By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted May 4th for SN May 6, 2019
Rarely do we
get an opportunity to see a documentary film that recreates a glamourous gala
event like the one recently held at African Heritage House in Mlolongo.
But this
Monday night at Alliance Francaise, there will be a world premiere of ‘African
Twilight’ which is based around the double-volume book of the same name by
veteran photographers, Australian Angela Fisher and American Carol Beckwith.
The two
women artists were introduced to one another more than 40 years ago by the host
of the twilight event, Alan Donovan, who himself is an artist-designer and
co-founder of the African Heritage Pan African Gallery with the late Kenya Vice
President Joseph Murumbi.
Original African Heritage band with Job Seda (Ayub Ogada) right below
The two
women started almost immediately working together, photographing all over the
region. They specialized in shooting traditional ceremonies and rituals, many
of which have already disappeared. The beauty of their photography is amplified
first by their double-barreled book, which undoubtedly will be on sale at the
Monday screening. Then it is amplified in the film which not only features
Angela and Carol sharing stories and clips revealing facets of their
adventurous lives crisscrossing Africa to find indigenous elements of people’s
cultures which had not yet been swept away by Western modernity and the
so-called ‘winds of change’ that have erased the most vibrant features of
African cultural life.
The rest of
the film is largely taken over by a different dimension of African beauty. It’s
the gala organized by the evening’s host, Mr Donovan who revives many of the
elements of the African Heritage grand tours that he used to take in the 1980s
and ‘90s with his AH band, Pan-African fashions (made from indigenous African
textiles) and a team of Kenyan models whom he trained, several of whom moved on
to international careers in the global fashion world.
In memory of
the founder of his first African Heritage Band, Donovan designed a moving
tribute to Ayub Ogada (who back in the late 1970s was known as Job Seda).
Having
created an incredibly long catwalk which nearly reached AHH’s boundary with the
Nairobi National Park, Donovan dimmed the lights and set the mood for the gala
show that was to follow. First came Ayub’s most well-known song with him
singing ‘Koth Biro’ which had been the haunting theme song of the award-winning
life, ‘The Constant Gardener’.
Then came
the Paris-based Kenyan dancer Fernando Anuang’a accompanied by his team of
Maasai dancers (who normally perform with him in Paris at the L’Espace Cardin)
who performed to the music of Papillon, the band whose leader Martin Murimi was
inspired by Ayub to develop his own musical career.
Finally, what
followed was a reminder of Donovan’s heyday when his African Heritage fashion
shows were the high point of elegance every year. What made his shows special
and why the documentary is priceless for having captured their elegance and
Pan-African charm is that Donovan himself traveled all round the region from
the early 1970s collecting indigenous textiles from more than 20 countries.
These are the materials with which he created his show-stopping fashions that he
shared all over Europe and America.
Donovan
recollected those fashions including elegant costumes and indigenous
paraphernalia that he had found everywhere from Cameroon, Nigeria, Congo and
Ethiopia to Nigeria, Guinea and Ghana. He designed them over the years together
with a team of Kenyans, including Sally Karago, who received a Life-Time
Achievement Award from the Host that Gala night.
In short,
the doc film successfully revives the glamour of Pan-African beauty that is not
only contained in the Beckwith-Fisher books but also revealed and honored by
African Heritage.
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