The largest exhibition of contemporary African art ever seen in Europe, the Hayward's Africa Remix show features 75 artists from 23 countries across the continent, as well as African artists now living in Europe and North America. Africa is a scandal," writes curator Simon Njami in the catalogue for Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent. Africa is a scandal because it is "hybrid", because it is inherently transgressive, because... no, let us leave it there. Suffice it to say that Africa Remix flails around to find an Africa that can claim its place in the world of biennales, glossy art magazines and proliferating theory. That it ends up discovering the same old realities of injustice and poverty probably says more for the honesty of African artists than for the thinking behind the show. Photo Gallery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/0,8542,1409100,00.html

Pascal Lamche's documentary Sophiatown should be seen by all who have an interest in South Africa’s relatively recent past - especially those interested in the way politics and culture were necessarily entwined. Sophiatown is a documentary about the Johannesburg suburb that was destroyed by the apartheid government in the late 1950s. It was destroyed because it was an area of the city in which people of colour had freehold rights to their properties. It was also an oasis of transracial contact, as well as a hothouse of jazz and crime.

Ishtiyaq Shukri is the winner of the R25 000 inaugural European Union Literary Award for a first, unpublished novel by a South African writer. Here, ZA@Play provides the Q's and he provides the A's. Q. Describe yourself in a sentence. A. I am a South African studying South Asian literature in London. Q. Describe your book in a sentence. A. The Silent Minaret is about the alienation, disillusionment, anger and loss caused by the "war on terror".

With grand announcements, recycled promises, and much hype about debt relief by the leaders of the world's rich creditor countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank since 1999, many of us can be forgiven for believing that the debt crisis of the world's poor countries is over. Far from it, say the authors of this publication.

Flipped Eye Publishing, as part of Remember Saro-Wiwa, is publishing an anthology of poems to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution on 10 November 1995. The anthology will be published on 10 November 2005. Poets are encouraged to contribute under these topics as widely as possible, by considering people, place and power with both current and historical issues. We also want poems that consider positive and challenging futures in the light of these issues. Previously published poems must be accompanied by permission to reprint. Poems should not exceed 80 (two pages) lines including stanza breaks.

The book, "Understanding Organisational Sustainability through African Proverbs" has recently been released by PACT publications, Washington. It describes how insights from the wisdom contained in African proverbs can be used to understand how organisations can achieve more integrity, sustainability and impact. By rediscovering the power of African proverbs, readers are rewarded with a new and creative ways to communicate organisational improvement efforts in a language that touches people's hearts and motivates them to personal and organisational transformation. The book can be obtained from: PACT Publications by contacting Sue Bloom at [email protected] or by visiting http://www.pactpublications.org

SIDA Afrique Continent en Crise is a French version of AIDS Africa Continent in Crisis.  It was launched in July 2004 at the Bangkok International AIDS Conference.  Written by Helen Jackson and published and being distributed by SAfAIDS, the book was funded by Sida with further support from UNESCO.

The book concentrates on the hardest-hit countries, exploring the driving forces behind the epidemic, impact of HIV/AIDS at different levels and policies and programmes to make a difference.

The target group consists of policy makers, planners, programme managers and professionals in health and human development.

SAfAIDS is looking for distribution partners in the French speaking countries throughout the world.  Should there be donor organisations willing to fund distribution or distribute at major conferences, SAfAIDS would welcome an opportunity to partner with them.  Organisations willing to receive bulk quantities for distribution in their countries are encouraged to get in touch with us.

For further information, kindly get in touch with:

Tayedza Nleya,
SAfAIDS Distribution Officer
P O Box A509
Avondale
Harare
Zimbabwe
Tel: 263 4 336193/4 or 307898
Fax: 263 4 336195
E-mail: [email protected]

Thousands of musicians will unite in March to make a difference through their music. Together with volunteers, fans, and friends around the globe, they will raise funds to help street kids, HIV/AIDS orphans, and vulnerable children get an education in the 'Give A Child A Chance' project.

"News of the untimely death of K. Sello Duiker on Wednesday, 19 January 2005, was received with deep sadness and shock by all who knew him. Duiker was well loved and respected by everyone in the publishing world who had the privilege of dealing with him. Duiker published two books and was busy on a third, scheduled for publication later this year. He died at his own hand in Johannesburg on 19 January 2005, at a time when he felt his mood-stabilising medication was taking too great a toll on his artistic creativity and joie de vivre."

"Last night I had the dream of fish again, in which my departed mother Petrobia is a young woman throwing a party in the afternoon. All the people of God are coming to our house in Jerusalem estate, and she is a whirlwind of movement, shouting get-ready get-ready, how can the visitors find you so dirty as if there is no woman in this house and you are orphans, washing and ironing and scrubbing the courtyard with soap and water, brandishing the broom of my childhood, the long thin sticks tied together with strips of tyre from the abandoned lorry that leaned drunkenly against the outside of the courtyard wall, its axles resting on crumbling construction bricks." Read in full 'The Story of Comrade Lemma and the Black Jerusalem Boys Band' by Parselelo Kantai, a Caine Prize Award 2004 runner up, on the website of Kwani.org.

Kinshasa is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest city. The seven million Congolese who live there have a rich reputation for the courageous and innovative ways in which they survive in a harsh urban environment. They have created new social institutions, practices, networks and ways of living to deal with the collapse of public provision and a malfunctioning political system.

On 18 January 2005, the National Security Agency (NSA) confiscated all copies of the sports newspaper Al-mushahid after waiting for the 18 January 2005 edition of the paper to be printed and ready for distribution, reports the Sudan Organisation Against Torture. "The aim of such confiscation is to force the paper to practice self censorship," said the chief editor of Al-mushahid, Abdelmoniem Shagarabi.

UNESCO calls for proposals for projects to be funded by its Information for All Programme, an international information society initiative launched in 2001. Proposals with budgets ranging from approximately US$25,000 (national projects) to US$45,000 (international projects) should cover one of three areas: information literacy, preservation of information, and ethical, legal and societal implications of the information society.

This UNESCO HIV/AIDS and education toolkit aims to promote HIV/AIDS preventive education and to increase understanding of the relationship between HIV/AIDS and education and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the system. It asserts that the education sector has a crucial role to play in the national response to the epidemic; HIV/AIDS prevention should not be left only to the health sector.

TRANSITIONS, an exhibition of artworks from Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe opens on Wednesday 19 January at 18.30 at the Brunei Gallery in London. Contact [email protected] for more information.

The Noma Award has announced that no title has been selected to win the Award in 2004. The Jury singled out four titles for Honourable Mention. These were: The Cry of Winnie Mandela by Njabulo Ndebele; The Plays of Miracle and Wonder by Brett Bailey;
Lanre and the Queen of the Stream by Tune Lawal-Solarin and A Dictionary of Yoruba Personal Names by Adeboye Babalola & Olugboyega Alaba.

The main venue for this year’s festival is again in the historic Stone Town: the grassy side of Zanzibar’s Old Fort (“Mambo Club”) facing Forodhani Gardens and overlooking the Indian Ocean. Fittingly described by Ian Anderson in fROOTS magazine as “the big club venue most world music festival organisers would die for”. Freshly grilled prawns, octopus, squid, fish kebabs are all prepared on site, with a bar and stalls selling local crafts.

Publisher: Kimaathi Publishing House

Exclusively distributed by African Books Collective Ltd, The Jam Factory, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU United Kingdom
[email][email protected]

* We miss you all

* Mining: Social and environmental impacts

No doubt, information and communication technologies (ICT) have dramatically changed the way individuals, organisations and enterprises interact. But are they a priority for development cooperation, empowerment and poverty reduction? In a new book, jointly published by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), key innovators, government leaders, development experts, grass-roots practitioners and leading CEOs offer new and often unexpected answers to this and other questions.

"As social activists in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development, we applaud those activities of UNESCO directed towards placing knowledge in the public domain and, in particular, promoting FLOSS (Free Libre and Open Source Software) in developing countries. We recognise and value the battles fought by UNESCO in the context of the World Summit for the Information Society. This position, from an intergovernmental organisation, is one of the closest to the position of civil society. In this context it is with surprise that we receive news of an agreement between UNESCO and the Microsoft company, proposed for application in the fields of information, communication, education and learning. Our perplexity grows with the knowledge that at the same time UNESCO is finalising an important agreement on cultural diversity."