Of Flabby Flesh and Feeble Phalluses in Kenya

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African Movies, African Sex Tourism, DC International Film Festival, Paradise Love, Ulrich Seidl

Paradise: Love, is the second odd film that I have seen at the E Street Cinema in the past week (the first was Springbreakers, which baffled me at the time, but I rather enjoyed it in retrospect).  This Austrian film (much of its dialogue is in German) set in Kenya is part of a trilogy directed by Ulrich Seidl.  It has no connection to DC other than that it is being screened as part of the DC International Film Festival.

While the protagonist of the film (I can’t remember her name and I don’t think it really matters) is excited to see camels on the beach, monkeys on her balcony, crocodiles, and to play various immature games in water and on sand, the real lure of Kenya’s coast (supposedly Mombasa) is the array of attractive young men available for companionship.  Reader beware, the following gets explicit.

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Africa in DC this Weekend: Cultural Events – Senegalese Hip-Hop and Movies

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AFI, African Movies, African Music, Nomadic Wax, Senegal hip-hop, Thiat, Tropicalia, Y'en a Marre

There are a couple of exciting cultural events going on this weekend.

Several Senegalese Rappers from the Y’en A Marre (Enough is Enough) movement that helped thwart Abdoulaye Wade’s effort for a controversial (and constitutionally questionable) third term (almost exactly a year ago) will be performing at Tropicalia on U street this Friday.

You can read about the political harassment that one of the performers faced during the Wade administration here.

Read more about the event here:

nomadicwax.org/internationally-known-hip-hop-show-case/

You can read more about the host, Nomadic Wax, and a previous interaction with the DC policy community (in this case the Wilson Center) here (with full video).

Tickets are only $7.  I’m unable to attend, but I hope to hear from those of you who do.

Also going down, from this Thursday through Tuesday, is the 9th annual New African Films Festival at the AFI Theatre in Silver Spring.  I have been to several  films at the previous two editions of this event.  So far, the Franco-Ivorian, ‘Beyond the Ocean’, stands out as a clear favorite.

More info here:

http://www.afi.com/silver/films/2013/v10i1/naff2013.aspx

Speaking of the Ivory Coast, I will take advantage of the snowquester to publish (probably tomorrow) the analytical piece on the absence of Ivorian affairs from the DC policy community that I had promised over the weekend.