Photo and copyright: Régis Durand de Girard
It's official now. The Trophées des Arts Afro-Caribéens 2009 (the French Caribbean Arts Awards) have been given to the winners. Most interesting detail, the theme of most winners is slavery or black history. Best clip, best essay and best documentary have a slavery theme, and best film fiction is a film about a true story of colonial French black history. So listen and see the best of Afro-France in 2009. Also read the read the report of fxgpariscaraibe (French) here
Music
ARTISTE DE L'ANNÉE (Artist of the year)Davy Sicard
Origin: Réunion
MEILLEUR GROUPE(Best group)Magic System - Origin Ivory Coast
MEILLEUR CLIP (Best clip): Kamnouze
Kamnouse ft Fanny J mon Irreel
RÉVÉLATION DE L'ANNÉE (Revelation of the Year)Erik
Origin: Guadeloupe
MEILLEUR ALBUM (Best Album)Inspiration information vol 3 - Mulatu Astatké
Origin: Ethiopia / Grande-Bretagne
Literature
MEILLEUR ROMAN (Best novel): Les Caracteres sexuels secondaires - Tania de MontaigneThe anti-depression novel crucial for moments when you're having the blues, according to ELLE magazine It's the 3rd novel by Tania de Montaigne. The book is about a woman who got married and then left. A woman who returns home to her mother and asks how to be a woman like everyone else.
MEILLEUR ESSAI (Best essay): La France a-te-elle Aboli l’esclavage? - Nelly Schmidt 1848 marked the end of slavery for “the country of the rights of Man;” however, upon reading Nelly Schmidt’s scrupulous historical exploration, the question remains: “La France a-t-elle aboli l’esclavage?” [Did France abolish slavery?] or did it discretely pursue colonial politics in such a way as to secure a reservoir of cheap manpower and the control of overseas economy? In 1848, when France abolished slavery for the second time in its history, new colonial policies were set into place opening access to citizenship in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana. Nevertheless, one century later, in the midst of social and economic disaster, the conditions of the “nouveaux libres” were not much different from the previous. Why?
Film
MEILLEURE FICTION (Best fiction): Aliker - Guy Deslauriers
Aliker, a new film by Guy Deslauriers, narrates the story of André Aliker, the Martinican journalist assassinated in 1934. The film is based on a script by Martinican novelist Patrick Chamoiseau.
André Aliker, a communist militant who wrote for Justice, the newspaper of the Martinican Communist Party, became widely known throughout the island as a champion of journalism as a form of free expression and as the means for the pursuit of the truth in the colonial context of Martinique in the 1930s. This commitment to free journalistic practice would cost him his life. The film, critics have said, shows what can be accomplished by a Creole film industry without access to the usual big budgets available in the industry. Read full story here
MEILLEUR DOCUMENTAIRE(Best documentary)
Le pays à l’envers - Sylvaine Dampierre
Filmmaker Sylvaine Dampierre goes in search of her roots and personal history. Along the way, she intends to find the origin of her surname