YouTube music video comments are the safe space for the pan-African romantic in all of us

YouTube’s comments section is widely acknowledged in modern internet culture as one of the worst places on the Web. Even the most benign videos of a tech toy’s unboxing all too easily descends into vitriol, sexism and discriminatory outbursts. 

Over the years it’s become so bad YouTube has been experimenting with hiding comments as a default on certain types of videos.

But of course there are millions of hours of YouTube videos watched everyday and not all videos inspire nasty comments—far from it. In fact, if you want to enjoy overwhelmingly positive comments, then watching most popular African music videos are where you want to be.

It’s almost always good vibes in the comments for your Burna Boys, Sauti Sols, Wizkids and Diamond Platnumz, who between them rack up hundreds of millions of views each year. You have the roll-callers and the hype(wo)men “Who is still listening to this jam in 2019?” or “If you have listened to this song more than 5 times today, click like” or “If you are Kenyan, please hit like on this comment,” or “I don’t know why this song hasn’t made it to 5M views. Hit like and keep sharing!”

In the recent past even more than before, African music has been crossing borders—aided by the rise of social media and the diaspora that gave musicians more opportunities to instantly release their music to the world. African pop genres developed over the last decade like Nigeria/Ghana’s Afrobeats and South Africa’s gqom have benefitted greatly from YouTube in particular which made it so much easier to go global without major record labels (though they’re now all on board). There has also been a growth in the number of radio stations exclusively dedicated to hits from all over the continent.  

Investors are seeing the opportunity and investing in homegrown music labels. Even Beyonce hasn’t been left behind with the recent release of the Lion King soundtrack that is packed with Afrobeats artists. Big name collaborations are becoming commonplace – bringing black artists across the continental divide together. Afrobeats hits have even made their way into the Caribbean carnival scene.

To read the full article on Quartz Africa, click here.

The battle to get Europe to return thousands of Africa’s stolen artifacts is getting complicated

In 1890, the French staged a bloody siege in the Segou royal palace, the capital of the Toucouleur empire that spanned modern day Guinea, Senegal and Mali. This siege and the violent capture of the city of Ouossebougou in 1890 marked the end of the Toucouleur empire and the transfer of control of the region to French colonial rule.In addition to the loss of lives and the destruction of property, the French officials plundered over a thousand pieces of significant cultural heritage to the people—including the saber of the founder of the empire, El Hadj Omar Tall.

Almost 130 years later, the saber that bears a specific symbolic,  cultural and spiritual significance has finally been returned to Senegal in a very emotional hand-over ceremony that saw his ancestral family travel from various parts of West Africa to witness this historic moment. It was a moment of victory for the descendants of the anti-colonial hero, who have been demanding the return of his artifacts since 1944. The artifacts including the saber, manuscripts, jewels are mostly spread out across three of France’s largest museums.

Up to 90% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is outside of the continent.

Up to 90% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is outside of the continent, according to the French government-commissioned 2018 report by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French historian Bénédicte Savoy. The report calls for the restitution of Africa’s stolen assets highlighting that most of these were looted by European colonial powers, stolen during ethnographic missions or acquired under questionable conditions in various markets.

While the public debate has mostly focused on African art, repatriation encompasses various elements of African cultural heritage. This includes art and archives, ceremonial objects, human remains, natural history specimens, and intangible cultural heritage like sound recordings and photographs. The best-case scenario figure for the number of artifacts any national museum archives in Sub Saharan Africa is 3,000—and even then, most of them are of little importance or significance when compared to those in European museums.

Since the release of the report, no objects have been returned to the countries they are from. A recent $15 million, four-year initiative by George Soros’ Open Society hopes to spur momentum in reparation efforts through legal, financial and technical support to governments, regional bodies, museums, universities and civil societies. Concerted efforts and significant funding are needed to support claims for restitution as communities demanding their looted items will undoubtedly come up against legal hurdles—such as the “inalienability of public French art collections.”

To access the full article on Quartz Africa, click here.

African scientists are leading the next wave of innovation and research on black skin and hair

For decades, the innovation and formal research on products for black skin and hair was limited on the global stage as beauty brands multinationals focused their research on caucasian skin with only slight modifications to products for potential customers with darker skin.

But in recent years, there has been a sharp rise in African beauty brands or African diaspora niche brands that have organically built a customer base providing products made for those with black skin and hair. With Africa’s beauty and personal care market estimated at $11 billion in 2017, the continent is being seen as a major growth frontier for majors including L’Oréal and Unilever pursuing increasing activity in the region.

In 2013, L’Oréal acquired the Kenyan company behind Nice & Lovely, a well-known mass-market skin and hair brand, for an estimated $17.6 million. The next year, L’Oréal bought Carol’s Daughter, a business that was started by Lisa Price in her Brooklyn, New York kitchen in 1993, but was valued at $27 million at the time of acquisition. A few years later in 2017, Liberian-born Richelieu Dennis, the founder of one of the best known black skin & hair brands, Shea Moisture, sold his New York-based company Sundial Brands to Unilever. At the time of sale his company was estimated at a whopping $240 million.

While acquisitions of brands serving black people in and outside of the continent is part of the growth strategy for global players, the other key pillar is research and innovation. This month, L’Oréal awarded three leading African scientists its African Hair & Skin Research grant award. The three research areas—post-acne hyperpigmentation in Dakar, the impact of air pollution on human skin in Nairobi and the prevalence and types of hair loss in Lagos are extremely relevant themes in deepening the understanding of unique challenges faced by black people when it comes to skin and hair.

Nairobi’s particulate matter is 70% above the maximum recommended level according to the WHO and this trend is seen in many developing cities. The issue of hyperpigmentation—the darkening of parts of the skin, mostly resulting from acne is a much more prevalent issue for dark skin types than for light skin. Hair loss in the form of traction alopecia, is considered one of the most common forms of hair loss in black people and results from hair being pulled too tight and too long. It can be caused by braids, wigs or weaves.

The need for increased innovation and research here can’t be overstated. Africa accounts for 25% of skin problems, but only 1% of global research output (across all fields.) Black hair and skin is indeed different in so many ways that there is little surprise that products from mainstream brands never fully catered well to black people’s needs.

Click here to read the full article on Quartz Africa.

A recently found Ben Enwonwu painting has sold at seven times its valuation for $1.4 million

When a man found the almost forgotten portrait of his mother in their family house in Texas, he had no idea just how life-changing his discovery would be.

The portrait, Christine, was by one of the most revered African artists of the 20th century, Ben Enwonwu. The captivating sitter was Christine Elizabeth Davis, an American hair stylist of West Indian descent. The painting was completed in under a week as Christine was able to hold her pose for as long as needed. Christine, who was in her mid-30s at the time, passed away in Texas thereafter. But the painting remained in the family.

Just three months ago it was valued by Sothebys at around $200,000, but on Tuesday the portrait sold in London for over seven times the estimated price at $1.4 million.

And it’s not the first remarkable story of a Ben Enwonwu find. His best known portrait, Tutu, is a depiction of Nigerian royal princess Adetutu Ademiluyi (Tutu), often dubbed the “Nigerian Mona Lisa.” Prints of Tutu adorned the walls of living rooms across Nigeria. The 2017 discovery of Tutu was equally fascinating. The long-lost painting was found in a modest London flat and the owners had no idea of its importance or value. It sold at a record $1.6 million in 2018. It was originally estimated at a quarter of that price.

Click here to read the full article on Quartz Africa.

The most unusual ways many African countries got their names

The concept of nation states in Africa is only a bit over a century old, arising after the 1884 Berlin Conference and the subsequent Scramble for Africa by European superpowers of the time. It is therefore not surprising that the names of most African countries are remnants of a colonial legacy.

Nearly every country on earth is named after after one of four things—a directional description of the country, a feature of the land,  a tribe name or an important person, most likely a man.  For the most part, Africa mirrors this trend with a few exceptions. The stories of how African countries got their names ranges from the more mundane, to the fantastical and sometimes even the mind-boggling.

Cameroon, a country that has the complicated legacy of first having been colonized by the Germans, then later partitioned by the French and British, was actually named by a Portuguese explorer in the 15th century. Coming across  the Wouri river, one of Cameroon’s largest rivers, he renamed it, Rio dos Camarões (shrimp river,) for the abundance of shrimp in it.  The name stuck and evolved to become the country name.

Another 15th century Portuguese explorer would find his way further West where either the mountains that looked like a lion’s teeth or the impressive roar of thunderstorms would lead him to name the place, Sierra Lyoa (lion mountains.) In time, the name would change to Sierra Leone.

Centuries later, another mountain would yield a country’s name in East Africa, when the British came upon an imposing snow-capped mountain that the Kikuyu people called Kirinyaga (Where God dwells.) As they struggled to pronounce, Kirinyaga, they called it Mt. Kenya – the country would be named after this mountain.

Click here to read the full article on Quartz Africa

Africa’s tourism industry is now the second fastest growing in the world

Some 67 million tourists visited Africa in 2018, representing a rise of 7% from a year earlier, making Africa the second-fastest growing region when it comes to tourism, after Asia Pacific.

African countries are now reaping the benefits from positive policy changes coupled with increased investments in the sector, that have made it a more attractive destination for tourists.

In Ethiopia, for example, relaxing visa restrictions while improving flight connectivity has seen Addis transformed into a regional transport  hub, even overtaking Dubai as the world’s gateway to Africa. This has resulted in Ethiopia becoming Africa’s fastest growing travel country, growing by 48.6% in 2018, according to  Jumia Africa Hospitality report,

Business visitors numbers in particular have received a boost from business-enabling reforms from some governments that have seen the potential in diversifying the sector. Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa have undertaken initiatives to position themselves as locations for conferences and exhibitions.

Click here to read the full article on Quartz Africa.

These Chinese vloggers are changing how China’s rising middle class sees Africa

When Beijing-born video producer, Fyjo Molly, relocated from Berlin to Johannesburg three years ago, she was enthusiastic about the move. It would be her first time in Africa, but as someone who enjoys immersing herself in different cultures, she was looking forward to the new experience.She fell in love with Johannesburg, a city that she felt had very little in common with most of what she had seen and heard in mainstream media. In 2018, she decided to work on a collaborative video project with a 10-person team from China. Eventually, only two members of the team traveled to Johannesburg with the rest stating they had concerns regarding “safety and disease in Africa.”

Molly says, “I knew that China’s mostly state-ran mainstream media offered a very simplistic, sometimes biased view of the continent, but I had not realized the extent to which it affected everyday people’s opinions.” It was then that she decided that she was going to share her experiences on the continent to show the Africa most Chinese people do not get to see.

Earlier this year, she launched her Instagram and YouTube channels with the goal of challenging stereotypes prevalent in Chinese and western media. She does this through making fun, quirky videos of her experiences in South Africa, but also when traveling round the continent to countries including Ethiopia, Zambia and others.

The story of another Chinese vlogger on the continent follows a different path but has similar objectives to Molly.  Shanghai-born Zhao Huiling was 12 when her family moved from China to Ghana where she lived until she was 18 years old. In a recent episode of the China Africa podcast, she talks about a fun, exciting childhood filled with lots of friends and adventures.

When she returned to China as a young adult, she grew frustrated with the stereotypes of Africans rampant in Chinese popular culture. With Africa becoming an increasingly popular travel destination for Chinese people, she found herself being asked more and more to give recommendations on where people should go, what they should do, what it is like to travel and live in Africa etc. She decided to feed this curiosity and tackle the ignorance in her own words, “showcasing Africa’s great, vibrant, creative scene to a Chinese audience.”

Click here to read the full article on Quartz Africa.

Lupita Nyong’o’s take on Chimamanda’s Americanah for HBO will help Hollywood’s Africa blind spot

The long-awaited on-screen adaptation of Chimamanda’s bestseller, Americanah, is finally coming to life as a ten-episode HBO series starring Lupita Nyong’o and directed by Danai Gurira.

The duo of Nyong’o and Gurira have become a formidable force in Hollywood when it comes to their devotion to telling authentic African stories and especially the stories of women. These days, of course, they’re both best known for their lead roles in 2018 blockbuster Black Panther set in the Marvel-created African country of Wakanda.

Americanah has been a passion project for Nyong’o, the Kenyan-born Oscar winner, who optioned the rights in 2014 after falling in love with the novel. Zimbabwean-American Gurira, too on her part, is no stranger to adapting African stories. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway show, Eclipsed, that tells the story of war in Liberia from women’s point of view.

Americanah is the story of Ifemelu a young, courageous woman raised in Nigeria who as a teenager falls in love with her classmate Obinze. They each depart for the West during a repressive time of military rule in the country with Ifemelu going to the US and Obinze to London. Both suffer their individual struggles as immigrants. Despite her academic success, life in the US forces Ifemelu to grapple for the first time with what it means to be black.

Thematically, the story of Ifemelu and Obinze is as true an African story today as it was in the times of repressive military rule in Nigeria that it was set in. Nigeria still continues to see a massive outflow of people with the rising migration of even comfortable middle-class Nigerians, as the country fails to live up to their expectations. In the global context of rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the West, backed by right-wing, populist leaders in power, it can be expected that a challenging undocumented life in the West awaits some of those who leave.

To read the full article on Quartz Africa, click here.

The legacy of DJ Arafat and how he took the Coupé Décalé sound to the world

A night out in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial capital, is not complete until you find yourself in a line of Ivorians, all standing side by side facing the giant mirrors that line every dance floor in the city, dancing to a DJ Arafat song.

The untimely death earlier this week of the man dubbed the King of Coupé Décalé left fans stunned as they come to terms with the loss of a charismatic, ground-breaking artist who brought Ivorian dance music to the global stage.

The 33-year old, born Ange Didier Huon, burst onto the musical scene as a DJ in Yopougon, one of Abidjan’s best known nightlife districts. He came from a musical family—his mother was a well-known singer and his father a prominent sound engineer. One of his first hits, Hômmage a Jonathan, was a tribute a friend he lost to a motorcycle accident. This is why, among many reasons, it was particularly tragic Arafat also lost his life a few hours after his own motorcycle collided with a car on Aug. 12.

The Coupé Décalé sound and movement started in Paris nightclubs in the early 2000s where it was brought by Ivorian DJs. In Nouchi (Ivorian slang), Coupé Décalé means “to cheat” and “run away” or cut and run. The fun, bass-heavy sound embraced the joie de vivre that typifies Abidjan, a city known for its legendary partying. It also celebrated young resilient Africans who having endured the difficulties of being migrants in Europe, eventually made it big—sometimes by unorthodox means. Hence the concept of cheating the system and getting away with it. It’s an aspirational genre that emerged at the time of the first Ivorian civil war (2002-2007) when dispirited youth needed to believe in the possibility of a better life sometimes in the form of finding fame and fortune abroad.

Read the full article here on Quartz Africa.

Kenyan politics is a boys’ game, but women are fighting hard for their rightful seat at the table

When footage circulated last week of a Kenyan lawmaker, Hon. Zuleikha Hassan, being kicked out of parliament for coming in with her baby, reactions across the country were mixed, but mostly muted. A home emergency left the Kwale county women’s representative with no one that she could leave her five-month old baby with.

It’s a conundrum that millions of nursing mothers face daily around the world—a choice between their jobs and taking care of their babies. Hon. Hassan took her baby, Mwanabaraka, with her to work as a bill was being discussed that she felt was important for her constituents.

In the video voices of some male politicians can be heard shouting, “You have to chase her!” Several female lawmakers and a few male ones appeared to come to Hassan’s defense, but eventually she and her baby were forced to leave parliament.

The act, which took place on the last day of world Breastfeeding Week, could not have been more timely. In 2013, Kenyan lawmakers had actually passed a bill requiring Parliament to put aside a room for breastfeeding mothers, but six years later this has not happened. In a parliament that is 76% male, such an oversight is not all that surprising.

To access full article on Quartz Africa, click here.

How a Texas family discovered they owned a forgotten Ben Enwonwu portrait valued at $200,000

Imagine finding an almost-forgotten portrait of your mother in your family house, doing a Google search on the artist’s name and discovering that what you own is a precursor to the artist’s best-known work that sold in 2018 for $1.6 million.

This is exactly what happened very recently to one of the members of the Davis family in Texas. 

The portrait, Christine, is the latest remarkable find of work by one of the most revered African artists of the 20th century, Ben Enwonwu. The captivating sitter is Christine Elizabeth Davis, an American hair stylist of West Indian descent. Christine travelled a lot in her life, working in Ghana before moving to Lagos with her British husband in 1969. There, they befriended Enwonwu and Christine’s husband commissioned the work as a gift for his wife in 1971 before they eventually moved back to the US a few years later.

The work was completed in under a week as Christine was able to hold her pose for as long as needed. Christine, who was in her mid-30s at the time, passed away in Texas thereafter. But the painting has remained in the family ever since. The portrait is valued at up to £150,000 ($200,000) and will be on auction at Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary African Art Auction on Oct. 15 in London. 

Ben Enwonwu was a Nigerian artist whose career spanned 60 years seeing the journey of Nigeria from a British colony to an independent nation. His story is unique in that not only did he become famous in his own country, but also in the UK where he studied. In Nigeria, he is best known for his famed depictions of Nigerian royal princess Adetutu Ademiluyi (Tutu), often dubbed the ‘Nigerian Mona Lisa.’ Prints of Tutu adorn the walls of living rooms across Nigeria.

The 2017 discovery of Tutu is an equally fascinating story as the discovery of Christine. The long-lost painting was found in a modest London flat and the owners had no idea of its importance or value. It sold at a record $1.6 million in 2018.

To access the full article on Quartz, click here.

'The Spread' Is the Sex-Positive Kenyan Podcast Offering a Safe Space for Women and LGBTQIA+ Issues

'The Spread' is the podcast dedicated to "decolonizing" the way Africans talk about sex and sexuality, say it's creator Karen Kaz Lucas.

Karen Kaz Lucas is the revolutionary brainchild behind Africa's best-known sex positive podcast, The Spread. Three years in, the 52 podcast episodes, covering a range of diverse topics including: The Male-Female Pleasure Gap, Sex positive parenting, LGBTQIA+ issues, Kink, Reproductive Rights, and Porn vs. Reality, has listeners ranging from 6,000 to 21,000 and episode on SoundCloud.

Recently, The Spread had its first major event TheSpreadFest, a day-long event attracting over 600 people with diverse panels, workshops and more. It's been hailed as a truly safe and inclusive space for people of all sexual identities. Okayafrica contributor, Ciku Kimeria speaks to The Spread creator Kaz on her journey to decolonize sexuality, her motivation, and her hopes for the continent relating to matters of sex and sexuality.

Read the conversation below.

What made you start The Spread podcast?
It was to address the key gaps in discussions around sex and sexuality and to create a safe space to discuss them. Younger people were either learning about sex from porn or on the flip side from a religious standpoint or the education system, where the focus is on the risks of engaging in sex (teen pregnancy, STIs etc). As such they were either getting information from a fear-based system, shame-based system or porn that has very little to do with real life sexual situations and intimacy. I wanted to create a safe space where people could talk about all issues related to sexuality but in an open, accepting and enlightening way. For me, this is an informal form of sex education that allows people to explore their sexuality from an unbiased perspective—no judgement, no shaming.

What's the reception been like so far?

The reception has been overwhelmingly positive. I had no idea that the podcast would grow and be as successful as it is now. People are hungry to meet similar people and have discussions without judgement. Of course, there are also people who react negatively to my work and say that this is a result of "Western influence." To those people, I say that they should know that the majority of my work is focused on decolonizing sexuality.

Great transition. I first saw the term "decolonizing sexuality" in your Instagram bio. What exactly does that mean?

Prior to Western intrusion, we already had our own sexual culture. I'm trying to remind people that certain things we embrace as "African" and defend when it comes to sex and sexuality, are elements that came to us through religion, Westernized education etc. The shame associated with sex and sexuality on the continent are remnants of Western teachings.

Prior to colonization many ethnic groups had religious healers who were neither considered male nor female but were gender fluid or intersex. There were ethnic groups that didn't base gender on anatomy but on energy. Gender fluidity on the continent was observed even more than you would find in the most liberal country right now. For some, you could physically have male features but possess female energy and live as a woman. Some people worshipped androgynous or intersex deities and believed that the perfect human being is both male and female. Certain tribes did not ascribe a gender to anyone until the age of puberty. In other communities, their priests were transgender, and they were the only ones who could conduct certain spiritual ceremonies. There is evidence that for several ethnic groups gay and lesbian relationships were not taboo. Unfortunately, a lot of this history has not been publicized or it is being revised as it does not fit in well with the idea that the continent is trying to now uphold as a patriarchal, heteronormative society. That is why the work of decolonizing sexuality is extremely important as we now have a generation that is open to questioning themselves. The generation of our parents lived in a time of oppressed and suppressed sexuality (among other things) as they themselves or their parents had suffered the colonial rape and pillage [both literally and metaphorically] of their lives. All they could carry was anger and fear. To survive they had to conform to what the oppressor enforced on them through religion, western education etc.

[Recently deceased] Kenyan writer and gay activist, Binyavanga Wainaina clearly outlines how it is only former British colonies that have anti-sodomy laws, which came during colonial times from the fear that British soldiers and colonial administrators would be corrupted by the natives while they were away from their wives. The law, the fears by the British government at the time, really are proof that some of the natives were already practicing sodomy.

What for you is the link between sex positive work and women's empowerment?
The average person might think that the type of work I'm doing is frivolous, but the reality is that when a society believes they have any right over women's bodies, we see all the terrible things that happen to women: rape, rampant femicide, violence against women and more. Reclaiming your sexuality as a woman is about asserting your own authority over your body—declaring the right to fulfilling, consensual sex of your own liking, the right to having children, or not having children if you don't want to, postponing or terminating a pregnancy. Once we accept the policing of women's bodies, it's a slippery slope.

Feminism is about women having equal rights and opportunities as men, and that also extends to their sex lives. My body, my choice. For those who are always ready to bash feminism, seeing it as women somehow trying to take over, dominate men, oppress men etc. They should realize that the only reason feminism exists, is because we live in a patriarchal world. Women are at the bottom of the rung, oppressed in thousands of ways. All we are trying to do, is get the same rights that men take for granted. Of course, to the ones who hold power, it will feel like a loss of power.

This is the reason why the topics we cover span everything from women's sexual pleasure to gender-based violence to LGBTQIA+ rights to women's reproductive health. All these discussions must happen in tandem.

To access the full article on Okayafrica, click here.

Who Are the Black-Painted Mandinga Warriors of São Vicente's Carnival?

Tens of thousands of people gather in early March every year in the island of Sao Vicente for Carnival. As one of Cape Verde's 10 islands, its major claim to fame is as the home of the legendary singer Cesaria Evora who was known as "The Barefoot Diva" and almost always performed with a bottle of Cognac on stage and a cigarette in her hand. Though it is now the second largest island in the country in terms of population and the unrivaled capital of culture in the country, it was mostly uninhabited until the mid to late 19th century.

One of the most breathtaking sights from the Sao Vicente Carnival is that of The Mandingas. While they are a common sight throughout the festival, the day fully dedicated to them is the final day of Carnival known as The Mandinga Funeral/Carnival Funeral. The carnival funeral is an occasion for people to honor their black ancestors while also mourning the end of the festival. Greased completely in oil and tar, donning sisal skirts and carrying spears, they are a sight to behold as they transform themselves into Mandinga warriors. Everyone follows them from the relatively poor neighborhood of Ribeira Bote as they carry two black coffins with some in the crowd donning similar attire. The crowd chants, sings and dances while the Mandingas call out, "Harrrrrrryaa!" The parade through the streets lasts all day culminating in the sunset burial of the coffins in the ocean. The crowd is worked into a frenzy as the drums beat louder and a sort of orgiastic, other-worldly energy takes hold of the crowd. Some people jump into the ocean following the coffins.

Throughout the carnival I was very curious about the Mandingas. While I had not witnessed anything disrespectful in their behavior when they were covered in tar and wearing their costumes, the only reference point I have for such attire is blackface. I needed to get to the bottom of it and understand the motivation behind their costumes. I also wondered, "Can it be blackface if you identify as being black or part black?" To seek answers I turned to the legendary Cape Verdean dancer and Artistic Director of the Cultural Center of Mindelo, Antonio Tavares. In addition to all his accolades he is also an expert on the Mandinga history in the Sao Vicente Carnival. He asserts, "This is not blackface. We are a people who have been cut off from our African roots, suffering from an identity crisis. The Mandingas allow the youth of Sao Vicente to reclaim our African heritage and pay homage to this heritage." The battle cry from the Mandinga crew "Harrrrryaaa!" he has discovered from his research to be a mispronunciation from a song by the legendary mid-20th century Jamaican-American musician, Harry Belafonte. Antonio continues, "In his song, he is telling black people to "Hurry up!" as the revolution is coming."

Unlike some of the other Cape Verdean islands, Sao Vicente does not have a history of people being enslaved there given how late it was inhabited. However, as people came to Sao Vicente from other Cape Verdean islands, other African countries (of course in addition to people from parts of Europe,) the slavery legacy is still a part of people's history. The majority of Cape Verdeans and people in Sao Vicente identify either as being black or creole (mixed white and black).

To access the full article on Okayafrica, click here.

The Congolese storyteller drawing on African mythology and spirituality for his comic books

Growing up in Brazzaville, Kiyindou Yamakasi began making comics at a young age sharing them with his primary school friends who would act out the scenes. His characters very closely resembled those he read about in Japanese and American comics. They took subways, they suffered through terrible winters and were White or Asian.

His earlier work is a great contrast to his new fantasy comic series, Little Little Orishas that draws inspiration from Yoruba spirituality with his characters as revered deities.

His main character, Sango is the god of thunder and lightning while his sister is Oya, is the goddess of wind in Yoruba spirituality. Little little orishas is the story of Sango, a simple-minded and defiant wandering spirit, and his gentle sister Oya. They want to live a better life in heaven, free from the gods that bully them on a daily basis.

It is a story of overcoming barriers, dealing with bullies, class issues and resilience. All these are topics that are close to Yamakasi’s heart having endured similar hardships in school. With the support of his parents, he’s now equipped with the tools to get his stories to a larger audience using comics and hopefully in future an animated series. His parents wholeheartedly backed his decision to drop out of university in Brazzaville where he was studying economics and accounting and instead join AFDA in Cape Town where he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Motion Pictures. He hopes to further his studies in film and television.

To access the full article on Quartz, click here.

As measles spreads, should African countries issue health travel restrictions for Westerners?

The first headline of 2019 that really brought my attention to the anti-vax movement read: Measles returned to Costa Rica after five years by French family who had not had vaccinations. I thought the choice of words could have been stronger as the image it left me with was one of a homecoming event except what was being received was one of the world’s most contagious viral diseases that has no specific treatment.

Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, major measles epidemics occurred almost every two to three years resulting in 2.6 million deaths a year. I continued reading the article about the French boy who brought measles to Costa Rica searching for the part of the article that would mention the new travel alert that had been issued by the country against French citizens or at the very least a mention of tighter travel restrictions for his country people. I am sure that would have been mentioned had this unvaccinated boy come from Guinea, Kenya or India. The headline would also have been something more menacing, perhaps: The African boy who started the Costa Rica measles epidemic.

In an almost apologetic tone, the article continued, “It is unclear why the five-year-old French tourist had never received a measles jab.” I was impressed by the presumption of innocence for a family that had intentionally chosen not to vaccinate their child against a highly contagious, dangerous disease. There were also no mentions of the travel bans I was so eagerly waiting to see as someone whose relatively weak passport makes me relish the few moments when someone else’s passport privilege is checked.

To access the full article on Quartz, click here.

How a Senegalese soap opera went viral across Africa by giving women an authentic voice

Maitresse d’un homme marié (Mistress of a Married Man), a wildly popular Senegalese TV soap, sparked controversy and made national news here in March when there were there were calls by some religious clerics to ban the show.

It was mostly driven by one scene in which the lead character, a mistress called Marème Dial, points to her crotch proclaiming in Wolof, “Sama lii ma ko moom, ku ma neex laa ko’y jox [“My thing is mine, I give it to whomever I want.”]. While the series weathered the storm and continues to air with more episodes coming, it continues to stir debate not just in Senegalese society, but in its wider Francophone world viewership particularly in Africa.

Thematically, in addition to adultery and polygamy, Maitresse d’un homme marié tackles many issues ranging from sexual abuse, domestic violence, child abduction, parental irresponsibility, substance abuse among others. While such issues are not necessarily new to Senegalese TV dramas, what endears it to the audience is how it addresses them.

The women’s voices are first and foremost in telling their stories. Diversity of looks and characters is also embraced by the series with Kalista Sy, the show’s producer emphasizing, “We were not going to follow the norm of Senegalese shows that primarily feature women who have lightened their skin. We want to show women in a way that audiences have not gotten used to seeing them on screen – focusing on natural beauty of all shapes, shades and sizes.”

Sy and her team also wanted to show these working women as strong characters in spite of all the issues in their private lives. “This is about women as we see ourselves rather than the male gaze in our cinema industry where men have usually decided who a female character should be,” she says.

The show revolves around the lives of four modern urban women based in Dakar. First there is Marème, the unapologetic mistress of Cheikh. Cheikh is married to Lalla—another key character. She’s his devoted wife but is in the dark about his other life. Then there is the reclusive Racky, with a managerial position in the male-dominated construction industry. Lastly there is Dialika a successful professional who is married to Birame, an abusive, narcissistic alcoholic. Other strong female characters include Mamy, a go-getter career woman who still struggles to get over being made fun of as a child for her weight and Dior, a single independent-minded woman.

With a female producer and scriptwriter, telling women’s stories from their own perspective seems to be paying off.  Audiences are clamoring for more—new episodes are averaging 1.2 million views on YouTube with the first episode having being viewed 2.4 million times.Comments on the page are from a variety of French-speaking people, mostly Africans.

There are numerous requests in the comments for French subtitles to come out faster so they can watch at the same time as their Wolof-speaking counterparts. Reaction videos to each episode are gaining a following as are the lead characters real Instagram pages.

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Kenyan writer and human rights activist, Margaret Ogola, honored with a Google Doodle

Kenyans of a certain age will immediately recall her name as her best known novel, The River and the Source, was required reading for the high school leaving national examinations (KCSE) from 1999 to 2004.

The line by the main protagonist’s father, Chief Odero, the father of Akoko “A home without daughters is like a spring without a source” was a fitting one for a book that placed the stories of the lives of three generations of women at its center.

This book that embraced the spirit of strong African women, while immersing and celebrating Luo culture and tradition, from pre to postcolonial times, won the 1995 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Best First Book, Africa region.

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Cesaria Evora's legacy lives on

The largest currency denomination in Cape Verde bears her face, the airport in her home island of Sao Vicente is named after her. There are constant reminders of her legacy wherever you walk – her voice blaring in restaurants, pictures of her, paintings everywhere.

A Cape Verdean friend jokes, “Our passports have a map of Cape Verde as most airport officials did not believe it was a real country, but ever since Cize became world famous, people now know that this is a real country.”

Cesaria Evora, affectionately referred to by locals as Cize was not your typical African heroine. She’s remembered in her island country 400 miles from Dakar, Senegal in West Africa, as much for her haunting voice that got her the name of the Queen of Mornas (a Cape Verdean musical and dance genre,) as she is for her rebellious resilient spirit.

Evora famously refusing to perform in shoes the first time she was invited to perform at Gremio Recreativo, one of the fanciest establishments in the island of Sao Vicente at the time. This earned her the nickname, The Barefoot Diva, and she continued to always perform without shoes on, proudly proclaiming her humble roots. She is also remembered for her stage appearance, always modestly dressed, with a bottle of Cognac on stage and a cigarette in her mouth.

Her songs spoke of love, loss, nostalgia and longing. In Sodade she calls out for her lover who has gone to a far off land abandoning her—this was something she knew well, with her first love at 16 leaving her to go to Europe and several subsequent ones thereafter, leaving her to raise three children on her own. In Ingrata, she mourned about a daughter who leaves her to go across the ocean—a reality only too real in a country where more than 60% of its population lives outside the country. The Cape Verdean story is one of immigration, separation and longing.

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Carnival in Sao Vicente, Cape Verde

The streets of Mindelo in the island of Sao Vicente in the North of Cape Verde come alive for the first weeks of March every year for Carnival. Sao Vicente is one of 10 islands in Cape Verde, best known as the home of the legendary musician, Cesaria Evora.

The country’s second largest island in terms of population has gone from being a mostly uninhabited island until the mid to late 19th century to becoming a cultural powerhouse attracting thousands of visitors to the country each year.

Officially, carnival in Mindelo, Sao Vicente lasts a week, but locals will tell you Carnival fever begins as early as the end of the previous year. While Sao Vicente’s population is 80,000 people, the league which organized this year’s carnival (LIGOCSV) gave an unconfirmed estimate of as many as 50,000 additional visitors to the island for the carnival. This includes visitors from all the other nine islands in Cape Verde in addition to international visitors and press. The estimate is based on the fact that as early as end of December 2018, most hotels and other accommodation were fully booked. All flights to Sao Vicente were full.

This is the second year the Carnival in Sao Vicente has been organized by the league. It is all part of an ambitious plan to professionalize the carnival bring in more revenue for the country.

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The Cuban Music Revolution in Senegal

Thierno Koite’s memories of Dakar in the 1960s and 1970s are extremely vivid, “I remember falling asleep on the speakers in various clubs in Dakar as Afro-Cuban music played. At that time, I was a young boy, but I would attend my cousin’s and brother’s rehearsals.”

His cousin Issa Cissohko and his brother Moundaga Koite were part of the founding group of the legendary Afro-Cuban band – Orchestra Baobab. He would eventually join the group as an alto saxophonist when he came of age.

“Dakar was where everyone came to make music,” says the septuagenarian. “There was the Liberian musician [Dexter Johnson] one of the members of Star Band of Dakar—the best known Afro-Cuban band in Senegal founded in 1958. There was Barthélémy Attisso who at the time was a Togolese student at the University of Dakar and a guitarist for the Star Band and Orchestra Baobab.”

Thierno reminisces about a time when Dakar was the capital of French West Africa, attracting people from other African countries and from across the diaspora, Malians, Maghrebis, Beninoises, Cubans—everyone bringing their unique musical influence with them.

Music and revolution

While quite a few groups dominated the scene, none was better known than Star Band de Dakar which introduced some of the country’s most legendary musicians including Grammy Award winning artist, Youssou N’Dour. The band’s entire repertoire was Afro-Cuban—a testament to the anti-imperialist ideals of Cuba and the impact it was having in a country that was trying to free itself from colonial rule and the post-colonial sensibilities that came with it.

The 1959 Cuban Revolution brought with it the ambition by Fidel Castro and his administration to aid African nations in the fight against imperialism. He developed diplomatic ties with newly independent African nations—sending professionals (doctors, teachers), aid workers and diplomats to various African countries in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1978, there were approximately 11,000 Cuban citizens living in Sub-Saharan Africa, and also Cuban bands touring the continent.

For the youth at the time, Cuban music offered an opportunity to portray a cosmopolitan way of life, but one that wasn’t built on the French ideas of progress. Rather it was based on their camaraderie with Cuba, a revolutionary country that proudly identified with its black roots and was considered a modern post-colonial society that Senegalese people could look up to as a model.

This music grew and thrived in Medina, the native quarters of Dakar at the time. It found a home in clubs such as Le Miami, a nightclub where Star Club recorded their entire catalog. Sahel was another nightclub that was home to The Sahel Orchestra – another well-known Afro-cuban jazz group of which Thierno Koite is still part of. It was here where they released an Afro-cuban album called Bamba in mid 1970s that was so popular that it cemented Sahel Club’s place as a place that would attract young musicians from all over Dakar looking to experiment with various latin inspired genres.

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