May Ayim - "Hope in my Heart " Trailer (Germany)

Today, on May 3rd 2010, the Afro-German poet and activist May Ayim (1960 – 1996) would have turned 50. In memory of her the documentary "Hope in My Heart" was shown in Berlin. Spotted on Black.in.nrw

About the documentary Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story (1997) TWN wrote:
A moving documentary about the life and untimely death of Afro-German poet May Ayim which contains both performances by Ayim and places her in the history of the emerging Afro-German movement.

In the foreword to Ayim's blues in swarz weiss (blues in black and white) Maryse Conde wrote "... With the unmistakable sound of her voice her poems spoke to me of her, told of others that are like her and yet so unlike her in Germany, in Africa, in America. These poems held passion and irony ... In May's voice I found the echo of other voices from the diaspora." 

Watch the full documentary at http://afroeurope.blogspot.nl/2013/05/the-documentary-hope-in-my-heart-of.html

Hip Hop: Breakin' Convention 2010 (London)

Breakin' Convention. International Festival of Hip Hop Dance Theatre. Bank Holiday Weekend Sat 1 - Mon 3 May 2010 London.

Breakin' Convention, an International Festival of Hip Hop Dance Theatre:
- 5 days of performances, film, graf jams and workshops
- DJ demos, aerosol art and freestyle circle
- The best Hip Hop dance companies from the UK and across the globe

Breakin' Convention is THE critically acclaimed International Festival of Hip Hop Dance Theatre. Since 2004, Sadler's Wells, the most prestigious dance house in the UK, has featured the very best, most influential artists in the world of Hip Hop. Artistic director and MC Jonzi D hosts the festival, presenting crews from every street corner of the globe!

As well as performances, the festival weekend has an incomparable workshop programme, taught by pioneering artists like the Electric Boogaloos, live graffiti and aerosol art commissions on the foyer walls, and DJ crew Tha En4cers playing old skool funk and breakbeats to packed circles on the mezzanine. Breakin' Convention is now established as the freshest and most innovative event on the global Hip Hop dance calendar!

Breakin' Convention 2010 video diary Friday 30 April


Breakin' Convention

Queen's Day Amsterdam 2010

Some pictures of our Queen's Day. Yesterday was Queen's Day - Koninginnedag in Dutch - in Amsterdam, wich means walking, eating, and buying things from people in the streets. Due to weather the city wasn't as crowded as last year, and it showed.

Because Queen's Day is a national event it's kind of custom that you wear something orange. The colour orange is the national colour of the Netherlands.


This picture was taken at the Weteringsschans, and yes we went into the crowd. Normally you would feel like walking in a pinball machine, but this year it was easy to get through.


Music at the Museumplein. The place to be a on Queen's Day. A lot of life music and fast food. In the background you see the Dutch national museum (or Rijksmuseum).


A place to eat.


A photo made by a lady


We liked the auto rickshaw, but when we looked at the photo later we saw someone say ..


Het Stedelijk Museum or the city museum. But it's closed, and it is being renovated and expanded.



I should say happy anniversary queen Beatrix, but April 30th (Queen's Day) was the birthday of her mother. Bea decided not to change it.


If you are a celebrity you probably liked the buffet at the Amstel Hotel.


Amsteldijk. In the white house on the corner I had my Transcendental Meditation course when I was 15. I took the course long time ago when people were financially nice to each other. For the record, the TM organisation has left this building long time ago. The house is on the other side of the Amstel Hotel.


Metro station Wibautstraat


Art in the metro.


Getting out at metro station Ganzenhoef in the Bijlmer. It's a neighbourhood in the district Amsterdam South East, the district where al lot of Surinamese, Antillean and Ghanaian people live. Gentrification, or Urban renewal as they call it here, is dramatically changing the neigboorhood and the communities.


Ground level Ganzenhoef.

The smartest family in Britain is black

On BlackVoices I read the story of the wonder twins Paula and Peter Imafidon (9 years old) who floored academics a year ago when they aced University of Cambridge's advanced mathematics exam. They are the youngest students to ever pass the test.

The future little scholars' father, Chris, and mother, Ann, immigrated to Britain from Nigeria more than 30 years ago and have actually been down this prodigy route before with their three older children, who are also overachievers.



The couple's oldest daughter, Anne-Marie, is now 20, but at age 13, she won a British government scholarship to take undergraduate courses at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Christiana, 17, their other daughter, is the youngest student ever to study at the undergraduate level in any British University at the age of 11. Youngest daughter, Samantha, now 12, passed two rigorous high school–level mathematics and statistics exams at the age of 6. She mentored the twins to pass their own math secondary school test when they were also 6.

Great story! The sad part is that the story triggered the "controversy" between US blacks and Africans. Read the story and the comments at BlackVoices Britain's Brainiest Family is Black and Has 9-Year-Old High School-Bound Twins

Video: Alain Clark - "Father and Friend" (Netherlands)

Alain Clark is one of the nominees for 3FM awards 2010. De 3FM Awards is the audience prize for Dutch musicians. The award ceremony will take place on April 15th .

Alain Clark is a Dutch pop musician and producer who has a strong global fanbase. In 2007 he released the double platinum album “live it out”.

Inspired by a chance comment by a friend, the album’s biggest hit is ‘Father and Friend’ , an emotional ballad in which Clark duets with his (Dutch Caribbean) father Dane – himself a veteran of a covers band playing classics from the likes of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and James Brown.



The album was also released in the UK, where the first single 'This AIn't Gonna Work' was a top 10 hit.

In 2009 Alain Clark sang a duet with Diana Ross in the Gelredome in Arnhem.

Official website: http://www.alainclark.nl/

Professional Africans in Europe - Brain drain and gain

There are many nurses, teachers and business professionals from Africa who are welcomed with open arms in Europe. I wanted to say this because of my previous post about illegal Africans in Europe.

So two videos. The first video is about a Ghanaian nurse in Sheffield UK, the other one is about a Nigerian business professional from the UK who returned to Nigeria. I saw both videos on Shadow And Act

“Witness – A Nurse’s Tale” (The Brain Drain)
In Ghana, Lydia Kwashie is a highly trained midwife, but with a family of eight to support, she can barely make ends meet. The 48 year old mother left behind family and friends in Ghana to seek work as a nurse in the UK. Witness joins Lydia on her first trip back home to Ghana to share the conflicting emotions of pride, joy, guilt and hope.


Nigeria's brain gain - Nigerian expats repatriating to take advantage of opportunities in Nigeria and Africa's growth despite global economic downturn.

Illegal Africans in Europe - "To Stay Illegally or To Die"

Via Neo•Griot.
The BBC-documentary “Living with Illegals” is one of the most compelling documentaries I have seen in years. I have seen it on the blog

You can see the full video at http://vasuh.org

It’s a documentary of the experiences of British journalist Sorious Samura about Africans who are trying to get into Europe illegally. It’s a story about people who sometimes try to get in for years. Some of them live in woods, try to get over barbwire or try to swim to Europe.

Once they are on the mainland they head for the UK, because they feel they will get a better treatment there then in most other European countries. Smuggled in trucks, or hanging underneath trucks they try to reach the UK.

Sometimes I see them in the Amsterdam metro. Unfortunately it is so obvious there are illegal: broken sneakers and summer clothes in the winter.

Sometimes you read in the papers of illegal Africans jumping out of an apartment building because they didn’t want to be caught by the police. Some die, or have very severe injuries.

Who is really French ?

An interesting video about the debate about the French national identity. French president Sarkozy started the debate about the French identity because of his diminishing popularity.

Yesterday after the local elections it became clear his party had lost the elections. The entire French Caribbean voted against him, only French Guyana and Reunion supported him.

Video: Seu Jorge - “Tive Razao” + "É isso aí"

Seu Jorge is a Brazilian singer/songwriter and actor. Virtually unknown in Europe, but a legend in Brazil.

One of his best performances are on the DVD Seu Jorge ao vivo (2005), were he performed with Ana Carolina, who is also a famous Brazilian singer.

Ziegler production wrote about him:
His name is Seu Jorge - or Mister Jorge - the Brazilian singer, songwriter and actor who grew up in the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro. He is passionate and charismatic, quirky and romantic, deep and philosophical. And despite all the stardom and privileges he has now, he has managed to maintain his humble demeanor and a very, very charming personality. There is no wonder why Vogue Brazil once dubbed him “the coolest man on the planet.”

Accomplished: Name of May Ayim on German street sign

Finally it has materialised, the street sign of German poetess and activist May Ayim.

"For the first time in Germany, the name of a controversial figure of the colonial past has been replaced on a street sign with the name of a person who critically wrote about racism and colonialism and fought against the consequences."

May Ayim (1960-1996) fought against ongoing racism in Germany and was active in the women’s movement. (Source: Der Schwarze Blog)

Afro-Europe: German street renamed after poetess May Ayim

A.C. Global Voices - Black media starting guide (UK)

The website A.C. Global Voices is an online directory of all of the African Caribbean community information/talk/debate shows across the world.

Though the main emphasis is on radio programmes, the website also promotes other current affairs based media such as TV stations, magazines, newspapers and newsletters.

In an interview with Ligali the founder Chigbo John-Paul Ibe explaines why he created the site. "I would hear people ring into shows complaining about;
‘How there aren’t enough forums out there for Black people to have discussion’,
‘Community organisation not knowing how to promote their events to the wider community’

This triggered me to think about ways of getting the information to the wider community. I originally thought about publishing a directory in paper format. However I found it too expensive.

The only option was to create a website. I did procrastinate over the idea for a while, but after encouragement from some friends I decided to push on with it last October."

Read the full interview on Ligali

Website: A.C. Global Voices

Video: Lola Adesioye - Why there may not be another Barack Obama

Lola Adesioye is a British socio-political writer in the US. She writes articles for the Guardian and The Huffington Post. She also appeared on CNN. In this video she talks about Obama and why it’s difficult for him to make that change he promised. For more information go to her website: Lola Creative

The Virtual Revolution

The Virtual Revolution. How 20 years of the web has reshaped our lives

A very interesting documentary of the BBC. There are four one hour episodes of this program. It's about broadband internet in Ghana to Facebook, twitter, napster and much more.

Go to the YouTube channel where you find all episodes: Youtube channel The Virtual Revolution
you can also check out the website The Virtual Revolution for more information.

Maybe the internet revolution should change that old black "Twice as good" mantra into: Don’t be twice as good, but be better informed.

The Virtual Revolution Episode 1 Part 1.wmv

Go to The Virtual Revolution for more episodes.