TRILATERAL, A COMPLEX DRAMA TACKLING MULTIPLE HOT TOPICS

TRILATERAL TRIES TO TACKLE TOO MANY HOT TOPICS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (December 18, 2021

Nyakagwa Mahaga is a courageous, young theatre group that staged their second production, entitled Trilateral, last weekend at Kenya National Theatre’s Ukumbi Mdogo.

Their scriptwriter Adeti Mahaga is particularly ambitious, not only because she also directed and produced this emotional drama. She also tried to address so many hot topics in her script that it was a bit challenging to disentangle them to see which themes were the most critical.

Only at the end of the play does the underlying issue come to light. It not only illuminated the title of the play, ‘Trilateral’ meaning ‘involving three parties’, the three characters in the play who we have no idea until the very end that their ‘association’ is far more intimate than is initially apparent.

The revelation at the play’s end also allows us to make more sense as to why the trio are all suicidal. There’s no clarity as to how they end up in a place where a hangman’s noose has conveniently been hung. All we learn is that Falcon (Smollo Andrew) is the one who hung the noose with the intent of finishing his life. Then we meet Phoenix (Sonia Kahura), a young blind woman who has been badly abused all her life by her mother and also feels it’s time to end things.

Finally, there’s Maua (Julie Nasuju), who initially comes out looking cheeky and slightly over-sexed. But then, she suddenly paints her face with white patches. It doesn’t take long to learn what the ‘white face’ (as opposed to black face) means. But now she has a different story from the pre-face-whitened girl. It’s not clear how the patchy-faced person (who has a skin disease called vitiligo) can be the same girl we originally meet. What is clear is that her condition is a factor in her feeling suicidal. What is also clear is that Maua, like Falcon, had her heart broken. In her case, the heartbreaker seduced and violated her when she was still an innocent young girl. His abuse of her also plays a part in her going for the noose and even fighting with Falcon to be first in line to use the rope.

Suicide and mental health are one theme of Mahaga’s play. But there are several others, including issues associated with disability (Phoenix’s blindness and Maua’s skin disease), unrequited love, gratuitous sex, abandonment and adoption, and last but not least, incest.

The beauty of the play is that all the themes are revealed as these characters, apparently total strangers, tell their respective stories. And as far as suicide is concerned, the issue is practically forgotten as they tell each other their emotional (and sometimes sexually-charged) stories.

First comes Falcon who wants to die because his future with the woman he loves, Rosie, has been blocked by Rosie’s mum. Then in Shakespearean style, Rosie commits suicide, leaving her lover to now try to follow suit. But before he can do it, he gets attracted to Phoenix who is blind but still seductive.

The scene where they practically have sex on stage is saved by Maua who interrupts this slightly uncomfortable and nearly pornographic moment. Ironically, Maua also wants to talk about her sexual exploits which include her disillusionment after her first sexual encounter with some anonymous man. It would seem that all the sexual language and provocative behavior in the play has significance related to how their lives are intertwined.

What made the play a challenge to watch was the frequent moments of inaudibility of some of the actors who hadn’t been well coached in vocal projection. They were too soft-spoken to the detriment of understanding the script.

As it turns out, everything hinged on a crumpled letter that Maua is carrying. It’s not clear who wrote it or how she got it. But when the other two read it (yes, even the ‘blind’ Phoenix ‘reads’), they go bananas. And understandably so since they are hearing for the first time that they are triples, born to the woman that Phoenix calls her mother. One more confusion for me is that Phoenix’s mum is also somehow the same mother who blocked Rosie’s relationship with Falcon. I must have missed something here. But what I do know is that Rosie was also the mother’s younger daughter, born sometime after the triples!

If this final revelation sounds a bit far-fetched, (including Falcon’s having unknowingly fallen in love with his little sis), it’s okay. Theatre often deals with improbabilities!  

  

ART TRENDS AND HIGHLIGHTS OF 2021

                                 ART HIGHLIGHTS AND TRENDS OF 2021

                                         Elias Mungora's works were shown at One Off Gallery in 2021

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted December 27, 2021)

While 2021 was a tough year for many Kenyan visual artists, especially those hopeful that the COVID pandemic would end by last year’s end, there were trends and highlights that made this past year memorable.

One highlight was the Art Auction East Africa which earned Sh23 million in a few short hours, illustrating how our Creative Economy has the capacity to strengthen the Kenya economy as a whole.

Another was the series of annual public art shows that many artists look forward to as consistent opportunities to show and sell their artwork. Those shows included the KMS Affordable Art Fair, Manjano, and FOTA’s ISK art exhibition.

And as for trends, this was a year of consolidation and cooperation among the artists. The best evidence of this was the creation of AVAC, the Association of Visual Artists and Collectives, founded by several artists and lawyers to protect the rights of creatives and professionalize the work of visual artists.

The formation of AVAC is also recognition that Kenyan artists are organizing themselves into viable groups. We already had Kuona Artists Collective, Brush tu Artists Collective, and Wajukuu as well as Warembo Wasanii, BSQ, and Art Orodha. And this year, the opening of the Hive Studio at Karen Village and relocation of Dust Depo as an Annex also at the Village reflect a trend of more artists working together.

Meanwhile, 2021 was also the year when the visual arts seriously went virtual, with artists increasingly showing and selling their art online, mainly on Facebook and Instagram. It happened with the annual Friends of the Arts (FOTA) exhibition at ISK, with Nairobi National Museum’s Sujaa Exhibition of Kenyan heroes, and with GravitArt Gallery where the works of veteran Sudanese artist Rashid Diab were displayed as an online 3D gallery.

A number of exhibitions also took place in hybrid form. This was true with shows presented by One Off, Circle Art, and Red Hill Galleries. It also happened at Art Auction East Africa where the blend of online, call-in, and live bidding made for a lively night of art sales, including one painting by Kenya’s Ehoodi Kichapi selling for over Sh1 million.

This was a big year for graffiti artists who got around to many parts of Nairobi. From Kayole, Kibera, and Kilimani to Karen, Kitisuru, and Mathare, many young artists are joining veteran graffiti artists like Swift9, Smokey, and BSQ to paint the town beautiful. One of the highpoints of the year was when TICAH organized a group of young artists to enhance the beauty of the CBD by painting graffiti everywhere from Latema Road to the front yard of Hilton Hotel.

 Young graffiti artists are part of a larger trend identified by Lydia Galavu of Kenya National Museums. “We’ve seen many young, independent artists at the Museum this year. Unaffiliated with any gallery or collective, they are eager to find their own way, and they have lots of energy,” says Lydia who is currently showing an exhibition entitled ‘Sujaa’ created by youth artists who researched and painted portraits of heroes from every county.

The pandemic has had a toxic effect on businesses and also artists, some of whom have had to struggle with depression as well as with meeting basic needs. At the same time, a number of people have re-acquainted themselves with their creative centre and gotten back into painting. One notable is the veteran artist turned businessman, Giko, who after years away, resurfaced to show his new works at the recent Affordable Art Fair. Another is Maurine Chuani whose business shut down in 2021, but who decided to make a different career choice. “I lost a lot during the pandemic, but I feel I have found myself now that I see myself more as an artist with business background rather than a business woman who loved art,” she says.

Surprisingly, the Kenya Government backed the visual artists this year. Working with the Ministry of Sports, Culture, and Heritage, the National Visual Arts Organizing Committee, and Nairobi National Museum, a total of 60 young artists were supported for an Artists-in-Residence program that enabled them to be mentored by veteran Kenyan artists. Thereafter, their art was exhibited at the Museum.

The Museum was also the venue for a major exhibition in support of a Kenya Art Gallery. ‘Kesho Kutwa’ showed works by some of Kenya’s leading artists as a way of illustrating the need for such a National Art Gallery, one which was first proposed soon after Independence by former Vice President Joseph Murumbi.

 

DONOVAN DEFIED THE ODDS TO THE END

 https://www.the-star.co.ke/sasa/lifestyle/2021-12-10-alan-donovan-defied-the-odds-up-until-the-end/

Mzungu who wanted to be born a Turkana (the-star.co.ke)

ALAN DONOVAN DEFIED THE ODDS UP UNTIL THE END

By Star Special Correspondent (posted December 10, 2021)

The Star readership must already know that Alan Donovan, who passed on peacefully at his Mlolongo home on Sunday morning, December 5^th, loved to create displays of African beauty in many shapes and forms.

Through African Heritage, he cultivated it in music, fashion, jewelry, models and muscular men who’d be part of an entourage that Donovan would take on tour around Europe and the US. He’d take them on fashion shoots and shows where the women would wear gowns made of indigenous textiles that Donovan himself collected during the years when he traveled on ‘shopping sprees’ to 20 regional countries for African Heritage. The men would wear West African head gear and ritual masks that made them look regal and statuesque. And the musicians included great ones like the late Ayub Ghada aka Job Seda and Jabali Africa used their experience with Donovan as a stepping stone into wider worlds.

But long before he met Kenya’s first Vice President Joseph Murumbi and launched African Heritage Pan African Gallery with him in 1970, Donovan had developed a keen interest in all things African. From childhood, he’d collect images of African wildlife from his family’s National Geographics. In college at UCLA, he majored in African art and Journalism; and when he joined the US State Department, his first job of choice was to work in Nigeria as a relief officer during the Biafran war in 1967.

Donovan left that job the following year but he didn’t leave Africa. Instead, he went to Oshogbo where he bought his first pieces of African art, paintings by Muraina Oyelami which he still owns to this day. After that, he took a short break in France, then bought a Volkwagon van and drove across the Sahara, arriving in northern Kenya in 1969.

Charmed by the Turkana people, he spent the next three months gathering one of every element of their everyday material culture. From containers and cooking utensils to headrests and jewelry, he assembled them all and took them down to Nairobi where he was invited to exhibit his things at Studio 68 on Standard Street.

It was at the exhibition opening that Donovan spotted the one African man in attendance. Joseph Murumbi was so intrigued by the Turkana collection, he enlisted Donovan to go back and get him a duplicate copy of everything he had on show.

Donovan’s follow-through cemented a friendship that last 30 years, 20 until Kenya’s former Vice President died in 1990 and 10 years more working with Murumbi’s wife Sheila. Together they worked to fulfill Murumbi’s dream, to promote African arts and culture, particularly through the gallery and through a Pan African research centre for international as well as local and regional students researching African culture.

Building such a centre is one of the projects Donovan left pending at his passing. But he was able to sort out many of the Murumbis’ collections of everything from African art and first-edition books to stamps, home furnishings, indigenous weaponry and attire. Some are in the National Archives, others in Nairobi Gallery, and one is even at City Park where Donovan designed a sculpture garden complete with works by four of Murumbi’s favorite sculptors.

The other major achievement of Mr Donovan’s was designing and building his own monument to African culture. By amalgamating elements of indigenous West African architectural designs, he constructed the African Heritage House which stands at the edge of Nairobi National Park.

At one point Donovan was running AH shops all over town, from Libra House and the Carnivore to the central gallery on Kenyatta Avenue. He had outlets selling AH designs all over the US and Europe. But meeting all of those demands was a challenge, especially after the I&M bank wanted the Kenyatta Ave land, compelling African Heritage to move out.

Donovan had a history of outwitting adversity. When African Heritage Gallery had to close, he opened AH House. And when he went into a coma and many thought he was gone, he defied the odds and revived to live another three years. In those years, Donovan developed a whole new vision for his and Murumbi’s African research centre. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to fulfill this one last dream. But he left graphic blueprints so that others might complete the plan that he began.

Alan Donovan will be buried December 13^th at 11am in a private service at African Heritage House. There will be memorial service and celebration of his life early next year.

 

 

 

 

 

EULOGY FOR ALAN

ALAN DONOVAN EULOGY: A CHAMPION FOR AFRICAN ARTS

Alan Donovan had an affinity for Africa long before he established African Heritage House or African Heritage Pan African Gallery with Kenya’s second vice president, the late Joseph Murumbi back in 1971.

And even before he’d double-majored in African Art and Journalism at UCLA, he had grown up on a ranch in Colorado, reading about the continent in his family’s National Geographic magazines.

He once described how he used to create scrapbooks filled with all kinds of African animals, as if he’d already foreseen at an early age that his future life would somehow be connected with Africa.

How appropriate then that he wished to be buried right next door to the Nairobi National Park, a place he used to watch from his balcony whole herds of wildebeests, elephants, and zebras roaming the land, unlike today where the trains cut across the wildlife’s former stomping grounds and herds are rarely ever seen.

But in light of his early fascination for Africa, it’s no surprise that soon after earning a masters’ degree, Alan applied to the US State Department for a job that took him to West Africa where he served as a relief worker in war-torn Nigeria.

That was 1967, the 50^th anniversary of which Alan celebrated a few years back.

Apparently thinking that 50 was a good round number on which to end his African Heritage journey, he went into hospital a few days after that. After six months in a coma, he miraculously regained consciousness to the relief of his friends. And he seemed to come back stronger than ever, and just as prone to planning new projects he’d be in a hurry to complete. Many of them are still pending.

But back in 1968, Alan decided to quit his government job. He claimed it was his way of protesting the election of a president he believed was a war-monger. But before he left Nigeria, he made his way to Oshogbo where he met artists like Twins Seven Seven and his younger sister Nikki. He also met Muraina Oyelami, the first African artist whose works he liked enough to buy. Three of Muraina’s paintings were going to cover one great wall that Allan had planned to be in the Murumbi Pan African Research Centre, which is one of his pending projects and which he renamed the Gurunsi Memorial House.

Alan was done with the State Department, but he wasn’t done with Africa. After a brief sojourn to France, he returned in an old Volkswagon van to drive across the Sahara and eventually reach the northern ‘frontier’ of Kenya. That would turn out to be a major turning point in his life.

He had been in no hurry to return to city life, even if it was African city life. So, he spent his next three months roaming around Turkana-land, living among the people, and collecting one of every piece of material culture that people used every day. He collected all sorts of hand-made containers and cooking utensils, headrests, jewelry and other adornments.

He already knew Sherry Hunt, the Nairobi-based gallerist and owner of Studio 68, who instantly asked if he could have an exhibition of that collection at her gallery. This would be the first of many shows that Alan curated, not so much for himself as for up-and-coming young East African artists like Elkana Ong’esa and John Odoch Ameny.

One of Alan’s favorite stories is how he met Joseph Murumbi who was the only African face to show up at the opening of that first exhibition of Turkana artifacts. Murumbi was so impressed with Alan’s collection that he asked him to go back and duplicate it for Murumbi to have his own.

Here was one of Africa’s leading art collectors and cultural advocates, who’d specifically left politics to promote African arts, asking Alan to retrace his footsteps out of appreciation for one of Kenya’s indigenous cultures.

It would mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship that would last until the day Murumbi died in 1990, and additionally, another ten years until his wife Sheila passed on in 2000. For in those years, it was the three of them who shared the Pan-African vision that Kenya’s second vice president had, which was to create institutions that advanced indigenous African culture and the arts.

The African Heritage Pan-African Gallery was Murumbi’s dream. Alan had only planned to stay in Kenya a year to help start up the Gallery. As it turned out, he never left and African Heritage blossomed into everything from a gallery, garden and a band to an international tour featuring original gowns and jewelry (mostly designed by Alan) and the African Heritage House. Finally, the name became a brand that featured in some of the best up-market stores and hotels in the world.

During his years working with the Murumbi’s, Alan traveled to over 20 African countries, collecting art, artifacts, and textiles and bringing them back, first to show his copartners, then to exhibit and adapt for sale on both international and local markets.

These were the years that many of us met and got to know Alan. These were the years when we marveled as his indefatigable energy, amazing multiplicity of designs, be it in jewelry, fashion, architecture, and even front-of-store windows which never failed to entice one to come in and see what were the latest designs in Kisii stone sculpture and Kente cloth gowns.

The Murumbi-Donovan gallery was a formidable presence for years on Kenyatta Avenue, so it was a sad day when it had to close shop. The I&M Bank now stands on land where the gallery and outdoor garden used to be.

Fortunately, Alan was always planning ahead, which is why he’d started building his ‘most photographed house in Africa’ back in the late 1980s. Lifting designs from West African kingdoms, he worked with local masons and builders to implement his grand ideas. These included not only constructing his own African Heritage ‘castle’, but creating African showcases in hotels like the Sheraton in Kampala and the Serena in Nairobi. He would even showcase African beauty abroad, both in Europe with his band, models, and fabulous fashions and across the US, including in the acclaimed San Diego Zoo.

And as some of you may know, Alan always loved a party, which is one reason why, starting in the mid-seventies, he established his annual African Heritage Nights. He’d stage them everywhere from the Intercontinental Hotel to the Jomo Kenyatta International Conference Centre. It was always a grand and glorious event in which the models whom he had trained wore gorgeous gowns which he also primarily designed. Plus, his male models were often award-winning body-builders who looked regal and statuesque in their colorfully plumed ceremonial masks from Mali and Cameroon.

Alan Donovan was many things to many people. To some he was elusive, abrupt, and sometimes irascible. To others he was ingenious, inspired, and incredibly generous when it came to assisting aging artists like Jak Katarikawe, Expedito Mwebe, and John Odoch Ameny.

One of the projects that Alan did not complete was establishing a fund that would continue helping older artists who, like Jak, had problems paying his rent or Expedito covering his medical expenses.

Alan is most closely associated with African Heritage, but in addition to his House and the Gallery, he’s been responsible for curating the ground floor of the National Archives and the Nairobi Gallery. He tried to turn a portion of Nairobi City Park into a sculpture garden where the works of four of Murumbi’s favorite sculptors were on permanent display. Unfortunately, vandalism made that project almost impossible. But Alan persisted. His desire to keep the spirit of the Murumbis alive has been a prime factor in fueling many of his initiatives. For instance, it’s through his efforts that Murumbi’s biography, ‘A Path Not Taken’ was published.

Alan has gone on to publish two autobiographies of his own, ‘The Journey through African Heritage’ and ‘An American in Africa: 50 Years Exploring African Heritage and Overcoming Racism in America’. Now his final publication, entitled ‘Black Beauty Through the Ages’ is scheduled to come out early next year. But like all the lofty plans and projects that Alan designed since his miraculous ‘resurrection’ in 2018 after six months in a coma, it’s not clear how many will materialize.

Nonetheless, for all that he accomplished in his 83 years, including being made a Yoruba chief, Chief Babalaje of Ido Osun, we are grateful to have known this marvelous man whose home is treasure trove of African culture and art.

All we want for him now is that he rests in eternal peace. Thank you all for coming to remember and honor this amazing man whose love of beauty and African culture has given us all so pleasure and joy.

HEARTSTRINGS' 3'S A CROWD NO JOKE HA!!

HEARTSTRINGS JOKES WITH SERIOUS ISSUES

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Comedies produced by Heartstrings Entertainment rarely fail to resonate with the youth. And ‘Three is a Crowd’ is no exception.

As usual the title has less connection with the story, but who cares! It’s the zeitgeist or the spirit of our times that invariably gets embedded in original stories devised by Sammy Mwangi’s troupe.

That spirit is best expressed by Carla (Bernice Nthenye) who flits from man to man, depending on his wealth, status, and willingness to indulge his lusty appetites for the sake of short-lived fun and illusory ‘happiness.’

She picks on her long-time friend Mama John (Mackrine Andala) for being so pious, prudish, and resigned to her boring married life with Baba John (Paul Ogola). She says the Mama used to be as wild a child in school as she was, but now she has let herself down.

And indeed, we soon discover that Mama John is miserable, but that won’t come out until Carla together with two other girlfriends (Adelyne Wairimu and Lucy Njeri) manage to break down her conservative defenses and convince her to take some risks while her spouse is out of town.

The show begins with Baba, a professional entomologist (insect scientist), getting set to fly out to attend in international conference on locusts. But before he goes, he wants to enjoy some of his ‘conjugal rights’ with his wife. He’s tactful in his approach to her, using the Bible story of Moses and the rod he wielded to part the Red Sea as a metaphor for his own ‘rod’.

The phallic imagery isn’t lost on Mama John who is equally tactful in maneuvering her way out of those marital ‘duties’. She’s saved when Carla shows up with her latest boyfriend, a handsome DJ (Timothy Ndisii). Then, more of her friends show up for the ‘farewell party’ that she’d conveniently posted on Facebook.

Baba eventually leaves, but the sexual tension remains. Once gone, her friends also depart and she’s left alone with her unspoken loneliness until the following day. Then, the girlfriends roll back in, and now, the Women Talk is frank, ferocious, and fun-loving.

Now it’s not only Carla advocating for ‘open relationships’ and women standing up for themselves, even when it means defying time-honored traditions and assumptions about what it means to be a ‘good wife’ and mother.

For instance, a very pregnant Ruby (Adelyne Wairimu) has six kids and a hen-pecked hubby (Sammy Mwangi has the cameo role). He looks after the kids while she is away, even when she’s just hanging out and boozing with girlfriends as she is today.

Then there’s the divorcee (Lucy Njeri) who’d married her university classmate who turned into a wife beater. She got fed up after the violence got to be too much. And now she’s a successful businesswoman, who like Carla vows never to depend on a man again.

Theirs is strong language, but it’s in keeping with that same ’zeitgeist’. It finally persuaded Mama John to have a sip of the booze Carla had brought. That one sip was enough to suck her into a tipsy feminist mood, so that by the end of Act 1, we see a reimagined Mama looking young, hip, and ready for fun.

Act 2 is all about curfew crackdown and quarantining of random people picked up in local bars. As it turns out, Baba, his mentee (Fisher Maina), and Carla’s DJ boyfriend are the first to land at the Quarantine Centre. They manage to bribe the doctor in charge but before the deal gets finalized, the four women are brought in.

It’s now the climactic scene. It’s also Heartstrings being outrageously slapstick, hilarious, and absurd. Of course, it’s an impossible situation: Baba, DJ, and mentee want out, but when the ladies show up, they have to act fast. They lock up the doctor (Dadson Mwangi), don his head-to-toe protective gear to disguise their identities, and confront the women who, like them, are fresh from the bar!

Somehow DJ pulls out his music kit, and everyone, most notably Baba JM, start dancing vigorously. Inevitably, he sees his boozy wife who declares her new attitude of independence. He’s shocked, but has no leg to stand on morally since he has been out gallivanting himself.

The show ends with the dance, but what’s clear is that all of them are stuck in COVID quarantine. There’s no telling how relationships will unfold once they sober up. But we sense a new beginning, especially for Baba and Mama John that ideally will be more open, transparent, and authentic.

ALAN DONOVAN PASSED PEACEFULLY DEC 5TH AT AFRICAN HERITAGE HOUSE

DONOVAN, A CHAMPION OF AFRICAN ARTS, MOVES ON

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted for BD Weekender Dec. 8, 2021)

Alan Donovan, 83 who died peacefully Sunday morning, December 5th at his Mlolongo home, was a champion of African arts and culture for more than half a century.

“: LM?

His passing leaves pending many cultural projects and plans he had devised since his own revival from a six-months stay in ICU in a coma in 2018. It also leaves his African Heritage House with its treasure trove of Pan African art, textiles, and artifacts in limbo without the cultural caregiver who invigorated the Kenyan art scene since 1970 with the establishment of the African Heritage Pan African Gallery followed by his African Heritage House.

Donovan’s commitment to the region had been a lifelong one. Growing up on a ranch in Colorado, and reading stories on Africa in the family’s ‘National Geographic’, he majored in African Art and Journalism at UCLA before taking up a US State Department job working in war-torn Nigeria in 1967. He quit a year later [in protest of Nixon’s presidential election] and made his way across the Sahara in a Volkswagon van until he reached northern Kenya. After that, the rest is history, most notably found in the first of Donovan’s two autobiographies,  “My Journey Through African Heritage”.The second one just came out, entitled ‘An American in Africa’. And his third book, ‘Black Beauty through the Ages’ is coming out early next year.

Donovan loved to tell the story of how he met Joe Murumbi. After collecting Turkana artifacts up north and exhibiting them at Studio 68, the only African at the opening was the former VP. Murumbi who was so enthused by Donovan’s work, he sent him back up north to gather a duplicate collection for himself. After that, Murumbi shared his dream with Donovan of strengthening global appreciation of African culture both on and outside the region. African Heritage Pan African Gallery was born. But Murumbi also hoped to establish a Pan African Research Centre, something Donovan was still working on when he died.

The American had originally only planned to stay one year in Kenya. But then, his true calling as a designer of African fashion, jewelry, and even front-of-shop windows became an obsession. He built African Heritage into a brand that was selling African designs both locally and to the biggest department stores in the USA. Traveling to no less that 20 countries to collect indigenous culture for the Gallery, Donovan assembled many artifacts which are no longer in existence today. Some were sold, others retained in the Murumbi collections, and some at the AH House.

For Donovan, being true to Murumbi’s vision inspired him to promote African Heritage music, fashion, jewelry, and models who he took on tour all over Europe and the States. At the height of his energy, he established an annual African Heritage night which was a grand affair, happening everywhere from the Hotel Intercontinental to Kenyatta Conference Centre. And once Joe Murumbi passed in 1990, Donovan established a Trust in Murumbi’s name so he could assemble Joe and Sheila’s collections for display at the National Archives, Nairobi Gallery, and even in the City Park where the two are buried. Donovan tried to build a sculpture garden containing Murumbi’s four favorite East African sculptors’ works. But vandals, unappreciative of the artworks’ value, have been trying to destroy them ever since. His requests for government security fell on deaf ears.

While African Heritage was in its heyday, particularly in the 1980s, Donovan was planning ahead. He designed his African Heritage House while operating three local AH galleries, one in town, one in Libra House on Mombasa Road and one other outlet at the Carnivore. Drawing upon decorative elements from West African palaces, his African Heritage House is as he says, ‘the most photographed house in Africa.’

Yet Donovan’s legacy is much more than just one house. His design work can be found everywhere from Strathmore Law School to the National Archives. His original jewelry designs have been copied by scores of local jewelry makers. But Donovan didn’t mind being plagiarized since he was always coming up with new ideas. He also knew he was inadvertently contributing to job creation when his art inspired others to imitate his work.

Ultimately, Donovan’s departure from the local cultural scene leaves a gap that will not easily be filled. But if he has enhanced Kenyans’ appreciation of the African arts by his work, then I suspect he will rest easy and be at peace.

Alan Donovan will be buried at his house, next to the Nairobi Game Park on December 13th.

 

 

 

CHRISTY NYOGU: NEWCOMER PAINTING FROM THE VILLAGE

  NEWCOMER IN THE KENYAN ARTWORLD SPEAKS FROM THE VILLAGE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (Dec 1,2021)

When she’s not chatting about organic farming on her sister’s YouTube channel, ‘Here with Fi’ or wandering through her family’s orange and lemon orchards in Milangina village near Nakuru, Christy Hannah Wambui Njogu is busy painting.

The 24-year-old artist may be living upcountry, but her creative output has been keeping apace with her gigantic aspirations even after her family shifted from Nairobi to Nyandarua County a few years back.

“I never studied art formally, although we had it in my secondary school,” says the young artist who took her O-levels in 2015 at the British High Commission.

“That was because I was home-schooled during my last year of secondary, and my previous education followed the British system, so that’s how it happened,” she says.

Having got a rich taste of fine art in secondary school at St. Christopher’s in Karen, Christy was keen to find ways to continue her art education.

“I applied and was able to get a six-month art residency in Canada at the Ottawa School of Art,” she says.

It was while she was there that she applied to be a full-time student, which she will be starting in April next year.

She says she was just starting to acquaint herself with the local art scene when her family decided to move upcountry. She had participated in numerous group exhibitions, including ones at Dusit D2 Hotel, McKinsey’s annual young artists showcase, and even the Canadian High Commission.

But she admits, moving upcountry was a great catalyst to get her applying for opportunities abroad for further art studies. “My time in Canada reassured me that I was on the right path, pursuing my love of art and beauty and nature,” she tells DN Life and Style.

Having returned to Kenya a few months before the COVID lockdown postponed any opportunities for exhibiting locally, Christy says she has been doing a lot of documenting of the everyday country life since then. She’s working on both YouTube with her sister and in her art at her home studio.” In the process, she has been inspired by the beauty of the Kenyan countryside.

Proud to be living on her family’s organic farm, Christy says all of the fruits and vegetables that her people grow are non-GMO and grown without any chemical pesticides or nonorganic fertilizers.

Noting that some people might think that one misses out on developments in the local art scene when she is living upcountry, Christy believes she has been advantaged, not disadvantaged by living outside the hubbub of Nairobi’s bustling urban life.

“Before I went to Canada, I hadn’t been certain that art was the way I wanted to go with my career. But by the time I applied for the residency, I had made up my mind,” she says.

Particularly inspired by the Impressionist painters of the 19^th century, like Claude Monet and August Renoir, Christy says Monet’s Waterlilies may be one reason she got so fascinated with painting water.

She has created a whole series of water studies, using multi-media and creating almost a sculptured effect as she layers her white acrylic paints into practically three dimensional textures of wavey foam and surf.

She had hours of opportunity to study the sea and the tides with her family when they would take sojourns to Malindi while she was still in secondary school.

Christy has also gotten into digital art, which she will be sharing along with her other acrylic and watercolor series.

Let’s hope she decides to hold at least one exhibition of her work before she leaves Kenya for Canada. For now, we can find her art on Facebook and her YouTube channel, ‘Here with Fi’, and we can communicate with her there.

“I also have a small YouTube channel of my own for my art entitled Christy Hanna Art. I am also on Instagram @art_bychristyhannah,” she adds as a second thought.

MARY COLLIS' 'LIFTING THE DAY' REVIVES THE UPLIFT IN PAPERBACK

 LIFTING THE DAY: lockdown exhibition

By Mary Collis

Reviewed by Margaretta wa Gacheru

That first year of the COVID lockdown was a dreary affair. It was a struggle for many people just to wake up and find a good reason to get out of bed.

Simple things began to matter more, like bright colors splashed onto a virtual canvas and gardens filled with rainbow outbursts of flowers, grasses, and trees.

Kenyan artist Mary Collis responded to the lockdown in the only way she knew how, by painting and sharing her luminous landscapes on Facebook on a daily basis.

‘Lifting the Day’ was the name she gave to her daily dose of a single exquisite painting shared on social media.

It was a stroke of genius and generosity to both friend and stranger who hadn’t known her bright and brilliant paintings before. It didn’t matter to her how the public received them or even if they saw them. She was simply hopeful that by bringing out both old and new pieces, an online audience might feel the uplifting spirit that had inspired the work in the first place.

Mary put her paintings online for 244 marvelous days, and then finally decided to stop. Not that she had come to an end to her artistic expression or to the works she could have shared. But it was time.

It was a sad time for some of us who had experienced the daily delight of seeing her impressions of a Limuru Tea Plantation or her light studies of False Bay in Cape Town or her multiple perspectives of the riotous colors that filled her ‘Erica’s Garden’ series.

Fortunately, the book publisher Unicorn got wind of Mary’s online art exhibition and contacted the artist to see if she’d like her story and her art shared in a book?

‘Lifting the Day: lockdown exhibition’ was launched in Nairobi last Friday, November 26 to the delight of a ballroom-full of book lovers, family, and friends.

The room itself was filled with some of the artist’s most prized paintings, reflective of her dazzling use of color, light, and nature. Most of her artworks are of Kenyan settings, each one luminous with equatorial light.

Tourism hasn’t taken advantage of Mother Nature’s magnificent color schemes that she brings forth in many of Kenya’s most stunning gardens. Mary’s book should go some distance to draw attention to the natural beauty and eye-smacking realism found in gardens like the artist’s dear friend, former fashion designer, the late Erica Boswell.

Mary discovered abstract expressionism when she was still working as an interior decorator, and realized being a painter was a better fit for her professionally. Since then, she’s exhibited all over Kenya and overseas. Her works are collected in both private and public places internationally.

The global reach of her art hadn’t been known by the artist until she began receiving messages from happy owners of her art. Many of them sent images of paintings they’d either bought or been given by the artist over the years. Several of them appear in ‘Lifting the Day.’

One extra benefit of seeing Mary’s book, which contains all 244 artworks that she shared publicly in 2020, is reading her captions. Many of them describe the where, when, and why she painted what she did. She may even say who owns the painting and where it currently stays. Her intimate style of communication is conversational, as if she’s speaking to you, the viewer, like a good friend who deserves to know her wonderful anecdotal stories.

The other advantage of having the book is that the brightness and the beauty of Kenyan colors and light are right at one’s fingertips.

At the book launch, Mary made crystal clear how much she owed to her darling daughter, the award-winning photographer Mia. It was Mia who helped her assemble the minimum 244 high resolution images which were not conveniently located on one single art-filled flash disk. And it was her devoted spouse Alan who helped her with the proofreading of her texts, her storytelling about each painting that brings each picture even more mental light.

Like her favorite abstract expressionists, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, and Joan Mitchell, Mary values spontaneity and freedom. She’s also inspired by the beauty that she sees and has the gift of ability to express how that beauty makes her feel. It’s that gift which is contained in her newest version of ‘Lifting the Day.’

 

 

she called, after receiving the publisher’s message (having been spurred on by another locally-based artist, Sophie Walboeffe)

FUNDRAISING FOR COLD HOMELESS AFGHANS

                                     FUNDRAISING FOR HOMELESS AFGHANS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted November 10,2021)

Fundraising is a common feature of Kenyans’ everyday lives. We fundraise for weddings, funerals, children’s education, people’s pressing health issues including related travels abroad.

But mostly Kenyans fundraise for one another. In Louise Paterson’s case, hers is for helping homeless and hungry Afghans.

Having worked for many years in that part of the world with several humanitarian aid services, Paterson is well-aware of the acute needs of the Afghan people.

Unable to simply stand by and watch millions of people experience famine, homelessness, and the fateful return of the Taliban, the owner of Tribal Gallery says what makes Afghan people’s needs that much more acute is the fact that ‘winter is coming’.

“Millions don’t even have blankets, yet winters in Afghanistan can be brutal,” the Scottish mother of one tells BDLife.

Vowing to send every penny of funds raised next Saturday night, November 13^th to needy Afghans, Paterson’s Tribal Gallery will host an Afghan Supper where guests will be introduced to a delicious selection of authentic Afghan foods prepared by Chef Habib Rahman from Kabul.

The meal itself will be a sit-down affair, so there will be a limited number of sympathizers to the Afghan cause. But their meal won’t come cheap. For Sh7000, there will be introduced to Burani Banjan, Kabuli Pulao, a Vegetarian/Vegan Pulao finished with the most delectably fresh Baklava, the thinly layered pastry desert filled with chopped nuts and honey.

The Burani Banjan is a kind of appetizer made with oven-baked aubergine, organic tomatoes, and fresh cilantro served with homemade yogurt drizzled with pomegranate pearls. It’s served with handmade bolanee (Afghan flatbread stuffed with mashed potato).

The main course (for meat eaters) is the Kabuli Pulao, an ethereal mix of lamb and rice, redolent with sweet, exotic spices.  The vegan Pulao replaces the lamb with vegetables infused with spices and dried fruits.

There will also be a silent auction that night which is bound to raise substantial funds for the Afghans cause. One donor gave four nights for four people in Lamu at the elegant boutique hotel, Bush Princess. Another donated two nights at the Olepangi Farm in Timau while the ‘celebrity barber’, Abbas Noori Abbood donated two stylish men’s haircuts. And several artists have donated works, including Ahmed Abushariaa, El Tayeb Dawelbeit, and Mariantoimetta Peru.

Finally, Tribal Gallery itself will be donating two handwoven rugs to the cause, one from Morocco, the other from Afghanistan. Practically all the carpets, artifacts, furniture, sculptures, and home décor that Paterson exhibits and sells in Tribal Gallery have been hand-selected by herself or her brother.

“My brother and I travel the globe looking for beautiful [hand-made] treasures. I literally have felt like a treasure hunter,” says the former nurse turned country director for the American Refugee Committee (ARC).

“I was country director as well as regional coordinator for both Pakistan and Afghanistan,” she adds. Her job mainly involved emergency response efforts to events like the massive earthquake that hit southeastern Pakistan and the instability in Afghanistan itself caused by the Taliban.

Prior to working for ARC, Paterson had several jobs with various United Nations Agencies. She’s worked for everyone from WHO and UNDP to UNICEF, often in the most unstable places in the world. Having chosen the career of nursing with the double motive of both service and the desire to travel. Paterson knew that her skills as a nurse would enable her to find work almost anywhere.

That is how she started off nursing, initially in Glasgow, but then went to work in Palestine, both to the West Bank and east Jerusalem where she nursed children paralyzed by snipers’ bullets. That tragic experience didn’t deter her from moving to other war-torn places, first to Somalia where her career path shifted slightly. She went to work in a military hospital but now she was in charge of other nurses. She did similar work when she moved to Pakistan, only now her role grew into emergency response, working all around that region including Kashmir.

Working tirelessly for ten years, assisting migrants, refugees and internally displaced people, Paterson finally decided in 2014 she was ready for a change. She moved to Kenya the same year, having been briefly based in Nairobi while working between Mogadishu and Mombasa.

Setting up Tribal Gallery , her travels have enabled her to display handmade home décor from all over the world including China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand as well as Japan, Morocco, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon, Sudan, and of course, Afghanistan.

 

 

JOAN OTIENO AND WASANII WAREMBO FIGHT POLLUTION WITH PLASTIC FASHION

                   FIGHTING PLASTIC POLLUTION WITH PLASTIC FASHION

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Who said only poor people live in the slums?

Joan Otieno, 36, stays in Ngomongo village, deep in the bowels of Korogocho slum where she has been working with young Kenyan women to create recycled fashions that have taken her all over the world.

Busy setting up a photo-shoot for an upcoming fashion show in Paris when she spoke to BD this week, Joan has been working with an international team of photographers, hair stylists, production designers, and a fashion journalist to create a captivating photo preview ofan African ‘trash fashion’ show.

“The French team also brought one professional model with them for the shoot, but the rest of the models are girls from Wasanii Warembo,” says Joan, referring to the NGO that she started back in 2018 when she was still based at Kariobangi North.

“We had to move in 2019 and that’s when we set up our studio and gallery in Ngomongo,” says Joan whose following amounts to over 25 girls and young women whose ages range from 6 up to 25.

By then, Joan had already trained her core team of young models, all of whom came from informal settlements in Nairobi’s Eastlands, and all of whom were learning survival skills, especially in recycling plastics into attractive fashions, from Joan.

The shows started slowly. The first one was at the Michael Joseph Centre where Joan tested the waters by wearing an original design. She had created a trash gown made from debris collected and cleaned from the Dandora dumpsite. It was a smash success.

That was right around the same time that she had begun attracting the attention of young girl school dropouts who were eager to learn new skills. Joan was also keen to see young women not fall into errant ways like prostitution or drug addiction.

Initially, it was just a handful of young women who joined Joan on her weekly trips to the Dandora dump where she’d collect plastics for use in recycling everything from jewelry, bags, shoes, and hats, to rugs, paintings, fashion, and even place mats.

By the time Joan and her Warembo Wasanii women were invited to hold fashion shows everywhere from UNEP and USIU to Alliance Francaise, the girls were wearing matching ensembles, (namely dresses, shoes, handbags, jewelry, and hats), all made out of the same refurbished plastic packets.

The marvel of their displays was not just that Joan had taught the girls to design and cut out new clothes like professional seamstresses.

It was also that they had been able to go deep into garbage dumps with Joan to collect specific plastic packaging. This enabled them to design fashions that were either all pink and white, made out of ‘Always’ sanitary pad covers, or red and white, made out of ‘Trust’ condoms, or blue, green or pink, made from Omo plastic packets.

Joan even taught them all how to hand-stitch all those packages together into plastic ‘fabrics’ which they then transformed into environmental statements that have had global appeal ever since.

For instance, Joan has been invited to share her recycling skills in Adelaide, Australia and Stockholm, Sweden where she has shown the versatility of working artistically with plastic trash.

Locally, she’s been invited up to Tafaria Castle several times to create whole windows and walls out of broken bottles and other bits of garbage. And just prior to the COVID lockdown she spent time in Lamu, working with orphans at the Anidan children’s centre.

“We had a fashion show at the Peponi Hotel in which the children modeled dresses that they’d created during the two weeks I was with them at Anidan,” Joan says.

So while she may not be rich monetarily, Joan’s become a trailblazer in solving the planet’s monumental problem of plastic pollution one plastic gown at a time.

BALLET IS BACK AT NATIONAL THEATRE WITH THE NUTCRACKER

 BRINGING BALLET BACK ON STAGE WITH THE NUTCRACKER

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 22 November 2021)

Having performed in The Nutcracker from the time she was two, Cooper Rust says the production of this classical ballet is a time-honored tradition that’s been practiced annually at Christmas time in Kenya since 2015 when her Dance Centre Kenya (DCK) first staged it at Kenya’s National Theatre.

“It’s not only staged in Kenya at Christmas time,” the DCK founder tells BDLife. “It’s performed all over the world since it’s a story about a little girl who receives a [fantastical] Christmas toy,” she adds.

This year Cooper, 36, won’t actually be in the Ballet. But she has choreographed and directed the show which opens December 3^rd at the National Theatre.

“I’ll perform in Cinderella in February,” she says. “I’ll play the wicked step-mother,” she adds with a twinkle in her eye.

Explaining that her choreography varies every year, depending on her dancers, many of whom will be new, Cooper says that her students have been rehearsing and dancing throughout the lockdown.

“We are really excited about coming back on stage, since some of us didn’t know if it would ever happen again,” she says, recalling the last time DCK staged a ballet [Romeo and Juliet] was in February 2019.

But her dancers never doubted they would come back. That is why they rehearsed non-stop with this former prima ballerina instructor who’s become like a mother to many of them.

In fact, eleven of the dancers that are in this year’s Nutcracker actually live with Cooper 80 percent of the year. “All eleven have families who they stay with part of the year,” she explains. But she knew that if these dancers were going to fulfill their full potential, they would need to work hard. And she was prepared to work with them.

But as all eleven come from informal settlements, either Kibera or Kuwinda, Cooper says the biggest headache was transport. That was the first consideration for having her most promising young dancers come to live, dance, and study with her.

It all began with the 15-year-old Joel Kioko from Kuwinda, a slum burrowed away deep inside Karen. Joel had come to Dance Centre Kenya as a scholarship student after Cooper had spotted his tremendous potential when she was still teaching dance to under-served kids in the slums. But she quickly realized that in order to ensure he fulfill his full capacity and also be able to travel for further dance training that she was prepared to organize for him, she would need to tutor him academically as well as dance-wise. And that couldn’t happen unless he came to stay and work with her, which is what he did.

Today, Joel just graduated from the English National Ballet School and now has a full-time job working professionally with one of the most acclaimed dance companies in America, the Joffrey Ballet.

Two other of Cooper’s former ‘family members’, Francis Waweru and Pamela Atieno, have also gone on for further studies, Waweru to study lighting design in Oklahoma, in the US, and Atieno to South Carolina where she’s continuing her studies in ballet.

And soon, the fourth housemate, the lovely Lavender Orisaa, 15, will soon be following Joel’s footsteps in travelling to the UK on a full scholarship to study at the English National Ballet School.

Lavender will costar in the Nutcracker as the Dew Drop Fairy. Other members of the Cooper family household who are in the ballet are George Okoth playing the Snow Cavalier, Shamick Otieno as the Sugar Plum Cavalier, and Mithelle.. and Elsy together play the leaders of the rat pack.

“Then there’s the six boys from Kibera [ages 12-14] who will comprise the rat pack in the ballet,” Cooper adds.

Noting that she only missed four days of rehearsals during the lockdown, Cooper says she did spend a couple of weeks in the States, fundraising for her children’s school fees. “Besides transportation, I realized that education was also a problem for my dancers. That’s why we had to fundraise for the young ones to go to ISK,” she adds.

In addition to her housemates, Cooper’s cast is international. The 13-year-old boy who plays the actual nutcracker, Aske Ballan, is from Denmark. Clara is played by a girl from Bulgaria, Jana Landolt, the Sugar Plum Fairy is French, Oceane Deloge, and the Snow Queen is played by the British girl Anamika Govani.

This weekend, on Sunday at 1pm, DCK will stage a dress rehearsal of The Nutcracker for hundreds of children from informal settlements. At 4pm there will be a preview for adults.

But the official opening is Friday, December 3^rd at Kenya National Theatre.

margaretta.gacheru@gmail.com

WAJUKUU, AN OASIS OF ART IN A DESERT OF DIRT AND DEBRIS

                               WAJUKUU TO REPRESENT KENYAN ART AT DOCUMENTA

                        Shabu Mwangi, Ngugi Waweru, and Kim at the new Wajukuu Artists Collective Studio

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted November 21, 2021)

Wajukuu Artists Collective inaugurated their brand-new arts studio last Monday with a week-long workshop for fellow artists from their Mukuru Lunga Lunga community and beyond.

“We’ve been building the centre since last June,” says Wajukuu founder-artist Shabu Mwangi. “Previously, it had been a sugar cane plantation,” he adds, noting that was some time back.

Shabu’s colleague, Ngugi Waweru, explains that construction of the studio is not yet complete. “When we are done, the studio will be a double-decker so artists will be able to work both upstairs and downstairs,” he adds.

Ever since 2007 when Shabu launched the original Wajukuu Art Centre (which is just around the corner from the new studio), the arts have played an important role in this ever-changing informal settlement.

“The centre is where we have all our special projects. Here [meaning the new studio] is a space that’s exclusively reserved for artists,” Shabu tells Weekender.

It’s the centre that’s attracted global appreciation of Wajukuu for its being a kind of oasis of art in a desert of dirt, dust, debris, and dilapidated mabati housing. For the centre has not only offered art classes for kids in the neighborhood. It’s offered carpentry and woodworking for slightly older children. And it even screens documentary films which are educational and uplifting to all ages and backgrounds.

Wajukuu has also inspired many young [mostly] men, starting with Ngugi and Joseph Weche, to take up the challenge of developing their own artistic talents. In this regard, it’s Shabu who has been a role model for these emerging artists. “He’s shown us how anything is possible if we’re committed to making it happen,” says Ngugi.

Shabu’s commitment to art started early on, even before he completed primary school at Rubin Centre in Lunga Lunga.

“Art was still on the syllabus when I went through primary. And since Rubin Centre was run by [Catholic] Brothers, there was greater interest expressed in art,” he says.

Shabu’s circumstances were slightly different from those of Ngugi and Weche since they both went to Saint Elizabeth’s primary where art was not taught.

Shabu already could feel he had a calling, to be an artist, so when Sister Marie invited him to join her ‘art college’, he could hardly resist.

“I didn’t learn much in Sr Mary‘s school. In fact, a few months after I joined, she moved me into managing the college’s art and craft centre,’ he says.

The items that he curated and sold there were what Shabu describes as basically tourist art. It was mainly Maasai-related and wildlife. Nonetheless, he was getting exposed to new ideas every day.

The idea of finding a studio space to work in the slum was the first challenge that Shabu, Ngugi and Weche wanted to solve. That quickly shifted to seeking space to build a community-based art centre. “It was a process that evolved over a couple of years,” Shabu says.

                                    Ngugi Waweru is also learning new skills at Wajukuu Artists Collective

In fact, it was the neighborhood children who played their part in the shift from an artists’ studio to an art centre. “They kept coming around and trying to draw and paint like us,” says Ngugi. Eventually, the art classes grew out of the children’s desire to be creative and to express themselves the way the big boys did.

Meanwhile, Shabu’s artworks were getting noticed by several Nairobi galleries, and he began having shows at both One Off and Circle Art Galleries.

“I had a lot to say in my art,” he says, recalling the way his own social status as an outsider was reflected in his painterly concerns for the oppressed, the migrants, and refugees as well as those with psychological issues.

Today, Shabu says some of Wajukuu’s members now have the means to move out of the slum if they wish. “But we don’t leave. We want to remain to uplift our community with art.”

That sense of loyalty is partly why art lovers have been so keen to support Shabu and the Wajukuu centre. “We want to stay here and help build our community, especially the youth,” says Shabu who feels art can indeed move mountains. His life experience is sufficient testimony to that fact.

Wajukuu has even appealed to the organizers of what’s been billed as the biggest art event in Europe called ‘Documenta’ which Shabu and Ngugi will be attending and presenting artworks they’re creating right now.

“We’re in the process of creating installations, a video and three separate books,” says Ngugi.

Their entire contribution to the event needs to be completed by early next year. “We’re confident we will make the deadline,” Shabu says.

                                                 Right outside Wajukuu Artists Collective is Mukuru Lungu Lunga

WAKIO THE STORYTELLER AT EU-AU ARTS COLLAB

                              ART EXCHANGE LINKS AFRICA AND EUROPE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (18.11.21)

Collaboration between the African Union and the European Union have been quietly underway since 2000 when the two regional bodies agreed that mutual exchange could be beneficial to both parties.

They have worked together on projects in various sectors ever since, including everything from business, peace and security to education, digitalization, and good governance. They have even been busy in the area of arts, sports, and culture, setting up something called the Art X Change (AXC) aimed at creating connections and increasing skills among young creatives.

“The Art X Change is actually a project that grew out of the AU-EU Youth Cooperation Hub,” says Emma Macharia, a spokeswoman for AXC and the International Committee for the Development of Peoples (CISP).

“So far it’s a consortium of just five partners from five countries, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Italy, and Sweden, but the project is growing,” she adds, “especially in East Africa.”

Evidence of what AXC has already achieved could be seen this past week during a day-long conference on ‘Connecting Creative Youth in Africa and Europe’ held at Pride Inn Azure Hotel in Westlands.

Organized by the Italian Institute of Culture (IIC) and CISP together with Kenya’s Ministry of Sports, Culture, and Heritage and UNESCO, the Conference shed a spotlight first on several successful case studies that AXC has already participated in. The goal in every case was to support new ways to mobilize creative ideas and cultural activities that would also advance sustainable development.

“Training is one of the big elements in our program,” says Rachel Kessi, the founder-director of the Tanzanian contemporary dance troupe, MUDA Africa.

Kessi explained in a live Zoom call to the conference from Dar es Salaam, that her dance group has been collaborating with dancers from Rwanda and Uganda in the areas of performance and capacity building. She also focused on building a regional body of dancers that can be self-sustaining.

“This is why we got UNESCO involved in the project.” Emma says. “We are also concerned about institution-building as a key factor in sustainable development which is where UNESCO comes in,” she adds.

Two other cultural projects highlighted at the Conference that involved the concepts of cultural identity, sustainable development, and institution-building were the Mogadishu National Museum and the Awjama Cultural Centre.

Dr Osman Gedow Amir, director of the museum shared both high hopes and tragic circumstances of the museum. He has detailed strategic plans for the re-development the museum which is currently a shell of an institution. But due to the instability of his country, his plans are on hold. Nonetheless, AXC is still prepared to support his goal to reestablish the National Museum.

Fardowsa Jama is better off insofar as she started her Somali Awjama Cultural Centre in Eastleigh, Nairobi not Mogadishu. She has a plan to re-establish the Centre in the war-torn Somali capital. But in the interim, she has been able to build up her centre and train Somali youth in multiple aspects of Somali culture and heritage.

One aspect of training that Fardowsa has used to share traditional folktales, riddles, and songs from Somali culture is storytelling. It’s a technique of performance that AXC also supports. Indeed, a high point of the conference was when the Kenyan actor Wakio Nzenge told her story of ‘The Message’.

Having just completed a short course in Storytelling supported by AXC, Wakio told a spellbinding tale of a girl wanting to share news of her good grades with an old friend. Her journey to reach him was harrowing. What was worse was the man had been in jail for 10 years, and had clearly changed dramatically since they’d last met. Their encounter was brief but it had a profound effect on the child who almost forgot the purpose of her mission to visit. It was to tell her father about his little girl’s progress in school.

Wakio’s performance was poignant and bitter sweet. It also illustrated the value of AXC’s concern for cultural exchange and training. “We want to see young people trained so well that when they go out to share their skills, they can do it as professionals,” says Nancy Mwaizaka, UNESCO’s culture officer.

The one Kenyan partner of AXC is the GoDown Arts Centre, which regularly runs an Entrepreneurship Training course for Kenyan creatives. Unfortunately, they had no representation at the conference. Nonetheless, IIC’s new Director Elena Gallenca noted that The GoDown is a valuable partner of AXC. “Many of our exchange activities take place at the GoDown,” she said.