http://vimeo.com/24894177

All that stuff we could not blog–we have real jobs–or were too lazy to put up.

First, up a rough cut of “Quel Souvenir,” a new film (currently in post-production) about the new Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline is screening on July 27 at the DocuClub in Manhattan. Here is the trailer.  Here’s the description by the director, Danya Abt: “… The Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline was the largest investment project ever made in sub-Saharan Africa, a 600 mile pipeline from the oil fields of Southwestern Chad to the beaches of Cameroon.  ‘Quel Souvenir’ follows the pipeline through the the many communities it touches, who ask ‘If the land is rich, why are we so poor?’ and frames the project withing a larger context of growing oil exploitation in Africa.”

* I have fond memories of the Africa Center in Covent Garden–a building housing a restaurant, bookstore and basement bar/club–from my short time as a graduate student in London. So I was sad to read in this weekend’s The Financial Times it may not be no more, taken over by a property developer “with South African roots” (I can only imagine what that means) who has turned everything else in the neighborhood into “high-end retail shops and restaurants.” Anyway there is a last ditch attempt to still keep it open. I doubt the nearby Springbok Bar has difficulties getting patrons or sponsors. More here.

* Nuruddin Farrah, the Somali writer who still (?) lives in Cape Town, compares the Mogadishu of his childhood with its violent present.

* Meanwhile, here’s US public radio service NPR with an interactive map of China’s global reach. (Strangely, the data for the map comes from the rightwing Heritage Foundation, which tracks “China’s foreign nonbond investments and contracts worth more than $100 million.”) Here.

* And since we’re talking about graphic displays of data. You have to like this Tumblr blog.

* The video for “Zef Side” which introduced Die Antwoord to the internets (more than 7 million views at last count) has won its director Sean Metelerkamp a D&AD award.

Anyway, where is Die Antwoord?

* “Fire in Babylon,” the filmic ode to the triumphant West Indies cricket team of the late 1970s through the mid–1990s is playing New York City at a few venues this summer and Fall: At the Rerun Theater (July 22 – 29th) in Dumbo, the Summer African Diaspora International Film Festival (Aug 12 – Aug 22) at Harlem’s Riverside Theater and at BAM Cinematek, Brooklyn Sept 17. I rented the film on iTunes. At the heart of the film is an attempt to link the team’s growing dominance to black power politics (classic scene is the on-field humiliation of England’s South African-born captain Tony Greig on the West Indies’ 1975 tour to England after he threatened to make them “grovel”). It also briefly explores the decision by some of the team members to sign for a 2-tour deal to Apartheid South Africa in the early 1980s against the wishes of South Africa’s people. Here’s the trailer:

* Photographer Simon Weller’s “township barbershops and salons” project. Look at it here.

* When South Sudan gained its independence earlier this month, The Guardian put up this interactive map charting Africa’s history since colonialism to this month.

*What the Gates Foundation does when it not trying to destroy public education in the United States.  Read it here.

*  Something to look forward to: The South African poet Keorepetse Kgositsile–who gave The Last Poets their name–will be reading stateside next Spring. But he may found that few cares about his achievements other than that he is the father of Earl Sweatshirt of rappers Odd Future. Here’s a taste of Kgositsile, accompanied by Tumi & the Volume, paying his respects to Johnny Dyani:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmfnr6_9BMw

* CNN on Shangaan Electro taking Europe this summer.

* Check out Aaron Leaf’s Tumblr and Blog about his travels in West Africa. Here.

* And on the streets in Haiti they refer to “mixed-race” Haitians as “Marabou.” Buried in a New York Times Magazine piece about the political ambitions of Wyclef Jean.

Finally some music to ride the weekend out with: Sexion D’Assaut from Paris (via What’s Up Africa) and Ntjapedi from outside Johannesburg. And I’ve had Blitz the Ambassador’s “Native Son” album (link is to full stream) on repeat this week. BTW, Blitz makes a guest turn on L4‘s “Back to You” with Jon Tarifa. Here’s the video shot around tourist landmarks around New York City:

H/T: Bombastic Elements, Sophia Azeb, Tom Devriendt, Neelika Jayawardane, Cassandra Herman,