Achei interessante este clipe do rapper moçambicano BC, que mistura de mensagens. Tipo orgulho da lama e orgulho do bling. A lama serve para sinalizar ‘o gueto’ africano, enquanto é droga, violência associada e outros cenários no hiphop norte americano.
[Perdoem a minha tradução péssima do original em inglês]
Tem sido uma irritação minha há tempos: a preguiça das mídias internacionais em relação à torre de babel (pós)colonial. Artigos em inglês sobre “África” sofrem do olhar “África é um país”, mas eu iria ainda mais longe, é o olhar “África é um país anglófono“.
A cena de TICs e tecnologia também é culpado com isso! (Irónico até porque, pensa-se que a linguagem do código derrubava barreiras.) Estamos sempre a ouvir de projectos maravilhosos de Nairobi, Capetown, Kampala, Accra, mas ouve-se muito pouco de projectos menorzinhos na RDC, Cameroon ou Moçambique. (O que acontece nestes países é inevitavelmente menor devido a diferenças históricas e estruturais.) Fiquei entusiasmada com a iniciativa de mapear os hubs (núcleos) de tecnologia em África – mas falta fazer muito mais para destacar e alimentar inovação nestas escalas pequenas.
O post recente da CNN sobre “Top 10 African Tech Leaders” parece ter provocado uma reacção pelo menos. Pode ser que aqueles que queiram “top 10” não tenham tempo para ouvir sobre coisas a surgir em lugares inesperados, mas o post de Jean Patrick Ehouman a catalogar líderes da tecnologia francófona é mais que necessário.
This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while: the laziness of the international media in relation to the (post-) colonial tower of babel. Articles in English about “Africa” suffer from the “Africa is a Country” lens, but I would go further and say it’s “Africa is a Country That Speaks English” lens.
The tech scene itself is guilty of this! (Ironic because the language of code, one would think, would break down barriers.) We hear about great projects in Nairobi, Capetown, Kampala, Accra, but we hear very little noise about some great smaller projects in DRC, Cameroon and Mozambique. (What happens in these countries is inevitably smaller due to structural and historical differences.) I was heartened by the recent initiative to map African tech hubs – but much more is to be done to highlight and nurture smaller-scale innovation.
CNN’s recent post on “Top 10 African Tech Leaders” seems to have at least provoked a reaction. Perhaps those who want a “top 10” are too busy to hear about what is bubbling up in unexpected places, but Jean Patrick Ehouman’s post cataloguing francophone tech leaders is more than necessary.
Well well well. An idea I casually seeded in my brief time in Maputo has taken on a fantastic life of its own. This wall, which is the outer wall of the @ Verdade newspaper, has been turned into the “Wall of the People”. (The original inspiration came from Candy Chang’s “Before I Die…” project in New Orleans.)
Trying to write this without resorting to almost ingrained clichés will be difficult. This is not about leaving “Africa” and arriving in “Europe” in winter. It is about my subjective experience as one person living for two intense months in Maputo, at the beginning of a period of self-imposed homelessness.
I wanted to capture the sensory experience – the emptiness of the city on a Sunday – the stifling heat, entering the terminal of the airport, its openness and not-too-cold airconditioning, and realizing that I had “left” Mozambique. The air I would breathe from then on would be airport air. The last rays of sun I would feel would be through massive glass windows. Leaving is always anticlimactic. Unknowingly you often leave before even having stepped on a plane, or crammed the trunk of the car.
Por incrível que pareça, eis uma imagem duma eleição municipal. Tirada hoje de manhã nos arredores da “cidade” de Cuamba pelo reporter de @ Verdade, Helder Shirangano. Estas pessoas chegaram ao posto de votação às 5h.
As incredible as it seems, this image is of a municipal election! It was taken this morning on the outskirts of the “city” of Cuamba, the second city of Niassa by @ Verdade newspaper reporter Helder Shirangano. These voters arrived at 5am to the polls.
I brought a Philip K Dick anthology with me. I have never used hallucinatory drugs, I never felt I needed them. Just good fiction. Instinctively I knew I would need this.
Hitting the six week mark in Maputo, I picked up the volume and began to read “The Man in the High Castle“, a speculative novel about what the world would have been like if the axis had won what Americans call World War Two. In his world, everything is familiar but dislocated, turned inside out or subverted.
Not long after I had plunged headlong into his Pacific world, my mind started sliding off into a tangent. I recalled a number of conversations I have had here, mostly up north, at bars and in the back of pick-up trucks. In a sense, these conversations were the ultimate “speculative” moments.
From the sleepy “city” in my dear Niassa province, Mozambique, this has to be the most absurd name for a street. Ever. “Rua Sem Nome 2” which translates as “Street with No Name 2”.
As though “Street with No Name” was not bad enough, the city hall of Cuamba has started a series.
Wondering how many numbers are in the series. Can’t be too many because the place feels like a wild west frontier town.
A one horse town – a horse with no name.
Credit goes to @Verdade newspaper reporter @Shirangano for this provincial gem.
menina do javali “;;” 