In the winter of 2010 ZAM published a twelve-page photo feature of Fela Kuti’s 1981 Paris concert by famous photographer-of-the-stars Anton Corbijn. Most images had not been previously published or digitized. Corbijn had found them in the archives of his studio in London and had donated to ZAM the right to publish these. Prior to this gesture a meeting, organised by one of Corbijn’s relatives, had taken place between the photographer and ZAM-editor-in-chief Bart Luirink. Told that visual artist...
In the winter of 2010 ZAM published a twelve-page photo feature of Fela Kuti’s 1981 Paris concert by famous photographer-of-the-stars Anton Corbijn. Most...
Ghana’s undercover reporters expose a local ‘mommy’ who starved orphans whilst making them clap and sing for ‘voluntourists’ “Sing! You must sing when there are visitors. You know that they bring donations but you just sit there looking reluctant. If you don’t sing loudly, and clap, I’ll whip you later, I promise!” The ‘mommy’ of Bawjiase Countryside Orphanage in Ghana, Emma Boafo, is not joking when she sternly warns the orphans in her care to perform for the many ‘voluntourists’ and supporters...
Ghana’s undercover reporters expose a local ‘mommy’ who starved orphans whilst making them clap and sing for ‘voluntourists’ “Sing! You must sing when...
"If you don’t behave, we’ll skin you and no one will know”, says one of the men dressed in suits. It is Monday 16 March, 4 PM, and I find myself surrounded after just having left a meeting in the neighbourhood of Bon Marché, one of Kinshasa’s central districts. About twelve men in neat suit-and-tie have suddenly materialized out of four black cars parked alongside the street. In a flash I am handcuffed and thrown into one of the cars. I could have expected this. I am not supposed to be in this...
"If you don’t behave, we’ll skin you and no one will know”, says one of the men dressed in suits. It is Monday 16 March, 4 PM, and I find myself...
Assassinations and thug rule underpin president’s third term bid in Burundi The people of Gitega street in Bujumbura all talk in a whisper. Violence hasn’t erupted yet in this middle class neighbourhood, but life is certainly not normal. “People disappear without trace. Guns are being distributed to civilians,” says Athanase Nirorera, a mechanic, who lives in one of the houses here. His neighbour, teacher Dieudonné Bigirimana, won’t tell me who he supports, the President or the opposition, only...
Assassinations and thug rule underpin president’s third term bid in Burundi The people of Gitega street in Bujumbura all talk in a whisper. Violence...
Images that won this years’ Contemporary African Photography Prize are full of gaps and wonder The best story a photographer can tell lies in images that still leave something to guess and stimulate the imagination. Four years ago, French photographer Romaric Tisserand (1974, Toulouse) found six rolls of negatives on a street in Lisbon. He printed one-hundred-and-sixty-six of the images. Together, fitted in colourful frames, they have become ‘Ultramar, the story of the Empire Travel Club.’ They...
Images that won this years’ Contemporary African Photography Prize are full of gaps and wonder The best story a photographer can tell lies in images that...
Behind Botswana’s happy and prosperous image lie some disconcerting truths When, in January, the website of investigative weekly Mmegi went blank for a week, editor Ntibinyane Ntibinyane didn’t hesitate before he accused the country’s Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) of hacking. After all, his newspaper routinely ‘follows the money’ in diamond-rich Botswana and a number of incidents last year had made two things increasingly clear: one, that many in the ruling elite didn’t appreciate...
Behind Botswana’s happy and prosperous image lie some disconcerting truths When, in January, the website of investigative weekly Mmegi went blank for a...
{gallery}multiversepartners{/gallery} Film posters for the film Multiverse: Ghana by Juul van der Laan arrived. This film is a creative exploration of science in Ghana. A journey into ambition, unconventional methodology and determination. The world premiere will take place on Wednesday 24 june 2015 at De Balie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The event is co-organized by De Balie and ZAM with support by NWO-WOTRO. Find more info about the premiere on ZAM event page .
{gallery}multiversepartners{/gallery} Film posters for the film Multiverse: Ghana by Juul van der Laan arrived. This film is a creative exploration of...
This is a summarised and edited version of a (highly recommended) full long-read, first published on ‘The Big Round Table’. Read it HERE . In the early 2000’s, two serial killers roamed Swaziland. Only one of them was human. In mid-March of 2001, twenty-six-year-old Samantha Kgasi-Ngobese disappeared. She had planned to travel to Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland, to apply for a job at the High Court. Samantha had a law degree from the University of Swaziland and was hoping to use it. But at the...
This is a summarised and edited version of a (highly recommended) full long-read, first published on ‘The Big Round Table’. Read it HERE . In the early...
The French anti-jihadist forces’ new romance with Touareg rebels in the north is making Mali’s government very unhappy. When French President François Hollande visited Timbuktu in 2013 after Operation Serval, -in which a French-led western force liberated the northern Mali region from a repressive jihadist regime-, he was applauded and cheered in the streets. At a festive ceremony in the city’s main square the grateful Malian people also presented him with a lavishly dressed camel. But that...
The French anti-jihadist forces’ new romance with Touareg rebels in the north is making Mali’s government very unhappy. When French President François...
ZAM starts seven African-European transnational investigations Whether it's diamonds or development aid, human trafficking or voluntary migration, billion-dollar arms deals or terrorism, Africa and Europe increasingly deal with the same global issues. Media reports, views, observations and data used for international decision making, however, have been traditionally skewed towards more 'European' than African input. Seven transnational investigations by teams of African and European investigative...
ZAM starts seven African-European transnational investigations Whether it's diamonds or development aid, human trafficking or voluntary migration,...
Brothers in photography, Hasan and Husain Essop, unveil the shadows of Cape Town’s past and present {gallery}HasanHusainEssop{/gallery} Muslims in South Africa’s Cape province, descendants from the dissenters and slaves trafficked there from the Indian Ocean Islands by the Dutch East India Company, are often labelled as Cape Town’s picturesque others. Not in the pictures of Hasan and Husain Essop (1985, Cape Town). The Essop brothers move beyond the expected and play with fixed notions of place and...
Brothers in photography, Hasan and Husain Essop, unveil the shadows of Cape Town’s past and present {gallery}HasanHusainEssop{/gallery} Muslims in South...
An exploration of power, the fear it generates and love in all its magical, addictive forms. Exclusive excerpt. William Mawolo is sent to a small remote Liberian border town with a clandestine agenda: to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the paramount chief Tetese. The townspeople however are far from happy about his presence, and matters are complicated by Mawolo’s attachment to the missing chief’s daughter Makemeh; who is unconcerned about her missing father. Presented as ‘crime...
An exploration of power, the fear it generates and love in all its magical, addictive forms. Exclusive excerpt. William Mawolo is sent to a small remote...
Celebrating his achievements, continuing his struggle On Saturday 18 July people worldwide will join in Mandela Day activities. They volunteer in social movements and participate in good causes for at least 67 minutes. This number is based on the years Mandela spent on activism, freedom struggle and statesmanship. International Mandela Day was launched five years ago with the support of the United Nations. For the first time, the celebration of Mandela Day will now be held in The Netherlands and...
Celebrating his achievements, continuing his struggle On Saturday 18 July people worldwide will join in Mandela Day activities. They volunteer in social...
We were there: an evening with Ogutu Muraya, a Kenyan writer, theatre maker and storyteller. On Thursday the 9th of July, 2015, Muraya gave a performance at the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development in Amsterdam, as part of its ‘Cultural Defiance’ event series. Most of his stories are based on true events driven by the past, living memories about cultural, social and political events in Kenya and the region. Muraya shared three stories with the audience. In ‘Nobody Knows My Name’ he recalls...
We were there: an evening with Ogutu Muraya, a Kenyan writer, theatre maker and storyteller. On Thursday the 9th of July, 2015, Muraya gave a performance...
In the past two months, Isabelle Dusabe worked with the ZAM team in Amsterdam. Living in Belgium from Rwandan descent, Dusabe joined ZAM in order to improve her Dutch. Why? We don’t know but Isabelle says it might improve her chances of getting a job in Belgium. However, Dusabe’s real passion is dance. Something that can do without language, can’t it? 'I love dance with a capital D. When I was young and living in Rwanda it started with hiphop, house, Jamaican dancehall and modern jazz. Then the...
In the past two months, Isabelle Dusabe worked with the ZAM team in Amsterdam. Living in Belgium from Rwandan descent, Dusabe joined ZAM in order to...
We are at the West India House, the former headquarters of the Dutch West India Company notoriously known for its history of slave trade. Colonialism and slavery are the themes of the recently launched Black Amsterdam Heritage Tours founded by Jennifer Tosch. So it’s the proper place to gather for a tour with 35 participants on July 16, 2015, organized by the ZAM team as a gesture of appreciation to all volunteers, partners and friends of the movement. Initially, Tosch came to Amsterdam for a...
We are at the West India House, the former headquarters of the Dutch West India Company notoriously known for its history of slave trade. Colonialism and...
Finally, The Netherlands launched its own edition of the International Nelson Mandela Day. Last Saturday, July 18, 2015, the Amsterdam based Kwaku Summer Festival was the meeting point for Mandela friends and admirers. ZAM, the South African Embassy , Afrovibes , South African Tourism , Maandblad Zuid-Afrika and, last but not least, the local ‘Samen door Mandela’ initiative gathered at a special pavilion. The audience was entertained by speakers, musicians (Berita! Tutu Poane!), poets (Diana...
Finally, The Netherlands launched its own edition of the International Nelson Mandela Day. Last Saturday, July 18, 2015, the Amsterdam based Kwaku Summer...
Our friends at the amazing Contemporary And (C&) website interviewed young South African artist Lebohang Kganye about her special relation to her grandfather, the idea of performance and being born after 1989 in Johannesburg. Read the whole story at www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/stories-about-my-granddad/
Our friends at the amazing Contemporary And (C&) website interviewed young South African artist Lebohang Kganye about her special relation to her...
Photos by Hans Mooren Photos by Hans Mooren View the embedded image gallery online at: https://www.zammagazine.com/arts?start=231#sigProIdfb36b7b884
Photos by Hans Mooren Photos by Hans Mooren View the embedded image gallery online at: https://www.zammagazine.com/arts?start=231#sigProIdfb36b7b884
A forced ‘child marriage’ threatened seventeen-year old Ghanaian Felicia Anongo’s pursuit of education. Or did it? When a couple of teenage girls reported a case of forced ‘child marriage’ they had come across, I put my other work on hold and took off to Nimpu village, eight hours by car from Accra, to see if something could be done to rescue 17-year old Felicia Anongo. But the story I found was different. It made me wonder why, amid the worldwide focus on the plight of the child in ‘forced...
A forced ‘child marriage’ threatened seventeen-year old Ghanaian Felicia Anongo’s pursuit of education. Or did it? When a couple of teenage girls...
A Ghanaian photographer joined the hunt for a ‘most wanted’ pirate fishing ship Crime, exploitation, fish poaching and other forms of piracy pervade the high seas. Ghanaian photographer Selase Kove-Seyram joined a New York Times reporting project on this and found himself chasing a mammoth pirate fishing ship on rather wobbly legs. Standing on the deck of a 400-foot ship, hundreds of miles from the West African coast in the South Atlantic Ocean, I looked over at Ian Urbina, the New York Times...
A Ghanaian photographer joined the hunt for a ‘most wanted’ pirate fishing ship Crime, exploitation, fish poaching and other forms of piracy pervade the...
