Colours of the invisible

Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Stories are told in pigments, tones and hues; a kaleidoscope as diverse as the cultures and peoples of the continent. For the initiative Colours of Africa, a collaborative project with Google Arts & Culture, we asked 60 African creatives to capture the unique spirit of their country in a colour which represents home to them.

The projects they have created are personal and distinct stories of Africa, put into images, videos, texts and illustrations. Each artist has also attempted to articulate what being African means to their identity and view of the world.

Colour:Stambeli
Country:Tunisia

Artwork Rationale:

The artist recommends listening to the video's 8D spatial soundtrack with headphones.

I have seen Stambeli ceremonies since I was a child. The Stambeli is a unique tradition in Tunisia; its roots come from the nomadic sub-Saharan and Tuareg tribes, who moved to or have been displaced to Tunisia. It is a traditional music genre that has a kind of spiritual fervour.

Over the years, this traditional music has absorbed different languages and developed as a perfect model of cultural syncretism. It is used in celebration and in healing traditions, and reminds us Tunisians of our history and sense of belonging. The music is colourful, intense. It calls from the past and projects into the future, all while having magical roots in the present.

It occured to me that Stambeli is a mystic spaceship, going through time and space.
Like the Gnawa tradition in Morocco, Stambeli is based on a seven coloured spiritual system, with each colour appealing to different natural elements and soul moods. Each of the seven sections serves a different purpose in the spirit realm.

I understand it to be a futuristic concept, not an archaic one: everything is connected in the universe, the visible and the invisible. That's why I called this Colours of Africa video work 'Colours of the Invisible'. The invisible encompasses all the colours and all the moods. It's all an imagination or a manifestation of the spirit.
The colour I am hunting is the colour of African spirituality, which is philosophical, conceptual. The blurriness of the images is intended to highlight the in-between space the dance occupies. The 8D spatialised soundscape puts the visual elements on a hyper-realistic level.

The figure of Bousadia – a mythical blackman who has lost his child and is stuck in a perpetual search – is a metaphor for Africa, reminding the Africans of their history and roots. He is the invisible made visible out of human's imagination. With his traditional-futuristic style, he is both the human and natural elements in one. With his Qraqeb (iron castanets) he resonates the rhythm of the invisible and the infinite power of the soul.

The maestro, called Yenna, is playing the Gombri (the three-stringed wooden instrument) and opening the spaces and moods while he designs the soundscape. The Arifa – genderless dancers – are sometimes waves, sometimes wind, sometimes fire or earth, and are the connection of the earth to the invisible, the guiding entity. The Koyo, or the Qraqeb player, guarantees the rhythm, and the trance.

What it means to be African

In a messy world confronted with a global identity crisis, today I don't see Africa as a melanin-based concept, or fantasised space. To be African is to be rooted in history, rich in its diversity and influences: Berbers, Phenicians, Sharaian nomad folks, Maltese, Ottomans, Romans, French, Greeks, Arabs, and even Vikings contributed 3000 years long to what is today my Africanity. To be African is to be human and universal, open and tolerant, rooted and detached at the same time, embedding proudly that rainbow of colours in itself, aspiring to the upcoming.

Biography

Selim Harbi is a transmedia storyteller and award-winning director. He graduated with BA in screen-based and audiovisual media from Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany, and continues to study and learn as much as possible in as many ways as possible.

Over the last 10 years, Harbi has been involved with several cross-media projects. As a passionate traveller, he loves to redefine things and focuses on contemporary global mobility and African issues.
With a special flair for tech-trends and innovation, Harbi utilises the newest media tools and cutting-edge technologies in his projects, always looking for ways to make impact and new challenges. He is based between Tunis and Berlin.