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 Africa Lives On The 91Èȱ¬
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Africa Lives On The 91Èȱ¬
Radio 3
Continuing 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3's year-long commitment to
Africa 05, a huge variety of programmes and events celebrating
African music, drama, arts and culture are scheduled throughout the summer
months.
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Over the final weekend of May, marking the United Nations' Africa
Day and the Somaliland National Day, Radio 3 presents a series of events
devoted to Africa Lives On The 91Èȱ¬.
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Sunday Feature - Reviving
Asmara (19 June)
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In the Thirties, Mussolini's imperial plans for Africa
led to a massive rebuilding project in Asmara, capital city of Eritrea.
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Money was no object - and talented young Italian architects
transformed the place beyond recognition, in a modernist style. Sited
on a high plateau above the clouds, Asmara became as full of treasures
as El Dorado.
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Some of these designs used cutting-edge technology: a
cinema with a retractable roof, the world's longest cable-car route, and
more traffic lights than Rome had at the time.
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Others were simply beautiful: curved facades, art deco
awnings and plastered porticos - all in the colours of Neapolitan ice-cream
- gleamed in the African sun.
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Asmara was going to be an architectural showcase for Mussolini's
Fascist regime: a sophisticated modern city in the heart of Africa. The
Italians intended to stay forever - but history had other ideas…
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Today Eritrea is one of the poorest countries in Africa.
Having struggled to free itself from Italian, British and then Ethiopian
oppression, it finds itself in need of vital economic development - but
has few natural resources.
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However, despite all the years of fighting, Asmara miraculously
survived intact. Eritrea is therefore sitting on a cultural jewel: a completely
preserved Thirties Modernist urban environment.
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Jonathan Glancey, Architecture Editor
of The Guardian, travels to Asmara to see what is being done to preserve
this national treasure - and investigates what Asmarinos plan to do to
exploit their unique resource.
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World Routes: Africa
Lives Roadshow
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On Saturday 28 May, Lucy Duran hosts
World Routes' first Africa Lives On The 91Èȱ¬ music roadshow live from Cardiff,
focussing on one of the UK's oldest African communities - the Somali community
of South-East Wales.
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Organised in partnership with local Somali community elders,
World Routes will stage an afternoon of Somali music in Cardiff city centre.
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Artists include the contemporary Congolese group Konono
Number One, and one of Somalia's musical stars - singer Zeynab
Ege with the Shego Band.
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Other World Routes summer highlights include music from
the Fez Festival of sacred music in Morocco (18 June); a live broadcast
concert from Ethiopia (9 July); and performances from this year's massive
Respect Festival in London (16 July).
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Sunday Feature: Somaliland
- A Relative Story
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Through the eyes of the people of Somaliland and the
Somali expat community in Wales, on 29 May Shaheera Asante
tells the extraordinary story of a land which, after almost 15 years
of relative peace and democratic stability, the international community
still refuses to recognise.
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Andy Kershaw in Mauritania
(29 May, 19 June and 17 July)
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On 29 May, the third of Radio 3's Africa Lives On
The 91Èȱ¬ weekend programmes sees Andy Kershaw visit the
Festival of Nomad Music in Mauritania, a country on the western fringe
of the Sahara Desert.
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Andy encounters an extraordinarily rich musical culture,
both at the festival and beyond, with first-class musicians that the world
has yet to discover.
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Festival performances include sets from the Nouakchott
stadium by Ooleya Mint Amartichitt and Aicha
Mint Chigaly.
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Andy also travels into the desert for a session with veteran
singer Vatma Nema and meets Med Salem Meydah,
who is known as the James Brown of Mauritania.
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Andy Kershaw continues his series of Africa Lives On The
91Èȱ¬ programmes with a concert on 19 June from the UK's oldest, and Europe's
biggest, festival devoted to African music, Africa Oyé (Listen
to Africa) in Liverpool's Sefton Park.
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The festival is a focus for Liverpool's many African communities,
particularly those from Nigeria and Ghana, and is currently linking up
schools in Liverpool and Senegal to share music and musical knowledge.
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On 17 July, Andy brings his unique mix of world music
with a show featuring highlights from Senegal event the 'African Woodstock'.
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Drama On 3: King Baabu
by Wole Soyinka (29 May)
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Radio 3 showcases King Baabu, a Drama On 3 from the Nigerian-born
Nobel prize-winning playwright, Wole Soyinka.
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This satirical play charts the debauched rule of General
Basha Bash, who takes power in a military coup and inaugurates himself
as King Baabu.
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The play, like its writer, is deeply political with clear
parallels drawn between King Baabu's regime and that of General Abacha,
who took power in Nigeria following a military coup in 1993.
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A Taste of Africa
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Presented by Fiona Talkington, A Taste
of Africa is a culmination of the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra's
hugely successful Africa week in late February/early March, which saw
the doors of Maida Vale Studios thrown open for five days of workshops,
open rehearsals and concerts celebrating the music of Africa.
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Pupils from local schools and amateur orchestras rehearsed
and performed alongside the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra.
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Some of the finest moments from the week feature in this
programme, including Walton Johannesberg Festival Overture,
traditional Ghanian music played by Keith Waith and
the Macusi Players, and a traditional Nigerian song sung by Hammersmith
Youth Choir with the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Chorus.
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It will conclude with a surprise finale.
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Night Waves
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On 26 and 27 May, a Night Waves special explores anthropology
and how it has shaped European views of Africa.
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