LONGINOS TRANSFORMS GEOMETRY INTO FINE ART

 

 By Margaretta wa Gacheru (published April 1, 2022)

Longinos Nagila was never a math wiz-kid, never much liked math throughout his early years. Yet his current exhibition at Red Hill Art Gallery entitled ‘Fictional Memories’ looks like a mathematician’s playground.

All his pieces are luminous paper cut-outs which are more likely to have been created by an artist who adored geometry and had the limitless patience required to create rectangles, squares, circles and precision slivers that only a keen perfectionist could cut into immaculate columns and rows.

"I’d never planned to create art that drew so much from geometry, but somehow it happened,” the artist told BDLife last Sunday at the opening of his first solo show at Red Hill.

Yet his journey into the realm where, working with watercolor paper and sharp blades rather than paint brushes and acrylic paints, wasn’t an instantaneous switch. It was more like a circuitous path that took him not only to BIFA (Buru Buru Institute of Art) where he specialized in painting, but abroad several times and back to Kenya where he’s been based at Kuona Artists Alliance ever since.

Following his last trip overseas, where he’d studied filmmaking in Italy (having learned to speak Italian in previous trips there), Longinos held his first ‘film installation’ in 2016. It quickly revealed how experimental an artist he was and continues to be. Critical of the Western obsession with consumerism, his cinematic commentary was critical yet captivating. One could see he could have a future in film. Yet it was not to be.

Instead, he took a break from both cinema and paint. He sought a more experimental challenge and eventually found it in a book lent to him by the former Italian Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Mauro. It was there that he first encountered the contemporary Italian artist Lucio Fontana who, like the French artist Matisse, worked with cut-outs.

“Only Fontana took a completely different, more conceptual approach to cut-outs than Matisse who mainly cut out faces and flowers,” says Longinos. Fontana inspired him with his revolutionary approach to art. But instead of working with paper cuts as Nagila prefers, the Argentinian-Italian preferred to slash canvas as a means of opening up new pictorial dimensions in each of his artworks.

Longinos also injects another dimension to his cut-outs which are neither paintings in a conventional sense; nor are they two-dimensional, given that his cut-outs open up to reveal various colors and an infinite realm of space behind each one of the cuts.

Where the geometry comes in is first, the framing of his works, some of which are squares, others rectangles, and both presented in various sizes. But it’s in his precisely defined rows and columns of miniature squares and rectangles. That same perfect sense of symmetry is apparent in the few spheres that he cuts open as well as with his miniature triangles cut-outs included in his show.

Working with two kinds of paper, the watercolor and the luminous colored paper, Longinos’s carefully perforated cuts allow the rows of color to gleam as they burst out in patterns unique to each piece.

Asking Red Hill’s gallerist, Hellmuth Rossler-Musch what was it about Longinos’s art that inspired him to give him a solo show at the Gallery, he said it was so different from what other contemporary artists are doing currently. He was also impressed with both the patience and the precision apparent in every single piece.

Longinos admits that the first stage of his work involved creating a grid of intersecting lines with graphite to serve as a guide as he cut out his shapes and generated new spaces.

When asked if he’d ever made mistakes in his cut-outs, and if so, what did he do, Longinos spoke without hesitation. “Of course, I’d have to toss the piece, and start again from scratch.”

One observer at the opening suggested Longinos’s cut-outs were more sculptural than anything else, which made sense as each color pattern that his cuts revealed couldn’t have been seen but for the cut-out opening up lines of luminous light.

Longinos adds that each colorful space revealed with his cuts opened up a view of infinite possibilities.

“Everyone can see whatever they wish when they walk through the exhibition,” says Beatrice Wanjiku.

“Everyone has their own perspective,” suggesting there is no right or wrong when viewing art.      

 

Nagila says that the challenge Fontana posed was how does someone transform paper into a work of art without paint?” he adds.

The answer he found for himself is “Fictional Memories’.

 

 

NAHYA HELPS YOUNG ARTISTS GO PUBLIC FOR A DAY

                                                                                    Nahya Mando Mukuria
 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 30, 2022)

Nahya Mando Mukuria found her niche last Friday afternoon after she’d booked space at Nairobi Garage to display artworks by five talented St. Mary’s School graduates.

Based inside The Watermark Karen, the Nairobi Garage had been looking for a ‘conversation starter’ for their members, most of whom rent space there for either a day, month, or more like a long-term basis.

Nahya had filled the bill effectively once before, blending conversation and visual art. Her warm, friendly, and slightly flamboyant style, combined with her interactive approach to art had worked well once, so why not invite her to do it again.

 “What they promised me was an audience among their members,” Nahya tells BDLife as those ‘members’, mainly young professionals in their late 20s and 30s, start trickling into her one-day exhibition, entitled ‘At a Glance’.

All five 19-year-old artists are also on hand to talk about their art to any of the members who are interested. Mature youth who are all getting set to start their university life in a few short months, they’re all natural-born storytellers who speak easily about their art.

Imani Mwakera speaks assuredly about how her one mixed media self-portrait combines acrylic paint with plastic paper, kitenge fabric, sand, and tree bark.

Njunge Heho says he splits his time between painting and photography, and how he uses photoshop to create fascinating effects from his cell phone!

His twin brother Mbiru Heho also photoshops on his phone since, he says “It’s faster!” He’s also an environmental artist whose painting of a zebra head is surrounded on one side by black and white-shaded leaves signifying a dying breed, while the other side is covered in bright yellow succulents that look vibrant and alive. He explains that the dark side represents the zebra’s near extinction while the brighter side represents its revival thanks to the efforts of environmentalists trying to turn the tide and save the lives of whole species.

Alfonce Kalove, like both twins had been bullied at St. Mary’s, and it showed in several works that depict victims who’ve been tortured, yet survived.

And finally, Matulai Muumbi explains how he portrays monumental moments in his life growing up on one side of his acrylic on wood panel painting while the other side is reserved for the 19-year-old self who plans to reach for the stars and explore the universe.

Their works are thoughtful and fascinating. That is how Nahya found them when she first saw them at St. Mary’s. At the time, none of the youth had given a thought to exhibiting their art outside the school where they had a final art exhibit as part of their IB (international baccalaureate) art exam. That is where the youth met Nahya who was doing consultancy work for filmmakers who were working out of the same school space as the young visual artists.

“I saw their art when I was at the school on another assignment altogether. But I was so impressed with it that I invited them to exhibit with me publicly,” Nahya says.

Initially, she says they were hesitant, but finally, they agreed. “I felt it would be good for them to step out of an academic setting and see how exhibitions work in a public space,” she says.

Noting that this time round, she is not taking a commission on any artworks sold, Nahya says it’s because they are students who will find out about monetizing their art soon enough. “And I didn’t want to scare them into thinking I was just doing this to make money, because I am not,” she adds.

Most of the works being exhibited by Imani, Njunge, Nbiru, Matulai, and Alfonce were selling for around Sh20,000, although Imani’s miniatures had sold for Sh7,000-Sh8,000 each.

“The most expensive piece in the exhibition was Matulai’s portrait of Abuela Claudia which was selling for Sh96,000,” says Nahya. Initially, the original painting was in the school’s 2021 award-winning musical ‘Into the Heights’ where Abuela was the warm-hearted grandmother who everybody loved and mourned when she died.

“I changed a lot of the original painting to give it more [urban] appeal,” says Matulai who also co-starred in the actual musical.

 Nahya has been doing this kind of personalized curating of visual art since 2017 after she’d returned home from music studies in voice and piano at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, USA. Now she’s using her voice to promote and display the art of young Kenyans like the five from St. Mary’s School.

 

 

BRO-CODE IS A RICH, RAW REUNION OF BROTHERS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written March 14, 2021)

Unplugged and A Small Production Company’s drama ‘BroCode’ is one of those marvelous Kenyan plays that did such minimalist marketing that you might have skipped it, thinking it was probably worthy of a miss.

Yet anyone who cares about developments in Kenyan theatre shouldn’t have missed this touching original tragi-comedy, scripted and directed by Murage Lawrence and produced by Temko Lavindu and Tim King’oo of A Small Production Company and Unplugged respectively.

King’oo was also responsible for a simple but effective set design that instantly signaled the chaos that was about to unfold on the Kenya National Theatre stage. After all, why wouldn’t an old abandoned warehouse look like a garbage dump, filled with empty cardboard boxes piled up in disarray? How two old sofas where the brothers are separately sleeping found their way to the place is a mystery. But possibly previous squatters had brought them there in earlier times.

This two-hander was a slow-starter. You actually didn’t know when the show started since the two were ‘fast asleep’ long before Michael (Nyakundi Isaboke) screamed as if he’d either been awakened by a horrifying nightmare or actually witnessed a terrible real-life horror, like maybe seeing a man murdered right before his eyes.

As we learn as this suspenseful murder-mystery unfolds, Mike is haunted by fears that his own brother is a murderer, and he is an accomplice to the lethal crime by virtue of having been there when his brother Saddam (Xavier Ywayo) involved him in a bank heist gone bad.

Now they’re in hiding and on the run. It’s a terrifying experience for Mike who’s a law-and-order man who’s been following the rules since childhood. It’s enabled him to get through law school and eventually into a prestigious law practice.

Meanwhile, his older brother Saddam isn’t bothered after having shot a bank security guard who may have died.

“If he died, that makes you a killer,” Mike tells his brother who seems to take the suggestion as a joke. The high school dropout, former drug dealer, and unscrupulous ladies’ man is the antithesis of his younger brother.

It’s no wonder they have been estranged for years. It seems almost accidental that they are together now. The tension that kept them apart for 20 years permeates the whole atmosphere of the play.

Through a series of short flash backs, role plays, and even physical spats, we learn about their past. It’s Saddam who left home at 16 and never got in touch with family until a few days before the present when he contacted his ‘bro’ and suggested a rendezvous.

Michael was all for it apparently. But he laments it now since he foolishly followed Saddam when he suggested Mike accompany him on ‘an errand’, wear a mask, and then go and rob a bank.

Turns out Saddam had committed multiple crimes in the past, but never a murder before. Mike is already unnerved by his brother. He’d grown up, having been physically and psychologically bullied and tortured by Saddam. But he seriously wants to know if he’s an accomplice to a murder or not.

Once he finds a means of learning the security guard his brother shot is okay, the play takes a dramatic turn. Instead of that palpable pressure that their past had generated between them, suddenly they remember their dad, a man they both adored. That mutual affection breaks out into music, rapping, and dance which is cathartic.                                                                                                                            

    It's at that point that we see how well the technical team at National Theatre has perfected their game. As if by magic, two floating microphones rain down on the brothers right at the moment they need to act like singer-stars and do some karaoke to songs that they sing as duets.

The harmony and joy of their performing songs and dances they both know makes for a break-through moment. It also reveals the two actors as all-round entertainers who can sing and dance just as well, maybe even better than they can act.

But actually, their acting is phenomenal, especially when Mike has to decide if he’s going to make the break, leave Saddam at the warehouse, and try going back to his former professional life. In fact, he goes, and Saddam picks up the gun he’d used to almost kill the guard. Suicide seems like an option. But then, Mike comes back in an emotional moment, as if to finally take control, like a good Samaritan, and save his brother’s life. This time, their reunion is authentic, affectionate, and full of love.   

MELISSA BEAUTIFIES CELEBS AND MOVIE STARS

 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 30, 2022)

Despite having a dad who is Dutch, Melissa von Tongeren is very much a Kenyan.

Based in London where she works as a hair and makeup stylist, and mingles on media sets with everyone from Idris Alba, Christiane Anampour, and James Earl Jones to Daniel Craig, Zoe Kravitz, and Robert Pattinson, she was briefly back in Nairobi recently.

Melissa made a special point of meeting her former teacher, Salma Palmer with whom she had studied at Salma’s Kenya School of Hairdressing many years ago. It was Salma who insisted BDLIFE meet up with Melissa since she had a remarkable story to tell. She wasn’t wrong.

“I was Salma’s student for nine months in 1990, and I always come to see her whenever I’m back in Kenya,” says Melissa who admits she rarely has time to return to her homeland.

Her hectic schedule as one of London’s busiest hair and makeup stylists keeps her on her toes. It also keeps her at the beck and call of the directors, be they working in film, TV or theatre.

“I have been fortunate in my work since I am one of the few hair stylists [in London] who knows how to deal with both African and European hair,” the 45-year-old beautician tells BDLife. “I have the other advantage of being a specialist in wigs which are worn by most leading ladies, although primarily those on the stage.”

Melissa knows wigs well, based on her first-hand experience. Consequently, she has had top jobs in the performing arts over the last 25 years. But none of this would’ve happened if she hadn’t decided to expand her professional skill-set by heading back to school in UK.

“After getting my diploma and working in Nairobi for two years, I realized I couldn’t do much more career-wise unless I went for more training,” Melissa tells us in a What’s App phone call. She only has a few minutes to talk since she had to back to the film set of ‘The Flash’, [one of the DC comic franchises].

Her decision to do a three-year course in makeup at the London College of Fashion (now the University of the Arts) turned out to be the smartest move she ever made.

“There were very few hair and makeup artists in London at the time,” she says. This meant that she got a job straight away on the West End. (London’s equivalent of New York’s Broadway.)

“I immediately started working on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Bombay Dreams’ which was the first Indian musical to make it to the West End,” she says. The show was very popular and this was when she discovered her knowledge of wigs came in handy. “Wigs are mainly worn in the theatre, but they’re even used in film, though not as frequently.” She adds that these wigs were all made of human hair and cost $1000s of dollars each.

From there, she went to another Lloyd Webber musical, ‘The Woman in White’. It was also on the West End and also had heaps of wigs.

Melissa’s success in those two productions led to her getting promoted to Head of the Hair and Makeup department on the set of ‘Daddy Cool’ which was based on the musical group, Bony M.

“After that, I worked on more musicals than I can count. That was great for me up until I became department head for the Black version of [Tennessee Williams’] ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’, with James Earl Jones, (who played Darth Vader in Star Wars),” she says.

Melissa then set her sights on live TV. She spent the next two years doing that in Australia. But as she missed London, she returned and instantly got a job with CNN, working with dynamic women like Christiane Anampour and Zein Verje.

“As I was freelance with CNN, I was able to get back to the theatre in time to join the original West End crew of [Lin-Manuel’s award-winning musical] ‘Hamilton’,” Melissa says, noting she was there 14 months.

But she had to leave, once she got a call to come work on the latest James Bond movie, ‘No Time to Die’. Again, it was her special skill in black hair and wigs that had top studios looking for her.

A graduate of Braeburn High and Green Acres Primary, Melissa says she sought out Salma’s school since her mom had studied there first. “I wanted to follow in my mom’s footsteps,” she says. That she did, but then, she walked a whole lot farther than that!

 

 

 

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ALLAUDIN'S ANSWERS

Nazim Mitha wants to write a book on Allaudin Qureshi and he asked me to answer a few questions. Because i feel he's a great man, I agreed, i wrote. It's been a privilege to know him.  

Allaudin’s questionnaire (posted March 29, 2022)

A1. I have known Allaudin since 1976. We were both acting in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s and Micere Mugo’s play, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi that premiered at Kenya National Theatre before heading to Lagos to feature in FESTAC. Allaudin had a senior role, I believe he was the Judge who presided over Kimathi’s trial. Very exciting time.

A2. My first impressions of Allaudin have never changed. I found him warm hearted, kind, and an excellent actor. Of the three Asian actors who were playing in wazungu roles, Allaudin was the most engaging off set and I believe we quickly struck up a friendship.

A3. My main connection with Asian African theatre was through Allaudin since he not only acted. He also directed productions and started his own theatre group, Natak. He would call me whenever he was having a show since I started working with Weekly Review/Nairobi Times and I had a theatre column. The theatre scene was vibrant and there were several theatre companies, European and African and wrote about them all, although I didn’t follow other Asian companies. I don’t even know if they existed. All I knew was that occasionally, the Asian community invited famous Indian singers to perform at Kenya National theatre. Allaudin also had an Asian theatre column which played a big part in activing that community.

A4. Allaudin’s qualities and attributes are many. First and foremost is his kindness and sweet spirit. He has such a warm heart, and although I know he is a businessman, he has the heart of an artist, a gentle, creative spirit and a loving family man. I also think that the theatre and acting are in his blood. I think he would have loved to be an actor and director full time if he could have. In Dedan Kimathi, he was so commanding and projected authority and power. So creativity, kindness, humor, and thoughtful insight. He is also an excellent writer whose theatre reviews were sought after among his community.

A5. No doubt Allaudin has made a huge impact in all of those spheres. I cannot speak of the broadcasting because I rarely listened to radio. Yet knowing how much Kenyans love radio plays and broadcasting, Allaudin’s name and voice are renowned among radio listeners. In film, I cannot speak of all the films he has been in, but I have no doubt that whenever he auditioned for a part, he got it. Having a full time job in business curtailed his time, but he always had time for the stage and that is where he excelled, especially with Natak. But he was called upon to act with other theatre companies as well. So the greatness of Allaudin is that he transcended racial, religious, and language barriers to appeal to many audiences. I would say that Allaudin also has that ineffable quality called Charisma, that invisible attraction that commands respect, admiration, and people’s full attention. He’s admired and he hasn’t a threatening bone in his body

 A6. I cannot speak for the Asian African community as I am more acquainted with the African community, but I do believe that thousands of ordinary Asian people know more about culture and the arts because of Allaudin. His knowledge of music and Indian artists is extensive, I believe so he could bring the best of India to local audiences through his broadcasting. Acting of course, attracted many theatre lovers and whole families, so there is little doubt that he is a Name not easily forgotten within the wider African Asian community.

A7. I think Allaudin should run a series of workshops, either affiliated or independent of a local university or community centre. He should invite young people, especially using social media. But I know he like me is modest and isn’t good at pushing himself. Alternatively, he (or you could assist) could be in being part of a Q&A panel or series of panels or just pairs, him and one questioner.

I’m now thinking of some of the videos I see on YouTube where one interesting character, a philosopher, political journalist, actor, or whomever, is interviewed one on one at places like the Commonwealth Club, etc. So why couldn’t you arrange that. The interviewer is knowledgeable about Allaudin’s life and knows how to interview. The interview could be filmed and the film put on youtube and shared both privately and publicly. Doing a short film on video is a perfect idea and I know one Chinese friend who would be happy to assist me and Allaudin.

A8. As for lessons to be learned from Allaudin’s  life: to be kind, generous, well-read, eager to give your best all the time, and outgoing when you can see your spirit will be well received. Otherwise, don’t cast your pearls before swine.

Thanks Nazim

Warm regards,

Margaretta

March 29,2022

ASIAN AFRICANS ESTABLISH HERITAGE GALLERY AT MUSEUM

 

CS Hon. Amb. Amina Mohamed at Ribbon cutting for Launch of new Asian African Heritage Gallery. Next to her (L-R) are Mrs Gita Devani, Mrs Aruna Chandaria, and Hon. Nazlin Umar

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 29 2022)

Kenyans started talking about a National Art Gallery back in 1966 when then Vice President Joseph Murumbi called upon his government to get behind his proposal to establish such a gallery. His proposal fell on deaf ears.

Periodically, the issue of a national art gallery has been raised, most recently when the Nairobi National Museum held an exhibition entitled ‘Kesho Kutwa’ organized by the well-known art collector Tony Wainaina and including artworks by some of Kenya’s most prominent artists. But it also elicited little government response.

Yet it was 1997 when members of the Asian community first muted the idea of an Asian African Heritage Gallery. It only took three years after that before this resourceful group of organizers managed the means to have a six-month exhibition at Nairobi National Museum. The show wasn’t permanent, but it proved to be so popular that it remained on display for the next five years.

It was “only taken down when remodeling of the entire Museum commenced thereafter,” wrote members of the Asian-African Heritage Trust, one of the four organizations that have backed the concept of such a gallery from the beginning. The others are The Asian Foundation, Chandaria Foundation, and Desai Foundation.

                                                            Phase One of Asian African Heritage Gallery interior

The big four came together in 2009 to reactivate the gallery-building process, this time to re-install a permanent exhibition. Their big break came in 2013 when former President Mwai Kibaki addressed a gathering of the Asian Foundation. It was Kibaki himself who gave full government backing to the concept of a permanent exhibition “in order to promote cross-cultural understanding in our country,” he said.

On no uncertain terms, President Kibaki stated that he “…authorized and supported the establishment of the Asian-African Heritage exhibition in a permanent purpose-built exhibition hall at the National Museum in Nairobi.”

With that kind of endorsement, the four community-based organizations together with various partners confidently proceeded to plan, design, fund, and build the gallery. It’s taken almost a decade since then to get all the parts in place but last Thursday afternoon, March 24^th, the courtyard at the Nairobi National Museum was filled with friends and members of the Asian-African community to celebrate the historic launch of the Asian African Heritage Gallery.

(L-R) Jeff DeKock, exhibit designer, Mansuk Suthar, Construction,Hasu Devani, Chairman, Asian African Heritage Gallery, Hon. PSDr. Kevit Desai, Hon. CS Amb. Amina Mohamed, Mrs Gita Devani

Occupying the pride of place in what was formally known as the Mammal Hall, the Gallery greets you even before you reach the main entrance of the Museum. The room is vast and beautifully designed to seem even larger than it actually is.

But only one-third of the exhibition is now complete. Against a background of sky-blue painted walls are sections devoted to a range of themes, including Maritime Heritage, the Old Town of Mombasa, the railways, and assorted postcards of the early years of Asians arriving in the region.

What remains to be curated are a dozen more sections covering Asian-Africans’ role in everything from commerce, philanthropy, and domestic life to sports, law, media, and the intellectual and activist role that Asian Africans have played in the Independence struggle against colonial rule.

Meanwhile, the gallery organizers have invited members of the public to take part in putting finishing touches on the space by either loaning or donating additional artefacts and photographs that could enhance our understanding of the tremendous role that Asian Africans have played in the historic development of Kenya’s political, economic, religious, cultural, educational, and social life.

 “Before the end of this year, we expect to fully complete the exhibition,” said Nazim Mithe shortly after the official launch. Mr. Mithe is co-Chairman of the Asian African Heritage Gallery. He was among a number of eminent Asian Africans who have been involved with building the Heritage gallery. They included Dr Manu Chandaria, founder Chairman of the Asian Foundation and a key donor, PS Dr Kevit Desai, grandson of the late founder Chairman of the Desai Foundation, Dr. Chandu Sheth, past Chairman of the Asian Foundation, Mr Hasu Devani, Chairman of the Asian African Heritage Gallery, and Meera Pandit, CEO of the Asian Foundation.

Additionally, the High Commissioner of India to Kenya, H.E. Dr. Virander Paul shared his full support for the Gallery as did Mr Stanvas Ongalo, the Acting Director General of the National Museums of Kenya.

Unfortunately, Mr. Pheroze Nowrojee, as Chairman of the Asian African Heritage Trust, was meant to speak at the launch on ‘The History and Meaning of the Asian African Heritage Trust’, but he was unwell and had to cancel.

Fortunately, giving her full backing to the Gallery was our Minister of Sports, Culture, and Heritage, Amb. Dr. Amina Mohamed who gave special thanks to the Asian African community for their generous philanthropy which has known no bounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JAHAZI ON RECLAIMING AFRICA’S CULTURAL HERITAGE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 28, 2022)

Every day we are hearing more horror stories about the cruel brutality and merciless slaughter of women and children, at the same time as whole villages and towns are being destroyed by Russians in Ukraine.

Yet in reading the recently released issue of Jahazi entitled ‘Reclaiming our Cultural Heritage’, one finds that Russians are no worse than were the European powers who came to conquer and colonize Africa in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Whether one is talking about Germans, British, French, or Portuguese, European colonizers all slaughtered families, destroyed whole villages, and wreaked havoc on people’s cultures.

That’s the well-documented impression one gets from reading the rich collection of 28 deeply-researched essays contained in Jahazi, the cultural magazine published by Prof. Kimani Njogu and Twaweza Communications.

In the past, Jahazi has primarily addressed issues most closely related to East Africa, and particularly Kenya. But in ‘Reclaiming Our Cultural Heritage’, Kimani has reached out to Pan-African scholars who have lots to say about their countries’ imperative need for not just reparations for all the damage done to the region since the slave trade began, but the restitution of all the cultural artefacts that were looted by colonizers and which now reside either in private collections all around the West or prestigious museums like the British Museum in London, Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, and others in cities like Paris, Rome, Berlin, and New York.

It's a marvel that this one issue contains so much history associated with so many African nations and states. And while there’s one unifying theme, the need for virtually every African country to reclaim its cultural heritage after whole civilizations were ravaged viciously, still there is no redundancy in the stories. Well, maybe one, and that’s the reluctance of those same Western powers to respond affirmatively to Africans’ requests to have their cultural heritage returned.

Within this issue, the writers interrogate both the looting and the struggles to regain their lost legacies from a wide range of countries, including Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. More specifically, they write about what was stolen from Agikuyu, Amazons, Bunyoro, Chagga, Maa, Mijikenda, and NOK. What’s more, the artefacts now being sought include everything from a scull, spear or shield, to a Rosetta stone and a sculpted bust of Queen Nefertiti which was smuggled out of Egypt (despite that country having the earliest laws in Africa protecting its antiquities) by a German archeologist and taken back to Berlin where it’s on display at the Neues Museum and seen by more than a million people annually.

What’s also stunning about this historic issue of Jahazi is the realization that European colonialism was technically only a little more than a century long (from 1842- 1945). Yet the amount of damage done during those decades was profound and virtually irreparable. The idea had been to strip African peoples of their symbols of power as a means of stripping them of their dignity and identity, thus making them easier to control.

Yet as Amilcar Cabral said, “One of the most serious errors…committed by colonial powers in Africa may have been to ignore or underestimate the cultural strength of African peoples.” Jahazi’s writers apparently draw upon this cultural strength as they record the many forms of cultural resistance that Africans used to challenge the colonizers. That doesn’t discount the fact that countless Africans died trying to resist men with more powerful weaponry compared to their spears, bows and arrows.

Nonetheless, there is one story about Karambu ole Senteu (pp. 16-19), the Maa warrior whose cattle were looted by the area’s British District Commissioner Hugh Grant. When Karambu went to retrieve his cattle, the DC refused his request point blank. So, in a rage, Karambu (known to his people as a ‘sharp shooter’) “unleashed his spear at Grant’s chest with so much force that the empere naibor pierced the DC and went through his body, killing him on the spot.”

Of course, Karambu was hung and his spear taken. The Maa people want to know where his body was buried and they want the spear returned. Whether they get their requests met is speculation since they don’t have UNESCO support. Kenya has yet to sign the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the illicit import, export, and transfer of Ownership of Cultural Properties. When it does, the government will be in a stronger position to fight for the restitution of its stolen artefacts.

Until then, the struggle continues.

 

 

 

APERTURE AFRICA DEALS A DOUBLE WAMMY OF LAUGHS

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/lifestyle/art/double-life-deals-a-duo-wammy-of-laughs-3779936

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 28, 2022

Aperture Africa hasn’t been on stage in the last three years, and they have been sorely missed by their giant fan-base.

Yet there’s a query among some Kenyans why this talented local company continues producing shows that are so very British when Kenyans are keen to see their own characters performed on stage.

To that concern, I’d say that when British comedy is performed well, as it was last weekend when Aperture staged Ray Cooney’s “Caught in the Net” at the Jalaram Auditorium in Parklands, it transcends national boundaries and has a universal appeal.

And after all, isn’t polygamy a common Kenyan practice, whether women appreciate it or not? And isn’t the covering up of personal feelings a universal part of wedlock? Couples may claim to be totally transparent with one another, but rarely is that the case.

In the case of John Smith (Pritul Raithatha), his double life of duo-wedlock is the subject of the Cooney comedy, (better known as ‘Farce’). From the word go, we see what the playwright intended and what Aperture employed very well, namely having two separate storylines played out on one stage simultaneously.

John’s two offspring, Gavin (Tirath Padam) by Barbara (Akinyi Oluoch) and Nikki (Nixsha Shah) by Mary (Chandni Vaya) are apparently in the same room, speaking vigorously with their respective mums about their shared discovery. Both their dads’ have the same names, ages, and occupations! Among the kids, there seems to be no hint in their heads that their supposed double set of dads might be just one man.

But their curiosity has the better of the youth. Gavin, aged 16, and Nikki, 15, are keen to meet up in person since they’d stumbled into one another on social media where they got to chatting on friendly terms.

Both mothers are respectful of their busy taxi driver spouse, so they insist that Dad be informed first. After all, everybody’s heard about internet predators and Dad might disapprove of his daughter going to meet a total stranger, which of course, he does. But not for the reasons he gives to Nikki.

He knows both families should never meet. He’d been warned long ago by his buddy Stanley (Hiren Vara) that he’s living dangerously, since one lives in Parklands, the other in Gigiri. That’s too close for comfort, but John doesn’t give the threat a second thought. That is, not until it’s almost upon him. His children are hell-bent on meeting and the rest of the farce is all about the hilarity that ensues as John tries to waylay the inevitable.

He employs Stanley to help him elude the children’s rendezvous. But Stan has other plans. He’s meant to go with his senile father (Vikash Pattni) to vacation at Lake Magadi, but he never gets there. Instead, he steals the show, concocting crazy tall tales to delude everyone from Gavin and Mary to Nikki and Barb.

It's John of course who’s the most masterful liar. He and Stan display the type of split-second timing required to turn a mere amateur show into a professional experience that has your audience immersed in their own laughter at the antics of the cast.

It didn’t matter that Tirath didn’t look 16 or that Nixsha wasn’t 15, but 21. What mattered was that this cast was beautifully directed and staged in front of a set design that looked cozy, colorful, and professionally constructed. The sound and lights guys, Rohan Sanghrajka and Khush Shah, also deserve applause. The audibility of the entire cast was impeccable. And I can’t fail to mention the world-class auditorium at Shree Jalaram Satsung Mandal where the seating is arranged so that everyone has an excellent view of the stage.

What also mattered was the extent to which John and Stan went to make total baffoons of themselves while at the same time playing such endearing yet crazy characters.

Of course, the climax of the show is when John finally gets caught, and he gets down on his hands and knees begging for forgiveness from wives who, as it turns out, knew about one another for the last 15 years. They are effectively best friends since they’ve shared their stories, and decided they had a good thing going with John. So why trouble the guy. Let him live a double life.

The only issue was the incest that might ensue if the kids got together. But the show ends with a bang as Mary reveals that Stanley, not John is father of Nikki! So they’re essentially one happy family!

SLUM ART FESTIVAL DRAWS THOUSANDS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Thousands of children, artists, and other adults flocked to Mukuru Lunga Lunga to attend the Wajukuu Slum Art Festival over the pre-New Year’s weekend.

The thriving informal settlement, nestled deep in the heart of Nairobi’s Industrial Area is where one of Kenya’s most world-renowned artists, Shabu Mwangi, chose to establish the Wajukuu Art Centre back in 2003.

Shabu wasn’t working alone. He was with fellow artists Ngugi Waweru and Joseph Weche Waweru among others who had attended art colleges established all around the slums by a Catholic nun, Sister Mary.

Initially, Wajukuu was set up especially for up-and-coming local artists so they could share their knowledge and experience to grow artistically together. But then, they found more interest among the neighborhood children who initially were kept away.

But the children persisted, and finally Shabu and his crew decided to start the Wajukuu Art Club for little ones to come draw and paint. Then came the music, dancing, and even teaching the kids to create their own instruments, some of which appeared on stage with Art Club kids performing at the Fete.

But that was only when there was a pause in performances by the scores of other musicians who came from all around local informal settlements to get up on stage and entertain the largest audiences ever gathered at Mukuru Lunga Lunga.

When BDLife arrived on day three of the Fete, we counted at least a thousand mainly children just as enthusiastic as they must have been when the festival began.

“We left the musical side of the program to Majeshi, [two rappers] who invited musicians, dancers, and acrobats to perform at the festival,” says Shabu.

But besides music and dance, he says there was feasting as a dozen sets of neighborhood parents helped cook up a storm of chapati and rice served with a mix of potatoes, green peas, and a bit of meat. Asked how they could feed all those kids, he simply said it happened, rather like Jesus having five loaves and two fishes, but somehow, he miraculously was able to feed 5000 men plus women and children.

“But the Festival wasn’t only about food and having fun;” says Shabu as he takes a brief moment to discuss events of the weekend with BDLife. “We also planted trees and taught children the importance of tree planting to reduce climate change and save the planet,” he adds.

“We also showed them how to prepare the soil,” he adds, not mentioning the obvious point that the soil in their area is mixed with rocks and other debris, so there’s a lot involved in soil preparation.

The day we attended the Festival the next act was Warembo Wasanii, the girls collective started by Joan Otieno to rehabilitate young women and girls off the streets and into art. “We collect and recycle garbage from the Dandora dump and transform it into fashionable art,” she says right after escorting a dozen girl models, ages eight to fifteen, up onto the stage where they showed off their handmade outfits made from the packaging of everything from Colgate tooth paste to Ketepa tea.

Warembo’s fashion show was one more revelation of the creativity tucked away in the so-called slums that Wajukuu taps. More evidence of it was to be found in Wajukuu’s new and capacious art centre where there was an exhibition of recent works a half dozen Wajukuu artists. They included Shabu, Ngugi Wawere and Joseph Waweru as well as Fresha Njeri, Lazarus Thumbi and Muturi Mutugi. 

This was already the third exhibition curated by Shabu at Wajukuu’s new art centre and he hopes in future it will become a venue for exhibiting other young Kenyan artists.

In the meantime, during the festival, the art centre became a space where children were invited to come and create graffiti murals on the walls, which was one more interactive aspect of the Fete the kids enthusiastically embraced.

But where one could most easily see the success for Wajukuu’s art festival was by just standing a moment in the middle of the tents, loud speakers booming hip hop tunes, and seeing limitless white plastic chairs occupied by happy local kids. From there, one could pick up the children’s infectious enthusiasm instantly.

Even on the last day of the festivities, the kids are still ebullient, infatuated with the feeling of their importance. That, of course is a mission of Wajukuu, to nurture the children and educate them upwards through art.

The Festival had support from the German Embassy, Goethe Institute, and Documenta another German arts organization.

 

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Wajukuu's Shabu and Ngugi bring Installations to Circle Art

 

Wajukuu’s ‘Systems to Emptiness’ transformed Circle Art Gallery into a giant installation at the show’s opening last Wednesday night.

The darkened, black-draped corridor, set to sounds of urban street life, was meant to be an immersive experience.

“The idea was to give people a feeling that they’re entering our world at Wajukuu,” says Ngugi Waweru, referring to their art centre based in the informal settlement of Mukuru Lunga Lunga.

The Centre is what Ngugi and Shabu Mwangi founded years ago to open up a creative space where aspiring artists and children could come to learn about art and to express themselves.

Fortunately, once you got through that narrow tunnel, you arrived safely inside the Gallery where two sculpted installations are by Ngugi and Shabu Mwangi, the two Wajukuu artists behind the show, cryptically entitled ‘Systems to Emptiness’.

“It’s a metaphor,” explains Shabu, referring not only to the show’s title but to his creation, entitled ‘Wrapped Reality’. It’s the installation at the far end of the gallery, a six-foot sculpted piece of driftwood shaped vaguely like a man who Shabu says is ‘melting’ or dissipating under the weight of his impoverished everyday life. His burden is symbolized by his reed-woven ‘hat’ shaped with the same material that chicken cages are made of.

Ngugi adds that chicken feel oppressed when they’re confined to that cage. They feel relieved or liberated once they’re released from it. But that feeling of freedom is short-lived, he continues, since they are soon slaughtered.

“Human beings are like chicken in that they join systems, (including educational systems), where they are promised success and happiness once they get through the system [or complete their education],” says Shabu.

“Instead, it enslaves them, because once they graduate, they don’t find jobs. They find poverty and emptiness as a result of failure of the systems, including systems of governance,” he adds.

The strips of barbed wire scattered round the base of driftwood, he says, are symbolic of the boundaries or lack of freedom that poor people face.

It’s a powerful message and matched by Ngugi’s installation. He’s created a kind of pyramid made out of broken bicycle chains, the ones (when intact) power the local jua kali knife sharpeners who roam informal settlements. The pyramid is surrounded by discarded knives which have been sharpened until they’re useless.

Calling his installation by a Kikuyu proverb, “Kahiu kohiga munu gatemaga o mwene’, Ngugi says it means, “A sharp knife cuts its owner.” He explains that the knife is like a system that people clamor to get into. Call it consumerism or capitalism, but it’s a system that compels people to always want more, more fast food, faster cell phones, bigger TV screens. Each demand is like a sharpening of the knife until the knife is finished and the consumer has little to show for what he’s achieved. Again, the system can only lead to emptiness.

Both artists are sending profound messages about the way they see social systems and their treatment of especially poor people. Their installations are among several works that they have created to take with them next month when they, together with several other members of their Wajukuu collective, head to Kassel, Germany. That is where Documenta 15, the largest art fair in Germany, is happening from June through September.

Wajukuu was invited to participate in Documenta 15 by the Indonesian artists collective, ruangrupa, which is curating this year’s art fair. Ten artists, including Shabu and Ngugi, will be representing Wajukuu since the theme of this year’s fair is communal sharing like what Wajukuu does, especially as they teach and mentor children in art.

“Our aim is to use art to empower the community, especially children and young artists,” says Shabu. Noting that the colonial experience stripped Africans of their cultural identities and heritage, he believes art has the power to revive people’s culture and identity.

“Kassel was totally destroyed at the end of World War 2, which is one reason Documenta was started [in 1955],” says Shabu. “Art was used to bring life back into the city so that now, Documenta is said to be the largest art fair in Europe,” he adds.

In addition to carrying their knives and driftwood with them to Kassel, the artists are bringing a documentary film that they created with the assistance of several supporters, namely Goethe Institute, the German Embassy, and the Lambert Foundation.

“We’ll also be bringing my book, called ‘The Mirror’ which has some of my poetry and my paintings in it,” says Shabu.

 

ArtXChange brings African-European artists together

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

The ArtXChange must be one of the most successful programs that the European Union has running for Africa, or at least for African artists like Nick Ndeda, Yeshihareg Cosmos, Abdirahman Yusuf, and Najma Swaleh.

They were among the 16 young artists who came from both Europe and Africa to take part in a three- week project that culminated earlier in March in an event entitled ‘Look Me in the I’.

The event took place at The Alchemist in Westlands and in four hours was meant to condense what that multidisciplinary team was able to create over an intense 16-day period spent up at the Tafaria Castle in Nyandarua.

Tafaria turned out to be the perfect get-away place where that diverse troupe of strangers got together to create and recreate themselves. More than one of them described their experience as ‘life-transforming’ largely because the project facilitators did their job so well.

Maimouna Jallow and Xavier Verhoest come from two very different artistic and social backgrounds. Maimouna only recently moved to Spain to take care of family. But previously, she had been based in Nairobi for years. Her special gift for inspiring others with her storytelling and filmmaking skills had endeared her to the local community. Meanwhile, Xavier had been involved in humanitarian aid programs throughout the region before settling in Kenya where he’s a visual artist specializing in body mapping.

They were the two whose role it was to curate the residency while infusing an invisible spirit of familiarity and trust among artists who were everything from filmmakers, photographers, visual and performing artists, to poets, dancers, writers, and musicians.

The success of their efforts can be measured on several accounts. First, there’s the ArtXChange Instagram account where one will find a range of personal testimonies shared by project participants who are not just pleased to have participated in the initiative. Many are elated for having been among the few selected out of a slew of artists who applied from across the region.

The African artists came mainly from Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, while the Europeans came from Spain, Italy, and Belgium. All had applied to be part of the ArtXChange process, which Maimouna says was primarily experimental. The facilitators, while committed to blending two very different methodologies, namely storytelling and body painting, had their ultimate goal. It was to get the artists to explore their own stories and release their inner spirits so they could feel free enough to express their hearts, minds, and souls.

On all those counts, the project was a success as one could see in early March at The Alchemist where they put on a multifaceted display of the fruits of their creative journey.

Portraits of life-sized body maps created by the artists themselves hung all around the ground floor of The Alchemist. Meant to inspire the one painted to use the map as a kind of autobiographical statement about themselves, they used colors and textures to reflect on themselves.

But definitely, it was the performance space that enabled the actor, the dancer, the singer, filmmaker, spoken-word poet, and even the choreographer, and author to have their say. Their performances flowed non-stop, as the whole team presented themselves in a well-choreographed production. The narrator Nick hardly had a role apart from his opening words since the guitarist, the dancers, and the poets all took turns taking over the stage, which was given a busy light-infused backdrop that kept one awake throughout the entire unscripted process.

The participants had clearly gotten to know one another well enough to blend into and out of the program as they’d agree beforehand.

“Look Me in the I” wasn’t the first ArtXChange project enacted through a broader EU-African Union program. But this one, also involving the International Committee for the Development of Peoples (CISP), has been especially effective in targeting a youthful population with its commitment to use art to affect social change.

CISP also works with a consortium of five organizations based in four countries, namely Kenya, Somalia, Italy, and Sweden.

“Look Me in the I”, like the previous ArtXChange projects, turned a team of strangers into close friends who seized the opportunity to blend their creative ideas into one delicious visual and vocal meal enjoyed by locals last March 8^th. Ideally, the artists will take home the lessons they have learned to benefit their local communities and the wider world. That’s the stated ArtXChange objective, namely creating art that can effect social change.