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Johannesburg Musical Smash Hit “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf”” engl/ger
The South African adaptation of the world acclaimed musical production, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf” was both powerful and refreshing. Featuring a stellar cast of theatre veterans and relative newbies in what most thought was a risky move, that risk if we are to call it that seems to have paid off as there was a perfect balance of calm experience and brashness which comes with not being constrained by tired theatre conventions.
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Trauma and Resilience – 30 Years after the Genocide in Ruanda – deutsch/english
„Die Wunde muss tief gepresst werden, damit sie heilen kann“ Trauma and Resilience – 30 Years after the Genocide in Ruanda von Hans Hofele FOR ENGLISH VERSION PLEASE SCROLL DOWN Papaoutai? -Papa wo bist du? Der Pop-Hit des belgischen Musikers Stromae mit ruandischen Wurzeln, machte 2013 auf den schmerzlichen Verlust des beim Genozid getöteten Vaters aufmerksam. Wie er leiden bis heute tausende Angehörige von Opfern an den Folgen eines des ungeheuerlichsten Verbrechens des 20.Jahrhunderts.Väter, aber auch Frauen, Kinder, ganze Familien wurden in dem 100 Tage dauernden Gemetzel, den Hutu-Milizen an der Tutsi-Minderheit verübt haben, zum Opfer. Auch 30 Jahre danach müssen die Überlebenden und deren Kinder, aber auch die Täter und ihre Angehörigen mit dem Trauma leben: Nachbarn und Freunde wurden zu Mördern, Familienväter oder Söhne verwandelten sich in gnadenlose Massenmörder. Auch heute leben wieder beide Bevölkerungsgruppen neben-und miteinander. Trauma-Verarbeitung und juristische Aufarbeitung sind…
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The Transcendental Poetry Of Naomi Waweru // by Frank Njugi //english_deutsch
“At sixteen, I am allowed to love a boy whose cheekbone is an analogy for how heavens hold rain intact just for Sunday mornings.” This is how my most memorable line from a Kenyan poem goes. A mesmerising line from a poem titled Analogy, published in the Liberian literary magazine Pepper Coast Lit, written by Naomi Waweru, who is perhaps one of the most exciting poets to emerge from Kenya in recent times.
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Chronicling the Kenyan Music Industry – An Interview with John Muchiri by Lorna Likiza // english_deutsch
Kenya has massive talent. The only problem is that many musicians haven’t yet mastered how to market themselves internationally. From the people I have interacted with in the UK in the music scene, Kenya is considered a very prime market for entertainment but we need to get out of our comfort zone. We need to think beyond our comfort zone which is the East African Market. We need to be more strategic. We also need to invest heavily in our music. So to be precise, the three things we need to master are Management, Marketing and Strategy which our Nigerian counterparts have long mastered.
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Successful this time! International German Film Festival Berlinale 2024 and Africa deutsch-english
Which Way Africa? is the title of a film by Congolese director David-Pierre Fila, which is screening at the Berlinale. The 74th edition of the Berlin Film Festival started this year under the chairmanship of Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o. This remarkable decision to choose Nyong'o as jury president gives us a glimpse of the presence of African actors and especially African productions. The Berlinale, as the festival is called, is, it should be noted, a European festival. In the past, African productions have played a rather minor role. In the wake of outstanding productions from the continent, the growing attention for actors, producers, musicians and directors from Africa, also involved in international co-productions, Africa can simply no longer be ignored. So what does the world's largest audience festival actually look like? All films are shown in their original language.
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Stage Set for Inaugural Independent Theatre Makers Awards//Bühnenstars glänzen bei den Independent Theatre Awards//by Tonderai Chiyindiko
“We saw a need for recognition of works that are independently produced and also to broaden the spectrum as we only have about two recognised theatre awards in the country, so it is to broaden the view for all works that may not make it to our national theatres and to (mostly) celebrate independent theatre makers” Mongezi Mabunda
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Bayreuther Klangprojekt: Bayreuth Gathering Brings Sonic Artists Under One Roof – by Tonderai Chiyindiko engl/ger
Hosted by the University of Bayreuth, Germany the Critical: Hope. Exercises in Borderlands is a gathering which will feature multiple offerings conceptualised, curated and hosted by Eylem Camuroglu, Serawit Debele as well as Katharina Fink, who is the founder and director of the Johannesburg based Sophiatown Arts Akademy.
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African Author Spotlight – Interview with Peter Ngila Njeri – Engl/Ger
AFRICAN AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER NGILA NJERI By Lorna Likiza Peter Ngila Njeri is a Kenyan Writer who won the James Currey Prize for African Literature in September 2023 for his novel manuscript, The Legend Of Beach House. This is an annual award given to the best unpublished work of fiction written in English by an African writer and named after James Currey, a renowned publisher of African literature. He is an Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni and Ebedi Fellow. In this interview with Culture Africa Associate Editor, Lorna Likiza, Peter delves deeper into the writing process of his winning manuscript and shares why he feels literary prizes are essential for writers. Lorna Likiza: Hi Peter, welcome to Culture Africa! Could you kindly introduce yourself? PN: Thank you so much, Culture Africa! I was born and grew up as Peter Ngila in…
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African Author Spotlight – An Interview with Dennis Mugaa_ Engl/Ger
Dennis Mugaa is a Kenyan Writer whose debut collection of Short Stories, Half Portraits Underwater, is set for release in 2024 by Nigerian Publisher, Masobe Books. No stranger to the literary scene, he won the 2022 Black Warrior Review Fiction Contest, was shortlisted for Isele Magazine’s inaugural Short Story Prize and was longlisted for the 2021 Afritondo Short Story Prize. Additionally, his works have been featured in various literary journals across Africa and overseas.
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African Publishers on the Book Fair in Frankfurt: And The Story Goes On english/deutsch
It was another real book fair in Frankfurt. One with lots of visitors, almost like before the pandemic. The last three years were empty, the book fair only took place online once, the two years after that it was a very limited event. But even during this time, when visitors were rather rare, smaller publishers from the continent also showed up at the fair at the invitation of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Invitation Program https://www.buchmesse.de/en/fellowship-and-grant-programmes/frankfurt-invitation-programmes, cultureafrica.net reported on this. So this year it was once again a crowd-puller. And in Hall 6, where the publishers and networks from Africa were to be found, there was also a lot going on again. This is the 75th edition of this huge trade fair, whose motto this year was “And the story goes on”. Nevertheless, it has to be said that the many publishers, from Morocco to…
