A Taste Of Africa

African is on a cultural visit in Sweden. This is a unique occasition when African movies are shown in Swedish theatres and biographs in a season of 11 days starting from yesterday the 7th feb. Its quite an experince and is advisable for one to make a date and remember the life we once lived. On their website Cinema Africa, is all the necessary inform you would need about the program the movies and other presentations planned for this season. Below is a little inform about Cinema Africa.

CINEMAFRICA - African films in Sweden

CinemAfrica, Sweden is a non-profit film association with the main purpose to promote films from Africa made by Africans. We do that by organizing film festivals, seminars and we also offer screenings to universities and high schools. Our wish is to show Africa through African eyes and enlighten viewers about the complex reality of today’s Africa.

Sweden is dominated by mainstream cinema; we are confined to a European- and/or American-centric world-view. There are few opportunities to see African films in Sweden. We want to change that.

We show distinguished titles made by African moviemakers and we select the works mainly from festivals like Fespaco in Burkina Faso and Sithengi in South Africa.

CinemAfrica is looking for new films

CinemAfrica is looking for submissions of films produced and directed by African filmmakers. We are interested in full-length feature films, short films and documentaries.

Please send an e-mail with a short synopsis, production information, CV of director and producer together with your contact information.
Our festival is held every year. In between festivals we organize single screenings and seminars on relevant issues.

CinemAfrica’s main purpose is to inform and to entertain the audience.

Screening fees are paid, and occasionally directors are invited to our festivals.

Njoro

Osaka 2007 - Ndereba powers to marathon gold

Kenya’s Catherine Ndereba powered to her second World Championship marathon gold medal with a perfectly executed run.
ATHLETICS 2007 Osaka 2007 Women’s Marathon final Ndereba - 0

Lagat bids to add the men’s 5,000 metres title to the 1,500, while Wariner and Felix go in the 4×400 relays which provide the climax to the nine-day competition in Osaka.

The men’s 800 metres and javelin and women’s 1,500m and high jump finals also take place

Earlier, Kenya’s Catherine Ndereba powered to her second World Championship marathon gold medal with a perfectly executed run.

Ndereba, who also won gold in 2003 and took silver in 2005, hit the front at the 36km mark and surged clear over the last two kilometres to clock two hours 30 minutes 37 seconds in Osaka.

China’s Zhou Chunxiu claimed silver in 2:30.45 and Japan’s Reiko Tosa rallied to take bronze in a time of 2:30.55 and earn the host country its first medal of the championships.

“Some people said after I didn’t win in Athens or Helsinki ‘Catherine is finished’ - but I showed them that with the help of God I can win again,” Ndereba said.

“I was feeling cramps in my leg at the end. I was trying to control the race and observe where the Chinese runner was. It was the toughest marathon of my career. It was so hot.”

Ndereba’s victory made it a marathon double for Kenya after Luke Kibet ended the country’s 20-year wait for gold in the men’s marathon on the opening day.

While slightly cooler than the brutal conditions for the men’s marathon last weekend, runners were sucking on cold sponges between water pick-ups.

Russia’s Galina Bogomolova was one of several runners who fell victim to the intense humidity, collapsing by the roadside and needing an oxygen mask to revive her.

Ten runners failed to finish the race and two were taken to hospital as a precaution.

Ndereba, however, was a picture of calm behind her sunglasses, the 2004 Olympic silver medallist content to glide along behind the leading pack for the first 30km.

The 35-year-old, who took silver in 2005 behind Britain’s Paula Radcliffe, moved menacingly through the gears in the last 10km to strike the first psychological blow.

Ndereba kicked for home after 39km with Zhou struggling to cling on. Zhou, who won this year’s London Marathon, comfortably took silver to add to her gold at the 2006 Asian Games.

“I hurt my right ankle in China a week before the championships and near the end it started to hurt,” said Zhou.

“The injury cut short my preparation so it feels okay to get silver. At next year’s Olympics everything will work in my favour being in my home country.”

Tosa’s bronze was arguably more significant, securing her place on Japan’s team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as breaking the host nation’s medal drought in Osaka.

She had to dig deep after fading around the 39km mark but, roared on by thousands of flag-waving fans along the route, she clawed her way past Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo for third place.

“The support gave me a real push in the end,” said a shattered Tosa, who won silver at the 2001 World Championships.

“I’m so relieved. I knew I couldn’t give up on a medal. I was just running on spirit in the end.”

Gold Gold And Gold!!!

The gold rain continues in Osaka, Japan for Kenyans!

Kenyans continue to show their capabilities in athletics, dominating in longer distance running.

At the time i was writting this, Kenya was at the top with 3 gold medals, one silver and two bronze!!!
Its good also to remember Kenya came second in junior olimpics held in Africa about two months ago. It looks like good tidings are back and this could be as a result of good governance and the political change back home. The infamous ‘bought away’ Kenyans seem to have defficulty trying to catching up with Kenyas patriotic athletes even with their good monetary packages.

Congratulations to (below)Brimin Kipruto( gold) Ezekiel Kemboi (silver) Richard Mateelong (bronze) in steeplechase and (above) golden girl Janeth Jepkosgei in 800m!!

Kenya prides on!!!

Njoro

First Gold For Kenya!!!

Osaka 2007 - Kibet wins marathon gold

Luke Kibet ended Kenya’s 20-year wait for a men’s world marathon title with a comfortable victory in the first event of the 11th World Championships.

The 24-year-old prison guard overcame searing heat and high humidity to clinch gold in 2:15.59.
Kenyan-born Qatari Mubarak Hassan Shami took silver, more than a minute behind his former compatriot in 2:17:18, and Swiss Viktor Roethlin came through to finish third in 2:17:25.

“I’m happy and I am proud to win the gold medal for my country,” Kibet said. “It’s been a long time for Kenya without the gold medal in marathon.”

Kibet made his move after 90 minutes on the road, breaking free of compatriot William Kiplagat, Shami and Eritrean Yared Asmarom in the leading group.

“We were going so slow, I thought if we kept up that pace it would be a 2.20 or 2.30 time so I decided to go,” Kibet added.

By the 35km mark, Kibet had opened up a 23-second lead over Shami and he loped unchallenged across the line at the Nagai stadium to become the first Kenyan man to win the world marathon title since Douglas Wakiihuri in Rome in 1987.

The field set off at 0700 local time to avoid the worst of the searing heat but the temperature climbed steadily from 28 degrees Celsius at the start and at least one competitor was taken from the course on a stretcher.

Given the conditions, it was no surprise that the leaders took more than 16 minutes to reach the 5km mark and a quick time was never a realistic prospect.

Nobody was prepared to go out on their own and the leading 25 runners were separated by less than a minute as Uganda’s Alex Malinga led the field until just after the 20km mark.
Kibet, Kiplagat, Asmarom and Shami slowly pulled away but when Kibet broke clear none of his rivals was able to go with him.

Shami, formerly Richard Yatich, said he was carrying an injury and had not felt confident of winning a medal.

“When [Kibet] started to go, I felt in my legs that I could not match him,” he said. “In the end, the legs were just not moving.”

Japan retained the World Marathon Cup title, in which the rankings are decided by the combined times of the top three finishers from each country. Tsuyoshi Ogata, Satoshi Osaki and Toshinara Suwa finished fifth, sixth and seventh to clinch the cup for the hosts.

Lifted from Eurosport.com by Njoro

My Expression: Thanks to people like Kibet, it feels great to be a Kenyan! Kenya and Kenyans are proud of Kibet! Way to go!!

Worth Knowing; The Yazidi

The total death toll in northern Iraq has now risen to 344 and 400 injured. The horrible and unexplainable attacks on the minority Yazidis has caused special attention by being one of the highest numbers of casualties since the Iraqi war began in 2003. Also the fact that the little known religious group, the Yazidis, are not part of the conflict and are not involved in the on going battles between the US and its allies and terrorist groups in Iraq.

The Yazidis are said to be a small community of quiet, polite and almost always nervous people. The first time they hit the news was when a teenage girl was stoned to death for having a relationship with a Muslim boy. The video tape of the stoning was distributed through the internet causing world wide criticism of the inhuman action. The family of the boy in question in turn killed ten young men for taking part in the stoning.

Yazidi is a religion older than Islam. The Yazidis believe in God as the supreme might and has prophets featured in both the bible and the Quran. This old religion is almost extinct with only 500,000 members worldwide. The blow by the bombs in the heart of this small community was devastating and senseless.

The Yazidi differ with Christianity in that they believe that Malak Taus, who become Lucifer, was actually forgiven by God after the fallout and is back in heaven working with God. Its through him that they pray to God. Because of this the neighbouring communities regard them as devil worshipers.

KEY FACTS: THE YAZIDIS
-Religious sect found in northern Iraq, Syria and the Caucasus
-Number about 500,000 worldwide, but largest number in northern Iraq
-Doctrine is an amalgam of pagan, Sabean, Shamanistic, Manichean, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian and Islamic elements
-Yazidis believe in a Supreme God, but do not believe in evil, sin, hell or the devil
-Violation of divine laws can be expiated by metempsychosis, or the transferring of a soul from one body to another
-Principal divine figure, Malak Taus (Peacock Angel), is the supreme angel of the seven angels who ruled the universe after it was created by God.

By Njoro.