Classic African Films N°2: ‘Touki Bouki’ by Djibril Diop Mambéty

LOVE this movie!!! ❤

Here is an excerpt from my paper “African Youth Exercising the Margins” where I compared Touki Bouki and Karmen Gei (another great movie)

“In the film Touki Bouki, directed by Djibril Mambety, the main characters Anta, a university student, and Mory, a herder, set out on an adventure for France to become rich. They talk about going to Europe illegally on the Ancerville set to sail the next day by dressing up as aristocrats, getting a bunch of money, tipping the “right guys”, and pretending like their loaded by handing out francs so no one will suspect them. Mory and Anta live in Senegal during a time of globalization  and neocolonialism, where there is a high influence of Western things, lifestyle, and especially money. For Mory and Anta, they have seen in the West and their own country that money is associated with corruption, “those red cross ladies get fat during a drought¹”, so to live comfortably and be successful they must engage in corruption. Even the red cross, who is supposed to supply aid and food to these countries have their own agenda and are not necessarily helping as much as they claim. Through narrative and montage sequences, Mambety’s film is a commentary on greed, Western materialism², and the hundreds of young Africans who die every year trying to cross the ocean to Europe hoping for a better life and who never make it.

Anta, who perfers to drink bottled water and doesn’t believe in friendly lending of food, and Mory, who has debt yet rides a motorbike and desires to be called Mr. Mory, are marginal characters in their country because of their desires to be Western; perhaps their marginality and distance from their peers and family helped lead them to their decision that they must leave whatever it takes. Anta is constantly ridiculed by her family for her style of dress, pants and a button up shirt, and for going to a university because they may be afraid that she is forgetting her heritage and adopting an all Western attitude. These youths only wear traditional dress when they are trying to blend in with the audience during the wrestling match. Greed and the power of money is seen in the scene where Mory and Anta drive through a crowd of people who once yelled at them for their attitude and desires are now being greeted with song and dance in hopes that they will be able to procure some of their money. Touki Bouki filmed in 1973. taking place during a time of economic crisis which encouraged youths to migrate Westward instead of, like the previous youths associated with the nationalist project, staying in Africa and fighting underdevelopment, poverty, and, illiteracy. This new heightened need to migrate and interest in a quick fix to the problems of poverty aided Anta in her willingness to go along with Mory’s plans of theft and deceit³.”

References:

1Mory. Touki Bouki. Mambety, Djibril. 1973

2The Hyena’s Last Laugh

3 Mamadou Diouf, “Engaging Postcolonial Cultures: African Youth and Public Space,” AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW, VOL. 46, NO. 2 (SEPT. 2003) 1-12

Make sure to read the analysis written by the original blogger, it’s very good and has a different focus. And make sure you watch this film!   

 

http://africasacountry.com/2012/04/26/classic-african-films-n2-touki-bouki-by-djibril-diop-mambety/

Africa is a Country (Old Site)

This is, perhaps, one of my favorite films of all time. A shifting and fragmentary tale of two young lovers — Mory and Anta — and their attempts to flee Senegal for Paris, ‘Touki Bouki’ is Djibril Diop Mambéty’s masterpiece. It fizzles with wit and acuity, it diagnoses the ambivalence toward the colonial master and the at times surreal practices of ‘traditional’ culture.

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These Silent T.V’s Make it Hard to Listen to Music

I would love to go to a bar with no TV or one that maybe turns it off when other events are happening. Even though they are on silent and have no subtitles, I cannot look away from the TV. Sitting at the bar there are five right in your face. No matter what way you turn your head it’s right there in your face. Do we need to see these programs 24-7 even when our friends are playing music five feet away. Gun shows, fox news, 1,000 ways to die. Great bar tv, right?

Pray, Next City Hall

I love what people decide to write on trains. I also love that they can also be aken out of context and used to mean something else. On it’s own “pray” is a very positive word/action for most people, unless they are extremly anti-religion. “Pray, Next City Hall” can mean somethnig completly different.

Bawon Samedi at the Tap Tap

This past week a friend and I drove down to Florida and all around it was a great trip. We took a day trip to Miami trying to find the Global Caribbean show “Haiti King of this World.” Well, we never found it the center didn’t respond to our email about location and hours until the next day when we were leaving Florida. Disappointed, we left little Haiti to eat at the Tap Tap Restaurant in Miami Beach. It turns out Miami is actually confusing and part of Miami is on the mainland of Florida, but Miami Beach is seperated by water. Luckily we got to the restaurant and they were just about to open, when we first arrived we thought they went out of business until we saw someone go in the back. I did not expect this place to be as amazing as it was. Not only was the food good, the whole place was covered in paintings, one of the reasons why I love Africa and the diaspora, leave no space unpainted or uncarved. The priciple lwa (god) of this restaurant seemed to be Bawon Samedi (Papa Gede) the lwa of death, life, and sexuality. He is also a counselor, healer, and lover of children. The Bawon was represented throughout the restaurant in flags and table paintings depicting his veve and characterizing objects (skull, sunglasess with one lense missing, hot peppers, black rooster, penis).

For more information on Vodou drapo here is an excerpt of my senior project:
“Drapo (Fig. 26) is a Haitian art of flag making used in Vodou ceremonies to usher in the spirits and these flags represent different lwa and the spiritual power within the ounfò (temple). Drapo are usually made of satin, velvet, or rayon with sequins, beads, or/and applique embodying a lwa. Many flags feature parts of chromolithographs of Catholic saints frequently found on Vodou altars and names of the lwa and more recently names of the artists as well. These flags are meticulously made and can use up to 20,000 sequins. Bright flashy colors and glittery decorations are prominent in Vodou art because they are eye-catching and help direct attention from spiritual beings. More recent flags have become increasingly elaborate from earlier stems from flags using two or three colors.”

Drapo was not the main art form I was focusing on in my project and was lumped with other Rara art forms in a sequins section of my project. If you’d like more detailed information on drapo read some essays by Donald Cosentino (Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou) or Robert Farris Thompson, both write a lot about both Africa and Haiti, but focus more on Haiti and the connection to Africa. If you’d like more information on how these traditions have come from Africa read Suzanne Blier who writes more on Africa and the forms traditions have taken in the Caribbean.

In case this whole time you were wondering “What the hell is a Tap Tap?” Here is another excerpt from mny senior project, if you’d like more information read Donal Cosentino (Divine Horsepower) or Robert Farris Thompson (Kia Kia, Fula Fula: The Haitian Bus in Atlantic Perspective).

“Tap-Taps are small buses used by most as a main means of cheap local transportation, some constructed from old pick-up trucks and then painted with usually a full rainbow of colors. These buses reference lwa, or aspects of Vodou, and have creative names and mottoes which have  references to the self and sometimes social criticism.¹Tap-tap can be traced to Yoruba (kia-kia) and the Kongo (fula-fula) who also have painted buses with names and mottoes as well as religious imagery, as well as having connections further back to Yoruba and Kongo canoes. In the Kongo people blessed canoes  with a sign ( which looks like a V inside of a circle) signifying the crossroads inside the sign of life,  the circle of the sun. Afterward the canoe is then smeared with the earth from the grave of a powerful leader or great hunter and palm wine for protection.² Similar traditions of canoe purification can be seen in Yoruba history. With the advent of the car these traditions were used  to ensure protection of the driver and passengers and decoration became more elaborate.

Haitian tap-tap can be see as moving canvases and are similar to Haitian paintings entering these vehicles into the canon of Vodou art because they blur the lines between fine arts (painting) and folk art bringing them together. Tap-tap painting is also an ongoing competition between drivers because the logic goes if the driver can afford to have the most beautifully painted bus then they must also keep the parts in good condition and will be less likely to break down. Owners name and paint their buses with political phrases or empowering phrases, in Fig. 21 this owner makes comment about “the elite (ypocrite) and their state of shock yo sezi) when Aristide won the election.³” This comment is enforced with another phrase in creole saying “those who fear change, don’t run, just leave period.⁴” This bus like many others have political messages hidden among intricate designs and other texts and images. Mixed in between messages and designs on this can be seen the names of St. Jacques (James) and Phillipe who represents spirits of Vodou associated with change and the revolution.”

Just going to this restaurant made me wish we got a chance to see that art show. I love the colorful, detailed, historic art of Haiti. I hope you learned something from this post as well. Here are a few more pictures of the restaurant. Until next time!

The founding fathers of Haiti key to the revolution: Henri Christophe (I am sure it’s not Alexandre Petion the 4th father although you never know), Toussaint Louveture, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

Erzulie god of Love or better known as Mother Mary. It may surprise you to know that every lwa has a Christian counterpart. Erzulie/Mary, Bawon/Saint Gerard, Legba/Saint Peter and the list goes on.

Advantages of Being a Woman Artist

This is something I have always found to be funny, mostly because I am a woman artist! These things will always be true if there in the way we view men and women. Men will always have an easier time. How come everyone except Georgia O’Keffe felt her flowers were vaginas? Because she was a woman, if a man made these paintings that response would have been much lower on the list of what you think this means.

Blessed Are The Meek: A New Movie

Last night I went to the Blessed benefit and screening party for this new documentary about life in Haiti since the earthquake. I would really like to see this movie as only the trailer was screened at the party. Am I glad I won tickets! The event was great with all sorts of amazing people. There was beautiful paintings by artist Hertz Nazaire and music by Nathalie Cerin. An open bar with Rhum Barbancourt (amazing rum from Haiti) and a three course meal for those who had tickets for that. Caribbean inspired hors d’oeuvres for everyone, one being the most amazing banana soup in existance. There were really nice raffle prizes, if only my boyfriend had gotten out his raffle ticket when they called numbers we would have won something awesome. Featured in the movie is Diaspora Community Services who are located in Brooklyn and help earthquake victims that come over to New York. They also have a center in Port-au-Prince that works with women and health. I got to meet one of the people who works for DCS who is going to Haiti for her first time in the spring. It was an amazing night!

“Blessed are the Meek”
A Jaffa Films documentary film project
Director/Producer: Barnard Jaffier

Nigerian Nation Branding

Don’t give up the fight!

Africa is a Country (Old Site)

Last month the writer Chinua Achebe declined the Nigerian government’s attempt to name him a Commander of the Federal Republic. He had rejected the same award in 2004. Achebe’s main objection then was widespread state corruption. He noted that “the reasons for rejecting the offer [of the award] when it was first made [in 2004] have not been addressed let alone solved. It is inappropriate to offer it again to me.” Achebe could not have planned the next move of some key members of Nigeria’s political class. Fresh from that rejection, the members of Nigeria’s Senate decided to pass a new Prohibition of Same-Sex Marriage Bill which advocates jail time–up to 14 years–for same-sex couples who decide to marry or live together. The BBC reports that “…those ‘witnessing’ or ‘abetting’ such relationships would also face custodial sentences, and groups that advocate for gay and lesbian rights could also be penalized…

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GAL draws Africa

Awesome political artwork. Very powerful.

Africa is a Country (Old Site)

71-year-old GAL draws a weekly cartoon for the Belgian magazine Knack.* More of his 2011 work related to Africa below. All speak for themselves, except maybe for the last one in which Belgian politician Bart De Wever (leader of the country’s biggest party) tells the man at his feet to “take his own responsibility” (a favorite line of his).

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Dr. Pepper Ten “Not for Women”

I just saw this commercial yesterday. As if there isn’t enough “latent” (I don’t know how people can’t see it’s actaully blaring) sexism in the media. We don’t need this. No one should drink diet anything because it’s no good for you. The best and only effective diet involves eating foods that are healthy (fruits and vegetables) and naturally low in caloric and sugar values and exercise. This soda may have ten “manly” calories, but is chemically altered to be that way and has a ton of other unhealthy crap in it. Aren’t we chemically toxic enough?

Here is a Now article on the issue and at the bottom a link to the change.org petition. Please sign it and have a happy and natural day.

http://www.now.org/issues/media/hall-of-shame/index.php/advertising/dr-pepper-ten-not-for-women-or-the-men-who-respect-them

Art Exhibit: Haiti Kingdom of This World

I love Haitian art and I love Haiti! Art is a political medium that withstands the test of time. Keep creating and keep fighting. Kembe firme Ayiti!

Repeating Islands

Haiti Kingdom of this World will be in Miami from December 1 2011 to January 31^st 2011. Exhibit curator Giscard Bouchotte describes the exhibit thus . . .

The exhibition, Haiti Kingdom of this World, arose from the need to draw up an inventory of the contemporary creativity in Haiti, and to show the work of artists who question daily the state of chaos reigning there. There are plastic artists, photographers, sculptors, painters, performers and video artists – all essential players of their time. The exhibition is conceived as a laboratory of which they are the guardians. The exhibition is mainly concerned with recent and new works commissioned for the artists specifically for this exhibition, which testify to their creative vitality. At the same time it challenges us to think about the difficulties these artists face in making their work known through travel and exchanges with the Caribbean and…

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