Discussion + Mini – Concert: On Benga – Kenya’s Signature Genre, Dec. 7 2017 @ Alliance Française Terrace

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Date: December 7, 2017
Venue: Alliance Française Terrace
Time: 6.30 pm
Entry: Free

About
A discussion organized by FLEE, a cultural engineering platform dedicated to the documentation and enhancement of hybrid cultures, that is at the same time a record label, a publishing house and an exhibition curator. For its first issue, FLEE decided to focus on Benga music. This discussion will be an opportunity to première in Nairobi a vinyl record along with a printed magazine that tells the story of benga and celebrates the pioneers of benga (Daniel Owino Misiani, George Ramogi and the Migori Superstars), concluding with modern respectful re-interpretations by Nik Weston, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, and Africaine 808.

Ciné-café: Ethnographic Films — contrasting Jean Rouch’s pioneering work with Dennis Machio’s ethno-documentary, Apr. 26 2017 @ Alliance Francaise

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Date: Wednesday,April 26, 2017
Venue: Alliance Française Terrace
Time: 7.00pm
Free Entry

Ethnographic Films: Past and Present Approaches – contrasting Jean Rouch’s pioneering work with Dennis Machio’s ethno-documentary

About
‘Screening of the anthropological classic ‘The Mad Masters’ (Les Maïtres Fous) by Jean Rouch and the ethno-documentary ‘Lukumbe’ by the Kenyan filmmaker Dennis Machio. By juxtaposing two ethnographic films, one from the mid-20th century and another from this decade, Chloé Josse Durand, researcher in social sciene and Deputy Director at the French Institute for Research in Africa, together with Dennis Machio, documenatary film maker and graduate of the Mohamed Amin Foundation Film School, will discuss the contrasting approaches to visual anthropology in two very different eras.

‘The Mad Masters’ is a controversial yet most widely celebrated work by the French filmmaker and anthropologist, Jean Rouch. The film documents the Ghanaian Hauka cult, whose members convened to enter a trance-like state and become possessed of the spirits of their colonial officials – the true ‘mad masters’ of the film’s title.

‘Lukembe’ (Knife) documents the traditional rite of passage from childhood to adulthood in the Bukusu community. The Bukusu is one of the sub-tribes of the Luhya community. The Bukusu’s circumcise their boys between the ages of 12 -16 in August every after 2 years.

Literary Conversation with Ben Rawlence, Author – City of Thorns, Sept. 8 2016 @ Alliance Française

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‘City of Thorns’ by Ben Rawlence in a literary conversation with John Sibi-Okumu

Date: September 8, 2016
Venue: Alliance Française terrace
Time: 6.30 pm
Free Entry

About
On 6 May 2016 the Kenya Government announced that it will shut down the Dadaab Refugee Camp by November 2016 and subsequently disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA), all in effort to forcefully return Somali refugees back to Somalia. The Kenyan authorities claim that Dadaab has lost its humanitarian character and that it is used as a training ground for terrorist.

Amnesty International and the Rift Valley Institute have invited the British writer and former researcher for Human Rights Watch in the Horn of Africa, Ben Rawlence (author of River Congo and City of Thorns), to participate in a discussion on the closure of the Daadab Camp.

On this occasion, the Kenyan writer, actor and journalist, John Sibi-Okumu, will host Ben Rawlence in a literary conversation on his book ‘City of Thorns’ which interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the world’s largest refugee camp and sketches the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there.