11 March 2023
Rwanda/The Hague: The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has agreed to pause the trial of Félicien Kabuga while his lawyers’ claim that he has dementia and is not fit to stand trial is verified. The wealthy businessman stands accused of financing Hutu militias to exterminate Hutus in 1994.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64920956
10 March 2023
Islamic Arts Biennale no.1: The ambition is to define Islamic art from within – from the 1800s onwards, it used to be defined from outside, from Europe. The article is an interview with Sumayya Vally, an architecture professor from South Africa, artistic director of the biennale. With “Islamic practice (…) rooted in collective rituals and experiences of community and belonging”, such practice being one focus of the biennale, “Islamic practice and Islamic tradition can and should be making a creative contribution to the world.” “(D)aily ritual belonging, “bodies in gathering – both in life and death”… Among the Africans whose works are exhibited are Tanzanian artist Lubna Chowdhary and South Africans Igshaan Adams (a tapestry artist) and Haroon Gunn-Salie (murdered in Apartheid police custody in 1969). The biennale is on show in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) until 23rd of April.
https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-first-islamic-art-biennale-shines-a-light-on-muslim-african-artists-200869
Nairobi: Downtown is no longer the focus of the Kenyan capital’s life. The closure of the Hilton hotel, the city’s first skyscraper in the 1960 only goes to illustrate this. The article gives an anthropologist’s account of the role and importance of the hotel for Nairobi and its residents.
https://theconversation.com/kenyas-first-skyscraper-closes-and-leaves-a-complicated-legacy-200092
Mali: It had been expected: authorities have postponed the constitutional referendum that was to have taken place in March. This casts further doubt on whether the junta will really hand power back to civilians after elections in February 2024.
BBC Africa Live 10 March 2023. 16:03