September is celebrated as ‘heritage month’ in South Africa honoring history, tradition and culture through food, music, art and fashion.
Here, we deep-dive into the colorful world of African fabric and print, showcasing Aurelie Tshimbombo, born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and now based in Johannesburg as one of the city’s many entrepreneurs promoting African print.
“I fell in love with fabric, I fell in love with how clothes make a woman feel,” says Tshimbombo.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2014/08/01/designer-dreams-sweeping-floors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Designer Who Dreams of Sweeping Floors</a>
“Women feel empowered, they feel prettier, they feel braver, and they feel more unique if they wearing something that brings out the confidence in them. I found that whole process intriguing.”
Almost a decade ago, Tshimbombo’s epiphany was when she started making clothes for herself but couldn’t find anything in the market that reflected who she was.
“I am a short, curvy African woman,” she says.
Her label’s name is Afrinique Chic, which she says is a luxury lifestyle fashion brand for Africans and the rest of the world.

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The African Spin

Africa’s music industry is young and vibrant. From Dakar to Mombasa, Lagos to Cape Town, creative communities are producing music that draws from our millennia of heritage, while incorporating modern instruments and the latest technology. The industry itself contributes to Africa both economically and culturally. But it faces challenges to its ongoing development and expansion, and will require both structural and cultural support to counteract these damaging trends.
The difficulties faced by the African music industry are long-established and well-documented. The fundamental challenge is the predominance of an informal economy operating supply chains without proper regulation or observation; the issue of artistes receiving remuneration for intellectual property impacts both physical sales and digital platforms, with content piracy stealing livelihoods from would-be musicians and creatives.
Across the continent, piracy is perceived as a victimless crime. Without proper education as to its impact, not only on creative industries but also on society more widely, this scourge will go unanswered and will continue to undermine the efforts of those working to promote African music. Empowering musicians requires legal frameworks to be reinforced and expanded in order to safeguard intellectual property, a fundamental building block in constructing a robust music industry.
While Africa’s music industry challenges are well known, positive steps are being made to counter these obstacles, and technology is at the heart of those solutions. Internet penetration in sub-Saharan Africa stood at 2% in 2010; by 2014, Africa’s entire figure had risen to 27%. This increased access has fostered the proliferation of international services such as iTunes, and Shazam, as well as Nigeria’s Spinlet and Kenya’s Mdundo. This represents a prime opportunity for a more regulated distribution chain for artistes.
Although physical sales revenues outweigh digital by a considerable margin across Africa, digital sales are growing as a percentage – a trend predicted to continue, with my home country Nigeria estimated to see over 50% of music revenue through digital streams in 2015.
Unsurprisingly, Africa’s music industry does not have significant economic impact on the bottom line of the continent’s exports balance sheet. Findings from US-based research agency PolitiFact found that the music industry accounted for “less than 0.1% of Africa’s export revenue”. Compared with commodity-rich sectors such as fuel, gold or diamonds, and softer commodities such as timber, sugar, or grains, our music industry’s economic contribution is dwarfed in absolute terms by this more tangible production.
There is, however, an intrinsic value to Africa’s music industry, one which is not measured in dollars, naira or any other currency.
It is the value of a diverse yet shared cultural heritage, one which places musical creativity at the heart of storytelling. The tonal nature of many African languages creates a strong connection between musical and verbal communications, meaning for many African communities music is woven into the fabric of society.
Many are already aware of the impact African music has had on global music, from historic links to blues, soul, and jazz, all the way through to contemporary rap and hip-hop. This feeds back into Africa’s musical exports over the past 50 years; from the Nigerian greats of old like Fela Kuti and Osadebe to Mali’s Ali Farka Touré and Cameroon’s Manu Dibango (who’s still alive) with Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour and Nigeria’s Femi Kuti and William Onyeabor the next to take on the mantle, right through to younger breakthrough acts like Kiss Daniel and Yemi Alade; the love around the world for African music is huge, even if the profits are not. And with the younger generation, we’re seeing artistes incorporating western musical influences to create the eclectic and exciting fusion of sounds we’re hearing today.
The legal and governance frameworks which surround African music are in their infancy, but the continent’s musical heritage is as rich, time-honoured and robust as that of any other continent on earth. It has an exciting future, a future of challenges but also of opportunities, most notably through the emergence of digital platforms. Properly protected and nurtured, African music can continue to go from strength to strength. No one can doubt that the whole world would benefit from that.

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The Value Of African Music

Ethiopia boasts a kaleidoscope of cultures, from animistic tribes in the southern Rift Valley to its orthodox Christian heritage in the northern highlands. This ancient land offers both the intrepid traveler and religious pilgrim an opportunity to sample the variants of Abrahamic religions practised with unique zeal.
The Kingdom of Axum in what is present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea was one of the first Christian countries in the world, having officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the fourth century. Ethiopia is mentioned over 37 times in King James’ version of the Bible. Today, Ethiopia continues to predominantly be Christian (63%) and the majority of Christians are Tewahedo Christians, who belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
I could feel the deep influence of Christianity traveling around the country. Both Islam and Christianity have flourished here side by side for centuries.
Lalibela, a remote town located at an altitude of 2,800 meters, is known around the world for its churches carved from living rock. The 13 rock-cut structures dating back to the 12th century are said to represent Jerusalem. The rock churches are connected to one another by labyrinthine tunnels with a small river in the middle, which the Ethiopians named the Jordan, in keeping with the idea of Jerusalem.
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The churches were not constructed in a traditional way but rather were hewn from the living rock of monolithic blocks. These blocks were further chiseled out, forming doors, windows, columns, various floors, roofs etc. In addition, several passages, drainage trenches, catacombs and hermit residences were also carved out. Proclaimed as an UNESCO World Heritage site, the churches of Lalibela are also a significant engineering feat, given that they are built atop artesian well formations that bring the water up to the top of the mountain ridge on which the city sits.
Arriving at the Church of Bet Madane, the largest monolithic church in the world (carved out of live rock), I found throngs of pilgrims occupying the many niches in deep prayer. The church is cut 15 meters down, its roof forming the shape of a Greek cross. The roof of this church is leveled with the ground and reached by stairs descending into narrow trenches. Worshippers were crouched, seated and often times standing, in deep individual prayer, following passages from the Bible.
Pursuing one’s religious beliefs in deep silence and quietitude in an amazing setting is something I will never forget.
In one particular church, I found the remains of thousands of Coptic pilgrims. There is a huge pit of strewn bones, skulls and shockingly well-preserved bodies of people who walked from Egypt and Syria to be buried in the church 1,500 years ago.
Upon visiting other churches, I noticed many pilgrims were slumbering in various nooks of these dark churches, tired from fasting and listening to chants all day. There were numerous nuns in traditional head covering. The scene was surreal and I could feel myself transported back in time.
It is said that there are a 1,000 monks in Lalibela amongst a population of 10,000. The priests of many temples were proud to display the treasures of the temples, stored in huge wooden cabinets hidden behind silk curtains. They include beautifully-illustrated Bibles written in Aramaic, and icons, silver crosses and ritual silver vessels used for worship.
Next stop was Axum, considered to be the holiest city. The city was the original capital of the Kingdom of Axum (1st-6th AD). Axumites developed a distinctive architecture exemplified by giant obelisks, the oldest of which date from 5000–2000 BC.
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The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims that the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum houses the Biblical Ark of the Covenant in which lie the Tablets of Law upon which the Ten Commandments are inscribed. Fascinated by such a possibility, I entered the church and sat down with the large gathering of pilgrims, enjoying and appreciating the beautiful paintings inside this male-only enclave.
A religious land and a deeply religious people in a very ancient landscape is what I mainly observed traveling over 1,000 km inside the country. The beautiful smiles of the children and the elegantly-draped women who were glad to talk and be photographed were an added bonus. Ethiopia is still an unexplored gem. Boasting nine World Heritage sites, amazing religious traditions, world-class archeological sites and a host of beautiful people, Ethiopia is an ideal stopover, especially during Easter.

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Where History And Faith Meet

When she was nine, Zuriel Oduwole, who lived in Los Angeles, entered into a history competition that challenged students to make a short documentary on a revolution. As the youngest participant, Oduwole proved that age is nothing but a number.
This was more than just a competition for Oduwole. Of Nigerian-American heritage, she was born in Los Angeles in the summer of 2002, and had lived in Paris and Hong-Kong with her parents. She has been fascinated by Africa for as long as she can remember. This project was an opportunity to educate herself further and show why the continent had fascinated her so.
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While Oduwole’s sixth grade classmates planned projects that looked at California or the United States, she wanted to go further. With her parents’ support, she chose Ghana as a country with a well-documented revolution. She traveled to the West African nation, where she interviewed two men who had ruled the country for many years—Presidents John Rawlings and John Kufuor.
Oduwole’s documentary was given plaudits for originality.
Following the success of the project, a year later, the 10-year-old Oduwole started to make documentaries about African political and business leaders, who are making a difference in their countries.
She now has an impressive CV, which features interviews with some of Africa’s most prominent figures—President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, business magnate Aliko Dangote and a few more.
“I like to do many things, like interview people to find out how they see things, especially presidents of countries, to find out what they are doing to help their citizens. I was excited to interview President Uhuru Kenyatta in May, because he is the newest elected African leader. I asked him questions like how he plans to bring his country together after a tough election, and how it feels being elected to a position his father [held] many years ago,” says Oduwole.
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Interviewing President Sirleaf was particularly meaningful to her, because she was the first female president in Africa.
“She encouraged me to study hard and to pursue my dreams, [she said] that I can be anything I want to be. President Joyce Banda of Malawi told me the same thing too, when I interviewed her last year.”
She also enjoyed speaking to the president of Nigeria.
“His interview was unique because he laughed when I asked him how much good luck his name has brought to Nigeria, but he answered in detail, so that was very nice. He is really cool too, and I like his hat.”
While it proved to be an exciting time for her, Oduwole’s trips to Africa opened her eyes to many harsh realities, it spurred her interest to get more involved. She decided to cast her net wider by championing a program called “Dream Up! Speak Up! Stand Up!” with the help of the prestigious Lagos Business School and the US Consulate in Lagos, earlier this year.
“I am very interested in the girl child and the things they face in Africa. As you know, the girl child always gets [fewer] resources in Africa compared to the boy child and that is not fair. I spoke to students in some schools in Lagos about the need for the girls to dream big and speak loudly on important issues. I also wanted them to know that the girl child can do the same as the boy child, if she is given the opportunity to try. Girls are just as creative as boys,” she says.
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Oduwole has ambitions of becoming an athlete and competing at the Olympics. She has a flair for literature and would like to write children’s adventure books. Unlike most girls her age, she has an interest in robotics.
“But when I get older, I want to be the president of the United States. When I say this, people say ‘Why don’t you want to be the president of an African country, where you are from?’ Well, I tell them that I have to think smart. If I am the president of an African country, I might be able to affect my country, or maybe two countries. But if I am the president of the United States, I am going to be able to affect the United States, and many other countries in the world, especially in Africa. I have to [make] policies that help Africa and the United States too.”
Oduwole, the oldest of four children, was home-schooled by her mother and other home-school teachers. She belongs to a private schooling system that enables students to attend events and projects outside of school, while preserving a traditional classroom interface. At 10 years old, she is in the seventh grade—two grades ahead of the average 10-year-old child in the United States.
She has visited more than a dozen countries and is fluent in English and Mandarin. She’s currently working on developing her Nigerian languages, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. Oduwole believes her travels and lessons provide an opportunity to represent Africa to her peers in the United States.
“I always tell my friends in school back in California that Africa is not bad at all, and there are some nice things there. Sometimes, they don’t believe me when I say there are malls in Africa. So, with my documentaries, I hope to rebrand Africa by showing the rest of the world positive things about Africa,” she says.
With all her activities on the continent, there is a bigger picture for Oduwole. She would like to see the children of Africa going to school rather than selling wares on the streets.
“They need an education so they can have good jobs when they get older, especially the girl child. I am really hoping that with the interviews I do with presidents, they would see that an African girl child like me is doing things that girls in their countries can do also.”
Oduwole is doing her part and hopes that with her mission, she can be a big voice of change on the continent.

Tag: Heritage

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The African Spin

The Value Of African Music

Where History And Faith Meet

Little Big Voice