We do see not far, nor do we learn much. Lack of vision says it’s okay to fight for waitress and gardener jobs in a continent that we call home. Not that there is anything wrong with these jobs it’s just that they should be the alternative and not the norm. Lack of vision replaces failing systems and flawed recipes with foreigners. It limits our ability to identify stumbling blocks so we keep falling over in the same place. Think about this for a minute:
Just listening and watching everyday Afrika, you struggle to find or settle on an identity, a direction we are headed. There is a depressing sense of stagnation, a frustration of potential that leaves nothing but the heaviness of hope. That almost always promises, that never comes true and more and more it’s spilling out into the open with rather disturbing side effects. We seem to have this idea of a better, brighter Afrika that is as mysterious as are the plans to get us there. We are perpetually waiting to exhale. It starts with our leaders.
Being a creative, photography was always going to be one of those fringe things I had to do. I had to understand it enough, to be a creative director of any merit. Photography sells products, attracts attention and ultimately shapes perceptions. In our growing digital world it has fast become a medium from which we consume a good percentage of our information.
The visual arts have also been a feature at HIFA. The annual exhibition is usually in the National Art Gallery and mainly features up and coming artists. This same show featured a fashion show in amongst the installations in the gallery. Popular at the exhibition was an installation by Masimba Hwati called Toward Redemption which featured a Volkswagon seemingly taking off in flight leaving a trail of its parts behind.
