mohamed Gafar, 26, was the ward doctor. He, an intern still waiting for his permanent license, was the only doctor on duty that night and was just reaching...
72 hours non-stop shifts, no breaks, no equipment, no salaries. The Nigerian government fails to provide proper services. The country’s doctors seek jobs abroad. One night -he doesn’t remember the exact date- in June 2017 at the Lagos University Teaching hospital in Nigeria’s...
Remember Gemfields? In 2017 we published a story by Estacio Valoi about the scandalous practices of British-Mozambican mining company MRM-Gemfields in Montepuez, Mozambique. The story later became part of a groundbreaking report by the African Investigative Publishing Collective (AIPC) and ZAM. ‘Rapes, robberies and deportations carried out by notorious police squad to keep the rubies for MRM-Gemfields alone’, we wrote. And: ‘The ruby fields of Montepuez in Mozambique, already a terrain of terror...
Remember Gemfields? In 2017 we published a story by Estacio Valoi about the scandalous practices of British-Mozambican mining company MRM-Gemfields in Montepuez, Mozambique. The story later became part of a groundbreaking report by the African Investigative Publishing Collective...
Withholding of promised funds left Mozambican communities to battle cyclones, floods and drought alone for years. What was once a forest in Massaca, Chimoio, now looks like an endless series of empty football fields. Cyclones are destroying hopes for harvests in Beira, Zalala and Lugela in Zambeze. In Marromeu National Reserve hungry and thirsty buffalos, hippo’s and monkeys roam over villages, eating meagre food supplies. Villagers in Massingir district in the south complain that in the past three...
Withholding of promised funds left Mozambican communities to battle cyclones, floods and drought alone for years. What was once a forest in Massaca, Chimoio, now looks like an endless series of empty football fields. Cyclones are destroying hopes for harvests in Beira, Zalala and...
An exhibition opened recently at Nuweland Gallery in the northern part of the Netherlands. Curator, South African artist Morné Visagie, brought together the works of artists from around the world; from Namibia to Mexico, South Korea to Zimbabwe, Germany to the United States, and South Africa. It’s an amazing showcase of artistic expression. Artists Musa N Nxumalo and Haneem Christian, featured on this page, are only two of the participating artists. They might come from different worlds, but they...
An exhibition opened recently at Nuweland Gallery in the northern part of the Netherlands. Curator, South African artist Morné Visagie, brought together the works of artists from around the world; from Namibia to Mexico, South Korea to Zimbabwe, Germany to the United States, and...
It would take a liveable basic income grant and a job-guarantee programme with the state and private sector behind it. But it can be done. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr went to Jamaica for a three-week writing retreat in January and February 1967, where he penned an economic manifesto called Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? ‘I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective’, he wrote. ‘The solution to poverty is to abolish it...
It would take a liveable basic income grant and a job-guarantee programme with the state and private sector behind it. But it can be done. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr went to Jamaica for a three-week writing retreat in January and February 1967, where he...
On Sunday 5 September, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema will unveil the Nelson Mandela Memorial. The work, inspired by the residents of the neighbourhood, was designed by South African visual artist Mohau Modisakeng and produced in Cape Town. The unveiling is the culmination of a week-long programme in which ZAM, Bijlmerpark Theatre, OBA, OSCAM, Imagine IC, Heesterveld, New Metropolis and CBK Zuidoost are participating. Thursday 26 August: In Conversation with Mohau Modisakeng During this informal...
On Sunday 5 September, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema will unveil the Nelson Mandela Memorial. The work, inspired by the residents of the neighbourhood, was designed by South African visual artist Mohau Modisakeng and produced in Cape Town. The unveiling is the culmination of a...
‘I don’t know how much it is in Kwacha that we have to pay, but it is a lot, in thousands’, says Dickson Chishimba, leaning back on his chair and wiping his moustache after a sip of sweet beer, locally known as munkoyo. Thought it is lunchtime at his cooperative’s milling plant in Kalense, northern Zambia, the production of maize meal, a staple in the country where many do not have sufficient access to food, is ongoing today. But that may not continue to be the case for very long. The Zambia...
‘I don’t know how much it is in Kwacha that we have to pay, but it is a lot, in thousands’, says Dickson Chishimba, leaning back on his chair and wiping his moustache after a sip of sweet beer, locally known as munkoyo. Thought it is lunchtime at his cooperative’s milling plant in...
Liberia’s Anti Corruption Commission (LACC), in conjunction with a set of relatively recent anti-corruption laws, are supposed to get public officials to declare their assets. The effort is based on the tremendous inequality between an impoverished people and a wealthy political elite in the West African country of five million, as well as on the lack of transparent public spending by the same elite. As such, the anti-corruption structures and regulations are supported by international donors and...
Liberia’s Anti Corruption Commission (LACC), in conjunction with a set of relatively recent anti-corruption laws, are supposed to get public officials to declare their assets. The effort is based on the tremendous inequality between an impoverished people and a wealthy political...
Entrenched interests, from top to bottom, have turned border control into a money-making machine for those at the head of the Nigerian Immigration Service. Partnerships with a number of private companies siphon off monies paid to them by the state as well as by visa and passport applicants. Court judgements, a parliamentary probe and even petitions by the agencies' own former senior officers have not been able to dent the scheme. With honest civil servants having left in frustration, and a former...
Entrenched interests, from top to bottom, have turned border control into a money-making machine for those at the head of the Nigerian Immigration Service. Partnerships with a number of private companies siphon off monies paid to them by the state as well as by visa and passport...
In 1988, South African freedom fighter and the Paris representative of the ANC, was murdered in front of her office. As is the case for every political assassination, memorialising and spreading the legacy of the murdered person is sine qua non for justice. The process constantly evolves over time and involves actors from different backgrounds who might have never known each other but work together at turning the grievance into a fight. To acknowledge the many lives that Dulcie September had in her...
In 1988, South African freedom fighter and the Paris representative of the ANC, was murdered in front of her office. As is the case for every political assassination, memorialising and spreading the legacy of the murdered person is sine qua non for justice. The process constantly...
