Grandfather of African Film who made LOVE BREWED IN THE AFRICAN POT IN Nairobi

Ghanaian Kwaw Ansah urges use of film to reverse negative African image

Ghana’s great filmmaker Kwaw Ansah was back in Kenya an impassioned plea to the country's future filmmakers to tell their own stories and not try to imitate Hollywood. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU 

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Friday, October 31  2014 at  13:07

Making an impassioned plea to Kenya’s future filmmakers to tell their own stories and not try to imitate Hollywood, Ghana’s great filmmaker Kwaw Ansah was back in the country this week after being away for almost 30 years.

The 73-year-old sage who’s often called ‘the Father of [Anglophone] African film’ had been invited by Kenyatta University’s chairman of its Theatre Arts and Film Technology Department, Dr John Mugubi to screen his most famous films and share insights with young KU students about the history of West African film.

But Ansah also told the students that film was an extremely powerful tool which they needed to use to reverse the negative images of Africa perpetuated by Hollywood films and Western culture generally.

Africa’s first award-winning filmmaker initially came in Kenya in 1986 to witness the phenomenal success of his film, Love Brewed in the African Pot.

“I was invited by Kenya’s Minister of Culture to come and show ‘Love Brewed’ here, but when I arrived, a man from the Kenya Film Board told me to go home because Kenyan audiences only like movies made in Hollywood,” Ansah recalled.

But the Ghanaian managed to convince the KFB man that he could at least show his movie on an experimental basis just to see if his assessment of Kenyans’ cinematic taste was accurate.

Ansah said Love Brewed opened the same weekend as the latest James Bond flick, but there was no comparison between the lengthy lines that came to see his film and the cinema seats left empty for Bond.

“There were full house crowds for three months,” said the man who not only scripted Love Brewed but also produced, directed and composed the sound track for the film.

Speaking last Wednesday at KU’s spacious Student Business Centre, Ansah insisted students first see his film before he spoke so they’d have some point of reference and something to talk about.

In fact, most of the youth that filled the KU auditorium hadn’t been born by the time Ansah’s film defied all the odds and proved to the international public that Africans could indeed make first-class films and tell their own stories at the same time.

Sharing some of the struggles he’d faced while helping establish Ghana’s fledgling film industry, Ansah described how he had been confronted with formidable odds, especially as he got no support from either the post-Nkrumah Ghanaian government or the private sector, including banks.

Ultimately, it was his father-in-law who volunteered to give him a house and title deed, so he could obtain a bank loan and proceed to make the film that he said cost more than $1 million (Sh89 million).  

Since then, he’s made two more feature films, ‘Heritage Africa’ and ‘Praise the Lord Plus One’ as well as several award-winning documentaries. He also founded his film production company, Film Africa Limited.

PARIS-BASED KENYAN FASHION DESIGNER RETURNS TO ROOTS TO SHOW ORIGINAL DESIGNS IN KENYAN TEXTILES

High fashion designed with kitenge and kikoi

Eva Rogo-Levenez at her ‘Back to the Roots’ fashion showcase at the Alliance Francaise in mid-October. Her necklace is a Maasai beaded wedding necklace and her dress is made using Kenyan kitenge. PHOTO | COURTESY 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Posted  Friday, October 31  2014 at  14:51

In Summary

• Eva is taking her Kenyan fashions back to Paris where she intends to put them on the global fashion map.

Eva Rogo-Levenez is one Kenyan fashion designer who has put her elegant Ler Ligisa designs onto catwalks on three continents.

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“There’s Europe,” said the Paris-based designer and managing director of Ler Ligisa fashions who’s lived in France for more than 20 years, “Then there’s North America,” she said. Eva recently displayed her designs during the last New York Fashion Week where she received exceptional reviews from the city’s fashion gurus.

“And then of course, there is Africa and specifically Kenya where I just organised my ‘Back to the Roots’ fashion showcase at Alliance Francaise.”

Admitting that she found it harder to put together a fashion show in Kenya than she had in Paris where facilities are more accessible, Eva said she practically put last Saturday’s fashion show together ‘single-handedly’ apart from working with Moses Mukiibi, managing director of Strut It Afrika, who provided lovely, lean and lanky models.

It was a serious challenge, she confessed, but the show itself went so well she said the labour was worth it.

“Many of my old friends were away when I arrived in Nairobi, but I was still determined to share my designs with fellow Kenyans,” said Eva adding she promotes Kenya while living overseas.

Her love for Kenya is manifest, she said, in her decision to only use Kenyan textiles in latest fashion line.

“I brought all my patterns from Paris and worked closely with a Kenyan tailor with whom I cut out my designs using kitenge and kikoi. That’s one reason why I called my show ‘Back to the Roots’.”

The only outfit that wasn’t made with Kenyan textiles was the chiffon wedding gown that she stitched together with lovely Kikoi cloth to enhance the elegance of the gown’s strapless bodice. The dress was the show-stopper of the night.

Eva’s designs included kitenge and kikoi pants and slim-line skirts with matching jackets. She also had full length kikoi skirts with contrasting suka-like capes with matching Maasai bead necklaces that were also show-stealing, distinctly Kenyan in design.

Eva is taking her Kenyan fashions back to Paris where she intends to put them on the global fashion map. In her mind, that won’t be difficult since she already has followings in New York and Paris.

“But I also wanted to establish myself on the Nairobi fashion scene since I know there is a lot of local talent, both in terms of designers and tailors [or seamstresses] as well as among models who have the potential to be international ‘top models’ starting right here in Kenya.”

Kitengela Glass Trust pioneered Glass Art in Keny

Why glass art is moving from churches to homes       

By Margaretta wa Gacheru margacheru@gmail.com

 

 

 

One piece of stained glass art by Tonney Mugo. PHOTO  by Margaretta wa Gacheru

Posted  Thursday, August 28  2014 at  16:02

Glass art is a universal art form that one can find almost anywhere in the world, find almost anywhere in the world, or rather in places where religions have taken root.

Glass art in the form of stained glass windows or intricate mosaics can be seen, either in Christian cathedrals, Hindu temples or Islamic mosques.

In East Africa, glass art came with Christian missionaries who built churches that used colourful stained glass windows to illustrate stories from the Scriptures.

Such windows inspired artists like Jak Katarikawe whose early paintings will be on display from September 1st at the Nairobi Gallery.

In Kenya, glass art is currently a thriving field that can be found not only in churches, temples and mosques but also in private homes, hotels and high-rise offices as well as in restaurants, banks and public parks.

Glass Dome in private home cum office in Karen by Nani Croze and Kitengela Glass. photo by Margaretta wa Gacheru

The most unusual place to find glass art in undoubtedly at the Kitengela Glass Trust where, since 1979, Nani Croze has created a veritable glass village in which one can find cement and mud huts covered in glass, chicken and turkey houses shaped like Maasai manyattas covered in glass and even a glass bridge that spans a wide, overgrown ravine enabling visitors to reach her picturesque glass ‘museum’ in record time.

But Kitengela Glass is not the only place to find glass artists, although a great many Kenyans have gotten their start apprenticing in glass with Nani.

Kitengela Glass Bead Hut designed by Nani Croze with glass mosaics made by Edith Nyambura. Photo by Margaretta
 

One is Edith Nyambura who’s assisted her mentor in placing glass tiles all over Kitengela’s swimming pool floor and on the front edifice of its brand new Bead Hut.

Edith Nyambura of Kitengela Glass created mosaic glass table and chairs perfect for outdoor gardens. Phonos by margaretta wa gacheru
 

A number ‘Kit’ novices have also been trained by the stained glass artist Bernhard Viehweber whom she called from the renowned Hadamar Glass Institute in Germany to help her teach members of her staff the art of creating stained glass.

Bernhard worked closely with Nani for several years before he shifted to Westlands where he set up his own Prisma Art studio.

It was there that he met Tonney Mugo, who was already apprenticing at the Glass Gallery with Philippa Simpson, a skilled glass engraver who has since left Kenya.

Tonney was keen to advance and diversify his own skills in glass art, so when he heard about the Hadamar Glass Institute, he applied and got into the German school, where he learned everything from engraving to glass painting and ‘fusing’.

Today, both Tonney and Bernhard are back in Kenya creating glass art and based at Kuona Trust.

Meanwhile, Bernhard worked for several years in Canada before returning to Kenya last year. Now he works part-time at Kitengela Glass. All three glass artists are frequently commissioned to create stained glass windows both for churches and private homes all over Kenya.

For instance, Nani’s glass art can be found up and down the Coast, in hotels and churches.

In Nanyuki, Bernhard has designed a glass wall at the Ol Jogi Ranch; and at the Nairobi National Museum, both Tonney and Nani have created formidable glass works.

Both artists have created impressive glass art pieces for hospitals as well: Nani, working with a group of Kenyan women artists, constructed an eight-foot tall cement and steel ‘African Mama’ covered in glass mosaic at Kenyatta Hospital, while Tonney created a stained glass window which was recently hung in the Pumwani Maternity Hospital.

But what’s equally exciting about the genre of glass art is that a number of up and coming artists are discovering its beauty and versatility.

Currently, at The Hub, a new art and entrepreneurship training centre on Waiyaki Way just past Westlands, a young painter named Kendi Mbabazi Mwendia has a small exhibition of glass art which is quite different from the stained glass and dale de verre pieces that the other three are creating.

Inspired by the functional art of Kitengela Glass as a child, Kendi said her father had bought a beautiful glass table from Nani around 20 years ago.

Edith and Nani and the rest of the Kitengela Glass team created this beautiful glass mosaic map of African. Photo by Margaretta wa Gacheru

“I remember lying under the table as a little girl and looking up at all the bright colours shining through the glass,” says Kendi who creates her art pieces by painting on glass.

That colour spectrum that she saw in the family table as a little girl apparently inspired two of her glass paintings, one that’s still at The Hub entitled ‘Psychedelic’, the other which was sold soon after her exhibition opened.

A graduate of Rusinga High School in Nairobi where she painted frequently and USIU where she majored in International Relations and rarely painted at all, at 24, Kendi plans to do lots more with glass.

 

                

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

Theatre: Accidental Death of a Terrorist is highly recommended at Phoenix Players

Thin line between madness and how con men exploit legal system    

Inspector Bruno threatens the ‘mad man’ who’s not afraid in Accidental Death. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU 

               

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Thursday, October 16  2014 at  19:23

In Summary

• What’s stunning is how easily Phoenix Players adapted Fo’s play to a Kenyan context.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist by the Italian playwright Dario Fo was a brilliant political comedy that gave new meaning to the comedic.

It not only made fun of madness in ways that were irreverent, ridiculous and hilarious. It also revealed what a fine line there can be between being mad and being an incredibly imaginative, shrewd and calculating con man who knew how to manipulate the legal and judicial system to get away with all manner of apparent madness as a means of exposing corruption, police brutality, impunity and murder.

What’s stunning is how easily Phoenix Players adapted Fo’s play to a Kenyan context. Changing just one word in the title, Accidental Death of a Terrorist opened last Friday night at Phoenix, raising similar issues and meriting just as much praise as Fo’s original play.

Directed by Harry Ebale who also plays the medically certified ‘madman’, he too could truly be insane or he might actually be sane, lucid and rational, only playing the part of a mental maniac for his own reasons.

Ebale (who’s assembled a cast including Samson Psenjen, Sahil Gada, Martin Kigondu and Esther Muturi) keeps his audience guessing from start to end. We’re never sure if he’s mad or not. What’s certain is he’s outrageously audacious and apparently schizophrenic as he enacts an exquisitely crafted repertoire of characters that clearly leaves local police looking as frazzled, foolish and out of control as the madman might well be.

Hauled into the Central Police Station on charges he knows he can beat since he’s already done so a dozen times, he’s got the right medical records to retain a clean slate. His records show he is nuts. So legally, he cannot be charged since he’s been diagnosed as essentially ‘out of his mind’.

Is he really? He’s nutty enough to exasperate police inspector Bruno (Psenjen) so much that he throws the maniac out of his office. He can’t cope with this slippery maniac who can switch identities at the drop of a hat.

But what makes the madman’s quick-changing character so stunning is not just that he can credibly shift from persona to persona effortlessly. It’s also that he does it with so much audacious flare that he leaves the cops befuddled.

If he’s not insane, the game he’s playing is extremely dangerous since we gradually grasp that his interrogators are the type who torture, maim and kill in the name of finishing “terrorists.”

So either he’s immensely brave or utterly insane since he seems to know that both his interrogators (Kigondu and Gada) are complicit in the “accidental” death of a matatu tout who’s been deemed a ‘terrorist’.

The madman manages to fool his would-be interrogators up until Inspector Bruno arrives in the Superintendent’s office and eventually recognises the maniac who Bruno is convinced is nothing but a conman. By that time, the maniac has already recorded inadvertent confessions from his interrogators who admit they tossed the manamba (tout) ‘terrorist’ out the window; he didn’t commit suicide.

On the contrary, it was convenient for the two to eliminate an innocent (until proven guilty) man only to report to the media that he was a terrorist who killed himself.

The other accusations that the maniac makes against the cops and the whole political establishment are even more damning, since he alleges the police are tools of politicians who need terrorists to wage war against the State to justify curtailing people’s freedoms and human rights.

Implicitly what Fo and Phoenix Players are exposing is the whole idea that the so called war on terror is actually a right wing ploy to deprive people of their democratic rights by rousing fear of terrorists (not cops serving politicians’ interests) who supposedly plant bombs in buses and public places like Gikomba.

And while the allegations of the madman seem unbelievable, the play itself reveals that such claims are plausible.

                               

LAUNCH OF 2015 KENYA ARTS DIARY @ HEINRICH BOELL FOUNDATION OCT.21

PRESS RELEASE

ANNOUNCING THE LAUNCH OF THE KENYA ARTS DIARY 2015

October 17, 2014

The official launch of the Kenya Arts Diary 2015 will be held this coming Tuesday, October 21 at 6pm at the Heinrich Boell Foundation offices on Forest Road.

Guest of Honor at the Launch of this the 5th Kenya Arts Diary will be the German Ambassador, Mr. Andreas Peschke who will official launch the Diary and open the 2nd Kenya Arts Diary Artists Exhibition.

The exhibition will feature a portion of artworks by the more than 60 artists whose art is included in this year's Diary.

The Kenya Arts Diary is the brain child of glass artist Nani Croze who is also the founder of the Kitengela Glass Research and Training Trust. Since 2010 Nani has been working with a team of art-loving volunteers to assemble art works by the best and brightest young Kenyan artists around. Kul Graphics has also played an invaluable role in publishing the full-color diary every year.

Nani's initial vision from the beginning has been to create a diary that is both a calendar and a catalogue of contemporary Kenyan art which reflects the burgeoning nature of the local visual arts scene. She also has wanted to expose the amazing diversity, dynamism and determination of young Kenyan artists to confirm that there is indeed contemporary Kenyan art and that African art is not confined exclusively to West and South Africa but it is also thriving in East Africa, especially in Kenya.

That is why, in all five editions of the Diary, the KAD arts committee has sought to fill every new edition with the artwork of fresh, new Kenyan talents. It has also tried to include veteran Kenyan and East African artists every year. These have included painters like Ancent Soi, Elimo Njau, Yony Waite and Jak Katarikawe as well as sculptors like the late Samwel Wanjau, Elkana Ong'esa and Edward Njeng'a.

The Diary team has worked hard to seek out young and relatively unknown artists who haven't had much public exposure but their artistic talents are apparent. The team's commitment to giving young artists opportunities to develop their creative skills is possibly most evident in the Kenya Arts Diary Residency Award or KADRA that was launched last year. The art residency affords young artists the opportunity to work with experienced artists in stimulating studio environments for one month with all expenses paid, including art materials, accommodations, a stipend and the opportunity to exhibit the awardee's work produced during that one month residency.

Last year, the two KADRA awardees were Michael Kyalo and Ezra Joab. This year the awardee, currently working with Nani Croze at Kitengela Glass, is Kezia Nduta.

Early in 2015 a call will go out to young Kenyan artists to apply for KADRA and all Kenyans under the age of 25 years will be welcome to apply.

What makes the Kenya Arts Diary both a calendar and a catalogue of contemporary Kenyan art is because every week is given to one artist whose art work is featured together with a head shot of the artist, a brief bio and the artist's contacts so that the public can communicate directly with the artist. Aiming to foster transparency and independence among the artists, Nani says she feels strongly that artists need to have platforms that enable the public to easily access them. She says it's good for the artists and the public as well since art lovers can use the Diary like a directory to find the artists they want to know and potentially to invest in their art.

Any questions about the Kenyan Arts Diary 2015 can be sent to kenyaartsdiary@gmail.com or sent to the Diary's Facebook page.

The Diary is available for sale in all the local bookstores, galleries and art centres. For details about obtaining the Diary, call Diana at 0720624139.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

23rd EU Film Festival blends tradition and innovation

From left: Kenyan film The Captain of Nakara; Viva Riva, a 2010 Congolese crime thriller film and A Hijacking, a 2012 Danish thriller film are among films to be screened during the European Film Festival at Alliance Francaise in Nairobi.  

In Summary

• Including 20 critically acclaimed feature films in all, the Festival will continue its tradition of screening films that reflect a wide cross-section of genres.

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By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

The 23rd annual European Film Festival premieres on Tuesday, May 13 at Alliance Francaise featuring nearly new films from 14 of the 28 European Union-member countries and two members of the ACP (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific) states, namely Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Including 20 critically acclaimed feature films in all, the Festival will continue its tradition of screening films that reflect a wide cross-section of genres.

There will be everything from comedies and crime thrillers to fantasy mixed with melodrama, romances mixed with either comedy or drama, some of which is historical, others which are political.

There are also films focused on assorted themes such as sporting events, immigration, youth coming of age, corruption, war, high society, public scandal and even workers’ revolution.

And while there is only one film out of 20 that has been directed by a woman, namely Amelie van Blmbt who made the Belgian film La Tete La Premiere or Head-first, there are several that feature women as protagonists, such as Barbara from Germany, 9 Mois Ferme or 9 Months Stretch from France, Brides and The Cherry Orchard both from Greece, Blancanieves from Spain, Les Grandes Ondes or Long-waves from Switzerland and La Tete La Premiere or Head-first from Belgium.

Each European film being offered at the Festival has been hand-picked to represent some of their country’s finest films, so that one will find films that have won accolades either at the Oscars (The Great Beauty from Italy) or Cannes (The Hunt from Denmark), as well as at the Cesars (9 Month Stretch) in France, the Silver Bears (Barbara) in Berlin, the Goya Awards (Blancanieves) in Spain and the Kalasha Awards (The Captain of Nakara) in Kenya.

It’s only once a year that Nairobi plays host to such a rich array of cinematic creativity packed into a little less than three weeks’ time.

What’s equally impressive about the festival is that the EU through Alliance Francaise ensures that a number of the films are also screened in Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret as well as around Nairobi from Baba Dogo and Mathare to Korogocho and Kariobangi.

This year there are several new dimensions to the Festival. One is the inclusion of two silent movies made in the early 20th century.

One is Paris qui dort or Paris Asleep, a science fiction comedy made in 1925 by acclaimed French filmmaker Rene Clair and Le Voyage dans la lune or A Trip to the Moon, made in 1902 by another esteemed French filmmaker Georges Melies.

To complement these two film classics, Alliance Francaise has invited two award winning French musicians, pianist Guillaume Cherpitel and saxophonist Julien Petit to accompany the films, which was a tradition during the silent film era, although back then it was either an organ or a piano that sonically dramatized the moods and emotions conveyed by the actors in the films.

Cherpitel and Petit whose program is being billed as a Cine-Concert entitled The Bridge of Flavours and their music will reflect a fusion of multiple influences such as fink, electronic, groove and slam.

Inspired to make music to accompany successful silent films, the two (who recently performed at the 2013 Jazz Pulsations International Festival in Nancy, France) were especially impressed by the global success of the Oscar-winning film The Artist which was a remake of an early silent film set to music.

The other innovative element that has been added to this year’s EU Film Festival is the public discussions called the Cine Café, which will revolve around two films that seem to be the most relevant to Kenyan audiences, one about a fictitious African country that has a peculiar resemblance to Kenya and the other about Somali pirates who hijack a Danish cargo ship in the Indian Ocean and bears a resemblance to the award-winning film Captain Philips.

The first Cine Café will discuss one of the two ACP films that will be screened, both of which were financed under the 9th European Development Fund that “aims to contribute to the development of cinema and audiovisual industries in ACP countries.”

The Captain of Nakara will be discussed with the public and the film’s cast and crew, including its director Bob Nyanya and his screenwriter Cajeton Boy on Wednesday, May 21st following the film’s screening at 5pm. It will also be shown Sunday, May 25th at 3pm.

The other film that should generate living discussion is the Danish film, The Hijacking, which will be shown at a Cine Café on Tuesday May 27th at 7pm. It will also be screened on the final day of the Festival, Sunday, June 1st at 7:30pm.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

23rd EU Film Festival blends tradition and innovation

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From left: Kenyan film The Captain of Nakara; Viva Riva, a 2010 Congolese crime thriller film and A Hijacking, a 2012 Danish thriller film are among films to be screened during the European Film Festival at Alliance Francaise in Nairobi.  

In Summary

• Including 20 critically acclaimed feature films in all, the Festival will continue its tradition of screening films that reflect a wide cross-section of genres.

advertisement

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

The 23rd annual European Film Festival premieres on Tuesday, May 13 at Alliance Francaise featuring nearly new films from 14 of the 28 European Union-member countries and two members of the ACP (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific) states, namely Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Including 20 critically acclaimed feature films in all, the Festival will continue its tradition of screening films that reflect a wide cross-section of genres.

There will be everything from comedies and crime thrillers to fantasy mixed with melodrama, romances mixed with either comedy or drama, some of which is historical, others which are political.

There are also films focused on assorted themes such as sporting events, immigration, youth coming of age, corruption, war, high society, public scandal and even workers’ revolution.

And while there is only one film out of 20 that has been directed by a woman, namely Amelie van Blmbt who made the Belgian film La Tete La Premiere or Head-first, there are several that feature women as protagonists, such as Barbara from Germany, 9 Mois Ferme or 9 Months Stretch from France, Brides and The Cherry Orchard both from Greece, Blancanieves from Spain, Les Grandes Ondes or Long-waves from Switzerland and La Tete La Premiere or Head-first from Belgium.

Each European film being offered at the Festival has been hand-picked to represent some of their country’s finest films, so that one will find films that have won accolades either at the Oscars (The Great Beauty from Italy) or Cannes (The Hunt from Denmark), as well as at the Cesars (9 Month Stretch) in France, the Silver Bears (Barbara) in Berlin, the Goya Awards (Blancanieves) in Spain and the Kalasha Awards (The Captain of Nakara) in Kenya.

It’s only once a year that Nairobi plays host to such a rich array of cinematic creativity packed into a little less than three weeks’ time.

What’s equally impressive about the festival is that the EU through Alliance Francaise ensures that a number of the films are also screened in Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret as well as around Nairobi from Baba Dogo and Mathare to Korogocho and Kariobangi.

This year there are several new dimensions to the Festival. One is the inclusion of two silent movies made in the early 20th century.

One is Paris qui dort or Paris Asleep, a science fiction comedy made in 1925 by acclaimed French filmmaker Rene Clair and Le Voyage dans la lune or A Trip to the Moon, made in 1902 by another esteemed French filmmaker Georges Melies.

To complement these two film classics, Alliance Francaise has invited two award winning French musicians, pianist Guillaume Cherpitel and saxophonist Julien Petit to accompany the films, which was a tradition during the silent film era, although back then it was either an organ or a piano that sonically dramatized the moods and emotions conveyed by the actors in the films.

Cherpitel and Petit whose program is being billed as a Cine-Concert entitled The Bridge of Flavours and their music will reflect a fusion of multiple influences such as fink, electronic, groove and slam.

Inspired to make music to accompany successful silent films, the two (who recently performed at the 2013 Jazz Pulsations International Festival in Nancy, France) were especially impressed by the global success of the Oscar-winning film The Artist which was a remake of an early silent film set to music.

The other innovative element that has been added to this year’s EU Film Festival is the public discussions called the Cine Café, which will revolve around two films that seem to be the most relevant to Kenyan audiences, one about a fictitious African country that has a peculiar resemblance to Kenya and the other about Somali pirates who hijack a Danish cargo ship in the Indian Ocean and bears a resemblance to the award-winning film Captain Philips.

The first Cine Café will discuss one of the two ACP films that will be screened, both of which were financed under the 9th European Development Fund that “aims to contribute to the development of cinema and audiovisual industries in ACP countries.”

The Captain of Nakara will be discussed with the public and the film’s cast and crew, including its director Bob Nyanya and his screenwriter Cajeton Boy on Wednesday, May 21st following the film’s screening at 5pm. It will also be shown Sunday, May 25th at 3pm.

The other film that should generate living discussion is the Danish film, The Hijacking, which will be shown at a Cine Café on Tuesday May 27th at 7pm. It will also be screened on the final day of the Festival, Sunday, June 1st at 7:30pm.

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ELUNGAT & OTHER KENYAN ARTISTS EARNING WELL FROM ART

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Kenyan-artists-now-able-to-earn-big-bucks/-/1248928/2449298/-/xg9vxwz/-/index.html

Beautiful Dreamer by Peter Elungat/Courtesy of OneOff Gallery. Photo by Margaretta wa Gacheru

MARGARETTA'S YEARS L9VING KENYAN ART

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Margaretta wa Gacheru: My 40 year love affair with Kenyan art

      

                        

Margaretta wa Gacheru on June 23, 2014. In the media and arts world, she is known as the slightly built white woman ever in a fast stride, moving from one assignment to the next. Yet her name has misled hundreds of thousands of newspaper readers who have followed her writing career over the last 40 years. PHOTO/DIANA NGILA 

In Summary

• Her byline is Margaretta wa Gacheru, a name that is as local as it can get. To her colleagues in media and friends in the world of the arts, she is simply Wa Gacheru. On Buru Buru’s route 58, she is known as mama Migwi. Migwi is her son.
• Her 40-year-old love affair with Kenya, the Kenyan people and Kenyan art stretches back to 1974 when she first came to the country on a student exchange programme. She arrived as Margaretta Swigert, which was her maiden name.
• With seven degrees under her belt, Margaretta could easily be the most educated woman for miles around.

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By GAKIHA WERU
More by this Author

In the media and arts world, she is known as the slightly built white woman ever in a fast stride, moving from one assignment to the next.

Yet her name has misled hundreds of thousands of newspaper readers who have followed her writing career over the last 40 years.

“When I meet one of my readers for the first time, the shock and surprise is always evident. You see, over the years, most of them have built this image of some Kikuyu mama because of my name.

“Imagine I’m the only person waiting at a reception and the boss comes to collect me. He finds only this small mzungu. He turns to the receptionist and asks, where is she? The bewilderment is always something to see,” she tells Lifestyle.

Her byline is Margaretta wa Gacheru, a name that is as local as it can get. To her colleagues in media and friends in the world of the arts, she is simply Wa Gacheru. On Buru Buru’s route 58, she is known as mama Migwi. Migwi is her son.

EXCHANGE STUDENT

Margaretta does not just have a local name. Everything about her is local.  Like many other Kenyans working in Nairobi she travels in matatus and loves Eastlands where she has lived for years. Her current abode is in Kariobangi South.

Her 40-year-old love affair with Kenya, the Kenyan people and Kenyan art stretches back to 1974 when she first came to the country on a student exchange programme. She arrived as Margaretta Swigert, which was her maiden name. She was being funded by Rotary Club and in return she would work for them as a speaking ambassador in the country.

And she had everything worked out – or so she thought. See some bit of Kenya, get two years of study for a Master’s degree in African Literature at the University of Nairobi and then fly back home.

She didn’t expect problems getting admitted at the university. She had already obtained Bachelors and Masters degrees from universities back home. But things didn’t work out as she had expected.

The head of the Literature Department, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, didn’t think her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Comparative Religion had given her the ideal foundation for graduate studies in Literature and politely told her to take a walk and try her luck down the block.

Still determined to pursue the course, she sought out Prof Micere Mugo who was also in the department, asking her to intercede. Prof Wa Thiong’o relented but then threw in a rider, “First she undertakes the undergraduate Literature programme then we can take things from there.”

“He left me no choices. So I enrolled for bachelors programme. I read day and night. Somewhere in between, the university was closed for five months and I took the opportunity to study on my own. It was perhaps the most intensive study time I have ever engaged in. I finished the three year programme in just over one year.”

So she went back to Prof Wa Thiong’o, who, happy with her efforts, admitted her to the department. But whereas she was more interested in Pan African literature, the professor had different ideas.

He recommended that she takes African-American literature based on the writings of Malcom X. She turned in a thesis on the house nigger – a pejorative term for the black slaves who worked in the master’s house as a reward for their docility as opposed to the farm nigger, the more rebellious one who would be sent to slave in harsher environments in the fields.

Her journey in learning did not end with the second Masters degree. She went on to earn two more masters degrees capping up all with a PhD in 2011. With seven degrees under her belt, Margaretta could easily be the most educated woman for miles around.

Her stay at the University of Nairobi changed the course of her life forever. The Literature Department was a vibrant place which besides Wa Thiong’o had on the faculty such names as Micere Mugo, Okot p’ Bitek,  John Ruganda and Jonathan Kariara among others.

PRIVATE JOURNAL

She was instantly drawn to the robust drama scene at the university. “I made my debut in the play, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi. With me on stage was, Stephen Mwenesi, Kenneth Watene and Sibi Okumu. I was later invited by Ruganda to join the university’s travelling theatre.”

In the travelling theatre she had great friends who went out of their way to help her through cultural transformation. Some simply didn’t like her, a fact she attributes to unconscious xenophobia. Some just wanted her out of the travelling theatre.

“I used to keep a journal in which I recorded things happening around me. On a trip to Nyahururu, a colleague I won’t name broke into my suitcase and took out the journal.  He read the journal to the rest of the group. I had recorded silly little things like who was flirting with whom in the group. He made it sound so bad that I came across as a racist,” she recalls ruefully. “Then some members of the group suggested they burn the journal in my presence to signify that the travelling theatre was basically finished with me. I considered a journal very private and it was a very painful experience. I would probably have left the theatre but when I told Ruganda what had happened, he forbid me to quit.”

By the time she completed her Masters, she had decided she wasn’t going back to the US. Something else had happened. She had fallen in love with her collegemate, and graduate student, Gacheru wa Migwi.

“Gacheru was the most humorous guy I’d ever met. He was fine tuned to the social, cultural and political circumstances of the times and he opened up a Kenya I could not have possibly seen on my own,” she recollects.

They got married in 1978. Exit Margaretta Swigert and enter Margaretta wa Gacheru. By the time she got married to Gacheru, she had largely adjusted to living within her means. When she was the Rotary ambassador, she was entitled to a car, a Mercedes. She was also living in Westlands.

When the contract with the Rotary ended, she had only her fellowship stipend to fall back to. The first thing she did was to acquire a motorbike on which she explored Nairobi. It was on this motorbike that she discovered Eastlands, spending many happy evenings in Jericho and Makadara estates.

With her studies complete and the decision to stay final, she started looking for a job ending up at the Nairobi Times, where the publisher, Hillary Ng’weno, was looking for an arts reporter.

Back then, there were few journalists interested in the arts and the few expatriates concentrated on European theatre. From her experience in drama at the university, Margaretta knew of the existence of a robust African theatre and she threw all her energy into it, giving it the deserved space on the national stage. She has never looked back.

While at the Nairobi Times, she got a job at UNESCO as a communications officer and quit after one week. “I found that it was a secretive place where everybody was busy trying to manipulate the systems to make some money. I went back to Nairobi Times.”

WOMEN'S DECADE

Thereafter, Margaretta was invited by Mary Okello, the pioneering woman banker, to start a regional magazine for women in banking.

In 1985, she got heavily involved in the women’s decade conference whose main agenda was to mainstream gender issues. It is during this time that she met and worked with leading lights such, Edah Gachukia, Maria Nzomo and Wangari Maathai.

In 1992, she moved to the Nation newspapers where she was assigned to write a series on women in leadership featuring Charity Ngilu, Martha Karua, Agnes Ndetei and Beth Mugo and also write three weekly columns on theatre and movies. Many of her articles have run in this magazine.

This was also the time when the first multi-party elections were around the corner and she was involved in organising the Women National Political Convention at KICC. Among the speakers were Monica Wamwere, mother of politician Koigi wa Wamwere who was in jail at the time.

Her marriage to Gacheru did not last long, ending in 1982. She believes both of them got too involved in their work and simply drifted apart. They mutually agreed to go separate ways with their only child, Migwi, remaining under the care of his father.

All this time, Gacheru had never met Margaretta’s parents and for two good reasons. One, his complete disinterest in going to the US. And then, Margaretta knew something he did not know. Her father, a medical doctor, had deep rooted prejudices against Africans and she knew he would never approve of the marriage.

She kept the marriage a secret only writing to one of her brothers with the plea that he was not to tell anyone. He didn’t keep the secret and when she next visited her family, it was her mother who saved her from being strangled by her enraged father.

In the 1990s, Migwi decided he wanted to live with his mother in Buru Buru, a decision Margaretta welcomed. Ever the busy journalist, she had no clue what her son was doing in her absence.

“Unknown to me, he was cutting school and working as a tout on Route 58. The only thing I had noticed was that his grades at Rusinga School were deteriorating. When I discovered what was happening, I shipped him off to the US where he rejoined high school. ’’

In the US, Migwi thrived through high school and university graduating with a degree in IT engineering. He went on to join the US army and served in Afghanistan. He currently holds the rank of a major.

Margaretta’s passion remains in the arts, a subject she is currently writing on for the Nation Media Groups’s Business Daily. “I can assure you I will be writing on Kenyan art for a long time to come.”

She is currently constructing a house off Kiambu Road.

2 OF THE TOP 40 KENYAN WOMEN UNDER 40: LUPITA NYONG'O & DOROTHY GHETTUBA

BRIEF BIOS OF LUPITA & DOROTHY
I wrote two of the 40 women's bios for the Business Daily pull out of June 20, 2014:
one on our Academy Award winning acress LUPITA NYONGO, 
one on the media film producer/scriptwriter/media mogul DOROTHY GHETTUTA. 

LUPITA NYONG’O: Film and Fashion Queen

By Margaretta Wa Gacheru

Oscar-award winning actress and fashion sensation Lupita Nyong’o, 31, got the break of a lifetime when she got picked out of a thousand young women auditioning for the part of Patsy in Steve McQueen’s powerful film based on the book by Solomon Northup, 12 Years a Slave.

McQueen’s choice of the Mexican-born Kenyan actress to play the role of Patsy transformed Lupita’s life forever; but it’s also changed the stereotypic view held by most Kenyans of the ever-impoverished actor who will always remain a penurious artist, the type no parent would want their child to become.

Today Lupita is not only one of the wealthiest women in Hollywood, raking in millions for her film roles and fashion modeling contracts. She is also the most acclaimed Kenyan actress who has literally taken the Western film and fashion world by storm for her powerful performance in 12 Years a Slave, winning top awards from Hollywood to New York, London and Toyko.

Her latest conquest was getting picked for a major role in one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises, the George Lucas blockbuster, Star Wars: Episode VII. The value of the franchise was set in 2012 when the mega-media firm Walt Disney Co. bought Lucasfilm including all rights to Star Wars for US$4.05 billion.

The clearest proof that Lupita’s wealth far exceeds anyone’s expectations is her recent acquisition of the film rights to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ‘s hugely popular award-winning novel, Africanah.

Yet where Lupita is raking in the biggest bucks is not just from her films as from the brand contracts that she’s signed. For instance, recently becoming the brand ambassador for the internationally acclaimed cosmetics firm Lancome is bound to mint her money . So is the comparable title role that she cinched modeling for Miu Miu, the youthful fashion house born from its parent company Prada.

If these are not enough to confirm that Lupita’s fortune runs in the millions , she has had to attend more than 40 awards ceremonies across the US and UK in 2014. And at every one, she has had her pick of designer fashions, most of which pay her $100s of $1,000s just to wear their gowns, shoes, jewellery and make-up.

Indeed, Lupita has become such a hot commodity that she was not only awarded the best dressed actress by the prestigious Vogue magazine. She was also just crowned ‘Most Beautiful Woman in the World’ by the popular American magazine People.    

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DOROTHY GHETTUBA: KENYA MEDIA MOGUL

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Kalasha-award winning television and film producer Dorothy Ghettube, 35, came back from Canada four years ago with pennies in her pocket.

But today, her Spielworks Media Ltd. has made her millions since she’s not only scripted and produced almost a dozen TV drama series, nine talk shows, and several documentaries, some of which are screened in South Africa, others aired in Nigeria.

Dorothy also holds the film rights to all her productions, making her one of the leading media women not just in Kenya but across Africa.

In 2011 she won a place among the Top 40 under 40 women in film in Africa. The same year she also made it to BD’s Top 40 women under 40 in Kenya.

Admitting she’s a risk taker, as evidenced by her setting up Spielworks while still in Canada (working for a venture capital firm) and when she knew nothing about the media production business, Dorothy firmly believes in following your dreams until they bear fruit.

Hers clearly have as she has not only employed hundreds of Kenyan youth and produced popular TV series like Lies that Bind, Saints, Higher Learning and Sumu la Penzi.

She also got into the media business at the most opportune moment, when the Kenya Government mandated broadcasters to air no less than 40 percent locally-made content.

With her mind filled with compelling story ideas, she initially sought to sell some of them to local stations. But finally she decided to take the advice of American TV filmmaker J.J. Abrams who said, “If you want to make it in life, be in charge.”

Taking charge has been a challenge but today she says the key to running a successful business is keeping your finances in order.

With her documentary films and TV series been watched by audiences all over Africa, Dorothy’s profits run into the millions.

But she is not sitting on her laurels or her money. She continues to come up with the story ideas which she translates into new series to market and distribute not only in the region but all over the world.

Slightly surprised by the speed of her company’s success, Dorothy says her challenge currently is to meet market demands, both locally and internationally where there’s what she calls heightened ‘curiosity’ about Africa.

But it’s a challenge she relishes as she knows, “Nothing’s impossible. Just dream it; then achieve it.”