Issue # 05
Greetings from Cape Town, Amsterdam, Kyoto, Nairobi and the Nigerian desert
Are you ready for this year's Africa Day?
This year's celebration of Africa Day brings you five days of music, talks, club nights, films and networking both online and in real life In a unique collaboration between Omek, Amsterdam’s home for the global bicultural community, and Africadelic, celebraters of all things Afrodisaporic, this event will centre around Africa Day, which marks the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity. Though Africa Day has been celebrated every year since May 25th 1963, its recognition varies...
This year's celebration of Africa Day brings you five days of music, talks, club nights, films and networking both online and in real life In a unique collaboration between Omek, Amsterdam’s home for the global bicultural community, and Africadelic, celebraters of all things...
African photography is rarely exhibited in Japan. For the past ten years Kyotographie , the largest international photography festival in the archipelago, has been doing its best to reverse this underrepresentation and reveal the continent’s talents in Japan. For a month, until last weekend, Prince Gyasi’s pictures flew over the heads of shoppers in an old-school shopping arcade in the centre of Kyoto, the former imperial capital of Japan. The young Ghanaian artist took the pictures at his local...
African photography is rarely exhibited in Japan. For the past ten years Kyotographie , the largest international photography festival in the archipelago, has been doing its best to reverse this underrepresentation and reveal the continent’s talents in Japan. For a month, until last...
Two exhibitions, one in Cape Town and the other 8000 kilometres away in Amsterdam, showcase the works of South African artist Neo Matloga, win-ner of the 2021 ABN AMRO Art Award. Déjà Vu, Neo Matloga’s first solo exhibition in Cape Town, opened earlier this month at Stevenson Gallery. In this exhibition, Matloga moves away from the cinematic, interconnected narratives that characterised his previ-ous bodies of work. Instead, the artist’s new works are individual scenes that herald a new chapter of...
Two exhibitions, one in Cape Town and the other 8000 kilometres away in Amsterdam, showcase the works of South African artist Neo Matloga, win-ner of the 2021 ABN AMRO Art Award. Déjà Vu, Neo Matloga’s first solo exhibition in Cape Town, opened earlier this month at Stevenson...
April 6th used to be a public holiday in Apartheid South Africa. It was supposed to be the day that Jan Van Riebeeck arrived in South Africa in 1652 as the chief colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company’s new colonial settlement to settle what is now Cape Town. Who of my generation does not know this? It was drilled into all our minds at primary (read: elementary) school. And even if we were not lucky enough to go to school, the mythology certainly did not pass us by. The version of...
April 6th used to be a public holiday in Apartheid South Africa. It was supposed to be the day that Jan Van Riebeeck arrived in South Africa in 1652 as the chief colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company’s new colonial settlement to settle what is now Cape Town. Who of...
Only by grasping the political processes that reproduce death, destruction and destitution will Kenyans finally exorcise the demons of their history. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness in this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:12 The first episode of the popular Netflix series Narcos opens with the title card: “Magical realism is defined as what happens when a...
Only by grasping the political processes that reproduce death, destruction and destitution will Kenyans finally exorcise the demons of their history. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness in...
While the resources herders and farmers compete over – fertile land and water – are rapidly dwindling, the populations of both groups are fast growing. The result? Distrust. Attacks. Counterattacks. Even more distrust. And then a seemingly unending cycle of brutality and bloodbath. A bare-chested old man lies in the emergency room of a government hospital in northeast Nigeria. An intravenous line sticks out from his right arm and an arrow from his left shoulder. A second arrow, with the tip now...
While the resources herders and farmers compete over – fertile land and water – are rapidly dwindling, the populations of both groups are fast growing. The result? Distrust. Attacks. Counterattacks. Even more distrust. And then a seemingly unending cycle of brutality and bloodbath....
Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki, who has died at the age of 90, was born of November 15,1931 in Othaya, Nyeri, in the central highlands of Kenya. He spent a lifetime in public service. He served as president of Kenya – the third after independence – from 2002 to 2013, a critical period in Kenya’s transition from a one party state to democracy. He also served as the fourth vice-president (1978 to 1988) under President Daniel arap Moi. To his friends and admirers, Kibaki was a gentleman who survived the...
Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki, who has died at the age of 90, was born of November 15,1931 in Othaya, Nyeri, in the central highlands of Kenya. He spent a lifetime in public service. He served as president of Kenya – the third after independence – from 2002 to 2013, a critical period...
Colonial legacies, fundraising difficulties as well as a structural lack of interest from many African governments towards contemporary art and culture still complicate the march towards equal representation of countries in the Venice Biennale. These are the words of Anna Kućma, ZAM's new photo and web editor. In this magazine she guides you through the African share in what is probably the world's leading explosion of contemporary art. The good news: in the upcoming edition, opening on April 23,...
Colonial legacies, fundraising difficulties as well as a structural lack of interest from many African governments towards contemporary art and culture still complicate the march towards equal representation of countries in the Venice Biennale. These are the words of Anna Kućma,...
The Venice Biennial, officially opening on April 23, is perhaps Europe’s most glamorous international forum for contemporary art. During the opening week of the exhibition there are more artists, curators, collectors, and art critics gathered in one place at one time than seem to exist anywhere else in the world. The biennale format has inherited many characteristics from its forebears, the World Fairs. The event is organised around a format of international competition, with national exhibitions...
The Venice Biennial, officially opening on April 23, is perhaps Europe’s most glamorous international forum for contemporary art. During the opening week of the exhibition there are more artists, curators, collectors, and art critics gathered in one place at one time than seem to...
In this Zimbabwean activist’s view todays’ rulers of the country are no different from the colonial settlers. On April 12, Zimbabwean activist Peter Mutasa was presented with the Febe Elizabeth Velásquez Trade Union Rights Prize, which had been awarded to him a year earlier by the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV). With the prize, named after the murdered Salvadoran trade union leader Febe Elizabeth Vélasquez (1962-1989), the FNV honours people who have dedicated themselves in a special way...
In this Zimbabwean activist’s view todays’ rulers of the country are no different from the colonial settlers. On April 12, Zimbabwean activist Peter Mutasa was presented with the Febe Elizabeth Velásquez Trade Union Rights Prize, which had been awarded to him a year earlier by the...
Russia’ invasion of Ukraine in late February has already caused to two million refugees to flee the country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees predicts that another four million will be displaced if the conflict continues. Although all neighbouring European Union countries have pledged to accept refugees from Ukraine, as people flee across borders, a complicated story emerges of who are perceived and received as good, bad and ideal refugees in modern Europe. Take Poland — a country...
Russia’ invasion of Ukraine in late February has already caused to two million refugees to flee the country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees predicts that another four million will be displaced if the conflict continues. Although all neighbouring European Union...
Started by Thami Mazibuko, the Zondi space is a library, classroom and community literacy centre, built to serve its residents across generations. When Thami Mazibuko moved back to Zondi, Soweto, in 2015 having lived in the Johannesburg central business district for a few years, he quickly realised that there were no bookshops in that part of the township – let alone any Black-owned ones. “People in the townships and previously disadvantaged communities do not have access to books. Books are a...
Started by Thami Mazibuko, the Zondi space is a library, classroom and community literacy centre, built to serve its residents across generations. When Thami Mazibuko moved back to Zondi, Soweto, in 2015 having lived in the Johannesburg central business district for a few years, he...
How much airtime goes in one year, just to find out what is happening to one case of murder of a young man in South Africa? Or rather, times two? It is now two years ago that Tsepo Ndhlovu was killed by police officer Adolph Rikhotso at Groenvlei farm near Mookgophong, formerly Naboomspruit, in northern Limpopo province, on the 11th of March 2020. A quick count of the airtime used to try and break through the mountains of silence surrounding this case amounts to close to a thousand South African...
How much airtime goes in one year, just to find out what is happening to one case of murder of a young man in South Africa? Or rather, times two? It is now two years ago that Tsepo Ndhlovu was killed by police officer Adolph Rikhotso at Groenvlei farm near Mookgophong, formerly...
In the 2nd Dulcie September Lecture, Professor Jonathan Jansen, a prominent educationist, argues the murdered ANC Paris representative was consciously forgotten by her own movement because she was a person of integrity and honesty. 1. Until recently, few South Africans knew about a woman called Dulcie Evonne September. In my talks on leadership to companies, universities, churches, NGOs etc. I would often end my talks by putting up three large photos of courageous leaders---Mandela, Tutu, and...
In the 2nd Dulcie September Lecture, Professor Jonathan Jansen, a prominent educationist, argues the murdered ANC Paris representative was consciously forgotten by her own movement because she was a person of integrity and honesty. 1. Until recently, few South Africans knew about a...
Ghanaian journalists are driving an anti-LGBTIQ campaign that could result in one of the world’s harshest homophobic laws. When Ako* heard that an LGBTIQ community centre was going to open in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, the first thing she did was get herself a date. And then matching outfits.Calling an Uber on the day of the opening, she entered the words ‘LGBT community centre’ – and there it was. In a city of grand mosques and megachurches, there was a tiny point on the map that she felt...
Ghanaian journalists are driving an anti-LGBTIQ campaign that could result in one of the world’s harshest homophobic laws. When Ako* heard that an LGBTIQ community centre was going to open in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, the first thing she did was get herself a date. And then...
After serving six years at the board of our ZAM-net Foundation, Babah Tarawally will move on and explore new avenues in writing and social commentary. In March the board of ZAM bade farewell to Babah with drinks, a present - the recently published plea for "courage in literature" by writer Christine Otten, De ander bestaat niet - and warm words. These were spoken by Annelies Verdoolaege, chair of the board and, like Tarawally, a member of the board for the last six years. "We have done a lot...
After serving six years at the board of our ZAM-net Foundation, Babah Tarawally will move on and explore new avenues in writing and social commentary. In March the board of ZAM bade farewell to Babah with drinks, a present - the recently published plea for "courage in literature" by...
The winner of FOAM’s 2022 Paul Huf Award recreates the past to imagine a better future. In her debut series Ke Lafa-Kaka: Her Story (2013), the family albums of Lebohang Kganye, winner of the 2022 Paul Huf Award, form the basis for a search for the history of her mother, who died in 2010. Lebohang was 20 when she died. In the family home, three years after her death, she still found the clothes her mother wore. Kganye recognized them from the family photos and put them on. It was 'therapeutic,' she...
The winner of FOAM’s 2022 Paul Huf Award recreates the past to imagine a better future. In her debut series Ke Lafa-Kaka: Her Story (2013), the family albums of Lebohang Kganye, winner of the 2022 Paul Huf Award, form the basis for a search for the history of her mother, who died in...
The official Nelson Mandela Lecture portrait comes with the annual event. So this is Yvonne Owuor pictured on 6 February, 2022, the day the lecture was held as part of #ImagineMandela-Live! Official Portrait of Yvonne Owuor by Rachel Corner. Owuor’s picture was made by Rachel Corner, a documentary photographer based in Amsterdam. Corner’s work appeared in De Groene Amsterdammer , Vrij Nederland , NRC Handelsblad , ZAM Magazine and The Guardian . She is also a picture editor at De Groene...
The official Nelson Mandela Lecture portrait comes with the annual event. So this is Yvonne Owuor pictured on 6 February, 2022, the day the lecture was held as part of #ImagineMandela-Live! Official Portrait of Yvonne Owuor by Rachel Corner. Owuor’s picture was made by Rachel...
The West is losing ground in Africa, strategically, economically and diplomatically. But are the ones who have stepped in, most prominently China and Russia, any better than the West with its abominable African track record? Bram Posthumus thinks not. Will the continent finally take its destiny in its own hands? Bamako, Place de l’Indépendance, January 2020 . At a stone’s throw from the Institut Français, with its interminable roster of Malian talent showcases, yet another anti-France demonstration...
The West is losing ground in Africa, strategically, economically and diplomatically. But are the ones who have stepped in, most prominently China and Russia, any better than the West with its abominable African track record? Bram Posthumus thinks not. Will the continent finally take...
A new videoseries shows in five short episodes made by activists just how the plunder of their own countries by local leaders, thanks to (often less-than-ethical) trade relations with foreign companies and global kleptocracies, translates to international assets. Episode 1: Angola. The struggle of a mother living in a Luandan slum is one that requires all her might, each day, just to keep her child alive. With insufficient clean water, sanitation or electricity, virus-borne diseases like cholera...
A new videoseries shows in five short episodes made by activists just how the plunder of their own countries by local leaders, thanks to (often less-than-ethical) trade relations with foreign companies and global kleptocracies, translates to international assets. Episode 1: Angola....
your support enables African changemakers and creatives to work with even greater vigor to build fair and free societies. To agitate against abuse of power and theft. To shape a just future. In the fifteen years of our existence, ZAM has developed a unique solidarity model that connects internationally renowned artists and African changemakers and creatives. The artists donate work that ZAM offers to its subscribers, followers and sympathizers. The proceeds from sales enable us to move up with our...
your support enables African changemakers and creatives to work with even greater vigor to build fair and free societies. To agitate against abuse of power and theft. To shape a just future. In the fifteen years of our existence, ZAM has developed a unique solidarity model that...
