King of Africa /Africa

Dicken Marshall established Rafiki Records in May 2009 after hearing a story where a choir paid £3500 pounds to record an album that never came to fruition. Solace Studios is now Rwanda’s premier recording facility thanks to a dedicated team including Marshall, Rob Hoy, Jim Mortimore and others, as well as Solace charity themselves.

Check out the Rafiki Sampler and the label’s artists.

Here’s an article in The Independent by Adam Stone. Also, check out Adam Stone’s 250 SECONDS IN RWANDA.

Audio Pro International article.

Pieter Hugo has a great fictional series on Nollywood, the Nigerian Film Industry. Said to be the 3rd largest film industry in the world releases approximately 1000 movies a year – mainly onto the home VHS and VCD market.

Key to Nollywood’s explosive success is Nigerian filmmakers’ reliance on video instead of film, reducing production costs. Nigeria has virtually no formal cinemas, with about 99 per cent of screenings in informal settings, such as home theatres.

Movies are produced and marketed in the space of a week: low cost equipment, very basic scripts, actors cast the day of the shooting, “real life” locations. Despite the improvised production process, they continue to fascinate audiences.

According to UNESCO 56 per cent of Nollywood films are made in local languages, while English remains a prominent language, accounting for 44 per cent, which may contribute to Nigeria’s success in exporting its films.

Italian filmmaker Franco Sacchi toured Nollywood and made a documentary. Here’s his talk at TED:

More on the documentary can be found here

Following from an earlier post on the Sapeurs, I am glad to see someone has produced a fairly comprehensive book showcasing the dandies of the Congo. Photographer Daniele Tamagni captures the fascinating subculture where designer suits and luxury items are the order of the day. Published by Trolley Books.

Absolutely beautiful collection by German photographer, Hans Silvester entitled “Les Habits de la Nature”, celebrating the unique art of the Surma and Mursi tribes of the Omo Valley, on the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. Amazing.

http://www.lamaisonpresbastille.com/habit_nature.php?test=1

Having just recently been to the fascinating place that is Marrakech, I love these info-graphics documents of the travels of George Butler.

WHERE ARE YOU GO is a 60 minute film that follows the adventurers and bicycle riders from Cairo to Cape Town en route with the Tour d’ Afrique, the world’s longest bicycle race and expedition.
Directed by Benny Zenga & Brian Vernor

Watch trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NpubbAzKSY

Catch it as part of the Bicycle Film Festival near you:
http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/

Exactly as the title says: awesome tapes from Africa, complete with awesome tape inlays.

http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/

The Bills were a youth subculture that dressed in cowboy outfits and opposed the current political view of late 1950s Léopoldville, Zaire (modern-day Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo).

They proliferated in the African sections of Léopoldville and based their image of blue jeans, checkered shirts, scarfs, boots, and hats on the American Western movies of the time, especially those of Buffalo Bill, like ‘Pony Express’ featuring Charlton Heston.

From the Bills came a new generation of sounds and bands, such as Zaiko, Bozi Boziana and Minzoto Ya Zaire, which differ from the Congolese rumba known by most. Jef De Laet (who became better known as Pere Buffalo), was a Passionist missionary at the time began working with the youth where the Bills roamed and helped channel their energies into a positive movement and helped start Minzoto Ya Zaire, as well as a cultural centre, Cabaret Liyoto, which featured a recording studio.

The photos are by Jean Depara, an Angolan-born photographer who was living in Kinshasa at the time, where he worked taking photos of celebrations, portraits and families, but at night he hung out in the Kinshasa clubs and here he captured an Africa stripped of conventional social codes. 

More on Depara.

Ed Kashi’s engaging photographs of daily life and conflict in the oil rich Niger Delta has recently been published as a book.

Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta takes a graphic look at the profound cost of oil exploitation in West Africa, tracing the 50-year history of Nigeria’s oil interests and the resulting environmental degradation and community conflicts that have plagued the region.

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If you’re in the NYC area, come view the prints at The powerHouse Arena, 37 Main Street, Brooklyn from August 15-September 28, 2008.
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For more on Ed Kashi
http://www.edkashi.com/

For more on the book and powerHouse Books
http://powerhousebooks.com/curseoftheblackgold/

Image from CURSE OF THE BLACK GOLD: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, Photographs by Ed Kashi, Edited by Michael Watts, published by powerHouse Books.Â

  

The evolution of a soundsystem.

“Chillin in Ghana”… check GHANA MUSIC – My Mankessim Impressions, a Project of the AFRICA YOUTH SPACE Media Club of Mankessim.
By drumghana

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Made In Queens is a short film about a group of imaginative tinkerers from Trinidad were working late into the nights creating something nobody had ever seen before: enormous stereo systems jury rigged onto ordinary bmx bikes.

Travelling together, each behind the handlebars of his or her own massive homemade creation, they treat the neighborhood to an outrageous impromptu music and dance party on wheels. Directed by Randall Stevens, Made In Queens is a documentary film celebrating America’s first stereobike crew.

http://madeinqueensfilm.com/