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Posted: May 16, 2012, 5:34 pm by Sokari
SCARF Magazine is that rarity: a collectable arts magazine produced annually that features ingredients that shouldn’t work but always do. Founded by artist and curator, Kinsi Abdulleh, under the umbrella group ‘Numbi’ (which means ‘healing dance’ in Somali), the magazine is collated by a small group of dedicated editors and artists, including acclaimed short story-writer and [...]
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Posted: May 15, 2012, 4:57 pm by Sokari
On the 28th 26th April, Zanele returned home from Seoul, South Korea to discover that all her work between 2008 and 2012 stored on 20 hard drives and including backups had been stolen on the 20th. The thieves also stole her cameras, lens, memory sticks and laptops. There are no words to describe Zanele’s feelings [...]
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Do not forgive me, I am nuanced. For to write a short review of a friend/publisher/editor/colleague’s book is to traffic in subjective subtleties; the kind that, incidentally, populates City of Memories, Richard Ali’s new novel and first book. I am thinking of courage. “Some books are acts of courage,” writes the Washington Post in response [...]
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Following the recent guilty verdict delivered to Charles Taylor [read my commentary here] I conducted a number of interviews in the Hague immediately following the verdict. To listen to the interviews, visit SOAS Radio
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Much has changed since I covered the first day of Charles Taylor’s trial for Pambazuka News on June 4, 2007. That day, he failed to show up to court, calling the case against him a “farce.” Today, he was in full view, stoic, resolute and somber. As I sat in the public gallery of the [...]
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Posted: April 20, 2012, 4:29 pm by Sokari
Shailja Patel writing in Pambazuka News responds to the shockingly brutalisation of African women’s bodies by the Swedish Artists Organisation – Lets be clear this action and the response by the artists in question does not stand alone. It should be studied closely in itself AND along with the growing acceptance of racism and racist [...]
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April 12, 1980 is often described as the beginning of Liberia’s end. I think of it as the preface to Liberia’s long, complicated biography, the beginning of our awakening. It was a day when our pomp and circumstance left a deafening echo; when we were all exposed, laid bear by the realization that being the [...]
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The fundamental principle underlying the right to a fair trial is that every individual is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. Hence no one individual should be treated like a criminal until a court of law has passed a decision declaring them so. Even if the circumstantial evidence points to the guilt of the [...]
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Military governments found their most marked expression on the African continent recording an unprecedented eighty-five violent coups and rebellions from the time of the Egyptian revolution in 1952 until 1998.Seventy-eight of these took place between 1961 and 1997. Undoubtedly, West Africa was the worst affected region and it continues to experience more coups, rebellions and [...]
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Posted: April 8, 2012, 2:31 pm by Sokari
Reality Check: Sexy Chocolate – M.I.A. While in retrospect, the films of the Blaxploitation era provided us with many cringe-worthy moments, they did contribute two things that can be viewed as positive. Black actors got work. And it was abundantly clear not only that Black was beautiful, but it was damn sexy to boot!Many a [...]
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Did you just cringe from this direct affront of a title? Then that might be the hypocrite in you, the sappy morality you probably incurred from a decent upbringing and/or religious beliefs. I am of a modest upbringing too: a good childhood, a roof over my head and parental censorship, one of which included my mother [...]
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NO HEALING HERE I recall October, 2000. There was a mild drought in Botswana. I also remember that there was a flood and Gaborone City had just suffered a minor earth tremor. All these unusual happenings were, according to the superstitious among my compatriots, clear signs that El Negro could not wait to come home [...]
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Posted: April 1, 2012, 2:31 pm by Sokari
Homosexuality is African | Thought Leader We have an enormous body of historical and scientific evidence for the existence of homosexuality in every culture on every continent and stretching back in time as far as the human record goes. Homosexuality may not be normal, but it is natural. The South African government should be lauded [...]
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Posted: March 31, 2012, 3:37 pm by Sokari
Originally published on Pambazuka News 21-03-2012 I haven’t watched the Kony 2012 video but I note it has just under 84 million hits in two weeks which is to be expected considering the noise around the Invisible Children project. I have nothing to add to the plethora of existing criticisms of the video [...]
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During President William Tubman’s Open Door Policy, Liberia was averaging double-digit growth rates. Being open for business, however, did not mean growth was open to all. In the 1960s, it was claimed that we had ‘growth without development’—economic activities from large-scale foreign concessions in iron ore, rubber, palm oil, and timber did not improve the [...]
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This is the second in the series on Somalia in which I discuss the UK conference on Somalia and the implications it might have for the future. My guests are Quman Jibril, a Somali independent research consultant who has a special interest in international refugee protection and advocacy; Mary Harper, BBC Africa Editor and author of [...]
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Is Africa changing? Is the politics changing? Are the people changing and are their demands for democracy and good governance becoming more solid? Are we finally claiming our space as the cradle of mankind and the beginnings of all civilisation? For years African citizens have suffered grave governance deficits at the hands of octogenarians who [...]
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Posted: March 25, 2012, 2:30 pm by Sokari
Pambazuka - Between 1904 and 1908 imperial Germany waged an atrocious and inhumane war of extermination against the Herero, Nama, Damara and San peoples in its former colony ‘German South West Africa’, now the Republic of Namibia. According to the criteria of the UN genocide convention of 1948, the atrocities and massacres committed by German [...]
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Posted: March 24, 2012, 12:34 pm by Sokari
March 22, 2012-PRESS STATEMENT / Immediate release from THE COALITION OF LGBTI* LIBERIANS AND ALLIES (CLA) and THE INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION When Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, recently expressed in an interview opposition for LGBT rights—especially decriminalization—and was vague about support for increased criminal penalties for [...]
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So, I was one of the cyberspace moralists that put in word for Okeoghene Ighiwoto, the now famous Nigerian patient who has been ‘saved’. How might one begin thinking of this matter in a post-salvation mode, now that we feel good, sigh gratefully, relish our success? But, as we find, success is often an imagined [...]
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Another coup in Africa. Another decision by an elite group of citizens to take the fate of millions into their own hands. Another threat to peace and security on the African continent. Well here is the thing; it all begins with such events, a coup, a rebellion, a mutiny. Then it gets prolonged and for [...]
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I continue my weekly series here on Black Looks about El Negro of Banyoles, the Southern African man who was stuffed like a human trophy and exhibited in Europe from 1830 to 2000 to amuse Europeans. Last week I received insightful comments from Sokari and Annie about the ‘love’ that Banyoles still says it feels [...]
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*This article was motivated by the call by Kubatana for Zimbabwean human rights activists to stand in solidarity with Munyaradzi Gwisai, and 5 of his colleagues who have been convicted for watching videos of the Egyptian Revolution in February 2011* The decision passed against Zimbabwe International Socialist Organisation leader, and my former lecturer at the [...]
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Posted: March 21, 2012, 12:44 pm by Sokari
Hopewell Gumbo talks about his arrest and that of five other activists all who were found guilty by the Zimbabwean government for ‘inciting public disorder’. Originally 44 activists were arrested and charged with treason. Their ‘crime’ watching and discussing a film on the Egyptian uprisings last February 2011. From this we know Zimbabweans are not [...]
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[For an insightful background into #SaveOke, see the images of Okeoghene Ighiwoto on Linda Ikeji’s blog,read Temitayo Olofinlua’s piece, and read Oke's story] Jason Russell and his cohorts have shown us how ‘viral’ suggests infiniteness, a geometric progression, an x. He gives us certain terms of reference, which when considered (mostly) at face value, we [...]
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Every state has a right to defend its sovereignty and national integrity-yes. Every state also has a right to protect its borders from infiltrators who are a threat to its national security-yes. In so doing, it is hence not only necessary but also prudent for any state to have immigration laws that regulate the ability [...]
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This week I discuss Somalia with Quman Jibril and BBC Africa editor and author of “Getting Somalia Wrong”, Mary Harper Listen to the show here
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Posted: March 18, 2012, 2:31 pm by Sokari
http://ccrjustice.org/LGBTUganda/#timeline Sexual Minorities Uganda v. Lively was filed under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), which allows for foreign victims of human rights abuses to seek civil remedies in U.S. courts. tags: uganda+homosexuality SMUG Homophobic Digital Activism | iRevolution The pace of tactical innovation and counter-innovation in Russia’s digital battlefield is stunning and rapidly converging to [...]
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We start this weekend with a continuation of our discussion about El Negro. Since El Negro’s display was of a dead body I will at this juncture expand the notion of hybridity we spoke about last week. I think we can expand the notion from binary form to include another element. That is to [...]
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Self-acceptance as the 18 transsexuals in this video blog attest is not a democratic choice. Rather it is an individual’s decision. These courageous people exlode a number of gender myths. Indeed, these are exciting time to be transgerder in Turkey but as is apparent on some of the faces some of us transsexuals fght daily [...]
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News released at the end of February that Liberia was on the cusp of an unprecedented oil discovery garnered much more than just praise and adulation. Listservs and websites lit up one by one with lightening speed. Liberians reacted like rabid bulldogs frothing at the mouth, barking at the Liberian government, oil giantsChevron, Anadarko, and the [...]
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Posted: March 11, 2012, 2:31 pm by Sokari
Boko Haram – more complicated than you think – By Richard Dowden | African Arguments Highlight tags: BokoHaram Nigeria The Haitian Blogger: UN Impunity in Haiti: Cholera Outbreak IS Criminal Negligence What this report fails to show is what “‘century” exactly did Haiti have a previous outbreak of cholera? It can’t since Haiti has never [...]
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Black, lesbian, transgender and “with a troublesome, gender expression” to boot! As if anyone needed to give a reason for being to anyone but themselves. If nobody else did, why ask it of me to do so? I don’t know what it is but I have been put upon more times than I care to [...]
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Posted: March 8, 2012, 1:33 am by Sokari
An excellent response to Invisible Children by Ugandan blogger Rosebell and very pertinant for her to speak on this International Women’s Day.
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Posted: March 8, 2012, 4:55 pm by Sokari
International Women’s Day is here once again and this time I decided to ask recent guest bloggers on Black Looks to write a few sentences on International Women’s Day and what it means to them. For everyone it was a day of honouring, celebrating, remembering and recognising the struggles of the past and preparing for [...]
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Posted: March 8, 2012, 11:36 am by Sokari
© The Haitian BloggerThe young journalist was not only devoted to his work but also to the community and the whole nation of Haiti. Those who were close to him remember Jean Ristil as courageous, humble and socially conscious. In the early hours of 29 February 2004, the democratically elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide [...]
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*I would like to sincerely apologise to those who follow my writings for my long absence. Among other things I have spent the past month focused on lobbying the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, (the CEDAW Committee) to, in its review of the state of Zimbabwe, take on board [...]
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Africa’s first post-independence president, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, urged colonial Africa to “seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else shall be added onto you.” Nkrumah was alluding to the biblical verse, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto.” He would later revise [...]
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Posted: March 7, 2012, 6:05 pm by Sokari
The Gift – a short story of womanhood, war, and forgiveness by Valerie Mason-John A beautiful story – just read it and see My name is Yei and I am the third daughter born from my father’s fifth wife. I was born in the district of Kono in 1960. My momma told me: “Yei, you [...]
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I continue where we left off last week with the story of El Negro, a Motlhaping man who was eviscerated and stuffed like a trophy animal and exhibited in Spain for the entertainment of Europeans. To first recap, we established a freak as “a person or animal on exhibition as an example of a strange [...]
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In a meeting last week, I made the point to my colleagues that Twitter was the greatest webtechnological innovation of our last decade. There was stifled laughter, mockery lingering in the faces of my listeners. I have re-contemplated that stance, each time coming to the same conclusion. It takes quite a lot of fiery compositional [...]
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Posted: March 4, 2012, 1:31 pm by Sokari
Illegal and Invisible: Sexuality, Identity and LGBT Rights in Liberia – By Stephanie C. Horton | IndepthAfrica Clearly, in times of chaos and anarchy, the vulnerable and powerless are always attacked. It’s a short step from there during a fragile peace to judgments like: “Who is causing the decay in society? Who is upsetting the [...]
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Over the next several weeks, I will be analyzing the phenomenon of human exhibition that was the trend of the day in 19th century Europe. I will do this with specific interest in the exhibition of the African body, and even more specifically the body of a Motlhaping man who came to be [...]
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“Black Gold: The Struggle of the Niger Delta” is a feature film written and directed by Nigerian filmmaker, Jeta Amata. Based on the film synopsis, Black Gold sounds fairly straightforward. A community protests against multinational oil companies and the Nigerian government but to little effect. Enter militants and war is declared. Its not possible to [...]
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Olaniran Osotuyi, one of my closest friends and colleagues, appeared before a court for the first time on Monday 27. Earlier, a few days earlier, another friend, Abimbola, had also made her first appearance. We were amongst a total of 3726 Lawyers that were called to the Nigerian Bar on Valentine’s Day. When Olaniran updated [...]
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An excellent article by Gary Younge in which he traces the struggles for marriage equality through first race and now through sexual orientation. Younge rightly emphasises that to compare the two struggles is not to equate them but there are parallels which are worth highlighting and he focuses on three of these. First, is the use [...]
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How to use media to amplify community voices – Knight Foundation Ethan Zuckerman told the hundreds gathered for Knight’s Media Learning Seminar that the sociological phenomenon of homophily — the tendency to gravitate toward people with similar traits — also governs our Web habits and online conversations. “We find the same ways to sort ourselves [...]
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Three Roads to Tomorrow – a BP promotional film uses three students from the three different regions of Nigeria to depict the transition from the past to the modernity – from colonial dependence to petro dependence. And the trains ran too. I even suspect there was electricity or at least there weren’t any generators. View the film [...]
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Wonderful to see these two inspiring young Africans engaging with each other on “the art of creating“. With Emmanuel, Donald and other artists like them, our future is set in motion EMMANUEL IDUMA: Is there some sense in thinking that being an artist cannot mean being just one thing? That creativity transcends technique or form? [...]
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In the continuing African election series, I discuss the intersection of politics and music in Senegal with Senegalese activists and artists. Listen to the show here
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Destroyed on 12thJanuary, 2010, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de L’Assomption remains majestic, it’s pink and cream walls towering over the city of Port-au-Prince. The Cathédrale is now open to the sky – a direct view to the mythical heavens. It remains a place of refuge to thousand of Port-au-Prince residents. In December 2010, I walked through [...]
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Kadialy Kouyate performs at TEDx the music of Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Gambia which dates back to the 13th century. One of the oldest instruments is the Balafon whilst the Kora is newer and dates back to 17th, 18th century when it became one of the main instruments of the Girots. Kadialy’s plays and sings [...]
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Pambazuka – Fuel scarcity and renewable energy option for Nigeria’s South-South The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, announced on its 7:00am network news of 14 February 2012, perhaps, as a Valentine gift to the people of Rivers State, that the nearly four days of painful experience of staying without fuel for transportation and power [...]
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A Piece of the Peace: Leymah, Please Speak Out for Human & Civil Rights for All Liberians Dear Leymah, Your courage is legendary. You are an icon in your own time for peace-building. In answer to a question about what worries you, you said: “The safety of my children and their future. The conduct of [...]
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The following Ugandan and African human rights organisations have condemned the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 20009: Ugandan Law Society. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposed to Parliament in 2009 would, if enacted into law, in its current state violate international human rights law and lead to further human rights violations. The bill has been received with mixed feelings [...]
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Via Sahara Reporters TV
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The anger is still in me. Pure rage at certain people for failing to understand diversity beyond their narrow subjective paradises at the expense of those they claim to support through their activism. I ought to have written these words after Oxford 2011. At the time I was still too raw to review myself never [...]
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Uganda’s Homophobic Parliament vs Concerned Spiritual leaders | Return of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill A renowned spiritual leader and outspoken proponent for fairness and justice, former Anglican Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo of West Buganda seems to think it is excluded. He said he is very disappointed with the return of the bill. The Bishop noted that [...]
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The best rendition of “Aint I A Woman” I have heard!
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In “The frightful development of this vice amongst the Natives”: Who says being queer is unAfrican?” Zackie Achmat traces the role of missionaries and the colonial state in the control and disciple of the African male body. He begins with a brief account of his own imprisonment at the age of 16 where he [...]
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Call for Papers: Murderous inclusions special issue Guest editors: Jin Haritaworn, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies Adi Kuntsman, The University of Manchester Silvia Posocco, Birkbeck, University of London Sexual citizenship is usually examined though the lens of inclusion – into rights, legal and political subjecthood – through sexuality. What has received less scholarly attention is the problem of [...]
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The Anti-Homosexuality Bill which was first introduced in 2009 and included the death penality has been tabled for debate in the 2012 parliamentary session. The Bill which did not get a reading in last years session is carried over. The Bill is being read in it’s original form and it is unclear whether it will [...]
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Listen to the podcast here
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I was sitting amongst a bunch of teenagers in an internet café when the things I observed inspired this article. I peeped at the screens of the computers they were using and made some interesting observations. Two were playing games. One was hiding his screen and from the corner of my eye I saw naked [...]
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How do you lie dead for three years in a London flat? In 2006, a 38 year old black woman, Joyce Carol Vincent was found dead or rather her skeleton sitting in front of a stlll blaring TV, wrapping Christmas presents. She was wrapping presents. She had lovers, friends even family. How did this happen? [...]
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The house in the middle of our street is open again… Why are the windows so wide open? Been round back? Why? What’s happened round back? Tell what, Gems? We were hanging out on our veranda trying to see trying What were you trying to see? Happened round back? What? What happened? Laughter, suspense, alright! [...]
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Born in Monrovia, Liberia, Robtel Neajai Pailey is an activist/writer who spent her formative years in Washington, D.C. Robtel moved to Liberia in July 2007 to work in the Office of the President, Republic of Liberia, as special assistant for communications, where she was engaged in speech writing and managing the Office of the President’s [...]
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“Pray the Devil Back to Hell” Robtel Pailey interviews the cast and members of the production team. The film is available in full on PBS along with four other films in the series “Women War and Peace“. Listen here
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Cannot wait for this……………. Scheduled to make its world premiere in the Panorama Documentary section is Dagmar Shultz’s Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 is an untold chapter (the Berlin years) of the late writer, poet and activist, Caribbean child of immigrants from Grenada, who died rather young at 58 years old in 1992. Specifically, the [...]
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Thoughts on Boko Haram Consider the danger of infinite silence. They come to us in the name of God, for evil has taken the guise of virtue. They say they are speaking a collective language, premised on restating the religious utopia created by their prophet. Their prophet. Clearly, their God and their prophet are imagined. [...]
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David Kato was bludgeoned to death on January 26th 2011 in his home in Kampala Uganda. He was an out gay Ugandan LGBTI activist and human rights defender and security officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda [SMUG]. I knew him personally for just over one short but intense year and in that time I came to [...]
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Former South African President,Thabo Mbeki has criticised the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill [AHB] in Kampala. Mbeki was speaking in response to a question by academic activist, Sylvia Tamale on what he would say to “Mr Bahati about the plight of a lesbian woman seeking recognition of her divergent sexual orientation”. Thank goodness there are still pockets [...]
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I was excited to come across [Via Shadow and Act] “Say Grace Before Drowning” a film by Sierra Leonean/American Nikyatu Jusu. The film tells the story about a woman’s struggle to overcome the insanity of war as she tries to adjust to a life in exile. Whatever positive expectations Grace had about her new life, [...]
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Something dies in you. You feel disconnected from your dream of a glorious aftermath. For the first time in your life you felt whole, framed within a bigger picture. You spoke, chanted, demanded. You were a witness, you and a million others. You were a revolutionary. Now things have returned to normal. Normal because there [...]
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KSW reminds us of a struggle Nigerians have largely ignored or at best dismissed. The Nigerian media [pre social media] has to take major responsibility for the lack of information and analysis no doubt bullied as usual by military and pseudo military governments including Goodluck Jonathan’s. He reminds us of our right to stand up [...]
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Don’t do that in the name of helping me You felt me up felt me up felt me up felt That was the first time you felt me up As I looked on you felt my upper arm up Again! What happened to my boundaries? Again! That was the second time again How would you [...]
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“La résistance est une forme de collaboration” – Albert Camus There are no groupings in my head. I am not being spoken for. No one will speak for me if I do not speak for myself. Tell this to those who have formed groups and begotten labels in my name: I will join you if [...]
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You tell me that if I speak I will not be heard. No. I will speak and I will be heard. I am not a writer only by talent. I am a writer because I want to be a witness, a real witness. You recall Edward Said, “There was something wrong with how I was [...]
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Three excellent insightful articles by Nigerians on Nigeria with my brief comments. “People In The Niger Delta Now Recognize That Jonathan Is A Waste Of Time” – Isaac Osuoka Issac Osuoka is a long time environmental and social justice activist from the Niger Delta and a founding member of the IYC and more recently Social [...]
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First published on The Mantle I am making a list of small wonders, and it is five months long. In my work as Publisher and Managing Editor of an electronic literary magazine based in Nigeria, I have learned to listen closely for the sound of things to come. It is evident and without doubt that the [...]
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I have had two visits to Haiti in the past 12 months, for a month in November/December 2010 and a week in October/November 2011. Nearly a year apart in time but with very little improvement. Ah yes, a three mile stretch of the road to President Martelly residence is now paved and parts of the [...]
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Documentary series explores the complexities of racism and colourism in Central and South America! “Who do you think you’re kidding – you ARE Black”, “You aren’t really Black”, “You’re mixed race / half caste / mestizo / mulato”, “Actually you’re white”. Reminds me of the “UnAfrican” conversation, an essentialist notion of blackness where people are [...]
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Miles Davis – recorded 1959 with John Coltrane, “Cannonball” Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. Happy New Year to Everyone!
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2012 is here. 2011 is gone and oh what an interesting year it was. One that gave birth to a spring of consciousness; birthed the Arab Spring in which Tunisia and Egypt successfully toppled their presidents although all evidence on the ground indicates that the struggle to topple the regimes that these individual leaders had [...]
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Persevere it gets better………. Via Shadow and Act
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The year has ended monumentally for us, over here at Saraba Magazine. Our final issue themes on music: Here at Saraba, music has been a perpetual ache, a constant obsession, so we are as confounded as you are that it took this long to rest our oars on these stringed sheets that stretches memory and [...]
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Its that time of year when the various forms of media are filled with endless lists of the “best of” the year. I usually try to push against following the crowd but this particular list is worthy of repeating “The Alternative, The Underground, The Oh-Yes-That-One List of Favorite Books of 2011” I start with my [...]
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Slapping Bishops Via Sahara Reporters The road to heaven is paved with slapping bishops
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afrobohosnob: DON’T MESS WITH NINA SIMONE!
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Fanon on Petrification Douglas Ficek (in Living Fanon, p. 76), writing on Fanon and petrification, reminds one that, by “petrification”, Fanon meant an excessively strong adherence to tradition in the face of the coloniser’s culture, which brings about a kind of paralysis or “immobility” of the culture of the colonised, more especially so in rural [...]
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MAKE WAY by SARA MITARU Treat your ears right. Listen to this track.
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fuckyeahwomensfootball: Colombian Hazleeydi Ricon celebrates after scoring against Chile in their preliminary women’s football match of the XVI Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico on October 20, 2011. (via Photo from Getty Images)
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ferrarisheppard: Nina with daughter
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Reminds me of my London studio apartment – need to go to my storage unit michelyah: nostalgic-souls: Why does this look the smaller version of my room. basically what my future home will look like …with a little less stuff.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/video/embed guardianfood: Tim Hayward deep fries a turkey. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Global Voices Online: The ‘At Risk’ Blogger’s Contingency Plan
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llapen: Forgotten People by Gustavo Ortiz
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For all those who were murdered by bombs in Nigeria today. For my family scattered across the world [US, Ireland, UK, Ghana, Nigeria, Dubai, Pacific Ocean] – two here, one there, 10 over there, dozens over over there, three far away and most of all my grandson – I miss you all. Simphiwe Dana featuring [...]
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In December 2007 a group of backorders occupied a section of empty houses but were evicted after just two months. They then decided to stay in the area and built their shacks along the pavement of Symphony Way where they managed to stay for a further 20 months. Eventually they were evicted for a second time and forced [...]
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Last week Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and activist, Leymah Gbowee both received their Nobel prize in Oslo. Robtel Pailey like millions of Liberians across the world, celebrated the moment. But all is not well for women in Liberian women. On the other hand, I couldn’t ignore a somber cloud that hung over the occasion, [...]