TELEVISION: Hazel Friedman
As television arts programmes go, Extreme Africa is up there with the best of them. A composite of The Works — in terms of its slick editing techniques and hip format — and Arts Unlimited — in terms of its multiculturally correct approach to art — it offers an exhilarating, eclectic mix of cultural activities throughout the continent.
Now into its third week of screening, this five-part French production draws extensively on South African talent both behind and in front of the lens. In the first week it showcased the work of installation artist Belinda Blignaut and her preoccupation with bodily redefinitions and sexual parameters, as well as hard-core ghetto rappers Kalishnikov from Katlehong.
Week two included rappers Prophets of the City, while weeks three, four and five will screen video clips from Lucky Dube’s Victims, spotlight artist, animator and film-maker William Kentridge, as well as singer Mauritz Lotz, the octogenarian scriptwriter Megan Davies who has the South African censors in a froth over her sexually explicit stories, Mango Groove, art-terrorist and provocateur Kendell Geers, Chico and Multiple Xposure, whose space cabaret satirises the vagaries of South African politics.
But the programme should inspire much more than patriotic support from local viewers. Far too many transcultural programmes tend to get stuck in the quagmire between laudable intentions and boring, patronising products. The plodding anthropological approach often adopted in those irritating Out of Africa- style documentaries usually dominates, precluding any possibility of gritty realism and spontaneous expression. Fortunately, Extreme Africa avoids this trap.
This week, for example, its Zimbabwe focus included an insert on eccentric composer Keith Goddard who transformed an interview into an exhibition opportunity; and the Tumbuka Dance Company which has incurred the wrath of conservative members of society because of its predilection for near-naked dress and sensual choreography.
Extreme Africa also doesn’t baulk at letting artists express controversial religious views, such as radical singer, Muslim and self- proclaimed prophet Tangara Speed Ghoda from the Ivory Coast, who inists that Jesus wasn’t crucified as Christians claim, but was elevated to heaven and will be killed in a battle with the anti-Christ on his return to earth.
But while Extreme Africa’s drive through the cultural hotspots of post-colonial Africa is done at leisurely speed, the credits flash past like a road-runner on speed. Blink and you may never finding out the names of those responsible for bringing us Africa in cultural extremis.
Extreme Africa is screened every Monday on SABC3 at 10.10pm