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INSIDE AFRICA
Looking at Africa Through Art, Entertainment and History
Aired March 15, 2008 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Isha Sesay. Welcome to INSIDE AFRICA, your weekly window to the continent. This week we look at Africa through art, entertainment and history.
Starting on the road with South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Femi Oke takes a ride on the group's tour bus. We'll also check out two distinct branches of African art from contemporary to tribal. Artists, collectors and art histories explain the works and their worth and we will take a voyage aboard a floating classroom dedicated to a pivotal moment in African history.
We begin with the world famous Grammy-winning a cappella singing group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They're wrapping up grueling tour that took them to 11 gigs all over the northwestern United States in just the last two weeks.
Femi Oke caught up with them on the road right before a recent performance.
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FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nine male voices, no instruments, singing Zulu. This is the unique sound of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. One of South Africa's most famous exports, the group spends a lot of time touring. This year they've been traveling across the U.S. in a luxury bus.
That's very smart. I've been using the bathroom of the great Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, actually.
OKE: I am sitting where the seats of greatness have been sitting.
So yesterday you were in Ohio, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
OKE: And today you're in Georgia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
OKE: That is a lot of traveling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
OKE: Do you even know from one day to another day where you actually are?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we don't. We do have a schedule but sometimes, like tomorrow, I'm not sure where we're going. Yeah. But we're leaving - after the show tonight we're .
OKE: Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See, you know.
OKE: Let's talk about your latest album.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.
OKE: Which is about Shaka Zulu.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shaka Zulu. It's a tribute to Shaka Zulu.
OKE: Why did you decide to do something that was actually a theme album as opposed to just hit songs?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The new composition makes it fresh and it makes people want to hear more from Ladysmith rather than putting out old stuff all the time. So the new compositions is actually what helped make Ladysmith Black Mambazo to get where it is right now.
OKE: The group started their sound check with one of the songs from their new album. The number is striking and almost sounds like you could sing along. Almost.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ohm-um.
OKE: Mm-hmm. Is that it? Mm-hmm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ohm-um.
OKE: Ohhm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ohm-um.
OKE: Ohm-um.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: U-oh-um.
OKE: Oh, now it's getting hard.
Lead singer Joseph Shabalala writes all the compositions and has been leading the group since the 1970s. But there is a spread of talent that includes younger singers, too. The latest recruit has been with the group for just eight months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I joined them because I love them. I love that kind of music. I'm enjoying it. And all people they love it so it's a good thing.
OKE: Tommy Shabalala is being groomed to take over the lead singing role from his father.
TOMMY SHABALALA, SINGER: I sing high pitch. That's what I sing.
OKE: Tommy may be stepping up to the mike, but dad Joseph will still be writing the song.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joseph is always going to be part of the group whether he retires, stay at home or still touring. He's always going to be part of the group because we need his compositions. He's a very gifted composer.
OKE: I caught up with the gifted and very flexible Joseph Shabalala as he was warming up for the show.
Are you still excited each time before .
JOSEPH SHABALA, SINGER: Oh yes.
OKE: I feel your energy.
J. SHABALALA: That's right.
OKE: And with that, Mr. Shabalala was off, leaving the kids behind to play.
(Inaudible)
Minutes later they were all onstage playing to another appreciative audience.
Femi Oke, CNN, Morrow, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: When INSIDE AFRICA returns, what's new in African art. We'll visit what's billed as the world's first contemporary African art fair.
And still ahead, the freedom schooner Amistad charts the course of the Atlantic slave trade.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Welcome back. Let's take a look at some headlines from the continent this week. A hospital in western Kenya is treating several wounded patients, many of them children after an alleged attack by a local militia. Nurses say at least 13 people were killed. The Kenyan military tried to move the military from nearby forests and caves in an operation that began on Monday.
Speaking on conditions of anonymity a militia members says the group was trying to, quote, "correct historical injustices."
Ninety-seven Chadian children caught up in a notorious adoption scandal are finally being reunited with their families. The children have been stranded at an orphanage in Abachi (ph) the Chadian capital for five months. The ordeal began when they were taken from their homes and loaded onto a plane by the French aid group Zoe's Ark which claimed they were refugees from Darfur.
The UN says a lack of identification papers made it difficult to trace their origins. Six children who are actually from Darfur will remain in the orphanage.
And Africa welcomed the Organization of Islamic States conference for the first time in 14 years. More than 40 heads of state from around Africa and the Middle East gathered in Dhaka to discuss oil, politics, poverty and conflict. The group traditionally holds a summit every three years to promote Islamic unity.
Turning now to the art world, for many art enthusiasts, African art is synonymous with tribal art but many African artists and collectors say contemporary African art is just as relevant.
Robyn Curnow went to the first ever Joburg Art Fair to find out what's hot, who's buying and how much people are paying for these contemporary works.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: His art is made by cutting and sewing pink fabric. Lawrence Lemayona (ph) says he likes to challenge traditional images of manhood and masculinity in his works. But he also likes to test what it means to be an African artist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think I want to limit myself within the African - if somebody were to look at this artwork they wouldn't. It isn't centered in African atmosphere or African setting. It could be created anywhere in the world.
CURNOW: Lawrence is just one of the many artists whose works are being exhibited at the Johannesburg Art Fair.
What are you hoping to do here at the Joburg Art Fair?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Robyn, this is the first African - the first contemporary art fair that focuses on African contemporary art. So really what you have to do is create a window for buyers and sellers and those interested in African contemporary art to meet.
CURNOW: So what is African contemporary art?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's such a sort of strong reference when you say "African Art" that it is tribal art or ethnic art. We have to used the word "contemporary" just to show that this is art of the now, this is art that very much fits in with the massive contemporary art movement that's happening both internationally and now locally.
CURNOW: Curator Simon Djami (ph) agrees but he says he is less concerned about the Africanness of the work and more interested if the art is current and contemporary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want something meaningful. Something that is addressing the here and now. And for tomorrow. I'm not interested in things that would be addressing the past.
CURNOW: Twenty-two galleries are represented here from well-known South African art dealers to New York and Moroccan art galleries specializing in cutting edge African work. The prices range from $150 to 700,000.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Claudette Schruters (ph), her work sells for $30,000 to $80,000.
CURNOW: Lawrence's work isn't going for that much. But one of his pink fabric works sold for $3,000 on the opening night of the art fair. Not bad going for a young artist who is just starting out. Robyn Curnow, CNN, Johannesburg, South Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Giving visual form to the divine. After the break, the relationship between Yoruba art and the spiritual world.
And still ahead, a small ship on a big mission. We'll go onboard the Amistad for some lessons about freedom and justice.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making business news in Africa this week.
Nigerian officials are warning that a natural gas shortage could cause nationwide blackouts. Managers at the power holding company of Nigeria say the electricity generation has dropped to its lowest level ever due to a buildup of condensation inside gas pipelines. They say maintenance work to fix the problem could make it worse in the short term.
And with oil prices topping $111 a barrel, oil companies are scrambling to tap into African supplies, even where they're difficult to reach. Texas oil company Cosmos Energy recently struck an estimated 1.3 billion barrels just off Ghana's coast. One catch? The oil is more than four kilometers under ground, beneath three kilometers of rock, which makes drilling difficult and expensive.
SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA.
Now, Yoruba culture is among the oldest and most influential in Africa. About 20 million Yoruba people live in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, making them one of the continents largest ethnic groups. An exhibition of Yoruba artwork is now on display at the High Museum of Art here in Atlanta. Femi Oke asks art history professor Babatumi Lawal (ph) about the spiritual nature and the monetary value of the art as well as the near anonymity of most of its creators.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, the artists are known in the community, but in the process of collecting these art forms, the so-called collectors ignored the makers, the producers. In some cases, some of these works were seized by missionaries. In others, they were abandoned by converts.
The study of African art didn't begin here until relatively recently by which time much of the information about the creator have been lost. Fortunately, it is possible these days to identify individuals by their style so some of the works are now being identified so some of the works are now known.
OKE: This collection dates back to 19th century, early 20th century artwork. At the time did the artists actually know they were creating art? Were they deliberately creating this beautiful piece of - for instance, there's a blacksmith's poker. I've never seen a blacksmith's poker that looks so ornate as this one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of those pokers were used - were made for ceremonial use, public display. As a result, the decorations on them were intended to reflect status, prestige as well as the role of certain individuals as models for them in their society to emulate.
OKE: So what, if you looked at the collection, what would you say was the best part of the collection?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The one I like most is the mask representing the ancestor because death to the Yoruba is not total extinction, it is a transition from the world to the other world in which case life goes on and the dead can reincarnate as babies.
For instance, my name, Babuntube (ph) means "Father comes again." Which implies that I am a reincarnation of my grandfather because I was born shortly after his death so I was deemed as a grandfather returns in a new body to start all over again. So threw the masks sometimes you can see how artists used to embody the sacred.
OKE: We often hear prices allocated to Western art. So we know how much a Picasso is worth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
OKE: We know how much the art in the Louvre is worth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
OKE: With African art it's hard to put a price on it. If you looked at that exhibition, how would you value it so people really appreciate what they're seeing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You cannot quantify material value. Because this is a culture that places emphasis on meanings, ideals and spirituality. So that if you have a piece that you value, you don't want to part with it, it is when you are forced to part with a precious object that you begin to place money value on it.
So I personally feel that art is valueless. It was not - especially Yoruba art. It was not created by given artists willfully for sale. For instance the twin statuettes were originally commissioned by those who lost twins. Their twins. Either one of the twins. And the image served as memorials. So someone leaving a memorial to a deceased twin would go and commission one from a carver. And so the images served as surrogates, embodying metaphorically the soul of the deceased. So you cannot place a value on that. One cannot talk of one piece that is the most sacred. All the images here are sacred.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: The Yoruba art exhibit will be on display in Atlanta's High Museum of Art through April 20.
Up next, an educational voyage through a painful chapter in African history, the Atlantic slave trade.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Welcome back.
For many history buffs and movie fans, the name "Amistad" calls to mind the Atlantic slave trade and specifically a famous rebellion at sea launched by a bunch of African captives. But now the name belongs to a floating classroom which is on an 18 month transatlantic voyage to teach the values of freedom and justice.
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SESAY: She's on a journey to educate and inspire. In June of last year the freedom schooner Amistad set out from Connecticut in the U.S. on what's called the Atlantic Freedom Tour. For a year and a half it's retracing the route of the infamous slave industry triangle. Stopping at nearly 20 ports, all significant in the slave trade. This vessel is on a journey to touch hearts and minds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our mission is to travel the United States and the world and tell the Amistad's story and also to act as a catalyst for conversations about race and human rights.
SESAY: In 1839 53 African captives staged a rebellion onboard the La Amistad schooner in Cuban waters. Their recapture and the historic U.S. legal battle that ultimately resulted in their freedom is depicted in the 1997 movie directed by Stephen Spielberg.
The ship on tour today is a replica of the 19th century ship. It took two years to build and the entire project comes with a price tag of more than $3 million. Part of that money comes from the U.S. government.
Students are traveling with the crew for parts of the journey. Their experiences are shared with people around the world via live Webcasts, e- mails and online journals. At each port the Amistad is opened for visits and lectures from the crew. So far she's made stops in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Liverpool, Bristol and London in England and Portugal. Its docking in the U.K. was part of events commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire.
Its next destination was Freetown, Sierra Leone. This West African nation is actually the original homeland of many of the Amistad captives and where they were returned after their ordeal. For Sierra Leonean Donald George, an outreach educator with Amistad America, this stop is a symbolic homecoming with potentially far-reaching benefits.
DONALD GEORGE, AMISTAD AMERICA: Sierra Leone has been a country that has suffered an 11 year civil war, brutal civil war and everybody is like, this is not a place to go to but our motive was to bring this ship to Sierra Leone, one, to bring international attention back to Freetown, to Sierra Leone, and secondly, to help build economic developments, tourism and education back in my home country.
SESAY: A farewell ceremony attended by Freetown's mayor, the U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone and other local dignitaries sent Amistad on her way. The freedom schooner Amistad is now making her journey back home to the U.S., making several stops en route. Bill Pinkney believes this ship teaches us more than just history.
BILL PINKNEY, AMISTAD CAPTAIN: We learn more about ourselves and our history and we learn more about the potential that we all have as human beings and that fundamentally we're really the same.
SESAY: As America gets set to observe the 200th anniversary of its abolition act, the Amistad continues to shine brightly as a symbol of hope, courage and justice.
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SESAY: A really inspirational project there, looking to bring people from all over the world closer together.
That's it for this week's INSIDE AFRICA. We leave you now with the voices of South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo. I'll see you back here next week.
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