Out of Africa

I spent all of yesterday working as support staff for focus groups. Half of the day was with Africans (sub-Saharan black Africans, primarily from West and Central Africa). One of the main complaints about the US media is how it portrays Africa. Everything is primitive or bad or poor when it comes to Africa. Forget the bustling cities of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. Forget the amount of progress being made all around the world.

Well, I found this image on-line — the “World at Night” — and it kind of reinforced some of those complaints.

     (to see the larget picture, click here)

As you can see from the picture - there are barely any city lights (the white spots) in Africa. Instead it’s pretty much all dark (meaning no lights at all) or there’s that nice long strip that’s all red (signifying “wildfires” as the source of light at night). I’m sorry, but seeing as places like Ghana and Chad actually have electricity pretty much 24/7 … as I’m sure does Ivory Coast and possibly places like Kenya and Cameron … this map just frustrates me.  You also got to love how Lagos, Nigeria is pretty much lit up by “natural gas flares” (the green).  Can Africa get any more primitive?

And it’s all based off of information gathered from NASA (of course).

NOTE: I’m equally enraged by the “fishing fleet lights” off the coast of South America. But at least they get some bright white lights on their continent. And Australia?? … let me just focus on Africa.

No matter how bad you claim they are … you know you can’t resist African films. Just the way Indians (and others around the world) love all the crazy nuances that make Bollywood, Bollywood — we Africans, too, love the often bad acting, soap opera dramas our film industry produces.

Well … for all you proud African-film watchers, and even for you closet ones, here’s a chance for you to contribute. The African Council for Arts and Culture recently announced a Name and Logo Contest for the Nigerian and Ghanaian film industry. All lovers of the new African Cinema and Music are invited to submit proposals for the following categories:

1. GHANAIAN FILM INDUSTRY:The Ghanaian home movie sub sector is informally nicknamed “Gollywood”. The Council feels this name sounds too much like “gullibility”, which they find as ”an insult to the creative talents of Ghana.” So fans … submit a serious name and logo proposal for the Ghanaian Movie Industry. PRIZE: N200,000 Naira (two Hundred Thousand Naira or equivalent in Ghanaian Cedi).

2. NIGERIAN FILM INDUSTRY: The Nigeria home video sub-sector is currently nicknamed “Nollywood.” “Nolly” apparently means “nothing, so …”  again, the Council does not ”feel comfortable promoting ‘nothingwood.’”  Also, why they feel it’s an insult to the pioneers of the industry to simply “jump into the “wood” bandwagon just because the Indians call theirs “Bollywood” and the Americans “Hollywood.”” A Nigerian way is needed … so Nollywood fans here’s your chance to make your mark on the industry. Prize money for the name and logo that will replace the “nothingwood” name is N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira).

3. YORUBA LANGUAGE FILMS: The history of the Nigerian film industry is linked with that of the Yoruba language films. The Candomble and Capoera in Brazil, the Orisah and Santaria in Cuba, Calypso in Trinidad and Tobago all have roots in Yoruba Culture. It’s definitely a Diasporic culture, and therefore the film industry should be of interested to the Yoruba Diaspora. All the Yoruba films I have every watched are about juju … highly amusing, but something the Council is disappointed with. Their biggest problem, voodoo is ”portrayed in the home videos as forces of evil that are negative and inferior to the Abrahamic religions of Islam and Christianity.

We pray the brave Yoruba filmmakers, artistes, designers, politicians, intellectuals and millionaires take the lead in branding and placing the Positive Progressive Virtues of our African Civilizations in their moves, music and lifestyle for posterity.

“Yoruwood” is the current name being “whispered” for Yoruba home movies. So a more serious one, along with a logo, is in search. The prize money for the name and logo of the Yoruba Film Genre is N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira)

4.THE HAUSA LANGUAGE GENRE: This is a newer film sub sector of the Nigerian home video industry, which is emerging. Right now, since the main location of development is in Kano, they current name is … you guessed it … “Kannywood.” A more respectable name is needed. Prize money = N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira)

5. IGBO LANGUAGE MOVIES: Not to be left out, the Igbo language movies is another sub-sector coming largely out of the eastern Nigerian city of Enugu. Big surprise here though. It’s not called “Enuguwood”, or “Igbowood” or “Iggywood” or any wood-ism. The informal name is “Ikenga.” But something more serious is still needed. The prize money is N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira).

Three other categories exist, CROSS OVER MOVIES, ADULT CONTENT AND EROTIC ARTS, and AFROMEDIA NIGERIA FILM & CULTURAL ENTREPRISES DEVELOPMENT FUND (ANFCED). Prizes are awarded for all of them.

For more information, read this release from Nollywoodwatch.com. Deadline is September 30, 2008.

I think the coolest thing about this is that the African Council for Arts and Culture is a Diasporic organization based in Germany. It just shows how active the community in the Diaspora can be, and how they can help to initiate change for the African continent.

Now start working on those names and logos!!!

Right now I’m really interested in the history and culture of Liberia, since I’ve worked on some articles and am hoping to do some other work about Rainbow Town and the Shine Foundation in the future. While doing some random reading/research, I fell across this piece published in the New York Times Magazine. It’s an excerpt from journalist Helene Cooper’s book “The House at Sugar Hill,” which comes out in September.

The piece is compelling, and I’m eager to read the book in its entirety when it comes out. While it’s a memoir, it offers historical information about Liberians - both natives and descendants from former American slaves. I learned so much from the little printed in the NYT magazine.

 It also tells a personal story of choosing to return home after being absent for so long. Regardless of where she lived, Africa remained a part of Helene Cooper and “The House at Sugar Hill” recounts how she found it again.  

by Leila Noelliste

From the outside, parking garage attendant Kobina Azhir looks like an American-born Black man. But Azhir, a Ghanaian seaman who came to the city 22 years ago, is one of 23,000 African immigrants living in metropolitan Chicago.

On May 31, the United African Organization, a partnership of 20 African immigrant communities, held a summit at the DuSable Museum of African American History, to shed light on immigrants like Azhir. Alie Kabba, executive director of UAO, said that “public eduction” is necessary since African immigrants are often overlooked, or misunderstood.

“We realized a few years ago that the challenge for (African immigrants) is to end our invisibility and help to educate people about contemporary African issues in order to better understand the experience of African immigrants and refugees in Illinois,” said Kabba, who came to Chicago from Sierra Leone in 1991.

The second Chicago Summit on African Immigrants and Refugees attracted more than 200 African, Arab and Latino immigrants, as well as African American supporters. Issues that Africans face within their own countries, as well as in Illinois, were discussed in plenary sessions. Though the number of participants is higher than last year’s 160, the modest turn out is a reflection of Africans’ struggle to catch broad attention and support.

“Within the larger immigrant community, we tend to be overshadowed by the Latino community because they have the numbers. So when people think about immigrants, they think about Latinos, and not Africans,” Kabba said. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, there are approximately 582,000 Mexican immigrants living in metropolitan Chicago, compared to just 23,000 African immigrants.

Nigerians make up the majority of that count. European and Asian immigrants account for 366,000 and 321,000 respectively. Like most immigrants, Africans come to America to flee political instability, pursue education, or establish a better life.

They are the most educated immigrant group in metropolitan Chicago and nationally, Kabba said. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, 95.4 percent of African immigrants who had entered metropolitan Chicago in the past 10 years had a high school degree or more, compared to 39.1 percent of Latin American immigrants, 73.8 percent of European immigrants and 85.3 percent of Asian immigrants.

But when it comes to accessing language, housing, employment and medical services African immigrants still suffer “institutional neglect,” Kabba said. He added that this is particularly damaging since African immigrants face the dual challenge of being Black and foreign. “Resources are directed to the community with the largest numbers, which is Latin Americans… The francophone (those from French-speaking African countries) have a language barrier.

“When I hear about bilingual resources, I think, ‘The definition of bilingual has got to go beyond Spanish. It’s got to include those in other communities’,” Kabba said. Carol Adams, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, spoke at the summit and said that the state would take an “extra step to be inclusive” of African immigrants.

“When we talk about doing things for African American women, we are also including women who come from Africa,” Adams said. And the relationship between Africans and African Americans is critical, though plagued by miscommunication. The selection of DuSable for the summit was to represent the link between African Americans and African immigrants, who Kabba described as the “new African Americans.”

“Culture is a dynamic process,” said Kabba, and it’s a fact he has himself experienced. He had plans to move back to Sierra Leone after getting a degree in public policy from the University of Illinois, but a lengthy civil war in his homeland kept him here, where he is raising his 7-, 9-, and 12-yearold children.

“Being an African here is such a temporary identity. It’s a bridge to connect us to a more permanent space, and that permanent space is, naturally, within the African American community,” Kabba said. “When my kids grow up, they’re not going to think Sierra Leone. They’re going to think South Side, West Side, Chicago.”

(Source: The Chicago Defender)

I had meant to do this a while ago, but kept on putting it off. But as our class is coming to an end, I wanted to take the time to mention the blogs of some of my classmates who have featured Africa in one form or the other in their blogs.

• James Edwards - The Violence Project: With an entire blog about violence in Chicago, it’s kind of hard to feature news pertaining to Africa. But James did it in this post about Francis Oduro, a Ghanaian international student who was shot to death. Along with the Violence Project, my prayers go out to the Oduro family.
• Holly Fox - Familienpolitik: A new family law in Mali that would give illegitimate children inheritance rights is the subject of this post. Islamic groups are against this change and Holly provides an interesting comparison to the meaning of marriage and a marriage certificate in Mali versus the United States.
• Christa Hillstrom - Human Goods: In an earlier post I had linked to Christa’s blog about slavery in Mauritania. A more recent post looks at a former slave in Niger who is suing the government for not enforcing anti-slavery laws. In a country were human rights groups estimate about 43,000 people are still living in slavery, this is just the kind of accountability African countries need to be held to.
• Erin Halasz - Wikileads: Erin’s blog follows the online conversation about Wikileaks and the myriad ways in which its uncensorable, untraceable documents appear in public discourse. If you don’t know what Wikileaks is, basically it’s a site that leaks a whole lot of info, but is primarily user-generated like Wikipedia and stuff (Erin, or anyone else who knows, correct me if I’m wrong!). Some of the confidential documents received anonymously includes corruption in Kenya and other “shoddy standards of human rights” in sub-Saharan Africa. One of Erin’s particular posts highlights a recent posting on Wikileads of an invoice for Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defense, charging the country for a shipment of Chinese rockets, bombs and rounds of mortar.

I hope you take the time to check out their blogs, and while these are the only posts about Africa, each is very interesting and sophisticated. To see more blogs from my class, check out our class Web site.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart.” The book is hailed as the beginning of modern African literature. Chinua Achebe, hailed as the father of African literature.

There have been a lot of good interviews, articles, conferences and ceremonies, honoring the legacy both Achebe and his book has created for African writers.

The following is an interview with Evan Mwangi, an English professor at Northwestern University, who teaches African literature (and is from Kenya) about the beginnings of modern African literature, its evolution and how Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” fits into it all.

Audio

Interview Transcription

Bunmi Ishola: We can kind of start out sort of with the history of African literature; where it all started out.

Evan Mwangi: The major books in African literature started in the 1950s. They started writing in the 1950s, and they did not make as much impact as “Things Fall Apart,” which was published in 1958. And so it ["Things Fall Apart"] became like the benchmark of African literature. And mainly, all these novels, were mainly a response to what the writers felt were distortions and misrepresentations of Africa by Western writers. [Achebe has said that he wrote "Things Fall Apart" to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," and to books written by colonial masters like Mr. Johnson].

BI: Do you think, in a sense, that the book deserved to be the benchmark?

EM: Yes, the book is very well written. Achebe also has a very balanced view of both the Europeans and Africa. Those [older novels written by the West] would idealize colonial Africa as a perfect, romantic place. But Achebe views Africa from a much more objective position. So that he’s criticizing the pre-colonial culture, as much as he’s criticizing colonialism for some of the bad things that happened in Africa.

BI: And after this book was published, what was the development of Africa literature?

EM: Almost all the major authors in Africa wrote their versions of “Things Fall Apart.” So that, almost every country had a “Things Fall Apart;” again, talking about the contact between Europeans and African cultures, and the controversies that arose out of that. The writers persisted in talking about the pre-colonial past way into the 1960s. But later, in the late 1960s, they started talking about the disillusionment with post-independence condition. And mainly what I think they are doing by going back to pre-colonial past is trying to let African know that they have beautiful culture, that they need to preserve their culture. They should have confidence in themselves as a society.

BI: More recently there have been a lot of writers of African descent just coming up lately. I’ve noticed many of the ones that are getting the most remarks [Chris Abani, Chimamanda Adichie, Sefi Atta, Helon Habila] are from Nigerian. I don’t know if you have any theories as to why?

EM: Most likely it’s because of the exile. [In] Nigeria, military dictatorship has been really bad. So writers have been able to go to exile. It happened in the apartheid era too. There were a lot of writers operating in exile. And that’s why there’s a very strong Nigerian diasporic writing, I guess. I think, the reason that Nigeria is so prominent in African Diasporic writing could be because of the economic and political circumstances. If you remember, people like Chris Abani have been jailed. Yeah, he was jailed by Sani Abacha.

BI: I know, for both, at least, Abani and Adichie, they mentioned that Achebe had a lot of influence on the reasons why they write now, and even they way they choose to write. What do you see some of these influences being, and why do you think he is such a strong influence? 

EM: I think it is mainly the emphasis on the thematic relevance of the texts. Like when you read Adichie, she’s very sensitive to the politics of Nigeria. Even if she’s writing, like in [Half of a Yellow Sun], she’s writing about Nigeria of the 1960s, she’s commenting about the present. Just the way Achebe, still, when he’s talking about pre-colonial past — he’s not so much interested in romanticizing that past, he’s commenting about the present-day Nigeria. So, to say, the level of themes, and making sure they [newer African/Nigerian writers] are relevant to their communities, they have followed in the footsteps of Achebe. But they are also changing, they are not just imitating Achebe slavishly. Like Adichie forgrots gender a lot, in a way you may not find in Achebe. Even Chris Abani; issues of gender and sexuality are very prominent in his writing. So they use Achebe, just the way Achebe used the past — in a critical way.   

BI: Where do you see African literature going in the future?

EM: That’s a tough question. But, I think it’s growing. There are people who seem to see African literature as maybe off. Mainly because the kind of writers they see published in the West, they seem to be addressing Western audience as opposed to the African readers. So that this literature becomes part of the West, and the literature in Africa dies off. But I think there are very strong literary traditions in almost all regions of Africa. I think the literature is very good, and it’s going to be talking about issues to do with the Diaspora, issues to do with gender and sexuality. Literature that maybe the Achebe generation may not have been very much interested in.

Nigeria’s House of Reps failed to pass a Freedom of Information bill recently. It’s the FIFTH time this bill has failed to pass since it was first written and introduced.

What’s the big deal?

If the bill is passed the media finally can dig into the past of Nigeria’s corrupt law makers and politicians … letting it all hang out there. We wouldn’t want that now, would we?

Here’s a blog post from African Loft, which links to stories from Nigerian papers about the failure of this bill and what it means for the country.

With recent arrests of journalists, and the fact that most African countries (e.g. Somalia, listed as the worst country in the world for journalists) struggle with creating free presses, is this one more sign that African can’t expect a REAL free press any time soon? Will free press only be a mirage?

With apperances from Miley Cyrus (who actually performs twice — as herself and not as Hannah Montana), Fergie, Annie Lennox, Idol Carrie Underwood, and many more celebrities, American Idol had their celebrity concert/fundraiser “Idol Gives Back” tonight.

While last year’s money was more or less evenly distributed between charities working in Africa and those working in the United States, this year more of the money will go to domestic charities.

I watched last year as well, and must say that the segments that highlight the charities supported through the program have improved. Last year there was this whole “Save Africa” generalization thing going on. There was very little mention of what countries or cities they were visiting, it was just all “Africa.” It drove me crazy. While awareness on issues of poverty and disease in Africa is really important, I feel people need to know where these disparities are taking place on an individual level. There are 53 countires in Africa (54 if you count Western Sahara) and all of them are facing different difficulties and need aid in different capacities. Before we go about “saving lives in Africa,” Americans need to stop the generalization.

One thing that didn’t improve, however, is how sensationalized (or maybe overdramatic is the better word) the Africa story segments were in comparison to the American ones.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think a lot of Diasporic Africans agree. There needs to be better dissemination of news about Africa. Even within all these turmoils there is development and emergence. And while the money raised through “Idol Gives Back” can aid that development and emergence, I feel it made more of a spectacle of the continent. After all, the American segements told personal stories and showed the progress being made (by highlighting the benefiting organizations) to eradicate the issues - they didn’t just ask for help to buy mosquito nets and AIDS medication.

Not all of them were bad. The segment by Alicia Keys (full video can be viewed for free on the American Idol website) was really good, and the one by Idol Chris Daughtry and his band (reminisent of Carrie Underwood’s “I’ll Stand By You” video from last year). The worst ones? Any segment narrated by Ryan Seacrest.

Again, maybe I’m being overly sensitive. But the negative portrayals of the continent is a major concern. There was recently an Africa Media Summit and one of my favorite books (which really helped me focus my professional goals), New News Out of Africa, addresses the same thing.

But when it comes down to it, “Idol Gives Back” is a good thing. I can just imagine how many Americans tuned in and gave. Even more, I wonder how many Africans in America gave. Between remittances and things like this, little differences can be made.

If you missed it, you can download video footage and/or the music performed on iTunes. By doing so, you’ll be giving to a great cause since all the proceeds add to the fundraising effort.

Or check out www.one.org.