Observing the largest gathering of black people I had ever seen in Amsterdam, I realised that their pain was familiar, yet we knew so little of each other, separated not just by geography and language, but also by a suppression of our stories.
15/10/2020
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Since the Covid 19 pandemic people have realised that 'while individualism had worked for them in times of stability, it would get them nowhere in times of stress. They needed one another.', writes Sisonke Msimang in an essay for the exhibition ‘A Fair Share of Utopia’.
05/10/2020
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Scene after scene of intense beauty and horror are almost minutely described in Maaza Mengiste monumental novel The Shadow King.
19/10/2020
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Inside a Nigerian queer community safe house.
19/10/2020
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Tales of a salt farmer and a people reinventing and adapting through coronavirus have caught the eye of this year's Ugandan and Kenyan winners.
19/10/2020
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Book Review | The Old Drift
Blog /From Namwanli Serpell's novel emerges a Zambia that is vibrant, energetic and full of life. But it is certainly not a paradise.
12/10/2020
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‘If you would die today and reincarnate one generation later, in what world would you want to be born, regardless of where or who you are?’ This is the question posed to the artists of ‘A Fair Share of Utopia’ that inspired them to create new works for Nest (The Hague) and CBK Zuidoost (Amsterdam).
28/09/2020
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Last year in the Netherlands, the ethnographic museums drew up guidelines for the restitution of artifacts stolen during colonialism. A special commission was formed to evaluate possible claims. Is this really such good news for the countries in which the art was made?
24/08/2020
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A corona-proof interactive walk will take you through the colonial history of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and South Africa.
07/09/2020
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South African gay coming of age films are becoming a genre.
17/09/2020
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In Tsitsi Dangarembga's new novel, nominated for the 2020 International Booker Prize, shame and rage reign before the main character comes to terms with herself.
28/09/2020
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What does a world without racism looks like? And how do we get there? Inspired by an Afrofuturistic graphic novel, filmmakers Ikenna Azuike, Soraya Pol and Mette te Velde explore a world beyond them and us.
28/09/2020
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Shortly before the inaugural ZAM Nelson Mandela Lecture started, an iconic picture of the South African freedom fighter and statesman found its way to the stage of the Amsterdam City Theatre. It was shot by George Hallett, who died in Cape Town on July 1st 2020.
13/07/2020
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West African Portraiture from Independence into the 21st Century. Meet Rachid Bissiriou, Sanlé Sory, Leonce Raphal Agbodjélou and others.
28/09/2020
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Nimbe is an anti-narcotic frontier film recently released on Netflix. It exposes the country's moral and social anarchy.
27/08/2020
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Feeling at home in both worlds without denying oneself. The migrants odyssey is the guiding theme through this year's edition.
28/09/2020
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A German conservative politician has accused the Cameroonian historian and social scientist of antisemitism and demanded that an invitation for him to speak at a cultural festival in Germany be withdrawn.
20/07/2020
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Sistaaz of the Castle
Blog /A fashion book by transgender sex workers from Cape Town. Life on the edge of the Castle of Good Hope.
13/07/2020
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Images from Mozambique, the DRC and Angola offer the viewer a window from which to observe the brick-and-mortar residue left by the collapse of regimes.
10/08/2020
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‘Sandwich’ helps tech giants avoid tax in Africa via the Netherlands and Ireland
13/07/2020
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Celebrating the five year anniversary of Juul van der Laan’s documentary Multiverse Ghana with a free viewing
23/06/2020
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Talking #cancelculture
Blog /Amid the furore about #cancelculture it may be appropriate to commemorate the outrage that targeted Achille Mbembe, Cameroonian historian and social scientist, and a profound thinker and visionary, earlier this year.
20/07/2020
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This month 35 years ago, a rain of bullets by a South African death squad ended the life and career of artist and activist Thami Mnyele. The Thami Mnyele Foundation, that welcomed 127 African artists in its studio in Amsterdam, kept his ideas alive.
15/06/2020
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After braving seas, bandits and jungle, African migrants are now stuck at Mexico's border.
11/06/2020
Build Solidarity. Join ZAM.
Sandberg Instituut—Graduation 2020
Tsoku Maela
Morphing the Stories of the PastTsoku Maela (1989, Lebowakgomo, South Africa) went to a film school with no intention to become an artist. When he started to make pictures, he found that the self-portraits he shot impacted positively on his manic depressions. Finally, he started writing as well. It all helps to better understand the world, to raise issues people fear to talk about and break through stigmas.