KUHUSU (MADA YA…)

(Uzinduzi), (vingenevyo), wa kihusihi cha kitabia katika mfumo wa dhana ya nanga ya kuhoji usanifu wa nguvu kitovuti na kwa muktadha Muktadhari hiyo, iliyoandaliwa kwa vitengo vya upendeleo, ziliundwa kama vyombo vya dhamana ambavyo vilisstawi usawa wa uzazi wa kimuundo, wakati huo huo, kuendelea kufuta nidhamu ya zoezi hilo / mazaoezi hayo.

Kupitia muundo wa ‘mise-en-abime’, ‘saay/yaas’ – watunzaji wenza wa kijinsia ya kiafrika – walipendekeza / walitoa harabi za kifupi katika habari au ripoti fupi za ‘Saison Africa 2020. Ukianzishwa kama badaliko offisini kupitia kutungwa kwa kujkwaa la lini wa mtandao wa jamii kuhusu maarifa na uzalishaji wa thamani kupitia uhusiano wa karibu na kubadilishana (maoni). Seti (uwekaji) wa vitendo, kila moja ikiundwa kama mtindo wa mwito-na-majibu, hukaribisha (huita) wanaojibu mara kwa mara kujohi na uunda usanifu mfupi kwa pamoja katika uwazi wa uma yaliyomo, wakiwa katika harakati za ufanya kazi katika viwango ya maeno mbali mbali ya fomu, mazoezi na hata uwakilisha(o).

Wanaojibu ni wanawake wa Kiafrica kutoka nchi za ng’ambo (diaspora), watengezao anga na wanafikra, idadi ya watu ambao kihistoria wanazidi kuwachwa nje ya zoezi la uundaji wa maarifa, lakini ambao mikabala yao ya mazoezi anuwai huzaa (huunda) umati mkubwa wa fomu na njia za (ya) mazoezi tunza, anga na za pamoja.

MWALIKO

“Ndoto, ambazo hazituwakilishi, ila firkra za watu wa kijinsia ya kizungu. Haya ndiyo mambo ya ukanusha wa kibinafsi wa kizungu ambayo yana wekwa kama makadirio kwetu sisi, kana kwamba yana mamlaka na lenga yakuonesha picha halisi yetu sisi. Walakin, hazina thamani kwetu (hazifai wasiwasi kwetu).” - Grada Kilomba

Marafiki na wenzangu wapendwa,

Alipokabidhiwa kazi ya utafsiri wa muhtasari ujenzi (usanifu) wa mradi wa ‘Saison Africa 2020’, saay/yaas alihamasishwa na mikakati ambayo ilikua ya Ki-Afrika na ilitambua aina za kujieleza (uelezo), uthabiti na ubunifu ya asili hii; wakati huo huo kutoa uzito wa kukabiliana na mawazo yaliyotangulia, yaliyowekwa na yenye usawa na fikra kuhusu Afrika “…kutoa maelezo kwa wale ambao wana fursa ya kutojua”. Saay/yaas alishikilia maonyesho ya kawaida ya usanifu kuwaonyesha la tuli ya muundo mdogo na umuhimu wa uzuizi, kwa kujibu, jukwaa la digitali liliyoundwa vinginevyo (hata hivyo).

Kama kielezi, “kinabadilisha (hubadilisha) au kufuzu (hufuzu) kivumishi, kuonyesha uhusiano wa mahali, wakati, hali, njia, sababu, kiwango, nk. (na kadhalika).” Matumizi ya neno hili hapa katika kichwa husomwa kama yeye, hapa, vinginevyo, inahusu uhusiano tata katika nafasi ya muda, asili ya uanadamu (ubinadamu) na kujenga mazoezi kama mwanamke wa Kiafrika/ughaibuni, katika nidhamu ya usanifu iliyo na uzoefu wa kiume, asili ya kizungu, walio na nguvu kiuchumi na ulio msingi wa magharibi.

Huyu(hichi) ni kiumbe kinacho hadithi ya kuishi (kudumu), inayobadilika kila wakati ya maoni, kipokezi cha pembejeo muhimu ambazo hupanga kutungwa kwa maswali karibu na wingi wa uelewa na mazoezi ya usanifu, wakati wote katika mazungumzo ya mara kwa mara na uhusiano, uzoefu, hali na akili maalum za Kiafika na ughaibuni. Tovuti hii inashughulikia hitaji la haraka la kukusanya jamii iliyo wazi, inayoingiliana na inayopanuka ya wanawake weusi wanaohusika katika anuwai pana ya vitendo vya anga na matendo ya kujitawala.

Tunakualika uunde njia yako mwenyewe ya kujitokeza, kwa kutoa kazi yao, mawazo, marejeleo, furaha, vitisho, fikra, maoni (ya kuona/kuonesha, sonic au maandishi), zilizokamilishwa au la, mirandi iliyootwa, maswali, taarifa au shida bila mipaka (bila vizuizi) au ubaguzi. Mawasilisho haya yanaweza kutolewa hadharani au bila kujulikana. Unaweza kuonekana kama kampuni, ushirikiano, chombo cha ukusanyaji wa watu, au kama mtu binafsi. Kwa upande mwingine, tunaweza kukuuliza pia kwa wengine wote katika ugawanyaji wakiafrika ughaibuni, kufanya maonyesho yao wenyewe, na kwa njia hii kuleta hatua kwa hatua katika jamii, anga pana ya wanafikra na watendaji wanaohusika katika anuwai pana zaidi ya zoea ya usanifu na anga katika mali ya kibinafsi.

saay/yaas - abujapraiaparisjohannesburg

This platform responds to the urgent need to gather an open, interactive, and expanding community of black women engaged in the broadest possible range of self-determined acts and operations within the disciplines of architecture and urban design, and within the discourse of all spatial practices.

Who are we

Anna Abengowe | Nigeria, England | architect, pedagogue, designer, expositor, traveler, searcher, voice-finder, curious, interested, joker, aunty

Anna Nnenna Abengowe was appointed Deputy Director and Academic Lead at the Graduate School of Architecture (GSA), University of Johannesburg in 2022. She holds an M Arch from Princeton University School of Architecture. She pursues the development of new areas and platforms of pedagogy, research, and practice that are current and transnationally relevant to the built environment of architecture, urbanity, and related spatial practices on the African continent. She is a cofounder of the saay/yaas curatorial collective and creative co-director of the he(r)e, otherwise digital platform (2021). She is the co-recipient of a 2022 Graham Foundation Grant. She has been published in Architectural Guide: Sub-Saharan Africa (DOM 2021) and E-Flux (2022). She is a design associate at the Institute for Creative Repair (ICR), an advisory contributor at matri-archi, and an academic advisor at the African Futures Institute (AFI). She resides in Johannesburg.

Patti Anahory | Cabo Verde, São Tomé e Principe, Brooklyn | architect, independent curator, collaborator, commentator, observer, designer, mother…

Patti Anahory is an architect whose work spans building design, art, education, and curatorial research-based practices. She holds a Master’s in Architecture from Princeton University and a professional architecture degree from the Boston Architectural College.

She is interested in interrogating predominant narratives of identity and belonging across spatial practices, particularly from an African island perspective, and is committed to creating independent, multidisciplinary, collaborative platforms and spaces for ideation, experimentation, documentation, dissemination, and research on African and Diaspora spatial processes.

Anahory co-founded Storia na Lugar, a storytelling and counter-narrative practice, and is the co-creator of the experimental architectural and curatorial platform her(e), otherwise. She serves as an Academic Advisor at the African Futures Institute and was a Visiting Professor at Columbia University (2022–23). She co-authored the book Panorama da Arquitetura Habitacional em Cabo Verde (2022) and is featured in 100 Women: Architects in Practice (2024).

Mawena Yehouessi | Benin, Togo, Senegal, France | researcher, practitioner, curator, writer/translator, collusionist, avatar, lover, sister, and child

Born in 1990 in Cotonou (Benin), Mawena Yehouessi is an art curator and searcher/ practitioner in Arts and philosophy (PhD fellow @ Villa Arson / Université Côte d’Azur).

Founder of the Black(s) to the Future collective, she lives and works between Nice and Paris (France). Also trained in cultural projects management and contemporary dance, she belongs to this generation of unclassifiable or downgraded?-beings whose practices & jobs are a mash-up of slashes. In particular interested in alter-futurisms and poïethics, she also develops an exploratory, prospective, and collusion/collage art practice through her avatar M.Y.

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