Yasser Booley
Why displaced people in Palestine and Cape Town stand together
Tutu Puoane’s new album wraps South African poet Lebo Mashile’s words in rhythm. Where does this deep-seated urge to compare come from? It is Sunday morning, and as I write, I listen again to Tutu Puoane’s new album, Wrapped In Rhythm, Vol. 1. Billie Holiday springs to mind. Nina Simone. Sade. But far more than the sum of voices, Puoane is still, above all, Puoane. What you hear is a rare, flawless musical flexibility combined with an ability to tell a story in ever-changing keys, in a completely...
Tutu Puoane’s new album wraps South African poet Lebo Mashile’s words in rhythm. Where does this deep-seated urge to compare come from? It is Sunday morning, and as I write, I listen again to Tutu Puoane’s new album, Wrapped In Rhythm, Vol. 1. Billie Holiday springs to mind. Nina...
The South African musician kept the Cape goema music alive after the apartheid regime destroyed the cities’ famous District 6, a multicultural home to the Kaapse Klopse rythms. Samuel ‘Mac’ McKenzie died on April 29. His band, The Genuines, was formed in 1986 and moved between Cape Town and Johannesburg enjoying widespread support and varied audiences. McKenzie, the band’s singer and banjo player, was more than a goema pioneer. He was also a jazz front man, A symphony composer as well as a master...
The South African musician kept the Cape goema music alive after the apartheid regime destroyed the cities’ famous District 6, a multicultural home to the Kaapse Klopse rythms. Samuel ‘Mac’ McKenzie died on April 29. His band, The Genuines, was formed in 1986 and moved between Cape...
The artist was announced as the 2024 winner of the prestigious £30,000 prize at a special ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery, London on Thursday 16 May 2024. The influential prize, in partnership with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, rewards artists and their projects recognised as having made the most significant contribution to international contemporary photography over the past 12 months. Lebohang Kganye was awarded the Prize for the exhibition Haufi nyana? I’ve come to take you...
The artist was announced as the 2024 winner of the prestigious £30,000 prize at a special ceremony at The Photographers’ Gallery, London on Thursday 16 May 2024. The influential prize, in partnership with the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, rewards artists and their projects...
Government turns a “blind eye” to religious sect’s child marriages Tambudzai Moyo was just 16 when she was married to a 43-year-old member of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church in Nyamadzawo village in eastern Zimbabwe. He already had two other wives, making Moyo, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, wife number three. The Apostolic sect represents the largest religious group in the country and has some of the highest rates of child marriage among girls of any religious sect –...
Government turns a “blind eye” to religious sect’s child marriages Tambudzai Moyo was just 16 when she was married to a 43-year-old member of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church in Nyamadzawo village in eastern Zimbabwe. He already had two other wives, making Moyo, whose name has...
Malawi could end the horror of unsafe abortion, but religion and parliament stand in the way. Restrictive laws are not deterring women and girls from seeking abortions. Instead, they are pushing them towards clandestine procedures, which often cause complications and even death. Meanwhile, emergency healthcare for tens of thousands of survivors also drains public resources. It is easy to see why Malawi’s Ministry of Health would like to see safe abortion provided where necessary. But religious...
Malawi could end the horror of unsafe abortion, but religion and parliament stand in the way. Restrictive laws are not deterring women and girls from seeking abortions. Instead, they are pushing them towards clandestine procedures, which often cause complications and even death....
In Nigeria where same-sex marriage is criminalised and the larger part of society is openly discriminatory and violent to queer folk, the underground ballroom scene provides a community for queer Nigerians to discreetly gather to express themselves through dance, fashion and language. When Countess Sasha Seduction, a Nigerian non-binary drag queen, got to attend their first ballroom experience, a 2022 Halloween ball in Lagos, Nigeria, it felt like a dream. This year, they got to attend two and were...
In Nigeria where same-sex marriage is criminalised and the larger part of society is openly discriminatory and violent to queer folk, the underground ballroom scene provides a community for queer Nigerians to discreetly gather to express themselves through dance, fashion and...
Many Nigerians still believe in witchcraft. Campaigns by evangelists to ‘free from witchcraft attacks’ only strengthen the primitive belief. Helen Ukpabio is the founder of Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries in Cross River State, Nigeria. She is known for conducting public campaigns inciting harassment and violence against those accused of witchcraft. From May 8 through 12, this self-acclaimed evangelist, notorious for witch-hunting, will be ministering at a witch-hunting event in Calabar, Cross...
Many Nigerians still believe in witchcraft. Campaigns by evangelists to ‘free from witchcraft attacks’ only strengthen the primitive belief. Helen Ukpabio is the founder of Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries in Cross River State, Nigeria. She is known for conducting public...
Western “green” funds used for “merrymaking with ministers” while forests are cut down Amid hundreds of millions paid by donors to the Ugandan government for forest-saving projects, a powerful logging syndicate linked to the same government continues the desertification. In Nigeria, also despite much “green” funding, the government itself clears out the trees. Forest communities are impoverished in the process. Selling out the trees and the poor Forests in Nigeria and Uganda disappeared faster...
Western “green” funds used for “merrymaking with ministers” while forests are cut down Amid hundreds of millions paid by donors to the Ugandan government for forest-saving projects, a powerful logging syndicate linked to the same government continues the desertification. In Nigeria,...
Their existential reasons for migrating must be addressed. Since the 1980s , migration has been a part of the Nigerian middle-class psyche , catalysed by the usual suspects: high unemployment, security concerns, infrastructure gaps, and poor governance. Migrants tends to be middle-class since one needs resources to migrate. For many young Nigerians, the bloodshed that ended the 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality proved to be a decisive factor. Their desire to leave the country...
Their existential reasons for migrating must be addressed. Since the 1980s , migration has been a part of the Nigerian middle-class psyche , catalysed by the usual suspects: high unemployment, security concerns, infrastructure gaps, and poor governance. Migrants tends to be...
An in-depth investigation by Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer this week questions whether the Bill & Melinda Gates 'Foundation is doing the right thing with their influential campaigns against poverty, inequality, and climate change. To that, this article casts solid doubt on the value of the Foundation’s work. Band-aids are plastered over complex problems, band-aids that, – at the Foundation's insistence –, have to be sourced from the pharmaceutical industry because developing countries are not...
An in-depth investigation by Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer this week questions whether the Bill & Melinda Gates 'Foundation is doing the right thing with their influential campaigns against poverty, inequality, and climate change. To that, this article casts solid doubt on the...
“I was named after Yasser Arafat,” writes Capetonian photographer Yasser Booley. From a young age he recorded the signs of solidarity with a people living under circumstances that clearly resonate with those who experienced the apartheid system in South Africa. There is an understandable thinking that the solidarity movement with Palestine in the Bo-Kaap started with Nelson Mandela and his coupling the Palestinian cause with ours. This thinking would not be accurate. One of the five pillars of...
“I was named after Yasser Arafat,” writes Capetonian photographer Yasser Booley. From a young age he recorded the signs of solidarity with a people living under circumstances that clearly resonate with those who experienced the apartheid system in South Africa. There is an...
Starting this week, Dutch cinemas are screening the film debut of Belgian-Congolese artist Baloji. It is a wondrous spectacle, a creation that is strongly and deftly socially aware. A touching scene: in front of a mirror in Belgium, the protagonist Koffi is practising how to say in Swahili that his soon-to-be-born twins will bear his parents’ names. It is a gesture, a sign of attachment. I may have left for Europe 18 years ago, but I have not left you behind. Where I came from lives on in me. The...
Starting this week, Dutch cinemas are screening the film debut of Belgian-Congolese artist Baloji. It is a wondrous spectacle, a creation that is strongly and deftly socially aware. A touching scene: in front of a mirror in Belgium, the protagonist Koffi is practising how to say in...
Themes like belonging and migration turn many of the African pavilions at the upcoming 60th edition of this international arts arena into a moving experience. Ethiopia Ethiopia Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2024 Contemporary artist Tesfaye Urgessa will be the first Ethiopian artist representing his country’s official participation. Award-winning author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay OBE FRSL has been appointed as the curator for this historical moment. Urgessa (1983, Addis Ababa) studied art and...
Themes like belonging and migration turn many of the African pavilions at the upcoming 60th edition of this international arts arena into a moving experience. Ethiopia Ethiopia Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2024 Contemporary artist Tesfaye Urgessa will be the first Ethiopian...
In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built around white tribal affiliation. Absent Presences, launched in March 2024, is published on the occasion of the House’s centenary. Contributions by Nathan Tantraal, Ronelda S. Kamfer, Pieter du Plessis, Christi van der Westhuizen, Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, Manon Braat, Marian Counihan, Nkule Mabaso, Tycho Maas. Contributions by our editors Farren van...
In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built around white tribal affiliation. Absent Presences, launched in March 2024, is published on the occasion of the House’s centenary....
Right of reply to ZAM story The following is an addendum, prepared as a right of reply by legal counsel for Dr Aloy Chife and the company Socketworks Limited, to ZAM’s story The Border Control Syndicate – How Plunder Continues in spite of Parliament and the Courts https://www.zammagazine.com/investigations/1414-nigeria-the-border-control-syndicate-how-plunder-continues-in-spite-of-parliament-and-the-courts , which was published on 22 July 2021. The publication of this addendum/right of reply takes...
Right of reply to ZAM story The following is an addendum, prepared as a right of reply by legal counsel for Dr Aloy Chife and the company Socketworks Limited, to ZAM’s story The Border Control Syndicate – How Plunder Continues in spite of Parliament and the Courts...
The historiography of the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij pays scant attention to black workers' resistance to exploitation and oppression. In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built around white tribal affiliation. Absent Presences, launched in March 2024, is published on the occasion of the House’s centenary. Contributions by Nathan Tantraal, Ronelda S. Kamfer, Pieter...
The historiography of the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij pays scant attention to black workers' resistance to exploitation and oppression. In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the...
Near the start of the documentary film The Greatest Night in Pop Music, released at the beginning of 2023, the American singer-songwriter Lionel Richie describes how he and Michael Jackson came up with the melody for “We Are the World,” the charity single recorded by American artists in 1985 to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. “We had to identify right away what kind of song do we want.” For the melody, they rejected an r&b ballad or an anthem style, like “The Star-Spangled Banner.”...
Near the start of the documentary film The Greatest Night in Pop Music, released at the beginning of 2023, the American singer-songwriter Lionel Richie describes how he and Michael Jackson came up with the melody for “We Are the World,” the charity single recorded by American...
Held annually across three continents, in London, New York and Marrakech, 1-54 is the leading global event series dedicated to modern and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. This year’s New York edition features over 30 galleries hailing from across Africa, Europe and the U.S. Celebrating its 10th year, this itiration will be held at the Starrett-Lehigh Building, 255 11th Avenue for the first time. Founded in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui, 1-54 is the first and only international fair...
Held annually across three continents, in London, New York and Marrakech, 1-54 is the leading global event series dedicated to modern and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. This year’s New York edition features over 30 galleries hailing from across Africa, Europe and the...
72 ministers, mayors, members of parliament and businessmen from Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Congo and the Central African Republic, a devastatingly poor central region on the African continent, owned high-end properties in posh neighbourhoods in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the 2019-2020 period. These findings are the result of an eight-month long search, ending in February 2023, of the database of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a US-based organisation that “combats illicit networks...
72 ministers, mayors, members of parliament and businessmen from Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Congo and the Central African Republic, a devastatingly poor central region on the African continent, owned high-end properties in posh neighbourhoods in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the...
Will Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo sign a law passed by parliament that will make life hell for LGBTQI+ people? The president seems to be in doubt. Sixteen Ghanaian civil society organisations are calling on him to show courage and refuse to sign the bill. Ghanaian academics are also speaking out. The country’s new anti-homosexuality bill “violates everyone's rights, not just LGBTQI+ people,” writes law professor Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua in this edition of ZAM. We rightly look at Ghana but there...
Will Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo sign a law passed by parliament that will make life hell for LGBTQI+ people? The president seems to be in doubt. Sixteen Ghanaian civil society organisations are calling on him to show courage and refuse to sign the bill. Ghanaian academics...
The Cameroonian-born academic’s oeuvre “goes beyond a particularised notion of decolonisation to a universalist recentring of the human,” says Heike Krieger, the chairman of the Holberg committee. Achille Mbembe is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent and has received the Holberg Prize for his pioneering research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and social science over the last four decades. Both as an academic and as a public intellectual, he is...
The Cameroonian-born academic’s oeuvre “goes beyond a particularised notion of decolonisation to a universalist recentring of the human,” says Heike Krieger, the chairman of the Holberg committee. Achille Mbembe is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent...