History of Photography in South Africa

Photography in South Africa has a lively culture, with many accomplished and world-renowned practitioners. Since photography was first introduced to the Cape Colony through the colonising powers, photography has variously been used as a weapon of colonial control, a legitimating device for the apartheid regime, and, in its latest incarnation, a mechanism for the creation of a new South African identity in the age of democracy, freedom and equality.

Early photography

Photography arrived in South Africa with the British and Dutch colonists in the 19th Century.Early ethnographic photography, conducted primarily by anthropologists and missionaries, documented the native populations. The collections from this time are often critiqued as being exploitative projects of colonial domination, essentialising the native Khoi khoi and San populations of the Cape in order to legitimate ideologies of racial hierarchies that underpinned the colonial endeavour.

Resistance photography

Photographers played a pivotal role, during apartheid, of documenting and communicating the liberation struggle to the outside world. The term resistance photography arose to describe work that challenged the beliefs, policies or actions of the apartheid government.Apartheid, a violent system of harshly enforced racial segregation that characterised South African society from 1948–1994, was legitimated by a historically received discourse based on religious, racial, ethnic and social grounds. Visual culture, as popular medium of expression, was positioned either to reinforce or to subvert such discourses. Resistance photography came to disrupt this consensually validated rhetorical construction, by presenting the humanity of non-white racial groups in ways that contravene the racist ideologies of the apartheid state.

Contemporary photography

Photography in contemporary South Africa has developed into a lively and burgeoning cultural movement, which, since 1994, has exploded into a democratised and accessible form of artistic expression. The weight of its apartheid past no doubt heavily influences its present, and the legacy of resistance photography has transformed into an abiding focus on the ongoing social issues faced by the new South Africa. Popular themes include HIV/Aids, racism and social inequality, the democratic transition, and persistent injustices of post-apartheid South Africa.
Graeme Williams’ exhibition entitled The Edge of Town is paradigmatic of this new movement, exploring the liminal spaces of informal settlements on the peri-urban fringes of contemporary metropolises such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Through capturing these life-spaces, work such as Williams' personalises issues that too often become dehumanised. Anthropologist Johannes Fabian suggests that in the African context, such pop cultural expressions represent ‘moments of freedoms’, allowing for the conceptualisation and cultivation of alternative modes of being, that liberate the individual, albeit in fleeting, contestatory and conflictual spaces. Much South African photography such as Williams’ work, embodies Fabian’s notion of ‘moments of freedom’, depicting lives both limited, but not completely contained by the harsh realities of life.
Moreover, South Africa’s unique status as an African nation with incredible wealth and incredible poverty provides fertile ground for challenging discourses of afro-pessimism and neo-colonialist attitudes towards Africa. Exhibitions such as Swedish photographer Jens Assur’s Africa is a Great Country,seek to dismantle essentialist notions of Africa as a poverty-stricken, war-torn continent, by drawing on impulses of the African Renaissance, to project images of everyday life, of a continent of real and normal people, whose lives are as rich and as varied as anyone’s. As an influential voice on the continent, the artistic output of South Africa has a key role in forging new ways of imagining Africa that complicate received notions of a ‘struggling’ continent. Paul Weinberg’s photo-essay Durban: Portrait of an African City exemplifies this new current of work that refuses to constrain engagement with African art to the familiar tropes of poverty and violence, depicting instead the dynamism and vivacity of life on the continent.

Notable photographers

Notable South African photographers include Omar Badsha, Steve Bloom, Steven Bosch, Kevin Carter, James Chapman, Ernest Cole, Vera Elkan, Arthur Elliott, Hasan and Husain Essop, Abrie Fourie, Caroline Gibello, David Goldblatt. Bob Gosani, Anton Hammerl, Sam Haskins, Pieter Hugo, Alf Kumalo, Carla Liesching, Ambrose Lomax, David Lurie, Peter Magubane, Musa Nxumalo, Michael Meyersfeld, Nandipha Mntambo, Santu Mofokeng, Billy Monk, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Zanele Muholi, Sam Nzima, Obie Oberholzer, Andrzej Sawa, Jurgen Schadeberg, Austin Stevens, Richardt Strydom, Colla Swart, Guy Tillim, Paul Weinberg, Gisele Wulfsohn, Paul Yule and Benny Rebel.

Key institutions

The South African Centre for Photography is a Cape Town-based not-for-profit organisation that endeavours to promote a broader understanding of photography across the African continent through regular and accessible exhibitions and programs.
Professional photographers of Southern Africa is a representative body for practising photographers and other practitioners affiliated to the photography industry in South Africa that seeks to, amongst other aims, recognise and promote excellence in the field of Southern African photography.
The officially recognised body representing photographers in Southern Africa is the Photographic Society of South Africa. A not-for-profit organisation, it seeks to promote interest in, and standards of photography in South Africa. Amongst its official functions is the task of monitoring and censoring images deemed unfit for public viewing. The Annual General Meeting of the Society involves a Photographic Congress, giving exposure to photographers.
There is a rich array of educational and training opportunities for South African photographers. The Vega Photography School, located in Pretoria, Gauteng, offers the highest level photographic instruction in the country. The Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography is another of the nation’s premier tertiary visual communication institutes, offering undergraduate and post-graduate courses, located in Stellenbosch, Western Cape. The College of Digital Photography, with campuses in Pretoria, Fourways, Cape Town and Saxonwold, offers specialised programs in photography and videography, designed for digital cameras.

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Morocco

 

 

The Kingdom of Morocco lies at the northwest edge of the Maghreb region of North Africa, strategically located on the Atlantic Ocean at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.

In the late 19th century, after centuries of rule by Muslim dynasties, Morocco fell under European influence and was colonized by both Spain and France, from which it finally won its independence in 1956. It claims and has de facto control over most of the disputed Western Sahara territory.
Since coming to power in 1999, King Mohammed VI has introduced economic and social reforms, including a new constitution drafted in response to Arab Spring protests.

Morocco At a Glance

Official Name: Kingdom of Morocco
Capital: Rabat (Current local time)
Government Type: Constitutional monarchy
Heads of State: Mohammed VI, King of Morocco | Abdelilah Benkirane
Population: 32.9 million
GDP Per Capita: $3,200
Currency: Moroccan Dirham
Website: maro

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Accra - Facts and Information about Ghana's Capital City

Basic Facts about Accra

Accra is the capital city of Ghana in West Africa. Almost 2 million people live in Accra, making it Ghana's most populated city. Accra has been Ghana's capital since 1877 when the British ruled this part of West Africa. Before that, Accra was a collection of Ga villages established in the 17th Century.Accra is a sprawling city, with a mixture of modern buildings, shanty towns, occasional castle and lively markets.

The central commercial hub is around the Makola Market (pictured here). Just south of the market is the Atlantic ocean (Gulf of Guinea). Accra's shanty towns are mostly to the west of the city center. East of the city center and north towards the Kotoka international airport, is where you'll find most of the hotels, embassies and smarter residential areas.

The most common languages in Accra are English, and Ga.

Travel to Accra

Accra is one of Africa's safer capitals. It's easy to get around Accra by tro tro or private taxi. Most of the areas are quite walkable, but it is hot and humid, so stay hydrated with the readily available coconut stands and water baggies. At night it's best not to walk alone on the beach. You don't really need a private guide, but if you are traveling alone it's always nice to have company who knows where to go and what to see. Check out Jolinaiko Eco-Tours for exceptional rates and service, I had a flawless vacation thanks to them.Best Time to Visit Accra?
Accra gets very hot and humid, (check Accra average temperatures) so the best time of year to go is really during the dry season from November to April.

New Funding Released All the Time. Deadlines Approaching. Apply Now

It's still going to be hot, average temperatures range around 85F year round, but you'll avoid the humidity to a certain extent along with the bugs. As far as festivals and events, it feels like every weekend is festive in Accra, so there is no specific week or time of year that is essential not to miss

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History of Boko Haram in Nigeria

The satanic group- Boko Haram, are not muslims but misleads and has noting to do with Islam.Wilāyat Gharb Ifrīqīyyah (Arabic: الولاية الإسلامية غرب أفريقيا‎,  West Africa Province, ISWAP), and was formerly called Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād' (Arabic: جماعة أهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد‎, "Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad"), is an  extremist group based in northeastern Nigeria, also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. The group is led by Abubakar Shekau. Estimates of the group's membership varies between 7,000 and 10,000 fighters. The group initially had links to al-Qaeda, but in 2014, it expressed support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant before pledging formal allegiance to it in March 2015.
After its founding in 2002, Boko Haram's increasing radicalization led to a violent uprising in July 2009 in which its leader was summarily executed. Its unexpected resurgence, following a mass prison break in September 2010, was accompanied by increasingly sophisticated attacks, initially against soft targets, and progressing in 2011 to include suicide bombings of police buildings and the United Nations office in Abuja. The government's establishment of a state of emergency at the beginning of 2012, extended in the following year to cover the entire northeast of Nigeria, led to an increase in both security force abuses and militant attacks.
Boko Haram has killed more than 17,000 people since 2009, including over 10,000 in 2014, in attacks occurring mainly in northeast Nigeria. 650,000 people had fled the conflict zone by August 2014, an increase of 200,000 since May; by the end of the year 1.5 million had fled.^] Corruption in the security services and human rights abuses committed by them have hampered efforts to counter the unrest. The group have carried out mass abductions including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014.
In mid-2014, the militants gained control of swaths of territory in and around their home state of Borno, estimated at 50,000 square kilometres (20,000 sq mi) in January 2015, but did not capture the state capital, Maiduguri, where the group was originally based. A military coalition including Chad and Niger have since displaced the group from most of its occupied territories, although it still controls southern parts of Borno State.
The group's official name is Wilayat Gharb Afriqiya, to designate it as a branch or "province" of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Prior to Abubakar Shekau's pledge of allegiance to ISIL's self-declared Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's official name was Jamā'atu Ahli is-Sunnah lid-Da'wati wal-Jihād جماعة أهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد, meaning "People Committed to the Prophet's Teachings for Propagation and Jihad".
The name "Boko Haram" is usually translated as "Western education is forbidden". Haram is from the Arabic حَرَام ḥarām, "forbidden"; and the Hausa word boko [the first vowel is long, the second pronounced in a low tone], meaning "fake", which is used to refer to secular Western education.Boko Haram has also been translated as "Western influence is a sin and "Westernization is sacrilege". Until the death of its founder Mohammed Yusuf, the group was also reportedly known as Yusifiyya. Northern Nigerians have commonly dismissed Western education as ilimin boko ("fake education") and secular schools as makaranta boko.

Ideology

Nigerian states with sharia law shown in green

Boko Haram was founded as a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist sect, influenced by the Wahhabi movement, advocating a strict form of Sharia law. It developed into a Salafist-jihadi group in 2009. The movement is diffuse, and fighters associated with it do not necessarily follow Salafi doctrine. Boko Haram seeks the establishment of an Islamic state in Nigeria. It opposes the Westernization of Nigerian society and the concentration of the wealth of the country among members of a small political elite, mainly in the Christian south of the country. Nigeria is Africa's biggest economy, but 60% of its population of 173 million (2013) live on less than $1 a day. The sharia law imposed by local authorities, beginning with Zamfara in January 2000 and covering 12 northern states by late 2002, may have promoted links between Boko Haram and political leaders, but was considered by the group to have been corrupted.
According to Borno Sufi Imam Sheik Fatahi, Yusuf was trained by Kano Salafi Izala Sheik Ja'afar Mahmud Adamu, who called him the "leader of young people"; the two split some time in 2002–4. They both preached in Maiduguri's Indimi Mosque, which was attended by the deputy governor of Borno. Many of the group were reportedly inspired by Mohammed Marwa, known as Maitatsine ("He who curses others"), a self-proclaimed prophet (annabi, a Hausa word usually used only to describe the founder of Islam) born in Northern Cameroon who condemned the reading of books other than the Quran. In a 2009 BBC interview, Yusuf, described by analysts as being well-educated, reaffirmed his opposition to Western education. He rejected the theory of evolution, said that rain is not "an evaporation caused by the sun", and that the Earth is not a sphere.

History

Background

Kano, biggest city in northern Nigeria

Before colonization and subsequent annexation into the British Empire in 1900 as Colonial Nigeria, the Bornu Empire ruled the territory where Boko Haram is currently active. It was a sovereign sultanate run according to the principles of the Constitution of Medina, with a majority Kanuri Muslim population. In 1903, both the Borno Emirate and Sokoto Caliphate came under the control of the British, who used educational institutions to help spread Christianity in the region. British occupation ended with Nigerian independence in 1960.
Except for a brief period of civilian rule between 1979 and 1983, Nigeria was governed by a series of military dictatorships from 1966 until the advent of democracy in 1999. Ethnic militancy is thought to have been one of the causes of the 1967–70 civil war; religious violence reached a new height in 1980 in Kano, the largest city in the north of the country, where the Muslim fundamentalist sect Yan Tatsine ("followers of Maitatsine") instigated riots that resulted in four or five thousand deaths. In the ensuing military crackdown, Maitatsine was killed, fuelling a backlash of increased violence that spread across other northern cities over the next twenty years. Social inequality, poverty and the increasingly radical nature of Islam, locally and internationally, contributed both to the Maitatsine and Boko Haram uprisings.
In the decades since the end of British occupation, politicians and academics from the mainly Islamic North have expressed their fundamental opposition to Western education. Political ethno-religious interest groups, whose membership includes influential political, military and religious leaders, have thrived in Nigeria, though they were largely suppressed under military rule. Their paramilitary wings, formed since the country's return to civilian rule, have been implicated in much of the sectarian violence in the years following.

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                                         Africa Basketball Championship Facts
The FIBA Africa Championship (alternatively, the FIBA African Championship, or FIBA AfroBasket) is the men's basketball continental championship of Africa, played biennially under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, the basketball sport governing body, and the African zone thereof. The tournament also serves to qualify teams for participation in the quadrennial FIBA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games.

Qualification

Qualification is via the different FIBA Africa subzones from Zone 1 to Zone 7. Six subzones receive two berths each, only Zone 1 get one. The host and the champion from the preceding AfroBasket also get a berth each and finaly three teams are selected as wild cards. Each subzone conducts a qualification tournament up to a year before the championship to determine the qualifying teams.

Summaries

Year	Host		Final				Third place match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place
1962 Details	Cairo		United Arab Rep.	66–42	Sudan		Morocco	44–41	Guinea
1964 Details	Casablanca		United Arab Rep.	69–57	Morocco		Palestine	53–51	Tunisia
1965 Details	Tunis		Morocco	70–57	Tunisia		Algeria	57–46	Senegal
1968 Details	Casablanca		Senegal	67–60	Morocco		Central African Rep.	76–60	Mali
1970 Details	Alexandria		United Arab Rep.	70–63	Senegal		Tunisia	76–56	Central African Rep.
1972 Details	Dakar		Senegal	61–54	Egypt		Mali	107–74	Central African Rep.
1974 Details	Bangui		Central African Rep.	72–67	Senegal		Tunisia	82–72	Cameroon
1975 Details	Alexandria		Egypt	70–61	Senegal		Sudan	81–78	Zaire
1978 Details	Dakar		Senegal	103–72	Ivory Coast		Egypt	2–0	Sudan
1980 Details	Rabat		Senegal	96–90	Ivory Coast		Morocco	97–83	Algeria
1981 Details	Mogadishu		Ivory Coast	81–65	Egypt		Somalia	2–0	Algeria
1983 Details	Alexandria		Egypt	94–68	Angola		Senegal	78–71	Ivory Coast
1985 Details	Abidjan		Ivory Coast	84–73	Angola		Egypt	74–73	Senegal
1987 Details	Tunis		Central African Rep.	94–87	Egypt		Angola	73–71	Mali
1989 Details	Luanda		Angola	89–62	Egypt		Senegal	65–53	Mali
1992 Details	Cairo		Angola	71–66	Senegal		Egypt	97–81	Mali
1993 Details	Nairobi		Angola	69–61	Egypt		Senegal	90–76	Kenya
1995 Details	Algiers		Angola	68–55	Senegal		Nigeria	58–51	Algeria
1997 Details	Dakar		Senegal	69–48	Nigeria		Angola	79–55	Egypt
1999 Details	Luanda		Angola	79–72	Nigeria		Egypt	75–63	Mali
2001 Details	Casablanca		Angola	78–68	Algeria		Egypt	77–71	Tunisia
2003 Details	Alexandria		Angola	85–65	Nigeria		Egypt	81–79	Senegal
2005 Details	Algiers		Angola	70–61	Senegal		Nigeria	88–76	Algeria
2007 Details	five cities		Angola	86–72	Cameroon		Cape Verde	53–51	Egypt
2009 Details	Tripoli		Angola	82–72	Ivory Coast		Tunisia	83–68	Cameroon
2011 Details	Antananarivo		Tunisia	67–56	Angola		Nigeria	77–67	Ivory Coast
2013 Details	Abidjan		Angola	57–40	Egypt		Senegal	57–56	Ivory Coast
2015 Details	Radès		Nigeria	74–65	Angola		Tunisia	82–73	Senegal

 A round-robin tournament determined the final standings.

Performances by nation

Map of best finishes per country.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Angola	11	4	2	17
2	Egypt	5	6	6	17
3	Senegal	5	6	4	15
4	Ivory Coast	2	3	0	5
5	Central African Republic	2	0	1	3
6	Nigeria	1	3	3	7
7	Morocco	1	2	2	5
8	Tunisia	1	1	4	6
9	Algeria	0	1	1	2
	Sudan	0	1	1	2
11	Cameroon	0	1	0	1
12	Cape Verde	0	0	1	1
	Mali	0	0	1	1
	Palestine	0	0	1	1
	Somalia	0	0	1	1

MVP Awards

Year	MVP Award Winner
1974	Gaston Gambor
1980	Mathieu Faye
1987	Frédéric Goporo
1993	Etienne Preira
1997	Omar Mar
1999	Lamine Diawara
2001	Miguel Lutonda
2003	Miguel Lutonda
2005	Boniface Ndong
2007	Joaquim Gomes
2009	Joaquim Gomes
2011	Salah Mejri
2013	Carlos Morais
2015	Chamberlain Oguchi

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