#International Festival of the Sahara Algeria

[delusionalbubble]

Top 10 Best African Festivals to Attend

African festivals are some of the best in the world. There are many festivals that take place in Africa, each with its own unique traditions, culture, and history. Attending these festivals is a great way to immerse oneself in the local culture and experience the vibrant, colorful, and lively atmosphere of the continent. Here are the top 10 African festivals that you should definitely consider…

[fygmo]

Miss from Prolégomènes on Vimeo.

A little girl and only child in a village wandering in the middle of the Sahara, inventing games in a dying oasis.    

Duration: 13mn / Year of production: 2019 / algerian arabic+Eng Subs

Selection & awards Special Mention: Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film (Berlinale, 2020) Methexis Award & UNIMED Award as Best Short Film: MedFilm Festival (Italy, 2021) Nominated to Prix UniFrance du court-métrage (France, 2020) Spécial Jury Prize: Festival international du cinéma d’Alger (Algeria, 2022)

With Chams Chakiri (The little girl) Abdellah Chakiri (The father) Safia Soudani (The mother) Abdelhak Eddawli (The old blind man)

CREW Written and Directed by Amira Géhanne Khalfallah Cinematography Eva Sehet Editing Youri Tchao Debats Sound Design Jules Valeur Sound Ilyas Guettal Production Design Mehdi Djelil Costumes Hadjira Tafat Make-Up Célia Oudni Assistant Director Tarek Moknache 

PRODUCTION Producer Jaber Debzi (Prolégomènes, Algeria) Co-Producer Nathalie Trafford (Paraiso Production, France)

[culturesofresistancefilms]

Such amazing news that Burkinabe Rising won second prize for best film at FiSahara!  The Sahara International Film Festival, also known as FiSahara,is the only film festival in the world held in a refugee camp and takes place every year in the Sahrawi refugee camps, at the southwest corner of Algeria, near the border with Western Sahara. We were so honored to take part among many brilliant films and to have this event bring together Burkinabe artists and activists! Truly, a cause for celebration. See the trailer for our film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NvrxUucNfg

[skymoroccotripsandtoursthings]

FiSahara, the world’s most remote film festival.An experience to live!!!!!

FiSahara, το πιο απομακρυσμένο φεστιβάλ κινηματογράφου στον κόσμο.Μια εμπειρία για να ζήσεις !!!!

Towards the Western Saharan border in a dusty, solitary refugee camp of Dakhla every year, is hosted the FiSahara, the world’s most remote film festival.Dakhla is a city in Western Sahara under Moroccan control. It is the capital of the Moroccan administrative region Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira.Almost 44 years ago, a few temporary settlements were established for the civilians fleeing Western Sahara, the last African colony, governed by Spain. In 1975, its troops left the region incognito, more concerned about the political transformations back in their homeland than the future of the coastal desert south of Morocco. In the pre-colonial era, the lands of today’s Western Sahara belonged to nomadic Berbers. They didn’t hold too much respect towards national belonging, so there was little certainty about the post-colonial identity of the region. After the retreat of the Spaniards, Moroccan soldiers entered the country in a so-called “Green March”, claiming their rights to the land. Sahrawis, the natives of the region, decided to fight against what they saw as an invasion. Those were the events that pushed thousands of refugees to flee to neighbouring  Mauritania and Algeria, where they settled in provisory camps, hoping it was only temporary.It has happened in 1976 and until today they still there.Peruvian film director, Javier Corcuera, decided to help Sahrawis the way he knew best: through cinema. He established an annual Sahara International Film Festival: FiSahara. Every year, the festival grows bigger and more popular, and instead of a statuette for the best film, the winner receives a snow-white camel.The participants of the festival, usaly stay in one of the multiple haimas (large tents), they live with local families, who take care of their feeding and keeping them safe over the festival time.Many Sahrawis speak Spanish, as the territory of Western Sahara used to be a Spanish colony, and even now the Spanish government organizes holidays for Sahrawi kids so they can learn the language and experience life outside the desert.The women of the families sitting down ,painting the hands and feet of the visitors using brick-red henna , while they put on the traditional robes on top of their t-shirts, and dancing to Sahrawi music coming out of an old cassette player. To get to Dakhla’s center, you have to cross the entire village, finding your way through dozens of crooked adobe houses and white haimas. The only points of reference three lonely palm trees, enough to bring to mind comforting thoughts of oases and lush greenery. Dakhla is located in the heart of hamada: a barren, rocky, extremely flat plateau that is considere one of the driest places on Earth, so every plant growing here look like nothing short of a miracle.The austere surroundings stay in contradiction to the excited atmosphere around. The town is teeming with life. Films are shown on a large screen attached to the side of a truck, underneath the stars. In front of it, spectators of all ages try to get comfortable on blankets spread on the ground. To relax after days full of excitement, both visitors and locals flocked to two bars near the main square. Tucked behind the school, there is even a pizzeria.There are a lot of activities such as photography workshops organized for local children, but also early morning before the heat became unbearable, visitors can set off with theire compact cameras explore the camp together with a group of Sahrawi girls that the most of the times became friends almost instantly. Leaving from here, one will often wonder if these exciting few days spend with the Sahrawis will have helped them anyway.!!!!

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Προς τα σύνορα της Δυτικής Σαχάρας κάθε χρόνο σε ένα σκονισμένο τοπίο , βρίσκεται  ένα  απομονωμένο  στρατόπεδο προσφύγων της Dakhla, που φιλοξενεί το FiSahara, το πιο απομακρυσμένο φεστιβάλ κινηματογράφου στον κόσμο. Η Dakhla είναι μια πόλη στη Δυτική Σαχάρα  που ελέγχει το Μαρόκο . Είναι η πρωτεύουσα της μαροκινής διοικητικής περιοχής Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira.  Σχεδόν πριν από 44 χρόνια, δημιουργήθηκαν εδώ μερικοί προσωρινοί οικισμοί για τους  κατοίκους  που έφυγαν από τη Δυτική Σαχάρα, την τελευταία αφρικανική αποικία της  Ισπανίας. Το 1975, , ανησυχώντας πιο πολύ για  το τι θα συνέβαινε στην πατρίδα τους με τις  πολιτικές εξελίξεις   τα ισπανικά  στρατεύματά εγκατέλειψαν την περιοχή incognito. Λίγο ενδιέφερε τους  Ισπανούς το μέλλον αυτής της παράκτιας περιοχής της ερήμου νότια του Μαρόκου.  Πριν την ισπανική αποικιοκρατική περίοδο   , τα εδάφη της σημερινής Δυτικής Σαχάρας ανήκαν σε νομάδες των Βέρβερων.  Με το να μην υπάρχει κανένας ουσιαστικός σεβασμός στην εθνική  ταυτότητα των κάτοικων της περιοχής από τους Ισπανούς έτσι και στην  μεταποικιακή περίοδο από το Μαρόκο τίποτα δεν άλλαξε ουσιαστικά . Μετά την  αποχώρηση  των Ισπανών, οι Μαροκινοί στρατιώτες  μπήκαν στη περιοχή  την περίοδο  γνωστή και ως "Πράσινος Μάρτιος", και διεκδίκησαν τα δικαιώματά τους  στα εδάφη αυτά. Οι Sahrawis, οι ντόπιοι πληθυσμοί  της περιοχής, αποφάσισαν να πολεμήσουν εναντίον  των εισβολέων . Αυτά   τα γεγονότα   ώθησαν χιλιάδες πρόσφυγες να φύγουν στη γειτονική Μαυριτανία και την Αλγερία, όπου εγκαταστάθηκαν σε προσωρινά στρατόπεδα, ελπίζοντας ότι  η κατάσταση θα ήταν  προσωρινή. Αυτό είχε συμβεί το 1976.  Μέχρι και σήμερα 44 χρόνια μετά  η κατάσταση συνεχίζει να υφίσταται .  Ο σκηνοθέτης του Περού, Javier Corcuera, αποφάσισε να βοηθήσει τους  Sahrawis  με τον τρόπο που γνώριζε καλύτερα:  εκείνο  του κινηματογράφου. Δημιούργησε ένα ετήσιο Διεθνές Φεστιβάλ Κινηματογράφου στη Σαχάρα  : το  FiSahara. Κάθε χρόνο, το φεστιβάλ μεγαλώνει και γίνεται όλο και  πιο δημοφιλές, αντί για ένα αγαλματίδιο ως βραβείου για την καλύτερη ταινία, ο νικητής  κερδίζει  μια  κατάλευκη  καμήλα.  Οι συμμετέχοντες στο φεστιβάλ αυτό, μένουν σε ένα από τα πολλά haima(μεγάλες σκηνές) με ντόπιες οικογένειες οι οποίες ��φροντίζουν για τη διατροφή και την διαμονή  τους , κρατώντας τους ασφαλείς κατά τη διάρκεια του φεστιβάλ.    Πολλοί  Sahrawis μιλούν ισπανικά, καθώς η επικράτεια της Δυτικής Σαχάρας αποτελούσε ισπανική αποικία και ακόμη και τώρα η ισπανική κυβέρνηση οργανώνει διακοπές για τα παιδιά των Sahrawis  , ώστε να μπορούν να μάθουν τη γλώσσα και να δουν και να  ζήσουν την ζωή έξω από την έρημο.  Οι μέρες περνούν ήσυχα  με τις  γυναίκες  να ζωγραφίζουν  τα χέρια και τα πόδια των επισκεπτών χρησιμοποιώντας την τούμπα(κόκκινη χέννα)  ενώ  σύντομα οι επισκέπτες βάζουν πάνω από τα μπλουζάκια τους  τα παραδοσιακά  καφτάνια και αρχίζουν να χορεύουν στους ρυθμούς της μουσικής των Sahrawis που βγαίνει από  κάποια  παλιά κασετόφωνα . Για να φτάσει κανείς στο κέντρο της Dakhla , πρέπει να διασχίσει ολόκληρο το χωριό,  ανάμεσα  από δεκάδες  ετοιμόρροπα  πλινθόκτιστα  σπίτια και άσπρες haimas.  Τα μοναδικά τρία φοινικόδεντρα είναι  αρκετά για να παρηγορήσουν και να  φέρουν στο νου τις   οάσεις και την πλούσια βλάστηση άλλων περιοχών του Μαρόκου . Η Dakhla βρίσκεται στην καρδιά του hamada:  ένα άγονο, βραχώδες, και εξαιρετικά επίπεδο οροπέδιο που θεωρείται ένα από τα πιο ξηρά μέρη της Γης, ώστε το κάθε φυτό που αναπτύσσεται εδώ να μοιάζει  ως τίποτα λιγότερο από ένα θαύμα. Το αυστηρό αυτό περιβάλλον έρχεται  σε αντίθεση με την ενθουσιώδη ατμόσφαιρα που υπάρχει γύρω. Η πόλη είναι γεμάτη ζωή. Οι ταινίες  προβάλλονται κάτω από τα αστέρια σε μια μεγάλη οθόνη που είναι τοποθετημένη στην πλαϊνή πλευρά  ενός φορτηγού. Μπροστά του θεατές όλων των ηλικιών προσπαθούν  βολευτούν στις κουβέρτες που  είναι απλωμένες στο έδαφος .Τόσο οι επισκέπτες όσο και οι ντόπιοι όταν θέλουν να χαλαρώσουν μετά από μια μέρα δραστηριότητας και  ενθουσιασμού , συρρέουν σε δύο από τα μπαρ κοντά στην κεντρική πλατεία. Κρυμμένη πίσω από το σχολείο, υπάρχει και μια πιτσαρία. Οι  δραστηριότητες είναι  πολλές: όπως εργαστήρια φωτογραφίας που διοργανώνονται για τα παιδιά των ντόπιων , αλλά και άλλες που αρχίζουν νωρίς το πρωί πριν η ζέστη γίνει αφόρητη, όπου οι επισκέπτες μπορούν να  συμμετάσχουν με τις φωτογραφικές τους μηχανές παρέα με μια ομάδα κοριτσιών Sahrawis  για να εξερευνήσουν τον καταυλισμό έχοντας σαν  αποτέλεσμα τις περισσότερες φορές να δημιουργηθούν και όμορφες φιλίες .  Φεύγοντας  από εδώ  συχνά θα αναρωτηθεί  κανείς  αν αυτές οι συναρπαστικές λίγες ημέρες θα έχουν βοηθήσει τους Sahrawis....  

[musicainextenso]

Music from Africa Part 3: Tinariwen

We're heading towards North Africa for the third instalment in my series about music from Africa to meet Tinariwen, a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from northern Mali.

It's impossible to describe their history properly in only one short post, or to place it within the political conflicts that have torn the Tuareg community apart. Very briefly: the group was founded by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who, as a child, built his own guitar out of a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake wire. He formed a rock group with his friends in the 1970s, and in the next ten years they made music and fought in various rebel movements.

They attracted the attention of French world music ensemble Lo'Jo and their manager Philippe Brix at a music festival in Bamako, the capital of Mali. Since then they've toured regularly in Europe and North America; they won a BBC Award for World Music in 2005 and a Grammy in 2008; and they represented Algeria in the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Their music is characterized by their blend of instruments: guitar, shepherd's flute, one-string fiddle, lute and tindé drum; as well as the interplay of male and female voices. They were also influenced by traditional Mali musicians, especially the famous Ali Farka Touré.

Tinariwen has retained their nomadic roots: the group has never consisted of exactly the same line-up during its international tours. Some of their members tour regularly, but they remain a loose collective of musicians who get together whenever life in the Sahara permits.

The song I've selected is Sastanàqqàm.

Read more about them here:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/rebel-music-the-tuareg-uprising-in-12-songs-by-tinariwen

Today in Tokyo (who lives in Tokyo but was born in South Africa)

@todayintokyo

[031cinephile]

41ST DURBAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL GOES VIRTUAL WITH ONLINE DIGITAL EDITION

The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts (CCA), will once again host the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) from 10 to 20 September 2020. Now celebrating its landmark 41st year, this prestigious South African international film festival is a unique phenomenon on the African cultural calendar. This year the festival will screen selected films, host seminars and workshops virtually and include limited drive-in cinema screenings in Durban, Port Shepstone, Newcastle and Zululand.

Opening Night’s Film stars the late legendary leading actress Mary Twala in her final role, with a virtual and a drive-in screening of the film “This is not a Burial, but a Resurrection”, by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese. The film is co-production between South Africa, Lesotho and Italy. The visually striking drama, set in the mountains of Lesotho, opens with an elderly widow named Mantoa (Mary Twala), grieving the loss of her son. Determined to die and be laid to rest with her family, her plans are interrupted when she discovers that the village and its cemetery will be forcibly resettled to make way for a dam reservoir. Refusing to let the dead be desecrated, she finds a new will to live and ignites a collective spirit of defiance within her community.

“This film was specifically selected to open the festival, because it sheds some light onto the land issues in Lesotho by telling a very personal story through the journey of one woman. Its sophisticated imagery, the stunning, haunting landscapes that appreciate the depth of the magnificence that is the African landscape and how this was intertwined so effortlessly into the narrative is a true homage to African folklore.” says Head of Programming Chipo Zhou.

Closing Film is the thriller Dust, directed by Pieter du Plessis, and with actress Shana Mans in the lead role. A story of female oppression and emancipation, a contemporary look at the current global discourse on women’s rights. This film is apt on the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic whose effects will be seen and felt globally for years to come.

This year’s opening and closing film selections are narratives that push boundaries and open up dialogue to contemporary challenges being faced in society today. Both films celebrate unparalleled performances by two South African leading ladies.

“Both narratives are about finding strength and resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable injustice and speak very much on the human emotional need to connect, belong and be a part of something much greater than themselves. Set in two very different worlds, and centred on seemingly unconnected issues, both films tackle loss and trauma delicately and uniquely.” Says Zhou.

The Programme The festival has curated a film programme consisting of 60 offerings consisting of shorts, documentaries and feature films. The plots in the selected films, through different lenses, show contemporary relevance to the challenges currently faced by the world which has, over the last years, progressively begun to interrogate history to right wrongs and restore human dignity to previously disenfranchised populaces. Some of the films that highlight these themes include Our Lady of the Nile, directed by Atiq Rahimi, which takes us on a journey that juxtaposes religion and mythology in a beautiful tale set on the backdrop of the Tutsi and Hutu conflict that ravaged Rwanda for decades. Ouvertures, directed by Louis Henderson and Olivier Marboeuf, explores the social abundance and history of Haiti, where the brutal legacy is slavery and how the world has begun to collectively revisit the past to try and heal the wounds that are still globally felt. In the film Beanpole by Kantemir Balagov, two young women, in the aftermath of World War II, search for meaning and hope as they struggle to rebuild their lives among the ruins. The documentary In Your Eyes, I See my Country where Neta Elkayam and Amit Haï Cohen live in Jerusalem where they created a band that revisits and reshapes their common Jewish-Moroccan musical heritage. They grapple with this identity duality; an attempt to heal the wounds of exile carried by their parents. A captivating narrative musically driven, they reshape their perception of who they are and want to become, along with aspirations to consolidate bridges with the homeland of their ancestors. A Rifle and a Bag, a documentary by Isabella Rinaldi, Cristina Haneș and first-time feature-length director, Arya Rothe is an insightful love story that survives a decade of armed struggle and violence. A search for a new identity in the aftermath of a violent past. Bereka, a short film directed by Nesanet Teshager Abegaze exquisitely explores similar themes of memory, migration and rebirth. 

The DIFF Awards Head of programming, Chipo Zhou is proud to announce the films in competition, that are diverse but have a common threat of revisiting the past as a way to instill hope for the future. “The physical and internal wars and struggles in the films that explore what seemed impossible decades ago is now but a distant memory that we dissect in art as a way to reflect and create a better world. 2020 has proved to have been a very trying year, one of which despair and hopelessness enveloped the world. We are in this moment living the history of tomorrow. These narratives are mirrors of the art that the generations after us will create looking back at this very moment. The festival looks to the future, optimistic that this is not the apocalypse by exploring the histories that in those moments, could have felt like the very end.” Says Zhou. On the advancement of the film industry, she adds “The industry has changed, how film is created and consumed has evolved dramatically. The way we showcase has been propelled into the future, by the Covid19 pandemic, and the festival will, for the very first time be presented online. Virtual platforms store everything in perpetuity as an archive of the showcase and subsequent dialogue around the issues highlighted in the narratives. This archive will be a great contribution to the future of film scholarship on the continent and beyond.”  

Documentaries in the 2020 Competition:

143 Sahara Street directed by Hassen Ferhani, Algeria, 2019

A Rifle And A Bag directed by Isabella Rinaldi, Arya Rothe and Cristina Haneș, India/Romania/Italy/Qatar, 2020

Softie directed by Sam Soko, Kenya 2020

FADMA: Even Ants Have Wings directed by Jawad Rhalib, Belgium/Morocco, 2019

In your Eyes, I See my Country directed by Kamal Hachkar, Morocco/France, 2019

Influence directed by Diana Neille, Richard Poplak, South Africa/Canada, 2020

The Letter directed by Maia Von Lekow and Christopher King, Kenya, 2020 

Features in the 2020 Competition:

Beanpole directed by Kantemir Balakov, Russia, 2019

Dust directed by Pieter du Plessis, South Africa, 2020

Farewell Amor directed by Ekwa Msangi, USA, 2020

Force Of Habit directed by Kirsikka Saari/Elli Toivoniemi/Anna Paavilainen/Alli Haapasalo/Reetta Aalto/Jenni Toivoniemi/Miia Tervo, Finland, 2020 Lusala directed by Mugambi Nthiga, Kenya/Germany, 2019 Our Lady of the Nile directed by Atiq Rahimi, France/Belgium/Rwanda, 2019 Stam (The Tree) directed by Louw Venter, South Africa, 2019 Take Me Somewhere Nice directed by Ena Sendijarevic, Netherlands/Bosnia/Herzegovina, 2019 This is Not a Burial, it’s a Resurrection directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Lesotho/South Africa/Italy, 2020 

All short films are in competition.

“The DIFF prides itself on discovering and nurturing new talent, and each year we select films from a diverse number of first-time feature-length directors. The 41 st edition is no exception with almost 30% directorial debut feature-length productions on showcase, which we are very excited about” says Head of programming Chipo Zhou. Some of these directors include Arya Rothe, the director of A Rifle and a Bag, Sam Soko director of Softie, Aslaug Aarsæther’s director of The Art of Fallism, Amine Hattou director of Janitou, Carla Fonseca director of Burkinabe, Ena Sendijarević director of Take Me Somewhere Nice, Louw Venter director of Stam (The Tree) and Kislay Kislay director of Just Like That.

isiPhethu At the heart of the University of KwaZulu Natal is a mission to redress the imbalances of the past, and its contribution to this mission through the Centre for Creative Arts is emphasised through a robust community engagement programme titled isiPhethu. This year, in addition to drive-in screenings in the greater KwaZulu-Natal, the programme will host various online workshops and seminars. isiPhethu aims to entertain, educate, train and up-skill, instill confidence to young aspirant filmmakers and share information that is relevant to the film industry to empower young people.

“The idea is to link the film community virtually in these trying times where the Covid-19 pandemic threatens not just our lives but the arts in general”, says Isiphethu curator Sakhile Gumede.

A range of top facilitators and guest speakers are featured, under which multi-award-winning filmmaker Shirley Bruno and producer and actor Michal Birnbaun. DIFF is also proud to host the New York-based writer, producer and director of ‘Equal Standard’ which tackles the issue of police brutality in the US. Taheim will be joined by a few of his colleagues to give the DIFF audiences an in-depth insight into his work.  South African born documentary filmmaker Jessie Zinn now based in the US, will be joined by award-winning documentary filmmaker and photographer Simon Wood to discuss new approaches to documentary filmmaking.

“Many young people will undergo training through these programmes. The video production and scriptwriting workshops both aimed at development of young makers. This year we have opted to engage in virtual workshops, and this allowed us to bring many players on board from across the globe. Some of the highlights include speakers from the San Francisco Black Film Festival, SWIFT, Visual Network SA, George Mason University, Coastal-conferences”, added Gumede.

isiPhethu Community film screenings, school programmes and engagements with various community organisations around the city of Durban and the province of KwaZulu Natal will be the pulse of this year’s Isiphethu industry-focused programme at DIFF. The isiPhethu programme remains a backbone of DIFF and act as a centre stage for the industry role players to showcase their work, talents, and network in the film industry. The vibrant programme aims to entertain, educate, train and up-skill, instill confidence to young aspirant film-makers and share information that is relevant to the film industry to empower young people. A range of top facilitators, guest speakers and participants will be featured. They will headline several of these programmes as the DIFF continues to position itself as one of the biggest and most significant festivals on the continent.

Curators 

As a festival, the DIFF prides itself on inclusivity and a celebration of diversity as is shown by the riveting selection of films, which has been curated by a small group of talented and diverse individuals, headed by DIFF head of programming, Chipo Zhou. Nataleah Hunter-Young, a Canadian writer, film curator, and PhD candidate in Communication and Culture, Lisa Ogdie, an American short film programmer who works with Sundance Film Festival and Mitchel Harper a South African freelance curator and cultural programmer specializing in the arts in areas of film, music, literature, visual and performing arts.

Programme and details The full programme, alongside all the films that will be screening, is accessible on www.durbanfilmfest.com. Ticket sales are open. Tickets for the virtual screenings are only available FREE in South Africa. Once a ticket is booked, you can watch the film for 2 days and once you have started watching you can playback for 24 hours. There will be drive-ins screenings in Durban, Port Shepstone, Richards Bay and Newcastle. Tickets for the drive-in screenings are available on Quicket for R100 per car, however at a limited capacity.

The 41st edition of the festival is organized by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, in partnerships and with the support of Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, National Film and Video Foundation, KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission, KZN Department of Arts and Culture and other valued funders and partners.

[rightsinexile]

Western Sahara Newsletter: November 2018

This monthly update was issued by Adala UK on 15 November 2018. It is reprinted here with permission.

Refugee camps

Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario Front agree to talks on Western Sahara

Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario Front have accepted a UN invitation to hold talks in December on ending the decades-old conflict in Western Sahara, according to UN officials. Seeking to re-launch the political process, UN envoy Horst Koehler has invited the four parties to Geneva on December 5-6 for a first round of meetings that could pave the way to formal negotiations.

The last round of UN-sponsored informal talks was held in 2012. The preliminary talks may quickly hit a wall as Morocco maintains that negotiations on a settlement should focus on its proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara. The Polisario insists that the status of the territory should be decided in a referendum on independence. Algeria also maintains that a solution to the conflict must uphold the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination.

The United Nations brokered a ceasefire deal between Morocco and the Polisario in 1990 that provided for a referendum, but the vote never materialised. A small peacekeeping mission of some 700 personnel is monitoring the ceasefire line but the Security Council has put fresh pressure on the sides to return to the negotiating table. A settlement in Western Sahara would allow the UN mission there, known as MINURSO, to end its mission at a time when the United States is seeking to reduce the cost of peace operations.

In his invitation to the parties, Koehler asked the sides to submit proposals for talks and has described the Geneva meeting as a round-table discussion. The planned talks were discussed at the Security Council late in October when the mandate renewal for MINURSO was agreed for another six months.

Read more here: Four parties agree to Western Sahara talks

Boujdour Camp hosts 12th edition of ARTifariti Festival

The 12th edition of the International Arts and Human Rights Encounters in the Western Sahara Festival (known as; ARTifariti), took place in October. This year’s international cultural event was held under the motto ‘A poem from all’ and brought together artists and activists from different countries around the world. Activities included workshops, exhibitions, documentary screenings and artwork presentations. Participants also visited the Liberated Territories of Western Sahara.

The annual event is an opportunity for artists to exchange knowledge and expertise, to improve human rights and to strengthen the international solidarity movement.

Read more here: Wilaya of Boujdour hosts 12th edition of ARTifariti

Occupied Territories

Saharawi political prisoners: Hunger strike is the only option

As of 31 October 2018, according to data from the Polisario Front, there were 48 Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons. The majority of these prisoners are kept in prisons in Morocco that are around 1200 kilometres from the prisoners’ homeland. This contravenes the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict which has been ratified by Morocco.

Many of the prisoners feel that the only way they can oppose the conditions they are facing is by going on hunger strike. Recently, the Saharawi political prisoner El Bachir Khadda (serving a 20 year sentence for his involvement in the Gdeim Izik protests, spent 43 days on hunger strike (ending on 30 October 2018) in response to the continuous mistreatment he receives and the isolation to which he is subjected. Earlier in the year he had staged another 33-day hunger strike.

Read more here: La huelga de hambre, única opción de los presos políticos saharauis [in Spanish]

Natural resources

EU Parliament divided on proposed trade agreement with Morocco that will include products from Western Sahara.

Members of the European Parliament have requested more clarity before voting on the Commission's proposed trade deal for Western Sahara. Concurrently, 93 Western Sahara civil society groups lament the Parliament rapporteur's lack of diligence on the file.

On 5 November 2018, in the European Parliament's International Trade Committee (INTA), Patricia Lalonde MEP presented her report on extending the EU-Morocco trade deal into the parts of Western Sahara that are under Moroccan occupation. Mme. Lalonde favours the extension, saying it will bring benefits to the ‘local populations’ and that the development of the territory must be furthered. However, Mme. Lalonde did not refer to the will of the people of the territory - the cornerstone principle of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of December 2016.

The ruling concluded that no EU-Morocco trade or association agreement could be applied to Western Sahara unless with the express consent of the people of the territory. That conclusion triggered the EU to start negotiations with Morocco for an amendment to two Protocols to the EU's Association Agreement with Morocco, so that it would henceforth apply explicitly to Western Sahara. The European Parliament is currently in the process of evaluating whether or not to support that amendment, which would result in a trade arrangement for Western Sahara through Morocco - the country that holds two-thirds of Western Sahara under military occupation since 1975.

Importantly, the trade preferences granted to Morocco will be extended only to the part of Western Sahara that is under Moroccan occupation - not to the part controlled by Polisario that is east of the Berm; the militarily fortified 2700km wall that Morocco built during the war years, which to date effectively divides the territory and separates Saharawi families. Mme Lalonde did not address why the supposed benefits would only be destined for one part of Western Sahara and not the other, nor how this effective re-drawing of international borders holds under the EU's duty of respecting territorial integrity.

While several shadow rapporteurs (Salvatore Cicu MEP for EPP, Elena Valenciano MEP for S&D, Sander Loones MEP for ECR and Tiziana Beghin MEP for EFDD considered Lalonde’s report to be balanced, the other shadows (Heidi Hautala MEP for the Greens/NGL and Anne-Marie Mineur MEP for the GUE/NGL) and all other MEPs taking the floor remained critical of the proposal. Two main points were expressed: that the people of Western Sahara had not consented to the proposed trade deal for their territory, and that there is no mechanism included in the proposal that will allow for clarity on the true origin of products being exported from the territory.

The International Trade Committee will vote on Mme. Lalonde's report on 3 December 2018.

Read more here: EU Parliament divided on vague Western Sahara agreement

[alkindianugerahwisata-blog]

MOROCCO & SPAIN EXTRAVAGANZA TOUR

MOROCCO & SPAIN 8 NIGHT/9 DAYS

PER PERSON PRICE IN USD USD BASED ON TWIN BED SNGL SUPP ; 198 USD TRPL DISC FOR THIRD PAX; 98 USD

INCLUDED: – International Airfare – 1 Night at Casablanca ; SUISSE or sim – 1 Night at Tangier Atlas Rif or sim – 1 Night at SEVILLE ; HOTEL SEVILLE GIT or sim – 1 Night at Granada ; Hotel Luna de Granda or sim – 2 Nights at Madrid ; Hotel Rafael Orense or sim – Entrance to mentioned museums mentioned on Itinerary. – All Transfers in and welcoming – English speaking local official guides in Madrid, Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, while visiting Spain. – English Speaking guide in Morocco & Spain. – All the visits mentioned in the program entrance fees included.

EXCLUDED : – Personnal expenses.

About Morocco

Morocco (the full Arabic name is Al Mamlakah al Maghribiyah which translates into “The Western Kingdom” ) is located on the North West coast of Africa and has ports in the North Atlantic Ocean as well as the Mediterranean Sea. It is the third most populous Arab country. Morocco shares the largest part of its border with Algeria to the East and Western Saharah to the South. Morocco is divided into sixteen regions. Each region is further divided into provinces and prefectures. The capital of Morocco is Rabat and its largest city is Casablanca. The national currency is the Moroccan Dirham.

Accommodations

Morocco has a variety of accommodations from which to choose. In the larger cities, such as Casablanca and Tangier, there are a number of international hotels including the Ramada, Sheraton and Hyatt Regency. However, throughout all of the major cities and in the metropolitan centers of Morocco, excellent five star hotels that offer the luxury of their international counterparts but with local charm and hospitality are available. Many travellers find that the best accommodations in Morocco are Riads, which are traditional Morocco homes that have been converted into small hotels and private guest houses. Riads are usually located inside the older districts throughout Morocco which are steeped in culture.

Destinations and Attractions

Morocco is a land rich in natural beauty and unforgettable places that are both fascinating to visit and intriguing to explore. For those who want to immerse themselves in Moroccan culture and history there are hundreds of mosques, palaces, and historical sites to visit. Some of the favorites on our list include the ancient city of Asilah, the Grottoes of Hercules, and the El Bahia Palace. Equally memorable is the Moroccan landscape, which is framed by several impressive destinations such as the Sahara Desert and stunning mountain ranges such as the High Atlas, the Chefchaouen Mountains and the Oregano Mountains, which offer outdoor activities such as snow skiing, hiking, climbing, and adventure travel. For travelers wanting the relaxation of seaside towns and beaches, the Moroccan coast is home to spectacular fishing villages such Dakhla and swimming beaches such as Plage Quemada and Lalla Fatma.

Culture and Heritage

Moroccan culture is rich is history, the arts and sciences. Throughout Morocco there is a wide choice of museums such as The Museum of Antiquities and The Ethnographic Museum in Tetouan. Another favorite stop is the Museum of Moroccan Art, which houses on display unique collections of glass objects, manuscripts, exquisite carpets, jewelry, pottery and ancient manuscripts. For those enjoying live performances, Morocco has may wonderful theatres that present classic, translated and reworked productions of western classics such as Shakespeare to modern productions of Moroccan plays that are filled with the country’s tradition and folklore. Unique theatrical venues include Alliance Franco-Marocaine Theater and the Teatro de Cervantes. Popular outdoor festivals also abound with performances held at the Marrakech Popular Arts Festival and the Amazigh Theater Festival in Casablanca. Seekers of outdoor adventure may wish to explore the wonderful national parks and reserves of Morocco, such as Souss Massa National Park and the Mediterranean Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve established through UNESCO. A more detailed review f these and other parks can be found by reading our section on National Parks.

We proudly offer hundreds of pages of information about Morocco as well as sources for the best travel deals. We invite you to search our hundreds of pages of travel guides for ideas and be sure to look for special offers for the best rates on flights, hotels, and car rentals.

Enjoy your trip to Morocco!

[micaramel]

Artist: Peter Fend

Venue: Museo Nivola, Orani

Exhibition Title: AFRICA-ARCTIC FLYWAY

Date: October 25, 2019 – January 26, 2020

Curated By: Elisa R. Linn, Lennart Wolff

Note: A textual walkthrough of the exhibition is available here.

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Museo Nivola, Orani

Press Release:

AFRICA-ARCTIC FLYWAY STARTING IN SARDINIA

On behalf of a legally-incorporated company of visual artists, founded in 1980 and named “Ocean Earth,” Peter Fend, a US citizen born in 1950, presents solutions for the current climate and water crisis in Sardinia, to be extended along the bird and insect flyways between sub-Sahara Africa and the Arctic.1

All the work shown is the intellectual property of the company, named Ocean Earth Development Corporation, or its partly-held subsidiary of Latin Americans, named TVGOV. The solutions displayed cannot possibly be accomplished by Peter Fend. They cannot even be accomplished alone by the company Ocean Earth, plus TVGOV. They can be accomplished by the people of Sardinia. This exhibition at Museo Nivola, in Orani, Nuoro Province, is addressed to the people of Sardinia—-with intention of follow-through action, for economic gain and ecological recovery, by the people of Sardinia. There’s plenty of meaningful and honorable work for everyone.

(1) Organize Sardinia into its salt-sea catchments, or hydrometric areas, with separation therein of any dammed catchments, which accumulate sediments and waste.

(2) Each catchment becomes a unit for resource management and taxation under principles of the first body of economic thought: Physiocracy. Land (& water) are declared to be the one foundation for economy, which must be preserved and improved. Since Physiocracy was conceived, in 18th-century France, surrogates for land have become the foundation of our economy: mineral fuels like coal, oil, gas—and uranium; and, in substitution of normal rivers, dammed reservoirs. These surrogates have no doubt harmed the planet’s ecology. They produce global warming, air and water pollution, eutrophication in streams, loss of animal diversity and deserts. Physiocracy can be launched in Sardinia to reverse such abuses of our land and water. This would be a world first.

(3) In each dam catchment, and each saltwater bay downstream, remove accumulated sediments and waste in the form of waterplants, grown with solar energy, and convert that into biogas or electricity.Feed the biogas into local methane supply streams, and send the electricity into local grids.

(4) Deconstruct high dams, restoring the original gradient with white-water rapids, collecting hydroelectric energy with suspended arrays of ultra-light Poncelet waterwheels suspended from Duchamp-model bicycle-wheel forks.

(5) In view of many technologies for energy for an island blessed with much sun, wind, waves, sea-currents, and soil now accumulating in dams or flowing offshore, we say, DO NOT build a long gas pipeline or LNG terminal, especially for imported fossil gas. Also, find ways to make the electricity from falling water not go through turbines at high-wall dams, but on no-blockage waterwheels. Rely on the many sources of easily-collected energy, especially since the island has the lowest population density of anywhere in Italy.

(6) Apply the same technologies in marshlands along migratory flyways. Single out salt lakes west of the Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia, Lake Chad, artificial lakes near Milan and on the Ruhr, and Norway’s fjords.

All action here, though based on what are normally assigned to art, is an extension of art into inhabited space, occupied through time. This is called Architecture. Leon Battista Alberti wrote that Architecture meets the needs of any inhabited area, in this case Sardinia, for (1) clean air, (2) living waters, (3) ease of movement and (4) defense. Ocean Earth has done research and developed plans for sites worldwide in all four sectors of Architecture. Almost no professionally-trained architect today does this. Can Sardinia, with its very low population density and already-established urban forms, largely on heights, become a model for Alberti’s principles. In this case, extending the practices along the bird flyway, to assure survival of nutrient- transferring migrants from African jungles to Arctic tundra, and back, is a form of territorial defense.

1 The firm builds on structural and data display concepts right-negotiated with Dennis Oppenheim, Paul Sharits, Gordon Matta-Clark and Carolee Schneemann, plus invitations for real-world initiatives by Joseph Beuys (1980) and the United Nations Environment Program (1982, 1989, 2008). The firm has worked with scientists at Caltech (1980-94), oceanographers in Plymouth (2003-4) and then-named Leningrad (1980-82), and naval architect Marc Lombard, La Rochelle (1993-96). The firm has had a stormy history. Government interventions, such as seizure of observation-satellite data, led – inadvertently–to: a quick end to the Falklands war, Iran ending an Iraqi earthworks invasion, Iraq then deciding to invade Kuwait, and revelations to the world press, scientists and the Ukraine Government of an ongoing instability of reactor sites at Chernobyl, with long-term effects on water policy in the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas.

  Peter Fend (*1950) is an American who, in 1980, due to the advice of a lawyer, founded the Ocean Earth Construction and Development Corporation (“OCEAN EARTH”), as a legally incorporated successor to an artist venture, started in 1979, meant to deliver art ideas and practices to real-world clients. That venture included Jenny Holzer, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Fend, Richard Prince, Peter Nadin, Robin Winters. The first three bought stakes in the successor. It builds upon on structural and data-display concepts rights-negotiated with Dennis Oppenheim, Paul Sharits, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Carolee Schneemann, plus requests for real-world initiatives by Joseph Beuys (1980) and the United Nations Environment Program (1982, 1989, 2008). The firm has worked with scientists at Caltech, oceanographers in Plymouth, two oceanographic centers in then-St. Petersburg, and naval architect Marc Lombard. In 1981, shareholders Sharits, Fend and Fitzgibbon decided to start building knowledge about sites through sight-mimic processing of multispectral satellite data. This led quickly to authoritative monitoring for world news-media of the Falklands, Beirut, Libya, the Iran-Iraq war, Nicaragua, the Amazon Basin, and Chernobyl–with historical consequences. After six years, Western governments shut down this work. Since then, using knowledge built up by the firm, Fend presented multi-disciplinary projects at Documenta, biennials in Beijing, Yinchuan, Osaka, Venice, Liverpool and Sharjah, all towards practical solutions to economic and ecological crises. Direct response to government officials is underway in Algeria, Ukraine, Norway, Italy, NZ. Since 1988, commercial galleries have displayed Fend-led work, notably American Fine Arts, Esther Schipper, Essex Street, Christian Nagel, Barbara Weiss, Georg Kargl, Pinksummer, Le Case d’Arte. Talks have been at major architecture schools, art schools, military think tanks, the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment (with commissioned report), the UN Correspondents Association (twice; sponsored by the US, Russian and Turkish press), architecture festivals, even international scientific conferences. The list of works confiscated or doctored is probably longer than of those extant; many authorities find that art in the real world, on real-world terms, might threaten their professions, or–some say–the State. The firm launched its worldwide business with a 1982 show at The Kitchen, NY called “Art of the State.”.

Link: Peter Fend at Museo Nivola

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