Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pq946/Lost_Kingdoms_of_Africa_Nubia/
Four-part series in which British art historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford explores the pre-colonial history of some of Africa's most important kingdoms.
The African continent is home to nearly a billion people. It has an incredible diversity of communities and cultures, yet we know less of its history than almost anywhere else on earth.
But that is beginning to change. In the last few decades, researchers and archaeologists have begun to uncover a range of histories as impressive and extraordinary as anywhere else in the world.
The series reveals that Africa's stories are preserved for us in its treasures, statues and ancient buildings - in the culture, art and legends of the people.
The first episode looks at Nubia, in what is now northern Sudan, a kingdom that dominated a vast area of the eastern Sahara for thousands of years. Its people were described as barbarians and mercenaries, and yet Nubia has left us with some of the most spectacular monuments in the world.
Casely-Hayford traces the origins of this fascinating kingdom back to 10,000 BC. He explores how it developed and what happened to it and its people, discovering that its kings once ruled Ancient Egypt and that it was defeated not by its rivals but by its environment.
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Dr Gus Casely-Hayford enthusiasm is infectious and a delight to watch.
Check it out:
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu | Aminatta Forna
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hkb0z/The_Lost_Libraries_of_Timbuktu/?from=r
Aminatta Forna tells the story of legendary Timbuktu and its long hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts. With its university founded around the same time as Oxford, Timbuktu is proof that the reading and writing of books have long been as important to Africans as to Europeans.
The books that are being found in and around Timbuktu are amongst some of the most important on earth and Universities from Oslo to Chicago and South Africa are busy documenting, archiving and translating the Arabic into English. This complicated and laborious mammoth project will certainly take several decades to shed more light on the true importance of these newly rediscovered West African Academic Islamic manuscripts but the truth is that West Africa has a far rich history of academic thought, which clearly dates back centuries.
Libraries of Timbuktu | http://www.sum.uio.no/timbuktu/index.html
This extensive web site includes links to the individual participating libraries and collections; a bibliography of Timbuktu; related institutions and resources; and an archive of press coverage (some links are no longer live).
The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project was initiated through a collaboration between Norwegian Universities (NUFU), the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu (IHERIAB), and the National Research Council of Mali (CNRST). Through a grant from NORAD and the Ford Foundation, the project was launched in the year 2000. The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project is the first UNESCO MEMORY of the WORLD Project and the first NEPAD Cultural Project.
West African Arabic Manuscripts Project (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
AMMS is a bi-lingual (English and Arabic) database that was developed at the University of Illinois in the late 1980s to describe a collection of Arabic manuscripts in southern Mauritania (Boutilimit). It subsequently has been used to catalogue seven other West African collections including the manuscript libraries at the Institut Mauritanien de Recherche Scientifique, Northwestern University, and the Centre Ahmad Baba in Timbuctu.
President Thabo Mbeki and the South Africa Government have played and are playing an important role in funding, preserving and cataloguing the works being uncovered. If knowledge is power then Timbuktu could light up a MegaCity.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hkb0z
Here is a YouTube version:
Aminatta Forna tells the story of legendary Timbuktu and its long hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts. With its university founded around the same time as Oxford, Timbuktu is proof that the reading and writing of books have long been as important to Africans as to Europeans.
The books that are being found in and around Timbuktu are amongst some of the most important on earth and Universities from Oslo to Chicago and South Africa are busy documenting, archiving and translating the Arabic into English. This complicated and laborious mammoth project will certainly take several decades to shed more light on the true importance of these newly rediscovered West African Academic Islamic manuscripts but the truth is that West Africa has a far rich history of academic thought, which clearly dates back centuries.
Libraries of Timbuktu | http://www.sum.uio.no/timbuktu/index.html
This extensive web site includes links to the individual participating libraries and collections; a bibliography of Timbuktu; related institutions and resources; and an archive of press coverage (some links are no longer live).
The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project was initiated through a collaboration between Norwegian Universities (NUFU), the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu (IHERIAB), and the National Research Council of Mali (CNRST). Through a grant from NORAD and the Ford Foundation, the project was launched in the year 2000. The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project is the first UNESCO MEMORY of the WORLD Project and the first NEPAD Cultural Project.
West African Arabic Manuscripts Project (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
AMMS is a bi-lingual (English and Arabic) database that was developed at the University of Illinois in the late 1980s to describe a collection of Arabic manuscripts in southern Mauritania (Boutilimit). It subsequently has been used to catalogue seven other West African collections including the manuscript libraries at the Institut Mauritanien de Recherche Scientifique, Northwestern University, and the Centre Ahmad Baba in Timbuctu.
President Thabo Mbeki and the South Africa Government have played and are playing an important role in funding, preserving and cataloguing the works being uncovered. If knowledge is power then Timbuktu could light up a MegaCity.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hkb0z
Here is a YouTube version:
Welcome to Lagos on the BBC
Check out BBC iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s3bmx/Welcome_to_Lagos_Episode_1/
Three-part observational documentary series which explores life at the sharp end of one of the most extreme urban environments in the world: Lagos, Nigeria. Today, more than half the world's population live in cities, and this eye-opening series shows what life is really like in some of the toughest parts of the world's fastest growing megacity.
The first episode uncovers life in the Olusosun rubbish dump. Here, around 1000 people live on top of the rubbish in houses built from scrap. The film follows the daily lives of two men who have become skilled at turning rubbish into gold. Eric, aka Vocal Slender, is a musician, and every bit of scrap he finds brings him one step closer to his dream of launching his music career, but a serious fight nearly ruins his chances.
Joseph is a trader who works hard to provide for his wife and two small children, and who has filled his house with things he has found on the dump. 'If there was a bigger, dirtier, stinkier dump where I could earn more money for my family, then I'd go there to work,' he says.
With extraordinary access to some of the poorest parts of town, the series celebrates the resilience, resourcefulness and energy of Lagos's 16 million inhabitants, and shows how successfully many of its slum dwellers are adapting to the realities of the world's increasingly extreme urban future.
Broadcast on: BBC Two, 9:00pm
Thursday 15th April 2010
Duration:60 minutes
Available until: 9:59pm
Thursday 6th May 2010
Categories: Audio Described, Factual
Take a look and see at BBC iPlayer
Part 2/3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s5x5w/Welcome_to_Lagos_Episode_2/
Lagos's version of Venice is a slum, built on water, called Makoko. This three-part observational series continues to explore one of the most extreme urban environments on the planet, by taking a trip into the lives of those who choose to live and work on the waters of Lagos Lagoon.
Chubbey is a fisherman who lives in a house built on stilts. With 18 children and five grandchildren to support, he has become an expert at making money from the most unlikely of places. Whether he is building a fish pond in the same water he uses as a lavatory, or renting out a spare room which he has not even built yet, he has always got some scheme or another on the go. But when his teenage son starts to hang out with a local gang, he is left with a dilemma familiar to parents all over the world.
Paul is a saw operator at Ebute Metta, the largest timber yard in West Africa. All the wood that goes into building Lagos passes through this place, floated in on enormous rafts, some over a kilometre long. Paul still sleeps in the saw mill, and would like nothing more than to get a place of his own in Makoko. But so many of his fellow workers keep getting killed that he finds it very hard to save any money, because he keeps having to spend it all on funerals.
Kissme and Daniel are two 'sandboys', who make their living diving for sand from the bottom of the Lagoon and selling it to the building trade. Between them they can fill two dumper trucks a day, collecting every grain of it by hand, with an old iron bucket.
As humans begin to come to terms with an increasingly urban future, this series offers unprecedented access and insight into the lives of just some of the millions of slum dwellers who are living at the sharp end of the fastest growing megacity in the world.
Broadcast on: BBC Two,
9:00pm Thursday 22nd April 2010
Duration:60 minutes
Available until: 9:59pm
Thursday 6th May 2010
Categories: Audio Described, Factual
Part 3 of 3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s8jx0/Welcome_to_Lagos_Episode_3/
This fascinating series continues to look at how people are adapting to modern city life in the 21st century by exploring the slums and ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. More than 50 per cent of the world's population now live in cities, and that figure is expected to rise to over 70 per cent by 2050. The answer to where humanity could be heading might be found in the lives of the inhabitants of Lagos, one of the world's fastest-growing megacities.
For over six years, Esther has been living with her husband Segun in a house they built themselves from cardboard, scrap wood and tarpaulin on the beach in central Lagos. Every time the government sends its task force to bulldoze their village, she and the thousand or so other inhabitants soon pick up the pieces and build another one. Her best friend, Blessing, is about to give birth here and Esther is worried for her safety. But when she discovers text messages from another woman on her husband's phone, she suddenly has problems of her own to deal with.
Meanwhile, politicians in Lagos are planning sweeping changes to improve the infrastructure and attractiveness of Lagos. Part of their plan to turn it into a 'megacity' involves demolishing the slums, which house so many of its inhabitants. The film follows Sagede, a member of the newly established Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit, which targets illegal dwellings all over the city and clears away everything in its path.
Broadcast on: BBC Two, 9:00pm Thursday 29th April 2010
Duration:60 minutes
Available until: 9:59pm
Thursday 6th May 2010
Categories: Audio Described, Factual
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s3bmx/Welcome_to_Lagos_Episode_1/
Three-part observational documentary series which explores life at the sharp end of one of the most extreme urban environments in the world: Lagos, Nigeria. Today, more than half the world's population live in cities, and this eye-opening series shows what life is really like in some of the toughest parts of the world's fastest growing megacity.
The first episode uncovers life in the Olusosun rubbish dump. Here, around 1000 people live on top of the rubbish in houses built from scrap. The film follows the daily lives of two men who have become skilled at turning rubbish into gold. Eric, aka Vocal Slender, is a musician, and every bit of scrap he finds brings him one step closer to his dream of launching his music career, but a serious fight nearly ruins his chances.
Joseph is a trader who works hard to provide for his wife and two small children, and who has filled his house with things he has found on the dump. 'If there was a bigger, dirtier, stinkier dump where I could earn more money for my family, then I'd go there to work,' he says.
With extraordinary access to some of the poorest parts of town, the series celebrates the resilience, resourcefulness and energy of Lagos's 16 million inhabitants, and shows how successfully many of its slum dwellers are adapting to the realities of the world's increasingly extreme urban future.
Broadcast on: BBC Two, 9:00pm
Thursday 15th April 2010
Duration:60 minutes
Available until: 9:59pm
Thursday 6th May 2010
Categories: Audio Described, Factual
Take a look and see at BBC iPlayer
Part 2/3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s5x5w/Welcome_to_Lagos_Episode_2/
Lagos's version of Venice is a slum, built on water, called Makoko. This three-part observational series continues to explore one of the most extreme urban environments on the planet, by taking a trip into the lives of those who choose to live and work on the waters of Lagos Lagoon.
Chubbey is a fisherman who lives in a house built on stilts. With 18 children and five grandchildren to support, he has become an expert at making money from the most unlikely of places. Whether he is building a fish pond in the same water he uses as a lavatory, or renting out a spare room which he has not even built yet, he has always got some scheme or another on the go. But when his teenage son starts to hang out with a local gang, he is left with a dilemma familiar to parents all over the world.
Paul is a saw operator at Ebute Metta, the largest timber yard in West Africa. All the wood that goes into building Lagos passes through this place, floated in on enormous rafts, some over a kilometre long. Paul still sleeps in the saw mill, and would like nothing more than to get a place of his own in Makoko. But so many of his fellow workers keep getting killed that he finds it very hard to save any money, because he keeps having to spend it all on funerals.
Kissme and Daniel are two 'sandboys', who make their living diving for sand from the bottom of the Lagoon and selling it to the building trade. Between them they can fill two dumper trucks a day, collecting every grain of it by hand, with an old iron bucket.
As humans begin to come to terms with an increasingly urban future, this series offers unprecedented access and insight into the lives of just some of the millions of slum dwellers who are living at the sharp end of the fastest growing megacity in the world.
Broadcast on: BBC Two,
9:00pm Thursday 22nd April 2010
Duration:60 minutes
Available until: 9:59pm
Thursday 6th May 2010
Categories: Audio Described, Factual
Part 3 of 3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s8jx0/Welcome_to_Lagos_Episode_3/
This fascinating series continues to look at how people are adapting to modern city life in the 21st century by exploring the slums and ghettos of Lagos, Nigeria. More than 50 per cent of the world's population now live in cities, and that figure is expected to rise to over 70 per cent by 2050. The answer to where humanity could be heading might be found in the lives of the inhabitants of Lagos, one of the world's fastest-growing megacities.
For over six years, Esther has been living with her husband Segun in a house they built themselves from cardboard, scrap wood and tarpaulin on the beach in central Lagos. Every time the government sends its task force to bulldoze their village, she and the thousand or so other inhabitants soon pick up the pieces and build another one. Her best friend, Blessing, is about to give birth here and Esther is worried for her safety. But when she discovers text messages from another woman on her husband's phone, she suddenly has problems of her own to deal with.
Meanwhile, politicians in Lagos are planning sweeping changes to improve the infrastructure and attractiveness of Lagos. Part of their plan to turn it into a 'megacity' involves demolishing the slums, which house so many of its inhabitants. The film follows Sagede, a member of the newly established Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit, which targets illegal dwellings all over the city and clears away everything in its path.
Broadcast on: BBC Two, 9:00pm Thursday 29th April 2010
Duration:60 minutes
Available until: 9:59pm
Thursday 6th May 2010
Categories: Audio Described, Factual
The Tutu Talks | Are Women Strong Enough To Lead Africa
Archbishop Desmond Tutu brings together Africa's leading contemporary thinkers in a series of discussions exploring major issues and changes affecting the future of the continent.
Tutu asks his guests - Patricia De Lille, Pregs Govender, Mbuyiselo Botha, and Nomboniso Gasa - why women in Africa, despite years of struggle and hardship, still do not possess the same freedoms and rights as men.
Are arguments about cultural difference and tradition allowing brutal acts of oppression against women to be ignored or excused? Do men in Africa fear their identities or power will be eroded if women have greater equality? What does the political victory of Ellen-Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia tell us about the possibilities for real change?
Tutu asks his guests - Patricia De Lille, Pregs Govender, Mbuyiselo Botha, and Nomboniso Gasa - why women in Africa, despite years of struggle and hardship, still do not possess the same freedoms and rights as men.
Are arguments about cultural difference and tradition allowing brutal acts of oppression against women to be ignored or excused? Do men in Africa fear their identities or power will be eroded if women have greater equality? What does the political victory of Ellen-Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia tell us about the possibilities for real change?
Justin Fiske, South Africa
Take a look at the beauty Justin Fiske has created with pebbles and string.Art can be so powerful and the simpler the better but it's clear that Justin has taken an age to come up with his own beautiful solution: The joy of movement as he creates his Kinetic Sculptures down in Cape Town.
Check out his works:
http://www.justinfiske.com/videos/suspension/suspension-long.html
http://www.justinfiske.com/videos/trans-show/
Here is a poem Justin wrote that I like a lot:
Frame of Reference
There are days
when water feels like cream on your lips
& others when you have to try so hard
feeling only follows blood
or chipped tooth.
& it's not just a question of money
or love,
or ....how the light falls
as if those would be easy to accept an answer from
even if they offered
but it's in the line & the cadence & depth of the gasp;
how much slack the strings take for themselves
before life takes it up
wrenching us back into orientation
& dragging us deeper into memory
j.f. | 2010
Unofficial South African World Cup Posters Campaign
The Unofficial Posters by Joe Pollitt
I wanted to take elements that I found interesting from various themes, ideas or parts of Contemporary African Art and add them all together in order to make up as series of 3 posters for the Unofficial South African World Cup, 2010 Poster Campaign I am unofficially running.
I remember reading a story by Laurens van der Post about the 'Bushmen' of the Kalahari Desert down in South Africa. I was fascinated by the way they put each other into an altered state of mind in order to paint on the cave walls. They would gather together in the sand and collectively clap their hands and one member of the group would stand in the middle and shuffle his feet vigorously in the sand to stimulate his endorphins in his brain; after a short while he would collapse in a heap in the sand and be taken off by his friends to sleep and enjoy the journey of going into a deep trance. When he woke out of his deep slumber he would tell stories of half-human animal monsters he had seen and he would paint what he saw on the cave walls. The images often had grid-like patterns which are also seen in artworks, which are created under the influence of Opium. This grid-like pattern was also used by Nejib Belkhodja when creating his blueprints of the Medina's in the 80's and 90's in Tunisia and he was strongly influenced by Mondrain and Modernism.
Soly Cisse's early works are interesting to me as he painted small stories in tiles around the canvas and I wanted to echo that idea in the posters. The images should be seen as tiles on a floor. The style of the work should be like that created by Twins Seven Seven and Malagantana back in the 70's and hopefully the influence of their work can be seen in the posters too. I also wanted to try and use Hans Hofmann's, the American Abstract Expressionist and superb art teacher, and his ideas of 'Push and Pull Theory' in colour, which makes some of the tiles stand out more than the others because of the colours they are associated next to; this gives a virtual 3D effect to the work.
Saturday, 24 April 2010
The Role of Media in Africa | Sony Bravia by Fallon Ad Agency, UK.
Take a look at how advertising/commercials can create a great sense of identity for those without a strong sense of identity. Advertising could play an enormous role in defining who, what and how African countries would like to define themselves as. Globalization has already taken shape and commercialism and capitalism could be a great way to define nations as they create their sense of self. Products will be bought regardless but there is a great opportunity that is being lost, maybe on purpose in order to shape the world as one large vision of America or maybe because of budget restrictions or maybe because of laziness but regardless of all that the opportunity is there and countries should cease these opportunities. If people are prepared to buy the products on sale it seems only right that in the selling of the products the visual imagery should echo what is seen every day. I think every country in Africa should have an exciting "Prop Shop" for those interested in shooting in countries of Africa, whether for Commercials or for Feature Films and these "Prop Shops" should hold icons of how the country would like to be seen outside and also inside the countries. Full of contemporary artworks of National importance, like the works of Nejib Belkhodja, Abderrazak Sahli or Fatma Charfi when shooting commercials in Tunisia or works by Iba N'Diaye, N'Dary Lo and Soly Cisse when shooting in Senegal or works by Charly D'Almeida when shooting in the Republic of Benin or even have the visual artists as guest Directors on shoots or Visual Advisors of how their countries are represented. It seems strange that foreign Directors can come to a country and shoot whatever they like and therefore represent countries as positively or negatively as they see fit but each country has it's good side and bad side and the balance has yet to be struck in numerous areas of Africa. I see on my television reporters who land in an African country and within 5 minutes give detailed analysis on extremely complicated issues. What authority do they have and what real knowledge are they parting to the world? Robert Fisk and Jeremy Bowen are the two journalists I listen to when it comes to issues surrounding the Middle East as they have both dedicated their lives to the issues surrounding the region. I would be delighted if they were more African journalists prepared to commit themselves to countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and West Africa who had an indepth understanding of the nature of the people and places they were talking about. The same goes for areas in East Africa as Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.
East Africa is constantly seen as a land without people but plenty of animals but it seems hard that the animals get the lion share of that attention and those living in East Africa are virtually forgotten. There is creativity in abundance in all parts of the Continent but for some reason it is boiled down to a Continent seen as areas of great poverty, starvation, corruption, wild animals, brutal wars and migration, disasters and people in crisis but that is far from the every day experience. The Continent is being dehumanized in the eyes of the media and this factor must start to change and to some extent is changing but not everywhere.
For example South Africa could do something with Table Mountain to give the country a sense of identity and they have Lothar Bottcher playing with glass and ways of seeing differently mixed with the controversial artist in Tracey Rose, which should make for interesting viewing. Kenya has Peterson, Ingrid Mwangi and Beatrice and Maggie Otieno who are thinking for themselves and creating iconic imagery for the new Kenya evolving mixed with Mt. Kenya and Lake Victoria and Uganda has some of the best ceramists on the Continent and Tanazina has Fred Halla and Kilimanjaro, it would be great to see more positive imagery of black people who live in all the countries.
Where are the Superheroes and the cartoons? Where are Detective Novels, the Spy Stories, the James Bonds of Africa? Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda are full of writers, comics and creative people, so where are the books, cartoons, animations and films?
For example: There is a man in Gabon who most certainly should be made into a cartoon hero for his efforts supporting the rainforest, Marc Ona Essangui - Maybe the Sun Newspaper in Lagos could support a team of writers and cartoonists to create stories about this man for their Newspaper?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/20/rainforest-activist-goldman-prize.
Cartoons should be made of this man, Rainforestman or something like that or a sensitive feature film created by Cameroon film directors. Real opportunity lies in Africa, not just in the minerals and resources but the real gold, the people of Africa.
Take a look at these commercials, which are some of my favourite and see how the ad agency and production company have cleverly blended iconic imagery with art and then slapped a brand name to the imagery. Simple ideas really.
NYC
San Francisco
UK
Spoof
Cairo
India
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Fcnzam_R9c4&feature=related
India 2
East Africa is constantly seen as a land without people but plenty of animals but it seems hard that the animals get the lion share of that attention and those living in East Africa are virtually forgotten. There is creativity in abundance in all parts of the Continent but for some reason it is boiled down to a Continent seen as areas of great poverty, starvation, corruption, wild animals, brutal wars and migration, disasters and people in crisis but that is far from the every day experience. The Continent is being dehumanized in the eyes of the media and this factor must start to change and to some extent is changing but not everywhere.
For example South Africa could do something with Table Mountain to give the country a sense of identity and they have Lothar Bottcher playing with glass and ways of seeing differently mixed with the controversial artist in Tracey Rose, which should make for interesting viewing. Kenya has Peterson, Ingrid Mwangi and Beatrice and Maggie Otieno who are thinking for themselves and creating iconic imagery for the new Kenya evolving mixed with Mt. Kenya and Lake Victoria and Uganda has some of the best ceramists on the Continent and Tanazina has Fred Halla and Kilimanjaro, it would be great to see more positive imagery of black people who live in all the countries.
Where are the Superheroes and the cartoons? Where are Detective Novels, the Spy Stories, the James Bonds of Africa? Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda are full of writers, comics and creative people, so where are the books, cartoons, animations and films?
For example: There is a man in Gabon who most certainly should be made into a cartoon hero for his efforts supporting the rainforest, Marc Ona Essangui - Maybe the Sun Newspaper in Lagos could support a team of writers and cartoonists to create stories about this man for their Newspaper?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/20/rainforest-activist-goldman-prize.
Cartoons should be made of this man, Rainforestman or something like that or a sensitive feature film created by Cameroon film directors. Real opportunity lies in Africa, not just in the minerals and resources but the real gold, the people of Africa.
Take a look at these commercials, which are some of my favourite and see how the ad agency and production company have cleverly blended iconic imagery with art and then slapped a brand name to the imagery. Simple ideas really.
NYC
San Francisco
UK
Spoof
Cairo
India
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Fcnzam_R9c4&feature=related
India 2
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