Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 667

Exhibition: African Women in Movement

To celebrate the 6th Anniversary of Sauti Yetu Center for African Women, the Center and the Brooklyn College Women's Studies Program present Shift: Images and Narratives of African Women in Movement.

Shift attempts to reframe the popular perception and image of African women in the United States. This mixed media exhibit showcases internationally acclaimed artists and New York based representatives of the diversity of the African continent who hail from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, and Egypt. The images and artwork displayed in this exhibit offer a window into the experiences of African immigrant women as they shift, challenge and negotiate the complexities of their lives. AIAC's Anni Lyngskaer met with curator Bianca Mona (video above) to talk about the exhibition.

Details of a "Meet the Artists" event at the Gallery tonight:

ReVisions and RePresentations:  Artists Talk and Tour

Thursday, March 17, 6-8pm

Artists walk us through and discuss their inspiration for creating artworks that reflects the diversity of African women.  Join featured artists Rosamond S. King and Wahala Temi for a discussion on how their art addresses and expands the popular perspective and image of African women.

Where:

Brooklyn College – Student Center – Maroon Room, 6 th Fl.

Campus Road and East 27th Street

Brooklyn, NY

What's Kenya Got To Do With It?

That was our second question. Our first was, "What is this?" The answer to the latter is Music for RAIN (Replenish Africa Initiative), a Coca Cola-backed project described as the "music community's response to the problem of access to water in Africa." By the music community, they mean Solange Knowles, Chris Taylor and Twin Shadow. As you can probably guess, our third question was "Who?" No matter, for this is Africa.

Which bring us back to our first question.

Beyond its title, and the smiling, nameless Kenyans used as props in the video, what does this song actually have to do with Kenya? Solange's "ethnic" print skirt also does not count. Still don't have an answer? Neither do we. But, per this "making of" video—for which the only positive comment we can make is that it is somewhat unfortunate—the song is meant to "inspire hope," which, apparently, is in short supply in Africa. As Taylor states quite simply, "there are so many countries in Africa with the same problem." (Oh. Really?) Just as simple, it seems, is the solution.

Now, while some of us are fans of Ms. Knowles, as well as Chris Taylor's other project, Grizzly Bear, we're not so impressed with this. Neither is the general public. At last check, the initiative had raised less than $1,000 of its $10,000 goal. Perhaps next time, Solange should consult with her brother-in-law, who did his part to solve Africa's water problem a few years ago.

Poetry Radio

Although it was only launched a year ago, Cape Town-based Badilisha Poetry Radio is rapidly building itself an impressive on-line database of weekly podcasts featuring new voices and poetic genres. "(Their) intention is to platform who and what Africa has to say to itself and the rest of the world." Hosted by Malika Ndlovu (introducing the radio in the video above), they are "constantly seeking new poets to showcase and would therefore welcome recommendations of Pan-African poets that are not yet featured." Visit their website.

ZAM Goes International

You know we like the Dutch magazine ZAM. The promised English edition is (almost) here. As a sneak peek, they're giving us this 'digital introduction'. 

'Cameroon is Cameroon'

Cameroon's government, jittery about the role of social media in revolutions in North Africa, last week suspended Twitter SMS on a local cellphone network. Not everyone are convinced social media will play a decisive role in any opposition movement against President Paul Biya's 28-year regime. Instead they cite the regime's ability to divide and buy off opposition figures, police repression, his overseas PR (see the picture above also),  and the opposition's tendency to handicap itself, as more important factors. Observers (I asked around and checked out Cameroon-themed blogs and news sites for the last two weeks) point to the February 23 national day of protest. Biya's government has failed its citizens (40% of Cameroonians live on less than 1$ per day; half of the country's people do not have access to drinking water, 50% have no access to electricity or to a flush toilet), and they expected thousands to turn up in major cities. Only a handful turned up in the capital Yaoundé. They were clearly outnumbered by police. Police reserved their abuse for opposition leader Kah Walla (see video footage and images taken with a cellphone camera) who they singled out for a vicious beating with batons, kicked around, and then sprayed with a water canon from an armoured vehicle.  The protests were handicapped from the start. The two largest opposition parties did not endorse the protests, distrust Kah Walla (she used to the party secretary general of one of these parties before she challenged the octogenarian leader John Fru Ndi); one leader calling her a "young lady" (just what Biaya prefers). Regional politics also play a role: most English speakers see no part in reform politics. There is consensus that Kah Walla is not as embedded as the traditional opposition; nevertheless, most observers praised her courage and defiance.

'Mapping Africa'

This is brilliant. The BBC, working with the Royal Geographical Society, has posted an audio slideshow showing how the continent's been depicted on maps from the 14th century onward. A few highlights: we get one theory how the continent got its name from a tribe of Berber who lived in what is now the Sudan, early Jewish presence in North Africa; and that the South Atlantic was known as the Aethopian Sea. We also notice the rich and detailed maps of Africa in the 17th century–drawn with the aid of Africans–as opposed to the deliberately more sparse, color-coded maps of the late 19th and early 20th century that facilitated colonialism. The maps will be exhibited at "Rediscovering African Geographies" at the Royal Geographical Society in London between 22 March – 28 April 2011.

See the audio slideshow on the BBC website.

H/T: Suren Pillay.

The Prophet Karl Marx

Literary theorist Terry Eagleton reviewed British historian Eric Hobsbawm's new book How to Change the World: Marx and Marxism 1840-2011 in "The London Review of Books." Eagleton notes that the book is "… the work of a man [Hobsbawm] who has reached an age at which most of us would be happy to be able to raise ourselves from our armchairs without the aid of three nurses and a hoist, let alone carry out historical research." Hobsbawn was born in 1917 in Alexandria, Egypt.  Eagleton disagrees with Hobsbawn that Gramsci "is the most original thinker produced by the West since 1917." (Eagleton prefers Walter Benjamin.) Then there's the small matter of Marx's global influence:

'If one thinker left a major indelible mark on the 20th century,' Hobsbawm remarks, 'it was he.' Seventy years after Marx's death, for better or for worse, one third of humanity lived under political regimes inspired by his thought. Well over 20 per cent still do. Socialism has been described as the greatest reform movement in human history. Few intellectuals have changed the world in such practical ways. That is usually the preserve of statesmen, scientists and generals, not of philosophers and political theorists. Freud may have changed lives, but hardly governments. 'The only individually identifiable thinkers who have achieved comparable status,' Hobsbawm writes, 'are the founders of the great religions in the past, and with the possible exception of Muhammad none has triumphed on a comparable scale with such rapidity.'

Read the review here.

'Political Art'

Negar Azimi, in Frieze Magazine, on what the ascendency of 'political art' means for art's actual engagement with politics in the industrial north:

… [S]omething has changed when it comes to contemporary art's preoccupation with the political – especially when it is produced in the West. It is more topically driven, more blithely anti-hegemonic and more consensus-driven. It is often borne of an idea rather than a lived reality. The stakes have changed, too; there is no draft now in most countries, or (again, in the West), no war and destruction at home or no aids crisis for that matter (if you're able to afford antiretrovirals). This has managed to create a comfortable distance between politics as manifest in social relations involving authority and power – as a site of real, live action – and politics as a site of performance. Instead of marching to war or even marching in a demonstration, we perform our political credentials in a variety of ways: by how we vote (Democrat), what we wear (green ribbons in solidarity with Iranians), how we shop (Fair Trade), the causes we write cheques for (gay rights in Zimbabwe?) – and by the kind of art we consume ('engaged'). We attend conferences and symposia on democracy, community action, art and politics. And so, an industry has come of age. There are academic programmes devoted to art and politics (Goldsmiths in London). There are centres full of talks and resident artists and researchers (the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New York). There are abundant arts events that take Bertolt Brecht as their inspiration and leitmotif (the 11th Istanbul Biennial in 2009). How did we get here, and at what cost does the nascent industry of 'political art' come?

Read the article here.

Jonathan Jansen's Burden

Coinciding with a senior government official in South Africa channeling the views of Apartheid ideologues about race, the online publication The Daily Maverick Online features a profile of Jonathan Jansen, the current vice chancellor of the University of the Free State. Jansen is a prominent educator and public figure (and prolific writer) in South Africa, known for his reconciliatory approach to social divisions.

The profile by the site's Mandy de Waal–titled "The Beautiful Mind of Jonathan Jansen"–is an interesting portrait of a man who seems to bridge the worlds of 'white', 'black' and 'coloured," still largely separate, 17 years after the end of Apartheid.

Jansen is credited with bringing about a transformation in race relationships at the University of the Free State. Shortly before his arrival, the university made world headlines thanks to a video made by four white students, who filmed themselves humiliating black staff members.

In the article, Jansen narrates how he began addressing the tension and hostility on the campus when he arrived, and how, through a 'recipe of listening, unwavering moral fortitude, servant leadership and love', he has succeeded in turning things around – to the extent that the biggest problem now, we are told, is interracial love affairs. Not that the university minds, but students are apparently afraid of going home and dealing with their racist parents.

Jonathan Jansen is an interesting and even admirable figure, and the approach he describes is remarkable. If his account of the turn-around is to be believed, it is an approach that perhaps should be adopted more widely.

Yet de Waal's article is worrying in some respects and may say less about Jansen and more about liberal politics in South Africa.

It presents Jansen as a hero, an almost larger than life, saintly figure –as if the aim is to create another Tutu or Mandela. And so, as happened with Madiba and the Arch, it begins to build a myth around Jansen. Here we are again, in the Rainbow Nation, or perhaps on the set of Invictus.

The article makes no mention of the fact that many South Africans find Jansen's approach problematic. For example, he has been accused of going too far in his quest to reconcile, letting racist whites off too easily (for example, one of his first acts as vice chancellor was to drop charges against the Reitz Four; those same young men now demand money to grant interviews about their dastardly act).

No matter how wonderful this man might be, and notwithstanding his apparent success in bringing about a degree of transformation, are we well served by myth building of this nature? Does painting over the blemishes in order to serve us up another hero, really do South Africa a favour? The problem with such an approach is that when the cracks and faults do start to show, either there is pressure to distort and ignore reality and hide things, or else there's a tendency to flip from idealism and euphoria to despair and cynicism. Can we not learn to walk the middle road and accept that our villains may have some redeeming qualities and our heroes may have a clay toe or two?

Jansen himself seems to have no problem calling a spade a spade. His comments about historically English-speaking universities are spot on. They have not had to grapple with real transformation, as white kids simply fled from the residences to their parents' homes in the suburbs when the blacks moved in. "These are the so called liberal universities" he says, "but don't believe that crap."–Brett Davidson

Flying Overseas

I am not cool like Theophelius London. I don't wear nice, patterned shirts. Solange Knowles* doesn't want to hang out with me. But sometimes I fly overseas.

* My 5-year is cool: Solange is her favorite grown-up singer.