Blue Mothertongue

Mawiyoo in her collection of poetry entitled, Blue Mothertongue, writes of a nostalgia, yearns for a better understanding of culture and identity if not a retaking of it, in a world that continues to globalise. She queries our role and place across borders, writing about migrants in their long-distance communications, cross-racial relationships, abandonment of tongues and wisdom, describing their surrendering as "sins we committed", criticising the "hope-fool - muttering that [he is] content" to hide in America.

She throws us in to the frozen moment of a Heard: Traffic Light Monologue, capturing the sheng of today and the expressions that embody our multitude of afflictions; exemplifying corruption with the ineffectiveness of the City Hall Mayor, speculating on the rise of HIV and dispairing on the lack of change any digging or exposure of "marecommendations," will be bring about.

(to be continued. i'm still reading it. lol)

'To be a Man' Anthology Review

'To be a Man' comprises of poems from the Kwani Poetry Competition 2007-2008 of the same title but also poems on sexuality, gender and human rights. Judged by John Sibi-Okumo, Stephen Derwent Partington, Muthoni Garland and Garnette Oluoch-Olunya, it brings out the best and the most stark perspectives on manhood with poems such as _____ revealing the sickness of debased humanity, with "Mercy Don't You Understand That I Am A Man" by Samuel Munene and _______ by ______ detailing the skewed priorities men have of their role and importance in marriage, fatherhood and society at large.

Tom Odhiambo, Professor of English at the University of Nairobi asserts in an AMKA forum that our poets are our historians and that they take a special importance where our history is not being written. This anthology presents a snapshot of Kenya's "disturbed masculinities" with poems such as ______ providing the reverse of our expectations of men, in our forbidding them to cry or to fall in love, in our disapproval of their empathy for women.

'To be a Man" is important for pronouncing our societal norms and ills as regards the role of our men and our women and in Part 2 for denouncing the gender and human rights abuses that occur only too often.

I hope to see more iniatives of this kind from Kwani and other publishers in the future. Poems from this collection will also be performed at the next Kwani Open Mic.

[author's apology: i have lost my anthology :( but once i buy another copy, i'll fill in the blanks. but i thought i should put it the draft up anyway to encourage debate]

Giles Elie-dit-cosaque

Elie-dit-cosaque blew me away today with his documentary "Zetwal" (Twinkl). Firstly because he successfully conveyed Robert Saint-Rose's conviction to go to the moon with a space shuttle fuelled by the force of Aime Cesaire's poetry. And secondly because it was a fiction documentary which not only impels you to think more critically about what you consume but inspires you to go to lengths with art, to push new boundaries and to test new methods.

The subject, Robert Saint-Rose dreams of going to the moon, dreams of being the first Martinican to step foot on it. And so he builds a spaceshuttle. He consults with friends and professors (albeit an English professor), he calculates and he designs and it is this energy that is reminiscent of our secret yearnings and our abandoned potentiality, as Patrick Chamoiseau (or the character of Patrick Chamoiseau) describes.

The scientist (I forget his name) or again the character of the scientist validates Saint-Rose's aspirations by explaining them as theories that we have not succeeded at "as yet", which effectively redeems Saint-Rose from appearing to be a fool to being a dreamer, a man before his time who believes in things that have not yet been proved, in things that have not yet been accepted by the greater public.

Primarily a tribute to Cesaire's poetry, Elie-dit-Cosaque aims as well to express a feel for the West Indies, the spirit of its people and the relationship between France and the DOM-TOMs. He fulfils as such with the storytelling skill of the interviewees, with the Martinican hope for seeing beyond the island and most importantly, with audience members moved to read Cesaire.

We are dared to think again about the thin line between fiction and truth and enlivened to possess as much belief and determination as our Robert Saint-Rose, who though fictional is now listed in some sites as among
men of achievement in Martinique. "And why not?" shrugs Elie-dit Cosaque.

'Why not?' exactly as the film concludes with a quotation from Jorge Luis Borges;

... All this is true because I invented it...

Kaha Mohamed Aden

Kaha performs "The Fourth Way" next Weds 27th October at the UoN, Education Building, rm 213, 3F from 0900-1100.

The Italian Institute of Culture posts her presentation as;

words, a song and pictures. It starts with a metaphor of the town - my home town - Mogadishu, that I left twenty four years ago and that in nineteen years of non-civil war takes on multiple meanings symbolised by four ways or roads. The first way is Mogadishu’s heart, facing the Indian Ocean and acting as a bridge to the East: almost a myth, in the nostalgic words of Ibn Battuta, the Marco Polo of the Islamic world. A past made of trade and commerce, cultural exchanges, knowledge and the scent of a thousand spices from Puntland becomes the starting point toward our contemporaneity. The second way introduces a less mythical but important stage in the development of the town where it has impressed a strong mark: the colonial period, with its monuments and the signs left by the Italian domination. The identity of the town and the Somali people is reshaped in the confrontation with colonialism and its ways, and so we have the third way, born out of the struggle against colonialism: the way of socialism, hope and emancipation as exemplified by the deeply changed role of women. The pictures of women from the ‘70s tell a tale of projects of emancipation, cultural mélange, opening to the outside world. A popular song dating from those years reminds us of those years: male voices criticizing the new habits, and feminine voices refusing a return to the past. But the future can be a dangerous joker and presents us with a leap back in to the past. Such words as “clan”, that seemed forgotten and finished, surface back in our life and tragically mark human relationships. From dictatorship, the fourth way leads straight to a bloody war among brothers, and to destruction as a total project. Women cast off the clothes of hope and freedom and lock themselves up, covering their slender bodies as if they were trying to protect themselves from a situation of violence and unpredictable danger.

and a bio of Kaha Mohamed Aden as being born in Mogadishu (Somalia). She graduated in economics at University of Pavia and took her Master degree at the European School for Advanced Studies in Cooperation and Development-IUSS in Pavia (Italy).

At the moment she is involved in the field of immigration and intercultural understanding including numerous conferences, seminars and roundtables throughout Italy.

In September 2010, the first collection of her short stories, Fra-intendimenti, was published by Nottetempo, Rome.

Sounds interesting! Check it out :)

Jane Bussman

 

I attended Jane Bussman's show tonight at the Vineyard and Wine Bar and was so glad I went! Well, I love comedy and would go anytime but what I loved most about the show was how she married entertainment with international affairs. How she brought out the conflict in Uganda but still managed to make us laugh about the small things; whether they be the indiosyncracies of the developing world (she described one NO sign at her hotel, preventing, army uniform, machetes, guns in the same circle as coca cola and slippers) or the ironies of the business of development ("the hotel was so expensive," she says, "you had to work at a charity to be able to afford to stay there.")

Perhaps a little nervous at first, she was a lot more relaxed during the second half. And it was only then that it dawned on me that perhaps this was a real story! Everyone knows that comedians make up, borrow or twist their anecdotes, so when I realised that she managed to make comedy out of truth/tragedy and some serious issues, that was when she really impressed me.

the addiction of music

there's two kinds of music they say. one that goes with your breathing (like the didgeridoos) and one that goes with the beat of your heart. the latter is the more common. to me, it explains why music is so influential, why music is so addictive. it's hard not to be drawn to or to remain removed from something that beats with you.

[BC music cites studies linking musical choices to personality types]

Self-Sacrifice

He finds it unattractive but I consider it the highest form of love. There's this quote (I don't remember where from) that I used to love sharing. It goes;

The world takes us to the silver screen, where couples kiss and says "this is love." God takes us to the foot of a cross where a man hangs for us and says "this is love."

Perhaps he means that I take it too far, that I lose myself in loving him more than loving myself. Only Asian films latch on to this I find, coupling their virtues like reservation and silence with the self-sacrifice kind of love. The Koreans particularly employ this with films such as, The Old Garden or (to be continued)

Fantasy Revenge

In my ideal scenario, I am the heroine. I get my just deserts. I punish the man.

In my less than ideal scenario but fantasy nonetheless, I smash the windows and slash the tyres of his car. That would be satisfying I think. Immature but satisfying.

I know women who bake dog shit into cakes for him, stir his toothbrush round and round the toilet bowl and sabotage his career a-la-"Addicted to Love" or "The First Wives Club". 

But in reality, I'm likely to stay around and to let him pummel me. Either I walk around and act like an open, desperate wound or I retreat so far into myself that I am unrecognisable. Our love like all gifts is our Achilles' heel. 

But the car destruction sounds good :)

That's the liberty of art, the ability to play God, to orchestrate fate and to exact just deserts and in so doing present a point, a reason for showing the world otherwise.

boondoggle quixotically

Some words are so curious they're almost human, make you want to chuckle to yourself about both their truth and their absurdity. I give you two which made my day;

Boondoggle (n): work of little or no value done merely to look busy
(v): to do useless, wasteful or trivial work

Quixotically (adv): in a quixotic manner
Quixotic (adj): not sensible about practival matters; idealistic and unrealistic
eg, He pursues his political ambitions quixotically

dancer

In another life, I would've been a dancer. I would've allowed myself to experience microcosms of life every time I took to the stage. I would've allowed the dance to speak for me and the movements to take the glory for me.

I envy the thrill that they get in the performance. It's like being an athlete, only more fun; all the discipline plus the creativity. But what I love most about dance is its timelessness. We can evolve with the music of our times. So that even when our feet fail, we're still dancing.

art and protest

True to their vanguard method of protests, PETA does it again, staging demonstrations against the killing of fish for food or sport.


It's a thin line they play between erotica and the intent to shock in order to convey a message. How much of it is art if it can be considered art?


Or maybe the point is that we are so indifferent to animal rights that their cause warrants this ferocity of protest...


More recently, Lady Gaga at the MTV VMA awards last night dressed in meat (much to PETA's fury). The irony is that perhaps this is a toast to tasting their own medicine. And funnily enough, I actually quite liked the cut of the dress, lol.

word of the day : to covet

Perhaps the train of thought is coming from the previous post, Beauty Pains... The word, first became prominent for me following the film, The Silence of the Lambs. And thereafterward I was conscious that "we covet... we covet what we see everyday."

–verb (used with object)

1.

to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others: to covet another's property.

2.

to wish for, esp. eagerly: He won the prize they all coveted.

–verb (used without object)

3.

to have an inordinate or wrongful desire.

[C13: from Old French coveitier, from coveitié eager desire, ultimately from Latin cupiditā cupidity ]

I then looked up the Latin derivations and found cupide (eagerly), cupiditas (desire, longing), cupido (lust, greed), cupidus (eager, longing for, greedy, passionate), cupio (to desire) all of which suggest an untamed passion if not greed, a wrongful desire if you must.

Why do we covet? Why aren't we content? Why is it wrong?

Beauty pains

It's true. Beauty can pain. Because it's exactly then that you realise that something else isn't beautiful. You aren't beautiful, your life isn't beautiful, no man's love for you has ever been beautiful enough. It's then that the contrast bites. And for some of us, we find ourselves feeling like miss Celie does in Alice Walker's, The Color Purple;

Tell me the truth, she say, do you mind if [your husband] sleep with me?
I think, I don’t care who [he] sleep with. But I don’t say that. I say, You might get big again... You like to sleep with him? I ast.
Yeah,.. she say,.. I just love it. Don’t you?
Naw, I say. I don’t like it at all. What is it like? He git up on you, heist your nightgown round your waist, plunge in. Most times I pretend I ain’t there. He never know the difference. Never ast me how I feel, nothing. Just do his business, get off, go to sleep.
She start to laugh. Do his business, she say. Do his business. Why, Miss Celie. You make it sound like he going to the toilet on you.
That what it feel like, I say.
She stop laughing...


....But when I hear them together all I can do is pull the quilt over my head and finger my little button and titties and cry.

Graffiti

I just LOVED this photo! My friend on the corner of Houston and Bowery, NYC.

le battement d'ailes du papillon

Le Battement d'ailes du Papillon (2000) muses about the interconnectedness of things; the six degrees of separation between people and the butterfly effect of our actions.

A series of events as miniscule as the travelling of bugs, the blowing of sand or the deliberate chase of a thief conspire to create fate or destiny, as predicted by the horoscope or tarot card reader.

At once a play with light, idiosyncrasies and chance, Le Battement d'ailes du Papillon entertains while conveying a cause and effect theory albeit machinated.

Genre: comedy, drama, romance
Director: Laurent Firode
Starring: Audrey Tatou, Faudel

Marie-Antoinette

Marie-Antoinette (2006) written and directed by Sofia Coppola follows the life of Marie-Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria and later Queen of France. Historically, it is relatively accurate, Marie-Antoinette was married by proxy and later handed over to the French court, she did not have children until her brother visited the king, she tended to her garden in the Petit Trianon, enjoyed parties and dresses and performed at her own theatre (in dance however and not in song as the movie depicts).

Coppola gives the film an ethereal quality, tending towards showing a positive and down-to-earth Marie-Antoinette; showing for example her committment to Louis XVI by keeping at his side despite her having an affair, showing her often in the garden, and preferring the more simple dresses (as was true in real life). Coppola however attributes little to Marie-Antoinette's political contribution to French politics (be it ironically minimal) nor to the difficulty of the position in which she had to straddle French and Austrian interests. The film thus maintains its delicacy and particularly so with an ending that avoids her beheading.

Coppola achieves a visual feast in Marie-Antoinette, profiting not only on the detail but also on the panoramic shots. It is this that keeps the viewer as the pace never quite picks up. Marie-Antoinette's character itself is affable and Dunst effects this without much trouble having played a similar role in Elizabethtown (2005). None of the other characters are of much note as the script intends to consider Marie-Antoinette alone.

Genre: Historical Drama
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman
Written & Directed by Sofia Ford Coppola

Escape in Nabulus

On the subject of art for healing. Tomorrow's Youth Organisation, Core Child Program offers chidren aged 4-8 non-formal education activities in art, health, IT, music, English and sport in the most disadvantaged cities of Nabulus, West Bank, Palestine. All activities are designed to teach children self-expression, practical skills, and recreational coping strategies in a safe environment.

Activities include mosaic making, documentary filmmaking, photography, theatre, arts and crafts among others.

Sample Mahmood's winning photo below in their photography competition and then visit their blog and their public art and photography project site.

Noah in Rwanda

it shrinks your hair, the next thing you know...
you can't stop coughing, ough, ough, ough
hey let's altogher as brothers and sisters...
hand in hand fight of HIV/AIDS

Mushimiyimana Noah appeared on the Tyra Show last year with Alicia Keys as Keys talked about her NGO, Keep A Child Alive which provides life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, care and support services to children and families whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa) and India by directly engaging the global public in the fight against AIDS.

Noah is 15 years old and HIV positive. His dream is to produce an album to take care of his family in Rwanda.

Art is a means of expression (whether protest or praise) but it is also a means of livelihood and a method of healing (see janjaweed post). The balance between authenticity and commercial viability is a difficult one. I hope he remains true but I also hope that we appreciate his music enough to make it a livelihood for him. I hope that he rises to that occasion.

Click the link to see him perform on the Tyra Show. Noah.

camera, sand and calligraphy

South African calligrapher, Andrew van der Merwe carves letters in the sand. He then uses digital photography to enhance his designs that are inspired by African writing systems. His art not only introduces a new canvas but showcases a double art; calligraphy plus photograhy using a Nikon D700 with a 14-24mm G lens to take in both the beach and the sky.

janjaweed

Bashir's presence at our promulgation yesterday prompted me to make a reminder of the war crimes he committed in Darfur. The Guardian published a photo gallery of Sudan in March 2009 which included the following image.

I was then reminded that I had actually seen this representation in the drawings by children refugees, posted on Human Rights Watch. The likeness is chilling.


Caption reads: drawing by Ala, Age 13
Like many other children, Ala witnessed conflict between rebel groups and the Janjaweed. This drawing depicts a rebel soldier first shot in the arm, then executed by gunshots to the groin. Ali, a teacher in a refugee camp, said the rebels are killed this way to emasculate them. "They [the Janjaweed] know what they are doing," he said. "They are doing it with purpose."

Little Knowledge is Dangerous

Little Knowledge (2008), by Adede Hawi, Samora Michelle, Karama Ogova is an ironic take of (little) knowledge effecting itself as ignorance. Produced by ComMattersKenya at the 2nd Lola Kenya Screen production workshop, it epitomises the potential costs of ignorance. It is not enough to know a little, it moralises. That little may just jeopardise instead of help you, as Jenga, Juha and Mweho find out to their peril.

Genre: Children's Film/ short

S and M

I dreamt there was a club of members who were paid to do s and m and they were complaining about how little they were being paid. And when I awoke I remembered a documentary I watched entitled, Pleasure for Sale (2008), about prostitutes in a legal brothel, nicknamed the Chicken Ranch in Nevada.

The approach is sympathetic, intimate and revealing, telling the stories of new and veteran, broken or comfortable working women in the ranch.

Chyna's inner conflict strikes me in particular as she tries to reconcile her dignity and autonomy with the extremes of her trade. It explores perhaps the oldest of conflicts; whether in destroying ourselves, we are at our most free. Chyna allows herself to be spanked so hard she can't sit, she hangs herself by the skin of her back to a hook and justifies the experience with reclaiming herself. Retaliating from having been gang raped does she reclaim herself by going the furthest she can in self-punishment/experiment? Or is it all a loss if the most part of it is attributable to the rape at all?

Angelina Jolie in an interview on the Actor's Studio said this about self-destruction. That never again would she think of it after having seen so much of the suffering in the world. "I thought I knew pain."

I think this is always the simplest of remedies when faced with the option of self-destruction; to see a life more wrecked, a life more bleak.

Genre: documentary
Directors: Harry and Joe Gantz

[For a film treatise of sado-masochism, watch Ma Mere (2004)]

omo faces

Art can live and die on the stage. Art can live and die with the paint on our skins instead of canvasses. Witness the living art of the Omo people in Hans Silvester's book; Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa (2009) available on Amazon.com.