THE HIFA PROMISE: DANCE, SING AND BE HEALED

The global financial crisis has affected many international arts events, but some are soldiering on despite funding cuts and other difficulties. The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) is one of those that's determined to continue celebrating “the healing and constructive capacity of the arts”, as the organizers put it.

Hailed widely as one of the best-run festivals in Africa, HIFA takes place in the Zimbabwean capital from April 30 to May 5 and has its usual eclectic line-up this year. Performers from Africa and other regions are showcasing jazz, classical music and pop, among the different genres.

The artists include Senegalese singer and guitarist Baaba Maal, quirky London-based rock band The Noisettes, multi-lingual Zimbabwean singer Busi Ncube and the Irish traditional music group Téada, to name a few.

The meeting of cultures is perhaps personified in Japanese musician Sakaki Mango, who has taken the African "thumb piano", or mbira, and added elements of traditional and modern Japanese culture to "create an exciting musical fusion”, according to HIFA’s directors.

Japanese musician Sakaki Mango

Mango sings in Japanese, and he mixes rock, his country's traditional music, Colombian Cumbia music, and electronic effects to create a unique sound. He’ll perform on the same stage (though not at the same time) as the exuberant Portuguese band Anaquim and the Austrialian trumpeter and didgeridoo player Chris Williams.

HIFA spokesperson Tafadzwa Simba told SWAN that the programme extends to theatre, spoken word, craft and design, and contemporary dance. Simba added that between 50,000 and 70,000 spectators are expected over the six days of the event.

Reviewers have said that HIFA serves to unify disparate groups, especially at a time of “ideological conflict and political uncertainty”. Since its establishment in 1999, the annual festival has certainly spotlighted the talents of many performers who deserve a wider audience and brought people together to enjoy the gifts these artists have to offer.

COMING TOGETHER FOR JAZZ AND PEACE IN ISTANBUL

Herbie Hancock

Some of the world's biggest jazz stars will be performing in Istanbul when the Turkish city hosts the main global event of International Jazz Day on April 30.

Observed worldwide, the day is aimed at bringing together communities, schools and groups to celebrate jazz, learn about its origins and experience the “beauty and spirit” of the music, says famed pianist Herbie Hancock, one of the driving forces behind the celebration.

Giving jazz its own day had long been Hancock’s dream, so when he was appointed a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 2011, he proposed the idea to the organization, and the governing bodies adopted it unanimously. The first International Jazz Day was launched in Paris last year with a stellar concert at the agency’s headquarters.

In Istanbul, Hancock and fellow musician Wayne Shorter will kick things off by conducting an early morning performance for high school students. They will join their peers for an evening concert that will also feature pianists George Duke and Abdullah Ibrahim; singers Al Jarreau, Milton Nascimento, Joss Stone and Dianne Reeves; trumpeters Hugh Masekela and Imer Demirer; bassists Marcus Miller, Esperanza Spalding and Ben Williams; and drummers Terri Lyne Carrington and Vinnie Colaiuta, among others.

Bassist Marcus Miller (photo by F. Barrier)

“Istanbul, located between East and West, is the perfect host city and a wonderful choice for the concert,” said Neil Ford, director of communications for UNESCO.

“Jazz has become associated with freedom and with bringing people together,” he told SWAN. “From its American roots, it’s become a world-wide genre.”

The organizers are hoping that there will be no security threats on a “day of dialogue and peace where people can enjoy this uniquely creative music”, said Ford.

Jazz's role as a "form of communication that transcends differences" is also being highlighted in Turkey and around the world, as some 90 other countries will be celebrating the day as well. In France, more than 48 events will take place, including performances and jam sessions at jazz clubs in the capital Paris.

In Mexico, at least 10 jazz concerts are scheduled throughout the country, while in India, Jazz Goa will celebrate the day with a huge event featuring international jazz artists. Swaziland will host a “Jazz Across Borders and Cultures” program comprising workshops, jam sessions, and concerts over three days.

The Instanbul concert will be streamed live on the web via several sites, including that of the U.S.-based Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, a co-organizer of International Jazz Day.

THE JOURNEY TO SCHOOL CAN BE LONG AND RISKY

The exhibition at UNESCO, showing Elizabeth,
in a photograph by Nichole Sobecki

Six-year-old Elizabeth lives in Kibera, a huge slum near the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the largest urban slum in Africa. Each day, dressed in her bright uniform, she walks for more than an hour across a harsh landscape to get to primary school. She is one of millions of children who must take a perilous path daily just to acquire an education.

Elizabeth and a number of other children are featured in a photo exhibition that’s currently being shown in Paris on the metal fencing around the headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency. 

Titled “Journeys to School”, the exhibition premiered at the UN in New York and will travel around the world until 2015, providing a testament to "children’s courage and determination" in the face of educational obstacles, said UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova.

“These images capture the extraordinary resolve of boys and girls to overcome all challenges – whether these concern gender, disability, location, ethnicity, conflict or natural disasters,” she said.

Opening the exhibition in Paris on a rainy afternoon earlier this month, she commented that “"rain is the least difficult of all obstacles for these children on their way to school.”

Santiago on his way to school.

Imagine the journey that 14-year-old Santiago Muñoz does in New York, for instance. Each school day, he has to take two buses and two different trains, for a trek of two hours to school. His family lives in public housing in Far Rockaway, located at the southern end of the borough of Queens. But Santiago attends a much-admired public high school in the north Bronx, where he was accepted because of his good grades.

Across the globe, in a city of refugees on the border between Myanmar and Thailand, Wai Wai Htun lives in a slum with other migrant families from Myanmar. “She must walk 40 minutes to the stop for the makeshift rickshaw, without which it would be impossible to go to school,” according to the exhibition.

Lack of proper public transportation is just one of the obstacles that many children face in poor communities. UN officials say that other challenges include discrimination, religious “tensions”, crime, natural disasters (such as the earthquake in Haiti and the tsunami in Japan), disability, gender inequality and political conflict.

Schools in fact are often the first to suffer the consequences of armed conflict, and “mines and unexploded ordnance pose a continuing danger to children”, UNESCO says. The photographs by Olivier Jobard show 11 year-old Amal Al Torchani in Misrata, Libya, attending school in surroundings that still bear the marks of warfare.

Mexican photographer Rodrigo Cruz, who has won several awards for his human rights work, portrays schoolchildren of the Tarahumara Indian community who live in Copper Canyon, or Barranca del Cobre, in northwestern Mexico. For Esmeralda and Patricia (9 and 10 years old), walking is the only means of transportation. They cross canyons, climb steep slopes, traverse pine forests and pass beneath barbed wire fence to get to school, according to the exhibition.

Pedestrians stop to view the photos.

"These stories reveal the tremendous resilience of children, their mothers, their fathers, their teachers, volunteers and NGOs and a common determination to build a future made better through education,” said Miguel Ferro, the president of the photojournalism agency SIPA PRESS, which produced the exhibition in association with UNESCO and public transportation company Transdev.

The children who do make it to school by whatever means could be considered the lucky ones, as some 61 million children and 71 million adolescents do not attend school, according to figures from the UN.

The organization is calling on governments to strengthen their education policies as part of the Global Education First Initiative, a five-year project sponsored by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that aims to "renew and reinvigorate global commitments to education".

One of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals is to see all children attaining primary schooling by 2015. Although many countries have improved access to education in the past decade, officials say that much still needs to be done, especially for marginalized communities.

(The “Journeys to School” photographs will also appear in a book, proceeds from which will help to fund education, according to UNESCO. See sidebar.)

BRAZILIAN CULTURE BURSTS ONTO WORLD STAGE AGAIN

The new Marisa Monte CD

From film festivals to photography exhibitions, Brazilian culture will be in the spotlight in Europe over the next weeks, with a wealth of activities taking place in France and other countries.

The glare of attention is hard to miss as a top Parisian department store devotes space to Brazilian designers and as newspapers focus on the latest cultural trends to emerge from the South American nation.

“Some of this comes from a spontaneous interest in what’s going on in Brazil, and some comes from the press, from companies or from initiatives created in Brazil by the government or by individuals,” says Mariana Moscardo, the cultural attaché at the Embassy of Brazil in Paris.

“There is a lot of interest in Brazilian culture and in the artists who do tours in Europe, so it’s a mixture of interest and curiosity,” she told SWAN. “We do have long and sometimes complicated ties with Europe, but it’s a positive thing and we’re happy with what’s happening.”

Moscardo added that many of the cultural initiatives are backed by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture under Marta Suplicy, a popular politician who has met with some of her counterparts in Europe to forge closer ties.  The official support is in contrast to certain times in the past when artists were seen as mostly trouble.

Among the leading current arts events is the 15^th Brazilian Film Festival in Paris which runs from April 16 to 23 and takes film fans on a cinematic journey to South America. The annual fair will screen 27 films this year and host several well-known personalities such as musician and former culture minister Gilberto Gil.

Katia Adler, director of the festival.

Things will kick off with “Gonzaga - De pai para filho”, a film by Breno Silveira that had about two million viewers in Brazil. The festival will also honour Carlos Diegues, an internationally renowned director in his own right and one of the co-founders of Cinema Novo, the film movement of the 1960s and 70s that placed emphasis on social equality and individualism.

Three movies for children will be featured as well, and the event will end with the unedited documentary “Viramundo - a musical voyage with Gilberto Gil”, in the presence of both Gil and the film’s director Pierre-Yves Borgeaud.

“I hope distributors will discover some of these films and choose to market them more widely,” said the event’s founder and director Katia Adler. “The aim is to help the films find a commercial footing through the festival.”

A resident of Rio de Janeiro who studied film in France and worked in television, Adler said she launched the festival as a way to not only counter common stereotypes about her country but also to promote worthy films made by Brazilian directors.

“When I was working in television in the late Eighties and there was something about Brazil, it was always negative, focusing on street children, drugs or poverty,” she recalls. “In 1998, I decided to start distributing Brazilian films in France as a way to show a different picture and to help filmmakers at a time when culture was being pushed to the sidelines under the then government.”

Her initiative developed into the film festival, eventually gaining funding from the French ministry of culture and other bodies. Although much of this funding is drying up because of the global financial crisis, Adler says the Embassy of Brazil continues to provide significant support. She says she plans to continue putting on the festival because many people look forward to attending it.

“It’s become an important festival in France because it’s nearly the only opportunity to see the latest films from Brazil on this scale,” she told SWAN in an interview. “Not enough Brazilian films are distributed internationally.”

Scene from a film by Sergio Andrade.

Many cinema-goers will have seen Cidade de Deus (City of God), the 2002 crime drama that was a global hit, but numerous other movies never make it beyond South America, especially if the story is not one that the public can easily buy into: Brazil as dangerous, exotic, colourful and exciting. Adler also organizes film festivals in Toronto and Montreal, Canada, for the reason of showing a wide spectrum of stories.

The Paris event this year will further include an exhibition of photographs by Marc Ferrez, who was considered the greatest Brazilian photographer of his time. Depicting Rio at the end of the 19^th century, the show is just one of several exhibitions in Europe in which Brazil is the “star” this year.

The architect Oscar Niemeyer will be the subject of a separate exposition at the Parisian headquarters of the French communist party – a building he designed. This display will look at 50 years of Brasilia, the town that Niemeyer helped to develop from the ground up in 1956 and which now serves as Brazil’s federal capital.

Brazilian music, among the country’s most popular exports, isn’t being forgotten either. Europe provided asylum for a generation of artists during Brazil’s 21-year military regime that ended in 1985, and musicians such as Gil and Caetano Veloso can still count on a solid fan base. Younger singers, including Marisa Monte, Seu Jorge, Vanessa da Mata and Ceu,  now perform regularly to packed halls. Monte will give a concert in Paris on April 18^th as part of her European tour. 

For those who are more interested in the culinary arts or consumer items, the landmark Parisian department store Le Bon Marché  and its gourmet supermarket La Grande Epicerie have decided to invite Brazil through their gilded doors as “guest of honour” until June 22. Shoppers can go Brazilian by trying on garments designed by Adriana Degreas or having a bite of feijoada - the typical stew of beans and pork that's best washed down with a strong caipirinha.

PHOTOGRAPHER WRITES 'LOVE LETTER TO THE PLANET'

The famed Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado has long used his camera as a tool to help protect the environment. He is now holding concurrent expositions of his “Genesis” project in a number of cities from May until early next year, showing the earth's beauty through awe-inspiring photographs.

The project is the result of eight years of expeditions to 32 countries in which Salgado set out to “rediscover the mountains, deserts and oceans, the animals and peoples that have so far escaped the imprint of modern society”, as the exhibition puts it.

“Some forty-six percent of the planet is still as it was in the time of genesis,” Salgado says. “We must preserve what exists.”

To realize “Genesis”, he travelled by foot, light aircraft, ship, canoe, and even balloons, to show the land, animals, and indigenous peoples in their natural beauty. The black-and-white photographs, with the contrasts of light and dark, pull viewers into the landscapes portrayed.

One can discover the volcanoes of Central Africa, the rivers of the Amazon,  the icebergs of the Antarctic and the Nenet nomads and their reindeer herds in the Arctic Circle - among the many elements of Salgado’s “love letter to the planet”.

The exhibition can be seen at London’s Natural History Museum from now until September 8, and at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, from May 2 through September 2. It will be shown in Italy at Rome’s Ara Pacis Museum from May 15, and in Switzerland, Brazil and France later in the year. The photographs also appear in a book (published by Taschen) that Salgado will launch in Paris on May 16.

NEW FILM HEIGHTENS CAMPAIGN FOR GIRLS' EDUCATION

Behind the Scenes in Haiti
©Martha Adams, Richard E. Robbins, Gina Nemirofsky, 10x10act.org10x10act.org

Girl Rising is a film that may do more to bring about the universal education of girls than all the speeches from the world’s politicians. The moving documentary tells the story of nine young girls from nine countries who confront tremendous obstacles to get an education and to achieve a sense of freedom.

Each girl’s story is written by an eminent woman writer from her country, and the literary list includes Edwidge Danticat of Haiti, Aminatta Forna of Sierra Leone and Mona Eltahawy of Egypt.

Nine well-known actresses narrate the stories, speaking for the girls in gripping fashion as they share their experiences, their fears and their dreams. Among the actresses are Meryl Streep, Salma Hayek, Kerry Washington and Cate Blanchett.

“If to see it is to know it, this film delivers hope; reasonable, measurable, tangible hope that the world can be healed and helped to a better future,” states Streep.

Produced by the social action campaign 10x10 and directed by Academy Award nominee

Director Richard Robbins

Richard Robbins, Girl Rising “showcases the strength of the human spirit and the power of education to change the world”, say the filmmakers.

Among the stories told is that of Sokha, an orphaned Cambodian girl who has to pick through garbage to survive. But, through a few “miracles”, Sokha manages to attend school and becomes a star student. She now helps to tutor younger pupils.

The film comes amid global concerns about the rights of women and girls and is a timely reminder of the work still to be done. 

As the 10x10 campaign says: “Around the world, millions of girls face barriers to education that boys do not. And yet, when you educate a girl, you can break cycles of poverty in just one generation. Removing barriers to girls’ education - such as early and forced marriage, domestic slavery, sex trafficking, gender violence and discrimination, lack of access to healthcare, school fees - means not only a better life for girls, but a safer, healthier, and more prosperous world for all.”

Girl Rising opens in theatres in several countries this month.  For the official trailer and more information on the campaign, go to: http://10x10act.org/girl-rising/

FAREWELL TO CHINUA ACHEBE, FATHER OF AFRICAN LIT

Just as we were preparing to publish the following review of Chinua Achebe’s "There Was a Country", we received news that the great African writer had died. Like many readers around the world, we thought back to the first time we read his masterpiece "Things Fall Apart", and how the book helped to shape our view of colonialism.

The news of his passing comes at the beginning of spring, a time of renewal, and readers can comfort themselves that Achebe has embarked upon a bold new journey.

THERE WAS A COUNTRY

By Chinua Achebe

Reviewed by Christina Edland-Coste

  

Chinua Achebe’s long-awaited latest work, “There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra", delves into the causes and events leading up to the Biafran War, recounts that war from alternating personal and historical points of view and grapples with the complexities of post-colonial Nigeria, sometimes raising more questions than it answers.

Achebe, grandfather of African literature by tacit accord, is best known for his novel “Things Fall Apart,” first published in 1958.  It is currently the most widely read book in African literature, having sold more than 10 million copies.   And while his newest book differs in both form and content, the unmistakable voice of the storyteller rings true.

General knowledge of the Biafran War is fairly limited, especially for anyone born after 1970, the year that saw an end to the conflict.  Awareness is further restricted by the fact that few, if any, schools deem it necessary to discuss the events that took place in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970, beginning with government-endorsed ethnic-cleansing of approximately 30,000 Igbo and culminating with Africa’s most expansive and devastating genocide of the 20^th century, before Rwanda.  Achebe’s account enlightens us and allows the reader to further explore the conflict.

The choice of the title, “There Was A Country” is highly evocative.  It could easily refer to the short-lived Republic of Biafra and the ultimate goal of this lost war.  But it could just as easily be a reference to Nigeria itself, for Achebe does not hide his nostalgia for what he considers to be the great nation of his youth.  A nation full of promises never delivered. 

The book is written in four parts.  Part 1 paints an idyllic picture of Achebe’s family life under colonialism, providing the backdrop for what is to come and sheds light on Achebe’s family origins.  We read eagerly, fascinated by the over-achieving Achebe clan.  It transports the reader to the six-year period following independence in Nigeria and the end of colonialism.  “Things fall apart” could very aptly describe this transitional period.

Part 2 relates the events and progression of the war.  Here, the reading becomes more difficult.  As Achebe himself concedes:  “Striking a balance between a level of detail that will satisfy readers who still feel the impact of these events deeply and that which will be palatable, if not to say comprehensible, to a less well-informed reader is an impossibility …”

At times, the book reads like an Who’s Who of the Nigerian elite and intelligentsia. Much time is also spent evoking the names of politicians and writers of the day, whose involvement in the Nigerian-Biafra war was crucial. 

Part 3 brings us to the end of the war and the difficulty in establishing “peace” in the wake of such violence.  Biafran military leader Ojukwu abandons his post, seeking refuge in neighbouring Ivory Coast, leaving in his absence a state of panic and insecurity amongst the incomprehensive Igbo population.  No apologies were given, no excuses were made and nobody knew what the future would hold.    

That future, or now the current-day state of Nigeria, is briefly considered in part 4.  Achebe discusses the wrongs that Nigeria suffers daily, faced with corruption so rampant, that no solution seems possible.  Corruption amplified by the oil-boom petrol dollars flowing throughout the country in the hands of the ruling class.

This was, after all, one of the underlying reasons for the war and the involvement of various super powers throughout the conflict.  Here Achebe invokes the assistance of these same Super Powers, urging “Great Britain, America, and the West to be involved positively in African affairs  . . . by aiding African nations in their struggles to become viable democracies.”   

Achebe’s own role during the war was multi-faceted.  At once statesman, advisor, diplomat, writer and publisher, tireless in his efforts, moved by the urgency of the situation, his involvement never ceases.   

The role of the writer seems be of special interest to Achebe, and he spends considerable time on the subject.  “The Nigeria-Biafra War led to an explosion of musical, lyrical, and poetic creativity and artistry,” concludes Achebe, adding that: “If society is ill the writer has a responsibility to point it out.  If the society is healthier, the writer’s job is different.” 

Going a step further, he conjures a picture of the artist as the eye through which society sees and insists that writers can and must protest through their books, recalling a line by Wole Soyinka, his famous compatriot:  “the man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny” (“The Man Died”, 1971, Wole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright and poet, contemporary of Achebe, Nobel Prize winner 1986).   Soyinka’s literary and war related activities earned him the right to a 22-month prison stay during the conflict.

Some will say that the book is not objective enough – how could it possibly be objective when told from the point of view of the defeated?  Others will say that Achebe seems to be holding back during this writing, for surely he knew he would be criticized not just on the basis of his writing, but on the truth of his assertions.

But these critics would be missing the point:  the telling needed to be done.  And Achebe does lend credibility to his version, including citations from key players of the day and quotes from various news sources.

He also includes an interview with Yakubu Gowon (leader of the federal Nigerian troops) near the end.   Achebe does not spend a lot of time and energy trying to place blame – he does not ruminate.   He simply gets on with the task at hand, telling a story he ultimately needed to tell, yet providing no easy answers in the telling.

Christina Edland-Coste is a Paris-based contributor, who studied Achebe’s work at university.

(Copyright SWAN 2013)

BRAZIL, AFRICA PROMOTE WRITERS AT PARIS BOOK FAIR

A Brazilian anthology in French.

The eager crowds streaming into the Paris Book Fair at the official opening on Thursday evening provided much-needed encouragement to the many international writers and publishing staff fighting to adapt in a rapidly changing industry.

“It’s great to know that people are still reading,” said Constancia Egrejas Morel, a translator and literary agent at the Brazilian pavilion at the fair. “For writers from countries such as ours, this is especially heartening because it means there is also interest in translated works.”

Brazil, several African states, China and Japan are among the overseas representatives at the annual four-day event which runs until Monday, March 25, in the French capital. This year the book fair (or Salon du Livre) is also honouring Romanian literature, while Barcelona is the "guest city".

Forty-five countries in all are displaying their literature and holding discussions, book signings, and other cultural activities, and some 60,000 people are expected to visit the fair over its course.

The large Brazilian presence is part of the government’s policy to promote and distribute Brazilian authors in France, according to the country’s embassy in Paris. Their stand displays more than 1,000 titles, both in the original language and in translation.

Brazilian writer Marcal Aquino

The writers featured include the celebrated poet and composer Vinícius de Moraes, who would have turned 100 years old this year, as well as many contemporary authors such as Suzana Montoro and Marçal Aquino, who are now making a name for themselves.

Egrejas Morel told SWAN that most translations of Brazilian literature occur in France and Spain, but agents would like to see more books being translated into English.

“By showcasing the works at various book fairs, we hope to draw more attention to the wealth of Brazilian writing,” she said.

The publishers of African literature have a similar goal. For the fourth time, they’re taking part in the Salon du Livre with authors that include Alain Mabanckou and Henri Lopes, both representing the Republic of Congo, and Fatou Diome, representing Senegal.

The writers will meet the public at the pavilion titled “Livres et auteurs du Bassin du Congo” (Books and Writers of the Congo Basin), which has Senegal as the guest of honour in 2013. One of the round-table discussions will centre on the topic of female authors who use their art to take a stand on social issues - a subject that is sure to spark heated debate.

African cuisine is also sharing the spotlight as the fair has a huge cookbook focus this year, with well-known chefs giving cooking demonstrations amid the stands of shiny new books. 

Meanwhile, journalism about the continent can be explored through publications of the Jeune Afrique Group, which has its own section of magazines and reports.

KOFI ANNAN’S INTERVENTIONS

“When people are in danger, everyone has a duty to speak out. No one has a right to pass by on the other side.”

This is one of the main messages of “Interventions: A Life in War and Peace”, Kofi Annan’s compellingly written and thought-provoking memoir.

The former United Nations secretary-general discussed the book last Saturday when he was a guest at lit.COLOGNE, an international literary festival in the western German city. But while the audience was impressed by Annan's "aura of authority" and by his eloquence, many people wanted more details about his work and life.

For that, they'll have to read "Interventions". The book gives readers an inside view of international diplomacy during a turbulent period that included the Balkan conflicts and the Iraq War.

Annan, the first sub-Saharan African to hold the UN’s top post, writes candidly about some of the UN’s failed efforts in countries such as Somalia and Rwanda, and he gives absorbing accounts of various political issues and leaders. But he also pays homage to ordinary people around the world who are fighting to improve their lives and live in dignity.

"Ultimately, the success of our efforts on the question of intervention should not be measured in wars launched or sanctions imposed but in lives saved," he writes of the UN's peacekeeping missions.

With the question of how to protect civilians in war-torn areas becoming increasingly pertinent, readers will be struck by the complex procedures involved in getting governments to act. But Annan warns that everyone is diminished when the international community stands by and watches as atrocities are committed.

"We as a global community should learn the hard-won lessons of the past, and seek to prevent injustices and inequities from taking root before they lead to crisis and conflict," he stresses.

AFRICA'S LEADING FILM FEST TRIES TO FEEL NO FEAR

One of the films to be screened.

Africa's largest film festival begins tomorrow in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou, amid some concerns that the conflict in neighbouring Mali could have an impact on both the attendance and the atmosphere.

But Michel Ouedraogo, the “delegate-general" of FESPACO (the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou) has promised that security will be ensured.

At a recent briefing in Paris to unveil the event, Ouedraogo expressed his country’s “solidarity with the people of Mali”, while stressing that “Africa has a tolerant culture”. The organizers also pointed out that the festival has seen three coups since its beginning in 1969, but is still going strong.

Now in its 23rd edition, the biennial festival will screen 169 films from 35 countries over the next week, with the selection of the winning director eagerly awaited.

This year, for the first time, the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), based in  Brussels, will give an  award of 3000 euros in the framework of the ACPCultures+ Programme. The award will go to the film that best reflects the objectives of the programme.

“We’re doing this because we strongly believe that culture is important to achieve  sustainable development,” said Michèle Dominique Raymond, the ACP Assistant-Secretary General for Political Affairs and Human Development.

“There is no future without culture,” she told SWAN. “We want to do our best to find means to provide some financial support to filmmakers, having in mind the global financial crisis.”

The festival’s central theme in 2013 is “African Cinema and Public Policy in Africa”, and the debates around the topic have ironically focused on the festival itself, with some observers wondering if it costs too much in a country where the 2012 unemployment rate was over 70 percent. Other critics wonder whether the event is too “elitist”.

"Cobwebs" tells a Malian story.

Responding to such questions, Burkina Faso’s Minister of Culture and Tourism Baba Hama said that the festival’s organizational cost of 978 million CFA francs (2 million dollars) brings returns in the form of increased tourism and development of African cinema.

He said that while the government of Burkina Faso and the European Union provided the largest share of funding, invaluable assistance also came from some NGOs and external organizations.

The festival has enabled African filmmakers to gain international attention, and also offers the public a means of seeing Africa's stories on screen, the event's supporters say.

Burkina Faso itself will have only one movie among the 101 feature films in competition, with the rest coming from South Africa, Morocco, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Angola, and other participating countries.

Mali will be represented by "Toiles d’araignée" (Cobwebs), the first feature film by Ibrahima Touré. It tells the wrenching story of a young woman named Mariama who rejects the old husband that her father wants her to marry and who is tortured and imprisoned as a result.

The film is an adaptation of the eponymous novel, by mathematics professor Ibrahima Ly, who himself was incarcerated from 1974 to 1978 at a time when Mali was under military rule.

The festival's “guest of honor” this year is Gabon, which celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence in 2012. According to Ardiouma Soma, FESPACO’s Artistic Delegate and head of programming, the Gabonese were already making films at the dawn of African independence. “This is a country that was part of the birth of African cinema,” Soma said.

The Gabonese entry in the feature film competition category is “Le collier de Makoko” (The King’s Necklace) by Henri Joseph Koumba Bididi. Filmed in Africa and France, it has been touted as the first high-budget film by an African director.

LITERATURE PROVIDES COMFORT TO A TROUBLED CITY

Article and photographs by Zofeen T. Ebrahim

Literature fans discover new books at the festival.

For three full days, from Feb 15-17, Pakistan's Karachi Literature Festival provided a menu designed to tempt the most discerning of literary palates, complemented by an enviable list of authors, writers, poets and journalists.

The place reverberated with discussions, dialogues, readings, conversations on subjects that ranged from social satire to films, from cricket to politics, from secularism to human rights. And the intense discussions were interspersed with theatre, music, poetry, storytelling for children, and puppet shows.

One could not help but notice how surreal the surrounding was. Held at the Beach Luxury Hotel grounds next to the creek, the festival experienced cool breezes and filtered sunlight that made the atmosphere perfect for the event. It was also more accessible and bigger than the previous venue.

Most sessions had packed audiences which showed how starved the dwellers of the violence-riddled city were for an intellectual discourse. "It goes to show that there are still educated people in Karachi," pointed out Farooq Sattar, a politician belonging to Mutahidda Qaumi Movement party. 

  

Amina Saiyid, the director of Oxford University Press, one of the co-organisers, traces the festival’s galloping growth from a modest 35 speakers and 34 sessions back in 2010, to as many as 240 authors and 100 sessions now in its fourth year.

A panel discusses Afghanistan.

Fifty of the authors were international, and attendance has risen steadily from 5,000 in 2010 to 10,000 in 2011, and to 15,000 last year. In addition, 23 books were launched. However, the director refuses to bask in the success of the event which she terms "every publisher's dream".

Saiyid, who was awarded the Knighthood of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ambassador of France in Pakistan, Philippe Thiebaud, got the inspiration from the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF)" which she considers "the mother of all literature festivals in South Asia" (see earlier SWAN article). However, she does not want to tread the same path as the JLF's because it has "become a victim of its own success".

"It's become quite unwieldy and lost the intimacy and connection," she said. For that reason alone, she doesn't want the KLF to become "a totally wild mob scene".   

But her co-organiser, Dr Asif Farrukhi, wants to see a "bigger and better" KLF next year, but one that should "reflect Pakistan". Quite satisfied with how the events unfolded, he said he found that the questions asked by the audience after the panel discussions reflected how sharp and knowledgeable they were. 

Dr Azra Ahsan, Karachi's leading gynecologist and obstetrician, liked the "festive" atmosphere which she found infectious. She said it gave her a glimmer of hope for Pakistan when she saw the crowd comprising "people of all ages there talking and not fighting".

"The fact that there was so much intellectual stimulation, the opportunity to hear and meet some of the authors and to hear what their thought processes were behind their works" is what psychiatrist Dr Murad Moosa Khan liked best.

A session on politics and the Pakistani English novel.

Moderating the session on cricket and cricket writers, Khan said it gave him an "opportunity to get views of those (panelists) who have an in-depth knowledge of the game as well as great writing styles".

But there were some topics that people would like to see in the next KLF.

Sumera Naqvi, a Karachi-based journalist and a literature buff, said while there were sessions on poet Ghalib and short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto, there were other epic literary giants who didn't get even a mention. "Why were poets of the 80s like Habib Jalib and linguists like Jameel Jalibi completely ignored from the literary discourse?"

Also conspicuous by his absence was Mushtaq Yusufi, an Urdu satirical and humour writer. 

Psychiatrist Khan felt there should have been a session on the psychological impact of the violence that is happening to Pakistanis. In addition, he said, there was also nothing on "ethics and morality".

"I would like to see both these addressed in future KLF," said Khan.

Farrukhi, himself a writer and a critic, said he would have liked to see more of "Urdu and other Pakistani languages" represented. 

  

But there are people who also expressed the feeling that there was too much discussion on politics. 

"It may seem that there were more panels that could be termed political, but how can you separate politics from literature or from life because literature is about life?" countered Saiyid who does not subscribe to knowledge being compartmentalised. "And literature is not just about writing beautifully but also about beautiful thoughts and ideas."

Zofeen T. Ebrahim is a freelance journalist based in Karachi.

Editor’s note: The city of Lahore in Pakistan will also hold a literary festival, its first, on Feb. 23 and 24.