ShuMBa-Music: africa@rotefabrik

Africa is still regarded as a continent of catastrophe. Daily news provide us with pictures and reports on floods and famine, children-soldiers and bloody combats. The spreading of Aids rose to an extremly threatening extent. Greedy potentates still seem to reign unshorn. In western and central africa fires are burning at every corner. The same day the news of a democratically change spreads, there's already the news of another putsch.

Africa is very rarely being perceived positive, mostly only in cultural concerns, mainly music. Youssou N’Dour, Ali Farka Touré or Baaba Maal are well-known artists to a huge range of public, they tour the western world regularly and sell out big places. Much less attention do get other cultural activities. In german-speaking part of Switzerland this surely is connected to the speech barrier.

During five days we would like to focus the attention on different cultural works from western and central africa, in particular consideration of the conflict between tradition und modernity. In the centre of this festival stands the theatre-production of Ketté-Mbaï. Last but not least, the less-known musical and cineastic productions of this region should not go short and will be completed by culinary titbit.

"Ketté-Mbaï" Contes d'Afrique / Director: Jeff Mann / Actors and musicians: Michel Djatao, Julien Yamakana, Jeff Mann

The Artistic Company Sanza will display two african stories from the Central African Republic, under the title "Ketté-Mbaï" - Contes d'Afrique:

In "L'Homme ingrat“ (the ungrateful man) Mulengé discovers a man, a panther, a snake and a rat on the bottom of a deep pit. He lets himself be convinced of giving them back to freedom. The three animals are very grateful to Mulénge and supply him daily with food and gold. The likewise freed man is jealous of all this sudden luxuray and wealth Mulengé gets from having liberated the animals. The man ponders over revenge and hatches an awful plan.

In "La légende du Phacochère“ (the legend of the warthog) the highly wooed Woumba (the most beautiful animal on earth) and his cousin meet in the street. The cousin had helped Woumba to build his house and now wants his salary. But Woumba is vain and stingy. He doesn't want to accept a near friend allowing himself to ask for money for something which he himself rather sees as a friendly favour. The cheated cousin hatches a plan of revenge and he later succeds in making Woumba believe not to be beautiful, but extremly ugly.

The two stories will be displayed in french and simultaneously translated into swiss-german by the actor Ueli Bichsel.

The queen of progressive raï comes back. Grown up in the maghrebinian suburbs from Bruxelles, Natacha Atlas is a former member of the famous "Transglobal Underground" with a babylonic Mix of languages and influences: sephardic, spanish, french and arabic. On "Ayeshteni", Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I put a spell on you" stands next to Jaques Brels "Ne me quitte pas" - in superior style!

Koyo Kouoh (Senegal) is the director of the cultural department of the Gorée panafrican institute for politics, development and culture and she has organised a caravan for poets in the end of the year 1999. Nine internationally known writers and poets from different african regions have been invited on this journey, which carried them from the island Gorée along the old trading route to Timbuctu. There were Breyten Breytenbach and Antje Krog from South Africa, Chirikure Chirikure and Chenjerai Hove from Zimbabwe, Zein El Abdin Fouad from Egypt, Were Were Liking from Cameroon, Thierno Seydou Sall from Senegal, Albecaye Ousmane Kounta from Mali and Amina Said from Tunisia.

Koyo Kouoh will give a short report to the oral tradition in western africa and then will contrast it with the contemporary literature of african writers. Then we will show her documentary movie, that has been made on this caravan.

benefit-concert for Angola

with VOZ DE AFRICA and THE BIG BÄNG BÄND

Anyone who wants to get rid of the november blues with a special portion of worldmusic is at the right place on this event!

17 years ago Luzi Dessler and friends founded the Big Bäng Bänd, a big band consisting of 19 musicians. Since then they are successfully touring Zürich and surrounding places in different Besetzung. They are known for their diverse repertoire which includes self-arranged versions of some very famous but also less-known songs of rock, blues, reggae, afro and soul. Any show of the Big Bäng Bänd lives mainly from the musicians' joy to play, rather than from mere musical perfection, putting the audience always in a good mood from the beginning and makes people dance.

Since the cooperation of Dessler's choir "Die Stimmbänder GmbH" and "Voz de Africa" there is a friendly contact to their founding members, the angolan family Luvualu, which lives in Switzerland since 1984 for political reasons. They have carried with them their love to their motherland and they take care of this love here by maintaining their family gospel choir.

By singing angolan songs and negro-spirituals the musicians together with their audience gain power and joy . Besides, with the salary from their shows they are able to support people and projects in Angola.

Soon after came the idea of a common benefit-concert of "Voz de Africa" together with the "Big Bäng Bänd". Therefore Dessler started to look for and to arrange new songs. At the first common rehearsals the singers already showed such heart-blood and joy, they dragged along the whole band.

Always present was also Mama Luisa who advised and supported all the single members of the choir.

Finally, a concrete project for this benefit-concert has been found in supporting the hospital-work of MSF in Angola. More about it on the event itself!

Programme: Bar and african food from 19.30/ Voz de Africa at around 20.30/ Info on project MSF at around 21.15/ Big Bäng Bänd & Voz de Africa at around 22.00/ African Disco with DJ-Tonton and DJ-Sergio at around 23.00

"Fragments de Vie: Tryptique" by François L. Woukoache (Cameroon / Belgium 1999)

Social commentator and acclaimed documentarian François L. Woukoache returns to the big screen with Fragments of Life, a triptych of short stories inspired by real life in Yaoundé, Cameroon. With the aim of creating “a fiction film within the current reality of a large African city, ” Woukoache uses the urban slums as his mise-en-scène for these simulated slices of life. Casting away the traditional allegory in African political satire, Fragments of Life is a revelation of the crisis-ridden region. More formal than typical African cinema, yet brimming with the same vitality, the film bears witness to the trials and tribulations of the contemporary everyman through the eyes of three protagonists surviving in the bustling capital. Detailing the mundane reality of corruption, unemployment and police brutality, this avant-garde work is a vital contribution to and from a continent famous for its storytelling tradition. - (text by M. Friis, U.S.)

Just after the movie there will take place a small but beautiful concert in the Fabriktheater and during the show a bar will be opened. The zimbabwean musician Themba Ndlovu (guitar and voices) and the South African-born Jabu Ndlovu-Zikalala (voices) will perform traditional South African songs that will remind you of the best early days of Miriam Makeba...Be there!

From Monday 5th of November up to Freitag 9th of November 2001, time: 10.00-12.00

		Africa-Festival in Zürich 2001



		During the whole week: Afro-Dance Workshops for school-classes!