Dynamic Africa
Formerly, "This is Africa/fyeahAfrica".
(Profile Photo by Mama Casset)
DISCLAIMER:
I do not endorse any of the products or opinions shared on this site, nor do I claim any of the work posted here to be my own - except where stated. All posts originally made by me are credited. If no credit is given then the work is either my own/written by me or reblogged from another source.
A LITTLE ABOUT ME:
Student, 24
Based in Cape Town, South Africa
From Lagos, Nigeria
Want to advertise through us? Send an email to dynamicafricablog@gmail.com
(As an unemployed media student, all donations go into ensuring my survival in this cruel world and future projects I hope to embark on).
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(since Oct. 21th 2012)
FILM: Keita! L’heritage du Griot (English title: Keita! Voice of the Griot)
Dani Kouyaté’s 1995 drama starring Sotigui Kouyaté as the griot, Dani’s father, is a retelling of the first third of Sundjata Keita’s 13th-century epic, Sundjata.
Watch the full movie above.
[Jula/Dyula & French w/ French subtitles]
It’s been more than ten years since Diébédo Francis Kéré built his first school in Burkina Faso. In 1998 the architect planned a climate friendly clay school building in his home village of Gando, 200 kilometres west of the capital of Ouagadougou. It was finally built in 2001 with the help of villagers and the foundation Schulbausteine für Gando (“School Building Blocks for Gando”), which he established specifically for this purpose.
Until then many had looked down on his work with condescension. But the clay building was still standing after the first rainy season and further buildings followed — a school extension, residential buildings for teachers and an infirmary, and soon the library and women’s centre will be completed too. The award-winning architect is currently constructing his largest clay building to date, in the form of a high school for more than 1,200 students, which will be made of wall panels prefabricated from clay and concrete. The village of Gando is his building site, and in his architecture, Kéré combines what he has seen in Europe with what he finds in Africa.Kéré’s biography reads like something straight from the movies. As a boy, the now successful architect lived with a foster family in the provincial capital of Tenkodogo, where he went to school during the week. His weekends, meanwhile, were spent mending rain-damaged clay houses. “I obtained building materials for the houses of my foster family,” he remembers. “I got gravel, sand and clay in particular, because after every rainy season the buildings needed to be repaired. During this work, I decided I wanted to build better houses one day.”
This is what we need, innovations based on indigenous designs. Not wholesale foreign imports. I still believe that clay, or “mud” is much more suited for the West African environment, our ancestors knew what they were doing. Indigenous architecture(s) from Burkina Faso is already awesome and by improving the design and making it more sustainable, Kéré has basically “upgraded” them for this time and age.
I’d happily live in this “mud” house.
(via sarraounia)
FILM: Buud Yam (Dir. Gaston Kaboré)
Currently watching Burkinabe director Gaston Kaboré’s 1997 historical drama, Buud Yam, set in a 19th century fictional village that follows the trials and tribulations of Wend Kuuni, a young man accused of sorcery with ulterior motives, whose quest to clear his name also leads him down a path of reflection and self-discovery.
The film won the Etalon de Yennega (the Grand Prize) at the 15th Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival.
Watch the rest of the film on YT.
Thanks to film connoisseur swintons for the recommendation.
Thomas & Mariam Sankara’s wedding.
(via nocturnalphantasmagoria)
Pan African Film & Television Festival 2013, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Photos by Nick Bothma
You can read more about FESPACO here.
Nigeria’s goal was scored by Sunday Mba in the 39th minute. This is his secong goal of the tournament.
Follow my live-tweeting here: @dynamicafrica.
Warning: I’m Nigerian so Burkina Faso supporters, proceed with caution.
I’ll be live-tweeting the events (and my heavy emotions) for the events happening tonight. As you may or may not know by now, I’m Nigerian therefore I’m #TeamNigeria all the way so if you can’t handle my dedicated allegiance for the Super Eagles, I’ll understand.
I see the game as being 50/50, which is what makes me so terribly nervous. Burkina Faso could just as easily win this as Nigeria. It’s their first time ever at an Africa Cup of Nations, and they’re a physically aggressive team as we’ve seen before (see: Ghana vs BF), so they’re incredibly hungry for a victory.
It’s sure to be an exciting game and I believe if you have Eurosport or ESPN3 (don’t quote me on this) you’ll be able to watch the game live. It begins at 20:00 CAT (that’s 8pm for those who don’t use 24hr clock language) and I’ll be live-tweeting at @dynamicafrica.
May the best team win!
Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou
AFCON UPDATE: Who’s through to the finals?
Four West African teams went head-to-head in two separate matches here in South Africa, to vie for a place at the finals of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations and possibly take home the trophy.
First to play were Nigeria and Mali, and although the latter gave the football heavyweights a run for their money at the beginning of the match, the Super Eagles soon picked up the pace as the confidence from their previous win against Cote D’Ivoire started to show. After just thirty minutes of play, the Eagles had scored two goals placing them well ahead of Mali at the end of the first half with a 3-0 lead.
Nigeria managed a fourth goal in the second half and although Mali scored at the 70th minute, it wasn’t nearly enough to get them back in the saddle and Nigeria progressed victoriously to secure a position in this year’s AFCON finals - the first time for the team since 2000.
Up next were tournament favourites against slight underdogs Burkina Faso who had never before made it to the finals of this tournament. Ghana had a relatively easy road to the semi-finals playing lesser skilled teams such as Niger, Ethiopia, DR Congo and Cape Verde which may have put them at a disadvantage against the Burkinabe Stallions who had tenaciously fought their way to this stage of the tournament - including an equalizing goal in their opening match against Nigeria with less than five seconds left on the clock. Ghana were put in the lead during the first half with a penalty goal, but Burkina Faso fought long and hard during the rest of the match and managed an equalizing goal in the second half of the match.
With a draw even after added time, the match went into extra time and despite a ‘goal’ from Burkina Faso (it was controversially disallowed due to a foul), and would-be penalty for them resulting in a yellow card for Pitriopa (his second) that brought the team down to 10-men, Burkina Faso were left sorely disappointed as extra time came to an end and penalty shoot-outs were declared.
The Black Stars shine was embarrassingly dulled as they missed their first penalty, and eventually lost out to their fellow West Africans who beat them 3-1 during penalties.
Whilst Mali and Ghana still stand a chance at claiming third place, the final match between Nigeria and Burkina Faso is due to be incredibly tense and both teams have plenty of reasons why winning is their only option.
AFCON 2013 UPDATE: Semi-finals
The teams that are currently through to the semi-finals after winning their quarter-finals matches are:
- Ghana - beat Cape Verde 2-1
- Mali - beat South Africa 1-1 (1-3 in penalties)
- Nigeria - beat Ivory Coast 2-1
- Burkina Faso - beat Togo 1-0
SEMI-FINALS MATCH SCHEDULE (Feb. 6th, 2013):
- Mali vs Nigeria (17:00 CAT)
- Burkina Faso vs Ghana (20:30 CAT)
It’s 100% a West African affair now. May the best teams win.
The top scorers in the competition, with three goals each are:
- Alain Traore (Mali)
- Wakaso Mubarak (Ghana)
- Emmanuel Emenike (Nigeria)
All are still active in the tournament.
Interview with Burkinabe filmmaker Fanta Régina Nacro on her film “The Night of Truth” that, “confronts the issues of genocide and reconciliation in African countries”, as well as the universality of ‘barbarianism’ which has no regard for skin colour, and the events that led to the making of this film.
For those of you in the United States, you can watch the film here.
Definitely a must-watch.
[French w/ English subtitles]
A map showing the countries that have made it to the quarterfinals (yellow) of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
They are:
- Mali
- South Africa
- Cape Verde
- Cote D’Ivoire/Ivory Coast
- Nigeria
- Ghana
- Burkina Faso
- Togo
South Africa is the only country outside of West Africa to make it to this stage.
