Tag Archives: Africa

New Travel Videos: “City Odes – Lagos, Nigeria” By Sheldon Chau (2020)

Video April 4, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Directed, shot, edited by // Sheldon Chau

Produced by // Ella Utomi, Jide Adewale
Poem by // Ntongha Ekot
Starring, voiceover by // Jide Adewale
Music composed by // John Corlis

“Eko ile”

A man straddles a love-hate relationship with Lagos in which he attempts to not only grasp both the intensity and comfort that the city has to offer, but also to embrace it as his home.

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The City Odes Project is a passion project in which I collaborate with my composer, a poet and an actor to create a humanist, emotional, and visual story amidst the backdrop of a specific city. “Eko ile” is the second entry into this series and takes place in one of the most intense, vibrant, and overwhelming places I have ever been – Lagos, Nigeria.

The title “Eko ile” translates to “Lagos is home” in Yoruba, one of the primary languages in the country. For this piece, I wanted to capture the city in the language I encountered most when I was there – Pidgin English (which is sort of a local slang) as well as plain English, both of which my lead actor Jide Adewale (who also happens to be one of the producers) speaks as he narrates the poem. I wanted to create a character who personifies the feeling of living in Lagos in which the hustle is as real as it gets and the frenetic pace is nonstop. Lagos truly is one of a kind.

The final result here features the work of Ntongha Ekot – a Nigerian poet – who eloquently captures these push-and-pull feelings through her words, and my frequent collaborator John Corlis – an LA-based musician and composer – who complements the poetry with his emotional piano piece “Into the Atmosphere” from his latest album of the same title. My incredible producers Jide and Ella Utomi made it all happen by finding the locations, security and logistics; they took care of me during my memorable time there.

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Architecture, Design, Homes, Reviews, Travel

Travel & Architecture: Inside An Exotic Home In Tangier, Morocco (AD)

April 2, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From an Architectural Digest online article (March 14, 2020):

“Tangier is the crossroads of so many civilizations,” says AD100 talent Frank de Biasi of the evocative Moroccan port city that he and his partner, the multifaceted designer Gene Meyer, have made their home. “There’s a central energy here,” he explains, “where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, where Europe meets Africa. It’s a psychic point like no other place.”

Many of the traditional houses here, however, have a claustrophobic lack of light, so when the couple found a ruinous place on a little open square, with exposures on three sides, they knew they could make it their own. Their renovation ultimately took four years as they rebuilt paper-thin walls, replaced a life-threateningly vertiginous staircase with one inspired by the Old Fort Bay clubhouse in the Bahamas, and installed a light-well based on one de Biasi had seen in India and such mod cons as under-floor heating.

Foreign Affairs, Health, International, News, Podcasts

Podcasts: How Foreign Governments Are Facing Covid-19 (The Economist)

Audio March 30, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

A selection of essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the role of big government in the time of covid-19, (10:20) assessing the havoc the pandemic is causing in emerging countries, (17:45).

In just a few weeks a virus a ten-thousandth of a millimetre in diameter has transformed Western democracies. States have shut down businesses and sealed people indoors. They have promised trillions of dollars to keep the economy on life support. If South Korea and Singapore are a guide, medical and electronic privacy are about to be cast aside. It is the most dramatic extension of state power since the second world war.

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Arts & Literature, Books, Interviews, Podcasts

Book Interviews: “Out Of Darkness, Shining Light” Author Petina Gappah

Audio March 22, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

BBC Radio 4 speaks to Petina Gappah on her new book, “Out of Darkness, Shining Light”.

“This is how we carried out of Africa the poor broken body of Bwana Daudi, the Doctor, David Livingstone, so that he could be borne across the sea and buried in his own land.”

Petina Gappah Author — Author Petina Gappah

So begins Petina Gappah’s powerful novel of exploration and adventure in nineteenth-century Africa—the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried explorer and missionary Dr. Livingstone’s body, his papers and maps, fifteen hundred miles across the continent of Africa, so his remains could be returned home to England and his work preserved there.

Narrated by Halima, the doctor’s sharp-tongued cook, and Jacob Wainwright, a rigidly pious freed slave, this is a story that encompasses all of the hypocrisy of slavery and colonization—the hypocrisy at the core of the human heart—while celebrating resilience, loyalty, and love.

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History, Science, Technology, Videos

Archaeology: “Blombos Cave”, South Africa – First Human “Technological Innovations” (Video)

Video March 19, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

See the first laboratory on Earth – Blombos Cave. Here our ancestors conducted the first chemistry experiments.

Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blomboschfontein Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated at between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years Before Present (BP), and a Late Stone Age sequence dated at between 2000 and 300 years BP. The cave site was first excavated in 1991 and field work has been conducted there on a regular basis since 1997, and is ongoing.

The excavations at Blombos Cave have yielded important new information on the behavioural evolution of anatomically modern humans. The archaeological record from this cave site has been central in the ongoing debate on the cognitive and cultural origin of early humans and to the current understanding of when and where key behavioural innovations emerged among Homo sapiens in southern Africa during the Late Pleistocene. Archaeological material and faunal remains recovered from the Middle Stone Age phase in Blombos Cave – dated to ca. 100,000–70,000 years BP – are considered to represent greater ecological niche adaptation, a more diverse set of subsistence and procurements strategies, adoption of multi-step technology and manufacture of composite tools, stylistic elaboration, increased economic and social organisation and occurrence of symbolically mediated behaviour.

The most informative archaeological material from Blombos Cave includes engraved ochre, engraved bone ochre processing kits, marine shell beads, refined bone and stone tools and a broad range of terrestrial and marine faunal remains, including shellfish, birds, tortoise and ostrich egg shell and mammals of various sizes.^[20]^[21]^[22] These findings, together with subsequent re-analysis and excavation of other Middle Stone Age sites in southern Africa, have resulted in a paradigm shift with regard to the understanding of the timing and location of the development of modern human behaviour.

From Wikipedia

Nature, Videos, Wildlife

New Wildlife Videos: “The World Without Giraffes” – Can We Save Them?

Video March 13, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Since time immemorial, giraffes have captivated the human imagination. Yet the total giraffe population has fallen 30 percent in the past few decades, and very few people have seemed to notice. “Giraffes are all over the place in popular culture,” says the Atlantic staff writer Ed Yong. “I think because of that, we forget that, actually, they are endangered.” In a new episode of The Idea File, Yong explains why it’s crucial to channel our reverence for these beloved animals into tangible conservation efforts.

Nature, Travel, Videos

Travel Videos: “Namibia” By Marcello Ercole (2020)

Video February 25, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Directed, Filmed, Edited by: Marcello Ercole

Produced by Ercole / Ricci
Music by Ryan Taubert

Namibia, a suggestive country. Eroded cliffs by the wind, very deep canyons, boundless deserts, the cold ocean and wild animals makes Namibia an inhospitable and sublime land. A fragile ecosystem that we must preserve.

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Namibia officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean; it shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek, and it is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Commonwealth of Nations.

Namibia, the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, was inhabited since early times by the San, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority.

From Wikipedia

Arts & Literature, Movies, Videos

Great Scenes In Cinema: “Soaring Over Kenya” From “Out Of Africa” (1985)

Video February 1, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Denys Finch (Robert Redford) takes Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) flying over Kenya’s Great Rift Valley in his Gipsy Moth biplane in this breathtaking sequence from Out of Africa, winner of seven Academy Awards including Best Picture.

The most acclaimed motion picture of 1985 stars Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in one of the screen’s great epic romances. Directed by Oscar® winner Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa is the fascinating true story of Karen Blixen, a strong-willed woman who, with her philandering husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer), runs a coffee plantation in Kenya, circa 1914. To her astonishment, she soon discovers herself falling in love with the land, its people and a mysterious white hunter (Redford). The masterfully crafted, breathtakingly produced story of love and loss earned Oscars® for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay (based on material from another medium), Cinematography, Original Score, Art Direction (Set Decoration) and Sound.

Cast: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Malick Bowens, Michael Gough, Suzanna Hamilton, Rachel Kempson, Graham Crowden, Leslie Phillips, Shane Rimmer

Produced By: Kim Jorgensen, Sydney Pollack

Directed By: Sydney Pollack

News, Podcasts, Science

Science Podcasts: Low-Cost Cryo-Electron Microscopes & Genetic Roots Of Schizophrenia

Audio January 30, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Structural biologists rejoiced when cryo–electron microscopy, a technique to generate highly detailed models of biomolecules, emerged. But years after its release, researchers still face long queues to access these machines. Science’s European News Editor Eric Hand walks host Meagan Cantwell through the journey of a group of researchers to create a cheaper, more accessible alternative.

Also this week, host Joel Goldberg speaks with psychiatrist and researcher Goodman Sibeko, who worked with the Xhosa people of South Africa to help illuminate genetic details of schizophrenia. Though scientists have examined this subject among Western populations, much less is known about the underlying genetics of people native to Africa.

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