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Film review: Invictus
December 23rd, 2009The trouble with telling a story about Nelson Mandela is that it’s a story about a nation. It’s about freedom, democracy, white guilt, equality, love. Humanity even. Never about just one man. To try and whittle it all down to a man’s political ambitions realised through a sport and to try and sell this tale to everyone outside the Boerewors Curtain is an exercise in futility.
But who are we to tell Hollywood this?
Director Clint Eastwood enlists Morgan Freeman to play Madiba and Matt Damon to play 90s SA Rugby Team (the Springboks) captain, Francois Pienaar in a drama that cost $75 million to produce while shooting in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
We follow Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, the disdain, and frankly, outrage that some white people meet the news with, onto a national rugby team that has seen better days. To cut a long, disjointed story short, Freeman’s Mandela tells Pienaar about a poem that inspires him, then – poof! – magically the Springboks become World Cup champions!
Channel O Awards reviewed
November 7th, 2009Being that their rival channel, MTV Base Africa had only just had a stellar awards ceremony, it was left to Channel O’s fifth annual awards show last week to impress at least as much. First, my friend Candice and I perched in the Amarula lounge for pre-ceremony drinks so we could catch all the pre-red carpet action.
A tall bronzed up beauty with wavy hair cascading down her shoulders tugs at the sides of her slit mini dress. This African Amazon woman – who I later recognised as Mozambique’s Lizha James – was working it so much that I spilled my drink trying to draw attention to Lizha’s short dress. Candice gave me the I-can’t-take-you-anywhere look.
We spotted afriPOP! favourite Nneka wandering about with a guitar strapped to her back, while elsewhere ladies went gaga for Nigeria’s Hip-hop-tinged-R&B star 2Face Idibia. Gal Level, an afro-pop duo from Namibia, were styling as usual and their one time collaborator Buffalo Souljah, a reggae artist from Zimbabwe, was debonair.
5 Questions for Simphiwe Dana
November 2nd, 2009South Africa’s leading Afro-soul jazz singer Simphiwe Dana chats with AfriPOP! as she rounds off a 6-day autumn tour of the UK.
Which international audiences have you enjoyed playing for the most?
I generally enjoy playing for an attentive audience anywhere.
You were involved in the Not In Our Lifetime campaign against Xenophobia in South Africa, do you feel like there has been a change in South Africa and the hearts of our people since then?
I would hope most importantly that since the xenophobia attacks the government has realised how desperate people are for a better life. I recently read that South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. The frustration led them to attack the weak and easily accessible among them. Service delivery protests are on the rise now because people have finally realised that it is their government failing them not Afrikans from other countries. That said the attacks in South Africa show that there’s still a lot of self hate amongst my people because only Africans were attacked and there’s a lot of foreigners in South Africa who are from other races; they were not attacked. We as artists have our work cut out for us, preaching self knowledge and self love.
Words Worth: Nina Kibuanda
October 6th, 2009Nina Kibuanda was born in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and relocated to Paris but the world of words is where he truly lives. This past Saturday Nina Kibuanda performed at the Congo Fever event in downtown Jozi at House of Nsako - a showcase of the best in Congolese and French music with Les Guys Fantastique and DJ Ben Montresor. The francophone slam poet and actor, who will also grace the stages of the 13th Poetry Africa Festival in Durban (South Africa) from October 5 -10, exchanged a few lost in translation-like back and forth emails with AfriPOP! We got there in the end.
13 is an early age to start rapping, what made you quit this and decide slam poetry was the one for you?
It’s through the theatre that I became aware of that feeling of freedom when I recited, when I started appreciating and playing with words and especially taking the time to recite… it’s that freedom that made me drop rap, when I was experiencing that feeling of being trapped with time issues, the chorus, the 8, 12, 16 beats (30, 50sec), when my texts were already doing 32 beats and longer (between 2 and 3minutes). My texts were being shortened because they were long and I had the feeling of being gagged… On a slam stage, you can go up to three minutes.
You’re a slam poet and word has it that slam has its roots in hip hop. What is your relationship with hip hop like?
I don’t think that slamming automatically comes only from rapping: I know actors and slammers who are gifted slammers but who’ve never had anything to do with the world of rap… I’m not denying the importance of the world of rap. I’m still listening to as much rap as before and taking part in the album recording projects of my friends by doing intros for them (see soundcast, myspace/princeda, ligne de mire, kozi…). In the meantime, I feel much more opened than before… Besides, hip hop also has distant roots, it was not invented from nothing…
At first hip hop was always seen as a form of expression – often expression of rebellion or standing up for yourself and your people. Does your poetry mean the same as this to you?
My poetry helps me to express myself simply, without having to feel that I need to put rebellion, anger or protest in it, that is when I rapped with my friend 13or (of musical group “Nins13″), our concept was “love and peace”… Read the rest of this entry “
Get to know…Zubz
March 20th, 2009
Lyrical Healer
On March 20 2009, the cream of musicians from South Africa will gather in the nation’s capital for a day of prayer and performances ahead of Human Rights Day the day after, and the national elections in April. Amongst them will be revered Hip-hop lyricist Zubz. Helen Herimbi had a chat with him in between takes on the set of his new music video.