Vera the Nilhist

Play: Vera, or the Nihilists, Jun. 19-21 2015 @ Alliance Française

Vera the Nilhist
Dates: June 19-21, 2015
Venue: Alliance Française Auditorium
Time slots: 3 & 6 pm
Tickets: KES 500

The play is about Vera, a barmaid who seeks to avenge her brother who was take to the mines of Siberia. She finds herself plotting to kill the reigning Emperor Czar, but unknown to her one of the plotters is Alexis, son of the Czar.

The story presents themes of political revolution and love

A Strathmore Drama Society production

Book Launch: Kenya’s Past as Prologue – Voters, Violence and the 2013 General Election, Jun. 25 2015 @ IFRA/BIEA

Book Launch: Kenya’s Past as Prologue. Voters, Violence and the 2013 General Election,” edited by M-A. Fouéré, S. Mwangi, M. Ndeda & C. Thibon (2015)

Date: June 25, 2015
Venue: BIEA/IFRA
Time: 3 pm

“During the run-up to Kenya’s 2013 general elections, crucial political and civic questions were raised. Could past mistakes, especially political and ethnic-related violence be avoided this time round? Would the spectre of the 2007 post- electoral violence positively or negatively affect debates and voting? How would politicians, electoral bodies such as the IEBC, the Kenyan civil society and the international community weigh in on the elections?…The book’s centre stage tries to explore Kenya’s inescapable past and whether it would prepare the scene for a new political order.”

Published by Twaweza Communications

Cinema Japan June 2015

Cinema Japan: ALWAYS Sunset on Third Street (Part 3), Jun. 27 2015 @ Japan Information & Culture Centre

Cinema Japan June 2015
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2015
Venue: Japan Information & Culture Centre, Embassy of Japan, Mara Road, Upper Hill
Time: 2:00p.m.
Gates Open: 1:30pm
Entry: Registration Required | Entry Free

Synopsis: The third installment in a popular comedy-drama series following the lives of residents of a Tokyo neighborhood, this time taking place in 1964. Shot using the same 3D system as James Cameron’s Avatar, it vividly evokes the vitality of the times by interspersing nostalgic CG recreations of the Tokyo Olympics, the bullet train soon after it went into operation, and more.
As the benefits of Japan’s economic boom begin to be felt in Third Street in Sunset Town, novelist Chagawa (Yoshioka Hidetaka) finds himself upstaged by a younger writer and falls into a slump. Then he receives word from his family home in Nagano that his father is seriously ill…

IFRA Seminar: Beyond Sex & Money – Thinking Culture In Afro-European Intimacies, Jun. 16 2015 @ IFRA/BIEA

by Dr. Altaïr Després – Univerity Paris 1 Sorbonne

Date: June 16, 2015
Venue: IFRA
Time: 11 am
Entry: Prior RSVP – at: seminars@ifra-nairobi.net

Abstract
Focusing on the case of Western women travelling to Zanzibar, this paper seeks to explore how sexual intimacy with indigenous men can be a space for cultural transactions. While the economic issue is currently at the heart of the anthropological and sociological understanding of “transactional sex” or “sex-tourism” in Africa, little consideration is given to the role of symbolic and cultural resources in the economy of transnational sexuality and desire.
My hypothesis is that in a globalized sexual market not only do cultural stereotypes shape desire (intimate tourist encounters sometimes originate in racial stereotypes about the sexual performances of African men for example), but sexuality can also be a means to access cultural resources. By focusing on cultural transactions, the paper examines how, on the one hand, Western women engaged in intimate relations with African men discover local practices which are less accessible from ordinary tourist circuits, as their African boyfriends play the role of “cultural brokers” and teach them about local customs. On the other hand, this paper analyses to what extent, through intimacy, Western women also act as brokers, mobilizing their (cultural) skills for their partner by teaching him a foreign language or using their knowledge to formalize a business.