Film making in Tanzania
Along with being a researcher and teaching film and theatre at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, NAI guest researcher Vicensia Shule also runs her own film production company. Most of the contracts she gets are from national or international NGOs or state institutions for making films with a social message, for example, within the framework of various campaigns.
– Those films are my breadwinners, although not always very entertaining to produce. But they give me an income and a chance to invest in other less lucrative projects. At least once a year, l try to produce something l really want to do, even if l don’t get funded for it, and I take my chances on the commercial market, she remarks.
Social impact of HIV
What social impact is HIV/AIDS having in Ghana? This is a topic of interest to new NAI researcher Perpetual Crentsil. During the course of her research, she discovered that one region in Ghana has a much lower HIV/AIDS prevalence rate than others. She is aiming to explore the reasons for this.
New NAI associate
Covered The Biafran War As A Reporter
Pekka Peltola is a new NAI associate. His background is in journalism, but he also worked for many years with trade unions as well as for the Finnish ministry of labour. In 1979, he began to work on behalf of Finnish trade unions in SWAPO camps based in Angola, organised and taught classes on trade unions, what they are and how they work. His doctoral thesis discusses the role of Namibian workers in the liberation struggle.
However, Pekka Peltola’s African experience had begun even earlier, when he was a reporter covering the Biafran war.
Young aspiring elite
In Rundu, a town of 60,000 inhabitants in Namibia, social anthropologist Mattia Fumanti has conducted research on the formation of local elites. In looking at the town’s history, from the colonial to the postcolonial time, Fumanti has explored the emergence of different generations of elites in the town public space.
In Rundu two generations of elites, a liberation elite of SWAPO educationalists, and a youthful educated elite competed for distinction in public through distinctive rhetoric.
– While the SWAPO elite emphasised their role in the liberation struggle and their achievements in education, the younger, aspiring elite talked more about performance in power – how they felt dissatisfied with the existing leadership and lack of delivery of public services. However, they seldom challenged the SWAPO elite in public. Instead they tried to negotiate behind the scenes for power, says Mattia Fumanti.
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AFRICAN SPIRIT SHRINES
Drawing on her expertise in Akan witchcraft among Ghanaian diaspora communities in the UK, Paris and New York, Jane Parish will probe the interaction between movie stars, Detroit automobiles and African spirit shrines in New York City. Part of the NAI lecture series ‘Moral Communities in transforming African cities’.Wednesday, 23 April, 15.15 - 17.00, at NAIs premises.
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FROM THE END TO THE BEGINNING
This conference will celebrate 20 years of South African democracy and nuclear disarmament. Participants from NAI are director Iina Soiri, researcher Marianne Millstein and associate Pekka Peltola. 12-13 May in Dansens Hus, Möllerveien 2, Oslo.
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CALL FOR PAPERS
The Nordic Africa Days 2014 is about 'Misbehaving States and Behaving Citizens? Questions of Governance in African States'. It aims to connect the formal state with other non-state forms of governance. Often, the state is discussed as an evil entity preying on its ethical citizens. Citizens are then described as the victims of state power. But are states not run by the same people that, looking at it from the opposite angle, are viewed as victims? Se list of panels.Mo Ibrahim and Morten Jerven are keynote speakers.
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HELSINKI AFRICA FILM FESTIVAL
Is there such a thing as African film? Do mass-produced African films, such as Nollywood films, and films shown at film festivals have anything in common? In what way do these films provide a public sphere in which important issues are aired? This and other questions will be discussed at one of the events at the Helsinki African Film Festival. NAI guest researcher Vicensia Shule will be a member of this discussion panel, which NAI researcher Mats Utas will moderate. In addition, Annika Teppo, leader of NAI’s urban cluster, will provide an introduction to the Images of Moral Communities in Africa session, during which the films Jew Man Business and The Rainmakers will be screened. The showings will be followed by a discussion involving NAI researchers Terje Oestigaard and Mats Utas.
15 May, 14.00 – 18.30, Kino Engel, Helsinki.
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RULING LIBERATION FIGHTERS AND DEMOCRACY
During Nelson Mandela’s presidency, South Africa was the exception. In the rest of Southern Africa, liberation has not led to genuine democratisation and reconciliation. The liberation movements that took over the reins of government after the colonial era are still in power and seriously compromise political diversity. Will the same happen with the ANC? There is a continuity of political practice and discourse that leaves little room for genuine political opposition. It is assumed that only liberation fighters can legitimately lead countries. It is crucial to keep in mind that liberation and elections are not synonymous with the development of a strong democracy.
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PARTICIPATIVE DESIGN FOR URBAN HOUSING
In African cities, people are peripheral to architectural processes, despite the fact that those processes produce buildings – houses –that people use and interact with every day. This disengagement of laypeople often produces socially dysfunctional neighbourhoods, whose residents lack both a strong sense of community and environmental awareness.
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