Presentation:

- Briefly introduce yourself, name and institution and your interest in the paper….

I found the idea both intriguing and fascinating and thought that it would open up possibilities

of engaging with the film- “Ayanda” – a film that discusses the encounters of a young woman

by name Ayanda in the vibrant and diverse cosmopolitan city of Johannesburg. I find the film

narrative structure relevant in African contemporary discourses and how it points to an

interesting effort towards self-definition, particularly with regard to mapping South African

urbanity, media culture and an African diaspora such as South Africa.

- Briefly introduce the paper and why Afrropolitanism

My paper analyzes the idea of Afropolitanism with the film Ayanda and the Mechanic as the

text of reference.

Before delving deep into the discussion of the film narrative, it is suffice to proffer a brief

definition of Afropolitanism, … a concept advanced by theorist and philosopher Achille

Mbembe. In fact, the term Afropolitanism is a subversive derivation from cosmopolitanism

and could be described as the African version of cosmopolitanism.

The concept is explained by Mbembe in a recent conversation with Sarah Balakrishnan in an

article ‘Pan-African Legacies, Afropolitan Futures’ (Transition No. 120. (2016)) as:

•“a way - the many ways - in which African, or people of African origin, understand

themselves as being part of the world rather than being apart”. He further explains,

“Afropolitanism is a name for undertaking a critical reflection on the many ways in which, in

fact, there is no world without Africa and there is no Africa that is not part of it”

For scholars like Gikandi, Afropolitanism is a projection of a “new attitude towards Africa

and the wider world in which [one] is a part”. He goes on to say, to be Afropolitan is “to be

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connected to knowable African communities, nations and traditions. It is to embrace and

celebrate a state of cultural hybridity – to be of Africa and of other worlds at the same time”

(2011: 10).

Taiye Selasi in her article “Bye-Bye Babar: or Who is the Afropolitan?”describes Afropolitans

as:

The newest generation of African emigrants, coming soon or collected already at a law

firm / chem lab / jazz lounge near you. You’ll know us by our funny blend of London

fashion, New York jargon, African ethics, and academic successes. Some of us are

ethnic mixes, e.g. Ghanaian and African American, Nigerian and Swiss; others merely

cultural mutts: American accent, European affect, African ethos. Most of us are

multilingual: in addition to English and a romantic or two, we understand indigenous

tongues and speak a few urban vernaculars. There is at least one place on the African

continent to which we tie our sense of self: be it a nation-state (Ethiopia), a city

(Ibadan), or an auntie’s kitchen… We are Afropolitans: not citizens, but Africans of the

world” (2005: paragh. 3)

Taiye Selasi conceives Afropolitanism from a complex point of contemporary visuality and

African diaspora, the cultural identities of African mixes who grow up in the diaspora as well

as the continuous displacement and mobility of African emigrants out into the West. To sum

up these three ideas, an Afropolitan is being African, African descent and in the diaspora –

someone who symbolically imagines part of his/her identity in the African continent.

Analyzing the film ‘Ayanda’

The film greatly explores Gikandi’s idea of the social roles of people’s movement across time

and space within geographical borders as the condition of possibility of an Afropolitan. Set in

the Yeoville suburb of Johannesburg, the film embraces other cultures, languages and

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celebrate a state of cultural hybridity by introducing characters from Nigeria, Angola,

Senegal, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and other African countries. Through still images from a

photographer, Anthony Billa, also known as the expressionist, the audience is made to

understand that the portraits he captures in the streets of Yeoville, represents the image of a

continent - an African continent which he intends to project worldwide.

Bill’s mission is to unravel the myth about Africa and portray a nuanced vision of what it

means to be African. While walking on the streets of Yeoville, Billa vividly captures with his

camera a contemporary view of the community and its people on the streets going about their

daily activities. His camera traces a young South African and half-Nigerian lady, Ayanda

whose dream is to revive her late Nigerian father’s old garage business, which is in debt and

at risk of being sold by her South African mother Dorothy and uncle Zama. Billa’s dream to

recreate a new Africa and give a new vision is contrary to what is often represented in

Western media. From his portraits, he envisions a new way of being African.

The question of “who the modern African is” in connection with the captured portraits in the

film depicts an embodiment of ethnic mixes from African migrants and citizens of African

countries living in Johannesburg. The portraits paint images of multi-cultural lifestyles,

fashion and design portraying a modern way of life in the streets of Johannesburg.

The deployment of these symbolic images/portraits in the film correlates with Taiye Selasi’s

description of an Afropolitan whom she observes are new generations of African emigrants

who have adopted “funny blend of London fashion, New York jargon. She emphasizes on the

cultural blend that the “women show off enormous afros, tiny t-shirts, gaps in teeth; the men

those incredible torsos unique to and common on African coastlines” (2005: paragh. 1 and 3).

Billa’s role as a photographer project the cosmopolitan society taking images representing

different identities and lifestyles of the country as the audience is introduced to a blend of

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transcultural, transnational and indeed cosmopolitan (Eze, 2014: 10) lifestyles from the

inhabitants of Yeoville.

Afropolitanism as space and special practices

From observation Yeoville is the location of a cosmopolitan African culture with continuous

influx of migrants from Angola, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe,

etc. The characters we encounter are revealed through the multi-cultural orientation of the

space. David is a Nigerian emigrant in South Africa who received a bursary at Wits

University to study law with a specialization in Human Rights. After his father got arrested in

the Niger-Delta crisis for representing the people’s violations, things become difficult for him

and he decided to migrate to South Africa. For the Afropolitan, there is always a motif for

them to leave home as Taiye Selasi posits “the young, gifted and broke left Africa in pursuit

of higher education and happiness abroad” (2005: paragh. 4). While abroad, the Afropolitan’s

dream did not seize as they search for possibilities to “set up camp” (Ibid). In pursuit of

higher education, David invites his younger brother Ayo in Nigeria to join him. Thus, he

considers South Africa as home. Blecher introduces this new character Ayo to draw the

audience attention to what really counts about South Africa: a nation whose moral obligation

is rooted to her solidarity towards other African descents. I would emphasize that being

Afropolitan is not always a comfortable identity, particularly when one thinks of the

xenophobia in South Africa, joblessness, tensions, even amongst the “Afropolitans”. She uses

Ayo to offer a divergent view of Afropolitan’s challenges. The first shot of David’s encounter

with Ayo is set in a Nigerian restaurant. The shot introduces some men and women in the

background drinking as pop music from USA plays. The music underscores the transcultural

influences impacting on present-day South African culture. The camera pan-and-zoom from

David’s position to another section in the restaurant where Ayo is seating with a friend.

(illustrate the encounter with a clip or dialogue)

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Mbembe argues that there is an “Awareness of the interweaving of the here and there, the

presence of the elsewhere in the here and vice versa, the relativisation of primary roots and

memberships and the way of embracing, with full knowledge of the facts, strangeness,

foreignness and remoteness” (Mbembe, 2007: 28). Home to the Afropolitan is ‘here’ and

‘there’ as he/she identify with many cultures. In line with Mbembe’s argument, Taiye Selasi

explains that “[w]hile our parents claim one country as home, we must define our relationship

to the places we live” (2005). Some of the Afropolitans like David and his younger brother

were bred in Nigeria and then they moved to South Africa. They grow up aware of ‘being

from’ a blighted place, of having last names from countries which are linked to lack,

corruption” (Ibid). Thus, Yeoville is a space where its inhabitants from across borders

between African countries and abroad constitute a pan-Africanist kind of thinking/perspective

that this is beyond South Africa, it is wide and more cosmopolitan.

Afopolitans solidarity

David who had travelled out of Nigeria to get a better life began working as a mechanic in

Ayanda’s garage. He is hard working and committed to his job as a mechanic “like so many

African young people working and living in cities around the globe, they belong to no single

geography, but feel at home in many.” (Taiye Selasi, 2005: paragh. 2). David feels at home in

the garage with Ayanda and Zoum (who he sees as a brother).

Together with David and Zoum, they spend days and nights to realize Ayanda’s dream. They

demonstrated a transnational solidarity of physical and moral support among themselves.

David’s commitment in his job is significant because as a Nigerian, achievement is what they

aim for when performing any task. To make Ayanda happy, he decides to withdraw the offer

at Wits University in order to fully support her in transforming the garage. David’s final

decision to go back to school in the end negates the idea that those who migrate to South

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Africa do not do it because they want to survive or to cheat but to actually study and live

decent. This aspect gives an alternative of the stereotype of the Nigerian whom we would

have expected to con Ayanda but, he does not. To the contrary, he becomes the pillar for her

success and struggle. David in this film is depicted as one who accepts the other and

acknowledge their challenges as part of his. Mbembe refers to this in his interpretation of

Afropolitanism as the ability to ‘recognize one’s face in that of a foreigner’ (2007: 28).

Blecher uses the personality of Ayanda and other women to portray key aspects of an

Afropolitan identity. The film is largely a feminine narrative where a woman’s body goes

through the process of questioning her identity and eventually transcending the traditional

definition of a woman. In the film narrative, it has been eight years since Ayanda’s father,

Moses passed on in the garage. She took over the business and continued managing it with

financial support from her uncle Zama. Unfortunately, he can no longer support her because

the garage has been running on debts. As such, he convinces Ayanda’s mother to sell the

garage. Unlike Ayanda who is enthusiastic in maintaining the garage, her mother is very

traditional about it as men’s job and would not want to get involved: she accepts Zama’s

proposal to sell the garage. Ironically, she and Moses had plans to franchise the business

while he was alive, but, she stopped visiting the business after his death. Ayanda is against

this idea and insist on keeping the garage because it is her father’s memory.

The performance of Ayanda’s identity actually defines who she is as the woman who goes

beyond the traditional African concept were women tend to be submissive. Her position as a

woman growing up in this traditional African society where certain roles ascribed to men like

running a garage for instance, form a unique identity of herself as Afropolitan when she

boldly informs her mother and uncle that the garage is her dad’s. Therefore, she must find a

way to revive it. Her decision to challenge certain cultural constructs resonates Eze’s idea

that “the Afropolitan seeks to go beyond the confines of ascribed identities, and makes room

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for how she feels and perceives herself” (2014: 11) by transcending specific local

geographies. Ayanda transcends the norm in her community where the mother is to some

extent submissive. She explores the world as one would say, she bursts out of the dungeon

cell to create her own space because she is obviously cosmopolitan or in other words

Afropolitan.

Sophie (Ayanda’s relation) is another interesting character who represents new possibilities

within this new South Africa in the film. In her teenage, she already starts going through her

late mother’s dresses to try them on. She wants to fit into the category of grown-ups. Despite

her age, she wants to identify with adulthood. Just like Ayanda, she begins to wonder if her

mother’s memories would become alive. Her concern for the mother, and vision of bringing

her past memories alive, make her go through the family photo album. The thought of

connecting with her late mother enhances a sense of identity at the individual and

interpersonal level. Her actions also gestures towards the sense of Afropolitanism.

What typifies Sophie as Afropolitan living within a cosmopolitan South Africa is her ability

to observe what is ailing in her home, alongside the desire to embrace what is wonderful and

unique as Taiye observes: “Rather than essentialising the geographical entity, we seek to

comprehend the cultural complexity; to honor the intellectual and spiritual legacy; and to

sustain our parents’ cultures (Taiye: 2005: paragh. 7). However, by the end of the film,

Ayanda successfully resolves Sophie’s angst about missing her mum by informing her that

she does not have to miss her so long as she keeps her where she is. Symbolically,

Afropolitans must define relationships in the places where they live. Thus, Afropolitanism is

moving beyond the local and embracing Africanism and a more global African space like

Yeoville and Johannesburg which are cosmopolitan/metropolitan spaces that allow for the

realization of Afropolitanism.

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Conclusion

The portrayal of the characters as agents of African transformation in the film discussed

above indicates that South Africa urban cities are relevant in reading Afropolitanism because

its ‘glocal’ citizens are cultural and multilingual hybrids, embrace challenges and exercise

transnational solidarity. Blecher’s vision, although utopian to a larger extent, is challenging in

its conceptualisation and technical applications. Compellingly narrated with its idea of

Afropolitanism aptly achieved through the protagonists, Ayanda and the Mechanic, it drives

the reader to see the South African society in its potential to move beyond Africa and to

belong to other worlds at the same time with meaningful relationships based on common

goals.

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Overviw of Yeoville

Towards the end of the 19th century, Johannesburg witness boom in its economy with the
creation of mining companies. The mines attracted many people from other parts of South
Africa and worldwide who migrated to Johannesburg for job opportunities and to provide more
services to promote the economic sector. As urban Johannesburg saw increase in its
population, crowd and insecurity become a problem to the wealthy residents. New areas
around Johannesburg were constructed to provide homes away from the unsecure mines.
Yeoville become one of the sites. It was designed to attract the upper and white middle class
residents who needed a clam and secured place. However, the wealthy class lived in Yeoville
temporarily and relocated to other modern suburbs in the north of Johannesburg when they
began to experience influx of the lower middle and working class into Yeovile.

The continuous relocation of these residents offered opportunities to migrant from

neighboring suburbs to occupy abandoned homes and apartments. This led to a rapid

transformation in Yeoville as those occupying the abandoned homes become landlords.

Houses were affordable and people could host friends and relatives out of Johannesburg in

search of better opportunities. In this light, Yeoville become a hotspot for clubs, cafes and

other businesses which, attracted many people including writers and young film enthusiasts

who saw the possibility for new insights into the different services available on the busy

streets and the commercial centre.