The dreams and fears, hopes and histories of five people intersect in this compelling documentary filmed in one day by eight female filmmakers in Johannesburg.
It features “garbage” man Vusi Zondo, ambitious property developer JJ Maia, folk musician and hostel dweller Robert Ndima, Beninese migrant and restaurateur Arouna Nassirou and his wife Zenaib, and shopkeeper Ravi Lalla.
The film was written and directed by Arya Lalloo and Shannon Walsh and shot by the filmmakers on one Friday in March, 2012. It uses the template of the film À St-Henri, le 26 août, a documentary shot in and around a Montreal suburb on one day.
Baltimore-based photographer Glenford Nunez‘s latest project was inspired by his assistant Courtney who wears natural hair. He started photographing her with his cellphone and accumulated a small body of work that he then turned into a book of natural hair portraits.
Nune’z mobile pics of Courtney led to the creation of the The Coiffure Project in which he showcases the beauty of natural hair on women of all shapes, colours and sizes. All his photos below are courtesy of TYP Photography Studio.
Namibian artist Elemotho G.R Mosimane is the first musician from his home country to win the 2012 RFI-France 24 Discoveries Awards, among a list of more than 500 African, Indian and Pacific artists.
As part of the singer and songwriter’s prize, he received a promotional tour around Africa to 25 countries and an exclusive concert in Paris. Later this year he’ll be touring India, Malaysia and Nepal in a bid to raise his music profile.
The artist, who grew up in the Kalahari, plays acoustic guitar and blends the sounds and rhythms of his home country with folk influences. He sings in his mother tongue Setswana, English and other Namibian languages.
Elemotho (Pic supplied)
The RFI-France 24 Discoveries Awards is a contest open to singers in Africa and the Indian Ocean islands since 1981. The awards have helped launch the international careers of many artists, among them Ivorian reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, Malian music duo Amadou & Mariam and artist Rokia Traoré, also from Mali.
Since scooping the award in October last year, Elemotho signed a worldwide distribution deal with UK-based record label ARC Music and has just released his third album, Ke Nako (It’s time).
He doesn’t classify his music under a specific style. “I see myself as a performing artist and musical activist; I like to throw reality around, thus exploring the depth of the human spirit.”
From rural boy to modern lyricist, Elemotho stands out from the usual commercial and easily consumable sounds by using experimental ideas and delivering his own vision of music.
Rhodé Marshall caught up with him for an interview ahead of his South African tour this week.
How did your love affair with music begin?
I have always had music and storytelling around me growing up as a farm boy around the fire with my grandmother. It was not until University while studying African philosophy and psychology that the music bug bit me.
You compose, record and play your own music. That’s quite a feat.
For me, music is a spiritual thing. Sometimes the songs come to you, sometimes you have to look for them. Recording music is like a pregnancy. I don’t do too many records, because it takes time to live the stories, and even more time to tell them. The acoustic guitar just does it for me. I cannot truly explain the many hats I wear, I guess in the end every artist is after something.
Describe your music.
I do not like to describe the music I do, but if I have to I would say it’s Afro-fusion. The new sound of the Kalahari, melodies of meditation with messages for our modern times.
What are your thoughts on the Namibian music industry?
Namibia has a small population and an emerging arts scene. There is much potential for us. Many people do not know Namibia, let alone the music. But I believe it’s bound to change.
What genre of music is currently trending in Namibia?
There is an emerging Namibian folk trend with a number of female singers/guitarists, something to look forward to.
Which other Namibian artists should we be looking out for?
There are a number of them – Ras Sheehama, Erna Chimu, Ngatu and Big Ben to mention a few. I recommend a CD called A handful of Namibians that’s a compilation of different Namibian musicians and genres.
What is different about your latest album compared to your previous two?
With Ke Nako it’s the first time I worked with a producer, Christian Polloni. He brought out the best in me. It’s a very timely album, and I feel that being a father and a family man does a lot for me in terms of perspective and approach.
You’ve been touring Africa for the past three months. What are the most interesting things you’ve encountered in the countries you’ve visited?
First and foremost I would like to say that Africa is a very diverse continent. Each country and region is producing an amazing patchwork of music, foods, history and more. Dakar, Senegal is quite something – an amazing city that rarely sleeps, a constant flow of culture, local and international. I found St. Louis to be magical – the river and sea, the new and old town, Wolof, Arab and French-fused fashions. Cotonou, the capital of Benin, is a port side city with thousands of motorbike taxis and amazing people. It’s the land of Angelique Kidjo and the land of voodoo!
Johannesburg
June 6 2013, 5:30pm
The Grove esplanade
Braamfontein
Pretoria
June 9 2013, 2pm
Alliance Francaise
Rhodé Marshall is the Mail & Guardian Online’s project manager and unofficial entertainment reporter. She started as a radio reporter and producer in Cape Town, before jumping into online news. With one hand glued to her phone and the other to a can of Coca-Cola, she is a pop culture junkie. Connect with her on Twitter.
Amina Sboui, the young Tunisian arrested for an anti-Islamist protest, has become a symbol of resistance to religious intolerance for Western feminists, but opinion at home is divided over the activist who is inspired by topless protest group Femen.
Under the pseudonym Amina Tyler, she sparked an uproar in March by posting topless pictures of herself on Facebook, defying Arab-Muslim convention.
Her action provoked angry threats from radical Islamists who were repressed under Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and have become increasingly assertive since the revolution that ousted the dictator in 2011.
Amina appears handcuffed at the courthouse in the central city of Kairouan on June 5 2013. (AFP)
“Everyone has the right to express themselves in their own way and I chose my way of doing so in the style of Femen,” she told AFP in April.
She condemned the “conservative restrictions, on civil freedoms especially after the rise to power of Ennahda,” the Islamist party that won a post-revolt election and heads the coalition government.
“I would be happy to see the fall of Ennahda,” said the 18-year-old rebel, as she smoked a cigarette, adding she welcomed her new-found fame.
“Of course I’m happy to become a celebrity and attract media interest.”
With her short hair, dyed platinum blonde, and thin, delicate features, Amina explains how the topless pictures shocked her family, who she says abducted and beat her, trying to force her back into line.
‘Psychiatric problems’
Her mother denied the accusation, saying she wanted to protect her after threats from Islamists, and insisting that her daughter, who has suffered from depression since she was 14, should remain at home.
“My daughter has suffered psychiatric problems since 2009 and has been examined by doctors in the [psychiatric] hospital in Razi,” near Tunis, she explained.
Medical documents shown to AFP appear to confirm her claims.
One, dating from March, says she “has for several months shown a relapse with insomnia, sadness, irritability with explosive reactions, delusional ideas, self-deprecation and guilt, behavioural problems including suicidal and self-harm tendencies”.
Amina says she had a difficult childhood, partly spent in Saudi Arabia, and that she was molested when she was very young.
Her mother also disputes the claim, insisting the Femen movement has exploited her vulnerability without caring about her future.
Amina rejected her mother’s warnings and ran away from home in April, deciding to continue her protest campaign while waiting for a visa to France where she hopes to finish her studies.
Arrest On May 19, she was arrested in the holy Islamic city of Kairouan for painting the word “Femen” on a wall near a cemetery, in an act of protest against a planned Salafist gathering that never took place, after it was banned by the government.
She is due to appear before an investigating judge on Wednesday, and could face charges of indecency and desecrating a cemetery, crimes which carry possible prison sentences.
Feminists in France have hailed her as a heroine, with the topless protest group Femen sending three European activists to Tunis to bare their breasts in support of her. They were arrested after they staged the group’s first demonstration in the Arab world outside the main court house on May 29. Their trial begins on Wednesday in Tunis, and the trio face a six-month prison sentence if they are convicted.
Women from the Femen activist group take part in a protest calling for Amina’s release on May 30 2013, in front of the Tunisian embassy in Brussels. (Pic: AFP)
Support
“Clearly it’s easier to incriminate a child who does not lack boldness or courage … A child who knows what she doesn’t want and is trying to wake up these people who wish to remain deaf, dumb and blind,” French blogger Caroline Fourest wrote.
In Tunisia, Amina’s support from the anti-Islamist opposition is more measured.
Feminist activist and MP Nadia Chaabane says she backs the young Tunisian in getting herself acquitted, but frowns on the Femen protests.
“I think that she is an adolescent who is slightly lost, but the fury directed against her is not justified,” she said.
Mounir Sboui, Amina’s father whom she is close to, said he was “proud” of his daughter for her ideological commitment, while also describing her acts as excessive.
“Her actions were excessive but she defends her ideas,” he said.
Three rhinos were poached during the Mail & Guardian’s recent visit to a rhino farm in the North West province. Is trading their horns the only way to save them? WARNING: contains graphic images.
