Day 25

On Wednesday on the way back from work I ran into Matiga, our neighbour and local musician and asked if I could film him playing one day. He immediately took me to a small collection of houses where he and some other musos jammed for me. The video is a quick edit of one of the songs. I plan to use some of the music in the doco, and go into the role of music in the cultural and artistic landscape of Bagamoyo.

Day 20

The budding video editor towards the end is Hansi, the son of the Elisa the maid. He is this cute at all times, I'm getting him to give me dancing, drumming and swahili lessons.

Day 15

As part of the documentary filming I am trying to pull together some sound-bytes about Zukri, the volunteer organisation. Amy is one of the other volunteers, and in this segment she talks about three boys that she is looking after during her 6 month placement.

Day 13

Apparently regular blogs might be a stretch, the internet has been down here for the last four days, but hey, this is Africa. So it is two weeks since I left New Zealand, I am starting to look at Bagamoyo with familiarity now and have to remind myself to film those things that seemed so new and different to me in the first couple of days. I have found many subjects for the documentary, and have begun shooting interviews this week.

Regarding my own art practice I am being courted for portraits by patrons of the bar opposite my flat, so there is no shortage of subjects. One subject I will paint is Asma, a daughter of Saidi, and possibly the most beautiful child imaginable.

Saidi has a good bunch of students at the African Modern Arts Park (AMAP). Everyone is different and has a different approach but all are keen to learn to master drawing and painting. It has been two months since their last volunteer and it looks as though they are rediscovering some skills that they developed then, they all seem to be on a steep “learning curve”, and I plan to keep up the momentum.

Day 6

Day 1

A make-do first blog, due to some baggage "complications". All sorted now though, and I have some new pics already for the next blog.

Tanzania Vlog 16

This weekend I am having a play with some sample masks sent to me to try out for a class while I'm in Africa, turned out to be an interesting problem-solving activity. Check out their website if you're interested in these masks for youself, here: Maskworx

Tanzania Vlog 15

If you'd like to check out idn or John Badcock's site, just click the links.

Tanzania Vlog 14

This one is for die hard fans only folks, picture me reading broken Swahili from a piece of refill for four minutes on the subject of art, form, context and originality. Not for the faint hearted, or the short of attention span.



And anyone out there that might speak some Swahili, please feel free to correct me on my numerous mistakes, mispronunciations and inaccuracies. And for those of you english speakers out there, I have no interest in your feedback regarding the the art-wank I am spouting, I very rarely spout art-wank and when I do one quickly learns why I do so rarely.

Tanzania Vlog 13

Tanzania Vlog 12

Vlog 11 Malainin Lakhal

A couple of weeks ago I attended a seminar with speaker Malainin Lakhal a journalist from Western Sahara. He came to speak about the struggle of the Saharawi people and the Polisario Front against the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. I have cut down the 1 hour seminar to 10mins for the purposes of the vlog, and have posted it with the kind permission of Mr Lakhal.



My reasons for attending the seminar were to increase my awareness of the political landscape of Africa in general, I found the speech interesting and relevant to New Zealand trade policy. I am not very well informed about the issue and currently hold no strong views about the topic, I am in favour of self-determination but by posting this video I am simply presenting the view point of Mr Lakhal, I do not mean to advocate or denegrate these views.