The program of the House of RasTafari in this year’s Sunsplash is available and we were in it!
So we left for a few days to the beautiful scenery of Osoppo to join our new friends. We spent three days and two nights of impossible sleep and filmed, interviewed and exchanged opinions with Italian Rastafari.
Giulia Bonacci is in Paris for a few days and we jump at the chance to meet her. She is currently working in Belize on the influence of black nationalism (correct me if I’m wrong) and is planning to fly back very soon. We meet in Belleville and spend hours in a cafe talking about Rastafari, our project and her book.
The recent death of Caribbean poet/politician Aimé Cesaire, and French state funeral with the presence of Sarkozy (although Cesaire had refused to meet him while still alive) calls for the inclusion of the concept of négritude in our discussion of Rastafarian movement.
Sometimes you wish you would like something even before you see it…(but then you don’t).
When we heard about the new comic miniseries Volto Nascosto, set in Eritrea/Ethiopia during Italian colonialism, we were so excited, the next day we ran to Madda’s to take a look at past issues. Well, summarizing: it’s really an (old) old-school comic, (yawn).
It’s April and we finished our first video of the trip, “Rastafarians presence in Ethiopia”, about the conference we went to in November and the DVD is now available (at the moment we have just 7 copies)!
We would like to thank: Barabba for the camera and the white DVDs, Miche for the microphone and the DVD serigraphy, Simo for the tripod, Forrow and Carlitos for coming to the presentation and finally Madda for the Glue!
We presented our video last wednesday, during Luca Queirolo Palmas‘ Sociology of Migration course called “Derive e approdi”, held in the University of Genoa, faculty of Education Sciences.
Yesterday we went to the Genoese Buridda squat to listen to the conference by David Hilliard, founding member and former Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. He described the birth of the BPP from the personal engagement of just a few young activists. From his point of view, the key factor for the success of the BPP was their anchorage in the community, the fact they provided services like free health care and “free breakfast program” for children. In his opinion, if the BPP had only consisted in an armed party, it would have never survived the repression of the US government.
First Sunday of the month museums are for free so we try out Quai Branly. We have many a prejudice about the concept of “art premier”, like with the concept of “art brut” or outsider art. Actually they have abandoned the name, as it was a quite problematic way of calling everything that comes from “traditional societies”. It is art, but then it isn’t… So the concept of the museum staid but now it is called some no name like Musée des arts et civilisations d’Afrique, d’Asie, d’Océanie et des Amériques”.
Now that the place is not as full as the past year, when it grandly opened as Chirac’s last gift to the Republique and the queues went all the way out of the building, so that we had to give up on our last try (not really a problem).
Bush’s recent Africa tour (Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia) has recalled some of the major issues at stake between the US and Africa, like the establishment of the Africom, Bush’s way of caring about Africa, which has had troubles finding a base since its official creation in October 2007.At the moment it’s command is in the Kelley Barracks of Stuttgart “Africa Command is not meant to militarize U.S. foreign policy,” Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward, the boss, told reporters during his visit to Addis Abeba in November 2007. “Our policy is to assist African countries to build their security capacity and have a secured environment.” (more)
This new military command force aims at coordinating US military deployment and anti-terrorism efforts, keeping an eye on oil and china. Its mission includes providing training for the armies of African countries and helping in humanitarian missions. Binding military and humanitarian aspects is critical. The different states in Africa have showed great unity in showing their disapproval a US military might in their countries, and Africom still has to find a home. Such has been the problem, Bush has expressedly stated during his tour, that for the moment Africom will stay in Stuttgart. Although it seems Ethiopias Meles Zenawi could imagine hosting it.
