Mamela Nyamza: the body as instrument

Mamela Nyamza: the body as instrument Multiple award-winning dancer, choreographer, teacher and development activist Mamela Nyamza, the 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for Dance, started using dance to translate the world around her as a child growing up in Gugulethu in the 1980s.

Stages

28.09.2011 | by SouthAfrica Reporter

Gregory Maqoma: “Beautiful Me” (Solo)

Gregory Maqoma: “Beautiful Me” (Solo) The solo violin playing of Isaac Molelekoa is so impressive, melancholic and space pervading that the viewers are dispelled. Extremely slow a dancer becomes visible, who stands in a narrow cone of light in the center of the stage. It is a quiet, strong and contrastive picture - this disturbing music of the violinist, that encourages you to move either internally or externally, and the continued structural integrity of the dancer Maqoma on stage.

Stages

22.09.2011 | by Grit Köppen

The Future of Arab Revolts: interview with Samir Amin

The Future of Arab Revolts: interview with Samir Amin Isn't only about toppling the reigning dictators, but it is an enduring protest movement challenging, at the same time, both various dimensions of the internal social order, especially glaring inequalities in income distribution, and the international order, the place of Arab countries in the global economic order.

Face to face

19.09.2011 | by Samir Amin

“Terceira Metade” (“Third Half”): Between honey and poison: the dangers of the sweet charm of Portuguese language

“Terceira Metade” (“Third Half”): Between honey and poison: the dangers of the sweet charm of Portuguese language I set lusosphere as a debate far from any substance, a virtual focus that, referring to Portuguese language, develops its own dynamics in different national contexts. Far from being in front of a consensual thought, lusosphere hovers on situations of tension that put in contact these different contexts with each other.

To read

17.09.2011 | by Omar Thomaz Ribeiro

York University research published: study on new migratory paradigm in Cape Verde and in Africa

York University research published: study on new migratory paradigm in Cape Verde and in Africa Pedro F. Marcelino has released a study on the new migratory paradigm emerging in post-9/11 Cape Verde. The study reflects a socio-economic context in which out-migration to traditional overseas destinations is no longer the only migratory phenomenon in the islands. The country has seen a steep increase in part- and full-time resident Europeans, as well as Chinese and continental African migrants. The research proposes that anti-terrorist measures and immigration control policies in both the USA and the EU after 9/11 have altered the migratory map of West Africa, whilst failing to curb people’s aspirations to depart and seek a better life.

To read

16.09.2011 | by P.J. Marcellino

Sorcery Trials, Cultural Relativism and Local Hegemonies

Sorcery Trials, Cultural Relativism and Local Hegemonies Stating that sorcery exists in Mozambique is a mere declaration of an obvious and recurring fact. People may use it in order to obtain active results or to protect oneself from undesirable events, in the pursuance of legitimate or illegitimate, beneficial or malevolent goals. The effectiveness of this practice is, nonetheless, an issue that tends to divide readers between outspoken scepticism, attitudes of plausible doubt, complex speeches about its symbolic efficacy, and a somewhat apprehensive fear or agreement.

To read

15.09.2011 | by Paulo Granjo

Dockanema 2011

Dockanema 2011 This year, as we embark on the sixth edition of Dockanema, my purpose is also one of remembrance, so that we do not forget the importance of documentaries in our society, and above all in our collective memory. To reaffirm this purpose once more, there could be no better choice for the opening of the 6th Dockanema than the Patrício Guzman film Nostalgia da Luz, in an edition intended to pay homage to the master filmmaker Ruy Guerra.

Afroscreen

07.09.2011 | by Pedro Pimenta

Who fears lusosphere?

Who fears lusosphere? It is undeniable that in Lisbon there is a natural approximation of Portuguese-speaking people, not Portuguese of nationality, even when they do not share the same race and culture. National differences reduce face to the discrimination which all are submitted to. And it makes full sense to think about this reduction as a need for resistance to discrimination, because the metropole turns homogeneous all the ex-colonized, grouping them in the categories of “nigger”, “black”, “immigrant”.

To read

03.09.2011 | by António Tomás