 |
 |
 |
AfricAvenir & JMAC present “Black President” on African Youth Day
.
Event information
| Leonard Auala Street Katutura Windhoek |
.
16 June is known all over the world as the day of the Soweto uprising in 1976. Today it is celebrated as the Day of the African Child and Youth Day. On this occassion, AfricAvenir and the John Muafangejo Arts Centre, housed at the KCAC is conducting a 2 day Open Workshop on Arts and Business. A special film screening of the "Black President" (Namibian Premiere) is held during the workshop. Entrance is free. And all public are invited to attend the screening.
In ‘Black President’ (2015, 86 min, Zim/SA/UK, Director: Mpumelelo Mcata, Producer Anna Teeman) exiled Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiurai's demons come to life as he tries to flee South Africa following various fractious experiences in the Johannesburg art scene.
The production team asks themselves: "I’ve often asked myself, why can't artist Kudzanai Chiurai be free to just paint flowers or some shit?! If he wants to that is. Are we, as black artists, victims of our past - forever beholden to our so-called arrested development - or is this, our burden, our superpower?"
When: Friday, 16 June 2017
Time: 18h00
Entrance: Free
Venue: JMAC Gallery, Katutura Community & Art Centre, Windhoek
What is ‘Black Guilt’?
“A child is born with no state of mind....blind to the ways of mankind” proclaim Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in “The Message” their seminal hip hop behemoth of a song about African American ghettos in the 80’s, then comes consciousness. In the case of the fine artist named Kudzanai Chiurai, black consciousness appears, closely followed by black pride or ideas of black power.
This ideological militancy is adopted perhaps just as a means to access the freedoms he needs to truly fly and find his spirit. His flight however, as is the case for many a young black artist...is often weighed down by guilt, a guilt suspiciously masquerading as responsibility.
This black guilt is Kudzanai Chiurai’s last hurdle before true freedom – it is a demon that must be slayed.
The central thesis or question of this film is focused on this idea of “BLACK GUiLT” - a hyper-complex shame. The film questions the responsibility of African artists in an ever more globalised universe, where they maybe find themselves "playing catch up" to the West as opposed to following their own paths.
Will African artists ever be truly free to express without having to necessarily represent all our people in our every breath or is the need to be that kind of free simply irresponsible?
How much do these complexes and relationships to the ghost of Africa’s violent collective history of oppression, exploitation and struggle haunt African societies?
Is there such a thing as Post Colonialism or indeed Neo Colonialism if Colonialism never ended in the first place? Are Africans still slaves?
In ‘Black President’, The White Queen (a character from one of Kudzi’s pieces) personifies the idea of an externalised and internalised Quasi Colonialism when she first appears in a work by Kudzanai Chiurai and then steps out of that frame and into the world of the film. She hunts him down. She goes rogue and irritates everyone around her while trying to buy up every African person and object she sees. How will this end?
When will Africans stop shooting ourselves in the foot to prove a point about their own agency in relation to the so-called Western standard?
Can Kudzanai be President of his own State of Being? Or must he and all of us forever carry the fate and history of our people on our shoulders?
About the director:
Mpumelelo Mcata is one of South Africa’s leading artists and cultural activists. Mpumelelo is perhaps best known as one part of internationally acclaimed South African SAMA award winning band the BLK JKS – although he plays the guitar, self-taught at that, he is quick to remind anyone who will listen that he is not a guitarist.
Mpumelelo, considers himself a conduit and artist who is as passionate about film or art in general as he is about music. His work, whatever the medium, is always about honesty and the stretching and testing of boundaries. ‘Black President’ - his debut feature - a creative documentary World premiered as part of Forum Expanded at the 2015 Berlinale.
Images attached, Copyright by EndStreet Productions.
For more information, visit: www.africavenir.org or contact AfricAvenir on 0855630949 or email africavenir.whk@gmail.com
© Copyright AfricAvenir 2017