Just So You Know Who The Daddy Is*

*said by @tomgara

If there should ever be a global resource war, now that India and China have joined the West in looting investing looting what they can in Africa, you know whose got the big guns. But as we know, having the big guns doesn't necessarily translate to assured victory.

FYI from The Economist:

ON JUNE 8th China's top military brass confirmed that the country's first aircraft carrier, a refurbishment of an old Russian carrier, will be ready shortly. Only a handful of nations operate carriers, which are costly to build and maintain. Indeed, Britain has recently decommissioned its sole carrier because of budget pressures. China's defence spending has risen by nearly 200% since 2001 to reach an estimated $119 billion in 2010—though it has remained fairly constant in terms of its share of GDP. America's own budget crisis is prompting tough discussions about its defence spending, which, at nearly $700 billion, is bigger than that of the next 17 countries combined.

Slaving for Europe's Salads

While Germany's freaking out over the revenge of the killer 'cucumbers' (insert name of responsible vegetable when known), I thought it would be a good time to post this video from earlier this year. While countries may take steps to curb the spread of E-coli, will there ever be as much of an outcry over the living conditions of some of those who grow the continent's vegetables?

Street Life in (Conrad's) Lagos

This documentary was recently aired on Al Jazeera on the programme Witness, a weekly show that aims to 'bring new stories to light they showcase the talents of a new breed of multi-skilled, frontline journalist.'  Street Life in Lagos is made by Joe Loncraine and it focusses on two migrants from Benin who go to Lagos, Nigeria in search of  a better life. As slum tourism is the in-thing among documentary filmmakers on African cities, this one fits right in. It raises the usual questions of who is telling Africa's story, how and why? How are these Africans telling their story within this documentary, what is it's framing? How is Lagos the city, it's slums and it's inhabitants represented on screen? By the looks of things, not very well. Unlike some of the commenters on AJE's site or the upset multitudes on Nairaland, I think it's really great that these stories are being told and I have no problem with Nigeria or any other country's poor being given a platform to speak. However, when it becomes fashionable for the world's media to tell only one particular kind of story about a city and this becomes the perceieved major, singular narrative of a city, I think it becomes probelmatic and especially so when that narrative (with all due respect to the filmmaker) isn't presented well. A city has many complex, interwoven stories.

The act of giving of voice to stories -by making a film, writing a news article - is as crucial as the telling because the framing, context and intent etc is what also (not solely) gives meaning to a story, determines audience reception and what genre the story falls into. This feels like a cross between observational anthropology and poverty porn, because, despite the filmmaker's most likely good intentions, the film doesn't create a bond with Makoko or many of its people seen throughout the film - they're fleeting, sometimes dragging stories, but the glue that binds a viewer to a character/story somehow isn't there. It feels like you're meant to just get a glimpse and move on. In the role of anthropologist armed with a camera, the filmmaker gives no introduction nor political or social context to Makoko or Lagos - instead the (international) viewer is thrown in the deep end. As a documentary film concept it might be all edgy and stuff, but unfortunately it doesn't work here. 

After the protagonists have told their stories of migration, the anthropologist/filmmaker goes to the school (around 4:00) where poor, non-speaking, inquisitive children are filmed. No explanation nothing, onto the next scene. And so it goes: lots of stories belonging to nameless, ageless people whose characters and circumstance you never really get to know... If Wole Soyinka was outraged by BBC's documentary, Welcome to Lagos, I can't imagine how he'll respond to this. It's a million times worse. And unlike the BBC's one which had the sickest afrobeat soundtrack, this one doesn't have much of that. Instead it invites us to observe (not engage with) the poor slum dwellers of Lagos, all filmed from behind a Conradesque camera lens.

The Global Peace Index

Vision of Humanity has produced this year's global peace rankings. Not sure how this functions as a 2011 index when we're not even half-way through the year and things could look so different by October in places like Tunisia and Egypt (elections) and Southern Sudan could officially be a new country...or not. Depending on what happens in Abyei. From what I can see there seems to be no information on a number of small countries: Lesotho, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Benin, the Seychelles, Reunion Island, Cape Verde, Suriname, Djibouti, Mauritius and Western Sahara. Interesting to note how much the protests in the Arab World have influenced unrest elsewhere, but its still an unfolding story and so I'm not sure how far that can be used as a reliable measure for 2011.  Also, countries like Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria, in different transition stages from violence to stability so they too could look very different in another six months. I doubt whether Spain's protests were included here. Israel won't be too pleased to be 145 - eighth place from last, neither will America be happy at number 82 - below China at 80.  Zimbabwe's 140 - no big surprises there. I think we're now used to being ranked near the worst or not ranked at all in these things. 

But still this is a very, very useful resource, especially when looking at the economic and political factors (like press freedom, GDP, gender equality, internal and external conflict etc). These are used to indicate peace levels and these are also some of the motivating factors for the popular unrest seen in places like Burkina Faso, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen etc. (As we all know) For these people-led movements it's not only about toppling an oppressive regime, but people also want to build better, more peaceful and more equitable societies.

There's more information on the site,but here's the summary of findings from Vision of Humanity:

• The world is less peaceful for the third straight year
• Due to an increased threat of terrorist attacks in 29 nations
• A greater likelihood of violent demonstrations in 33 countries
• Arab Spring unrest heralds biggest ever change in rankings, Libya tumbles 83 spots
• Iceland bounces back from economic woes to top ranking
• Somalia displaces Iraq as world’s least peaceful nation
• Violence cost the global economy more than $8.12 trillion in 2010
• US peacefulness shows minimal change

Liberate Tate Shames BP

From Liberal Conspiracy: 

Yesterday at the Tate Britain [gallery in London], Liberate Tate (website) staged another of its headline-grabbing performative protests in the Duveens Hall of Tate Britain. A naked man lay down in the foetal position while several veiled figures covered him in an oil-like substance. The performance lasted for 87 minutes to commemorate the 87 days over which oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, beginning exactly one year ago today.

According to the Telegraph: BP spends over £1m per year sponsoring the Tate Britain, the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the National Portrait Gallery.

*** 

If the London School of Economics could be shamed into cutting ties with the Gaddaffi regime, then the same should apply to the Tate and BP- not just for environmental reasons but for political reasons too. Unsurprisingly it has big stakes in Libya. Up to $900m (£545m) worth of initial investment deals was facilitated by Tony Blair when he renewed British relations with the Brotherly Leader of the Arab Jamaharihya. BP also promised to invest up to £20 billion over the next 20 years, in 2009, at a time when 200 Nigerians were on death row in Libya for immigration offences (and later released after diplomatic intervention by the Nigerian government) while Libyan citizens faced persecution or repression for various acts of civil disobedience.


Following the Brotherly Leader's threat to nationalize all the oil fields, its in Britain and BP's interests to ensure the Libyan revolutionaries topple Gaddaffi. But can the Tate, as a site that hosts creative expressions of cultural and political resistance in Britain and the world (like Ai WeiWei), really be associated with a corporation that operates on a profits before all else policy?


(As for the British Museum, well its a place that harbors stolen items so more than just cutting ties with BP, it needs to return the stolen goods, like the Rosetta Stone, on which the museum markets itself as a repository of 'world history'.)

copyright Immo Klink

see more pics here.

Merry Christmas,

Love banksy

Do They Know It's Christmas in your local Louis Vuitton, Bono?

All credit to @AngryBritain on Twitter for the line. 

Background info if you don't know: Edun is an ethical clothing label was founded by Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson in 2005 to encourage trade with Africa, and in 2009 which Louis Vuitton took a 49% stake, hence Bono & Ali flossing with $1200 bags in the savanna in SA. Beyond the noise of how Edun assists Africa farmers in September of this year, Edun closed down their factories in Tunisia, Tanzania and Uganda and relocated to a factory...in China. Bono might just wanna change the strapline from Every Journey Begins in Africa to Everything is Made in China.

Dear Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Galleway & Sotheby's, Selling Stolen Goods is A Crime!

fisttap Naija Blog & Bombastic Elements

A 16th-century ivory pendant mask from the ancient city of Benin is to be put up for sale at Sotheby’s London. On 17 February 2011, the mask is to be auctioned for an estimated £3.5m-£4.5m (US $5.4m-$6.9m). The mask is said to have been belonged to the monarchy of Benin and was worn by the Queen Mother (Iyoba (Female) Oba  (Male)) as ceremonial headgear. Apparently there are four other masks from this era which are held in museums outside of Nigeria because well, they're world history and while this is 100% true, it is sometimes used as code speak for Mother Empire of the West can look after them better than not-yet-civilized, corrupt Nigerians. 

According to the advert for the sale:

The mask and the five other Benin objects will be sold by the descendants of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry Lionel Gallwey (in 1913 he changed his name to Galway) who was appointed deputy commissioner and vice-consul in the newly established Oil Rivers Protectorate (later the Niger Coast Protectorate) in 1891. He remained in Nigeria until 1902 and participated in the British Government’s “Punitive Expedition” of 1897 against Benin City. The faces of the five known pendant masks have been interpreted widely by scholars of Benin art as that of Idia, the first Queen Mother of Benin.

That the objects are described as belonging to a 'collection' are not considered stolen goods is disturbing, in the least and Jeremy Weate at Naija blog has picked up on the 'polite violence of the language.' Truth! The colonial exploit is described as some clean and legitimate process, absent of the violence that characterised the takeover of Benin which was it what the Punitive Expedition really was. This clever dressing up of things is reflective of a deeper inability within everyday citizen and media discourse that Britain has with accepting the truth of imperialism, it is not some glorious tale of journeys to 'exotic' lands and world domination, it is a long history of murder, pillage and plunder!!! I live very near to one of London's well-known museums named after an 'anthropologist' who had a 'personal collection' of stuff from Africa and south Asia that fills up two massive rooms equivalent to the size of two small halls. It's interesting that in it's brochures the museum the descriptions smoothly glide over how this vast collection was stolen...ahem, I mean acquired. After all the man had the distinguished occupation of being an anthropologist and explorer so it's perfectly natural for him to have had large 'personal collections' from the 'indigenous tribes' of Africa and south Asia.

But back to this matter of stolen property; the Galleway family are following precedent in setting their asking price at a few million quid because in 2007, an Oba bronze head stolen by another collector was sold for $4.7 million. Clearly, selling stolen goods is a very profitable business, but only when an auction house does it and when it belongs to a colonizer...ahem, I mean explorer. But fear not help/objection is on the way, the Financial Times has (sort of, impartially ...ahem) reported about it, Sahara Reporters in Nigeria are on the case and have a petition  going and some Nigerian bloggers are upset about it too. Apart from Naija blog mentioned above, Bunmi's take on the subject of returning or not returning stuff is that, while he appreciates that returning artefacts may not always be a good thing, he writes:
...I didn't hear the part where the Galleways said proceeds from the sale are going back to help develop Benin and raise the standard of living to the point where their museums and private collectors will be able to lovingly guard and care for million-pound artifacts and, perhaps, build a few art preservation and restoration schools as well.


Co-sign!!!


Now hopefully the Nigerian government will hear about this and care enough to make some noise along with the British government who should do the right thing and say something on this matter, maybe even ask The Met to have a word because if the theft of Jewish Polish paintings by Nazis is grounds for arrest* then surely a certain family has a case to answer.


*the the site where I found this story is quite content to advertise the 'sale' of the Oba mask...oh the irony.

True or False?

To perform December 18, 2010.

From ZimboJam:

Mary J. Blige is being brought into the country by Impeccable Events with the support of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. Representatives of Impeccable Events, Belinda Mutinhiri and Studio 263 Actress, Tinopona Katsande confirmed to The Zimbo Jam this afternoon that the show was going on.

“She’s landing on Friday, performing on Saturday and will be out of the country on Sunday,” said Katsande. “We are bringing her in particular in line with the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. If you Google her you will see that she has been through a lot of stuff. She’s a hero for many women.”

According to Impeccable Events, only the VIP tickets for her Zimbabwe show will be on sale in advance, at US$60. The other tickets will be on sale at the door on the evening of the concert at US$30.

...nice to know ZTA is making so much money that they can afford to bring Mary J. Blige. I'm not big on her, but I don't mind that she's coming, it'll be fun for those who go, but I have a little request for ZTA since they are evidently swimming in money; it'd be nice if you gave some of that money to the Ministry of Energy so we can have constant electricity and maybe a little cash to the Ministry of Education so teachers can be paid and schools properly funded and if there's still enough to round a little to the Ministry of Health so the country can afford to treat it's citizens. Oh and while Impeccable Events are splashing out on Mary J. could they also give a pot of money to the police services to send them on gender training courses so they don't disbelieve women when they come to report cases of abuse and the police themselves don't threaten to arrest every woman clubbing at night because it's assumed that during the festive season of December, a woman without a man at her side, going into a night club must be prostitute or a loiterer. It's not nice having to bribe the police not to arrest you for going out to party, what happens the night I'm broke? If Impeccable Events or ZTA could help in any way with this small matter before the 16 Days of Activism are over, it'd be much appreciated.

That is all, on with the show.

The Foot-in-Mouth President & Cabinet

"I don't want one like this one. She may fail to pass through the
 door, breaking furniture with her heavy weight
 and even break the vehicle's shock absorbers." 

That's Ian Khama, President of Botswana, commenting on one of his cabinet ministers when describing the kind of wife he'd like.

And I thought Ian Khama was a bore, turns out he's got quite a sense of humour. The image of a woman so heavy she can break a car's shock absorbers had me in stitches for a minute, but what's even funnier is that it's said by an almost 60 year old man 'bout to tip into the grave in a minute. Good luck with waiting on that Beauty Queen to come around,
I hope she can tell a joke or two about you, Sir.


This selection of quotes from a story on All Africa published today includes some real gems from members of Khama's Cabinet:
Speaking at the country’s largest diamond mine, President Khama accused the Bushmen of living a ‘life of backwardness’ ‘a primitive life of deprivation co-existing alongside wild animals’, and ‘a primeval life of a bye [sic] gone era of hardship and indignity’....

...Last month, speaking to the BBC, Botswana’s minister of environment, wildlife and tourism said he didn’t believe ‘you would want to see your own kind living in the dark ages in the middle of nowhere as a choice, when you know that the world has moved forward and has become so technological’. The vice-president has also been quoted as questioning why the Bushmen must ‘continue to commune with the flora and fauna’ when they could ‘enjoy the better things in life, like driving Cadillacs’.
(source: All Africa)

Well that's the Khoi-San told inn'it? I mean, why live in the bush, for centuries relatively unpoisoned by the evils of modernity, when there are Cadillacs to be enjoyed and the better things in life to be attained, courtesy of Khama's government, of course? I'm sure the natural ecosystem would be happy to get on without the 'primitive' Bushmen who could do with a bit of civilizing, eh? 

And to the poor, urban-dwellers of Botswana, you have been cheated by 'life'. As you are 'modern people' there is no reason why you should not have the best of what life has to offer so I encourage you to go in your numbers, go and line up at the Minister of Environment's office and demand your Cadillacs because that's what 'life' has to offer. Never you mind that Botswana has as many Cadillacs as I can count on my hands and toes or that BMWs, Toyotas and Mercedes Benzs are what you'd most likely see being driven by those who enjoy the finer things in life, while you poor folk have to fight with the government to get basic unimportant stuff like electricity, health and affordable education. 

 It's not that this rather hip Minister has watched one too many Snoop and Fiddy videos or that he forgets what  his ministerial duties towards the environment actually entail, he's just telling it like it is, homies. So, good people of Botswana, go and demand your Cadillac. It is a modern citizen's birthright!

#getrichordietrying.

Zanele Muholi: I Am Just Doing My Job

When multimillionaire businessmen like Kenny Kunene spend hundreds of thousands of rands on lavish birthday parties, where sushi is served from the half-naked torsos of compliant (and hopefully well-paid) models, they would probably expect criticism, and this is just what South African artist, Zanele Muholi (pictured lying on the table) has done.  The self portrait shows Muholi laid out on a table, representing one of the models at the party, while two women eat boerewors and offal off her naked torso. It is titled "I am just doing my job,"  after the response given by one of the models (and sushi servers) when asked what she thought about the whole event. In a macabre twist, the meat is placed on Muholi's body in such a way that it seems the women are eating her internal organs. 

This exhibition will be shown at the Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, S.A. as from Thursday 3 December 2010.

jacked from mg.co.za

foto credit: Robert Hamblin

Chipmunk Flying High

I dug this track when I first heard it a few weeks back, but after seeing the video, scraaaatch! Whoever produced this, must have been drunk having just come out of a heavy seance with the spirit of Joseph Conrad. Post-World Cup South Africa fever someone thought it wise to cast Chipmunk on top of Lion's Head, Cape Town and have what looks like Zulu dancers all around him whilst dropping phrases in Swahili. 

I really hope you have a map of Africa while reading this: Zulu - KwaZulu Natal on the eastern side of South Africa, Swahili - Central and East Africa, Lion's Head - in the most southern city in Africa. Some people, Africans included, would just pass this over and wonder what's upsetting me: well for a start, the continued misrepresentation of Africa as a monolithic space where cultures, languages and peoples are all melded into one. This image is constantly being produced and being profited because Africa is still packaged and consumed in the Heart of Darkness format no matter how many Chinua Achebes, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies and Binyavanga Wainanas 'write back' and deconstruct the myth, the parasitic profiteers just won't stop.

 Also it's one thing to show the traditional and natural side of Africa in a hip hop video, but it's quite another to continue to produce images of Africa as a place of eternal natural exoticism that holds Whiteness as the most valued. What's that about?

Chipmunk is still okay with me, but this video just sucks. I dump it in the same pile as Shakira and Akon ft Keri Hilson's nonsense during the World Cup Africa Fever.

BTW when it cuts to the dark haired girl, does he say dykie or am I mishearing?
...On the grime scene, I bet Lowkey's laughing at 'the industry's very own Amy Winehouse.'

What Would Jesus Say?

Banksy Mural in Islington, London (2008) Children Saluting the Tesco Supermarkets Empire.

As if imitating art, a former Methodist Church is now a Tesco Express in Westbourne, Dorset.

Get your Prayers, Ciggies and Lottery Tickets all in one go.

 Banksy fotocred: Paul Flannery