Author Chimamanda Adichie on why we need black stories

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

It's one the most compelling talks I have seen in years. It’s the talk of Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie (32) who talks about the danger of a single story. One of the single stories is the story of the one sided view of Africa. Africa as a place of war, poverty and aids. But she doesn’t only talks about the ‘West’ versus Africa, she also talks about her own single view of a boy who worked at her home. Her parents told he was poor, and she always saw him as poor boy. But it turned out she was also trapped in that single story of the poor boy.

She also explains why we need black authors.

Although she seems somewhat nervous, she tells her story like an exciting book. She held her TED talk on july 2009 in Oxford

Nneka. Music from the Heart and Soul.

Nnekea is a wonderful AfroGerman singer songwriter. I think she would prefer me to describe her as a Nigerian artist residing in Germany, though. But this is how I perceived her and how I interpreted her music when I first heard her fantastic album a few months ago.

When I first discovered her through a friend I was surprised about her total commitment to the African cause in her music. As a child of a German mother and a Nigerian father I had interpreted her to be like most AfroGermans, i.e. having a German upbringing.

Not Nneka. She was born and raised in Nigeria. And not just that, she grew up in Warri, in the Delta region of Nigeria. A place in Nigeria where the terrible consequences of the oil industry for the local population is undeniable. She has seen all this with her own eyes as a child and teenager and now expresses it through her art.


Nneka came to Germany as a 19 year old and settled in the city of Hamburg. Although she stated in an Arte interview that she does speak German, she prefers to do her interviews in English. A language she feels more comfortable with.

Last year Nneka released a n album on which you will find a list of wonderful tracks ranging from genres like hip hop, reggae, soul, afrobeat and more. Her great voice brings you deep lyrics about globalization, love, Africa, poverty, identity, … it all feels very much authentic.

This summer she could be seen on many festivals throughout Europe. I saw her live at the Nice jazz Festival in the south of France. She was the first act of that day. Just her, a drummer, a bas, a guitar and a synth.

She brought us a perfect and heavily emotional set with not only songs from her album but also new tracks. She caught the audience right through their soul with music most of them never had heard before. The intensity and honesty she brought in her songs was so beautiful it made me think of the video’s I had seen from Bob Marley concerts; Nneka is very real and makes music that literally comes from the heart and the soul.

I advice everyone who loves good soul music to check out what she does. Several videos and interviews can be seen on YouTube. And here your can read an article from the Daily Telegraph in 2006.

Nneka - Heartbeat
Geüpload door FourMusic. - Muziek video's, interviews met artiesten, concerten en meer.

Laura Izibor: Black in Ireland

Laura Izibor that new star from Ireland. In an interview with the Guardian Laura Izibor also talked about her family history.

“I quote the line to Laura Izibor, the 21-year-old Irish/Nigerian singer-songwriter sitting on the sofa next to me. "Ireland's really changing now," she says. "The Irish themselves aren't completely aware of what change is going on, because they are in it. It was horrible for my father 20 years ago - that's a lot of the reason why he had to move away to London. He couldn't get a job. He used to cycle everywhere and people would stop in their tracks and go, 'I just saw a black fella, he was riding a bike.'" (Izibor's father came to Dublin from Nigeria to look for work; he and her Irish mother separated when she was eight.) Today, however, Izibor is happy to call herself Irish, and the Irish are just as happy to claim her as their own."



The present black Irish population is predominantly of recent immigrant origin, arriving from the mid-1990s onwards from West African countries such as Nigeria.( Source: Wikipedia)

Isabor’s personal story reminded me of an interview with Mel B of the Spice Girls. In an interview she said, that she remembered sitting in the bus on the lap of her English mother. Her father, who is black, sat next to them. But when racist groups boarded the bus, her mother quickly sat her on the lap of her father.

Somehow these stories characterise the UK in the past. But the UK, just as Ireland, have changed. Although more change is always welcome.

But! She recently performed overseas in the US. The Washington Post wrote about her:

“Irish-born singer-of-the-moment Laura Izibor has drawn comparisons to another vocalist who also experienced a meteoric rise a couple of years back: Corinne Bailey Rae. Everyone seems to lump them together simply because they both have adorable accents, curly mops of hair, debut albums that vacillate between exuberance and depression, and singles screaming for inclusion in an hour-long drama.”

Fresh Off The Boat, the film debut of Femi Oyeniran (UK)

A teenager joins his mother and siblings from Nigeria but struggles to adapt to an alien way of life in London

Femi's short film "Fresh off the boat" has been nominated for Film London's Battle of the Boroughs(BoBs). It is currently being developed into a TV series

This short film doesn't only gives you a short glimpse in one of the many black communities in London, but also in the daily live of black teenagers at school and on the streets. You can see the whole film. Fresh of the boat

For a broader view on this film read the post of Shadow And Act

Fela Kuti art exposition in London

Album sleeves, Pop Art and Fela Kuti, that's the theme of the art exposition that will start from Mon 8 June to Mon 6 July. Place, London UK.

It's the exposition of artist Lemi Ghariokwu’s who's colourful paintings were found wrapped around the music of Nigeria’s most charismatic and notorious musician, Fela Kuti. Lemi’s distinctive images of Africa – angry, sexy, cheeky, righteous – were known and owned by hundreds of thousands of people across three continents.

This new exhibition brings together the best of Lemi’s work and reveals how creative and repressive movements in 1970’s Lagos helped give birth to the Afrobeat phenomenon.

Art's Own Kind, the Blog about the expo. With interesting information about Fela Kuti.

The Fela Kuti project


Fela Kuti = Black President

Yinka Shonibare – Modern African art from the UK

British-born Nigerian textile Artist, Yinka Sonibare is an internationally recognized contemporary artist. He has gained international attention by exploring issues of race and class through a range of media that includes sculpture, painting, photography, and installation art. One of his creations are classic Victorian costumes in African style. But he discovered something about the African clothing style that most people don't know.

He discovered that the 'Dutch wax' fabrics he chose to use in his art pieces was originally manufactured in Holland by the Dutch as they were trying to copy Indonesian Batik designs. The Dutch industrially had produced the fabrics for sale in the Indonesian market. The mass produced fabrics failed to appeal to the Indonesians as they did not like the industrially produced versions and so the Dutch merchants began selling the fabrics in West Africa. The English also started to manufacture the fabric in Manchester. Many people think this are authentic 'African fabrics' and he likes the 'fakeness' of that. Today in West Africa, and in many parts of the African continent, the patterned fabric is now an important and distinctive element of the African culture and symbolic of African identity.

On the photo: Scramble for Africa, 2003, 14 figures, 14 chairs and table " a recreation of the Berlin conference in the 19th century...It was when Africa was being divided up. It was in Europe. They had this conference in Berlin. And the conference was called Scramble for Africa. So on the table there's a map of Africa drawn.

Read: Yinka Shonibare - The African Textile artist

The blog: SAHARAN VIBE - a blog with photo's and news from Cairo to Cape of Good Hope