under the baobab tree
coffee breaks & exposures to africa, mostlyidrissa guiro: barcelone ou la mort
Barça ou Barzakh (Barcelone ou la mort, Barcelona or Death) is Idrissa Guiro’s first film and an eye-opener that shows the link between the massive overfishing by the EU fishing fleets in Senegal (and West Africa) and migration to Europe. The strength of this documentary is particularly in the fact that it shows what is behind the faceless figures of immigrants you read from the news; practically everyone for instance in Thiaroye-sur-Mer, where fishing used to be the main source of income, has a brother, father, uncle, or friend who risked their lives in hope of a future for himself and his extended family. Some of them manage to make it to Europe but many die on this trip, and yet new candidates keep trying despite the risks involved, in lack of better alternatives.
Keep an eye on this excellent documentary and go and see it if the opportunity arises!
Here is a short clip from Barça ou Barzakh in You Tube (in French)
More information on the impact of overfishing
donkey mobile library
Have you ever heard of donkey mobile library? If not, have a look at this inspiring clip from Awassa, Ethiopia, featuring Yohannes Gebregeorgis’ fantastic initiatives that help children in Ethiopia to have access to books also outside school. Gebregeorgis first opened a children’s library at his own home and has now gone mobile in rural areas. This idea is worth disseminating widely!
launch of A24 Media
This link will take you to the website of A 24 Media, a recently launched online delivery site for material from African journalists, broadcasters and NGO’s. Now you have the opportunity to have access to news material without international crews covering local stories. Indeed a very welcomed African perspective on issues affecting the continent!
support training through donated technology
The Ndiagamar School Project in Dakar would like to encourage companies and individuals to donate computers and computer equipment so that voluntary-based schools in Senegal can put them to work for a while longer.
Donating computer equipment to the Ndiagamar School Project is a safe way to discard used equipment when you upgrade your computer. Before taken into use in schools, we will send your computer to a refurbisher, who will ensure that the equipment works well and runs legal copies of software, and that any e-waste is disposed of properly. If you can, include the keyboard, mouse, printer, modem, packaged software, or any other accessories you use with the computer. Schools can almost always put them to good use.
If you donate to a non-profit organization, you are eligible for a tax deduction. Business donors can deduct the un-depreciated value of the computer, and individuals can deduct the current market value of a computer. We can provide a tax receipt upon request.
Please forward this information to companies and individuals that may consider upgrading their computer equipment and are looking for possibilities of donating in the following locations: Brussels, Paris, London, or Dakar. If you would like to donate or find out more about this project, please contact us via info@ndiagamar.org or visit our web site.
Avoid e-waste – reuse!
sons of bilal, sons of the bambara
The qnawa are the descendants of the black African slaves that were brought into the Maghreb from the 17th century onwards. They venerate the memory of Bilal Ibn Rabah, an Abyssinian Christian slave that was freed and who became the Prophet’s muezzin and one of his most loyal companions. Bilal is said to have been the first person who recited the adhan, the call for prayer, in public.
I have been a fan of gnawa music for a long, long time and have just found a new album that I would like to recommend to anyone reading this blog. It is called Gnawa Home Songs, a collective recording that has been made in a homy atmosphere in Tamesloht. This is a first-ever gathering of some great Moroccan voices, such as Hamid Kasri, Amida & Hassan Boussou, Abdelkebir Merchane, Abdelkebir Amlil and Zef Zaf, who also sings in Bambara. This is simply a fantastic album to all those who can easily forget yourselves into the incantatory blues of the gnawa.
It would be great to attend a gnawa festival, or even better, a lila, which is a complex and intimate and fairly ecstatic combination of music and dance practised by the brotherhood. As I will soon have the opportunity to visit Marrakesh again, at least I will buy myself a couple of pairs of qaraqib, those neat metal castanets used to produce that profound trance-like beat to the qnawa music.
