Projects tagged "Africa"

Toyi-Toyi
Practitioner:
Soutth African protesters
Date:
Jan 1 1976
Toyi-toyi is a Southern African dance originally from Zimbabwe by Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) forces that has long been used in political protests in South Africa. Toyi-toyi could begin as the stomping of feet and spontaneous chanting during protests that could include political slogans or songs, either improvised or previously created. Some sources claim that South Africans learned it from Zimbabweans.
Favorite 
4
"Hail to the Thief" : political art or creative activism?
Practitioner:
The Goodman Gallery
Date:
May 20 2012
Established Cape Town based artist Brett Murray returns to Goodman Gallery Johannesburg with Hail to the Thief II. This body of satirical work continues his acerbic attacks on abuses of power, corruption and political dumbness seen in his 2010 Cape Town show Hail to the Thief.
Favorite 
10
The art of activism: Thapelo Motsumi & the Umuzi Photo Club
Practitioner:
Umuzi Photo Club
Date:
May 14 2012
Photographer Thapelo Motsumi is one of many young South Africans who has worked with the Umuzi Photo Club to develop his artistic skills and engage his community. Now this “drop out” has had two exhibitions in London and has been entrusted with Mandela’s football jersey. By GREG NICOLSON.
Favorite 
0
Rhodes Must Fall
Practitioner:
UCT Students
Date:
Mar 6 2015
This series of protests began on the UCT campus in an effort to remove the bronze statute of Cecil Rhodes in the center of campus due to the belief that Rhodes represents the oppressive colonization of South Africa that eventually led to apartheid.
Favorite 
3
Kony 2012
Practitioner:
Invisible Children
Date:
Mar 5 2012
In 2004, the United Nations called the LRA crisis in northern Uganda the “most forgotten, neglected humanitarian emergency in the world.” Invisible Children was founded to change that and to fight against the false notion that our responsibility to each other stops at our own nations’ borders.
Favorite 
5
WOMEN ARE HEROES /
Practitioner:
JR
Date:
Jan 1 2009
The Women Are Heroes project has various steps in Africa, in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Sudan. In January 2009, 2000 square meters of rooftops are covered with photos of the eyes and faces of the women of Kibera, in Kenya. Most of the women have their own photos on their own rooftop and for the first time the material used is water resistant so that the photo itself will protect the fragile houses in the heavy rain season.
Favorite 
2
Reimagining Albus
Practitioner:
Athenkosi Kwinana
Date:
Jan 5 2022
Through her work, South African art activist Athenkosi Kwinana aspires to deepen the understanding of Albinism in her native country, where she has faced discrimination in most aspects of her life from childhood days on. Working with both drawing and printmaking, Kwinana creates large self-portraits that aim to constructively reimagine the representation of Albinism in the country’s black communities and African contemporary art as whole.
Favorite 
0
Congo La Sape
Practitioner:
Sapeurs
Date:
Apr 1 2014
Their name, Sapeurs, comes from the French slang se saper, meaning to dress with class, but also from the acronym of their social group : La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (the Society of Ambianceurs and Elegant Persons). La Sape can be traced back to the early years of colonialism.
Favorite 
5
Somalia guerrilla artists dare to paint reality
Practitioner:
Muhiyidin Sharif Ibrahim
Date:
Mar 5 2013
“I want to show the people how bad the troubles were," says artist Muhiyidin Sharif Ibrahim of Mogadishu, Somalia. "That’s the message we’re going to send to people.” (Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times)
Favorite 
2
Stella Nyanzi's Birthday Poem "Yoweri, they say it was your birthday yesterday."
Practitioner:
Stella Nyanzi
Date:
Sep 15 2018
Dr. Stella Nyanzi, a Ugandan medical anthropologist, activist, and writer, was convicted after writing and posting a poem online, in which she criticized Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his mother. In November 2018, Ugandan authorities charged Dr. Nyanzi with “cyber harassment” and “offensive communication” under Sections 24 and 25 of the 2011 Computer Misuse Act, and detained her in connection with the poem.
Favorite 
2
The Green Belt Movement
Practitioner:
Wangari Maathai
Date:
Apr 1 1977
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) was founded by Professor Wangari Maathai in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK) to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and fencing.
Favorite 
1
This ‘Plastic Man’ Has a Cape and a Superhero’s Mission: Cleaning Up Senegal
Practitioner:
Modou Fall
Date:
Jan 1 2022
Dressed head to toe in plastic, Modou Fall is a familiar sight in Dakar. But however playful his costume, his goal couldn’t be more serious: ridding the capital of the scourge of plastic bags.
Favorite 
2
As the statue falls, she rises in protest
Practitioner:
Sethembile Msezane
Date:
Apr 9 2015
I was born in the 90s, but I’m not a Born Free; it was before South Africa became a democracy. Many believe that my generation doesn’t have anything to protest against. Given that police threw stun grenades at a student protest outside parliament last month, that is far from the truth.
Favorite 
2
Puppets Against AIDS
Practitioner:
Puppets Against AIDS, Gary Friedman
Date:
Dec 1 1988
"Puppets Against Aids was launched by Gary Friedman on 1st December 1988 in time for 'World Aids Day' in Johannesburg, South Africa. During 1987, Friedman had been studying with Muppet master, Jim Henson, in Charleville-Mézières, France. Henson provided the initial financial contribution to launch the African Research and Educational Puppetry Programme 'Puppets Against Aids'.
Favorite 
2
PAWA 254
Practitioner:
Boniface Mwangi
Date:
Feb 26 2013
Kenyan-based photographer Boniface Mwangi has captured his country's political and civic turmoil since the controversial presidential election in 2007. The violence and disorder he witnesses daily motivated him to take action, setting up a creative hub for activism called PAWA 254.
Favorite 
3
Pop Art as Social Commentary
Practitioner:
Kadarick
Date:
Mar 1 2018
A Côte d'Ivoire-based artist, known as Kadarick, draws on the fantastical powers of The Hulk, Spiderman and Wonder Woman to articulate today's fears. In a new pop-art series of 23 paintings titled Joker, the self-taught painter explores pop culture, politics, mass media and capitalism. The series was recently on display at the LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery in Abidjan.
Favorite 
6
#BringBackOurGirls
Practitioner:
Social Media Users Worldwide
Date:
May 2 2014
On April 15 in northern Nigeria, 200 school girls aged 15-18 were kidnapped by an extremist Muslim group called Boko Haram, whose name in the Hausa language means “Western education is a sin.” In hopes of viral pressure on Nigerian authorities to try to recover the girls, campaigns have started on the White House website, on Change.org and on Facebook to demand: “Bring Back Our Girls.” The campaigns quickly gained global attention, with Michelle Obama,
Favorite 
1
Dr. Cruel and the Afro- Icelandic Liberation Front
Practitioner:
Teco Benson, Jakob Boeskob
Date:
Jan 1 2010
By 2010, the Nigerian film industry, also referred to as “Nollywood,” had become the second-largest film industry in the world. Today, the accessibility of digital video technology continues to enable prolific amateur filmmakers to produce wildly popular low-budget and direct-to-DVD films, which deal with timely issues of religion, poverty, and corruption.
Favorite 
4
Maboneng Township Arts Experience
Practitioner:
Palesa & Siphiwe Ngwenya
Date:
Jan 1 2001
At the age of just 30, Palesa Ngwenya is helping transform these areas through her position as development coordinator of Maboneng Township Arts Experience. “We turn homes in the townships into art galleries,” says the young South African woman, who grew up during apartheid. “It’s about showing people that you can use what you have to do things that can change your life."
Favorite 
3
Congo Man Sets Himself Ablaze for Peace
Practitioner:
Unidentified Man
Date:
Nov 8 2023
A video that was first posted on X (formerly Twitter) on November 8, of a Congolese man setting himself on fire has gone viral. The gruesome clip has started a discussion on whether a genocide is occurring in the DRC and is being ignored by both Africa and the rest of the world.
Favorite 
12
Mada Underground
Practitioner:
Caylah, Naty Kaly, Totté, Temandrota
Date:
Oct 1 2017
As local rapper Naty says, a group of young people are intent on making their mark in Madagascar's cultural history. From gifted slam poet Caylah to inventive visual artist Temandrota and a crew of entrepreneurial skateboarders, a generation of young Madagascans are making space for creative projects.They are inspiring in their enthusiasm and hopeful for the future despite the poverty in their country and its colonial past.
Favorite 
2
Djerbahood
Practitioner:
Curated by Mr. Mehdi Ben Cheikh
Date:
Jul 13 2014
Djerbahood Project, which took place during the months of July and August on a small island called Djerba and is located in the Gulf of Gabes. Better known as the island of dreams, the tiny village of Djerba boasts a traditional and authentic Tunisian setting which acted as a blank canvas for hundred and fifty street artists from thirty different countries.
Favorite 
2
Garbage Collectors
Practitioner:
Afrika ARTS Kollective
Date:
Jan 17 2015
Afrika ARTS Kollective is a group of artists that decided to face Uganda's demographic growth and the garbage problem of the capital, Kamala, with art. 30,000 tons of residues come out of this monthly and the Administration is being working on healthy and good environmental behaviors among citizens.
Favorite 
2
Woe Fie
Practitioner:
Angel Maxine
Date:
Jul 26 2021
Can you finish the lyric? “Your driver could be LGBTQ, Your Tailor could be LGBTQ,…” If you can’t, you may be a part of the majority who doesn’t know about the song Wo Fie. However, for those in the LGBTQIA+ community, and followers of Ghanaian musician Angel Maxine, the song has become a Pride month anthem.
Favorite 
6
Afrofuturism: An Interview with Krista Franklin
Practitioner:
Krista Franklin
Date:
Jun 21 2016
The term “Afrofuturism” was coined in the 1990s by the cultural critic Mark Dery, who recognized a preoccupation with the future in the work of a number of black artists. Ever since, it has remained a term that is retrospectively applied to seemingly disparate artists, from Missy Elliot to Toni Morrison. What unites the movement is a shared fascination with the black experience, particularly in America.
Favorite 
4

Pages