Journalist at RFI (ex-DW, BBC, CBC, F24...), writer (on art, music, culture...), I work in radio, podcasting, online, on films.
As a writer, I also contributed to the New Arab, Art UK, Byline Times, the i Paper...
Born in Paris, I was based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Bangui, and in Bristol, UK. I also reported from Italy, Germany, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, Senegal, India, Mexico, Iraq, South Africa...
This blog is to share my work, news and cultural discoveries.
I am finally writing this articles about the UN agencies and the NGOs / international organisations in Nairobi and how they changed the city and made it a humanitarian capital for Africa.
I have met and interviewed so many NGO and UN workers on the issue over the past year, but I still feel like taking more views on this one.
Anonymous activists have been spraying political graffiti across Nairobi in an underground campaign denouncing Kenya's politicians, ahead of next year's elections.
Many Kenyans have been shocked by the murals, which depict the country's politicians as vultures who exploit their position to enrich themselves whatever the cost to others.
This mural, near the city's main market, is the biggest mural so far... organisers say more are planned.
I have this big crush on Zadie Smith, for her books, her writing, the topics she deals with but also simply for her personality, her talent, intelligence and her style.
I have been able to get closer to the copy of 'On Beauty' I had left in my Paris flat, and I have now purchased 'White Teeth' at the lovely Shakespeare and Co, the Paris 5th arrondissement bookstore.
I am still reading Andre Brink's breathtaking 'The Other Side of Silence', but 'White Teeth' is definitely next on my reading list.
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Meanwhile, any interview from Zadie or article about her work is an inspiration for the moment.
Here is a quote of her interview on literature in the very promising 'Tale of Three Cities' review:
''To me, being a writer is more like being an aerial, than being, well, an 'Ariel'. Things reach this momentum - the amount of books you read and the experiences you've had and the things you know - and the writing is a sort of transmission of that", on her style.
"As sometimes happens, being away intensifies my feeling for the place", on writing NW on Willesden from New York City.
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As for the writer's latest news, her new novel 'NW' will be published in London in September. It is apparently set in Willesden, North West London, where Zadie Smith grew up, which explains the title referring to the area's postcode. NW is also where I was recently leaving in London; a little more north tan Willesden, in Golders Green. One more reason why I cannot wait to read it!
Narc-Kenya party leader Martha Karua has vowed that she won’t accept any salary after December 2012 if Parliament will not have been dissolved to pave the way for polls, the Daily Nation writes.
“I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.”
I found the event, filmed and interviewed the drummers and organisers.
Here is an introduction about the show in French:
L'émission
+D'AFRIQUE est le rendez-vous hebdomadaire du samedi soir (20H20 UTC) sur CANAL+ AFRIQUE. +D'AFRIQUE est composée d'une équipe de journalistes, chroniqueurs, et humoristes, tous originaires d'Afrique. Autour du "capitaine" de l'émission, le charismatique Robert Brazza, l'équipe de chroniqueurs apportera du décalage, du rire, mais aussi leur sensibilité culturelle et parfois même de la folie !
Ensemble, ils accueillent sur le plateau de l'émission deux invités par semaine ayant un lien très fort avec l'Afrique. Ces invités viennent du monde culturel, sportif, économique ou associatif. Avec un regard neuf, et avec humour, ils échangent sur l'Afrique qui bouge, celle qui avance, qui crée et qui rayonne, tout en se penchant sur l'actualité des invités.
Différentes chroniques et reportages viennent ponctuer l'émission avec, au programme, les lieux tendances à découvrir, les destin africains à connaître, le portrait d'un artiste, et l'actualité africaine sociales, culturelle et économique décryptée. Sans oublier la musique, l'humour, les coups de coeur ou les coups de gueule... +D'AFRIQUE est LE rendez-vous de CANAL+ AFRIQUE où humour, actualité et culture riment ensemble pour offrir un programme répondant aux attentes des téléspectateurs du continent africain.
After ten days, it is time to say goodbye to Liberia.
I have a large stock of photos, vivid memories, and I've met so many incredible people and gifted journalists. I am just greatful.
As I thought, being a trainer for a journalism programme was a highly teaching experience! I have been able to move around all of Monrovia and to go out of the capital, on the southern coast, along with a team a local reporters, which was an eye-opening though short visit.
I will post more about this trip back home...
I have now set a foot in North, South, East and West Africa, thanks to this trip. I guess central Africa is the natural next step.
Liberia, it was great meeting you and I know I will be back.
Best of luck.
And the video will be online on their website next week.
Here is the introduction in French:
Au Michael Joseph Center, un lieu dédié à la culture à Nairobi, se tient Le Drum Jam Festival, un événement spectaculaire autour de l’art de la percussion. Devant un public connaisseur, des batteurs et des percussionnistes rivalisent de talent en des jam sessions donnant libre cours à l’improvisation. Le festival offre l’occasion à certains batteurs de tâter du tambour et aux percussionnistes de s’initier à la batterie, chacun tirant de l’expérience une meilleure maîtrise de cet art. Des musiciens prestigieux prennent régulièrement part à ces jam sessions comme Gogosimo, Ricky Na marafiki, Usual Suspects ou Afro Simba.
Looking out from underneath,
Fractured moonlight on the sea
Reflections still look the same to me,
As before I went under.
And it's peaceful in the deep,
Cathedral where you cannot breathe,
No need to pray, no need to speak
Now I am under.
And it's breaking over me,
A thousand miles onto the sea bed,
Found the place to rest my head.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Never let me go, never let me go.
And the arms of the ocean are carrying me,
And all this devotion was rushing out of me,
And the crashes are heaven, for a sinner like me,
The arms of the ocean deliver me.
Though the pressure's hard to take,
It's the only way I can escape,
It seems a heavy choice to make,
Now I am under.
And it's breaking over me,
A thousand miles down to the sea bed,
Found the place to rest my head.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Never let me go, never let me go.
And the arms of the ocean are carrying me,
And all this devotion was rushing out of me,
And the crashes are heaven, for a sinner like me,
The arms of the ocean deliver me.
And it's over,
And I'm going under,
But I'm not giving up!
I'm just giving in.
Oh, slipping underneath.
Oh, so cold, but so sweet.
In the arms of the ocean, so sweet and so cold,
And all this devotion I never knew at all,
And the crashes are Heaven, for a sinner released,
And the arms of the ocean,
Deliver me.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Deliver me.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Deliver me.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Never let me go, never let me go.
Never let me go, never let me go.
And it's over,
And I'm goin' under,
But I'm not givin' up!
I'm just givin' in.
Oh, slipping underneath.
Oh, so cold, but so sweet
