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African Book Festival Berlin: Interview with South African curator Lidudumalingani_engl/ger
This year’s edition of the African Book Festival Berlin has an impressive list of authors who will take part in the festival. Margaret Busby will be there, Igoni Barrett, JJ Bola, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and many more. Lidudumalingani Mqombothi is this year’s curator of the festival, which takes place from August 26th to 28th in Berlin. The native South African sees himself as a multimedia artist. Writing, photography, filmmaking. In 2016 he won the renowned Caine Prize for African Writing with the short story „Memories We Lost“. Two months before the festival, Hans Hofele didn’t just talk to him about literature. FÜr DEUTSCHE VERSION NACH UNTEN SCROLLEN HH: You once said “photography is like poetry in a picture”. You are not only a writer and photographer, you are also a multimedia artist. Are there connections between these arts? L: When I was a lot…
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The Sound and the City: Nairobi in a multimedia exhibition by art project Norient engl/ger
It’s colourful, it’s wacky, virtuosic and mega interesting, its the sound and the city: Norient’s art project has attempted to explore an entire city under the aspect of sound. The result is an exciting audiovisual inventory of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. They call it an audio-visual gallery. A gallery for contemporary music, quality journalism, research, project work and also events. FOR GERMAN VERSION PLEASE SCROLL DOWN by hans hofele Nairobi is the first city and the start of a planned series of audio-visual explorations of global cities. In times when travelling to cities is either financially impossible or poorly possible due to restrictions from visas to Corona, Norient seeks to make these journeys possible virtually. For visitors from the West, this tour enables them to dispel clichés from the poor South and to carve cities like Nairobi into their cultural horizons on an equal footing.…
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Fully Booked – The African Book Review by Venice Trommer- JJ Bola – The Selfless Act of Breathing – engl/ger
Fully Booked! New at cultureafrica.net: The regular African Book Reviews by Venice Trommer in cooperation with the InterKontinental Bookshop in Berlin and the AfricanBookFestival Berlin. This month: JJ Bola - The Selfless Act of Breathing. Fully Booked! Neu bei cultureafrica.net: die regelmäßigen Buchrezensionen von Venice Trommer in Zusammenarbeit mit der InterKontinental Buchhandlung in Berlin und dem AfricanBookFestival Berlin. Diesen Monat : JJ Bola - The Selfless Act of Breathing/Weiter Atmen.
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Ally Abdallah: The Book, the Festival, Zanzibar and the Nobel Prize winner – Interview engl/ger
It is a great event, a great surprise that Ally Abdalla has managed to pull off. For the first literature festival in Zanzibar, Ally was able to attract no less than the current winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Abdulraznak Gurnah. For Gurnah, who is from Zanzibar but had to leave the island in the 1960s, it is a triumphant event to be back. At the Heroe Book Fair in Mombasa, I spoke with author, filmmaker and organizer of the new cultural event in Zanzibar, Ally Abdalla.
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Europe’s biggest Africa Festival starts again in Wuerzburg – with lots of Female Power_ ger/engl
Ende Mai (26.5.-29.5.) ist es endlich wieder soweit: nach der Corona bedingten Unsicherheit im letzten Jahr, dem Ausfall 2020, steigt Europas größtes afrikanische Musik- und Kulturfestival, das International Africa Festival ganz regulär. Dann ziehen wieder tausende Besucher:innen in die Mainmetropole Würzburg. Die Mainwiesen verwandeln sich wieder an diesen speziellen, faszinierenden Ort, der wie kaum ein anderer für afrikanische Musik steht. Dieses Jahr stehen starke afrikanische Frauen im musikalischen Fokus. FOR ENGLISH VERSION PLEASE SCROLL DOWN Awa Ly (Senegal), Angélique Kidjo, (Benin) Lira (Südafrika), Lura (Kapverden) und Nkulee Dube (Südafrika) sind die weiblichen Headliner der Konzertabende. Aber auch andere, weniger bekannte Frauenacts sind dieses jahr zu erleben: Treesha (Deutschland/Kenya), Amir Kheir (Sudan) oder Fafa Ruffino aus dem Benin. Weitere Highlights dieses Jahr sind Habib Koité (Mali), Patrice (D) oder Moh! Kouyaté aus Guinea, der extra für das Festival seine Guinée Music All Stars formiert hat.…
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From Capital of Books to an International Book Event: Les 72 Heurs du Livre in Guinea- engl/ger/fre
This week, the book fair "72 Heures du Livre" starts for the 14th time in the capital Conakry of the West African Guinea. Book fair? Guinea? Exactly. What started here 14 years ago on a small scale has since developed into an international cultural event that has become known far beyond the borders of Guinea. In 2017, Conakry was even awarded the title "Capital du Livre" by UNESCO. An enormous boost and impetus for even more book-related activities.
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A phantastic Mombasa journey: The House of Rust – Book Review by Lorna Likiza – engl/ger
A phantastic Mombasa journey: "The House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadhrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholar’s cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters." (Graywolf Press) Khadija Abdallah Bajaber's, THE HOUSE OF RUST, is proof of that the fantasy genre has a future in Kenyan literature.
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I ve got the power! Interview with musician Melane ger/engl
On the first of April her next single "Pona Libela" will be released, the video one day later on Youtube: We are talking about Melane Nkounkolo better known as Melane. She is the power woman and jack-of-all-trades, musically elusive. Definitely influenced by her parents' homeland, which is the Republic of Congo in western Central Africa. Melane stands for many directions in modern pop music, but the traditions are still easy to hear. But Melane stands for much more: music production!blogging!African studies!empowerment!
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Barefoot in Germany – Interview with/mit Rwandan/German author Tete Loeper engl/ger
At the end of 2020, cultureafrica reported on the book Barefoot in Germany, which was published in English. It is written by the Rwandan-German author Tete Loeper. Tete Loeper herself grew up in Rwanda in the 1990s, spending time in Burundi and Congo during the genocide. In Rwanda, she worked in projects with girls at risk and also gathered information there for her later book. Barefoot in Germany is about the (fictional) life of the young Mutoni from Rwanda. Her dramatic life, which begins in the red-light district of Hamburg, soon turns to the southern German province of a small town. There she is met not only by helpfulness but also by a world of prejudice, complacency and ignorance. In this world, the young Mutoni must assert herself. Tete Loeper’s novel has now been published in German. It is a mirror into German society.…
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Not only on Woman’s Day – African Must Read Literature by Shonatiger
IWD 2022: African women writers you absolutely must read (and others on my reading list) To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, here’s a non-exhaustive list of some excellent African women writers, and the books that put them on my list. If you click on the name, you will be taken to the author’s Wikipedia page, where available. Where I wrote a review on my blog, I have added the link below. Petina Gappah I’m in awe of Ms Gappah’s writing, which in my opinion is always excellent, with her distinct authorial voice. My post on Out of Darkness, Shining Light. Molara Wood I loved this collection. My post on Indigo. Yvonne Vera Yvonne Vera is one of the giants of Zimbabwean literature. My post on Butterfly Burning here, and on The Stone Virgins here. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi Another amazing writer, consistently…
