Cultural Programme

WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE: Aperitif and JazzNight

Aperitif (18:00, Prometheus Halle of the KGI)

The Centre for African Studies, Basel invites you for a drink at the end of the afternoon program. This presents an opportunity to meet and greet and to team up for the ensuing evening programme at the Jazzhaus Freiburg.

Jazznight with Kesivan Naidoo and the Swiss Jazz Orchestra (20:00, Jazzhaus Freiburg)

The conference participants are invited by the Centre for African Studies Basel, for a unique experience and premiere. The Swiss Jazz Orchestra presents the compositions of acclaimed South African drummer Kesivan Naidoo, the SJO will also feature Linda Sikhakhane (saxophone, Johannesburg).

THURSDAY 9 JUNE: Films by junior artists of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Films program (16:00–17:30, Room 1009 KGI)

The following films will be shown as part of the Baden-Württemberg junior artists program:

ABDUL

After arriving in Germany on a six weeks scholarship visa, Abdul starts getting calls from his friends in Nigeria, reminding him of why he shouldn't come back home. Although he puts no thought to this, the calls and messages start getting frequent that it starts to disturb him. Two weeks to the end of his stay in Germany, he gets a call from his mum, telling him that his brother has been killed in the EndSARS protest in Nigeria. His heavyhearted mum breaks down on the phone, begging him never to come back home. Now he’s really scared of going back home.

He starts to see the event of the protest happening back in Nigeria online, he sees videos from the Lekki Massacre, horrendous and dreadful images and videos from the massacre, while also getting aggravated calls from friends who are asking what to do to leave the country and also telling him never to come back. He eventually loses his mental health and develops an irrational fear of going back home, Nostophobia. He becomes desperate and distressed that he would do anything to remain in Germany after running out of legal options. He orders a fake gun online, robs a cafe and forces the cashier to call the police. He is arrested and thrown into jail.

He narrates his experience to a therapist in jail, happy within that he gets to stay in Germany, even though it’s in a jail, but his hopes are quickly shattered when he’s given a document that sends him back to Nigeria to complete his jail term.

Year: 2021

Runtime: 13 min

Crew

Director: Samuel Adeoye

Script: Samuel Adeoye

Camera: Patrizio Guerra

Producer: Samuel Adeoye, Bathurshan Ganeshalingam

LAUF

The story of an old man who is haunted by his abusive past and all the guilt that comes with it. This guilt is represented by the wife he abused, his younger self and the house they raised their son in. As he tries to forget his past, he is constantly brought back by his own guilt.

Year: 2021

Runtime: 17 min

Crew

Director: Thanky Hamutenya

Script: Thanky Hamutenya

Camera: Konstantin Pape

Editor: Chamika Wijamunige

Producer: Matrid Nyaga, Jana Klingeiesen, Felix Schreiber

MUCII-HOME

Mungai, a 55 year-old Kenyan man who has been living in Germany for the past 20 years is on the brink of death, he starts reliving his younger days and through a sequence of dance and movements we get inside his head , in an almost dreamy and disillusioned manner he gets a visitation from his family in Kenya as they have a final ‘last supper’ together before he closes his eyes for the final time.

Year: 2020

Runtime: 10 min

Crew

Director: Karanja Daniel Ng'Endo

Script: Karanja Daniel Ng'Endo

Camera: Baljinnyam Altansukh

Producer: Philipp Hester, Jannik Graf

GALAMSEY - FOR A FISTFUL OF GOLD

A Documentary about illegal gold business in West Africa. What does it mean for residents of a small town in Ghana to live on top of a huge gold deposit? As a young development worker the narrator experienced a gold rush in small town in Ghana. Years later he returns to investigate what the gold really means for residents of this town. On his journey he meets old friends, arrives at places of destruction and learns about a dangerous magnetism between people and gold. A bloody conflict broke out in town between local police and gold miners. Who are profiteers and who are victims in this hunt for glittering stones?

Year: 2017

Runtime: 28 min

Crew

Director: Johannes Preuss

Producer: Johannes Preuss

Camera: Johannes Preuss

Editor: Manuel Sosnowski

FRIDAY 10 JUNE (Closing night): Afropean Future and Voice is Vision Performance of Jasmine Tutum @E-WERK

Afropean Future | How can we shape a common future? An evening with lecture, reading, film and roundtable (19:00, E-WERK Saal)

With Dr. Emily Ngubia Kessé, Dr. Sylvie Nantscha, Dr. Natascha A. Kelly, Johny Pitts, Jasmine Tutum moderated by Aisha Camara.

Dr. Natasha A. Kelly German communication scientist, author and curator, lives in Berlin. Dr. Emily Ngubia Kessé is a researcher, educator, author and social entrepreneur, works in Freiburg. Johny Pitts, photographer, writer and broadcaster lives and works in London. Jasmine Tutum, performance artist and dub poet, lives and works in Freiburg.

Voice is Vision Performance of Jasmine Tutum (21:00, E-WERK Saal)

In Voice is Vision Tutum explores the possibilities of visual poetry to create alternative visions of Blackness. She combines video installation, research, performance, poetry, spoken word and vocal experimentation to create room for transcultural identities spanning Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe.

Jasmine Tutum is a performance artist and dub poet, born in Tokyo and grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, lives and works in Freiburg / Germany. Tutum studied art history and photography.

FRIDAY 10 and SATURDAY 11 JUNE: Guided tours

In the advent (after the last panel session) and the aftermath (Saturday morning) of the closing night, Freiburg Postcolonial is offering a guided tour through the city from a postcolonial perspective:

Guided City Tour: Freiburg's (Post-)Colonial Entanglements

This guided city tour takes you to different places in the city centre, which offer insights into Freiburg's ties to colonial history. Participants learn about local figures involved in the colonial movement, the role of science in racist and colonial projects, and the ways in which Freiburg's cultural sphere has been entangled with colonial ideologies.
The city tour is organised by freiburg-postkolonial.de and promoted by the iz3w.
Starting point for Friday and Saturday: Platz der alten Synagoge.

Both tours will be in English.

16:00-18:00 Friday, followed by guided transfer to the EWERK
10:00-12:00 Saturday.

https://www.freiburg-postkolonial.de/

16:00-18:00 Friday, followed by guided transfer to EWERK; 10:00-12:00 Saturday.

ALL WEEK: Exhibition in the public space during VAD2022 presented by E-WERK

Johny Pitts, Afropean Express: A Journey through Black Europe

Johny Pitts, photographer, writer and broadcaster lives and works in London. He grew up as the son of a white British mother and an African American father in Sheffield, in the north of England. In his book Afropean: A Journey through Black Europe (Penguin Random House, 2019) he describes his journey through Europe to better understand his own identity and that of the many Black communities on the continent. Afropean was awarded the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding and the European Essay Prize in 2021. Pitts is the inaugural recipient of the Ampersand / Photoworks Fellowship.

ALL WEEK: Exhibition @E-WERK at Eschholzstrasse 77

John Akomfrah, Mohamed Bourouissa, Radical Encounters: Perspectives of the Afropean

The Afro-European journey requires the reappraisal, documentation, and dissemination of the long-ignored history of black Europeans. Pitts, like James Baldwin, believes that reconciliation with the truth is the best path for every human being, regardless of ethnicity, in keeping with Frantz Fanon’s belief that „subjugation is as harmful to the spirit of the subjugated as it is to the spirit of the subjugated“ (Pitts 2020: 351).

The exhibition Radical Encounters, Perspectives of the Afropean addresses the urgent questions of a shared Afro-African way through an examination of the films, photographs, installations of John Akomfrah, Mohamed Bourouissa, Johny Pitts, and a performance by Jasmine Tutum. For all of these artists, Fanon’s notion that each generation has its obligation to create a common future is important.