35C3 - Afroroutes: Africa Elsewhere

35C3 preroll music

Herald: Most recently in South Africa, it
was an awesome experience, awesome people,

awesome culture but while I only
experienced the tourists way, Sélim Harbi

brings us the local guide culture. Sélim
allows an immersive and almost physical

experience of the African identity. Please
welcome on stage Sélim Harby and

Afroroutes.
Applause

Sélim: Hi, can you hear me? So first of
all thank you very much to be here.

I wasn't expecting so much crowd. So again,
give a big applause for yourself. Thank

you very, very much to be here. Applause
And thank you for the CCC. It's the first time I'm

here and really experiencing something
totally new for me. And thank you for the

curators. Thank you for really giving me
the stage to explore with you further this

project which is Afroroutes. First of all,
I want to tell you something which is very

personal. The very first time when I was
in Africa, in North Africa, I was invited

for a ceremony, a ritual, in Morocco. This
ceremony is Gnaoua. I don't know if you

heard about it. So basically I was
surrounded by African descendants and I

knew that those descendants are slave
descendants that has been transported and

displaced from sub-Saharan Africa to
Morocco. So this ceremony was a pretty

powerful for me. The more I asked the
question about what is the purpose of

this, why are you doing that. I really
started to explore the history of Africa

through that. So a couple of years after
that I was luckily able to be in Brazil in

Salvador de Bahía. I was also invited to a
kind of ceremony called Candomblé, I don't

know if some of you heard about it, and
the thing is that during the Candomblé

ritual they were explaining me that, we do
that just to reconnect to the African

continent, to reconnect with our ancestors
and our history, our slavery history, so

between Morocco and Brazil I knew that my
story is there. So, Afroroutes is born out of

this conviction that the displaced culture
from Africa crossing the sea to Latin

America was a pretty unexplored story. We
see it like slavery. Slavery could be a

very, very large concept, large idea, very
heavy history for the Africans themselves.

And I wanted to absolutely to avoid this
kind of images that we used to see, I

don't know if some of you saw Amistad, the
film, and this is like classical narrative

of blacks being beaten etc. which is
reality. I wanted to go beyond that and I

wanted to explore how those diasporas
still connected with their ancestors and

how is the function of music within this
ceremony. So basically, Afroroots is born

out of this perspective. Second of all,
I've been also luckily involved in a great

project, three, four years ago where I
explored or I got in touch with a

fantastic medium which is Virtual Reality.
I don't know if some of you tried some VR,

but VR was for me a really new exploration
of how we can tell the story differently.

How can we really engage and create
another type of connection with stories

and have a totally different approach with
time and space. This project called The

Enemy allows me really to widen my
perspective as a storyteller and really go

into a totally different path, so I
decided to use this medium which is the

VR, not because I'm most like many of
actors now in the media field, surfing the

hype or whatever, it's cool to have the
goggles and say, wow it's fantastic. It's

just because I was deeply convinced that
VR is the proper medium for this story.

So Virtual Reality, I'm not here the preacher of VRs.
It's for me a very powerful medium in the

sense of it puts you really in the center
of a reality. You don't have to receive

data, you don't receive a narrative, you
don't receive, you just put into center of

reality and you empower your view somehow
to really interpret data in a very

subjective way what you see and what you
feel. In my eyes, it could be also as I

hear you can see, it could be really the
next anthropology tool and in that sense,

it will transform the whole knowledge that
we could have one century long into real

experiences which is totally different
than just reading a book that someone else

wrote it or imagined. So VR is creating
powerful memories because just for the

fact that it provides the context of what
you are seeing. Please, first of all, take

a look at the trailer of Afroroutes and we
talk a little bit after.

Video starts playing

Sélim: No sound.

It's ok. It happens.

Sound starts

Sélim in the video: Centuries ago, many

Africans were forced to leave their
countries. They were spread in different

corners of the world. A long, long journey
through lands and seas. They left

everything behind. They had to leave. They
could only keep their language, their

culture and of course, their music. So
there is a bigger story than slavery

itself. This project is not another
apology of slavery. I want to look beyond

that. What happened after? Where are the
slaves descendants today? What did they

produce in terms of cultures? How was
their heritage leave they celebrated?

Is there any tangible memory form. So I
decided to follow the path of the slavery

roads and I knew that music will guide my
journey.

For many years, I travelled in

different countries and met several
diasporas and experienced their well-

conserved cultures and of course their
music. No history book could explain me

slavery and the cultural dynamics within
better than being almost there.

This is exactly what Afroroutes project is about.
I'm using Virtual Reality in 360 videos to

take you on a journey to meet those
African descendants, to hear their stories

and experience their heritage.
Here is my concept. As you start to

experience, you will be surrounded by four
characters. Simply by choosing one, you

will be brought to a destination. The
character will tell you his story, will

show you his surroundings before bringing
you to a specific ritual.

Voice singing in the video

Man speaking in video: My name is ... I'm ...

in Tangier, Morocco. I am born in ... a slaves
house. I grew up there.

Sélim in the video: And that's not all. We
want to bring you much closer. At the end,

you will be invited to play music with the
characters to feel that physical experience.

Sélim: Thank you very much.

applause
Sélim: So basically I decided to go on

music in this journey because before
drafting the first prototype by writing

the concept of this project, I did a lot
research and one of my biggest hurdle was,

I wasn't able to find trustful archives. I
wasn't able to find really powerful

testimonies of what happened exactly. The
only archives I could found were somewhere

in the Western world, not in Africa, not
in African bibliotheks, somehow kind of

jailed into Western bibliotheks of big
institutions. So for me it was a big

problem and most of this narrative or the
version of this narrative is basically

written by people who enslaved the
Africans. So for me it was a big problem.

I can not tell this story from the
perspective of Western perspective which I

used of course because it gives a lot of
data and information. So for me it was

clear, in order to tell this story I need
to go deeper into archives. I really need

to go into what we call the meta archives
which is simply the oral tradition. It's

what the people used to say and transmit
generation after generation. In this case,

music was absolutely what I was looking
for because, if you look at little bit of

the history, those communities wherever
through the trans-Atlantic slave trade,

the trans-Pacific slave trade or the
trans-Saharan slave trade, that's like

400, 500 years, but the communities in
Brazil for example, they're still speaking

Yoruba which is the language from western
coast. The people the Siddi in India, they

still talking Kiswahili. So it is really
powerful how the music could maintain this

intangible form in a very intact way and
it's still very very powerful. So I

decided to go absolutely on music and
explore this displacement through music.

As you can see in this map, I could
identify also several diasporas. First of

all, in North Africa which is the Gnawa
and Stambeli communities which are sub-

Saharan, African transported through the
slavery caravans from the Sahara to North

Africa. You have also the trans-Atlantic
slave trade which is mainly, the entry

door was Salvador de Bahía. 90 percent of
all slaves transported from the western

coast where proceed. The entry door was
Salvador de Bahía and from there was they

were spread into the whole Caribbean and
from there to the US. So for me, Salvador

de Bahía was a key point to explore this
and another very untold story, I'm coming

like three weeks ago from Gujarat from
India where I've been able to visit and

explore a little bit the other journey
which is the trans-Pacific journey. From

the Indian cities, the African descended
from the eastern coast, Zanzibar and

Kenya. So I tried to have this three
destinations to have a better overview of

what those traditions are. Let me explain
you shortly what you can expect in this

experience. So basically you will have a
menu. Three characters would be in front

of you. And as I say in the trailer, you
just have to pick up one, you choose one,

and you just embark. You don't know who is
the person and you don't know where you

embark. It's exactly like the slaves
condition in that time. So you embark to a

destination and at the end, you will
discover where is the destination. So you

will meet three characters. First of all,
what you saw in the trailer was a maestro,

healer Abdullah el Gordh from Tangier,
Morocco. Luzinho do Jeje, a percussionist

in a Candomblé group in Salvador de Bahía
and Siddi Goma which is a band in Siddi in

India, African descendant and performing
the what they call Damal which is a ritual

from the Southern India. Ok, so the
experience is quite simple. You get into

this menu, you choose a character and then
you have a very linear story, 360 story.

Actually the purpose of that is to have
this character trying to define the place,

the environment, who he is, and trying
to introduce you slowly to this to his

community. And after that you will be
totally in a ceremony and a ritual, in a

specific ritual. You could ask me why
ritual, what is ritual, why you choose to

put us in the ritual? Personally I think
that a ritual or ceremony is in one hand

the pure manifestation of that well-
conserved memory, once, and in the other

hand it is a multimedia explosion. You see
things, you see colors, you see dance, you

listen to music, you just explore in all
senses and in that sense, VR is very

powerful to transmit that. Of course as
user you will be able to stop if you want

but and this is why how technology is
very powerful in this project. You can't

go further because the structure of the
ritual is basically, the music is gonna go

a little bit up and up and up in the
ritual. The people go in trance. Why?

Because this trances is the way to
reconnect with their ancestors. For some

people maybe it's like something really
new. But the music frequencies that are

produced during a ceremony whatever with
drums, whatever with other instrument

jingles etc. put them in a situation
where they really connect with their

ancestors were there with their heritage,
with the memories and the challenge of

this project was to reproduce this. Me or
you, you may want to experience that. So

what you are doing now basically is, we
are working on a technical solution,

basically an algorithm which measuring
your frequencies and your body movement.

If you want to go in trance you can. If
you want to stay in the ritual you can.

The more you stay, the more the music will
go up and more will transport you with

them. If you if it is too much for you,
you step back and you go back to the menu,

as simple as that. Those are some
testimonies because during this project,

as many of you doing projects, you have
moments when you are doubting. You say

what the fuck are you doing. What's this?
Why are you doing that? So what I always

do is like when I produce the first
prototype, I go to the people back and say

look, this is what I'm doing. What do you
think? So, this Maestro of Genua told me,

this is what I always dreamed about. I
knew that I have brothers and the other

side. So for me it's a very powerful
testimony that their memories still

gravitating between the sea and they know
that they have parents, family that

crossed the borders or crossed the sea and
they are there. So for me it's very

powerful to know that those people
understand what is the purpose of this

work and from the other side too. So in
Brazil I had this crazy testimony which

with where this Maos de Santos told me,
we don't need passports anymore, so we can

be everywhere. Lately in India, Mr Sabia
which is the lead singer of the Cidi told

me this is our music there. So for me all
those testimonies show me that this

project is on a good path somehow and the
purpose why I'm doing that is actually

and I think beyond music and beyond
slavery and et cetera this dynamics of

displacement when people move from place
to place, they carry on a set of

knowledge, set of wisdom with them and
sometimes we think it's gonna be lost

somehow in the space but I don't think so.
Personally I think that memory is still a

life always. And music is really powerful
to tell us that the memory can be always

kept intact. And what I learned also
through this project is that through the

suffering of being displaced of being
taken somewhere as they create beauty.

Beauty has been created, celebrated,
transcended into new identity which is

very beautiful because if you see the
Brazilians. They are now part of Brazil,

despite the whole harsh situation that
they are living in, their living there,

that they're still, they adapted to new
environment where they are and it's the

same for all displaced cultures from
Africa. So outputs of this project, first

of all, we will produce an app which is
going to be free to download so that

everyone can experience it on very normal
basic cardboard and also multi user

experience. So one of my main purpose and
of doing this project, so I want to have

a kind of social impact through that. I
want to explain somehow slavery in a

totally different way. I want to have a
kind of educational part of this project.

So I want that children can go through
that, listen to some music, listen to some

strong story but also understand
differently what happens. Because maybe we

love to dance on soul music, jazz music
but somehow we forget where it's coming

from and then what is the whole journey
that we all today's pretend that we are

open and love this jazz music and stuff.
But we don't understand where it's coming

from. Why is it like this? How those
displaced communities had lived. That we

today can listen to their music and enjoy
it. So I actually I am, in order to finish

this small speech. You know what's this?
Actually I made, I made some research

because early this year I was invited to
have a TedX-Talk in Cape Verde and the theme

was roots, Wurzeln, and I made some
research and I found out that 99 percent

of the plants on this earth cannot live
without roots in the site. Only one plant

and this plant is magic. This plant could
transform the role of the roots in the

soil through the leaves. The name of this
plant is Tillandsias and it's a very

inspiring plant because it has like
through the years transformed the role of

the roots into to something else. It
lives without roots. For me it's a very

inspiring plant because it kind of
reminds us that we we are all like kind of

we can reinvent ourself and this is the
case also for those displaced

communities. They reinvented something.
They really transformed and transformed,

transcended that identity to something
beautiful. So far, I came to the end of

my pitch. Thank you very much. If
you have questions ...

applause

Herald: Small note on the end. He said
earlier that he brought the prototype.

Sélim confirms
Herald: I think you're able and willing to

show.
Sélim: Yes. If people want to test it to

have a prototype with me so outside maybe,
yes.

Herald: Perfect. In this case I think you
meet each other outside, in front of the

room. If you have questions there are two
microphones. Please ask your questions and

please speak out loud into the microphone
directly. Number two please.

F1: Ok, thank you for our talk. I know
from Brazil but I think this is valid for

the other locations too, that they are
actually discussions that ceremonies like

this which are sacred should not be easily
accessible to outsiders and especially

Europeans who come there usually as a
tourist and see that as like cheap

attraction and then they go and go back to
the resort or something. So how would you

situate your project in those discussion
or did you take part in them?

Sélim: Okay. Thank you for this question.
Actually it took me one and a half

year to find the right person and to work
it out to get into a Candomblé session,

exactly they didn't want to reduce it to
cheap entertainment which is not the case.

First of all, they were saying to me: "What
you come from Europe, you want to just to

reduce our spirituality into an
entertainment." It took me a lot of time to

really convince my local producer there
which is part of the family of Candomblé.

That's not the case. I'm coming with a
totally different concept. Of course we

are, it's a kind of golden gate you open
for that and they're not like used to

let everybody to those ceremonies and
those rituals, especially in Brazil where

the socio-economic pressure and situation
is really special. It's really harsh. So

for them Candomblé is a kind of identity,
it's us, you know, it's kind of: this is us

and this is the other Brazil. So yes it
took me a long time to convince the people

to establish trust and to really be there
many times and to and to let them

understand look, it is a project that aims
to connect those diasporic heritage. You

know I want to show this to maybe your
brothers and sisters in India, in Morocco.

And it's worked out, so somehow, VR, it's
giving you as author also this question of

ethics because you don't frame something,
you put the user inside a set. So, for them

it's a kind of secret. You know, I don't
know, if some people of you have been in a

Candomblé session. It is very powerful
like when the drums starting and going up

and up and up and up, it's fantastic I mean
it's euphoria that goes up and for them it's a

way to be. It's a way to say, here we are.
We don't forget, we are here, we

celebrate, we cry, we love and we live
here and we don't forget where we're

coming from. So this magical gates that we
are is up. Of course it keeps the whole

kind of responsibility somehow.
Herald: Thank you. Next question, nice. In

this case, I have the opportunity...Number
two please.

F2: Thank you for your talk. I would like
to add a little bit to that

Herald: Questions only please.
F2: Ok.

Herald: So what's the question?
F2: The question is, well I can't do that,

I need to add something because I think
that some things are not presented right

or just wrong. Candomblé it's not just
anything but it is a direct connection to

the ..
Herald: Ok, in this case I will shift the

discussion back to the ... Can we have the
next question please?

F2: ...and this is shortened to something
which cannot be shortened.

Herald: Okay go ahead, sure.
F2: ...and the Candomblé and Dojoba are

directly connected and have a religious
foundation. So this is just in addition

about that and also there was something
wrong in your talk. You said the people

were deported to North America did not go
through South America. But they also went

directly there, they were transported
directly there. So just those additions. I

would love to discuss with you this
further and not to ... also of course

everybody can ask me after that because I
don't want to monopolize this.

Sélim: Ok, thank you very much.
Herald: Ok, next question please. Number two.

F3: Ok, it's follow up question. If your

only aim were to connect the communities,
why, how does the free downloadable app

into that so, could you maybe elaborate on
the entertainment part a little bit more

because I don't see that point will be
treated by your answer. The other

question: Is there any profit in your
project? And if yes, who gets that profit.

Sélim: Okay first of all, why an app,
because basically I want to share it with

people as simple as that. Profit, till now
we don't have any profit. We produce a

prototype after the prototype with a
company based in Berlin which is in VR. So

we got small money just to produce that
and to make it in a good way and to

explore VR, first of all, as as a
storytelling tool. So there is no profit

in that sense. This project is since two
and a half year. We got some small grants

from cultural institutions to make
research but beyond that I mean the main

purpose is not to make money out of this,
basically. The main purpose is to

distribute it, to shift somehow the
conscience of people to present this issue

in a totally different way but also to try
to somehow engage the debate, you know, to

unroot narratives which is in our
conscience still there. We see blacks as

you know slaves etc. We don't have it
easy to really decode what happened, you

know, in terms of culture, in terms of
anthropology. So this project is an

attempt to that, is a trigger. So that's
why we're here, to discuss that. So till

now we didn't really have a business plan
for this project but I would be very happy

that people can see it first of all. Thank
you.

Herald: And number two again please.
F4: Thank you, Sélim, for this talk. You

started with VR as a tool for anthropology
and then you refered to it again. Could

you please elaborate a little bit more on
this anthropology, how this plays a role

in your project? I hope my question is
clear enough to give you a point for

starting.
Sélim: Yeah. I think that was part in the

answers in the presentation. VR is... I
mean I don't pretend to be first of all an

expert on VR. Second of all, nobody can
pretend to be an expert in VR. It's a very

nascent new tool and everybody's like
experimenting. Some works are good, some

works are consequent, some works are
powerful but some work are total failures.

So let's be honest about that, so nobody
can pretend to having the magical formula

to do the best VR piece ever. But I think
personally it's a tool that can really put us in

a situation when we can really embrace the
world in a totally different way. If you

go back a little bit in the history and
you see like the the cinema that had been

produced in the early 60s or 70s by Jean
Rou for example, in Africa, which is a

very honest work he put in frame like the
reality as it is from African living

there. But I think that approach has been
always through the technology approach. We had

always built this pictures of Africa
through other people's eyes and VR is

totally the opposite of that. Is just you
put a camera and you disappear. You have a

360 degree, things happen, you observe,
then you look at the footage you want to

design it, or not, as your choice but
basically the act of filming VR or

capturing 360 content is very easy. It's
very simple. It's just, you put the user

in the centre of something. In that
perspective I think it's very powerful

anthropology tool because anthropology is
based on observation, so as simple as

that.
Herald: Thank you. I think I have the

honor of the last question, finally. You
mentioned more modern art or more modern

music project. What are your upcoming
projects and what do you think is the

technology like in 10 years for you,
related to your upcoming projects?

Sélim: I'm still stuck in this project and
I think basically we are far from the end

product or output but I'm very happy to
see that people engaged with that. I just

came from another meeting I told you from
re:publica in Africa and I realized that

this project, I identified basically
two audiences. First of all, you have the

African audiences which for them just to
be in a ceremony is enough. It's fantastic

they freak out, It's exactly what they are
looking for, in terms of memory and

displacement. It's very enough and you
have the VR audience. People who would say

ok what can I experience here? You know, I
see people dancing around me, listening to

music, cool, I can dance but what I'm
expecting? We are working on this part we

want to make feel the user how this music
and this power of music can work on

your conscience can work on your brain
activity, can engage you physically and

this is how we are working now with music
and code. With coding music, we are

analyzing the frequencies that are
producing through the combination of high

frequencies and low frequencies and that
creates this space of trance. And of

course you cannot push users directly into
trance, some people don't want this. So yes,

the next step will be to elaborate this
interactive ceremony, so you can really go

deeper producing CGI the more the trance
will go, the more you will see things

happening. The more you visualize the
memories, the more you will see, the

belief, the spirits, whatever, and the
more you will have this physical

experience of being in a ritual. So, this
is a next step, basically.

Herald: Thank you very much.
Sélim: Thank you, thank you a lot.

Herald: I want a round of applause for
Sélim.

applause

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