African contemporary dance is evolving rapidly. Proof can be found in creations performed at the beginning of 2003, in particular at the Dialogues de Corps festival in Ouagadougou and at…
Manfred Loimeier is a German literary critic specialising in African literature. Here he explores Ahmadou Kourouma’s principal motivations for writing in an interview with the author. This interview is a…
On 19 September 2002, when the crisis erupted (that everyone at the time thought would only last a few days, or at most a few weeks), Ananias Leki Dago was…
For the third edition of our « Black Logo » column, Pascal Blanchard analyses a recent advert depicting our relation to Africa. This time, three women sprawl across a car
Contemporary art works are particularly at the mercy of the international market’s rules decreed by the North. Africa is responding by organising its own biennales and through an artistic exploration…
After an initial flurry of activity, African contemporary dance now needs to stop and take stock. Since it was first conceived in Europe around ten years ago, this dance form…
Long slender legs, amber skin, a willowy silhouette globalisation influences the criteria of physical beauty, imposing an ideal that extols firm muscles and slenderness around the world. The black body…
The neo-colonial concept of « world music », is a trap for African musicians as it generally only offers the mirage of hypothetical individual success. This illusion pushes them to emigrate. This…
The intellectual, researcher, sociologist, and former Malian Minister of Culture and Tourism, Aminata Traoré, is leading the combat against the shortcomings of a forced globalisation on all fronts. Believing in…
The story of South African literature’s translation into French is an interesting one. French translator, Jean-Pierre Richard introduces us to the choices and hurdles (strictly linked to the political climate)…
In the biography of Jean-Pierre Richard – literary translator since 1982 and head of the DESS degree in professional literary translation at Paris VII University – William Shakespeare, Lord Byron…
I believe in what I call creative translation. The translator has to get into the work, and be able to not only just translate the words but to translate also…
Can African literature consider itself « world literature » without translations?
Widening his own definition of Africanity to encompass reflection on humanity without the constraints of a universality ineffective in questioning the world would seem to be the programme set by…
Why do people consider Africa to be behind in terms of globalisation? How does its own history relate to this process? How can it make a specifically African voice be…
The recent re-publication of Le Devoir de violence (Bound to Violence) in France, an essential novel-manifesto that until now had remained scandalously inaccessible and disclaimed, provides an opportunity to reflect…
Martinique poet, novelist and philosopher Edouard Glissant offers an enlightening interpretation of the issues involved in cultural globalisation. Through his reflection on migration, exile and wandering – as necessary prerequisites…
« We are told, and it is true, that everywhere things are disordered, disoriented, decrepit, have gone completely mad, blood, the wind. We see and experience this. But this is the…
The 18th Ouagadougou Pan-African Film Festival (22 February-1 March 2003) jury awarded it main prize to Abderrahmane Sissako’s « Heremakono », a magnificent but demanding film originally made for television. This choice…
What drove you to take on this subject ? In Chad the phenomenon is occurring more and more: every morning there are press releases, search investigations announced on national radio…
