Plot: An historic trial is taking place in a residential courtyard in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. African citizens have taken proceedings against such financial institutions as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, whom they blame for perpetuating Africa's debt crisis.--Amazon.
Indigokafe: Portal for African Literatures, Writers and Films
The Call of the River Nun
By: Gabriel Okara
I hear your call!
I hear it far away;
I hear it break the circle of these crouching hills.
I want to view your face again and feel your cold embrace; or at your brim to set myself and inhale your breath;
or like the trees,
to watch my mirrored self unfold and span my days with song from the lips of dawn.
CafeAfricana is about Culture, Arts, News, Lifestyle, Politics, and Community.
Moolaade 2004
A film by Ousmane Sembene
Plot: The final film from African cinema's founding father, Ousmane Sembene, MOOLAADE is a potent polemic directed against the still-common practice of female circumcision. Though the subject matter may seem weighty, this buoyant film is anything but - Sembene places the action amid a colorful, vibrant tapestry of village life, employing an imaginative array of emblematic metaphors, mythic overtones, and spirited songs.--Amazon
Graphics
Camwood at Crossroads: By Femi Euba
Book Description:
A philosophical novel about exploitation, in particular the evangelical factor. Olumofin, a Nigerian Attorney now living in the US, stands at the intersection of culture-crossings implicating the fate of his African identity within the American world, especially that of his intended intimacy with an African-American Creole. In an attempt to come to terms with the past, initiated by present criminal currents in the news media regarding the depraved religious practices of his estranged father, he unleashes, through shifting thought processes that cross from Lagos to New Orleans, the demons of exploitation (humorous as well as tragic) that have defined his colonial upbringing and the cross-cultural paths of his future African-American in-laws.
About the Author:
Professor of Theatre and English at Louisiana State University. Practicing playwright, director, actor and a scholar, Femi Euba received an MFA in Playwriting and Dramatic Literature, and an MA in African-American Studies from Yale, and a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Ife in Nigeria. His plays include the award-winning The Gulf, The Eye of Gabriel and several radio plays for the BBC Radio. Although he began writing short stories at an early age, Camwood at Crossroads as his first novel unreservedly adds fiction to his literary output as a creative artist.
"Highly Recommended! The novel Camwood at Crossroads is a tapestry of words akin to the art-house films of Krzysztof Kieslowski....A superbly written novel, lyrical, and descriptive."--Editor, Indigokafe and Cafeafricana.com
Gbemi Olujobi: A Teacher, Her Girls And A Lifetime Of Excellence
The Tyranny of the Majority: Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy by: Lani Guinier
Product Description:
Like most Americans, President Clinton hadn't read Guinier's controversial academic writings when he nominated her to the position of assistant attorney general for civil rights. Now, with the publication of this collection of essays, a larger reading audience will have an opportunity to learn more about her views on voting rights. Guinier discusses the dilemma facing a democracy when a minority's own interests are consistently blocked by an electoral majority. While espousing a notion that is as simple as Robert Fulghum's admonition that we take turns, she also proposes complex remedial alternatives ranging from interest-based electoral districts to cumulative voting. As with many collections of previously published writings, the individual chapters don't all fit together. This is a difficult and controversial book, full of murky ideas and writing, but it should be as widely read as possible because the success of our democracy requires the discussion of ideas.-- Jerry E. Stephens, U.S. Court of Appeals Lib., Oklahoma City --amazon.com
At last...the public hearing she was denied...These essays reveal keen powers of analysis applied to some of the most obdurate problems that bedevil electoral politics. Anyone who cares about the mechanisms of democracy should be engaged by her tough-minded explorations. It doesn't matter where you think you stand: it's all here, to argue or agree with.-- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Lani Guinier's fascinating book is a prophetic intervention into a public conversation we desperately need to rejuvenate. There is no doubt that her powerful voice will produce good consequences for our nation and world-- Cornel West, Author of Race Matters
Intriguing and desperately needed...- The San Francisco Chronicle
Image: Unknown artist
Jessye Norman: Aria from Samson and Delilah
News
Watching Wole's return to Biafra
"Forty years ago, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka travelled to Nigeria's secessionist Biafra region to try and calm growing tensions. The visit saw him thrown in jail, forced to spend 22 months in solitary confinement. Now he has returned to meet those who ordered his detention. The BBC's Mark Rickards accompanied him:
Finally, Soyinka is ready to challenge him about his imprisonment.
"Ah yes," exclaims Gowon. "You were my house guest."
Soyinka tells him of the solitary confinement, the hardship, and Gowon seems genuinely surprised. "I had no idea," he says.
Soyinka breaks the sombre mood with a flash of humour: "Let me tell you publicly, if the boot had been on the other foot, I would have slung your arse in jail much earlier."
As we leave, the two men embrace and there is a palpable sense of forgiveness and relief in the air."--BBC World.
Image: Unknown artist:
Genocide in Biafra 1967-1970
Books
Swallow: By Sefi Atta
Book Description:
It is the mid 1980s in Lagos and the government's War Against Indiscipline and austerity measures are fully in operation. Tolani Ajao is a secretary working at Federal Community Bank. A succession of unfortunate events lead Tolani's roommate and colleague, Rose, to persuade her to consider drug trafficking as an alternative means of making a living. Tolani's subsequent struggle with temptation forces her to reconsider her morality and that of her mother Arike's, as she embarks on a turbulent journey of self-discovery.
“In this unique novel, outstanding new literary talent Sefi Atta takes great strides in style and form, to bring wit and passion to the heartbreaking story of Tolani and Rose, two young women struggling, not always successfully to make an honest living in contemporary Nigeria...Atta tells in an eminently readable voice the irreconcilable nature of the two friends' fates.” – Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of Nervous Conditions
“Tender, fierce, vivid and memorable -- a bold, distinctive novel from a writer who doesn't compromise her integrity.” – Leila Aboulela, author of Minaret
“The bustle, chaos and fast rhythm of Lagos jump from the pages of Swallow, Sefi Atta's new book. It is fiction steeped in life.” – Veronique Tadjo, author of As the Crow Flies
“Sefi Atta has woven a quietly intricate powerful tale that pulls from problems of gender, class, and Lagosian life. It's a novel whose many colorful characters, compelling story, distinct place and turbulent time will stay with you long after you've read the last word.” – Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, author of Zahrah the Windseeker
“Sefi's Swallow is a triumph of the terse. It throbs with laconic intelligence and the veritable Sefi Atta denouement.” – Tade Ipadeola, author of A Time of Signs
About the Author:
Sefi Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She was educated there, in England and the United States.
A former chartered accountant and CPA, she is a graduate of the creative writing program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Her short stories have appeared in journals like Los Angeles Review and Mississipi Review and have won prizes from Zoetrope and Red Hen Press. Her radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC. She is the winner of PEN International's 2004/2005 David TK Wong Prize and in 2006, her debut novel Everything Good Will Come was awarded the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.
She lives in Mississippi with her husband Gboyega Ransome-Kuti, a medical doctor, and their daughter, Temi.---www.sefiatta.com
"A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us." — Franz Kafka.
Links
Life on Earth (1998) Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
Film Description:
"On the eve of the year 2000, Abderrahmane Sissako, a Mauritanian filmmaker living in France, goes home to visit his father in a small village in Mali. At the post office, he encounters a young woman. A relationship develops, while on the streets of the village, daily life goes on peacefully and unchanged as a new millennium arrives."--Amazon
"Enchanting."--Editor, Cafeafricana
Yo-Yo Ma plays the prelude from Bach´s Cello Suite No. 1
Poetry
Wole Soyinka: Abiku.
Also: Olayimika by Toyin Adewale, Ode to James Baldwin: By Andrene Bonner, Black Woman: By Leopold Sedar Senghor, Requiem: 5: By Wole Soyinka, Love Apart: By Christopher Okigbo, Art Santuary: By Nikki Giovanni, Olokun: By J.P. Clark.
Charlie Rose - Judy Woodruff & Mike Allen / Wole Soyinka...
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer.
'Born in Springs, South Africa, 20/11/1923. Daughter of Isidore and Nan Gordimer. Has lived all her life, and continues to live, in South Africa.
Principal works: 10 novels, including A Guest of Honour, The Conservationist, Burger's Daughter, July's People, A Sport of Nature, My Son's Story and her most recent, None to Accompany Me...'-Nobelprize.org. Image:From Nobelprize.org-unknown artist. Courtesy of Nobelprize.org..
Exclusive Interview
M.K. ASANTE, JR.
Exclusive Interview with Poet, M.K. Asante, Jr.
Q: What is central to your poetry?
A: Struggle is central. I struggle to write, grapple with ideas, and fight with the pen. For me this is the only way. The poet Lamont Steptoe once told me that if I’m not struggling with my work, then I’m wasting everyone’s time – mine own included. So there is a genuine sense of struggle there. Another thing which I hold central is the duality of being alive. The title speaks to this to some extent; the dual nature of existence. It can even be related to Duboisian idea of Double Consciousness.
Image: Courtesy of M.K. Asante, Jr.
For more information on M.K. Asante, Jr., visit www.asante.info.
Denyce Graves sings the Habanera from Carmen
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.
'Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a Nigerian feminist who fought for suffrage and equal rights for her countrywomen long before the second wave of the women's movement in the United States. She also joined the struggle for Nigerian independence as an activist in the anticolonial movement'--Odim and Mba.
Leontyne Price "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess
Events Calendar
Jessye Norman @ UCLA
Jessye Norman The American Song & The French Melody
Mark Markham, piano
“This is an amazing voice, a catalogue of all that is virtuous in singing.” – The New York Times
One of those once-in-a-generation singers who has never followed in the footsteps of others, soprano Jessye Norman continues to build upon her own rich legacy as she brings joy, passion and her opulent sound to innovative recital performances and operatic portrayals around the world. “The immensity of her voice struck like a thunderbolt,” wrote The Jerusalem Post . “It was like an eruption of primal power.” A 2006 recipient of the Grammy Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award, Norman returns to Royce Hall after a breathtaking sold-out performance in 2005, performing an uplifting program exploring the French and American songbooks, including works by Ravel, Poulenc, contemporary French American composer Richard Danielpour and George Gershwin..-UCLA Live
'Nigerian television producer, writer of satirical novels, children's tales, and plays. In 1994 Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned by order of the dictator Sani Abacha. He had strongly defended the rights of the Ogoni people and criticized the government's oil policy with Royal Dutch/Shell. Despite wide international protests, Saro-Wiwa was hanged after a show trial with other eight Ogoni rights activists in Port Harcourt, on November 10, 1995'--www.kirjasto.com
'My lord, we all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginilization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory.'--KEN SARO-WIWA'S CLOSING STATEMENT TO THE NIGERIAN MILITARY APPOINTED TRIBUNAL. Photo: unknown artist.
Films
The Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Abderrahmane Sissako was born in Kiffa, Mauritania, in 1961 and raised in Mali, his father¹s homeland. When he returned to Mauritania in 1980, the emotional and financial difficulties of adjustment made him turn to literature and film. A study grant allowed him to attend the Institute of the University of Moscow. Le Jeu (1990), first presented as a graduation assignment, won the prize for best short at the Giornate del Cinema Africano of Perugia in 1991. In 1993, Octobre was shown at Locarno and won prizes the world over. His latest film, Waiting for Happiness , was screened at Cannes 2002 and was winner of the FIPRESCI award for best film in the Un Certain Regard section. It was also shown at the New York Film Festival in 2002 and won the Grand Prize at FESPACO in 2003.--Through African Eyes.
"Abderrahmane Sissako (BAMAKO) has established himself as one of Africa's leading filmmakers. This hypnotic tone poem confirms Sissako's talent for capturing the essence of a particular place through evocative imagery, low-key comedy, and close observation of everyday life. In this case, the place is a spectacularly isolated, wind-scoured cluster of adobe buildings perched on a bleached desert plain that ends abruptly at the blue ocean. The lives of its inhabitants, in keeping with this austere environment, are pared down to two basic choices: adaptation or exile. In the latter category is Abdallah, a citified college student who temporarily returns home and, unable to speak or dress like a native, becomes painfully, comically alienated. Opposed to him is Khatra, an alert, curious boy apprenticed to the wizardly local electrician, who demonstrates how apparent oppositions (such as magic/technology, globalization/village life) might be reconciled through improvisation and patience. The precision of Sissako's compositions evokes Antonioni and Ozu, but the loose narrative structure is closer to Altman and Wenders. WAITING FOR HAPPINESS spins its overlapping stories and intersecting characters into a prismatic cascade of enigmas, epiphanies, deadpan gags, and haunting images. J. Hoberman of THE VILLAGE VOICE described the film as 'refreshing as welcome as a cool breeze on a summer afternoon' and David Parkinson of EMPIRE declared 'it's impossible to remain unmoved.' --Amazon.com
Films: Waiting for Happiness, Bamako, Life on Earth....
"A Great Filmaker."--Editor, Cafeafricana
Image/Photo:Unknown artist.
Waiting for Happiness: Directed by Sissako
African Journals
Image:Writers 2008: By Funmi
"These men are not merely evil, I thought. They are the mindlessness of evil made flesh. One should not ever stumble into their hands but seek the power to destroy them. They are pus, bile, original putrescence of Death in living shapes. They surely infect all with whom they come in touch and even from this insulation here I smell a foulness of the mind in the mere tone of their words. They breed themselves, their types, their mutations. To seek the power to destroy them is to fulfil a moral task."--Wole Soyinka. Excerpt from The Man Died (1972), Pg. 225: The Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka.
"It was a bit of a lie that universities were self-governing institutions. Nevertheless, what universities, suffered during the 1980s and 1990s was pretty shameful, as under threat of having their funding cut they allowed themselves to be turned into business enterprises, in which professors who had previously carried on their enquiries in sovereign freedom were transformed into harried employers required to fulfil quotas under the scrutiny of professional managers. Whether the old powers of the professoriat will ever be restored is much to be doubted."--J. M. Coetzee. Excerpt from Diary of a Bad Year (2007), Pg. 38.
Oliver Mbamara
The Conflict of Retaliation Versus Forgiveness
Life is filled with variable circumstances and differing perspectives, hence man will always differ with one another in many ways. Therefore, is it not folly to think that life will always go along smoothly among people of different background and orientation? Whether we find ourselves together in a relationship, business association, partnership, or in any other circumstance as momentary colleagues or partners, we could have the best of times while they last by realizing that the other person or entity may not be perfect and may sometimes offend us or differ from our perspective. And even if such difference causes one's relationship to end, we could still move on with life by forgiving the other person or entity. That means exchanging pleasantries if we run into each other next time. That means not going around damaging the reputation of an “ex-…” just because we broke up. That means letting the other person move on so we can also move on. That means not conspiring to topple or destroy the other person or entity just because we disagree. That means not wishing the other person or entity any ill just because our personal or business relationship did not workout. But again, it is all a matter of choice, yet the fact remains that these things have a way of going around and coming around.
Yes, the theory of forgiveness simply remains a theory to many of us because we are yet to summon the courage to forgive and let go our guilt, resentment, or bitterness. We find it hard to dwell on the good times and play down the bad times. Yet, there is little or nothing to gain by going around singing and dwelling on bad times or planning to bring more evil times on another. Life can always give us more goodies if we learn from the past, look forward to the future, while making the best of the present. If one desires peace and love, one must forgive the falling of the cup and rather pick it up, and hold it up to the constant flow of the blessings of life and love which is naturally devoid of vengeance. It is never too late. I am working on this.
About the Columnist:
Oliver Mbamara is originally from Nigeria, and is presently an Administrative Law Judge with the State of New York. He is a published poet, actor, and perfomer.
To contact Oliver Mbamara: Call him at 718-617-6077
Capt. Mbaye Diagne
Capt. Mbaye Diagne
He was a hero.
'From literally the first hours of the genocide, Capt. Mbaye simply ignored the U.N.'s standing orders not to intervene, and single-handedly began saving lives.' PBS "Ghosts of Rwanda'. Photo: Unknown artist: Courtesy of PBS.
Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Documentary
African Music
African Music Around the World...Research, Library, Archives....
Haruna Ishola, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Yusuf Olatunji, Miriam Makeba, Agidigbo, Apala, Madam Comfort Omoge, Madam Mujidat Ogunfalu, King Sunny Ade, Angelique Kidjo.... Photo: Unknown artist
Jazz Legends
John Coltrane
''John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina in September, 1926. John played both clarinet and alto saxophone as a child, and in the early forties would serve as a clarinetist in the U.S. Navy marching band. In 1945, Coltrane moved to Philadelphia, where he would begin his professional music career. Over the next decade Coltrane would play with such artists as Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Earl Bostic, Johnny Hodges, and even Charlie Parker. In 1955, Coltrane had switched to tenor sax and would join the legendary rhythm section in the Miles Davis Quintet. His stint with Miles Davis would characterize his career to come. Coltrane was misunderstood, seen as eccentric or weird.'Atlantic Unbound 1987.--Internet
Photo: Unknown Artist.
"Fantastic"--Cafeafricana.
Miles Davis and John Coltrane: So What
Classical Music
Akin Euba
"Akin Euba was born in Lagos, Nigeria on April 28, 1935 and spent his early years there. He is a member of the Yoruba ethnic group. His biography is Akin Euba: An Introduction to the Life and Music of a Nigerian Composer by Joshua Uzoigwe. It is a 1992 publication of the Bayreuth African Studies Series, edited by Prof. Eckhard Breitinger. It explains that his father was an amateur musician:
Akin Euba's father, Alphaeus Sobiyi Euba, was in his youth an active musician (although music was not his profession). He was a chorister at the Olowogbowo Methodist Church (now Wesley Cathedral) Lagos and also played the clarinet in the Triumph Orchestra, a Lagos dance band in which Fela Sowande (who later became internationally famous as a composer)was the pianist. Akin Euba's mother, Winifred Remilekun Euba, née Dawodu, was a teacher by profession."-AfriClassical.com
KATHLEEN BATTLE - KARAJAN (Frühlingsstimmen - J. Strauss II)
African Cooking and Recipes
"The African kitchen is traditionally outside or in a separate building apart from the sleeping and living quarters. By far the most traditional and to this day the most common sight in an African kitchen is a large swing blackpots filled with meat, vegetables, and spices simmering over a fire. The pot usually sits on three stones arranged in a triangle, and the fire slowly consumes three pieces of wood that meet at a point under the pot"--Africaguide.com. Photo: Unknown Artist
Wine of the Month:
1999 Duc de Saint Clair: Bergerac. Product of France.
Wine List: CafeAfricana.
1989 Domaine du Pesqier Grande Reserve. Product of France.
1998 Cabernet Sauvigno-Malbec Maule: Product of Chile.
1996 Lacryma Christi Del Vesuvio, Mastroberardion: Product of Italy.
Don't drink and Drive.
'Good wine is a necessity of life for me.'--Thomas Jefferson.
“By virtue of being human, each of us has the capacity to choose, to change, to grow.” – Eknath Easwaran
" I do not forget any good deed done to me, and I do not carry a grudge for a bad one."--Viktor E. Frankl,
Museums
Painting: Facing Streets Ahead by David Chinyama
'African art embodies one of humanity's greatest achievements--fusing visual imagery with spiritual beliefs and social purpose. Its technical achievements and artistic perfection bear witness to the creative ingenuity of its makers'.--NMAFA.COM.Painting: Lonely Boy by an African artist:
Country Profiles
From Algeria to Zimbabwe:
Libya: Murzuq castle, from which sultans of Fezzan once ruled, southern Libya
'Libya has it all: ancient cities of rare and exquisite splendour, the Sahara that you thought existed only in your imagination and the unmistakeable cachet of being ruled by one of modern history's most iconic figures, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.'--www.lonelyplanet.com.
Image:Unknown artist.
Seal: Don't Cry
Grants
Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Carnegie Corporation of New York is a general-purpose, grantmaking foundation established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie "for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding among the people of the United States." Subsequent charter amendments have allowed the Corporation to use 7.4 percent of its income for the same purposes in countries that are or have been members of the British Commonwealth. Overseas grants are currently concentrated in Commonwealth Africa. Grants in "noncharter" countries are occasionally made when their substantial purpose is the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding among the people of the United States.--Carnegie Photograph/Logo: Property and Courtesy of Carnegie Foundation of New York.
About Us
The main objective of CafeAfricana is to showcase the best of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora. CafeAfricana is about culture, arts, politics, news, community and lifestyle.
On DVD: City of God, Artemisia, Goya, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Belle Du Jour, 8 Women, Shall We Dance...
