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- Convenors:
-
Uta Reuster-Jahn
(Hamburg University)
Claudia Böhme (University of Trier)
Alex Perullo (Bryant University)
Send message to Convenors
- Chair:
-
Uta Reuster-Jahn
(Hamburg University)
- Discussant:
-
Alex Perullo
(Bryant University)
- Formats:
- Panels
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 22 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel will discuss the imaginations of futures in East Africa based on ethnographic research in the production and/or reception in genres like film, music, theatre, social media, contemporary art, new literary productions and text forms, as well as computer games and YouTube videos.
Long Abstract:
Since the early 2000s, there has been an immense change in the popular arts sector in East Africa. The availability of new media technologies has led to an explosion of art forms and genres and the establishing of new creative industries in the areas of digital film and music as well as the internet. These art forms are not only used to articulate critical views on past and present states of societies, but also to take a look into the future; to imagine and to virtually create alternative futures. This look into the future can touch upon debates such as gender, kinship, sexuality, politics and power, wealth and poverty, migration and refugees, and environment politics. The artists' view on the future can have an utopian, dystopian or ambivalent perspective. They may present how people with different backgrounds and lifestyles could live peacefully together, or how our present acts and ways of living lead to dystopian and dark worlds. Art and media productions also offer insights into the ways that people relate to the future in backward centered and repressive societies.
This panel invites papers that discuss the imaginations of futures in diverse media and art forms in East Africa based on ethnographic research in the production and/or reception in the following genres: Film, music, theatre; Social media; contemporary art and intermedia productions; new literary productions and text forms (including science fiction), computer games and YouTube videos.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 22 July, 2020, -Paper short abstract:
Starting from a focus on the theme of love in videos clips from Tanzanian artists in collaboration with artists of other nationalities, this communication questions the relationship between utopias and music industries.
Paper long abstract:
This paper presents a postdoctoral research project on the relationship between political utopias, Eastern African politics of representation, and transnational artistic collaborations in bongo fleva music in Tanzania. Preliminary fieldwork in November-December 2019 in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar brought to my attention growing criticism regarding the evolution of bongo fleva into commercial pop, supposedly indicating a loss of its "true identity" and political character. Inspired by my doctoral research on the worlds of rap and "arts engagés" ("politically-committed art") in Burkina Faso, this work in progress proposes to take seriously the imaginaries related to peaceful cohabitation, and considers love as a form of political utopia. I aim to deconstruct the idea that political art is always oppositional, that it always speaks against, or in reaction to, something. Furthermore, I will question the polarization between commercial music and political music in bongo fleva, by examining how music protagonists associate imaginaries of material success with the dismantling of different borders (between African countries, between tradition and modernity, between rural and urban worlds, etc.) in an utopian future. I am interested in the ways pan-African imaginaries and "Afro" aesthetics are tied to ideals of entrepreneurship and flourishing local economies. As this project is its still in its early stages, I will outline research directions, drawing on preliminary fieldwork but also on a careful examination of a corpus of bongo fleva texts and visuals (video clips, album covers, flyers) advocating love and success.
Paper short abstract:
The main goal of this paper is to review the current state of political hip hop in Tanzania as a direct critic to the government policies and the growing censorship and repression against hip hop artists.
Paper long abstract:
During the first decade of this century Tanzanian hip-hop, one of the most studied popular items in Africa, become archetypical as a cultural protest movement which showed how young people criticized political and social problems such as corruption and abuse of power. Also, Tanzanian hip-hop shared the feature of not suffering censorship by the government and even having a collaborating relation between artists and authorities. From 2011 until the present time the situation has changed with aspects that initially had not been seen, such as the direct involvement of hip-hop artists in politics with posts in the Parliament; the confrontation of some hip-hop artists with the policy of certain national media networks about discrimination and inequality of opportunities to those artists who keep the ujumbe mkali (protest message) in their songs; The apparent change in freedom of speech's policies by the current Tanzanian government and the clear uncertainty of success as hip hop artist in economic and social terms. The aim of this paper is to reflect about these transformations and the expectative of Tanzanian hip-hop not only as political movement but also as a music industry in the years to come.
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses work of arts from artists who live or have lived in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya in especially looking at how the future is imagined, visualized or articulated in the artists' projects and how alternative futures are presented for people living under the label refugee.
Paper long abstract:
Kakuma Refugee Camp is a refugee camp in Northwestern Kenya near the border to South Sudan. Established in 1992 to give shelter to the "Lost Boys of Sudan", in its 28 years of existence it has become a semi or permanent home for nearly 200.000 people.
Living in a forced and marginalized home, live is characterized by restrictions, regulations and depression. However, Kakuma Refugee Camp can also be a place of dreams, hope, opportunities and chances for the future. This becomes most visible through the many artists and artistic projects from divers arts like film, music, photography or painting taking place in the camp. With the use of new media like Internet and Social media, these artistic projects become more visible and can reach larger publics around the world.
In this paper, I want to take a closer look at some artistic projects in Kakuma Refugee Camp and analyse how the future is imagined, visualized and articulated in artists' work. I want to ask, how artists talk about the future in relation to past and present, how they present possible alternative futures for people living in Kakuma Refugee Camp in their home countries, in Kenya or abroad and how through their work they take part in a form of active "future-making" (Appadurai).
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores how gendered and generational shifts in the form and content of a recent poetry debate in Somaliland ("miimley") might index, or indeed bring about, alternative visions of Somaliland's political future.
Paper long abstract:
In February 2017, a poem titled "Muddici" ("Plaintiff") by a young Hargeysa-based poet, Weedhsame, went viral on social media. Accusing members of the government of corruption and the mismanagement of public funds, the poem circulated amongst tens of thousands of viewers on Facebook and YouTube. The poem quickly elicited a chain of poetic responses from dozens of other poets, some supporting Weedhsame's initial criticism, while others accused him of being a traitor. In what is often called a "nation of poets", this poetry debate chain ("silsilad") emerged from a rich tradition of orature that has long included heated political debate. Yet "miimley" (as it came to be called) departed in a number of significant regards: in the straightforward speech it employed, the speed with which it spread online, and the higher levels of participation by women poets. This paper explores how these generational and gendered changes might index, or indeed bring about, alternative visions of Somaliland's political future. Based on preliminary findings of a longer research project, I ask: What kind of political future is imagined in this debate? What alternative modes of political participation might be summoned into being by this form of popular expression? And what might this case have to teach us about the often uneasy relationship between "tradition" and "innovation" in claim-making projects?