After promising to sell nearly everything he owned last year including six mansions in California, Tesla’s billionaire CEO has taken up residence in a studio-apartment sized rental – here’s what it looks like inside and out.



If you’re looking for the world’s third-richest person, you won’t find him living among the billionaires. After selling off most of his real estate assets and moving to Texas in the past year, Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed</a> in early June that he now only owns one house (in the Bay Area)—and that his primary residence is a tiny box house that he says he rents from his rocket company, SpaceX. 



The house, which is around 400 square feet, is located in Boca Chica, Texas, where SpaceX produces its Starships. Musk, who has a net worth of $169.8 billion according to&nbsp;Forbes, rents a “<a href="https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/elon-musk-texas-house-boca-chica-16278768.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">foldable, prefabricated home</a>” made by Boxabl, a housing startup company. The house, which Musk tweeted sells for about $50,000, typically has a setup akin to a small studio apartment: One large room partitioned into a living room area, bedroom area, kitchen and bathroom. In contrast to many other billionaires who own lavish mansions, Musk lives in an easily transportable 20&#215;20 foot unit.&nbsp;



“It’s kinda awesome though,” Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> on Twitter last month.



The 50-year-old mogul&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256239554148724737?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first announced</a>&nbsp;plans to sell all of his homes and most of his possessions last year, in response to criticism of his massive wealth. Musk has now nearly made good on his promise to do so,selling six of his seven properties.



“Only house I own is the events house in the Bay Area. If I sold it, the house would see less use, unless bought by a big family, which might happen someday,” Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;on Twitter last month.&nbsp;



A few days later, he&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1404336639938154497?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">confirmed</a>&nbsp;he had put it up for sale: “Decided to sell my last remaining house. Just needs to go to a large family who will live there. It’s a special place.”



The 47-acre property is located in Hillsborough, California—around halfway between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The “over 100-year-old mansion” is a 16,000 square foot house that boasts nine bedrooms and ten bathrooms. It’s the last piece of real estate that Musk owns: He has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/891-Crystal-Springs-Rd_Hillsborough_CA_94010_M24423-37895" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">listed</a>&nbsp;it on the market for $37.5 million, having originally bought it for $23.4 million in 2017.



Musk has offloaded his Los Angeles real estate in the past year, often at slim profit margins—if any. He&nbsp;<a href="https://nypost.com/article/elon-musks-houses-homes-sold/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold</a>&nbsp;his first mansion, located on Chalon Road, for $29 million in June 2020; he had purchased it for $17 million in 2012.&nbsp;



In October, he sold a 2,700 square foot ranch-style house that used to belong to Willy Wonka actor Gene Wilder for $7 million (Musk bought it for $6.75 million in 2013), with the&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256255619239038977?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stipulation</a>&nbsp;that the house “cannot be torn down or lose any [of] its soul.”&nbsp;



In December, Musk sold&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-12-30/elon-musk-sells-three-bel-air-homes-for-a-combined-40-9-million" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">four Bel Air properties</a>&nbsp;for a combined $61.89 million; He originally spent nearly $55 million on those properties, purchasing them between 2015 and 2019. Overall, Musk has made an estimated profit of $19.2 million on his six home sales over the past year.



Musk’s offloading of real estate comes after a battle with the state of California. The billionaire criticized the state’s coronavirus-related restrictions on operations at the Tesla factory in the Bay Area last year—<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/05/20/tesla-drops-lawsuit-against-alameda-county-over-factory-reopening/?sh=766e1f59c1bf">leading to a lawsuit</a> that Tesla later dropped—and also claimed that the state takes entrepreneurs for granted. In early December 2020, Musk <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/12/08/elon-musk-confirms-hes-moving-from-california-to-texas/?sh=421191e44948">confirmed</a> that he was moving to Texas, citing the fact that two of his biggest projects—Tesla’s new factory and a SpaceX facility-are located there.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Starbase, Texas <a href="https://t.co/mt4IpqqmjF">pic.twitter.com/mt4IpqqmjF</a>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1368915472142401540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



It remains unclear whether Musk is renting any other houses in Austin, though. It’s also unknown if he stays with his girlfriend, 32-year-old singer Grimes (who&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1362064129377394694?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lives</a>&nbsp;in Austin) and their 10-month-old child, X AE A-XII. Musk has five other children with his first wife, Justine Wilson, but it’s unclear where they live.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60df37ed215a75b9afaa4e5b%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="Musk Somera II by Fererico Winer for Forbes"/><figcaption>Somera Street Elon&#8217;s Homes from left to right 954 958 955&nbsp;FEDERICO WINER FOR FORBES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-954-somera-rd-los-angeles">954 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-29-719-000">Sold December 22, 2020 for $29,719,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-september-30-2016-for-24-250-000">Purchased September 30, 2016 for $24,250,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-955-somera-rd-los-angeles">955 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-4-443-000">Sold December 22, 2020 for $4,443,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-july-10-2015-for-4-300-000">Purchased July 10, 2015 for $4,300,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-958-somera-rd-los-angeles">958 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-6-774-500">Sold December 22, 2020 for $6,774,500</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-january-15-2019-for-6-400-000">Purchased January 15, 2019 for $6,400,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10947 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Sold December 21, 2020 for&nbsp;$20,948,500</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Purchased July 28, 2015 for $20,000,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10930 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Sold October 8, 2020 for $7,000,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Purchased October 24, 2013 for $6,750,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10911 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60df2aafbd04bc615f446fdb%2F1960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="10911 Chalon Rd by Dylan Stewart-Newscom"/></figure>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Sold June 12, 2020 for $29,000,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Purchased December 21, 2012 for $17,000,000 </h5>



By Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff

Billionaire Elon Musk Receives Axel Springer Award

Where Elon Musk Lives Since He Pledged To Ditch ‘Almost All Physical Possessions’

TOPLINE: A judge has <a href="https://variety.com/2021/music/news/britney-spears-conservatorship-request-denied-remove-father-1235009486/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rejected</a> a November request by Britney Spears to have her father removed as the conservator of her estate, court papers show, a week after the pop star delivered a blistering testimony describing his control as “abusive” and akin to “sex trafficking,” although the denial is not a response to Spears’ recent statement.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny rejected Spears’ request to have her father, Jamie Spears, ousted from the conservatorship role he has held for 13 years, according to court documents filed Wednesday.&nbsp;



The singer’s lawyers filed the request last year, with her lawyers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2020/11/11/britney-spears-loses-bid-to-oust-father-from-conservatorship-says-she-wont-perform-while-hes-in-charge/?sh=7707c98d4dcb">telling</a>&nbsp;the court Spears&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/britney-spears-seeks-freedom-from-father-685c547c55bebd617bd637e3fb55d64c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fears her father</a>&nbsp;and will not perform or resume her career while he has control over her&nbsp; life and estate.&nbsp;



While rejecting the bid to remove her father as conservator, the judge did permit the singer’s request to have the Bessemer Trust, a wealth management firm, appointed as co-conservator.



The filing follows an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/06/23/i-deserve-to-have-a-life-britney-spears-speaks-out-about-conservatorship/?sh=50f75b457b0c">impassioned</a>&nbsp;testimony Spears delivered to court last week urging it to end the conservatorship and accusing her father and members of the team of exploitation, preventing her removing a contraceptive device and medicating her with lithium against her wishes, a mood stabilizer most commonly used to treat bipolar disorder.&nbsp;



The judge did not take that testimony into account when evaluating this request as Spears has not filed a formal petition to end the conservatorship.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h3>



Britney Spears has not yet filed a petition to end her conservatorship completely. With her father still partially in control and the singer now open to taking more aggressive moves to end the conservatorship, it’s possible this could be her next step.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h3>



In her testimony last week, Spears&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/06/23/britney-spears-full-statement-against-her-conservatorship/?sh=6dd8722621bd">pleaded</a>&nbsp;to the judge: “I just want my life back. And it’s been 13 years. And it’s enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve owned my money. And it’s my wish and my dream for all of this to end without being tested.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



Britney has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/06/22/britney-spears-has-reportedly-fought-for-years-to-end-conservatorship/?sh=5a4e78ac234a">trying</a>&nbsp;to end her conservatorship—which gives its managers an incredible amount of control over her personal and business affairs—for years. Initially, a court placed Spears under conservatorship in 2008 following a series of mental health crises and very public breakdowns, including shaving her head and attacking a photographer’s car with an umbrella. The move was initially successful in reviving the singer’s business affairs, which moved from debt to a net worth of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/10/13/inside-britney-spears-fortune-the-freebritney-movement-and-why-shes-not-on-forbes-new-list/?sh=43ce9574e753">over $60 million</a>, resulted in numerous albums, a lengthy Las Vegas residency and a judging gig on the X Factor. Yet Spears, arguably one of the world’s most marketable pop stars, has not released an album since 2016 or performed live since 2018. She has been on a total hiatus since early 2019 and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/britney-spears-seeks-freedom-from-father-685c547c55bebd617bd637e3fb55d64c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vowed</a>&nbsp;her career will stall while her father is in control. More&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/06/16/britneyspeaks-britney-spears-set-to-testify-in-conservator-case-that-sparked-viral-movement/?sh=52b0aafa27c0">recently</a>, fans and other musicians have spoken out about her treatment, launching the “Free Britney” movement and protesting that the singer should be given more control over her life.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h3>



Jamie Spears&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/arts/music/britney-spears-conservatorship.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claims</a>&nbsp;he is acting in his daughter’s interest and&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2021/music/news/britney-spears-dad-conservatorship-not-his-fault-1235008720/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">denies</a>&nbsp;that he is responsible for many of the restrictions allegedly placed on his daughter. In particular, he has not been in charge of her personal or medical affairs after he stepped down from the position in 2019 due to ill health. He has called for his co-conservator, Jodi Montgomery, to be investigated over his daughter’s claims. Montgomery is reportedly in charge of medical and personal decisions.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h3>



$2.4 million. That’s how much Spears has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/06/24/how-much-did-britney-spearss-dad-earn-controlling-her-life/?sh=6907451d7a6b">paid</a>&nbsp;her father as a “salary” since February 2009, a year after he was named conservator of her estate. This figure does not include other expenses and payouts like a percentage of touring revenue, legal bills and office rental.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/06/23/britney-spears-full-statement-against-her-conservatorship/?sh=6dd8722621bd">Britney Spears’ Full Statement Against Her Conservatorship</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/06/24/how-much-did-britney-spearss-dad-earn-controlling-her-life/?sh=6907451d7a6b">How Much Has Britney Spears’ Dad Earned Controlling Her Life?</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/02/17/britney-spears-net-worth-revealed--and-its-shockingly-low-compared-to-her-pop-peers/?sh=522d6cae18ac">Britney Spears’ Net Worth Revealed – And It’s Shockingly Low Compared To Her Pop Peers</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/06/23/i-deserve-to-have-a-life-britney-spears-speaks-out-about-conservatorship/?sh=50f75b457b0c">‘I Deserve To Have A Life’: Britney Spears Speaks Out About Conservatorship</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2020/11/11/britney-spears-loses-bid-to-oust-father-from-conservatorship-says-she-wont-perform-while-hes-in-charge/?sh=7707c98d4dcb">Britney Spears Loses Bid To Oust Father From Conservatorship, Says She Won’t Perform While He’s In Charge</a> (Forbes)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Celebrity Sightings in New York – September 29, 2008

Britney Spears Loses Another Bid To Oust Father From Conservatorship, A Week After Her Impassioned Speech Calling It ‘Abusive’

She has had a life of struggle and adventure, and even before being known as the mother of South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk, was a star sashaying down the runway at the New York Fashion Week at the age of 67, rewriting the rules of the modeling industry. Maye Musk speaks to us from her home in Los Angeles about her new memoir, A Woman Makes A Plan, released by Jonathan Ball Publishers, and how Elon was always her ‘genius boy’ and is now set on exploring Mars. Excerpts from the interview:



You are 72 years old and a grandmother to 12 grandkids. How do you manage to look great and also be a model, dietician, author and entrepreneur? Women can do anything and everything… I have to eat very well to maintain a healthy weight and have a lot of energy. I have also never smoked, which is great and I wear a hat in the sun and sunscreen. You need to look after yourself and stay healthy and then, of course, the world is the limit. And then there’s Mars…



You grew up in Pretoria (South Africa) and in your book, recount your trips traveling with your parents across the Kalahari Desert every winter. Your family motto was ‘live dangerously — carefully’. Have you always been adventure-seekers? With my parents coming from Canada, from a small town, to South Africa, they just wanted to explore Africa and the world in a single engine plane. They did a lot of that and then they took all five children to the Kalahari Desert… with a compass and we would map it out and we would map the hills… [when] all my friends went to the beach… but it’s so weird my parents were so adventurous, it was wonderful!



Your older son Elon Musk, as the founder of Tesla, makes electric cars and launches rockets into space. Your second son Kimbal is a food entrepreneur and your daughter Tosca a filmmaker. What was it like raising three successful kids as a struggling single mother? How did you navigate great sadness and stress along the way?



Funny enough, when I told my children my book agent wants me to write about my life and the lessons I’ve learned and they said, ‘you’ve got to bring your struggles into your book’, and I said, ‘oh you know, I never complain’, so they said, ‘no, people need to know what you’ve been through’. So I put the struggles in and then when I read it with my editor, I said ‘oh, I have got to take some of these chapters out’, and she said, ‘no, women will relate to them’, and that’s why my struggles are in there.If you are in a bad situation, you just have to get out; you have to get out quicker than I did. You have to find a way and share your problem with your family and friends. Interestingly, my twin sister and my two brothers had no idea what I was going through. I never came across as struggling as I never complained. I was always happy. My point is, if you complain all the time, then you’re not interesting or fun or beautiful because you are just miserable. That’s why I never told anyone what I had been through, but nowadays, if you need help, you need to tell people.



What is your advice for overcoming stress and depression? I never went through depression. Depression means you can’t get up in the morning. I had to get up, get the kids to school and be at work at 7.30AM. So I didn’t have depression but I had a lot of sadness and rightly so, because I was scared and had to feed the kids. And then my ex-husband, after my divorce for 11 years, had me in lawsuits. That was exhausting and you live in constant fear. When it comes to depression, because I’m a dietician, and I’ve counseled patients for 45 years, and many of them were depressed and some had a reason, sometimes poor health, and I could help them eat better. If there is a reason for the depression, you need to talk it out. If it is because of things that have happened in the past, then I recommend they don’t continually complain about their past, because it just makes them less interesting.When it came to dating, every time I met a man, he would tell me about his miserable life and I would say, ‘I feel like I’m counseling, I am getting out of here!. When they want to date someone, men also need to be fun and have some kind of interest other than their miserable lives.



You have called Elon your ‘genius boy’ in your book. He got his first computer at 12, and learned to use it and wrote a computer program, BLASTAR. He published it at the age of 13. How did you see that interest in technology in him bloom? I told people when he was three that he was a genius and people were like, ‘oh, you are such a mother’, because all mothers think like that. Then, I would say, ‘no, really’. He would read the encyclopaedia and remember everything in there, so he really was our encyclopaedia. I mean I can read a book and I would forget it soon afterwards but he does not forget those things. It was when he was 12 [that] he showed me his computer program when I was teaching modeling to university students. I showed it to some of the computer students and they said, ‘oh, he knows all the short cuts, it looks great’. So, I told him he had to submit the program to a magazine and he did. I don’t think they knew that he was only 13, and he got R500 for it; how cool is that?



What does it take to raise a billionaire? I did not raise a billionaire – [Elon] was sleeping on the floor on a mattress. And that wasn’t his aim [to become a billionaire]. His aim is to save the planet and he also loves the thought of going to Mars. I raised all three of my kids the same way my parents raised me, to be independent, to make your own choices and be responsible for them, and also to take on work that will benefit other people. For example, Tosca has a platform called Passionflix and she takes best-selling romance novels and makes them into movies. In these movies, the women are paid as much as the men and they are strong, and confident and successful. They aren’t beaten up, violated and abused and there are always happy endings. It makes me feel good she is making movies that make people happy. With Kimbal, besides his farm-to-table restaurants, which helps the farmers, he does vegetable gardens in underserved schools. He has built 650 vegetable gardens in schools; he wanted to do 1,000 by the end of the year, but of course, everything’s got delayed with the lockdown. The children get so excited to plant seeds and water them and pick them out of the ground and prepare them and eat them. I mean to get kids excited about vegetables; well, it makes a dietician like me very happy.



Your son Elon’s pioneering work is to one day inhabit Mars. Did you always see that interest in him for space? Do you share that with him? I get very excited every step of the way. We all do. Kimbal and Tosca and I go to the main launches, we can’t go to all the launches, as Elon has launched, how many now… 50 rockets? I’m not sure. I lose track. But we go to the main ones, and we are anxious beforehand and excited afterwards and we are very proud of him and support him with all this. He just feels that we should be inter-planetary, starting with Mars. Mars seems to be the most friendly [planet], and that is what he would like to explore.



What do you call Elon Musk’s youngest son (whose name is X Æ A-12)? I call him ‘X’. We are all still in quarantine so we are Covid-free. We see each other when we can but not as often we used to.



What next for Maye Musk? I am just getting started and once the airports open up and will accept Americans into other countries, my book launch will go into all the major countries, hopefully South Africa too, and then I can give talks in [all these] different countries. The goal of my book is to inspire people to have happier lives.



What is the strength of South Africa’s women according to you? I have always found South African women to be strong, confident and fun. I miss their sense of humor. They just need to support each other, and the men need to support women so they can advance, because when women advance, the country does better.

Musk_1976_Maye__Elon__Kimbal__Tosca_rt-(1)

‘I Am Just Getting Started’: Maye Musk On Her New Book, Modeling, Mars And Her ‘Genius Boy’ Elon

The first thing you notice about a FOMI Collection handbag is the unmistakeable African pattern that adorns it. Next is the intricate stitching that binds it, followed by the refined leather finish.
And then you know the origin of this luxury product – Ethiopia.
The handbags and accessories are the creation of Afomia Tesfaye, the Ethiopian-born founder of the FOMI Collection that’s now sold in the airy, arty boutiques of Los Angeles (LA).
Although Ethiopian, Tesfaye has not lived in her home country since the age of three. That’s when her family moved to England, leaving thereafter to Washington DC in the United States (US), where her father served as the Ethiopian Ambassador to the US, before relocating yet again to San Diego, California.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29463 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Original-20-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-20-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-20-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-20-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-20-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-20.jpg 682w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
Tesfaye went to the University of California in LA, and visited Ethiopia in 2010. That’s when she was struck with the idea of starting her own business in her home country.
“My professional goal was to someday develop a design company, and on a visit to Ethiopia, I began playing with the idea of starting a business. At the time, I really had no idea what I wanted to do,” says Tesfaye.
But she was determined to pursue her dream, even giving up her public relations job for it.
“I began by visiting tanneries and was so impressed with the quality of the leather. That sparked the idea to work with leather in some way and handbags felt like a natural way to begin,” she says.
The following year, she designed a small collection of handbags and wallets she took back to America and sold to small boutiques in LA. As fine wine would be received, so were her products, and they were soon sold out.
Her next big break was receiving an order from Anthropologie, the famous American women’s clothing retailer with over 175 stores globally. There were however snags to Tesfaye’s start, as with every new business.
“The first couple of seasons, I dealt with so many issues: discolored leather and suede, lack of available zippers and accessories within the country, shipping merchandise that arrived late to retailers [and so on],” she says.
But she admits that just as she was developing as a designer, Ethiopia’s manufacturing capabilities also strengthened and “the mistakes have lessened”.
Today, Ethiopia is considered an emerging textile hub, and international retail brands such as H&amp;M and Primark are looking to set up shop in the East African country as its textile industry’s production grows more globally competitive. UK supermarket chain Tesco also plans to expand its sourcing operations to Ethiopia.
It is however easy to overlook that Ethiopia, like many other African countries, has a wide gap between rich and poor, and an even smaller demand for luxury goods than its major African counterparts.
Nevertheless, Ethiopia’s GDP in 2013 was larger than its East African neighbors. According to the World Bank, Ethiopia’s GDP in 2013 was recorded at $46.8 billion, followed by Kenya at $44.1 billion and Tanzania at $33.2 billion.
FOMI Collection’s luxurious tassels will therefore sooner or later find a stronger demand from the same expanse that provides it with material and labor.
All the leather Tesfaye sources for her products are Ethiopian indigenous materials, a variation of highland sheepskin, goatskin and cowhide. Highland sheepskin in particular is considered to be among some of the most refined leather.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29464 alignright" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Original-35-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-35-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-35-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-35-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-35-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Original-35.jpg 682w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
“I want FOMI Collection to be appreciated for its quality and aesthetical value, not for people to buy it because they pity Ethiopia. I use a small workshop in Addis Ababa and work with several skilled men and women who are paid well above the standard salary. The more successful I become, the more people I am able to employ, which is the value that I bring to the country,” she says.
Her work between her birthplace and LA also means her collection gets the best of both worlds in terms of design and creativity.
“In Ethiopia, I often drive outside the capital city for work, in chaotic traffic passing goats and donkeys on the side of the road. LA is the polar opposite, it is the mecca of entertainment, fashion and art which is stimulating in so many other ways. I am creatively and culturally inspired in both cities and feel lucky to be able to experience life in such different environments.”

Original-5

Buy For Quality, Not For Pity

“And the Oscar goes to…”
The camera panned across five nervous nominees: Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle; June Squibb for Nebraska; Julia Roberts for August: Osage County, Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine and newcomer, Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave.
Last year’s best supporting actor, Christoph Waltz, was on stage at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles at Hollywood’s night of the year—the 86th Academy Awards.
<div id="attachment_2618" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2618" class="size-medium wp-image-2618" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/476325217-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />THE OSCARS(r) &#8211; PRESS ROOM &#8211; The Academy Awards(r) for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, MARCH 2 (8:00-11:00 p.m., ET/5:00-8:00 p.m., PT), at the Dolby Theatre(r) at Hollywood &amp; Highland Center(r) and televised live on the ABC Television Network. (Photo by Rick Rowell/ABC via Getty Images) LUPITA NYONG&#8217;O</div>
Lawrence was the favorite for her role of Rosalyn Rosenfeld in American Hustle, but it was not to be. In a blaze of emotion, up stepped a daughter of Kenya. It was March 2, seventy five years after Hattie McDaniel became the first black person to win an Academy Award. In more than seven decades, a mere seven black women have won in either the Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress categories; only three hailed from Africa.
“Lupita Nyong’o is already an African icon, not just for what she has achieved with her remarkable win at the Academy Awards, but more importantly for what she has almost overnight come to symbolize, the undeniable truth that African women are increasingly charting their own course,” says Biola Alabi, the managing director of M-Net in Africa.
“Here is a beautiful black woman, comfortable in her own skin, clearly highly educated, who can champion the next generation of African talent; she is a blessing to Kenya and the continent and long may she prosper. From where I sit, it is an absolute truth that the lead performances were Kenyan and Nigerian—I know its trendy to call Chiwetel Ejiofor black British but he is an Ibo boy and we claim him. However, perhaps African countries can begin to understand and appreciate the nobility of the higher arts of song, dance, theater and film and invest and support them… I would have loved to see her shout out Kenya and say something in Swahili but, hey, you can’t have it all,” says entrepreneur Obi Asika, the chairman of Social Media Week Lagos.
What a difference six months makes. Back then, 31-year-old Nyong’o was a struggling unknown in Hollywood who lived lean and carried her own clothes.
The role that was to change her life, cast her alongside London-born Nigerian, Ejiofor, in a film based on the 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup—the tale of a free man kidnapped into slavery.
Steve McQueen cast Nyong’o three weeks before she graduated from Yale School of Drama, after a chance audition in New York. Her manager had the script ready for another client, but when Nyong’o was asked to read, McQueen was keen on her playing Patsey. It went to a second audition with the casting director.
“It was a one-hour, very gruelling audition. Then I was shortlisted and invited to Louisiana to audition with Steve about two weeks later. So it was three auditions in three different states,” she says.
Filled with excitement she phoned her father, Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, a professor back in Nairobi, to tell him the news that she was going to be in a film with Brad Pitt.
“My father said he had never heard of him, but he was glad I had finally got a job,” says Nyong’o.
It has been a long and winding journey that began in the gentle world of amateur dramatics. It was with the Pheonix Players in Nairobi that Nyong’o took her first tender steps in Shakespeare.
Drama teacher, Ian Mbugua, who ran the Phoenix Players for 19 years, remembers it well.
“Lupita first came to us as a student from Rusinga School. She was brought by her father Professor Anyang’ Nyong’o who had obviously seen her talent. Nyongo and his wife Dorothy were very supportive of the theater and used to bring young Lupita to productions. He left her in the capable hands of James Falkland who put her as Juliet alongside George Mumbai, who played Romeo,” says Mbugua.
“Needless to say she gave a sterling performance… I was very impressed by her parent’s support. At a time when parents wanted their kids to study medicine, law, engineering, the Nyongos supported her dream to be an actress. She always approached rehearsals and performances with the seriousness they deserved. She was very eloquent and had wonderful stage presence. She was a passionate actress. Off-stage she had a great sense of humor and was always quick to laugh.”
“We remember how brilliantly she played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at the Phoenix Theatre, at the age of 14 years; how she cracked our ribs during St. Mary’s School plays, or at the British High Commission, when as a teenager, she played Natalya in Anton Chekhov’s The Proposal,” says her mother, Dorothy Nyong’o.
Nyong’o emigrated to the United States 10 years ago, where she earned a degree in film and theater studies from Hampshire College. In her summer break, she headed back to Africa where she worked on the production crew of Mira Nair’s The Namesake. In another Nairobi summer, she served as a production assistant on the set of The Constant Gardener starring Ralph Fiennes.
“Ralph Fiennes was a pivotal influence on me,” she told the New York Post. “He asked me, ‘So what is it you want to do?’ I very shyly, timidly admitted that I wanted to be an actor. He sighed, and he said, ‘Lupita, only be an actor if you feel there is nothing else in the world you want to do—only do it if you feel you cannot live without acting.’”
The second of six children, Nyong’o was born in Mexico City, where her father, a politician in Kenya, had fled to following the disappearance of his brother in difficult political times. The Nyong’o family hails from the Luo people in western Kenya, like Barack Obama’s father. When Nyong’o was less than a year old, her parents moved back to Kenya, where her father is now a senator representing Kisumu County; her mother is the managing director of the Africa Cancer Foundation. Her parents sent her back to Mexico, at the age of 16, to learn Spanish.
Fast forward to the Oscars, Nyong’o, who sports short kinky hair and a pale blue dress, a color she says reminds her of Nairobi, picked up the award for one of the great moments in movie history. The moment when the sadistic cotton plantation owner Edwin Epps, played by Michael Fassbender, whips Patsey near to death; when it becomes unbearable, he forces her friend Solomon to take over.
“It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else’s, and so I want to salute the spirit of Patsey for her guidance,” says a tearful Nyong’o on Oscar night.
What is next for Kenya’s first Oscar winner? Her next role is in a thriller set on an international flight, with Liam Neeson, that opened in February. It is likely to sell well in Nairobi where a whole new generation of young Kenyan actresses are learning their lines for the amateur stage with one eye on Lupita and the other on the future.

Lupitamania!

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.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2023" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/President-Kikwete-Welcomes-Zuriel1-300x256.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="256" />
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.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2021" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2013-05-24-Zuriel-Interviews-President-Uhuru-Kenyatta-at-AU-@-50-Event-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" />
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.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2024" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2013-05-24-20.06.58-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />
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.

Little Big Voice

“And the Oscar goes to&#8230;”.
Five little words that caused writer and director Bryan Buckley to draw a deep breath:
“When you hear those words&#8230; and you happen to be one of the five guys it could possibly go to, it is, in itself, a crazy thought. It simply just doesn’t seem real. All the films could have easily won that night. And mentally you know this going into the evening. If I didn’t think we had put everything we had into our film, perhaps I would have been disappointed in myself and thought about what we didn’t nail in the film when the winner [Curfew] was announced. But I knew this wasn’t the case. It just wasn’t our night,” says Buckley.
<div id="attachment_1690" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1690" class="size-medium wp-image-1690" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/162620158-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" />Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura with Harun and Ali Mohamed, on the red carpet</div>
He was in Los Angeles, California, at the 85th Academy Awards, where he was nominated for best live action short for ASAD—a tale of refugees, in Somalia. Sitting nervously by his side were the two leads, 14-year-old Harun Mohamed and his 12-year-old brother Ali. The day had flown by, moments before they were walking the red carpet alongside the A-listers—including Ben Affleck, Daniel Day-Lewis and Ang Lee—and doing interviews.
“The BBC was the first to interview the boys. Harun stepped forward to the microphone and began to talk about his journey in English. How far he had come, had never been so apparent. He and Ali were constantly asked what celeb they wanted to meet the most at the ceremony. And without question Harun would say Jackie Chan and Ali would say Jean-Claude Van Damme,” says Buckley.
It was a journey that began with the filming of ASAD in Africa.
Buckley is the last person you would expect to make a film about Somalia. His business is big-budget Super Bowl (American football) commercials for a quarter of a billion dollars with an audience of more than a million. Conversations with Somali refugees motivated him to create the short film with little commercial value or audience.
It all started in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, in 2010, where Buckley was shooting a documentary called No Autographs for the UN Human Right’s Council. He left with that feeling of hope in the face of despair. A year later he wrote ASAD.
The film was set in Somalia and shot in Cape Town. It tells the story of a young boy who must choose between life as a pirate or that of a humble fisherman. The entire cast was made up of refugees who had fled to South Africa.
Buckley says the biggest problem in producing the 18-minute short-film was overcoming the language barrier as both leads, Harun and Ali, were illiterate.
“We knew language, with the whole cast, was going to be a barrier by virtue that we were doing the entire film in Somali and I didn’t speak a single word of it. Right off the bat we enlisted in two Somali translators [who helped the boys memorize the script]&#8230; Both the boys are exceedingly bright. They picked up on things so quickly it was crazy. And then I’d act out some stuff and they would study it and follow. Always bringing their own twist. of course, like any Hollywood star would.”
The filming was taxing and Buckley struggled to shoot scenes with the rebels.
“There was just so much emotion there between them [the rebels] and the boys. It was quite clear this wasn’t the first time these refugees had handled guns. I kept thinking what horrible ghosts were haunting them after every take. And how bizarre [it was that] our cameras were recording every second of this nightmare.”
The international acclaim came with praise from Somali musician K’naan.
“He is truly a man who has supported Somalia and its people’s plight more than anyone I know. He said, ‘ASAD is an important film. It makes human the inaccurate caricature of Somalia, showing real people, a community and life beyond a land of pirates and warlords,’” he says.
The film won numerous awards at various international film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival and San Jose Film Festival. The Academy Awards nomination was the cherry on top but the leads almost didn’t make their big moment in Hollywood.
“The fact that they [Harun and Ali] didn’t have travel documents and that they were Somali refugees did not help matters. ASAD’s producer Mino Jarjoura worked around the clock with [South African producer] Rafiq Samsodien to get the kids there. It took government officials from both the US and South Africa, along with UNHCR to pull off the task. And they did so, in dramatic and perfect timing.”
Regardless of the outcome the team celebrated making it to the Oscars with a toast. After the ceremony they attended the prestigious Governor’s Ball.
Buckley may have walked away empty-handed but he and his two young leads stood tall for one of Africa’s untold stories.

Tag: Los Angeles