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Sunday 18 December 2011

Leslie Alsheimer: Uganda










  
Leslie Alsheimer is most known for her book Black and White in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Lightroom. She is also an internationally award winning photographer. Recognized for her work for perspective documentary photo essays, her recent work brought her to Uganda. Her photographers touch on themes and metaphors of “the enduring human spirit; celebrating life, play, family, culture and community through the joy, pain and love of everyday living.”

source: African Digital art 

Late Tribute

Sunday 9 October 2011

African Kings- Daniel Laine- Portraits of a disappearing era



NGIE KAMGA JOSEPH
Fon of Bandjun Cameroun
The Fon (King) is the brother of courageous and powerful animals. At night, he has the power to transform himself into a panther, where he haunts the forest, runs through the savana and drinks from torrents. When a panther is killed by a hunter, the Fon from Bamileke region are afraid. Will one of them not perish from the death of his double.
Formerly a chief administator and cabinet chief for the finance Minister of Cameroun in 1964, Kamga Joseph is the thirteenth Fon of Bandjun. On the day of his predecessor’s funeral, he was stopped in the Bandjun market by two Bamileke chiefs, “the hangmen”, in the middle of the nobles and princes who wept the deceased King. Wearing a head dress made of sisal as a sign of humility, he was taken to the noblemen, the “tafo meru”, where he learned during nine weeks how to be a Kin



HAPI IV
King of Bana Cameroun
The kingdom of Bana finds its origins in a tragedy.
In the middle of the twelfth century, several Bamileke groups, settled in small villages around what is actually Bana. Legend says that one of the village chiefs, Mfenge was accused of sorcery by the others. In order to exonerate himself, he cut off his mother’s head and had the cadaver examined by specialists. The belief in sorcery, that it is transmitted through the “maternal womb”, was not proven. Mfenge then demanded that mothers in others families be beheaded. His four sons went from house to house, sending wives and mothers to the palace, in order to be examined. The recalcitrants were decapited on the spot. Taken by panic, chiefs and nobles fled, and Mfenge became King of Bana.


                                                                                  ONI of IFE
                                                                                   Nigeria
In 1980, Sijuwade became the fiftieth Oni (King) of Ife, one of the most ancient African Dynasties. Formerly, during his coronation, an Oni had to embrace the sword of justice, and enter into his palace on a cloth stiffened by the dry blood of sacrificed men and women. Today the Oni is a rich businessman, with several vaste properties in Nigeria and England.

NYIMI KOK MABIINTSH IIIKing of Kuba
D.R. Congo
The Nyimi Mabiintsh III is fifty years old. He acquired the throne at the age of twenty. As a descendant of god the creator, the king is attributed with supernatural powers.
Due to his top position he is restricted by several contraints: he does not have the right to sit on the ground, and he cannot cross a cultivated field. Apart from his cook, no one has seen him eat. Moreover he never travels without him, and his personal cooking ustensils.
It took me three weeks to photograph the Nyimi (king) of the Kuba in his royal apparel, the “bwantshy”. The outfit made out of material stitched with beads and “cauris” (small shells used as money in Africa), weighs 160 lb. It takes more than two hours to dress the King, and two days of spiritual preparation to be sufficiently purified in order to wear the outfit.
The Weight and the heat of the bwantshy is such, that it is impossible to wear it more than one hour. The preceeding King had only worn it three time during his entire life.

Source: African Digital Art

Sunday 4 September 2011

African Portraits by Mario Gerth








source: http://www.africandigitalart.com/2011/08/african-portraits-by-mario-gerth/

Friday 26 August 2011

"Mindless Criminals" or "Mere Opportunists"




The England riots have really gotten people talking, the constant commentary online, the televised interviews of so called “community leaders” and a particular dim-witted historian have sparked debates up on multiculturalism, crime and poverty, the main question on everybody’s lips is why? Why did these young people take to streets to loot, vandalise and in some cases commit acts of violence?
Unfortunately like many of the people in this country I do not know the answer to that question but what I can say is multiculturalism cannot be linked to crime and whilst crime is often linked to poverty the problems we face in modern day Britain as we saw demonstrated on a large scale during the riots stem from issues far more complex than so called black “violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture” infiltrating that of the “whites” as so stupidly put by David Starkey.

Contrary to what many in this society are led to believe rioting, looting and violent crime took place in this country before the mass immigration of Blacks to the capital, during the blitz in the 1940’s CafĂ© the Paris was looted and according to the late Ballad Berkley (faulty towers) looters “cut the fingers from the dead to get at their rings”.  During a debate in the commons on the 26th of June 1941, Captain Cunningham Reid an MP representing St Marylebone constituency described looting as a “serious menace”
and stated that there were “4,584 cases of looting in London alone” in that particular year, he then went on to urge the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Herbert Morrison) to “consider appointing a director of anti-looting measures” in order to combat the increasing problem, he informed Mr Herbert that many of the looters were in fact “members of the public services “ and that the police were “not able adequately to cope with this very serious problem”.


I am surprised to say the least that words such as “black culture” are still be used in the twenty first century, there is no such thing as “black culture”, even before emigration and colonialism “black culture” was non existent, “black culture” is a fallacy full stop.
The problems in this country stem from a defining culture of greed, consumerism and materialism, hence the reason reasonably wealthy politicians continue to steal taxpayer’s money in the name “expenses” it is quite a pity that David Cameron did not ensure all those involved in this “mindless criminality” faced “the full force of the law”.
The greed and consumerism embedded in the fabric of this society go so far back that at the start of the 16th century the British were kidnapping large numbers of their own people, and sending them over to the Caribbean and Australia for hard labour in order to make a profit before even introducing the “blacks” to such large scale inhumane criminality.

If the racist cowards in this country dropped the act of self importance and weren’t so busy hiding behind organisations such as the EDL or In David Starkey’s case an obviously unmerited degree from the university of Cambridge perhaps they’d have the time to pop into the British library and read a book with words instead of photographs of celebrities maybe then they’d realise who the “mindless criminals” in this society really are. 

Is Nigeria 's Goodluck running out?







Can't help but feel like this is just the beginning 

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Votes For Chickens

Majority of my life apart from the occasional holiday has been spent in the UK, for the last couple of months I have been in Nigeria and have had the privilege  of experiencing first hand some of the intricacies of Nigerian politics.  Whilst the experience has been somewhat exciting, educative and quite frankly liberating I was forced to ask myself a question, Are Nigerian Citizens really ready for the change they desire?

Travel around the country or even just one state alone and you will witness high levels of unemployment, poverty, pollution, disorganisation, cultural segregation and corruption. The life expectancy for the average Nigerian stands at 46.9, a staggering 30% percent below the world average (CIA world factbook) and yet these neglected citizens continue to distribute their votes to politicians and political parties for bags of rice, beverages, live stock, alcohol, motorbikes and rickshaws.  In most cases to address electorates who are part of professional bodies, social clubs and cultural orientated organisations costs the candidate a minimum of half a million naira per address. A practice which is darn right undignified and unheard of in any developed civilised country.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. How can the electorate hope for a better Nigeria and still continue to engage in such practices. Nigerians need to understand that voting is a civic duty, a means by which one establishes the present, shapes the future and rectifies mistakes of the past.

In order to achieve the end result we all hope for , Nigerians must realise that their votes are worth more than  rickshaws, more than bags of rice and beverages, their vote will determine the roads they drive on, the standard of education they can obtain, and what they will and can become. The electorate must cease selling votes to the highest bidder and examine the policies and track record of not only candidate but of the political parties candidates are associated to. 

Sunday 15 May 2011

Is foreign investment really the answer?



 2 years ago I watched the video of Ngozi Okonjo Iweala’s video titled “How to help Africa” and as much as I am inspired by her prestigious position in the World Bank and the intellectual delivery of her speech I was taken aback by her proposition and answer to the question which she asked.
Helping Africa is an issue which one can endlessly debate and a nationalist view on the topic can often seem somewhat radical, nevertheless opening the doors of Africa for business in order to solve its economic problems is only a short term solution which will eventually prove detrimental to majority of African indigenes, living on the African continent.
I think it is fair to say that economic strength is the most influential source of power thus many countries around the world strive to achieve this but opening up your countries borders to foreigners and encouraging major investment does not promote power for the African nation, rather it distributes the power of the average African to the west, Asia and the Middle east where ultimately majority investors will be coming from.

It is clear to see by looking around the globe, struggles that many countries are facing today are as a result of similar actions taken; England for example has a capital city which is rumoured to be one of the most cosmopolitan in the world and a place where the average business is owned by a foreigner, these businesses provide millions of jobs thus increasing contribution to the countries economy, when these companies threaten to withdraw the government are forced to pander to their demands.
In 2008 Gordon Brown the British Prime Minster said he would create “British Jobs for British people” but found it impossible to achieve not only because of the EU but also because apart from the wealth of the British aristocracy the common British man has nothing to negotiate with other than his time which on average is only worth £5.25 an hour. 

The stance of the BNP (British National Party) is viewed as joke within the political classes even amongst the party of Margret Thatcher who refused to sanction South Africa during the apartheid because even they know that disenfranchising immigrants at this stage would only damage relations with foreign nations and upset the business of the wealthiest sect in society.
People must understand that every law and legislation passed must benefit the investors most of whom are foreign, from freedom of speech, to freedom of religion all is dictated by “investor”.

The repercussion for Africa will be incredibly severe; we now have mini China towns popping up all over Africa and many major companies dictating on issues such as electricity leaving many nations in darkness.
 Africa must utilise their man power, and use the wealth on the continent to develop entrepreneurship amongst their indigenous peoples. 

 Africa must learn from lessons in the past and understand that the “Scramble for Africa” is very neo-colonist and is only a ploy to harness the powers of every other continent than its own.

This blog is dedicated to Africa, Africans and all parties interested in the African issues!

Call me Chi! I am a Netrepreneur and writer with a love for history, philosophy and technology. 
I hope you enjoy reading my blog!