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 All posts originally made by me are credited.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)
Munit + Jörg Debut American Performance
Kicking off their East Coast Tour in DC at Tropicalia
Contact: Beshou Gedamu
(301) 221-2058
For Immediate Release
Washington, DC (June 18, 2013) – Munit + Jörg, who have toured the world and performed and world renowned festivals, are coming to Washington DC’s Tropicalia (2001 14th st NW ) on Monday July 1st. Opening for Munit + Jörg will be local artists Feedel Band, composed of a great musicians that bring Ethiopian-Jazz to life.
The energetic duo has marveled stages all over the country at such festivals as the Ethiopian Music Festival, Fêtes de la Musique, Reggae by the Nile, the Acacia Jazz, the World Music Festival and the Selam Festival. Globally they have performed in Egypt and Spain after winning a coveted spot through a competition put together by the Spanish Embassy and Casa Africa.
Munit + Jörg will perform tracks from their long awaited album which is an exciting hybrid of classic and loved Ethiopian songs and new vibrant songs. Listeners will find an updated classic by legendary Ethiopian krar player, vocalist and actress Asnakech Worku to an Ethio-jazz standard originally arranged by Ethiopian musical icon Mulatu Astatke.
Doors will open at 8pm with advance tickets now available for $15. Tickets will be available at the door for $20. For ticketing and show information, please visit: http://munitjorgdc.splashthat.com/ Joined by local artists Feedel Band and a DJ set by Toothpick, Munit + Jörg will have Tropicalia (2001 14th st NW) rocking with soulful Ethiopian-Acoustic sounds.
For press inquiries, please contact Beshou Gedamu at bgedamu@gmail.com or (301)221-2058.
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About Munit + Jorg
Munit and Jörg have been creating a most unique, exciting and energized blend of Ethio-Acoustic Soul music in Addis Abeba, around Ethiopia and the world! They are an exciting, multi-generationally, attractive and innovative musical team. Munit and Jörg already have a great following due to their previous album, their single and music video (Noro Noro), their entertaining live concerts and their many radio and television appearances.
http://munitandjorg.bandcamp.com/
About Feedel Band
Feedel is by definition, the Amharic word for letter or alphabet. In all languages we learn to speak and read, one letter at a time. Feedel Band is taking Ethiopian music and Jazz, and blending it into a simmering stew of musical genres, textures and feeling. They are creating and in some cases re-creating the musical language of what has been called EthioJazz. The members of Feedel Band are acclaimed musicians in their own right. Individually, and as part of a larger group they’ve all performed with numerous well known musicians and artists.
https://www.facebook.com/FeedelBand
Women at a local market in Ibadan, Nigeria.
1974.
Bruno Barbey.
“Elegance Road” is a photo series by Belgian photographer Alexandre Van Enst that captures the non-conformist style and dandy attitudes of a Kinshasa-based fashion and lifestyle SAPE collective.
The African Society of Elegant People, the “SAPE” was born in the years after the independences of Congo-Brazzaville and Zaire.
Today there are two major schools of “SAPE”, respectively inspired by the French and Japanese aristocracy. They clash with high fashion brands, millimetered steps and gestures, from Paris to Kinshasa, during parades in honor of their founding masters, or simply at the Mass of Sunday.
Codified art of sham, glamor and “hast thou seen” for some, for others the SAPE is a metaphysic, a special relation with the question of being and appearance. Sassy, narcissistic and rebellious, the “sapeur” is a romantic.
“Elegance Road” showcases these heroes of modern times. In the decadent sceneries of the city of Kinshasa, from Lemba to Bandal through Ndjili, Matete and Limete, the “sapeurs” of the “War of hundred years” defy the power in place: the Leopards.
Led by the great masters such as Tshikose, Sesele and Kadhitoza, the Congolese dandies constantly reinvent themselves to shine.
As a child, Award-winning South African photographer Neo Ntsoma was only exposed to negative images of black people and as a result, Ntsoma dreamed of taking more positive and holistic images of black people and black life, something the Apartheid regime barred by maintaining a firm grip over the country’s media.
Transitioning from a systematically racially oppressive country to a nation with new possibilities for change, Ntsoma retraces the 20-something year journey of some of her closest friends, colleagues and peers as a way of celebrating the progress of black South Africans in popular culture.
Vintage colour black and white portraits take in Bobson Studio founded by Sukdeo Bobson Mohanlall in Durban, South Africa, in 1961.
Vintage colour studio portraits take in Bobson Studio founded by Sukdeo Bobson Mohanlall in Durban, South Africa, in 1961.
“Three-hundred years of white supremacy in South Africa has placed us in bondage, stripped us of our dignity, robbed us of our self-esteem and surrounded us with hate.” - Ernest Cole
Images of every day life for black people in South Africa under Apartheid, taken by South African photographer Ernest Cole.
Ernest Cole was born in South Africa’s capital city Pretoria in 1940. When Cole was 28, he applied for a job at Drum magazine and soon became the assistant of Jurgen Schadeberg, Drum’s chief photographer.
Cole had begin given a camera earlier in his life by a Roman Catholic priest and decided to receive some formal experience by enrolling in a correspondence course with the New York Institute of Photography in the 1960s. This encouraged him to begin to document the realities of Apartheid. In the early 1960s, after leaving Drum to work for Bantu World newspaper (now The Sowetan), Cole began to freelance for his former employer Drum as well as Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Express, making him South Africa’s first freelance photographer.
With an urge to leave South Africa for New York in the mid-60s, Cole did something unheard - he somehow managed to get the South African Racial Classification Board to re-classify him from Black to Coloured. This enabled him to leave the country in 1966 taking his photographs with him. After showing his photographs to Magnum Photos, Cole published the book House of Bondage which was banned in South Africa.
Cole later moved to Sweden and in 1990 he passed away from cancer whilst living in New York.
Images from Mozambican photographer Mario Macilau’s series ‘The Zionists’ that ‘documents the traditional religious rituals of Mozambique’.
As a photographer, I believe in the power of images and I’ve been exploring the relationship that exists between the environment, human beings, and time. Photography has connected me to incredible moments and experiences and all the places have taught me something valuable so I try to keep an open mind.
In this episode of Al Jazeera’s six-part series documenting dynamic African photographers, self-taught Maputo-based Mozambican photographer Mario Macilau uses his lens to provide ‘a voice’ for people who live in what he describes as a ‘lost’ country.
The intricacies of braided hairstyles captured by Malian photographer Youssouf Sogodogo.
Born in 1976, Malian photographer Penda Diakité graduated from Promo-femme: Center for Audio Visual Education for Young Women in 1999 and after several internships and apprenticeships, she opened her own photography studio in 2002 called ‘Afrique Vision’.
Penda Diakité is one of the few women photographers is in Bamako, Mali, and she specializes in portrait photography as well as special events imagery.
Her studio photography, as seen above, carries the standard aesthetic format so often seen in studio portraiture in Africa, of individuals positioned in front of two-dimensional scenery.
(source)
DYNAMIC AFRICANS: Ghanaian photographer Yaa Annobil
Glancing through Ghanaian photographer Yaa Annobil’s incredibly captivating body of work, it’s not hard to become enthralled in the mostly black and white pixelated seemingly mundane, yet aesthetically captivating moments she captures. Moments framed as stories that seem interpretable solely between the photographer and those made eternal through these interactions. Wanting to know more, Yaa and I discussed his journey as a photographer and the intricacies of her artistic tendencies.
In about five sentences or less, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you’re based and what you do.
Put simply, I am a Ghanaian free-lance photographer, and I try to blur the lines between documentary photography and art. Aged 26, I am based in Accra, Ghana, but as I type, I am in London, making preparations for a photographic exploration of Nigeria.
I work with film exclusively – black and white primarily, and generally, I shoot with a cheap and battered old Pentax.
How and when did your exploration of photography as an artistic tool begin?
As a teenager I imagined I would follow in my father’s footsteps, and become a journalist / writer. However, my interest in the machinations of innumerable dictatorial regimes, coupled with a tendency to pen subversive critique, rendered this plan somewhat unwise (and dangerous). Consequently, photography is my ‘voice’.
I have always loved the art-form, but not the aesthetically beautiful & romantic, or deeply fatalistic depictions of Africa and the so-called developing world - 1D pictorial propaganda essentially. With this in mind, I picked up my ME Super at around 20, and decided to explore my country honestly.
You photograph almost exclusively in black and white, and there’s a very distinct relationship between the subjects in your photographs and you, the photographer, that is incredibly intimate without seeming intrusive. Stylistically, how would you describe your photography and photographic approach to your subjects?
Many of the people I photograph, live decidedly precarious lives. In simple terms, peace exists in Ghana, but its children have been failed theatrically. Though beauty is present in many things in Ghana, I sense sorrow in just about everything I see - specifically, I know the stories of everybody I shoot. I am never tempted to manipulate my subjects, as the decision to confront their pain, and not mask or avoid it, means interesting photographs simply present themselves to me.
Occasionally, I shoot in colour to capture potent societal irony, but something about textured greys and abyssal darkness appeals to me. I use B&W to capture deep emotion, but also the pain present in ‘the mundane’. I shoot the bulk of my images at night; surrounded by mosquitoes, stifled by heavy air, and the aroma of work-weary, sleep-deprived fellow countrymen.
What role does being Ghanaian - and thus, an African - play in your creative process, if any? Can you tell us a little about your experiences shooting in Ghana?
Shooting in Ghana breaks my heart, but I feel myself descending into cavernous misery whenever I leave the country (I think every African can relate to this).
As a Ghanaian I endeavor to capture Ghana as it is – epic magnificence AND tragic destitution. The latter angers many, and I am often pummeled with a barrage of accusations; apparently I am not a true nationalist, but this suits me, as I am driven by cultural obligation, and a deep commitment to my land - not childish denial.
In many ways, I believe Ghana is a microcosm of the contemporary African realty – without doubt, this informs my approach.
Why did you chose tumblr as a platform to showcase your work, and what are some of the highlights of your journey as a photographer thus far?
Tumblr interests me greatly. There is something interesting about viewing my images re-contextualized – working out what my work represents to a diverse batch of people is always enjoyable, often surprising, and always humbling.
Every re-post is a highlight.
Any future plans or projects you’d like to share?
Not too long ago, I traveled to New York, to work with amazing musician and extraordinary poet Kae Sun, and creative visionary / incontrovertibly remarkable / acutely intelligent Joshua Kissi. We created a collection of images of Kae Sun for ‘Afriyie’: his sophomore LP. I enjoyed this experience immensely, and I hope the world will like what we created.
My heart resides in Africa. I shall travel to Nigeria very soon, to complete an interesting project with my friend Nnamdi Awa Kalu. I also plan to explore the Northern regions of Ghana – particularly those ravaged by economic globalization climate change, and traditionally anemic governmental subsidy.
Where else can you be found? (other social media sites, official website, etc)
My website: www.yaaannobil.com
Thanks so much, Yaa!
Thank you :)
Thirteen people have gone on trial in Algiers, accused of trafficking an unknown number of Algerian children to the French city of Saint-Etienne.
The network behind the alleged trafficking was reportedly composed of both French and Algerian nationals.
The case came to light in 2009 after a woman died during an abortion at an illegal clinic in Algiers belonging to the main suspect.
The network had been operating since the 1990s, according to Algerian media.
Algeria’s security services dismantled the “dangerous” network in 2009, the Algerian press agency APS reports.
However, the investigation has so far been unable to determine the exact numbers of children involved.
Paper trail
The main suspect in the case, Dr Khelifa Hanouti is accused of impersonating an obstetrician and running an abortion clinic in the Algiers suburb of Ain Taya, the agency says.
Abortion is illegal in Algeria.
Dr Hanouti was prosecuted in 2002 for performing illegal abortions and served nine months of a two-year jail term, his lawyer says,
He is accused of illegally transferring children abroad with the help of two notaries who are suspected of falsifying “disclaimer” documents signed by single mothers.
The security services reportedly discovered 12 “adoption certificates” at a nursery in the Algiers suburb of El-Biar written between 2005 and 2006, with nine children sent abroad for a sum of money.
Dr Hanouti’s lawyer, Allel Boutouili, says the charges against his client, who has been in jail since 2009, are unfounded.
“There was no appropriation of children,” he told AFP news agency.
According to the lawyer, the case rests on the claims of a woman who says her twin girls were kidnapped and sold to a couple in France.
However, he says he has documents in his possession to show that the children, born in 1997, were adopted by a woman living in Algiers.
Some of the accused based in Saint-Etienne did not appear in court on Monday.
Remember this story about child trafficking from Chad to France?
Unidentified photographer, inscribed:
Monsiga Chief of Mafeking
South Africa, late nineteenth century
Gelatin or collodion printed-out print mounted on album page
Mahikeng - formerly, and still commonly, known as Mafikeng and historically Mafeking in English - is the capital city of the North-West Province of South Africa. It is best known internationally for the Siege of Mafeking, the most famous engagement of the Second Boer War.
Unidentified photographer
Native Policemen
South Africa, late nineteen century
from Albumen prints mounted to album page
