Promotion Fest: Africa

[dark_administrator]

Last year, wistfuljane presented pie charts showing the breakdown by region of nominated fandoms qualifying for Chromatic Yuletide 2010. Africa, along with Latin America and First Nations, were at the bottom of the list. We hope that we can do better this year by encouraging Kaleidoscope participants to brainstorm and discuss fandoms that originate in Africa.

Like every world region, Africa is not a monolith: it’s the second-largest and second-most populous continent in the world, with 54 nations populated by hundreds of ethnicities speaking over a thousand languages. In light of this incredible diversity, we encourage participants to think carefully about cultural context and issues of representation when creating fanworks for these sources.

Starting Points

• How to Write About Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina (article in Granta)
• The danger of a single story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (video of TED talk)
• 100 things that you didn’t know about Africa (page 2, 3, 4) by Robin Walker (excerpt from When We Ruled)
• This is Africa (Tumblr)

Brainstorming

Here are some African sources that we think would be great fandom nominations for Kaleidoscope:

• Awesome historical women: Nana Asma’u, Kimpa Vita, Queen Nandi, Yaa Asantewa (special thanks to eccentricyoruba, who wrote all of these interesting posts)
• Nollywood films (Nigeria): trailers at Nollywood.com, full movies licensed for streaming on Youtube
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria): literary fiction
• Willie Bester (South Africa): sculpture
• Toumani Diabaté (Mali): music at myspace
• Fela Kuti (Nigeria): music at last.fm
• Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt): literary fiction
• Nnedi Okorafor (Nigeria): speculative fiction
• Shailja Patel (Kenya): poetry and performance art
• Oumou Sangare (Mali): music at myspace
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Kenya): literary fiction
• Ali Farka Touré (Mali): music at last.fm, World Circuit Records

Also check out the African source fandoms mentioned in the comments to Chromatic fandom collecting!

Suggestions from commenters:

• gloss recommends Uganda Skateboard Union (Uganda): official website, promotional video
  
• livrelibre and allchildren recommend Pumzi (Kenya): science fiction film available at Amazon, trailer
  
• livrelibre recommends Ben Okri (Nigeria): speculative/literary fiction, especially The Famished Road
  
• sophinisba recommends Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie (Ivory Coast): graphic novels especially Aya: The Series
  
• devilc recommends Luanda Magere (Luo peoples): folklore/mythology
  
• tree recommends 678 (Egypt): film
  
• troisroyaumes recommends Magdy El Shafee (Egypt): graphic novels at personal website and Words Without Borders
  
• troisroyaumes recommends Christophe-Ngalle Edimo and Simon-Pierre Mbumbo (Cameroon): graphic novels, especially Malamine, un africain à Paris
  
• troisroyaumes recommends Leo (Kenya): trailer

Share your squee for these fandoms or give other African fandom suggestions in the comments below!

This entry is posted at Dreamwidth and LiveJournal and you may comment at either journaling platform.

Comments

[prodigy]

Thanks for linking to "How To Write About Africa," I always grin when I see it linked and reread it. A bitter, cynical sort of grin. But a grin. It's a great piece.

I wish there were more like it for other areas that get persistently othered -- How to Write About East Asia, make sure they sit on the floor and meditate with their legs crossed or else work themselves to death in a chromium skyscraper, lo, honor, family, la, elaborate sexual perversions, the cherry blossoms, the namedropped pictograms, the elegance, the huge manatee! -- but I think Westerners' attempts at Africa are some of the vilest and most heinous, which deters a lot of wiser Westerners from writing about anywhere they primarily associate mentally with wildlife tours and Amnesty International, in fear of fucking it up. I'm not white, but I know I have the same fear of my own American privilege when it comes to writing about these sources, as well as a general ignorance thereof. So thanks for compiling, and I hope it contributes to more people stretching their boundaries and doing something that takes a little more thinking in the spirit of dark_agenda!

[troisroyaumes]

I know there have been a few "How to Write About..." posts for various countries that were inspired by the Granta article, but as you point out, the Western stereotypes about Africa are especially pernicious. I also hope that the resource links we've provided will help people find a way to engage thoughtfully with these fandoms!