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The House of Rust and Swahili Culture – Interview with Mombasa writer Khadija Abdalla Bajaber -engl
Khadija Bajaber had written a successful book last year, The House of Rust, which was recognized very well in african countries and abroad (see also the review of Lorna Likiza on this site). Raised and living in Mombasa, Kenya, she is strongly influenced with Swahili Culture and its long and rich history. This year, Khadija Bajaber is an invited guest at the African Book Festival in Berlin. I took the chance to talk to her before she left for Europe. And, yes, the answers are longer than in usual interviews. But its published here in full lenght version. For the first issue, only in english this time.
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Is there Anybody Out There? Nairobi Space Station – Kairos Futura Artist Project Starts this March_deutsch/englisch
They look like the futuristic Space Guerilla. From 18 March, they will make Kanairo unsafe. That is the Sheng name for Kenya's capital Nairobi. The venerable MacMillian Library in the centre will kick off the launch. It becomes a space station. They have camels with them with Massai blankets. The olive overalls are well tailored, the steel masks make them look martial. With this project, the Kairos Futura artists' group puts a big exclamation mark on Nairobi's Design Week. But it is not only about spectacle. The artists' collective, consisting of artists, designers, scientists and environmentalists, wants more: visions and proposals for an environmentally friendly Nairobi. It is about reclaiming urban space, about the "rewilding" of inner-city areas. They…
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Bringing Art to the Masses – Interview with Patrick Mukabi – engl_ger
Patrick Mukabi is a Kenyan Visual Artist, Graphic Designer, Dad and Mentor, best known for his appreciation of the African female form. In this interview with Lorna Likiza and Hans Hofele, he talks about his journey as an artist and why the middle class in Kenya are yet to fully appreciate art.
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Give them a Chance! Future Hope of Montessori in Vipingo/Kilifi County, Kenya//ger/engl
Give them a Chance! Manchmal erreichen einen Hilferufe, die sehr dramatisch sein können. Im letzten Newsletter des Vipingo Village Fund, dessen Hauptprojekt die Future Hope School of Montessori in Vipingo, Kenia, ist, waren drastische Worte zu lesen. Nicht weniger als die gesamte Existenz der Schule steht auf dem Spiel. Die Zukunft von über 160 Schülerinnen und Schülern aus benachteiligten Haushalten der Region. FOR ENGLISH VERSION PLEASE SCROLL DOWN Es sind nicht nur Kinder, die aus ärmeren Familien kommen, an der Schule. Die seit Jahrzehnten grassierende HIV Welle, ist hier besonders hoch. Auch Kinder sind stark betroffen. Gerade diese Kinder finden in der Future Hope eine besondere Betreuung, da die Schule eine medizinische Begleitung sicherstellt. Dies ist jetzt alles in…
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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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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,…
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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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Softie – Kenya’s Political Documentary Sensation – Interview with Sam Soko and Njeri Mwangi
Boniface “Softie” Mwangi has long fought injustices in his country as a political activist. Now he’s running for office in a regional Kenyan election. Softie follows Boniface from the moment Boniface decides to run, telling his wife, Njeri, in passing with a hesitant laugh, he responds to each challenge with optimism. But running a clean campaign against corrupt opponents becomes increasingly harder to combat with idealism alone. And Boniface soon finds that challenging strong political dynasties is putting his family at risk. Should country really come before family, as he’s always believed?
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Invisible Inventories – Nairobi – Cologne – now Frankfurt – Interview mit/with Leonie Neumann ger/engl
We do not avoid conflicts, but certainly this project has become very big and has connected many houses. It is also an opportunity for our house to learn from it for future projects, to grow from it and also to learn through dialogue and discussion with those affected, the representatives of the communities.
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Gede Ruins: Digging through History Part 2 – Historische Grabungen in Gede/Kenia teil 2
We will go as deep as possible until we cannot recover any artefact. Prof. Kusimba informs. And even as they dig, there is still no evidence of any Arab presence in Gede, contrary to popular and persistent belief.
