Posts tagged "Africa"

MESHACK OIRO

Meshack Oiro is one of the leading sculptural artists in Kenya specializing with wood and metal.

His work has been exhibited at galleries and museums both locally and internationally including Fortuna Galerie (Austria) and the National Museum of Kenya.

Meshack has also won several awards, including Best Male Artist – Sculpting Section, Buruburu Institute of Fine Arts. His work has been featured in the Kenya’s leading art publication, the Kenya Arts Diary, alongside other big names in the arts industry.

In addition to his studio work, Meshack develops public art installations for commercial buildings and in-house interior decor. In the recent past, he has worked with Keroche Breweries Limited where he installed a life size Summit Lager bottle.

Meshack draws his inspiration from simplicity and aims to make art accessible to his audience.

He holds a Higher Diploma in Fine Art (Sculpting major) from Buruburu Institute of Fine Arts.

fuckyeahpainting:

SIMACHEW MESFIN maintains the Lucy Art Gallery across from the Roha Hotel (the main tourist hotel) in Lalibela, Ethiopia.  He paints in watercolor and acrylic on goat skin.

Left; Saint George and the Dragon. 

Right; postcard-sized paintings.  The blue face represents the moon.

theculturetrip:

Elkana Ong'esa: Traditional Soapstone Sculptures from Kenya

Kenyan artist Elkana Ong’esa is well-known for his sculptures and has exhibited his works around the world. The UNESCO building in Paris, for example, has displayed one of Ong’esa’s sculptors called ‘Bird of Peace’ at its entrance since 1976. Ong’esa’s works have also been exhibited in the US and throughout Asia and Africa.

Click here to read more >>

(via theculturetrip)

tsehaipublishers:

The Roots Project was established in 2009 by Anyieth D'Awol as an independent, female-driven NGO in Juba, South Sudan. ROOTS Project offers opportunities for social and economic empowerment to its members from all walks of life. With its mission, “women crafting a new nation together,” the centre provides a shared workspace where the women create unique handmade beaded jewelry. In the process, personal relationships are created, fostering understanding and tolerance.

Meet the founders of the Roots Project in Los Angeles on September 30th at the Marymount Institute center. Click here for the details.  

(via southsud)

jtotheizzoe:
“brucesterling:
“http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/africa-dwarfs-china-europe-and-the-u-s/
”
Always worth remembering that most of us have a (literally) skewed world view
”

jtotheizzoe:

brucesterling:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/africa-dwarfs-china-europe-and-the-u-s/

Always worth remembering that most of us have a (literally) skewed world view

(via itsokaytobesmart)

wambuikamiru:
“ Body Mapping
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”
“Birdsong” was created by a 30 year old Kenyan of Somali origin who recently made the decision to be Kenyan, taking up a Kenyan passport and choosing to settle in Kenya as a Kenyan. She grew up here, went to...

wambuikamiru:

Body Mapping

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“Birdsong” was created by a 30 year old Kenyan of Somali origin who recently made the decision to be Kenyan, taking up a Kenyan passport and choosing to settle in Kenya as a Kenyan. She grew up here, went to school here and up to recently still regarded herself as being in transit to another country. Read her story, part of the public art project of Kenya Art Identity Who I Am, Who We Are, here 

typicalugandan:

Kampala rising: On the startlingly green shores of Lake Victoria, on the other side of Kenya and Tanzania, a new generation is ready to upend your perception of Africa. The urban, connected and enterprising youth have taken control of technologies at hand to build a different Uganda.

Robots in classrooms. Cellphone apps that measure fetal heart rates, propose where to look for cheapest gas or help you argue with a taxi driver. Digital girl power. Business incubators brimming with ambitious youth.

All that in one megavillage on the lush tropical shores of Lake Victoria, in a country that misinformed people can actually be afraid of. In the city of Kampala, a young connected generation is redefining Uganda and our perception of Africa. They are citizens of the world.

They have learned their skills from on-line tutorials, they are called to global meetings, they win international prizes and, heck, they even move a rap star like 50 Cent.
They are all hungry, of course. Hungry for change, for social development, for success and prosperity.

  • Kampala, Uganda ‘s capital city of about 1.7 million people, is built on many hills. This is the central one, Nakasero, with the state house and upmarket hotels overlooking it all, and the business heart of the city down in the valley.
  • Daniel Ogwok, Michael Tukei and Kevin Biretwa are confronting a new challenge: how to calculate a fair fare that would help Android users negotiate with taxi drivers without meters. Their app BodaPay has already done that for customers of passenger motorcycles.
  • The first RailsGirls event in Uganda was an Outbox initiative, while ThoughtWorks provided the finances and training support. Young women from different walks of life were happy to learn how to make a website using Ruby on Rails.
  • Fundi Bots students Henry Masiriwa, Victor Kawagga and William Odokonyero pose with robots and prototypes. Most are assembled from imported educational kits but “Atobot” is made out of locally accessible materials, for example bicycle parts.
  • Christine Ampaire gathered her team, CodeSync, at a 48-hour hackathon. She attended it out or curiosity with no intention of participating. She ended up meeting four guys and building MafutaGo, a crowdsourcing app that assists drivers with finding the cheapest fuel. The app was the first runner-up at the Barcelona Premier Mobile Awards.
  • Solomon King believes robotics can help solve major problems of African education. His organisation, Fundi Bots, brings robot kits to classrooms, providing the practical aspect not offered anywhere else. Students integrate work with mechanics, electronics, programming, biology, physics, math and chemistry.
  • Terry Karungi of Kola Studio, one of the two startups at Outbox, an incubation, collaboration and innovation hub in Kampala. Terry’s team have made Matatu, a popular free smartphone app based on a local card game that they are now trying to monetize.
  • Collins Mugume has established Meka, a web product platform that was selected for Demo Africa in 2012. Available on all major mobile platforms, its main utility is in comparison shopping that saves buyers time.
  • Evelyn Namara checking her phone at a gathering of Women In Technology Uganda. When she is not busy helping rural women get access to solar technology, Namara is an instructor for ladies-only networking classes all across the continent.

    The rest of the profiles are via Kampala rising by Ciril Jazbec.

It might seem odd that teaching former killers the art of fighting could help them become better citizens or deal with post-traumatic stress disorder. But Kibomango says boxing and fighting are as different as sports and war. Raw brutality doesn’t...

It might seem odd that teaching former killers the art of fighting could help them become better citizens or deal with post-traumatic stress disorder. But Kibomango says boxing and fighting are as different as sports and war. Raw brutality doesn’t win matches. You have to pay attention, stay in control — not the way he recalls himself as a child soldier, lost “in space.”

npr:

(via From Soldiers To Boxers, Fighting And Healing In Eastern Congo)

Lacking ropes or a ring, a group of young men calling themselves the Friendship Club are learning how to box. Some were child soldiers. It might seem odd that this sport could help former killers become better citizens or deal with their trauma. But their coach says boxing and fighting are as different as sports and war.

Photo: Gregory Warner/NPR

(via npr)

thepoliticalnotebook:
“ This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe...

thepoliticalnotebook:

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

If you would like to receive this round-up as a weekly email, you can sign up through this form, or email me directly at torierosedeghett@gmail.com.

Photo: Tahrir Square, Cairo. A man walks past revolutionary graffiti and barbed wire set up by protesters after the first round of voting on the constitutional referendum. Amr Nabil/AP.

Merry Christmas, world

(via thepoliticalnoteboo1deac)

Photo taken by the Ugandan photographer Edward Echwalu during the Independence day celebrations

Photo taken by the Ugandan photographer Edward Echwalu during the Independence day celebrations

fyeahblackhistory:

Who was Thomas Sankara?

Thomas Sankara, often referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara” was the president of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987.  He seized power in a 1983 popularly supported coup, with the goal of eliminating corruption and the dominance of the former French colonial power.

Sankara’s  foreign policies were centered around anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid because, as he often said, “he who feeds you, controls you.”  He pushed for debt reduction and nationalized all land and mineral wealth,  averting the power and influence of the IMF and World Bank.

His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nation-wide literacy campaign, and promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children.  And his was the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa.

Thomas Sankara was an extraordinary man.

  • He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and polygamy and was the first African leader to appoint women to major cabinet positions and actively recruit them for the military.  A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-woman motorcycle personal guard.
  •  He encouraged women to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant.
  • He launched a nation-wide public health  ‘Vaccination Commando’ a state run program that in a period of only 15 days in early November 1984, completed the immunization of 2.5 million children against meningitis (a world record), yellow fever and measles. This operation was so successful in that children in neighbouring countries like the Ivory Coast and Mali were sent to Burkina Faso for free immunization that helped curtail high rates of infant and child mortality.
  • He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.  He lowered his salary, as President, to only $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, and a refrigerator.
  • He planted over ten million trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel and established an ambitious road and rail construction program to “tie the nation together.”
  • He was known for jogging unaccompanied through the capital city in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues with his mother-of-pearl pistol. And when asked why he didn’t want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, he said ”there are seven million Thomas Sankaras.”

Sankara’s revolutionary policies for self-reliance and defiance against the neoliberal development strategies imposed by the West made him an icon to many supporters of African liberation. But his policies alienated and antagonized the vested interests of the small but powerful Burkinabe middle class, the tribal leaders who he stripped of the traditional right to forced labor and tribute payments, and the foreign financial interests in France and their ally Ivory Coast.

Compaore and Sankara
On October 15, 1987 Sankara was killed by an armed militia of twelve officials in a coup d’état organized by Compaore.  Sankara’s body was dismembered and buried in an unmarked grave.   Compaore immediately took power, overturning most of Sankara’s policies.  Compaore reportedly ousted Sankara because he believed that his revolutionary policies were jeopardizing Burkina Faso’s relationship with France and Ivory Coast.  Sankara and Compaore were not only colleagues, they were childhood friends.

This is why ‘Bad Karma’ should be Blaise Compaore’s middle name.  He is a ruthless man who orchestrated the brutal assassination of his best friend.

Yet he is the man routinely designated by the international community to act as a ’mediator’ to help resolve African conflicts… smdh

click here for more

(via diasporicroots)

africaisdonesuffering:

Solar Bottle Lights: Simple Innovation

It is quite surprising to see what some simple materials and a little innovation can do. An empty plastic bottle filled with mineral water and a few drops of bleach cemented halfway through a roofing sheet can fill a dreary dark space with light. This simple yet remarkable idea developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was first introduced in the Philippines but is now being widely used in African countries like Uganda and Niger.

continue reading

(via dynamicafrica)

“I have never heard of a country that developed on aid. If you know of one, just let me know. I’ve heard about countries that developed on trade, and innovation, and business. I don’t know of any country that got so much aid and then suddenly became a first world country. I’ve never heard of such a country. So that track is wrong, that track ends to nowhere…I don’t know where that formula is coming from, there’s no precedent.”

- I couldn’t agree more. DfID, USAID et al are actively harming the “development” of African countries.

ghanailoveyou:

theafricatheynevershowyou:

Herman Chinery-Hesse, Africa’s ‘Father of Technology’

by Mandy De Waal

Innovator, disruptor, and West African software pioneer, Herman Chinery-Hesse wants to make Ghana the “Singapore of Africa”. Given he’s already created one of Ghana’s most successful software companies and is spawning innovations that solve barriers to trade between Africa and the rest of the world, he has a good chance.

Herman Chinery-Hesse is an anomaly for western media who can’t see beyond that stereotype that exists for those who don’t know this continent, and reduce it to clichés pulled from a pool of nouns that include dictator, corruption, conflict, hunger and Mugabe.

The western media call Chinery-Hesse the “Bill Gates of Africa”, a moniker which gives off-shore audiences who see the continent as one amorphous “country”. A successful Ghanaian technologist whose software company, the SOFTtribe, spawned systems that empower much of West Africa, it is Chinery-Hesse’s disruptive inventions that are making the world sit up and take note.

Read More

(via dynamicafrica)

Law, war, and a few other things to make me feel better about the above.

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