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GÉNÉRATION ELILI: Changing the image of the Congo
By Hadrien Diez They are young. They are skilled. They are fed up with the dark narrative international media keep reporting on their region. “Génération Elili”, the generation of the image in Lingala language, is a photographer collective born a few years ago in Brazzaville with the desire to see Congolese taking part in ...
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Somali music discovered/rediscovered: From Dur-Dur to Waayaha Cusub
Somalia seems to have finally turned the corner. In 2011 Al-Shabaab withdrew from Mogadishu and last year Somalia’s first formal parliament in more than 20 years was sworn in. Now Mogadishu is booming with a returning diaspora and skyrocketing house prices. What is next for Somalia? A music revival against the odds? The Somali hiphop ...
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Darfur Fashion
All photos © Pedro Matos Fashion is usually not the first thing that comes to mind when Darfur is the topic of discussion. Pedro Matos who worked three years in Darfur is slowly changing this through The Darfur Sartorialist. We asked Pedro why Darfur is fashion and how life is as a street photographer in Darfur. ...
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”Ethiopia didn’t need me” – Vincent Moon on Ethiopia
“Ethiopia is an island,” Vincent Moon explains. The French filmmaker has been on the road for four years now travelling and filming music and spiritual rituals across the globe and releasing them through his Petites Planètes label. 2012 saw him spending three months in Ethiopia exploring and recording Easter in Gonder and the sounds of Merkato ...
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The Ethiopian comeback
It has been a long time coming. The Ethiopian national team has been rare guest at the Africa Cup of Nations. In the years after the inaugural tournament in 1957 – in which only three teams took part and Ethiopia got a wild card to the final – the ‘Walaya Antelopes’ was a dominant force ...
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A man returns: An audience with Oromo legend Ali Birra
By Andreas Hansen for Addis Rumble, all rights reserved. The rumours of Ali Birra’s death have been greatly exaggerated. During his career, Ali has not only been jailed dozens of times. He has also been reported death more than once. First in the mid-70’s when the authorities in his home town of Dire Dawa ...
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Best of Addis 2012
The task of identifying the best artistic and cultural experiences in Addis in the past year turned out to be much more challenging than expected. Not because there were not a plethora of events to cherry pick from. There were, and many of them were as such interesting but also fairly safe. Only ...
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Mulugeta Tafesse in conversation: The loss of the Ethiopian cultural consumer
Addis Rumble contributor Sylvie Fanta met Ethiopian artist Mulugeta Tafesse on a sunny afternoon in the arty town of Antwerp, Belgium, where he has been living and working for the past 17 years. Mulugeta had just returned from Spain, where he defended his PhD thesis: “Headways in the art of Mimesis: an inquiry into the mimetic ...
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MAPUTO DIARY
Renowned Danish photo space, Gallery Image, currently features the work of Danish-Mozambican photographer Ditte Haarløv Johnsen, Maputo Diary. The series is based on personal stories, relations and experiences Ditte had as a child, teenager and later grown woman in Mozambique during times of war, conflicts and transitions. Ditte grew up in Maputo and moved ...
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TEZETA: Documenting the Ethiopian-Armenian Romance
Visitors to Ethiopia can easily spend weeks or months in the country without noticing the Armenian influence on Ethiopian culture and society. However, when you start exploring the old Piassa and Arat Kilo neighborhoods of Addis Ababa you pass by some of the few remaining old Armenian houses that have not yet been demolished to ...