ARV Swallows: Positive Ladies

"They thought we were just playing games. They would laugh at us and say, ‘How can women play football? Will you be good at it? How can you sick people play soccer?" Meria Kabudura, winger.

A group of HIV women in one of Zimbabwe’s poorest areas decide to form a soccer team in order to compete in a tournament. They want to fight stigma by proving to everyone that they can win the tournament’s trophy.

There are 1000 copies of the film about these women up for grabs. If you would like a copy of the film, peep this link. The principle is watch and share, watch and share so it'd be great if you watch it and donate it to a library or community centre so as many people as possible get to watch it.

WAfrica

fisttap AfricaIsACountry

This is the work of Sergei Mouangue, a Cameroonian living in Tokyo, Japan who has used African java prints to make fusion style kimonos.

From the youtube page:

The name WAfrica is a combination of the word for Japanese spirit, "wa," and Africa.

"In 2007, I experimented with Japanese kimono by producing them with African fabrics," says Serge Mouangue, who has been working in Tokyo for the past three years as a conceptual car designer for Nissan Motor Company. "After showing them to Japanese audiences, many people felt the resulting garment existed beyond boundaries it was neither Japanese nor African, it was part of a heretofore unknown world, a 'third aesthetic'."

A Cameroonian, Mouangue has produced his kimono in collaboration with Odasho, a 150-year-old Kyoto-based kimono maker. "I want people to experience the birth of totally new cultural dimensions," Mouangue says. "West Africa and Japan have never truly met when it comes to their historical traditions, thus with the WAfrica kimono, I realized that there is the possibility of creating something complete original a third aesthetic that is more than a simple blending of two existing cultures."

The New York magazine Paper says: "By highlighting the histories and beauty of the two (cultures), Serge Mouangue creates something glorious and sublime."

My Two Cents: The work is beautiful no doubt, but I'm reminded of Dr Ivan van Sertima (see African Presence in Early Asia) and even more, I'm thinking of Yinka Shonibare and what he's doing with his art. The notion of one creating something 'new' is something I tend to avoid making claims to and co-signing on (although at times I do), but I think Shonibare makes the point, very clearly in his work that African textiles are borrowed, no kultcha is authentic - even that to which we fervently cling to as the real mccoy is borrowed or modified through intercultural encounter, be it violent or peaceful. Some of the java print patterns are sourced in Holland (I'm sure peops from the Big A have seen the name Vlisco on chitenges (the printed cloths) - it's a Dutch company). They are also printed and exported from the UK and on-the-cheap; Thailand and Malaysia then they are sold in the markets from Lusaka to Victoria to Accra to Bamako. So if we're talking about Asian and African textiles we're actually talking about global appropriations coming together to make something seemly authentic fuse with another globally appropriated kultcha. Africa and 'the Far East' have had many cultural exchanges at many historical periods, but perhaps not in a contemporary form such as this, so yes Serge Mouange brings summin' phresh to the game - maaad props to him. From the perspective of a cultural critic there is much to be said about how this work symbolizes the implicit and explicit intimate connections of people.

Fashionistas of The Congo!

The word “Sapeur” is derived from SAPE, an acronym for the movement itself, Société des Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants. The word sape, perhaps not accidentally, also means “to dress with elegance and style” in French. The roots of this male movement can be traced back to 1920s and 30s when the first privileged Congolese who had spent time in France returned with wardrobes of dapper suits. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s and 70s that the cult of style really took off, thanks to musician and singer Papa Wemba.


Multiple trips to Paris in the early 1980s only fueled his fever for French fashion, and Papa Wemba soon developed a flamboyant, exaggerated style that was in direct opposition to the Mobutu-approved uniform, the dreaded abacost (from the French “à bas le costume,” or “down with the suit”), a dull Zairean version of the three-piece suit. He called his new style Ungaru, and it was a throwback to the elegance of the 1930s—complete with tapered trousers, brogues, neatly trimmed hair and tweed hats worn at a rakish angle. For Congolese all over the world, the look was irresistible. SAPE was born.

A Sapeur, by definition is a non-violent person, despite the 3 civil wars that have taken place since the independence. They stand for an exquisite morality, but as they say “There can only be Sape when there is peace”. They represent an illusion that has been supported by the government itself, trying to normalize a post-war situation. The SAPE interrupted its activities when the civil war started in 1997, and did not reinitiate its activities until 2002. Their motto became “Let’s drop the weapons, let us work and dress elegantly.”

Old school Sapeurs often spent years saving up for outfits.They started out by renting or borrowing suits from their more established peers. However, many of the new generation don’t like to wait that long, and they’re not so fussy either when it comes to sources of income to fund their passion, as Edmund Sandars reports:

"Indeed the great Papa Wemba himself needed more than concert fees and album royalties to pay for his stylish gear. It is obvious that there is an inconsistency between the way they live and the way they dress.” Even wealthy Papa Wemba had to resort to tricks to keep himself in Cavalli—soliciting money for working the names of fellow sapeurs into his songs and, recently, charging upwards of US$4,000 for smuggling Congolese men and women into Europe disguised as members of his band, which led to his arrest in France in 2003 (whereupon there were riots in Kinshasa)."
Within the SAPE movement there are rivalries and affiliations. Paris vs Brussels, Brazzaville vs Kinshasa, Bacongo vs Mungali. It is total fashion warfare. The rules of engagement also differ from gang to gang. The Brazzaville Sapeurs tend to follow the three colours only rule. Meanwhile in Kinshasa it’s all about going overboard. Sapeurs don’t dress up all the time either. “Fight days” are limited to once every week or so, and the combat arenas are the local outdoor bars on Avenue Matsoua.

Ironically Papa Wemba converted to Christianity whilst serving his prison sentence. He is no longer an advocate for 5,000 dollar suits. A number of his contemporaries now also express sadness at having spent so much money on SAPE. King Kester Emeneya lamented, “I really regret it. We set a bad example. If I had invested my money instead, I would own several houses. It was like a drug.”

However, judging by the amount of Paul Smith suits on display at club La Main Bleue on Sunday nights, the younger devotees have no intention of turning their backs on the “cult of the cloth”.

pic by Daniele Tamagni

Words from AfricaFeed.

Pics jacked from Héctor Mediavilla Sabaté who has been studying and photographing the Sapeurs since 2003. 

Please checkout his amaaazing pictoral collection here,

pity blogger won't let me post Adobe flash pix.

Mos Dub

Max Tannone has mashed up Mos Def's greatest hits with classic dub choons.

This is the SICCCKEST mashup I've heard in a loOOng time, had it on repeat since copping it two days ago.

Get Your Free Download Here, 

Also checkout the

Jaydiohead (Jay Z + Radiohead) mashup,

five of Jay's tracks remixed into the phreshest alternative sound!

(Reckoner's Encore is my current fav'rit)

In Dope Music WE Trust!

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Fros in Fashion

These hairstyles are the genius of Angela Plummer, a London based hair stylist and photographer whose done some phenomenal work in TV and the fashion industry.

Here's the link to her site ALL fashionistas should mos' def checkout.