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Culture Forecast September October 2022
In this section, I display upcoming events of culture events in Europe dealing with african topics and art events in african countries. If you have information about events, please send to hans_cultureafrica@yahoo.com. A lot, a lot. So much events! We start in Uganda, where the exciting Nyege Nyege Festival will happen from September 15 to 18 nearby spectacular Itanda Falls. This international electronic music highlight in East africa is highlighted by DJ Kampire. We hope, that no one has the idea to jump into the water(fall). If you google Itanda, you know why. In Nairobi, the Macondo Literary Festival is preparing to open its gates at Kenya National Theater. The last time it happened, was 2019. This year it has a strong lusophone direction, handling literary topics from Angola, Brazil and Mozambique but also Francophone and Anglophone writers. The theme is „The Future of…
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African Book Festival in Berlin 2022. A Report. engl/ger
Yesterday.Today.Tomorrow. That was the leitmotif of this year’s African Book Festival in Berlin. Finally without any restrictions, finally everything live and on the spot. The joy about this could be felt everywhere when you were out and about at the festival. Cultureafrica was media partner this year, but this should not distort the view when reporting about this event. By Hans Hofele/cultureafrica.net FÜR DEUTSCHE VERSION NACH UNTEN SCROLLEN But: Where does one start to report? About a literary event that is more than the sum of its events? Even in retrospect, it was a very intense long weekend. If you count the launch of InterKontinental on Thursday evening, it was four days in which you could get involved with the authors and the whole diversity of African literature. And it was the encounters and conversations with the invited authors that gave you the feeling…
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Centering Black Literature: An Interview with James Murua- engl/ger
In the run-up to the African Book Festival in Berlin, of which cultureafrica.net is a media partner, there will be a series of interviews with participants and experts in the African literary scene. This time it is James Murua. He is one of the most influential bloggers in the African literary scene. He has attended many literary festivals, both nationally and internationally. His website jamesmurua.com is one of the most successful on the continent. James Murua lives with his wife, the writer Zukiswa Wanner, in Nairobi, Kenya. The interview was conducted during the Heroe Book Fair literary festival in Mombasa.
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Ugandas First Woman – Author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi at the African Book Festival – Interview ger/engl
What happens to a book when you address Africa as a readership? Africans should write the way they want to write. In Africa, we were brought up as if we were Europeans too. So when Europeans write, they don't think about Africans and whether we understand them. But when we write as Africans, we think about whether they will understand the way we write." If we Europeans think that we can read and understand Shakespeare, why was it not possible for the Germans, the English to read and understand how I write for Africans....
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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.
