Next Future logo

IJGBs (I Just Got Back) - uma nova "classe"

Published6 Sep 2013

Tags nigéria diáspora The guardian Chibundu Onuzo

Sunday Alamba/AP

Os confrontos e contradições da diáspora nigeriana num artigo da jovem escritora Chibundu Onuzo no The Guardian.Os discursos coloniais, o desajuste à realidade e a desintegração, marcam este regresso dos jovens educados no estrangeiro e que são designados por IJGBs

"When IJGBs arrive on African soil, many come with a set of Victorian-era assumptions. The natives are backward. By natives I mean those who have not lived or worked or studied abroad. The native, with his questionable degree from a rundown local university, does not have the skills needed for a modern business world. Thus the best jobs should go to the IJGBs. They have not flown south and crossed the Atlantic to be clerks and graduate trainees. They are here to be district officers and bank managers and live in the best sequestered accommodation."

Todo o artigo pode ser lido aqui

Invisible Borders: Lagos-Sarajevo

O projecto Invisible Borders do nigeriano Emeka Okereke nasceu em 2009 e abre agora inscrições para a edição de 2014. Desta vez as fronteiras ultrapassam o continente africano e o trajeto é Lagos - Sarajevo. As candidaturas para artistas africanos estão abertas até 10 de Novembro.

“Invisible Borders Trans-African Photographers Organisation” is an artist-led initiative founded in 2009 by Emeka Okereke but officially registered in 2011 as a not-for-profit organisation under CAC in Nigeria.  (...) The main aim of the Organisation is to work with artists and Individuals to contribute through art and photography to the patching of numerous gaps and misconceptions posed by frontiers within the 54 countries of Africa. Beyond that the organisation hopes to expand its activities beyond issues that relate to geographic borders and other forms of discriminating parameters in photography and arts. It is a platform that also stands as a symbol of exchange of ideas between cultures and people."

Há maisinformações sobre o projeto aqui e sobre as candidaturas aqui

Pelo som

Published11 Aug 2013

Tags Emeka Ogboh nigéria lagos cidades

Emeka Ogboh, artista nigeriano, faz a caracterização de Lagos pelo som. A história, as dinâmicas e as suas personagens são capturadas em registos recentemente apresentados ao público. 

"LAGOS SOUNDSCAPES HAVE A STRONG IMPACT ON THE IMAGINATION. THEY CANNOT BE IGNORED."

 I live and work in Lagos. I am deeply embedded in the city, just like everyone else living there. There is no way you can ignore the pervasive influence of Lagos. From the moment you wake up until you go to bed, you are affected by the city. As an artist, it’s normal that one’s place of domicile becomes the starting point of one’s work. Lagos is a very dynamic city and nothing is predictable. Things keep evolving at a fast and constant pace, which make for an interesting narrative. It is a city of many faces and parallels. It is the unpredictability of Lagos which informs my work.

Sobre o trabalho e sobre o artista pode saber-se mais aqui. Lagos Soundscapes pode ouvir-se aqui

Prémio Caine

A 14ª edição do Prémio Caine para a Literatura Africana foi ganha por Tope Folarin,  que nasceu cresceu e trabalha nos Estados Unidos, viveu um ano na Nigéria e seis meses na cidade do Cabo, e se difine como um escritor nigeriano na diáspora

"Miracle" é o conto que deu a Folarin o prémio de 10.000£ e que pela primeira vez é ganha por um autor na diáspora.

"I'm elated. I'm a writer situated in the Nigerian disapora, and the Caine prize means a lot - it feels like I'm connected to a long tradition of African writers. The Caine prize is broadening its definition and scope. I consider myself Nigerian and American, both identities are integral to who I am. To win ... feels like a seal of approval," Folarin said.

Pode ler-se o conto aqui e saber mais sobre o prémio e o autor aqui e aqui 

Wura-Natasha Ogunji

Published19 May 2013

Tags Wura-Natasha Ogunji CCA Lagos nigéria

© Ema Edosio

A nigeriana Wura-Natasha Ogunji apresentou em Abril, no CCA de Lagos, a peça "Will I still carry water when I'm a dead woman?". O artigo escrito por Wana Udobang uma das intervenientes na performance para ser lido no seu blog.

"As far back as I can remember, I have always been an artist’s guinea pig, whether its being an extra in my friends Claire or Ghandi’s student films or Victor Ehikhamenor’s installation piece for his exhibition ‘Entrances and Exits’, I am always a willing collaborator. This was the reason why when Nigerian/American artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji asked me to be a part of her performance piece titled‘Will I still carry water when I am a dead woman’, I couldn’t refuse. The idea she told me, would be myself and other women, dressed in mini jumpsuits carrying kegs of water strapped to our ankles walking through the inner streets of Sabo, Yaba led by Ogunji herself and documented by videographer  and film maker Ema Edosio. During hangouts with Ogunji, she had explained that she was very interested in using her work to explore women in public space. She had also mentioned her obsession with the Egungun masquerade and her curiosity as to why women were prohibited from the practice.

E sobre a artista nigeriana residente nos EUA podemos saber mais e acompanhar o seu percurso aqui

AMAA 2013 - Os Óscares do cinema africano

Serão conhceidos esta semana os "Óscares" do cinema africano. A partir da Nigéria, onde se situa uma das mais importantes industrias de cinema do mundo, a cerimónia dos AMAA 2013 premiará a produção e os criadores africanos.  "Virgem Margarida" de Licínio Azevedo, realizador brasileiro, radicado em Moçambique, tem sete nomeações, entre elas as de melhor filme e melhor atriz secundária.

Ficção e documentário, produções nacionais e realizações na dispora, são parte das diferentes categorias que o festival organizado pela Academia de Cinema Africano irá premiar no próximo dia 20 de Abril

"Established in 2005, AMAA aims to facilitate the development and relevance of African film & cinema by providing a rewards & recognition platform for film makers on the continent. African film makers work hard with very little and have, not through serendipity but through sheer audacity, managed to build the 3rd largest film industry in the world, and are poised to take poll position, beating America and India.

Today, African films serve as a link for Africans in the Diaspora with Africans at home. These films have the potential to serve as a shared collective experience, a reminder that Africa is a vibrant continent filled with colour, energy and possibility."

Pode acompanhar-se tudo aqui

Ainda a propósito da escrita - “If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.”

Published26 Mar 2013

Tags literatura nigéria chinua achebe

O NY Times publica uma crónica sobre a importância da escrita de Chinua Achebe, o nigeriano que nos últimos 50 anos influenciou a literatura africana e o olhar sobre África.

"It’s been more than 50 years since the publication of Mr. Achebe’s pioneering and canonical novel; it no longer seems to stand, to a Western audience at any rate, for African writing as a whole. His talent and success have helped spawn an array of postcolonial writing from across the continent. Among the talented young Nigerian writers alone who cite him as an influence are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and Lola Shoneyin."

Pode ler-se a crónica na íntegra aqui

Adolphus Opara

Published5 Mar 2013

Tags Adolphus Opara CCA Lagos fotografia nigéria

Emissaries of an Iconic Religion é o projecto que o fotografo nigeriano apresentará na próxima semana no CCA em Lagos, Nigéria.

"Emissaries of an Iconic Religion, the first major solo exhibition in Nigeria of Adolphus Opara. This photographic series of portraits of diviners from the regions of South-Western Nigeria invoke the symbols and narratives of indigenous religious belief, as well as its relevance and function within the society."

Pode saber-se mais sobre a exposição aqui e sobre o fotógrafo aqui

"It needs joy to wash away our pain.”

Published12 Feb 2013

Tags nigéria CAN 2013 Futebol

A Nigéria foi a vencedora do CAN 2013. É mais do que uma vitória desportiva, é a necessidade de uma alegria comum para lá de todas as feridas abertas.

"Thousands gathered in the northern city of Kano to watch their side clinch the title, ignoring a curfew imposed because of attacks by Boko Haram, an extremist Muslim group, in recent months. “I am so happy,” said Ismail Mudashir, a fan. “Nigeria needs this to bring people together. It needs joy to wash away our pain.”  Two days earlier, gunmen in Kano killed nine health-workers who were administrating polio vaccinations."

Toda a notícia aqui

This Is Africa's New Biggest City: Lagos, Nigeria, Population 21 Million

Published10 Jul 2012

Tags urbanismo lagos nigéria cidades África

The West African metropolis has surpassed Cairo in size, according to the New York Times.

In a celebration of Lagos and African urbanization, the Financial Times ran a piece by Xan Rice highlighting Nigeria's commercial capital's size, its economic importance, and its government's energy in addressing concrete urban problems.
The UN estimated the city's population at 11.2 million in 2011. The New York Times estimates that it is now at least twenty-one million, surpassing Cairo as Africa's largest city. It is clear that whatever the size, and however the city is defined, Lagos is the center of one of the largest urban areas in the world. With a population of perhaps 1.4 million as recently as 1970, its growth has been stupendous. Rice estimates that Lagos generates about a quarter of Nigeria's total gross domestic product. The center of Nigeria's modern economy, Lagos has many millionaires, but Rice estimates that two thirds of the population are slum dwellers.
Lagos is fortunate in that one energetic governor, Babatunde Fashola, succeeded another, Bola Tinubu. Tax revenue now exceeds $92m per month, up from $3.7m per month in 1999. Fashola says that tax rates have not increased--but clearly enforcement has. Tax collection, in a system that recalls tax farming in the New Testament or under Louis XIV, is apparently performed by a private company with links to Tinubu. The company retains 10 percent of all revenue collected over a certain threshold (at present, $43m per month). With the revenue, Fashola has launched genuinely impressive transportation and sanitation initiatives that range from construction of a city rail network, bus lanes, and filling potholes to more efficient trash collection.
The energy and other initiatives implemented by the city government are in stark contrast to the poor governance and paralysis that characterizes most of the rest of Nigeria. Meanwhile, the city continues to grow explosively. If jobs in the modern economy are to be found, it will require substantial new investment in education. Nationwide, there has been remarkably little for a generation, with the exception of the rapid expansion of the university system--itself underfunded. But, Lagos illustrates what is possible when the government enters into a social contract with its citizens whereby in return for taxes, it provides services. 


in The Atlantic.

"LES DÉLOGÉS DE LAGOS"

Published2 Apr 2012

Tags África cidades lagos nigéria

Lagos, capitale économique du Nigeria. Ici, le pétrole est roi, les dollars sont brassés par millions. Le pays est le 11e exportateur mondial d’or noir. Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Total, Agip se pressent en contrebas, dans le delta du Niger, où il affleure la terre. Les dégâts de cette surexploitation sont multiples : détournement de pétrole, corruption des fonctionnaires locaux, pollution des sols, rébellion des populations dans des mouvements armés.

À Lagos, il est une catégorie de victimes dont on ne parle jamais : les expulsés, les délogés, les sans-toits. Ceux qui ont été poussés dehors par l’explosion du prix des terrains. Poussés dehors, en somme, par les expatriés, les nouveaux riches et leur niveau de vie.

Continuar a ler no 6MOIS.

"How to change your view of Africa"

Published6 Feb 2012

Tags África chimurenga jornal lagos nigéria simon kuper

Chimurenga, a pan-African English-language journal, depicts the continent’s horrors, sometimes from very close...

I once had coffee in Cape Town with a Cameroonian named Ntone Edjabe. He ran an English-language journal called Chimurenga, but what I remembered from our chat were his vignettes of Lagos (where he’d studied) and Johannesburg (where he went next). In Lagos, he said, you’d be driving down the highway and suddenly see a guy selling cars on the highway. Lagos was crazy, and yet it felt entirely safe. Whereas Johannesburg seemed sane, but never felt safe.

I sent Edjabe some articles, but otherwise forgot about Chimurenga until a recent issue arrived in the mail. (Declaration of interest: I’m proud to say I have an article in it.) I read it and was staggered. I’d always thought the zenith of journalism was The New Yorker, but in parts, Chimurenga is better.

It’s also more surprising: I love well-off media types from New York or London, but by now we do tend to know how they think. By contrast, reading Chimurenga you keep thinking, “Who knew?” Who knew that (as one article recounts) Bloemfontein has a literary scene of authors and critics writing for no money, guided by a Nigerian immigrant, and headquartered in an Afrikaans literature museum? Chimurenga changes your view of Africa, and of journalism.

Para ler o artigo completo de Simon Kuper, basta clicar aqui.

"Delta Nigeria - The Rape of Paradise", George Osodi

Published26 Dec 2011

Tags delta georges osodi nigéria the rape of paradise

(George Osodi, Pipeline, 2006, from the series Oil Rich Niger Delta,

2003-2010. All rights George Osodi)

On Tuesday evening, George Osodi gave a talk at Foto8 in London then had a public conversation with Julian Stallabrass. I discovered Osodi's amazing photos at the last edition of Documenta and there was no way i'd miss his presentation.

The Nigerian photographer is one of those rare photo-reporters whose work is shown in newspapers as well as in art galleries around the world (you can check his photos right now in the Oil Show at HMKV in Dortmund). He was in London to discuss the Oil Rich Niger Delta series and his new book Delta Nigeria - The Rape of Paradise on the oil exploitation in the Delta region of his country.

Nigeria is West Africa's largest producer of crude oil but years of corruption and poor governance has left the southern Niger Delta desperately poor, its environment devastated by oil spills and gas flares and other environmental hazards as a result of activities of the oil companies in the region.

The story of Oil Rich Niger Delta started almost 10 years ago when Osodi decided to leave his well-paid job as a banker to buy a camera and teach himself photography. It didn't start too well. First of all, no one in Nigeria, he said, takes photography seriously and he received no encouragement from neither his friends nor his family.

Para saber mais, basta ir aqui.

estrelas rap ou hip-hop na Nigeria

Published17 Oct 2011

Tags hip-hop lagos música nigéria rap

               2face Idibia (Photograph: John Rogers/Getty Images)

It is a country where every other youngster wants to be a rap or hip-hop star. And for those who make it in Nigeria these days, the rewards can be greater – and certainly more international – than ever.

Take singer-songwriter D'banj. Kanye West just did, signing him up for his GOOD (Getting Out Our Dreams) music label. Then there is Wizkid, recently named best African act at the Mobo awards in Glasgow.

All this has come in a year in which Trace Urban, a French-owned international music TV network, has begun broadcasting in Nigeria.

D'banj is living the new Nigerian Dream – superstardom beyond what anyone could have imagined in the late 1990s when Kennis Music, a local record label, took the first steps towards a revival of mainstream Nigerian music culture.

As D'banj steps on stage in a stadium in Lagos in a sparkling black shirt and blue trousers, the large space transforms into one huge mass of excitement, with kicking, screaming, shoving and frenzied mobile phone recording. He stops then throws both hands in the air in a salute.

Naipaul, "The Masque of Africa – Glimpses of African belief"

 

(Versão brasileira de Marcos Bagno, 2011)

É a última obra de V.S. Naipaul, o Nobel da literatura nascido nas ilhas de Trinidad, e é um livro de viagens a seis países africanos. Começa pelo Uganda, onde o autor esteve uma primeira vez em 1966, e depois descreve em narrativas autónomas a Nigéria, o Gana, a Costa do Marfim, o Gabão e acaba em Joanesburgo.

As descrições dos países não têm continuidade de uns para outros, salvo situações muito pontuais, e isso introduz desde logo a ideia da diversidade dos países e a negação da África como um continente homogéneo. O livro que o acaso fez com que fosse lido numa recentíssima tradução brasileira tem muitas qualidades que decorrem naturalmente do talento do escritor mas sobretudo por este assumir um ponto de vista crítico sem nenhuma complacência ou relativismo cultural face aos países e situações que encontra e descreve. Os outros aspectos particularmente fascinantes decorrem do facto do autor, que conhece profundamente a história pré-colonial destes países, nos relatar com pormenores a genealogia de muitos destes reinos, costumes, tradições, línguas e, sem nunca assumir uma descrição neutral, nos dar uma visão a partir deste olhar “interior” sobre estas realidades.

De um modo ou de outro perpassa em todas as narrativas uma reflexão e um questionar subtil das consequências das independências nestes países e mesmo o fim do apartheid na África do Sul inquestionavelmente exaltado lhe merece várias perguntas sobre o legado negativo que o mesmo provocou na sociedade sul-africana de hoje: “Nas palavras do extraordinário escritor sul-africano Rian Malan (nascido em 1954) – buscando sempre sem retórica ou falsidade e, de modo quase religioso, uma explicação para o sofrimento racial do seu país –, os brancos construíram uma base lunar para a sua civilização; quando ela desmoronou, não havia nada ali para os negros ou brancos” (pág. 246). E mais adiante há um tabu que o interpela: “Mas um pouco como Fatima (nome de uma personagem) em busca de sua identidade, eu me senti encurralado na África do Sul, e vi que aqui raça era tudo e um pouco mais; que a raça mergulha tão fundo quanto a religião em outros lugares” (pág. 253).

Finalmente, seja no Uganda, na Nigéria ou na África do Sul, há páginas dedicadas aos ‘horrores’ que são as descrições de práticas de feitiçaria, bazares inteiros de pedaços de corpos de animais vendidos como amuletos de protecções ou ritos de sacrifício, que muitos africanos reclamam como práticas identitárias e que Naipaul não tolera e denuncia não admitindo a este propósito qualquer relativismo cultural.

António Pinto Ribeiro

"Moments of Beauty" com J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos presents Moments of Beauty, a groundbreaking exhibition of work by the Nigerian artist J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere. Occasionally elegiac, but invariably elegant, the photographs in this exhibition reflect what the artist deems as "moments of beauty," referring to the ebullience of Nigerian life engendered by independence and decolonisation.

The exhibition highlights the breadth and depth of Ojeikere's practice, chronicling his experiences as a visual artist and commercial photographer by presenting works that cover a range of subjects including architecture, education, fashion, social life and cultural festivals. This first comprehensive survey of Ojeikere's work to date, with over 150 works, marks the beginning of rigorous scholarship and engagement with the artist's practice, which spans more than half of a century. As such Moments of Beauty provides in-depth perspectives to the practice of an artist whose formidable archive has become an important anthropological, ethnographic, and artistic treasure.

Para saber mais basta ir aqui.

Rediscovering African Geographies: últimos dias, em Londres

Orbis Terrae, in "Atlas sive Cosmographicae" (1595), Gerard Mercator 

Últimos dias para espreitar a exposição "Rediscovering African Geographies" na Royal Geographical Society em Londres!

From the great African Kings and Empires from 3000BC to the complex trade networks and migration of Africans within the continent and across the world, the Society's new Rediscovering African Geographies exhibition uses maps, photographs and literature from our Collections to travel through Africa’s history.

Rediscovering African Geographies shows, from an African perspective, how culture, international relations, language and conflict have shaped the geography we know today. It reveals often neglected stories and how these records of African societies, cultures and landscapes helped shape and inform European views of this continent and its people.

The exhibition, which runs from 22 March 2011 to 28 April 2011, has been created with African community partners representing the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and South Africa. It's free to visit and will be held at the Society premises, Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm.

The exhibition features Africans such as James Chuma, Abdullah Susi and Sidi Mubarak Bombay who made important contributions to the Victorian expeditions undertaken by David Livingstone and others that were supported by the Society.

Tudo o que é preciso saber aqui e um óptimo audio-slideshow da BBC aqui.

Lúcia Marques

Mais Nollywood

Published10 Jan 2011

Tags África cinema nigéria nollywood

It is hard to avoid Nigerian films in Africa. Public buses show them, as do many restaurants and hotels. Nollywood, as the business is known, churns out about 50 full-length features a week, making it the world’s second most prolific film industry after India’s Bollywood. The Nigerian business capital, Lagos, is said by locals to have produced more films than there are stars in the sky. The streets are flooded with camera crews shooting on location. Only the government employs more people.

Agradecimentos a Frederico Duarte pela sugestão.