Vusi Mahlasela sings “When You Come Back”. Vusi, who is one of Nelson Mandela’s favourite artists, wrote the song about political struggle.

Vusi just performed at FIFA’s massive WORLD CUP KICK OFF CONCERT on June 10, which was broadcast LIVE Worldwide. Other artists included Alicia Keys, Angelique Kidjo, Vieux Farka Toure and more

His music is generally described as “African folk”.

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The matatus are famous for their vibrant graffiti which often transcend mere entertainment in deliberate conscious, silent conversation on topics ranging from ethics to politics.

The Matatu graffiti has a language of its own. It is often satirical and engaging in an illustrative vocabulary. Topical issues on the Kenyan mass psyche are replayed across the windows and body of the matatus. Even though most of the graffiti are about what is in vogue, like the hottest Hip-hop artist, or an English premier league team. Nonetheless, there are also graffiti on emotive topics; and the matatus for that reason have become a media to silently and serenely contemplate divisive issues. For instance, in the Nairobi suburbs, Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo glower at you from passing Matatu windows and doors in constant reminder of the 2007 Kenyan post-election violence. Inside, stickers with moral messages offer free advice for all those who care to read. “Diligence is the mother of good future” reads one that I particularly liked.

The matatus not only present crucial employment to masses of otherwise unemployable young men and women as crew and graffiti artists, they are also a screen upon which the issues on the conscience of Kenya as a nation are projected and laid bare for dissection by the millions of daily commuters. Consider this- most civic education programs integrate matatu stickers in their programs in order to reach more people at the grass roots.

Related Articles;

Kenya Series: Goggled and Capped

Kenya Series: Jua Kali

Kenya Series: Adopt-a-tree

image source: wickepedia

So the World Cup is almost over….. Every Four years this wonderful tournament graces our Football loving world. A true celebration of national pride, culture & of course football.

In an attempt to embrace all that is great about World Cup South Africa 2010. A band of 4 brothers (well good friends) from the little known Industrial town of Rotherham, England, gathered in a living room to watch the opening 2 days of the first African Football World Cup unfold.

In honour of all 12 nations competing on those 2 days, I travelled the length & breath of England in search of Food & Drink which is specific & much loved in each of the competing nations.

Below is a little incite into how those 2 glorious days were celebrated in Rotherham & more importantly a Yorkshireman’s review of all the food & drinks sampled from each of the competing nations.

Enjoy….

The Menu

South Africa v Mexico

BBQ Boerewors with Sterk Blatjang & Biltong accompanied by Castle Lager Verses Homemade Mexican Chilli accompanied by Corona with lime.

Uruguay v France

BBQ Choripan accompanied by Quilmes Lager Verses Tarte Au Citron accompanied by Bordeaux Red Wine & Chablis White Wine.

South Korea v Greece

South Korean Kimchi accompanied by South Korean Rice Wine Verses Greek Salad accompanied by Ouzo

Argentina v Nigeria

BBQ Rump Steak accompanied by Quilmes Lager Verses Fried Plantain & Chin Chin accompanied by Star lager, Gulder & Palm drink.

England v USA

BBQ Cumberland Sausage accompanied by English Porter & Carling Lager Verses BBQ Mega Homemade Burger with Onion Rings accompanied by Budweiser.

SOUTH AFRICA:

CASTLE LAGER: The staple of South African beer was a welcome first beverage of the day; refreshing and crisp befitting the nice day it was. 7/10.

BILTONG: Great beer food; very much like beef jerky. But it does the job better than peanuts. I would like to start a campaign whereby all pubs in England have to stock Biltong by law. I call my campaign “The Biltong Writ” and I’m having talks with my friend Nick Clegg about it. 8/10

BOEREWERS SAUSAGE: Sausage is good. Sausage is great. I’ve never eaten a sausage i could say i hate. Enough crappy poetry, i thought the Boerewers was succulent and delicious and went particularly well with the BLATJANG CHUTNEY, which was very fruity and a perfect accompaniment. 7/10

MEXICO

HOMEMADE CHILLI: Very nice; just the right amount of jalapenos (no steam from the ears and shouts of “Agua! Agua!” here). Having the nachos under the chilli was a good idea; Deliciosa! However, I did spill some down my poncho. 8/10

CORONA AND LIME: I always have liked Corona – its very crisp and clean. However, its not my favourite Mexican beer; having said that not having tequila was a good thing, or we would probably have all passed out. 6/10

URUGUAY

CHORIPAN: I loved this! Can you get any better than a juicy, spicy chorizo in bread with a bit of salad and mayonnaise? I think not. Unfortunately the Uruguay strikers weren’t quite as much of a hit. 9/10

QUILMES: See Argentina’s entry.

FRANCAIS

LEMON TORTE: A very nice desert – the subtlety of the lemon and the firmness of the base added a certain French sophisitcation (or je ne sais quoi, if you like). If only Sidney Govou’s touch had been a little less subtle, Les Bleus might have actually been the victors. 6/10

WINE: I am not very au fait with wine; all i remember is that one was white and one was red. Despite this, i know what i like (and know what is rubbish from my days of bargain-basement drinking at university) and i do enjoy a drop of the good stuff, as should any bon vivant. The red i liked in particular – it seemed very berryy (is that a word? i doubt it). 7/10

SOUTH KOREA

KIMCHI: This hot and spicy cabbage dish was most enjoyable; it certainly had a punch. Very tasty (if a little salty, although i think its supposed to be) and rich in texture. The cabbage was lovely and juicily saturated with flavour. 7/10

SAKE: Preferred the sake warm; it goes down smoother. I think nice liquor always helps to cut through the heat of a particularly spicy dish, such as the kimchi. 7/10

GREECE

GREEK SALAD: Sometimes the simpler things in life are the best; such is the case with this. I love Feta cheese and i adore olives (and these were perfectly ripe) particularly. A nice summer dish, light and oozing with Hellenic character. 7/10

OUZO: Aniseed drinks are a winner to me and sipping ouzo has an unfailing ability to transport me to a beach on Crete. Not literally, of course. That would be ridiculous, but would definitely save me money on air travel. Yamas! 8/10

ARGENTINA

STEAK: As synonymous with Argentina as Polo, Eva Peron, Maradonna and the Falkland Islands, the steak is a classic. I deliberately ate my steak on its own, with no garnish or sauce to interfere with the natural flavour of the cut. I thought it was very tasty and succulent. 7/10

QUILMES: A nice lager, perfect for a summers day. Particularly in the massive litre bottles we were drinking it out of. Very suppable with a light, clean taste. 7/10

NIGERIA

STAR: Very refreshing and very easy to drink with a beery, hoppiness that was quite nice. 7/10

GULDER: Of the two Lagos-brewed ales, this one was more to my taste. A little richer and flavoursome. 8/10

PALM WINE: This was quite unlike anything i’ve ever tasted before. I couldn’t really compare it to anything else; it had its own flavour that initially was like white wine but which had a nice earthy (almost nutty) finish. 7/10

CHIN CHIN: Great beer food; i polished off a whole bowl to myself because i physically couldn’t stop myself. 8/10

FRIED PLANTAIN: Can’t really go wrong with fried plantain. I love it and think it is a great alternative to potato (which lets face it, gets pretty boring in this country). 7/10

 US of A

BOYGERS: The Beef boygers were delicious and complementing them with bacon and cheese is an idea i never tire of – in fact is it not one of the Ten Commandments? (Thou shalt marry any beefburger with cheese and bacon at any opportunity whence they be available? I might be paraphrasing slightly). 8/10

BUDWEISER: Bud is fine, but i must say it is not my favourite beer from the States. I also cannot award a positive mark due to the unresolved lawsuit between the american brewery and the original brewery in Ceske Budejovice concening the name of the beer.

5/10

MERRY OLD BLIGHTY

CUMBERLAND SAUSAGE: I love sausage, and this was delectable. However, it was marred by the fact that we were all becoming rather full from the gormandising excesses of the weekend; i also think the (obviously warranted) anxiety concerning the upcoming footy game was coming to the fore (or was it indigestion?). Would undoubtedly have got a better mark if i hadn’t been so full! 6/10

WESTHAVEN PORTER: Is that the name? Something porter. Lovely strong smoky flavours in this one, a proper porter. I love my stouts and porters and this was a very good example. It was a shame the accompanying match wasn’t so lovely; in fact it looked as though Robert Green might have enjoyed a few too many porters before the game! 8/10

By Steve and Friends from Rotherham, England

“We are back,” Ernest roared, as Ghana ended 15 years without a win against their great rivals with a 4-1 trouncing. “This is the night when Ghana becomes again the kings of west Africa. Now we will go forward, we will win the CAN in our own country and then let the world tremble before us.” The 2006 World Cup – Ghana’s first – was one thing, he said, but Angola and Togo had qualified for that; this was something more concrete. Since then, they have gone on to semi-final and final defeats at the last two Africa Cups of Nations, won the Under-20 World Cup and, if they beat Uruguay, will become the first African side to reach a World Cup semi-final.

I bumped into Ernest again this week at the Mogwase Stadium near Sun City. He was, as ever, wearing a bright T-shirt under a dark suit jacket – the cold, evidently, like everything else, folds before his articulacy – dispensing opinions on anything and everything. “What is happening here,” he said, “is what should have happened in the 50s and 60s when the Black Stars were truly great. But Fifa wouldn’t let us in.”

Continue Here:

By Ivor W. Hartmann, creator, anthologist, co-publisher, and co-editor African Roar:

There is no doubt that the internet, together with digital publishing, has changed – and is still changing – the world of published literature. In the case of Africa and the African Diaspora, I certainly believe it has been for the better. Never before have so many African writers been visibly active and prolific. There is a revolution going on in the world of African literature, an African Roar that is beginning to echo around the world.

When I first started StoryTime in 2007, it was because I saw there was a need to provide more independent global online platforms for new and established African writers, a platform where all fiction genres were accepted and the only requirement was a good story well told. From the very beginning I had a dream of utilising StoryTime to build up a body of work from all over Africa and the African Diaspora, from which eventually a book anthology might be drawn. At last that dream has been realised, and could not have been possible without the enthusiasm and support of all the StoryTime authors. One of the authors, Emmanuel Sigauke, offered to co-edit African Roar with me back when it was still just a dream.

African Roar is to be the first in an annual anthology series that will continue to select the very best of what has been published in the StoryTime ezine throughout the preceding year. The story selections were made through a process of a public voting by the StoryTime readers and then a final editors’ selection. Each story then went through a rigorous editing process to ensure its highest potential.

What we have arrayed in this first anthology is an outstanding body of fiction from some of the finest emerging African writers today. With authors from all over Africa and in the African Diaspora, African Roar is now and promises to be a true cross-section of African literature.

Nana Awere Damoah, Ghanaian contributor to African Roar:

He has been asked many times why he still continues to think about oils and fats, soaps and pastes, powders and creams. And why he is passionate about the reaction that can occur when words, mere words, are brought together in the presence of an active catalyst – a thinking mind. As a practising Chemical Engineer, one would have thought that he would be more at home with figures than with alphabets. But Nana is quick to respond that his analytical skill which is germane in his work as an Engineer with Unilever is also relevant, indeed very instrumental, in his ability to weave words. An Engineer in the world of literature. A wordsmith, pun intended. Ah, yes, he used to work in a palm oil refinery as well – perhaps that explains his love for blending words, styles and forms.

Nana Awere Damoah was born in Accra, Ghana in 1975. He holds a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham, UK, a first degree in Chemical Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana, and spent all his Secondary school years at Ghana National College, Cape Coast, Ghana. He speaks fondly of growing up in Kotobabi, and studying at the local Providence Preparatory School.

A British Council Chevening alumnus, Nana works with Unilever Ghana, presently as the Research & Development Technical Manager. He is an associate of Joyful Way Incorporated, a Christian Music ministry in Ghana, and was its National President from 2002 to 2004.

Nana started writing seriously in 1993 when he was in the sixth form and has had a number of his short stories published in the Mirror and the Spectator. In 1997, he won the first prize in the Step Magazine National Story Writing Competition. In KNUST, he was part of the Literary Wing of the Inter-hall Christian Fellowship, where he acted and wrote poems. His poems were published in magazines on the KNUST campus. He is the author of two non-fiction books – Excursions in my Mind (Athena Press, 2008) and Through the Gates of Thought (Athena Press, 2010). He is a contributing author in the StoryTime ezine, which is dedicated to publishing African writers of fiction. African Roar’s stories were initially selected from the best of StoryTime 2007-2009 and then edited by Emmanuel Sigauke and Ivor W. Hartmann.

Nana’s contribution to African Roar is the story Truth Floats, which he originally wrote and entered in for a writing competition organised by Joy FM (Accra, Ghana) on a representation of the Ghanaian folklore character Ananse (spider) in contemporary times, Nana weaves a web of Ananse’s sly moves from his days on campus to his working days, the antagonist being Ananse’s bosom friend Akoto. In the midst of this tango is the pretty Adoma. When two friends woo one woman, Nana reminds us in this new-old story, they are bound to descend the valley into enmity. The judicious use of traditional sayings and proverbs, in the manner of the by-the-fireside storytelling style of the Akans of Ghana, makes Truth Floats an easy, enjoyable, yet educative yarn from Nana’s loom. In the end, as with the Ananse stories of yore, good triumphs over evil and like a calabash that cannot sink in water, the truth floats to the surface, where it is evident for all to behold.

African Roar is available to buy at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.co.uk

The black star in the middle of the gold stripe gives the Ghana national football team their nickname, the Black Stars.

The flag of Ghana was designed and first used upon the attainment of independence in 1957. The red represents the blood of those who died in the country’s struggle for independence, the gold represents the mineral wealth of the country, the green symbolises the country’s rich forests and natural wealth. Like the flag of Ethiopia, the Ghana flag consists of the Pan-African colours of red, gold, and green, in horizontal stripes, with a black five-pointed star in the centre of the gold stripe.

The star was adopted from the flag of the Black Star Line, a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, the pan Africanist and entrepreneur that operated from 1919 to 1922.

“Perhaps the largest endeavour of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA,) was the Black Star Steamship Line, an enterprise intended to provide a means for African Americans to return to Africa while also enabling black people around the Atlantic to exchange goods and services. The company’s three ships (one called the SS Frederick Douglass) were owned and operated by black people and made travel and trade possible between their United States, Caribbean, Central American, and African stops. The economically independent Black Star Line was a symbol of pride for blacks and seemed to attract more members to the UNIA . . . . As a result of large financial obligations and managerial errors, the Black Star Line failed in 1921 and ended operations” From Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Ms Theodosia Okoh, the designer of the Ghana flag described the significance of the colours and black star as “The red stripe represents the blood our forefathers shed for us during Ghana’s struggle for independence, gold represents our rich mineral resources, green for the green belt on which the country lies and also the vast forests and cash crops which we grow, while the five pointed lone star is the symbol of African emancipation and unity in the struggle against colonialism”.

The rapidly declining forest cover in Africa is a cause for great worry, with countries at the margins of the Sahara engaged in a furious battle to stave off desertification- the Sahara is advancing! In Kenya the forest cover has drastically reduced from 40 percent to 6.1 percent, leading to longer and longer drought cycles; dams are running dry and the perpetual power and water rationing are just some of the implications. Of course climate change is blamed for the frequent famines, but if we care to admit, a great deal of it is due to environmental dilapidation and mismanagement.

When Myweku.com heard about a group of university students who are adopting trees, our immediate thought was, how now? The students from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nairobi are not only planting the trees, but plan to nurture them to maturity. Their mission is to ensure that tree planting missions do not end the moment seedlings are planted. Manda Njoroge, one of the students says in most cases people plant trees but have no attachment to them at all, so most trees die and no one is bothered.

“Tree planting missions have been going on for a long time and the exercise ends the moment an individual plants a tree”.

The students applied to the Kenya Forestry Service to adopt land in Kenya’s Mau forest Complex and were given exclusive rights to adopt two and half acres of land. They found a perfect location in a depleted forest area and have already planted 1200 seedlings. For the next three to five years the students will take care of the seedlings, monitoring their growth, watering them during dry seasons and replanting.

The group believes that the best way to connect peoples lives to nature is by making it part of them. Adopting forestland is a great way to make nature part of the family. The movement of planting trees must begin at all levels and every individual must feel responsible and accountable. The reason why forests are being plundered is because they are far removed from the people and nobody cares.

They idea, they suggest, must be adopted by the corporate world all over, in which case the forest cover would increase to the required levels, besides creating employment. They hope to enlighten the youth through their efforts and make them realize the future depends on sustainable environmental management initiatives.

Related Articles:

Kenya Series Part 1 – Jua Kali

Kenya Series Part 2 – Goggled and Capped

Writer: Gor Soudan

myweku©

As part of the Kenya Series, we met up with Cyrus Kabiru, a young artist who takes his art very seriously. He started making wire goggles when he was three years old, because they were too poor to afford a pair. Today he is an up and coming visual artist, and the wire goggles still form an integral part of his art.

Cyrus makes his sculptures and goggles almost exclusively from junk and found stuff. Growing up in the slums, he tells Myweku, he used to see a lot of junk and that is why it such a major part of his art. No doubt, there are a lot of ‘junk’ artists out there; most are probably more accomplished than Cyrus. Nonetheless, there is innocence in the way he uses junk. His bottle-cap sculptures of birds are so simple, almost child like, giving them effortless, sublime quality that cannot be faked.

He likes to walk around, picking junk which he uses to make his art. He also gets inspiration from these walks, by observing everything around him. “I am inspired by walking, when I walk, I get crazy things in my head…I am inspired by many things, maybe matatus… when I walk, I get things like bolts, bottle tops and wire”.

The exciting thing about his art, according to Cyrus is that it’s funny, “they are fun…you can look at it and start laughing yourself…”

Cyrus is a practicing artist in a region whose art market is only just emerging. Most artists in the region do art to service the expatriate market; paintings of bush landscapes and sculptures of slender Maasai morans. However, as an artist, he is going out on a limb by passionately sticking to art that most expresses his roots and reflects his environment.

His work is innovative and profoundly creative. However, what I like most about this young artist’s art is his use of media that lies all around him- junk; most artist complain about how expensive media like paint and canvas are. Not Cyrus, your trash, is his art!

See Related Articles:

Kenya Series: Part 1 - Jua Kali

Kenya Series: Part 3 – Adopt-a-tree

As part of the Kenya Series, we took a trip to the jua kali in Gikomba market is not one for the mean spirited. It takes you right through Machakos, the busiest bus terminus in the country, and into Nairobi East lands. During the colonial period, the East-lands were the African quarters, hence social amenities and infrastructure were poorly planned and developed. Over the years, the subsequent overcrowding due to rural-urban exodus only made what was already a bad situation worse.

However, East-lands is exactly where Myweku set out for, to explore the expansive jua kali artisan shades at Gikomba market. Jua kali is Swahili for hot sun, a name that arose in reference to the blistering East African outdoors in which the artisans work. The jua kali has had quite a history. In a country with arguably the highest literacy levels in sub-Saharan Africa, blue collar work is looked down upon. However, in the past decade or so, the unemployed have been forced to wake up the realization that dependence entirely on the formal sector for employment is neither prudent nor sustainable.

Gikomba is a daunting environment by any standards- mad man symphony from hammer on anvil beating metal into submission fills the air, good natured banter from hearty artisans fill the shacks which seemingly go on and on in a never – ending labyrinth. Blue, red, green wares are stacked, or parked in prominent displays; nearly anything imaginable from simple gardening tools to complex agricultural machinery and household furniture are manufactured here from scrap material.

All products here are made from recycled material. Empty drums are salvaged and cut into metal sheets which are used to make barbeque grills or drainage pipes to capture rain water. Old motor bike tires are used to make wheels for burrows. Old tin is fabricated into pots and pans.

The Gikomba shacks are also a source of employment for many Nairobi residents. Most stalls are owned individually, or in small group partnerships. Artisans are often encouraged to grow and initiate their own enterprises. Eli Omondi owns one of the shacks, and employs two other artisans. He says they get a cut from items sold, “I was once just like them, if they work hard, it will not be long until they own workshops of their own”

The most striking thing about the jua kali is the empowerment mindset of the artisans; the can do, will do attitude is almost infectious. Indeed, given the history and context of the jua kali, this attitude is exactly what the doctor ordered to counter the post-traumatic oppression disorder in developing economies.

myweku©

Kenya Series: Part 2 – Goggled and Capped

Kenya Series: Part 3 – Adopt-a-tree

Photo Courtesy: analoguedigital.com

Gor Soudan

This series is a voyeuristic compilation exploring innovation and creativity at the ‘margins’ of the contemporary African society. Africa has long been known as the continent of 4Ds- Disease, Despair, Destruction and Death. Nevertheless, Myweku set out to explore how ordinary individuals in the backstreets of East Africa are solving modern problems by means of technology, art, and culture.

In Nairobi, we hang out with individuals and groups from all spectrum of the society; artisans, artists, architects, students, hawkers- the one thing they surely have in common is an empowerment mindset. They were engaged in proactive, sustainable projects to enhance the quality of African living. Some of these projects are ingenious in their simplicity, like Kamau’s ‘mobile lamps’, while others rehash old philosophical problems; the individual responsibility vis-à-vis that of the collective- ‘Adopt-a-tree’. All in all, the lack of NGOise in their vocabulary is a welcome reprieve. Talk of donors has been replaced by that of investors, assistance by contribution-the question on their lips is not what society can do for them, but what more they can do for society.

Myweku uses ‘margin’ here to refer to those individuals or groups away from the main stream of policy or industry, in this sense, it should not be seen as a peripheral place, a place of defeat and deficiency, but rather as a place of resistance, possibility and creativity where new and critical ideas are born….it is a location which nourishes the society’s faculty to transform and imagine alternative new worlds.

Finally, this series is a study of how society’s ‘marginality’ creates the possibility of deriving new ways of living. How seemingly simple folk are learning to see everything with new eyes.

Kenya Series: Part 1 – Jua Kali

Kenya Series: Part 2 – Goggled and Capped by Cyrus Kabiru

Kenya Series: Part 3 – Adopt-a-tree