ARC Magazine announces a partnership with the Youth-INVisions project which will culminate in the production of 30 webisodes highlighting the lives and stories of exceptional youth who are changing the course of their region.
Description: Are you motivated to tell your story and do you want to engage in a wider conversation with other youth about key issues that affect your daily life? If you are doing something empowering in your community and country, why not share it with the rest of the world and inspire others!
Youth-IN Visions and ARC Magazine present an open call to all youth ages15-29 who want to participate in the development of their life-stories while sharing their views on the current conditions that may persist in their respective nations. Ideal subjects will be involved in various activities including, by not limited to, the arts, literature, culture, sciences, politics, tourism heritage, gender and equality, entrepreneurship, environmental protection, and energy conservation.
To support and motivate the development of supplementary reading materials for a critical stage of learning-the transition period between mother tongue and English medium instruction.
To strengthen the English language skills of its reading audience and help foster improved skill levels and enthusiasm for reading.
To stimulate and support the African publishing industry and African literature.
To increase the stock of English readers in established school libraries and other libraries in Tanzania.
To recognize excellence in young adult fiction from Africa.
CRITERIA FOR MANUSCRIPTS
The story should be prose fiction containing content and language appropriate for upper primary school pupils, thus youth between 12-15 years old.
The story should be written in English.
The story should be prose fiction containing content and language appropriate for ages 12 – 15.
The story should demonstrate a sound command of English, through clear, cohesive language and proper sentence structure, vocabulary and punctuation.
The story should have a strong literacy merit including;
Engaging characters with whom young readers can identify and protagonists who overcome challenges or obstacles in a positive way.
A well-developed plot with a good flow of events.
The story should inspire Tanzanian children and youth to read.
The story should have an excellent storytelling style e.g. strong imagery, lively dialogue, and vivid description to arouse young readers’ interest and curiosity and keep them turning pages.
The story should reflect current issues and challenges of concern to contemporary Tanzania.
Manuscripts which have the potential to evolve into a book series or sequel will be welcome.
MODALITY OF SUBMISSION
Publishers shall submit manuscripts on behalf of authors. A publisher is eligible to submit up to 3 manuscripts annually for the competition. Manuscripts will be prepared in collaboration from the start by authors with their publishers. This is a deliberate measure to ensure that the submitted manuscripts are edited to a great extent before they are submitted for consideration.
COMPETITION STIPULATIONS
Authors must be residents and nationals of Tanzania.
Winning authors from the previous year’s competition are not permitted to submit a manuscript until the following year in order to and avoid monopoly of the award by the same.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION GUIDE
The length of the manuscript should be between 30,000-40,000 words (equivalent to approximately 90-120 pages)
The manuscript should be in chapter form
The manuscript should be type-written and double spaced
The font type should be Times New Roman, font size 12
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION
All manuscripts should be submitted to the Children’s Book Project office by 26th of March 2012 at 14:00 , including a soft copy to cbpvitabu@yahoo.com.
JURYING PROCESS
Manuscripts will be reviewed by a qualified jury and assessed on the criteria set out above. The jury will determine a short-list of titles eligible to win prizes once they are further edited and published into books.
PUBLISHING OF MANUSCRIPTS: FROM MANUSCRIPT TO PUBLISHED BOOK
Shortlisted manuscripts will be furthered rewritten and edited by the authors with their publishers. Only once the titles are fully edited and in published book format will they be reviewed again by the jury to award first, second and third prize. There is no guarantee that shortlisted titles will win prizes. Only those that are of the highest quality are worthy and eligible of being prize winners.
AWARDS FOR WINNING AUTHORS
1st Prize in Canadian $9,000
2nd Prize in Canadian $7,000
3rd Prize in Canadian $5,000
Guaranteed Purchase of Winning Titles
As part of the Award, publishers will receive a guaranteed purchase of a portion of three-fifths of the printed copies produced. Those copies purchased by CBP through the Award will be distributed to the Children’s Book Project’s network of supported schools and other community libraries. The publishers will be responsible for making the other copies available to the general public.
NOTE: CBP invites writers who need assistance in promoting their writing to publishers to contact CBP who can help facilitate manuscripts being sent to publishers for their consideration.
Welcome to the 20th annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest sponsored by Tom Howard Books. Any type of original short story, essay or other work of prose is eligible. Prizes totaling $5,550 will be awarded, including a top prize of $3,000. Click here to read winning entries from the past.
Submission Period Entries accepted July 15, 2011-March 31, 2012 (postmark dates). Early submission is encouraged.
The 20th contest is not yet open, and the rules below may change. Please wait until July 15 or later to submit.
However, if you are here to complete an entry for the 19th contest initiated before April 1, you may proceed.
--> What to Submit Short stories, essays or other works of prose, up to 5,000 words each. There are no restrictions on style or theme. Each entry should be your own original work. You may submit the same work simultaneously to this contest and to others, and you may submit works that have been published or won prizes elsewhere, as long as you own the online publication rights. See our FAQ for additional details.
Prizes and Publication First prize: $3,000. Second prize: $1,000. Third prize: $400. Fourth prize: $250. There will also be six Most Highly Commended Awards of $150 each. The top 10 entries will be published on the Winning Writers website (over one million page views per year) and announced in Tom Howard Contest News and the Winning Writers Newsletter, a combined audience of over 40,000 readers.
Entry Fee The reading fee is $15 per entry. This covers your submission of one short story or prose work of up to 5,000 words. Contestants may submit as many entries as they like. Please note: Generally entry fees are not refundable. However, if you believe you have an exceptional circumstance, please contact us within one year of your entry.
Deadline March 31, 2012. Your entry must be postmarked or submitted online by this date.
Announcement of Results Read the winning entries from the 19th contest here. The winners of the 20th contest will be announced on September 15, 2012. Entrants with valid email addresses will receive an email notification.
English Language Writers of all nations may enter. However, the works you submit should be in English. If you have written a work in another language, you may submit an English translation. You may also submit a translation of a work that is in the public domain.
Privacy Your privacy is assured. Neither Winning Writers nor Tom Howard Books will rent your information to third parties. Winning Writers processes entries and fees for this contest as a service to Tom Howard Books. Winning Writers is not a sponsor and does not judge the entries.
Copyright If your entry wins any cash prize, you agree to give both John H. Reid and Winning Writers a nonexclusive license to publish your work online. From time to time, selected winning entries may also be published in printed collections (for example, Watching Time). If you win a prize, we may ask you for permission to include your entry in one of these books. You may accept or decline this invitation as you choose. Your choice won't affect your prize status. Your entry will not be published in print without your consent, and you retain all other rights. You are free, for example, to publish your work in print or online elsewhere, and to enter it into other contests, whether or not you win a prize in this contest.
Judges Final judge John Howard Reid has won first prizes and other awards in prestigious literary events. A former journalist and magazine editor, he has published several historical novels, a collection of poetry, a guide to winning literary contests, and over fifty books of film criticism and movie history. See his work at Lulu. He lives in Wyong, Australia. Mr. Reid is assisted in the judging by Dee C. Konrad. A leading educator and published author, Mrs. Konrad was Associate Professor in the English faculty of Barat College of DePaul University, and served as Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences for the year 2000-2001.
Sus is an engrossing racial drama we've profiled a number of times here on S&A. In fact, you can read a review by Tambay HERE. It screened at several film festivals last year including the Pan African Film Festival and New Voices In Black Cinema Festival. Now, you finally get to see it for yourself thanks to Hulu.
Based on a play written by Barrie Keeffe, the film was directed by Robert Heath and stars Clint Dyer.
A quick recap of the story...
"1979: Election Night- A police interview room. Delroy's pregnant white wife has been found dead in a pool of blood and he is brought in as the chief suspect. He is interrogated by D.S. Karn, a witty, psychotic racist and his violent sidekick D.C. Wilby. Both high on the prospect of a Conservative landslide victory they try to lure him into a quick confession. But racial profiling turns to callous humiliation and quickly gives way to a barrage of sinister violence. All of this ultimately leads to a shocking and devastating conclusion."
Congrats to Ugandan Donald Mugisha whose feature film project, The Boda Boda Thieves, won the 10,000 EuroVFF Highlight Pitch Award at the the 10th edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus last month.
The participants of the Talent Project Market had the opportunity to present their film projects in a professional setting, to potential international co-producers and distributors, and the project apparenatly wowed enough to beat out dozens of others for the winning prize.
Recall I first profiled director Mugisha and his Boda Boda Thieves feature film last fall; at the time, it was one of just 5 projects selected by the World Cinema Fund to receive production funding from its allotted $283,000 grant.
Donald's project, which he will direct, received the largest chunk of the fund - $81,000, as South Africa based Switch Films signed on to produce.
In addition to those funds, and his winnings from the Belinale last month, Donald's project has also received funding from other financiers, including at the third Africa Produce Co-Production Forum of the 8th Tarifa African Film Festival (FCAT) in Spain, where the project secured a co-production deal with the Kenyan company Hot Sun Films.
The film also received special mention in the the International Relations ARTE Prize for excellence in script writing.
So it looks like the project is coming together nicely, and it's something we'll be talking about likely in 2013.
The film's synopsis reads:
When Goodman gets a job for his son Abel as driver of a motorbike taxi or “Boda-Boda”, he feels like things are possibly finally going his way, that is, until a gang of thieves robs Abel of his treasured motorbike. We follow Goodman and his son Abel on their quest through the city to find their “Boda Boda” and in the process gain an insider’s view of urban Africa, its underworld and the generation gap between urban migrants and their first generation children.
Sounds like a Ugandan take on the Italian neo-realist classic Bicycle Thieves, by Vittorio De Sica.
I'm in! :)
Donald Mugisha is a name I'm already tracking closely, as I am The Boda Boda Thieves.
In the meantime, watch this 12-minute interview with Donald done earlier last year at Tarifa, as he discussed his project, as well as filmmaking in his native Uganda, financing, distribution, and more. It's worth a look.
Timely, as one short documentary that spreads the word about Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and his burtal child soldiers campaign goes viral today...
A Tribeca Film Festival 2012 selection (this years lineup was announced yesterday and I've been highlighting titles in S&A's interest), it's titled War Witch (or Rebelle), with a synopsis that reads as follows:
At 14, Komona has lived through horrors that eclipse any adult’s worst nightmares. In this mesmerizing, otherworldly drama, shot entirely in the Congo, she confides to the baby growing inside of her the harrowing story of her life since rebel warlords stormed her village. Fortified by eerily mystical powers and the warming friendship of an albino boy, the sensitive girl battles through this dire, war-ravaged world enchained as a child soldier.
Directed by Kim Nguyen, this Tribeca screening will be the film's North American premiere after EFM (European Film Market) exposure last month.
I haven't seen it yet, but the film seems like it touches on a number of themes/subjects - war, child soldiers, mysticism/mythology... and the fact the a young girl is at the fore is of note.
I'm almost always impulsively weary of films like this, especially when produced by filmmakers who isn't of the particular region the film and its story are set. And it's not a knock at all on the filmmaker; instead call it a knee-jerk reaction inspired by similar past films made under similar circumstances that have disappointed;
But I'm glad to see that there isn't the usual white American/Euopean protagnist who swoops in to make things all better.
By now you’ve probably seen the new Kony 2012 video from the Invisible Children organization (already headed towards at the 4 million mark within two days of being posted – the original movie came out in 2006) or if not seen #Kony2012 trending, along with #Uganda and #LRA, and wondered what in heck happened?
If not, brace yourselves, because this is one bumpy ride.
In a year that folk in the US should be concentrating on the polls, their economy, the rights of women (cue Sandra Fluke to center stage) and any manner of issues that can consume a society, they are now being asked to support a crazy activist campaign. Crazy in that once again Africans are being made to look like they need saving by yet another White person with a saviour-narcissist complex. And complex it truly is, as you will read in various of the posts that I will link to. It is too complex an issue for only the Invisible Children organization to be visible in its treatment, but it also owes the critical mass of attention it’s currently receiving to that organization.
Simply put: the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel group led by one Joseph Kony, who for over 25 years abducted boys in northern Uganda to become his soldiers, and girls to be sex slaves. At this point, you must know Kony is one hideous, hideous man. No question. And anybody would want to stop him. Yet the timing of this IC campaign is suspicious – why on earth does the IC lead saviour campaigner, former child soldier Jacob’s best friend in the whole world, not explain that Kony is no longer involved in Uganda, and that no one knows where he is? Why is the IC funding the Ugandan military, and how are we even going to sit here through the days of AFRICOM and pretend like the US government and its army are simply ‘advisers’? Why does this campaign look like only Americans can save Ugandans/Africans, when meanwhile Ugandans have been saving and helping themselves for many years? Completely nuts.
Crazy in that this hipster almost all-white movement’s axis point, the video that went viral in a day, comes at a crucial time in American politics. A time when the questions asked by some are why neo-colonialist assumptions about the rightness of aid and awareness are no longer finding easy answers. And as Africans we are asking ourselves why now? Before any of you get excited, or don’t, for whatever reason, there are some very real points to take into consideration. From a Ugandan’s perspective like Musa Okwonga’s (he has family ties to the region in question) to Solomme Lemma’s take on this campaign, there are some very strong points to be made about why supporting the Kony2012 campaign is the wrong idea.
Like I said it’s all too complex, and I have my own opinions on the various branches of the story. But suffice to say that the crazy campaign that is Kony2012 is a reflection of white America’s ongoing internal battle: it wants to be seen as ‘the good guy’ always. The white saviour mentality is strong in this IC guy, and even his film exposes this. But that’s just my opinion, I really would like yours.
You must have heard of the viral video created by Invisible Children (IC), a U.S. organization that has launched a one-year campaign (expires December 31, 2012) to eliminate Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group in Northern Uganda that has been embroiled in civil conflict with the Ugandan government for 25+ years. The LRA has admittedly used atrocious tactics such as abductions to engage children in conflict, using boys as soldiers and girls as sex slaves. Needless to say, Kony and LRA must go. That’s where my agreement begins and ends with Invisible Children’s work. I appreciate the organization’s commitment to the issue and can see its good intent, but I strongly question the group’s approach, strategy, and work. Below are some of the reasons why.
Lack of context and nuance:in the video, the founder of Invisible Children tells his young son that Kony is a bad guy and he must go.Daddy will work on making sure he is caught. He states, “if we succeed, we change the course of human history.” Such a humble undertaking! Simply, a long socioeconomic and political conflict that has lasted 25+ years and engaged multiple states and actors has been reduced to a story of the good vs bad guy. And if a three-year-old can understand it, so can you. You don’t have to learn anything about the children, Uganda, or Africa. You just have to make calls, put up flyers, sings songs, and you will liberate a poor, forgotten, and invisible people.
This approach obviously denies realities on the ground, inflates fantasies abroad, and strips Ugandans of their agency, dignity and humanity- the complexity of their story and history. The work, consequence, and impact are all focused on Uganda, but the agency, accountability, and resources lie among young American students. Clearly a dangerous imbalance of power and influence; one that can have adverse lasting effects on how and what people know of Uganda.It reduces the story of Northern Uganda, and perhaps even all of Uganda, into the dreaded single narrative of need and war, followed by western resolve and rescue. As we have seen from the past, without nuance and context, these stories stick in the collective memory of everyday people for years in their simplest forms: Uganda becomes wretched war. Whatever good IC may advance in raising more awareness on the issue or even contributing to the capture of Joseph Kony, it can never do enough to erase this unintended (I hope) impact.
Invisible to whom:these children have been very visible to their communities for years. After all, they’re somebody’s child, brother, sister, friend, niece, nephew, or neighbor. They’ve been visible to the shopkeepers and vendors in town who protected them. They’ve been visible to the family members who lost them and the community that cared for them. It’s because they’re so visible that Concerned Parents Association opened its doors in the 1990’s, after LRA abducted about 200 girls from a secondary school dormitory, to advocate for and bring to international light their plight. It’s because they’re visible that young people, including returnees from abductions, started Concerned Children and Youth Association. They’re visible to the people that matter, but apparently not to IC. The language we use in social change often denotes the approach we take, even if subconsciously. Since the children appear to be invisible to IC, then perhaps it’s clear why they’re represented as voiceless, dependent, and dis-empowered.
The dis-empowering and reductive narrative: the Invisible Children narrative on Uganda is one that paints the people as victims, lacking agency, voice, will, or power. It calls upon an external cadre of American students to liberate them by removing the bad guy who is causing their suffering. Well, this is a misrepresentation of the reality on the ground. Fortunately, there are plenty of examples of child and youth advocates who have been fighting to address the very issues at the heart of IC’s work. Want evidence? In addition to the organizations I list above, also look at Art for Children, Friends of Orphans, and Children Chance International. It doesn’t quiet match the victim narrative, does it? I understand that IC is a US-based organization working to change US policy. But, it doesn’t absolve it from the responsibility of telling a more complete story, one that shows the challenges and trials along side the strength, resilience, and transformational work of affected communities.
Revival of the White savior:if you have watched the Invisible Children video and followed the organization’s work in the past, you will note a certain messianic/savior undertone to it all. “I will do anything I can to stop him,” declares the founder in the video. It’s quite individualistic and reeks of the dated colonial views of Africa and Africans as helpless beings who need to be saved and civilized. Where in that video do you see the agency of Ugandans? Where in that Video do you see Jacob open his eyes wide at the mere possibility of his own strength, as Jennifer Lentfer of How Matters describes here? Can we point out the problem with having one child speak on the desires, dreams, and hopes of a whole nation? I don’t even want to mention the paternalistic tone with which Jacob and Uganda (when did it become part of central Africa by the way?) are described, not excluding the condescending use of subtitles for someone who is clearly speaking English.
How many times in history do we have to see this model to know that it doesn’t work? Even if IC succeeds in bringing about short-term change (i.e. increased awareness or even the killing of Kony) it won’t eliminate Northern Uganda’s problems overnight. It won’t heal and sustain communities. In this era of protest and the protester, we have seen that change is best achieved when it comes from within. Let Ugandans champion their own, IC!
Privilege of giving: that was quiet a 30-minute production? Where did they get the resources? How do they have that reach? Well, in the nonprofit world, the one thing that we have to learn, especially as Africans, is that privilege begets privilege. The IC video is another reminder of the ways in which privilege infiltrates the social justice world and determines the voices and organizations that are heard; simply those that can afford to be heard. There are several local organizations that could offer a nuanced and contextualized perspective on and solutions to the Northern Uganda conflict. They don’t have IC’s reach. They simple weren’t born into the world of financial, racial, social, and geopolitical privilege IC members are.
Lack of Africans in leadership: Invisible Children’s US staff is comprised exclusively of Americans, as is the entire Board. How do you represent Uganda and not have Ugandans in leadership? Couldn’t the organization find a single Ugandan? An African? Did it even think about that? Does that matter to current staff and board members? I understand that IC’s main audience is American and its focus is on American action. However, when your work and consequence affect a different group of people than your target audience, you must make it a priority to engage the voices of the affected population in a real and meaningful way, in places and spaces where programs are designed, strategies dissected, and decisions are made.
Clearly, I think people should work across borders to address global issues. Obviously, there is a role for Americans in this issue. The problem here is the lack of balance on who speaks for Uganda (and Africa) and how. We need approaches that are strategic and respectful of the local reality, that build on the action and desires of local activists and organizers, and act as partners and allies, not owners and drivers. When it comes to Africa, we have seen the IC approach play out time and time again, whether it was Ethiopia in the 1980s, Somalia in the early 2000s to date, Darfur in 2004, or now. History is on our side and it shows that these types of approaches often fail. At some point, we have to say enough is enough. Africans, raise your voice! Now and into the future.
While I agree that the point of the article is to raise questions — a practice I support — the photograph, even when making that point, continues to perpetuate misinformation and to mythologize the film makers as bad asses, a practice I do not support. While the photo can be used to criticize them, there are a whole lot of teenagers in Iowa thinking to themselves right now, “Awesome!”
But, here we are, the photo is up and all over the internetz, and Vice has agreed to add a caption for some context, attribution, etc.
My doubts about this photo persist. I have put up other photographs of white people doing different stuff in Africa before. And, at a different moment in my thinking on these things I did share this photo with Wronging Rights.
Recently, though, I’ve hoped to explore the idea of the privilege outsiders are granted with nuance and a soft touch that leaves room for ambiguity. For more on this, please read my post “On bias, subjectivity, and deeply personal photography.”
This photo doesn’t do that — it just contributes to the stereotypes of kids messing stuff up by showing the worst of the worst and showing it without context. And worse yet, it adds to the Invisible Children bad ass mythology even while attempting to cast doubt on their practices.
So, some context: Sudan-Congo border, April 2008. We’re all bored out of our minds waiting for endlessly stalled peace talks to resume. Invisible Children dudes have some fun by posing with SPLA soldiers. I uncomfortably photograph them having said amount of fun. Later, I worked with a colleague to try and publish a story about what we saw as their questionable practices, but we couldn’t get a publication to bite. Now, perhaps that’d be different, and at the end of the day, I do hope that all of this can make us look at Invisible Children with a more critical stance.
A singer, dancer and bandleader, Cab led one of the most popular African American big bands during the jazz and swing eras of the 1930s-40s, with Harlem’s famous Cotton Club as his home stage. Best known for his “Hi de hi de hi de ho” refrain from signature song “Minnie the Moocher,” portrayal of Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess (1952), and role in The Blues Brothers (1980), Cab influenced countless performers, including Michael and Janet Jackson, and many of today’s hip-hop artists.
Watch the full one hour documentary Cab Calloway: Sketches below.
<p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #808080; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 512px;">Watch Cab Calloway: Sketches on PBS. See more from American Masters.</p>
Judges
Contributor
