One moment you’re looking at a glossy billboard on the side of the road and the next you’re carrying it in the form of a chic bag.
Moipone Ntseke and Lise Kuhle, owners of StarBorn Creative Designs in Johannesburg, are in their own way transforming the way we view the world by reinventing unlikely objects – in this case, discarded billboards – and creating utility items out of scrap.
“As an entrepreneur, you’re an opportunist but a very good opportunist. Where the need arises for you to provide a product and where there’s a loophole, you enter. The green market was growing, it still is growing, and I wanted to penetrate it,” says Ntseke.
Founded in 2011, the company designs and manufactures laptop bags, iPad covers and sling bags using PVC from recycled billboards, then swathed in shweshwe, a printed dyed cotton fabric widely used in traditional South African clothing.
They also source used soles and create shoes from the bits. Ntseke knows her target market and ensures the bags they make match the shoes. The shoes are then sold in bags made out of discarded cushion covers. For Ntseke and Kuhle, everything has a use.
“The last thing companies want to do is see [their billboards] when they’re done. So they dump it, they dump it to us,” says Ntseke.
The duo also fashions African-inspired jewelry, which have appeared on South African television shows Generations and Muvhango.
The designs are sold to companies for corporate events and can often be found at Johannesburg’s local markets.
Ntseke and Kuhle work with Out of the Box Skills, a skills and training NGO in Germiston, in the east rand of Gauteng, a province in South Africa. The community functions like an ecosystem, helping each other as skills are learned and passed on. Members of the community are taught to sew and screen-print. The billboards are washed, cut and sewn.
“I had the design [ideas] but I didn’t have the skills and if there’s already a cooperative or organization with skills, why not empower them?” says Ntseke.
Ntseke grew up in a two-room shack outside her maternal grandmother’s house in Soweto, a predominantly black township. Her inspiration for her business was simple.
“I started with something I like so we began with jewelry. I learned a three-day [jewelry making] course in eight minutes. I think it was a record,” she says.
Ntseke then partnered with Kuhle, the brain behind the billboard bags. One can argue that their handmade creations are selling themselves.

Moipone-Ntseke-Lisa-Kuhle-065

From Billboard To Wardrobe

A Creative Power

Inspired by the life of her son Dan Eldon, a Reuters photojournalist who was stoned and beaten to death in Somalia in 1993 when he was 22 years old, Kathy Eldon co-founded the Creative Visions Foundation. It is a hub where creative activists (like her son) turn ideas into positive actions to build social movements that impact the world. (Disclosure: I am a board member of Creative Visions Foundation.)
Kathy is also the author of In the Heart of Life, her memoir that was released this month (Harper One). After I read the book, I immediately sent Kathy an email filled with unedited thoughts straight from my head to the keyboard:
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“I finished In the Heart of Life late last night. It is a gift and will be a gift to all who read it. I was moved, touched and unsettled. I cried, smiled and thought. I felt lucky to be let into your life – a real and raw life – a book that is authentic and transparent. I felt your pain and suffering – the pain and suffering that happened years before your son Dan’s tragic death. I tried to stay removed – to not internalize it – but that was impossible. It brought up every emotion, made me think, took me to places I had thought were buried and gave me permission to always live my life. You’ve inspired me…”
I asked Kathy to answer this question: “What are the top five calamities, catastrophes, disasters and disruptions that were critical in your growth and enabled you to become who you are meant to be and live a life of joy? Lessons others can learn from.”
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<h4>1) Apartheid South Africa</h4>
When I was 16, I was thrilled when selected for a seven-month stay as a foreign exchange student in South Africa. However, marooned in an Afrikaans-speaking school in Bloemfontein (which bore an uncanny resemblance to my hometown, Cedar Rapids, Iowa), I spent my time learning a language that sounds like you’re spitting up phlegm. Even worse, meeting black Africans was strictly prohibited in Apartheid South Africa, and my host family was under surveillance by the secret police because “Oom” Bram, Uncle Bram, had defended Nelson Mandela and freedom fighters during the notorious Rivonia Trial. He managed to save those convicted from execution, although they were condemned to life imprisonment. Tragically, Bram was also punished for his radical beliefs. Accused of being a Communist, he was also sentenced to life imprisonment and died as a result of the harsh treatment he received in jail.
Living in South Africa shattered my Midwestern illusions about life, but the experience prepared me for a lifetime as a journalist, author and filmmaker, determined to tell stories about courageous individuals like my first hero, Bram Fischer, whose fearless stand for justice forever disrupted my life.
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<h4>2) Kids</h4>
I was only 24 when I had my first child, Dan, an unexpected development for a determined Wellesley grad whose only ambition was to get out of college and change the world. Suddenly, after marrying an Englishman and moving to London, the only thing I was changing was diapers. Living in a dreary British suburb, with no money for babysitters, and another baby on the way, I had to reinvent myself as a creative hometrepreneur, creating work I could manage without leaving the house. I sewed my clothes, wrote children’s books and produced toys and jewelry to sell to my neighbors. When the kids were in nursery school, I worked as a substitute teacher at the American School in London, overseeing noisy middle-school kids who thought art class was recess.
A loud voice, eyes at the back of my head, as well as a creative approach to problem-solving and the ability to deal with just about anyone are qualities that have served me well since my frustrating years as mother, teacher and wife.
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<h4>3) Divorce</h4>
Removed from all that was safe and familiar, in search of a self I had somehow lost along the way, after leaving my husband I developed a devastating blood condition that nearly killed me. After slowly recovering, I was still filled with guilt and shame, and faced a bleak and uncertain future. But then, by chance, I met a remarkable Ismaili woman, Zarina Dyer, who introduced me to Shakti Gawain’s book, Living in the Light. By page three I was hooked on the author’s description of a place that “all of us must pass through at one time or another, what mystics call ‘the piercing of the veil of illusion.’”
“It’s the point when we truly realize that our physical world is not the ultimate reality and begin to turn inward to discover the true nature of existence. The moment may co-incide with a sense of reaching rock-bottom, but then we may fall through a trapdoor into a bright new world, the world of spiritual truth. “Only by moving fully into the darkness can we move through it into the light.”
Over the next few weeks I met frequently with Zarina, who urged me to be patient with myself. “Everything happens in its own time,” she said, adding, “When the student is ready the teacher appears.”
After my serendipitous encounter with that unlikely teacher I realized that I had to find the trapdoor and allow myself to fall into it. After a terrifying
descent into profound darkness, one day I was able to emerge again, blinking in the unaccustomed light, aware that once again, my dreams of hope, purpose – and even love – were possible again.
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<h4>4) Death Of My Son</h4>
My son Dan became a photojournalist for Reuters in Somalia, where he covered a devastating famine and a bloody civil war. When he and three friends were murdered by a mob, I descended into a downward spiral. Wracked with guilt at having encouraged him to become a journalist, I knew I was to blame for his death at the age of 22.
My journey to understand why my son died to tell an important story – and why I had to live to tell one – was to shape the next 20 years of my life. Over time, thankfully, I have discovered that Dan’s creative, activist spirit, as transmitted through 17 journals he left behind, has inspired countless others to believe they, too, can lead more exciting, adventurous and purposeful lives. Because Dan was killed, we launched the Creative Visions Foundation which celebrates “creative activists” like Dan, who are telling stories that need to be told about problems that need to be solved. Since 2004, we have worked with more than 200 artists, writers, photographers and filmmakers whose powerful, positive spirits ignite sparks in others, bringing new light, life and purpose to our world.
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<h4>5) Happiness</h4>
Recently, after a long patch when my husband had to deal with a deadly form of cancer, and then the after-
effects of the harsh cure, a new chemo treatment resulted in remission for Michael, a delightful disruption from the endless round of blood transfusions and weariness that has accompanied him for more than three years. Now, we don’t take anything for granted, instead we focus on creating vivid memories of moments, hours and days that will remain with us always, a reminder of the joy of now, and the preciousness of each second we have on earth.

Women in politics: myths debunked

After tragedy in Somalia,  one woman’s path to self-discovery and pure joy

Here is a festival which is growing despite the unofficial cultural boycott called on Swaziland by the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a South African-based organization. The “cultural boycott” is called in support of political reform in the monarchy; and  has already kept South African musicians such as Ringo Madlingozi and newcomer Zahara from performing  in Swaziland.
<div id="attachment_894" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-894" class="wp-image-894 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/photobramlammers-0131-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />SWAZILAND, MALKERNS &#8211; 20120525 &#8211; The Giant Puppets od Mozambique performs during the Bushfire Festival, Swaziland International Festival of the Arts. Photo: Bram Lammers</div>
Bushfire has grown from the initial 4,500 visitors to 17,000 with an impressive number of artists from all across the continent and Europe performing. The offering is great—from comedy to spoken word, reggae, house and theater, all on a small budget of R3.5-4 million ($476,000). It’s Swaziland’s biggest event and employs over 1,000 locals.
The MTN Bushfire festival took place during the last weekend of May. This idea which formed in Jiggs Thorne’s mind, has grown into a Swazi institution that has attracted many from across the globe and a major sponsor like MTN.
<div id="attachment_891" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-891" class="size-large wp-image-891" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/jiggs1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />SWAZILAND, MALKERNS &#8211; Jiggs Thorne Photo: Bram Lammers</div>
Jiggs Thorne (Jiggs) is a Swazi native who studied drama and politics in South Africa, two subjects he feels are pretty much the same thing. As a creative, whose passion was theater, Jiggs’ first job in Johannesburg was at the Market Theater, as a waiter, as well as at the adjoining jazz club. He opened up a shop selling African crafts from Swaziland and got the idea for ‘House on Fire’ where the festival took place.
Jiggs refers to ‘House on Fire’ as an “on-going creation&#8230; a fantasy scape” that started 10 years ago, and sits on what is now a family business complex on their farm in the Malkerns valley, in rural Swaziland. His idea was to create a space to nurture the local creative industry.
Bushfire is six years old and all the festival proceeds go to an NGO called ‘Young Heroes’, started by Steve Gallagher, a former member of the Peace Corps. Young Heroes tries to help the AIDS orphans in the country. It keeps the orphans with relatives and allows people to sponsor them, these 1,000 sponsored households receive monthly cash stipends to assist with food, clothing and education. When Gallagher and Jiggs came together they realised that they were both looking for the same thing and found a partnership that has worked for them both.
Jiggs says that the name Bushfire comes from “the flames from ‘House on Fire’ expanding and growing outwards”. Its primary focus is developing the local arts while its secondary focus is raising awareness and addressing Swaziland’s great social issues.
The festival receives funding from local partners and businesses and MTN has just signed a 3 year title sponsorship.
This is something that takes a year to plan and implement. Walking through the festival, you could see Jiggs carrying sculptures; running around approving requests; trying to find crew on the two-way radios and keeping an eye on things.
Keeping in line with sustainable growth and sharing, Bushfire participated in the AFRIFESTNET, an African Festival Network, launched in Accra, Ghana. The launch was attended by 37 festivals from 18 countries. The idea for Bushfire’s involvement is to be able to share artists and connect with other festivals— taking advantage of economies of scale by coordinating their efforts, dates and acts.
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Entering the festival, one gets a condom to spread the message of safe sex and responsible fun. Swaziland is said to have the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world, which was sitting at 26.9% in UNAIDS’2009 estimates.
Music was not the only entertainment on offer. There was a market with locals selling their wares and a great focus is placed on free trade and being eco-conscious. The food stalls had everything from pizza to Indian and Mozambican food. The two campsites were full of festival goers who braved the winter chill, all in the name of a good time. Walking along the campsites you heard distinct murmurs of siSwati, German, French and a mixture of accents.
It was a great success in anyone’s eyes and a lesson to all about using whatever means available to push your message across, by celebrating diversity and making a difference.
Africa, where’s your fire?
<h3>“Ayo, Marry My Brother!”</h3>
The crowd stood patiently under the stars on a clear, cool, night, as the band set up for the artist they’d all come to see. Then, there she was… cut-off denim shorts, long legs and Chuck Taylors.
She sings like only she can, drawing you in, then she stops.
<div id="attachment_895" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-895" class="size-large wp-image-895" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/photobramlammers-0918-1024x703.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="325" />SWAZILAND, MALKERNS &#8211; 20120525 &#8211; Ayo performs and moves through the audience to dance and sing with the crowd during the Bushfire Festival, Swaziland International Festival of the Arts. Photo: Bram Lammers</div>
“The stage is too far. I don’t like it,” she says.
She makes her way to the edge of the stage. The crew and her manager look on stunned as they realize what she wants to do. Jump! Security rush to help her down. She says she hates distance and climbs onto the barrier to sing. The guard is standing there, holding onto her legs; the people are ecstatic; phones, cameras, tabs and ipads capture it all. In the blink of an eye she leaps from the barrier and is among the singing crowd. There’s a mad scramble by the crew to get to her, they jump the barrier, struggle with the gate. She doesn’t seem to notice or care very much… You may not see her but you can definitely hear her. What a voice. What a woman. It’s no wonder they wouldn’t let her end the set.
“We want more. We want more. Down on my knees… Down on my knees,” the crowd chanted for their favourite song.
“Ayo kissed me,” says one ecstatic fan as she screams out, “Ayo, marry my brother!”
If you haven’t guessed who was making waves, we are talking about singer, songwriter and mother—Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin, better known as Ayo. This 32-year-old German-Nigerian—who was born near Cologne, Germany—blew onto the music scene with her 2006 debut album “Joyful” and hasn’t looked back or stopped dancing.
She may be scared of flying, but after six years and three albums, she’s a true gypsy. In about a week Ayo flew from Guadeloupe to Paris, then into Swaziland for the MTN Bushfire festival. Then it was off to the Réunion Island, via South Africa, and then back to Paris—where her two children eagerly awaited her return.  Such is the life of one of the hardest working women in soul. Twenty-nine scheduled performances and an album recording between May, 11 and August, 3 alone. And she still has the energy to climb barriers.
It’s amazing to think how she manages to juggle her many roles with such grace and humility.
Her life has not been an easy one, with a mother who struggled with addiction and stints in foster homes. As a biracial child, fitting in was a challenge. Ayo points out that her middle name— Olasunmibo—means “the one who was born outside” and she doesn’t like the term “mixed” being used to describe her race.
“Mixed means 50/50, I think of myself as 100/100,” she says.
Ayo‘s music appeals to so many different people from so many different walks of life and transcends generations. She doesn’t know why this is but notes that we all share more than we think.
“My music is a therapy. Instead of going to the shrink, I’m playing music and writing music.”
‘I’m Gonna Dance’, ‘What Is Love’ and ‘Down On My Knees’ are only a few of her songs, which she calls antibiotics.
This mother of two, who’s all about connecting and sharing, is a true child of Africa, who feels she draws her strength from the continent.
“To me Africa stands for strength. I see strong people and people who have a lot of hope, who believe. People who know what it’s like to get up every day and fight.”
To her, it’s not about following the American and European industries but embracing the talent in the continent from whence it comes.
Not a fan of reality talent shows, she believes life is where you learn.
Heavens, I ran into her again the next day, waiting for the fight to Johannesburg and she looked just the same as she did on that stage; smiling, open and casual. We parted ways at O.R. International, in South Africa, with a promise that she’ll be back to perform in Africa.
It was off to Réunion Island with her straw hat in hand. I wonder whether she jumped the barrier there?
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Tag: Creative

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

From Billboard To Wardrobe

A Creative Power

After tragedy in Somalia, one woman’s path to self-discovery and pure joy

Setting Fire To Swaziland