Video: Interview with Nneka at the UCLA Jazz & Reggae Festival

An interview with Nneka at the UCLA Jazz & Reggae Festival in LA (May 30-31 2010). She talks about her journey, how her album "Concrete Jungle" fits in America, her spiritual connection with Nas and Damian Marley, the internet and the lingua she uses in her music. She was interviewed by Marguerite de Bourgoing.

Much thanks to Marguerite for the video. For more information see the website of "LA STEREO TV", a media organisation in the hip (hop) scene in Los Angeles. See www.lastereo.tv




Nneka performing live

A Silenced History from Belgian Congo: A Mixed Race History

You haven’t heard much from me lately. I was writing a book and it’s finally finished and published. The book I wrote together with Kathleen Ghequière traces back a history of Africa and Europe that has been ignored for too much time. Some of you know about the mixed race children of Australia thanks to movies such as ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ or even Baz Luhrmann’s latest ‘Australia’. But concerning Africa this history is unknown.

It seems as if the European colonizer didn’t have intimate relationships with the African colonized. But many children were born out of relations between white Europeans and black Africans during colonization. These children undermined the racial colonial order with their existence. These children have been hidden and their stories silenced. At least for the Belgian Congo this story is now unveiled and in this book the mixed race children of Belgium and Congo express their history freely.



Through the testimony of two dozens of mixed race Belgians born in Congo we have tried to tell a story which is mostly unknown to the Belgian and Flemish public. Kathleen Ghequière interviewed them. They were all people born during colonization from one black and one white parent. Some of them grew up in their families but most of them weren’t recognized by their fathers and were taken away from their mothers at a very young age. The colonial authority separated these children from their mothers to raise them in schools only for ‘mulatto children’. At independence the colonial authorities decided to deport the younger once (between 2 and 16 years old) to Belgium to be adopted in Belgian families. The circumstances are still unknown, which children were send over and why is still a mystery. Even the exact number of children deported is hard to tell.

Kathleen Ghequière found many of them living in Belgium who were prepared to tell their side of the story. I edited these interviews, translated those done in French and tried to make of more than a thousand pages of testimony an accessible and readable book. It became a book of 250 pages full of beautiful pictures from the colonial past out of their personal archives. Filip Claus took recent pictures of the witnesses and I added with some academic assistance some social historical explanation and maps.

I am very happy with the result and hope that the book will be translated in French soon. It was mostly important to publish the book in the Flemish part of Belgium because the Flemish don’t know anything about the mixed race children of their country. In French neutral terms such as ‘metissage’ and ‘metis’ define these people in a positive way. But Dutch lacks this kind of vocabulary, mostly because the Dutch speaking people lack any knowledge about this part of their history. The Dutch language lacks emotionally and politically neutral terms for mixed race people (generally the Dutch and Flemish use English or French to express these terms for which they don’t have their own words). Journalists in progressive newspapers in Belgium refer to Barack Obama as a ‘mulat’, a word perceived by many Dutch speaking blacks as offending. We decided to take a provocative and colonial title with a more explaining subtitle in which we introduce a new word in the Dutch language: metis.

De Bastaards van onze kolonie. Verzwegen verhalen van Belgische metissen (The Bastards of our colony. Hidden stories of Belgian metis) is published by Roularta and available at all good book stores in Belgium. You can also order it online

Wednesday 16th of June is the official release at Vooruit (culture center) in Ghent, Belgium. The entrance is free

“Masquerade” - a photo exhibit about identity (Guadeloupe)

Do your friends know who you really are? French Caribbean photographer Jacky KIJA Gotin (1980) tries expose us in his new photo exhibition “Masquerade” (in French “Mascarade") on the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe, 18-24th June 2010.

About the exhibition Gotin says: " Sometimes we are forced to wear masks in order to fit right into society, to be well seen in some groups. We develop many identities (at work, in the family, with friends, on social networks).

But at the end of the day, do we know who we really are? ‘Mascarade’ is about the fact that sometimes people can move away from who they really are and get lost. “

Mascarade (Masquerade) is a series of 35 pictures. The exhibition is in 3 parts: Dusk, Metamorphosis and Dawn.

Gotin: “So at the end of the exhibition when dawn happens, the characters of the Masquerade have to make a choice: get rid of the mask and find a true identity or keep the mask and live under a false identity. The exhibition is built with quotes of Aimé Césaire, Khalil Gibran, Maryse Condé, Les Nubians etc.”

“My photography is about the identity,” says Gotin. “ As a west Indian, I was born on an island with a Caribbean background, but with African, European, American influences. I guess my photography is about the need to define myself without denying my roots."

About Jacky KIJA Gotin. He was born in Guadeloupe in 1980, lived in Paris and moved back to Guadeloupe again. He learned photography following photographers in soul and jazz concerts in Paris. And worked with African and Caribbean musicians like Kaysha, Edgar Yonkeu, Erik, Meemee Nelzy, Dominik Coco etc..

The exhibition will take place in Le Centre Culturel de la Retraite, Baie-Mahault, on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. 18-24th June.

Website: kijaphoto.com

If you also want to catch some of the summer spirit of the French Caribbean and its people, see his Gotin’s photo stream here.

Funny Dutch World Cup commercial

A great beer commercial. A video with Diego Maradona (Argentina-England), Saeed el Oweian (Saudi Arabia-Belgium) and Augustine "Jay=Jay" Okocha (Nigeria- Germany) and Ari Haan (Netherlands-Italy).

I think the message is: why do it the hard way, if you can do it easy.

What’s R. Kelly doing at the World Cup?

What’s R. Kelly doing at the World Cup? This is one of the biggest world events and they let R. Kelly perform?

R. Kelly’s new song “Sign of a Victory” is chosen as one of the three official 2010 FIFA World Cup anthems. Kelly and the South African group the Soweto Spiritual Singers, will perform “Victory” at the June 11 opening ceremony in Johannesburg.

I know Mr Kelly was never convicted of having, how shall I put it .., "indecent video material", but I when I heard of it I never listened to his music again.

Couldn’t they have chosen someone who is more ..., how shall I put it, in line with modern international Black standards.

World Cup Opening Ceremony Without Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela will not attend the opening World Cup match as his family grieved the death of great grandchild Zenani, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Friday.

The statesman said that it would be "inappropriate" to be present after Zenani Mandela, 13, was killed in a car accident in the early hours of Friday morning as she returned home from a World cup concert near Johannesburg. Read full story here

Video: South African World Cup 2010 and Nelson Mandela.

Anti-Islam party gains Dutch vote

Picture: "In IJsselstein we speak Dutch." A sign in a city near Utrecht where a lot of Moroccan people live.

BBC: A Dutch anti-Islam party has more than doubled its seats in parliament in a national vote, though it is unclear if it will take part in a coalition.

Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders said he wanted to be part of government.

The election saw the centre-right Liberal Party (VVD) emerging as the largest party, one seat ahead of the centre-left Labour Party. The Christian Democrat party of outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende suffered a big defeat.


Weeks of coalition negotiations are expected to follow the election.
With more than 99% of votes counted, the VVD had 31 of 150 seats, while Labour had 30.

As the party with the most seats, VVD leader Mark Rutte could now become the first prime minister from his political camp since World War I. Read more here

The PVV is the party of Geert Wilders, the one who toured the world with the Anti-Islam film “Fitna”. The slogan of the PVV: Less immigration, less crime, less Islam:

But who are the voters of the PVV? It seems that most voters are from the South of the Netherlands (which is a part of the bible belt). And also that a lot of voters are from small towns where there is hardly any "diversity".

Some facts about the PVV

- The party is a foundation, and not a normal political party with members. You can’t vote in this party. Wilders is the one and only chairman of the foundation.
- Some Black people have voted for the PVV. They believe that Wilders is anti-Islam and not anti-immigrant or anti-Black. In the Netherlands Moroccans are not seen as “black community”, but as an "Arab" community.
- A black Antillean man will also be elected for parliament for the PVV.

My opinion

I've seen The Netherlands transform from a tolerant country into an intolerant country. I really hope it will change some day.

Estelle announces appearance at Cool Brittannia Festival during World Cup Football

Estelle has announced that she will be bringing her stunning live show to Cool Britannia festival in Cape Town on the June 11th – on the evening of the tournaments opening day and to launch what is set to be a spectacular month long party at the game’s greatest tournament.

Estelle - American Boy - Later Live with Jools


www.coolbritanniasa.com

Photo exposition of David Damoison in Paris, till July 31th

Paris-born Martiniquean photographer David Damoison has a photo exhibition till July 31th 2010 in the gallery Anne de Villepois in Paris.

This exhibition is the third and final exhibit of the 3X3 series which offeres the public a chance to discover three Caribbean artists.

Now what is so interesting about this exhibition? The intriguing photos of Hatian people and their the voodoo rituals .The scenes of rough night live in Brazzaville Congo. And the photos of somewhat lost French Carribean folks in urban Paris. You can see all of his photographs on his website http://damoison.com/.

If you want to explore this you may want to try the following steps.

One: Website of David Damoison
http://damoison.com/

Two: Interview with David Damoison
http://www.odcap.com

Three: Photos of the opening
http://www.fxgpariscaraibe.com

Four: The Gallery in Paris
http://www.annedevillepoix.com/

Five: Black French artists magazine : Revue Noir
http://www.revuenoire.com/

Commemoration of German race-hate victim Alberto Adriano, 11-12 June 2010 in Dessau

Ten years ago Afro-German Alberto Adriano was brutally killed by three Nazi youths in a park in the Eastern German city of Dessau. To commemorate Adriano, a commemorative event, a memorial concert and a conference will be held on 11 and 12 June in Dessau.

In the evening of June 11the 2000 Alberto Adriano was brutally murdered by three drunken neo-Nazis. They told the police they did it because they hated foreigners.

Alberto Adriano - who had lived and worked in Germany for more than 20 years - had been celebrating a forthcoming trip to Mozambique. Read the full story: Race hate in Germany (BBC)

For more information about the commemoration see: Kommentar: Alberto Adriano – Gedenken anlässlich des 10. Todestages

And photos of the funeral of Adriano, and of East Germany in 2000 here.

In 2001 the German Anti-Racism organisation "Brothers Keepers" made the single "Adriano – Letzte Warnung“, ("Adriano - Final Warning").



A state court sentenced one man to life in prison and two 16-year-old skinhead accomplices to nine years each for the murder of a 39-year-old immigrant from Mozambique.

Black race-hate victims in Europe:

Kerwin Duinmijer (20 August 1983) - Netherlands
Stephen Lawrence (22 April 1993) - UK
Alberto Adriano (11 June 2000) – Germany

African students prefer Europe

When it comes to pursuing higher education, most African students prefer Germany, France or the UK

About 77 per cent of all African students who study abroad do so in Europe while 18 per cent of all foreign students in Europe are from Africa, according to a report.

It also said out of about 144 million students who enrolled in institutions of higher education, about 3 million of them migrated from the Africa sub-region to Europe.

Prof Goolam Mohamedbhai, Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities (AAU), said this at a workshop in Accra.

The event which brought together about 80 representatives of senior leadership and management personalities from Africa and Europe, explored how higher education institutions in both regions cope with the changing demands of their specific socio-economic environments.

Mohamedbhai said three European countries that received the largest number of the foreign students were the United Kingdom, Germany and France accounting for about 30 per cent. (Source: Pune Mirror.in)

Suzanna Lubrano wins award for Best Diaspora Artist (Netherlands)

Suzanna Lubrano has won the award for “Best African Artist based in the Diaspora” at the Museke Online Africa Music Awards (MOAMAs) 2010. The winners were selected based on African music fan votes. Voting took place from April 6 to May 29, 2010 on http://awards.museke.com

Suzanna Lubrano is a Netherlands (Rotterdam) based Zouk artist. If you're not into Zouk, Kizomba or Afro-Portuguese music you probably would not know that Lubrano has won the Kora All African Music Award for Best African Female Artist in 2003. The Kora Awards are music awards given annually for musical achievement in sub-Saharan Africa. They are comparable to the American Grammy Awards in intent.

Lubrano performing in the Netherlands



And you probably would not know that she received the award in a live TV show which was watched by over more then 600 million people. (Source: NPS)

This summer, Suzanna Lubrano will have many performances in Africa. Shows are coming up in Angola, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and elsewhere.

Other shows will take place in Europe and USA, among them June 18 in Rotterdam and June 25 in London (IndigO2, with Yuri da Cunha).

Website: http://www.suzannaonline.nl/

Black German theatre group serves up snapshots of German racism

From Der Schwarze Blog:
The German Theatre ensemble Label Noir will peform the play “Heimat, bittersüße Heimat” ("Homeland, Bittersweet Homeland") on 4-6 June in the Hoftheater in Berlin.

A theater group is challenging Germany's assumptions about race, culture and identity with a courageous new production that sheds light on the black German experience of everyday racism.

"My, but you speak excellent German - flawless grammar, perfect accent. Keep up the good work!"

The elderly lady with a prim hat and pursed lips tries to compliment the young black woman sitting on the park bench beside her, but her praise backfires when it's obvious that she can hardly grasp the notion that a person of color can be German at the same time.

This scene is one of a dizzying array of sketches that combine humor and poignant realism to mirror part of the black/Afro-German experience with unsettling clarity.

"Heimat, bittersuesse Heimat" - which translates to "Homeland, Bittersweet Homeland" - blends scenes of daily life with satirical theater. The actors play themselves as well as their white fellow citizens, whose well-meaning questions and remarks often come across as ignorant, invasive and presumptuous.

Audience reactions to the racist gaffes on stage ranged from hushed embarrassment to howls of laughter.

"If you have black friends, they're just laughing," said Vanessa Rottenburg, who plays the Afro-German in the park bench scene, "because their reaction is: 'Oh yeah, I know that grandma.'" Read the full story of the Deutsch Welle here

So more info
www.amadeu-antonio.de