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.”

PAWA254; A BRIGHT NEW THEATRE VENUE FOR FATUMA'S VOICE & 'HATE BY SHAKESPEARE'

Social media serves Kenyan thespians, poets, musicians & social critics well

Enzi Band singers during the play ‘‘Fatuma’s Voice.’’ Phoros by Margaretta wa Gacheru

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Thursday, June 19   2014 at  16:30 on Business Daily

In Summary

• The evidence could not have been clearer this past weekend when two separate events were staged at PAWA254, one attracting an audience that was not only full to overflowing, but its members were fully engaged in the performances.

The role of social media in Kenya’s performing arts can no longer be ignored.

To say it’s playing an extremely powerful role is not overstating the fact that productions that are advertised online, either on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, email, blogs or even What’s App — are the shows that attract the widest audiences.

The evidence could not have been clearer this past weekend when two separate events were staged at PAWA254, one attracting an audience that was not only full to overflowing, but its members were fully engaged in the performances.

The other followed on the heels of the first, but hadn’t been promoted through social media. I think that’s at least partly why it attracted a fraction of the audience size.

That was a pity since both shows were originals, although one was primarily poetry while the other was a fresh ‘‘take’’ on the British Bard Shakespeare.

Nuru Bahati serves as the weekly Moderator at the Friday nite Fatuma's Voice at PAWA254 pix by margaretta

Both amounted to powerful performances by all Kenyan artists (apart from the Canadian director /playwright of Hate by Shakespeare, Robin Denault, playing a small but significant part.)

Both Fatuma’s Voice and Hate by Shakespeare were in a sense giving ‘‘premiere’’ performances at PAWA254, the venue started by Boniface Mwangi which has managed to meet the needs of a youthful audience who are keenly interested in the creative arts (both performing and visual) and who have largely grown up knowing nothing other than social media as their primary means of communication, information-gathering and entertainment-viewing.

In one sense, it’s not fair to compare Fatuma’s Voice and Hate by Shakespeare since it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Both are artistic performances, but Fatuma has been running every week since it was launched in July 2013 while Hate was a one-off production (with a sort of ‘‘dress rehearsal’’ staged the week before at Karen Country Club).

And when I say that both were premiere performances, that is strictly true for Denault’s Hate by Shakespeare, (in contrast to his earlier script staged late last year entitled Love by Shakespeare, both of which adapt three of the Bard’s plays that relate best to either one of the single themes, be it love or hate).

But Fatuma’s Voice ‘‘premiered’’ in the sense that the poetry was original, written by the performing poets. And the evening itself was also unique since every week addresses a different theme so that the line-up of performances is also a once-off show.

Fatuma’s Voice was started by the Kenyan poet Chris Mukasa who says the project was primarily aimed at giving a “voice to the voiceless” which has largely meant that a multitude of young Kenyans have used Fatuma to share their artistic insight on the chosen theme of the week.

But Mukasa adds that the repertoire of young performers now includes every one from acapella singers and modern dancers to stand-up comedians, poets and even political commentators like the KTN-TV investigative reporter Mohammed Ali.

Mr Ali spoke his mind last Friday night to an attentive audience which loved his candid stand-up approach to covering hot topics of the day.

In contrast, Hate by Shakespeare perhaps should have stuck with its initial impulse to stage its Kenyan premiere at the Phoenix Theatre.

“When the unexpected ensued and there was a reshuffling of productions we were allotted very little time or space for both rehearsing and performing our play,” explained Robin Denault who drew quite a substantial crowd to Phoenix when the same cast staged Love by Shakespeare.
Last Friday night, the theme of Fatuma’s Voice was insecurity (tonight’s topic is the ‘‘gutter press’’). Among the artistes who performed were poets Kevo Kym, Gcho Pevu and Tear Drops as well as musicians with the Enzi Band, and Ali, the KTN anchor man of Jicho Pevu who was the evening’s guest speaker.

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Darkest plays

Hate by Shakespeare was based on three of Shakespeare’s darkest plays, namely Richard III, Henry V and Macbeth.

Starring Samson Pjensen, Chao Mwatela, Jack Gitonga and Charles Oudo who played the role of Richard, the treacherous murdering king; the other three (plus Denault playing the Voice in Richard’s ear) played a number of Shakespearean characters with aplomb and dramatic flair.

Denault did a great job selecting four outstanding actors, but because Hate was staged with the cast standing behind podiums with their scripts in hand (after the style of Chamber Theatre) the actors were constrained from moving freely around the stage.

And without that freedom of movement, one couldn’t help feeling the production would have been far more intriguing if they’d had the mobility they needed to fully dramatise the words and feelings that Shakespeare requires.

SHAKE MAKELELE SHARES VILLAGE MARKET SHOW WITH UGANDAN ARTISTS

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Top East African artists exhibit at Village Market

Ssekubulwa’s Gorilla painting. Photo/Courtesy 

In Summary

• The first Gifted Hands show was held last year around the same time at the Village Market. It was successful enough for Kalule and Makelele to return to the same venue, this time with several more artists.

By Margaretta wa Gacheru 

margacheru@gmail.com

Louis Mwaniki was among Kenya’s first globe-trotting visual artists. But among the so-called ‘second generation’ of Kenyan artists, Shake Makelele was among the first to rove around the East African countryside while still a student at the Creative Arts Centre in Nairobi in the early 1990s.

“There were quite a few of us Kenyans who attended the Pan-African Commonwealth Conference in 1994,” said Makelele referring to the historic Kampala conference where he and other Kenyans such as Shine Tani and Mazola all exhibited at what was then known as the Nile Conference Centre.
 “We met so many amazing people that time, including the wife of Malcolm X [Betty Shabazz] and Ngugi wa Thiong’o who gave Kenyan artists an inspiring talk about how Africans needed to work together for our fellow Africans and not simply cater to foreign audiences.”

That trip marked a new beginning for a number of Kenyans including Shine who came back to Kenya and registered the Banana Hill Art Studio. It also launched a lifelong career for Shake trekking across borders and whole continents to exhibit his art everywhere from Dar es Salaam, Kampala and Johannesburg to London, Edinburgh and even the Isle of Skye.

Ruth Schaffner

Not that he’s ignored the Kenya arts scene altogether. He noted, “I frequently attended the National Museum’s annual Kenyan Art Festival,” which is currently being revived by the Kenya Museum Society, renamed the Kenyan Art Fair and scheduled to take place in early October.

He also exhibited often at Gallery Watatu while Ruth Schaffner was alive.

But one was far more likely to find Makelele showing his art in Uganda than Kenya, first at the Afri-Art Gallery where he met Herbert who was then managing the gallery. Then when Kalule opened up his own Umoja Gallery with Ugandan businessman Hillary Lyton in 2010, Makelele became a regular exhibitor there.

“There are a lot of galleries in Kampala currently and many, including ours, is doing quite well,” says Kalule who, with Makelele and a dozen more Ugandan artists, currently have a group exhibition at the Village Market entitled ‘Gifted Hands II’.

Annual event

The first Gifted Hands show was held last year around the same time at the Village Market. It was successful enough for Kalule and Makelele to return to the same venue, this time with several more artists.

“We hope to make it an annual event,” says Kalule who, in addition to curating this show, is exhibiting his own art—paintings and colourful batik-styled textiles (which are elegant and affordable at KSh3,000 per four metre piece).

Makelele is actually the linchpin of the whole show since he is the only Kenyan exhibiting among the dozen Ugandans, half of whom are university graduates in fine art, half self-taught as is the case with Kalule who says he grew up in a household full of artists.

Other self-taught Ugandan artists whose work is in the show are Edison Lugala, Ssali Yusef, Anwar Sadat; Paul Kintu and Kalule himself.

The art school-trained artists in the show include David Kigozi, Jjuko Hoods and several Makerere University graduates, including Paul Kibuka, Steve Ipoot, Ronex Aebicinbwe, Ssebudake, Sekubulwa and Makalele as well.

Self-taught

The mix between schooled and self-taught artists is revealing since the trained artists are proficient in both drawing and painting, but so are the self-taught lot, with one caveat. The latter group seem to be more experimental and daring.

For instance, Sadat’s Elephants look surreal,; Lugala tries out a wide range of topics and techniques in his art, and even Ssali Yusef, who’s best known for painting beautiful African women, made a major shift into colourful patchwork-styled semi-abstract art .

Meanwhile, downstairs at Village Market, Patricia Njeri is exhibiting her recycled art, made out of wine and spirits bottles which she covers in either brightly painted decorative designs or kitenge scraps or even coloured glossy paper from foreign magazines.

She’s another self-taught artist who’s also experimental and daring, having collected bottles over time and just a few months ago decided they’d be a good medium on which to create works of art. Her bottles cost from Sh2,000 to Sh3,000.

Most of the art pieces at this exhibition cost from Sh8,000 up to Sh65,000.

This article was first published on the Business Daily website

WAMBUI KAMIRU CREATES HARAMBEE 63 INSTALLATION TO COMMEMORATE FREEDOM FIGHTERS' ROLE IN KENYA'S LIBERATION STRUGGLE

Saturday, September 28, 2013 Saturday Nation

African liberation struggle through the eyes of an artist

Wambui Kamiru during her Harambee63 exhibition at the Kuona Trust, Nairobi. Photo/FILE 

In Summary

• Wambui would contest my suggesting her film is exceptional
• What’s equally striking about her installation is her meticulous attention to detail
• Wambui says she hopes her installation sparks debate and critical conversation, not only in Kenya but around the region where she hopes to take what she feels are the most portable and relevant features

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

margacheru@gmail.com

When I arrived at the Kuona Trust’s most recent exhibition — a multimedia installation entitled Harambee 63, what was most striking was not so much the discovery that its creator Wambui Kamira has a Masters of Science degree in African History from Oxford University (although that’s pretty impressive).

Nor is it the fact that she’s one Kenyan visual artist who can get several ambassadors, corporate heads and even a former presidential candidate to attend her exhibition opening.

For me, it’s the way she also managed to construct a low-budget documentary film for her show, which captures so many memorable moments with leading 20th century revolutionaries – from Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba and Martin Luther King Jr to Franz Fanon, Leopold Senghor and even John F. Kennedy.

Wambui would contest my suggesting her film is exceptional. “The material is accessible to any interested person. The clips are all on YouTube,” says the petite historian turned visual artist, expressing a sentiment that comes out clearly in her installation, the subtitle of which is African Revolutions and Ordinary People.

“It’s ordinary people who make revolutions,” says Wambui, who has chosen to create a simulation of one of the most common sites where so-called ordinary people congregate – a humble everyday people’s bar.

Complete with everything from the mabati and cardboard walls, plastic table clothes, cups and chairs to the wrought iron grill that separates the cashbox, Mpesa agent and beer crates from the drinking hall, what’s equally striking about her installation is her meticulous attention to detail.

 Wambui with one of her 'African Freedom Fighter' boots. Photo by margaretta wa gacheru

For she doesn’t forget the wall menu, dirty ashtray or even the pangas stacked up in a corner, which she says is a feature that reflects back on the 1950s in Kenya when the Mau Mau used bars of sympathisers as transit points for weapons on route to the freedom fighters in the forest.

It’s a historical period of African history that Wambui began researching on as an undergraduate at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, US. It’s also a subject that she did her masters’ dissertation on at Oxford, entitled Kenya 1948-1953: Memorialisation of the Kimathi Family.

NOT JUST ABOUT KENYA'S LIBERATION STRUGGLE

Although the beer ads on the bar walls are for Kenyan drinks and the menu is “Mama Njeri’s”, Wambui insists her installation isn’t only about the Kenyan liberation struggle.

“All over Africa, ordinary people living under colonial rule would congregate either in churches or in bars. (In Black America, it was mainly in the churches).” That was where they met to devise strategies for gaining their freedom and independence.

“Africans [and other people of colour] living under colonialism were hungry for freedom. In Kenya it was land that symbolised the struggle and the idea of people gaining freedom,” says Wambui who admits she has a special interest in the Mau Mau war.

She’s fundamentally concerned that the Mau Mau struggle has been pigeon-holed by many historians as being little more than a “tribal uprising’ rather than a people’s war of liberation. She’s also concerned that the main aim of Mau Mau is often said to simply be land, but for her, land is the tangible symbol of an ideology of liberation which she says has been theorised by Pan-African thinkers like Franz Fanon, Malcolm X, Leopold Senghor and even Martin Luther King, Jr.

Indeed, she says one of the goals of her installation is to situate the Kenyan war of independence within a global context of the Pan-African liberation movement; which is why her film (screened throughout the exhibition) features so many Pan-Africanists.
The other striking dimension of her installation is the 63 pairs of gum boots which sit in aligned rows on the bar floor, and which Wambui says are also symbols of resistance.

For not only were they used by South African gold miners who are still oppressed and underpaid to this day, the boots also became instruments of African artistry as miners living under Apartheid created one of the most powerful and poignant dance expressions of defiance during the decolonisation struggle.

Wambui hopes her installation sparks debate and critical conversation, not only in Kenya but around the region where she hopes to take what she feels are the most portable and relevant features of her show, namely her film and the boots.

The rest she says can be easily assembled anywhere in Africa or wherever people of colour went through the process of decolonization.

Claiming that period of African decolonization peaked in 1960 when seven countries gained their Independence, she said that by 1963 the movement was on the decline since Kenya was the only country in the region which gained its independence that year.

“The exhibition comes up just to 1963 because after that, African countries got caught up in Cold War politics and I didn’t want to go there,” she says. But she was wise to stay focused on 1963 and the period leading up to it since that was a time of hope and dynamism and defiance when Africans knew what they wanted and that was their freedom.

Wambui says she hopes her installation sparks debate and critical conversation, not only in Kenya but around the region where she hopes to take what she feels are the most portable and relevant features.

BANANA HILL ARTISTS INVITED TO EXHIBIT AT RUSSIAN EMBASSY

Friday, February 7, 2014  Saturday Nation

Kenyan artists exhibit their works at Russian ambassador’s home

Shine Tani with his Elephant. Photo/Margaretta wa Gacheru  

In Summary

• The recent art fair was an overwhelming success, as something like half the artworks displayed were sold; but because so many artists had submitted their work, nearly half were not showcased as part of the fair. And that is where the ambassador and his wife stepped in.
• Initially, their idea was rejected by the fair organiser, Dr Marla Stone.
• Dr Stone admits she was a bit abrupt after seeing this stranger in the museum conference room where the leftover art had been stored.

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

margacheru@gmail.com

The Russian ambassador and his culturally-conscious wife are at it again. Ever since Alexander Makarenko and Elena Shidrina arrived in Kenya in early 2012, they have expressed their appreciation of indigenous Kenyan artists on several occasions.

Their primary contribution to the local arts scene has been to welcome Kenyan artists into their spacious residence (cum embassy) to exhibit their art and thus expose their work to a wider diplomatic audience, many of whom had never heard of local painters like Ancent Soi or Rahab Njambi Shine leave alone Bertiers Mbatia, Remy Musiindi or Boniface Maina before coming to see their art at the Russians’ residence.

The last major exhibition they held in 2013 was in October, shortly after the Kenya Museum Society put on their ‘Affordable Art’ Fair.

In the 1990s, KMS had organized the art fair annually, much to the delight of local artists who frequently made major sales at the fair. But that tradition died over the last decade, until this year when the Museum Society decided to revive it with the museum’s curatorial support.

The recent art fair was an overwhelming success, as something like half the artworks displayed were sold; but because so many artists had submitted their work, nearly half were not showcased as part of the fair. And that is where the ambassador and his wife stepped in.

“It was my wife’s idea to select artworks that were either unsold during the fair or never displayed, and then have an exhibition at the residence,” said the ambassador who has served in Africa for almost a quarter century.

Initially, their idea was rejected by the fair organiser, Dr Marla Stone.

“I had seen a ‘strange man’ rummaging through the more than 250 remaining works that we’d been unable to include in the fair for lack of space,” said Dr Stone whose team of volunteers had managed to display 250 paintings and sculptures in the Nairobi National Museum’s Court Yard, but had to leave the rest aside irrespective of their quality.

“The response to our call letter was so large that we had little choice but to keep some aside,” she added.

Dr Stone admits she was a bit abrupt after seeing this stranger in the museum conference room where the leftover art had been stored. But the ambassador quickly cleared the misunderstanding.

Explaining his intentions, he added that any revenue generated from sales of the art would all go back to the Museum Society for their projects.

SECOND CHANCE

“I was impressed that the idea of a Russian embassy showcase of contemporary Kenyan art meant local artists would have a second chance to expose their work to a wider audience.”

But in addition to the artists showing and selling their art that Saturday late last year, several of them made mention of their mentor, a fellow artist who also ran a gallery where many of them exhibited their work regularly.

“That was the first time I had ever heard of the Banana Hill Art Gallery and Shine Tani,” confessed Ambassador Makarenko.

The following day, he and his wife drove straight to see the gallery to meet Shine and his wife Rahab.

“We were so impressed with what we saw that we invited them to have an exhibition of their artists’ works at our residence whenever they liked.”

That’s how artists like Patrick Kinuthia, Sebastian Kiarie, Chain Muhandi, Martin Kamuyu, Martin Muhoro, Julius Kimemia, Wanyu Brush and Sane Wadu as well as Shine and Rahab all went on show at the Russian residence late last month.

What Dr Makarenko and his wife hadn’t anticipated, however, was that somehow word went round that the Russian ambassador had opened his home to a show of indigenous Kenyan artists, which led to almost 70 local artists showing up in the days before the Banana Hill exhibition with anywhere from 4 to 40 paintings a piece!

Fortunately, the Russians were good natured about the misunderstanding. Rather than turn anyone away, they were willing and ready to accommodate a few pieces from every artist that arrived at their front gate.

That included everyone from Tabitha wa Thuku, John Silver Kimani and Simon Muriithi to Boniface Maina and Joseph Bertiers Mbathia.

Having a large assembly hall on the same grounds as the residence meant that the ‘bandwagon bunch’ of artists could see their works displayed simultaneously with those from the Banana Hill Gallery.

A whole range of foreign diplomats attended the Saturday afternoon opening of the show, which achieved the Ambassador’s goal of exposing Banana Hill art and artists to a wider, more global audience.

But as much as that meant to the artists, what was just as meaningful was that all the exhibiting artists were invited to the opening, which meant a good time was had by all.

This article was first published in the Business Daily

FRANCOPHONE ARTISTS AT ALLIANCE FRANCAISE FROM CONGO & BELGIUM

Thursday, March 27, 2014 Satureday Nation

Francophone artists expand appreciation of African art

Bezalel Ngabo with his ‘‘Secret of Creation’’. Photo/Margaretta wa Gacheru 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

During the Francophone Fortnight at Alliance Francaise which is wrapping up this weekend, everything from music, film, slam poetry and visual art from all around the French-speaking Africa has been on show.

The visual artists whose works have been on display were all born in Kinshasa: Bezalel Ngabo, an indigenous Congolese and graduate of the Kinshasa Academy of Beaux-Arts; Xavier Verhoest, a Belgian artist who’s been here since the 1990s curating art exhibitions and creating his own abstract art; and Yves Goscinny, a self-taught painter, art collector, qualified chemist and co-founder of the East African Art Biennale who’s currently based in Brussels but lived and worked all over Africa for many years.

Specially invited by Alliance Francaise to participate in ‘Les Rendez-Vous de les Francophonie’, Goscinny is a venerable elder statesman of East African art who worked in Tanzania for close to 20 years before moving back to Belgium, a country his parents fled during World War 2 when Hitler invaded that country.

That was in 2008, but after playing a pivotal role in the Tanzanian art scene, he still returns to Dar es Salaam frequently.

Goscinny not only co-founded the East African Art Biennale in 2003 with Professor Elias Jengo of the University of Dar. He also established the annual ‘Art in Tanzania’ exhibition starting in 1998.

“All the exhibitions have been accompanied by a catalogue,” said Goscinny who feels strongly that documentation of East African art is essential.

“Without a catalogue, it’s as if the exhibition never took place,” said the retired chemist who initially came to Africa to work for the United Nations and then for the European Union.

An avid art collector, Goscinny went searching for local artists in Dar, just as he had done while working in Ethiopia, Togo and Mali. “Initially, it looked as if there were no Tanzanian artists but I finally found them living ‘underground’,” he said.

It was then that he decided to organse the first ‘Art in Tanzania’ exhibition. “We showed the works of 45 artists, most of whom the public had never seen before,” he said.

Subsequently, he began to also exhibit solo artists. But he also began to paint himself. His first exhibition was in 1999 and he’s been painting ever since.

Goscinny also exhibited in the first East African Art Biennale which he curated; “but after that, I didn’t exhibit my work since there were now so many others who wanted to be in the Biennale.”

Goscinny’s vision was to include all five East African countries including in the regional Biennale, but that didn’t happen until 2013 when Burundi and Rwandan artists finally got involved.

The other element of Goscinny’s vision was to make the EA A Biennale mobile from one capital city in the region to another.

'I WAS CRAZY'

“But our sponsors said I was crazy for thinking that could be done. After that, he retired from being chairman of the Biennale, but he still treks between Brussels and Dar.

The Francophone Fortnight show is the first time he’s exhibited in the region since he shifted his base to Brussels, and first time he’s exhibited in Kenya.
The mixed media paintings that he brought to Nairobi are from his “Dar” series.

Expressive of his feelings about what’s happened to Dar dwellers over the past few years, Goscinny said ordinary people have become like ciphers, their human value replaced with the value of money and commerce.

“The figures in my paintings look transparent, and that’s because human beings are no longer important; they are basically invisible. I paint them as silhouettes which is the way dead people are drawn [in homicide cases].”

In a sense then, Goscinny’s art is a form of protest against the dehumanisation of African people.

Yet if one senses an underlying anger in his art, it doesn’t diminish the role that Goscinny has played in advancing and amplifying the interests of East African artists.

The closest correlative to his contribution in Kenya is Elimo Njau since he, too, organised the first indigenous African art institution, Paa ya Paa.

BEZALEL NGABO, Congolese artist resident in Nairobi, commands attention at recent Francophone Festival

Friday, March 28, 2014

Congolese artist dominates Francophone show

Bezalel Ngabo with Joseph the Dreamer. Photo/MARGARETTA WA GACHERU 

In Summary

• The positive messages in his paintings probably have nothing to do with his rigorous training, except perhaps to give him the courage to consistently depict Biblical themes in his art.
• For instance, the most colourful work in his current show at Alliance Francaise is a semi-abstract diptych entitled ‘Joseph the Dreamer’ which depicts the Old Testament patriarch using mixed media: kitenge, acrylic paint, paper, thread and collage.

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

margacheru@gmail.com

Bezalel Ngabo is the only indigenous Congolese visual artist who featured in the Francophone Fortnight at Alliance Francaise. He’s also the only one out of the three who trained formally in fine art.

Both Yves Goscinny and Xavier Verhorst are self-taught which, however, doesn’t diminish the value of their art. But Bezalel’s five years at the Kinshasa Academy of Art is apparent in his lovely mixing of colours and his ingenious use of kitenge cloth in his collage paintings.

The positive messages in his paintings probably have nothing to do with his rigorous training, except perhaps to give him the courage to consistently depict Biblical themes in his art.

For instance, the most colourful work in his current show at Alliance Francaise is a semi-abstract diptych entitled ‘Joseph the Dreamer’ which depicts the Old Testament patriarch using mixed media: kitenge, acrylic paint, paper, thread and collage.

LOVE

‘The Secret of Creation’ reflects his love for both the Book of Genesis and the Gospel according to John. The irony is the painting is monochromatic, not rainbow multi-hued. He says blood red symbolizes for him the beauty of love.

His association of love and shades of red is even more apparent in his ‘Love World, the World I dream of’ which is the only one of his paintings that is strictly abstract, suffused with splashes of red, maroon, yellow and white.

Bezalel’s been in Kenya since 2002 and in that time, he’s exhibited all over Nairobi, from the National Museum, Banana Hill and Braeburn School to Village Market, Valley Arcade and a range of restaurants (Seven Seas, Talisman, Osteria).

Currently keen on kitenge and collage, Bezalel’s most exhilarating painting for me in his AF collection is called Le Pagne or Kitenge in which he “celebrates the uniqueness of Africa,” an expression that could apply to his entire contribution to the group exhibition.

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KULDIP SONDHI CELEBRATES 90TH BIRTHDAY WATCHING HIS AWARD-WINNING PLAY 'BEACH ACCESS' STAGED IN MOMBASA BY THE THEATRE COMPANY

http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/artculture/Special-birthday-gift-for-award-winning-Coast-playwright/-/1954194/2262110/-/15afrdvz/-/index.html.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Special birthday gift for award-winning Coast playwright

Kuldip Sondhi, proprietor of Reef Hotels. Photo/ Gideon Maundu. 

In Summary

• Last weekend’s production by The Theatre Company was slightly disappointing. Chalk it up to ‘artistic licence’ but there were so many alterations of Sondhi’s original script that one felt this was an entirely different play.
• The first big switch was replacing the white woman with an African. Not that Stephanie Maseka wasn’t lovely as Helga; but the shock value of seeing a middle-aged European woman seduce a humble Swahili beach boy was all but lost.

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

margacheru@gmail.com

Beach Access, the award-winning play by nonagenarian Kuldip Sondhi, staged this past weekend at Mombasa’s Reef Hotel, was just as fresh a production as it was in 1997 when it won the BBC radio playwriting competition and got produced both on BBC radio and at the Mombasa Little Theatre Club.

The topics tackled by Sondhi, 90, are just as timely, relevant and provocative today as they were back then: namely land-grabbing, corruption, and interracial affairs.

Sadly, little has changed since 1996 when Sondhi was first inspired to write Beach Access.

Having experienced the corruption and land-grabbing first hand, and also having seen middle aged white women seducing young beach boys (as Helga does Hamisi in the play), his script, just published in paperback, has an impact that is both personally and socially profound.

Last weekend’s production by The Theatre Company was slightly disappointing. Chalk it up to ‘artistic licence’ but there were so many alterations of Sondhi’s original script that one felt this was an entirely different play.

The first big switch was replacing the white woman with an African. Not that Stephanie Maseka wasn’t lovely as Helga; but the shock value of seeing a middle-aged European woman seduce a humble Swahili beach boy was all but lost.

The other major shift was bringing the ‘punch line’ scene, (what Sondhi describes as his signature ‘twist’ at the end of his play), up to the opening scene of the play, which meant that most of the play became a flashback, which wasn’t the playwright’s intent.

Again one can chalk it up to the artistic licence of TTC director Keith Pearson, but in a sense, it rendered the rest of the play anti-climactic. It also removed the shock value of discovering Helga drowned.

Staging of the storm that tipped Helga’s canoe and tossed her overboard was imaginative and inventive.

But then when Hamisi became a storyteller, explaining how Helga drowned to his advocate, Ms Hassan (Mercy Dali), again it wasn’t the writer’s wish to have the advocate be a female since it wasn’t realistic either then or even now.

Gender sensitivity
Perhaps this decision was meant to illustrate TTC’s gender sensitivity, but if so, why did they have to delete the scripted part of Mrs Seth, the wife of the corrupt businessman, whose role in the home had served as a crucial bridge between father (Ashik Yusuf) and son (Awwab Mohammed).

Mr Seth had persuaded the Administrative Chief (Anthony Mbithi) to help him grab the beach access road that the beach boys used to reach their curio kiosks on the sand. The AC and Seth intended to split the road between them and then each give his share to his child.

The AC’s daughter Cynthia (Sylviah Namusassi) had no problem grabbing the land but Seth’s son Prem had serious misgivings about the land grab.

In general, the casting of the show was very good, apart from Helga and apart from making one of the beach boys a beach girl! “There is no such thing as a ‘beach girl’,” I was told by one Mombasa resident.

In an interview, Mr Sondhi made it clear that he felt the hope for change in the way some Asians do business will come with the next generation, especially those who have been educated and exposed to global standards of fair trade.

Prem was meant to represent that next generation in the play since he had recently returned from studies abroad and was critical of his father’s business practices, despite Seth’s supposedly grabbing the beach access for his son.

Yet this son shows no clear sign of being the enlightened intellectual that he is in the script.

Finally, because Helga is bumped off in the beginning of the play, the ending is ambiguous, especially when Helga reappears on stage. One can’t be sure if she really drowned or if she’s a ghost or figment of Hamisi’s (Muscat Sayye) imagination.

Whichever way you see it, TTC still staged a polished production. It was a show that seemed to satisfy scriptwriter Sondhi, who celebrated his 90th birthday last weekend, and seeing Beach Access staged again was a special gift for one of Kenya’s pre-eminent playwrights, a man whose contribution to Kenya’s canon of original plays will come to light once his other 16 scripts are published.

LIBERIAN PREZ ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF ON 'AFRICA RISING'?

'Africa Rising'? Not really, unless we invest more in girls 
CNN 16/06/2014 by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the president of Liberia and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely hers.

What factor has the power to transform individual lives, communities, nations and the world?

The answer to this complex question is a simple one: education. While it is widely accepted that there is no one solution to lift the millions across our globe out of poverty, it is also equally accepted that a key cornerstone of addressing some of the world's most pressing challenges is through providing a quality education to all children, especially girls.

Despite increasing numbers attending school in recent years, 126 million children remain out of primary school and lower secondary school around the worl d. Some 65 million of these children are girls.

The highest rate of girls not in school is across the African continent, where in sub-Saharan Africa nearly four out of five poor rural girls are not completing primary school. There are an estimated 250 million children worldwide of primary school age who can't read, write or do basic math -- more than half of whom have completed four years of schooling.

It is unacceptable that in 2014 -- less than a year away from the deadline the international community agreed to get all children into school -- that 30 million girls in Africa are denied their basic human right to a quality education. Ensuring that every child goes to school, stays in school and learns something of value while there will require firm commitments and action by governments to invest in education and prioritize the education of its girls.

Af rica's economy has grown at more than 5% annually over the past decade -- some of the highest economic growth in the world -- leading many to use the phrase of "Africa Rising" when describing its countries.

However, a country's economic growth does not always lead to development or improvement for its poorest citizens. To truly rise as a nation by building an equitable, sustainable and peaceful society, governments must ensure that spending on education is prioritized and used well.

According to recent research, the estimated economic gain from achieving universal primary education exceeds the estimated increase in public spending required to achieve it. One extra year of schooling can increase an individual's earnings by 10%. Girls who complete a primary education are likely to increase their earnings by 5 to 15% over their lifetimes.

Each additional year o f schooling could raise average annual gross domestic product growth by 0.37%. If all women had a primary education, child marriages and child mortality could fall by a sixth, and maternal deaths by two-thirds. Investing in girls' education could boost sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural output by up to 25%.

Some countries lose more than $1 billion a year by failing to educate girls to the same level as boys. Without education, how can a country's future citizens take part in growing their economy and reap benefits? Without education how can a country grow?

More from African Voices

It is however, not good enough to only increase the number of children receiving education. Children and young people must learn basic knowledge, skills and competencies, such as reading, writing, critical thinking, problem solving and math, that are needed to live healthy, safe and productive lives.

In Liberia, across the African continent and, indeed, around the world, it is becoming increasingly apparent that going to school is not the same as learning. This is of grave concern given that many of the social and economic returns from an education are found to come from learning outcomes rather than number of years in school.

To accomplish this, more financial resources that are better spent are needed to build a strong education system capable of improving both access and learning for all. But making informed decisions about those resources requires good data.

Information on teachers, how to best support them to do their jobs, and information on how students are learning are crucial for knowing what policies and programs will be effective. By using our resources more effectively and focusing them on those children that a re currently left behind, we can have some of the best educated citizens in the world -- citizens who will be responsible for building a peaceful and prosperous future.

At current rates, the poorest girls in sub-Saharan Africa will only achieve universal primary completion in 2086. To not invest in and prioritize girls' education, we as African leaders are telling our women that we do not care about you and your child's future.

As one of those women, I will not accept this and I urge all our leaders to invest in our children's future. Investing in girls' education is not only a moral imperative, it is a smart investment.

On the 16th of June, the Day of the African Child, young people from across Africa will stand at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, and across Africa, to call on their governments to dedicate more resources -- the recomm ended 20% of national budgets -- to education and develop strong and transparent monitoring systems to track effectiveness and impact.

Better information on learning outcomes and public spending is key to achieving our goals. These young people want a brighter reality and they demand that their governments stand up to meet their responsibilities and commitments, in order to build a future for their children, a future for their country.

When nearly 60 developing countries come together in Brussels at the end of June, as part of the Global Partnership for Education, they will be asked to commit to increase education spending. If they do, we will know if they have listened to these young people, and then the phrase, "Africa Rising," can be used in all truthfulness.