Away from Africa

Julius Essoka After a couple of years on Twitter, I started following--or did he follow me? I don't remember!--@JuliusEssoka, who seemed to be living in Douala, Cameroon, and who was up at all hours, as he'd answer my tweets when it was late evening in New York, but in the wee hours of the night in Cameroon! When I returned to Cameroon in January, I hoped to meet him. He braved the ridiculous traffic jams that are now a mainstay in Douala, to come visit us in our Deido neighborhood. Julius Essoka works for MTN, in communications, by day. By night he is a talented musician. I brought back his CDs and mailed them to another African Twitter friend, Akenaata Hammagaadji, who has a weekly African music program: First World Music  on  @ WVKR . Of course, first I listened to the CDs, and really liked some of the songs. I can't label them--some are Makossa-style, some reminiscent of African-jazzy House Music: it's quite a mix of styles. I interviewed him via email to f...

Display at R.W. King, Douala One of the first stops I made while in Douala was to buy pagne , African fabric, at R.W. King. Since a couple of years, women's clothing made with pagne is popping up in Saks Fifth Avenue and other upscale retailers' ads, at corresponding prices, in the many hundreds of dollars: Suno and Edun ; in France, Toubab Paris .* In Edun's case, it certainly helps that a celebrity ( Bono ) and his spouse, Ali Hewson--are behind it. These trademarks have one thing in common: non-African founders, which is sad, as the same thing happens in all design fields, and often not only for Africans, but all "developing" countries: if the designer is African (or Indian, or even Chinese), she/he is ignored by major Western media or trade representatives (retailers, galleries). On the other hand, when finally Africa joins the rest of the economically wealthy world, and I am convinced the day will come, this will become b...

Article about Vickie's program in Peruvian media Vickie Frémont was invited to travel to Peru in the Fall of 2011 by the  Alliance Française  (French Cultural Association), to teach in various Peruvian cities how to create art from recycled items, or even trash. It was a whirlwind trip, and so well-received that she has been once again invited, for the Month of the Environment. She will be traveling  to  Chiclayo, Trujillo, Arequipa, Iquitos, Huancayo and Cusco, and also will teach  a short program in two universities, in Arequipa and Trujillo. Article about Vickie's program in Peruvian media  Below are a few photos from the Fall 2011 tour. Trujillo Mall event Collage made in Iquitos Trujillo Mall event Paper doll

An excellent panel discussion at the Columbia University African Economic Forum was about Tourism in Africa. Left to right: Kobina Brew-Hammond, Rumit Mehta,  Sthu Zungu, Edward Bergman In the news, we hear mainly of coups, famines, massacres and economic woes. These issues exist. However, the African continent is chock-full of fantastic scenery and exciting traditions, not to mention the beautiful handicrafts. Not only is travel from other continents to Africa rising, but increasingly Africans are traveling within their own continent rather than going to Europe or the United States. My first-hand experience is speaking with Cameroonians who shuttle back and forth from South Africa, which used to be on every Cameroonian's list of countries it was forbidden to visit (during Apartheid) just 20 years ago. The panel included: Edward Bergman , Africa Travel Association Rumit Mehta , Immersion Journeys Sthu Zungu , South African Tourism (America) Kobina Brew-Hammond ,...

On Friday and mostly on Saturday, April 13-14, 2012, Columbia University's School of International Policy held the 9th Annual African Economic Forum.   Nick Tattersall,  Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism at Columbia University, introduced t he first keynote speaker:  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi  , Governor of Nigeria's Central Bank. Mr. Sanusi hails from Northern Nigeria; on Wikipedia , he is called "Mallam" (" learned " or "teacher," from the Arabic language), as he is also an Islamic scholar---probably a rarity in the banking world! He spoke softly (a little too softly for some of us, as the microphones were not working too well on the first day of the Forum) and couched his words carefully; however, his goals for Africa in general, and Nigeria in particular were quite clear: self-sufficiency leading to prosperity, and independence from foreign economic interests. I cannot, of course, provide here the full sp...

Last Monday was one of those days when my professional life joins my personal life and passions. Tesfaye Tesseme at King Towers I visited the Manhattanville Housing Development to see the Senior Center 's art program, coordinated by Tesfaye Tessema, a NYCHA art consultant, who also happens to be an internationally recognized painter of Ethiopian origin. From there, I went on to King Towers, to see the children's art program that Tesfaye also teaches. Painting at Manhattanville Senior Center The King Houses Community Center director, Dawn Foster, is of Jamaican origin, and her spouse is Egyptian. The Center's children are of a variety of origins: Jamaican, Senegalese, Puerto Rican, etc. By the time I was done, it was too late to return to the office, so my friend and I walked towards Park Avenue on 116th Street, looking for a place to have a cup of coffee. We found a Moroccan hookah restaurant, " The Kiosk ." Instead of coffee, we had North Afric...

on the occasion of the 9th Annual African Economic Forum - New York City: "Africa Reclaiming Africa" The African Ingenuity I am not an African, but in the two years of   my Peace Corps service   in Cameroon, I had fallen in love with the African people. Like most naive twentysomethings who set out to go “change the world”, I was humbled by my time in Cameroon. The country changed me in more ways than one. I barely made a dent in changing my village, much less the world. I discovered Africa beyond the mainstream portrait of the continent. Africa is a massive place, and while civil wars, famines, and the like do still exist in parts of the continent, the Western media somehow rarely highlights the incredible growth that is taking place in this part of the world. In working with the Cameroonian people, they taught me the realities of African life. Western solutions to problems often do not align with these African realities. Western perceptions of Africans often...