Kenyan Supermodel Ajuma on African Twilight catwalk at African Heritage House
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 8 May for 10 May, 2019)
‘African
Twilight’, the documentary film that premiered at Alliance Francaise last Monday
night was indeed ‘a forty-year odyssey [meeting] the return of a legend’.
It was a
two-hour movie mix that capped off almost 50 years of African-inspired fashion,
40 years of photography recording regional rituals and ceremonies, and several
lifetimes of African musicians, models, designers and dancers, all of whom have
been closely associated with the doyen of Afro-fusion culture and founder of African
Heritage House, Alan Donovan.
The film is
also a cornucopia of African culture that was originally meant to document an
amazing gala evening dedicated to celebrating the double-barreled opus, ‘African
Twilight: vanishing rituals and ceremonies’ by veteran photographers, Carol
Beckwith and Angela Fisher. In the documentary the two women provide a
fascinating thumb-nail cinematic sketch of their brilliant and adventurous
careers, including filmed footage of some of the ceremonies they recorded, 40
percent of which no longer exist, having literally vanished with the sweeping
changes brought about via colonization and globalization.
But the film
features much more. It also covers Donovan’s reconstruction of the glamourous African
Heritage fashion and music festival which he took on tour all over Europe and
the United States in the 1980s and 90’s. Included in those tours were members
of the African Heritage Band, which had been founded by the late Ayub Ogada
(aka Job Seda) who was meant to be one of the stars in the film. But as he
passed on just days before the event, Donovan paid tribute to him by dimming
the lights that night and turning on the recording of Ayub singing his original
composition, ‘Koth Biro’ which became the haunting theme song of the award-winning
film ‘The Constant Gardener’.
Ayub Odaga (aka Job Seda)(L front) founded the original African Heritage band
Ayub Odaga (aka Job Seda)(L front) founded the original African Heritage band
The only shortcoming
of ‘African Twilight’ the film, was the lengthy cat-walking of models adorned
in gowns all made out of indigenous African textiles, most of which had been collected
over the years by Mr Donovan. The gowns themselves were beautifully made with
materials that came from all over the region, from Ethiopia, Ghana and
Cameroon, and from Congo, Guinea, Nigeria and even Kenya.
For those
who attended the actual gala, the doc film felt quite authentic, although the vibrancy
of dancing by Rare Watts, Fernando Anguang’a and his team of Maasai dancers as
recorded in the film couldn’t compare to what we saw at their live performance.
Nonetheless, the film confirms the Gala was an unforgettable night.
Chief Alan Donovan with Cabinet Secretary for Culture Amb. Amina Mohammed and Chiefs Niki and Chief..
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