South African dancer Mamela Nyamza revived a 30-year-old dance festival to help local artists connect with the rest of the world. 



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An eight-year-old graces the pulpit of her hometown church
capturing the attention of the congregants with her nimble dance moves. Little
do they know she would go on to dazzle audiences on some of the world’s most
prolific stages.



As the deputy artistic director of the South African State
Theatre, it all still feels like a dream for the award-winning contemporary
dancer who never imagined her passion for dance would lead her here. 



Mamela Nyamza owes it all to her childhood.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Your upbringing will always find a way back to your artistic life.</blockquote>



From running in the rain to dance classes, with a leotard
packed into a plastic bag, to curating one of the biggest dance festivals in
South Africa, Nyamza is hoping to transform the art form in Africa.



Sitting in her office in South Africa’s capital Pretoria,
she understands the responsibility of her position.&nbsp;&nbsp; 



“I know how important it is for people to come and showcase
their work in this theater because I came from a space where doors were not
opened for me. The space I come from has taught me a lot as an artist and it
has actually made me the artist I am today because everything I do will always
reflect&nbsp; that life,” she says. 



She hopes to merge the line between art and life by curating
the Dance Umbrella Africa Festival. 



The festival, formally known as Dance Umbrella Johannesburg,
which downed its curtains in 2018 due to lack of funding, has been revived by
Nyamza to incorporate a continental approach towards contemporary dancers. 



She took it upon herself to revive the program that gave her
an opportunity at the start of her career. 



“I cannot sit back and watch a festival that groomed many
artists in this country close in front of me while I am watching. If it was not
for Dance Umbrella, I would have never performed internationally,” she says. 



For Nyamza, the festival brought programs to South Africa
which opened a gateway for artists to connect with the rest of the world,
allowing them to showcase their body of work on international stages. 



Institutions that support the dance community are needed to
assist both aspiring and established dancers, she says.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="928" height="612" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40784" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png.png 928w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png-600x396.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png-768x506.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 928px) 100vw, 928px" /><figcaption>Do I Look Pretty by Chandré Bo, a dance theatre production that explore the notion of &#8216;pretty&#8217;. Picture: Gypseenia Lion</figcaption></figure>



“You cannot do it alone; you need these structures to help
you help others. Our role here is to serve the patron, the audience, the
artists and everybody.” 



The position seemed daunting to her, at first, but she soon
realized it was time for change in the industry. 



An office job has not tethered the artist’s free spirit.



&nbsp;“I was not going to
leave the industry; it is all about leading the industry. I still go out there
and work, I still practice my art and I feel, as an artist, I have done Mamela
a lot. So why am I still holding on to me? It is time to give back. Right now,
being here, I feel like there is a reason for being here. I feel like this is a
calling.”



Heeding the call to make a difference, Nyamza, who is
dressed in African print, recollects the challenges she faced when she turned
her hobby into a profession.



As a black woman, taking it on as a career was the hardest part, thus turning a love into a strange relationship. 



Being the only black woman in her dance classes made her
feel like “the other” at all times.



“It [ballet] was not accepting me as a black woman. It made
me&nbsp; interrogate [ballet] as an artist.
Hence, most of my work will always go back to ballet,” she says. 



“I was deconstructing something that I know. I was not just
talking about ballet, I was deconstructing something that did not accept me as
a black woman or did not accept my body.”



This interrogation is reflected in most of her work. 



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Surprised by the high number of artists in their early 20s
who showcase their work at the State Theatre, Nyamza applauds the
transformation that has made these spaces accessible since her early 20s. 



A kind of access she had to fight for.&nbsp; 



“Right now, my son does not know that we used to walk while
it was raining to go to ballet classes. We were not dropped off in cars. It was
not easy, it was something you did for love and that is when passion is
created. Because of the different times that we come from, it took me years to
even put my work at the Artscape [Theatre Centre in Cape Town]. You always look
at these differences and not that you are against them, you always just say
‘wow, this is great’.”&nbsp; 



As much as there has been the incorporation of digital
innovation to ease access to dance and performance, the need for live theater
will always be imperative for her.



“There will always be a need for live art because it touches
different parts [of us]. When something is live, you remember the liveness of
it, the body of it. With technology, you can see it [a performance] there and
also have it here, it is easy access but a live body is not easy access and
that is what people forget. You have to go out there, pay money, support and
watch it live because that live memory stays with you,” she says. 



“As artists, it is hard for us to say, ‘here’s my DVD’ and
as artists who perform outside of the country, people ask ‘can you show me
something online?’. I tell them that they can see me online but it is not the
same. It is never the same. It is all about liveness and experiencing it live.”



The upside is that it opens the window of opportunity for
African artists on international stages, which, at times, may pose cultural
barriers.



“By being a solo artist, it has been easy for international
people to get the whole history of South Africa from one artist and you don’t
have to bring the whole [cast of] 80 people to talk about the story. It is easy
because you are in South Africa, you are South African. Your work is South
African. How you do it is up to you because you are an artist and as an artist,
you can interpret your work in any way.



“When showing your work, there is already the assumption
that you are from Africa and you need to do celebratory work or ceremonial work
and if you don’t do that, there is a question of, ‘I did not accept that from
an African woman’. There are so many ways people engage with us as artists
coming from Africa,” Nyamza says. 



At times, it was easier for men to succeed in the industry,
she says. 



“When we came as women, we didn’t entertain too much. There
was an element of [not all men, some], ‘we are men showing six packs and the
body’ and actually giving exactly what the other wants to see. With women, we
came with issues that needed to be interrogated and debated. We provoked things
and sparked some conversations that will stay with people. We were talking
about things that are happening in our country and became the window to our
country.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="927" height="612" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40785" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png.png 927w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png-600x396.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png-768x507.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" /><figcaption> Do I Look Pretty by Chandré Bo at the State Theatre. Picture: Gypseenia Lion </figcaption></figure>



But back home, the locals are still grappling to understand
the art industry, leaving artists like Nyamza with a greater popularity beyond
African shores. Locally, she feels the audiences are not as supportive and open
to attending live shows. 



“At home we don’t have that culture of knowing what is good
and understanding our own artists. It is not something our people have grown up
with. Much like me studying dance was questioned as ‘what else do you do?’
Nobody will know that I am an international artist. They know us
internationally but at home they will ask ‘who is Mamela?’ Not that I want them
to know. I am an artist, I just do my work and it speaks for itself.”&nbsp; 



Looking at the growing interest for ballet-dancing among
black people in South Africa, Nyamza argues that ballet is moving away from the
traditional format of only wearing pink tutus and has become more accessible,
thus allowing locals to make their own interpretations of the artform. However,
the lack of continuity concerns her.



“I always see young black kids doing ballet and then later
on there are none. Where are they? What happened to them? But then again, I
think this situation is because we don’t have many black female dance teachers
who these kids can relate to and aspire to be.” It is a fact most artists and
art managers agree on.



The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative managing and artistic director PJ Sabbagha says the arts are socially marginalized but it is the artist’s responsibility to change the way it is viewed. Through exposure in his community-based work in Mpumalanga, Sabbagha has realized that an appreciation for the arts is increasing. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="924" height="614" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40840" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png.png 924w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png-600x399.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png-768x510.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px" /><figcaption>6&#215;7 Feet Dimension, named after Nelson Mandela&#8217;s prison and the size of the bedroom in Winnie Mandela&#8217;s house, is a play about the love letter they wrote to each other. Picture: Gypseenia Lion</figcaption></figure>



“The art is very alive in communities and so is dance, in
various forms. We still live in a world where people don’t view the arts as
being real. They view it as a hobby or part-time activity. It partly has to do
with the way art has positioned itself and also the way society views the arts,
it has, basically, never really been seen as a real economic driver with
potential for social change. 



“The older generation doesn’t see how people’s lives are
impacted through the arts. They can earn an income and that it can be a
meaningful career or that it can benefit society. Although, things have
changed, the economy in the country does not help; there is less investment in
the arts because we need to save failing infrastructure,” Sabbagha says.



These are nagging concerns to answer. Because the work of
many unknown artists is based on personal impact and interpretation, it becomes
challenging to assess what art in small pockets of the world mean to those
viewing it. Perhaps, the greater question is, what can be done to get people
interested enough to attend an art show? Should it all lay at the feet of
artists or should people be more proactive about who and what they view?

Dance1

‘There Will Always Be A Need For Live Art’

Nine years ago, two unlikely lunch partners sat down at the Hollywood Diner in Omaha, Nebraska. One, Warren Buffett, was a regular there. The other, Jay-Z, was not. The billionaire and the rapper ordered strawberry malts and chatted amiably, continuing the conversation back at Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway offices.



Buffett, then 80, walked away impressed with the artist 40 years his junior: “Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in. For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.” This moment, which was originally captured in our&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1011/rich-list-10-omaha-warren-buffett-jay-z-steve-forbes-summit-interview.html#5c2e29d66480" target="_blank">2010 Forbes 400 package</a>, made it clear that Jay-Z already had a blueprint for his own ten-figure fortune. “Hip-hop from the beginning has always been aspirational,” he said.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/04/01/inside-nipsey-hussles-blueprint-to-become-a-real-estate-mogul/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Inside Nipsey Hussle’s Blueprint To Become A Real Estate Mogul (opens in a new tab)">Inside Nipsey Hussle’s Blueprint To Become A Real Estate Mogul</a>



Less than a decade later, it’s clear that Jay-Z has accumulated a fortune that conservatively totals $1 billion, making him one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire—and the first hip-hop artist to do so. Jay-Z&#8217;s steadily growing kingdom is expansive, encompassing liquor, art, real estate (homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, Tribeca) and stakes in companies like Uber.



His journey is all the more impressive given its start: Brooklyn’s notorious Marcy housing projects. He was a drug dealer before becoming a musician, starting his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, to release his 1996 debut,&nbsp;Reasonable Doubt. Since then he’s amassed 14 No. 1 albums,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/jay-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">22 Grammy awards</a>&nbsp;and over $500 million in pretax earnings in a decade.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf144d6142c500008f463fb/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Forbescover-jay-z-buffett"/></figure>



Crucially, he realized that he should build his own brands rather than promote someone else’s: the clothing line Rocawear, started in 1999 (<a href="https://content.edgar-online.com/ExternalLink/EDGAR/0001144204-07-058548.html?hash=c289c7e04f5c956d46d401084fa3cfcaf2c0db9bcd375e90576f2e974a8a6105&amp;dest=V092473_EX3I_HTM#V092473_EX3I_HTM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold</a>for $204 million to Iconix in 2007); D’Ussé, a cognac he co-owns with Bacardi; and Tidal, a music-streaming service.



Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, the superproducer behind some of Jay-Z’s biggest hits (“<a href="https://tidal.com/browse/video/44153680" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">On To The Next One</a>,” Beyoncé’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nr8hPnZfMU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Upgrade U</a>”), looks at Jay-Z as something others can model: “It’s bigger than hip-hop … it’s the blueprint for our culture. A guy that looks like us, sounds like us, loves us, made it to something that we always felt that was above us.”



“If he’s a billionaire now, imagine what he’s about to be,” Swizz Beatz says. “Because he’s only just starting.”



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/03/02/forbes-five-hip-hops-wealthiest-artists-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018 (opens in a new tab)">The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s Jay-Z Worth?</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">To calculate his net worth, we looked at the artist’s stakes in companies like Armand de Brignac champagne—applying our customary discount to private firms—then added up his income, subtracting a healthy amount to account for a superstar lifestyle. We checked our numbers with a roster of outside experts to ensure these estimates were fair and conservative. Turns out, Jay-Z really is a business, man.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf199a2cd1f12000a2b1a80/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Armand de Brignac</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$310 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19739cd1f12000a2b1a37/960x0.jpg?cropX1=1&amp;cropX2=2635&amp;cropY1=53&amp;cropY2=2195" alt="Armand-de-Brignac-bottles"/></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Jay-Z has used his music to shill the $300 gold bottles of the &#8220;Ace of Spades&#8221; champagne since launching the brand with the 2006 video “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS4U-HAHwps" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Show Me What You Got</a>.&#8221; More recently, his verse on Meek Mill’s “<a href="https://genius.com/Meek-mill-whats-free-lyrics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What’s Free</a>&#8221; put a half-billion-dollar value on the wine, which seems like a bit too bubbly a number.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a06cd1f12000a2b1a86/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cash &amp; investments</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$220 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">A vast investing portfolio includes a stake in Uber worth an estimated $70 million. He&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/07/the-inside-story-of-the-rise-and-rise-of-uber/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;purchased his piece for $2 million back in 2013—and then wired founder Travis Kalanick another $5 million in an attempt to increase his holdings, but was rebuffed.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a269736330008aab875/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">D’Ussé</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$100 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Jay-Z’s cognac, a joint venture with beverage giant Bacardi, moves almost 200,000 cases and has grown nearly 80% annually. “Jay-Z resonates with consumers who are attracted to the ultra-premium lifestyle,&#8221; says Eric Schmidt, Beverage Marketing Corp.’s Director of Alcohol Research.</h3>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tidal</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$100 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In 2015, Jay-Z&nbsp;<a href="http://mb.cision.com/Main/1052/9718782/340280.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">submitted</a>&nbsp;a bid to purchase the Scandinavian streaming service’s parent company for just shy of $60 million. He relaunched Tidal later that year with a roster of celebrity investors including his wife, Beyoncé, and other music luminaries, from Kanye West to Calvin Harris.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a3c9736330008aab87b/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Roc Nation</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$75 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">This wide-ranging entertainment company started over a decade ago as part of a joint venture with concert giant Live Nation. Roc Nation represents some of the top stars in the entertainment through its sports agency (Kevin Durant, Todd Gurley) as well as its record label and artist-management arms (Rihanna, J. Cole).</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a539736330008aab87e/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Music catalog</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$75 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19aaccd1f12000a2b1a9d/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-albums"/></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Before the beginning of his stint as Def Jam’s chief in 2004, Jay-Z&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2010/09/22/jay-zs-50-million-music-box/#1ff867a750de" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">negotiated</a>the eventual return of his master recordings from the aforementioned label that helped launch his career; in a separate deal with EMI, he clawed back his publishing rights. Wise move: his hits now clock close to 1 billion streams annually.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19ad0cd1f12000a2b1aa0/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Art collection</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$70 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In the song &#8220;<a href="https://genius.com/Jay-z-picasso-baby-lyrics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Picasso Baby,</a>&#8221; Jay-Z boasted about a “Basquiat in my kitchen corner.&#8221; He probably wasn&#8217;t kidding. For over a decade, he’s been scooping up masterpieces like Basquiat&#8217;s “Mecca,” purchased in 2013 for a&nbsp;<a href="https://nypost.com/2013/11/20/jay-z-buys-basquiat-painting-for-4-5m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;$4.5 million. &#8220;He&#8217;s rapped about it all in detail,&#8221; says Fab 5 Freddy, a contemporary and friend of the late painter. &#8220;Jay-Z helped educate millions of hip-hop fans mentioning Jean-Michel.&#8221;</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19ae8cd1f12000a2b1aa3/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Real estate</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$50 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf15020142c500008f46713/960x0.jpg?cropX1=392&amp;cropX2=2524&amp;cropY1=40&amp;cropY2=1848" alt="This is the incredible $88 million mansion Jay Z and Beyonce purchased in August 2017, the home has 8 bed, 11 bath and is 30,000 square feet"/><figcaption>CJT/ MEGA/ NEWSCOM</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">After welcoming twins in 2017, Jay-Z and Beyoncé bought a pair of homes to match: a $26 million East Hampton mansion and a $88 million Bel Air estate. Jay-Z also owns a Tribeca penthouse, snagged for $6.85 million in 2004.</h3>



&#8211;Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg;Forbes Staff

gettyimages-911232700-594×594

Artist, Icon, Billionaire: How Jay-Z Created His $1 Billion Fortune

The creator of the notorious&nbsp;Game of Thrones&nbsp;<a href="https://www.change.org/p/hbo-remake-game-of-thrones-season-8-with-competent-writers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">petition</a>&nbsp;calling on HBO to remake the show’s eighth and final season only learned of its success (more than 1.2 million have signed) on Thursday, days after it went viral.



HBO’s high fantasy series&nbsp;Game of Thrones&nbsp;has for years been a juggernaut, giving the network some of its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hbo-season-premiere-ratings-popular-shows-compared-chart-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">highest</a>&nbsp;ratings ever. But the show’s final episodes have drawn the ire of fans and some critics who say the writing has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/game-of-thrones-season-8-backlash" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sloppy</a>&nbsp;and plot points were unearned.



After offhandedly making the petition more than a week ago as a way to vent, Dylan (he declined to give his full name to&nbsp;Forbes), a 30-year-old analyst for a health system in Fort Worth, Texas, hadn’t given it a second thought. That is, until a coworker approached him after work.



“Hey, is this you?” the coworker said.



And that’s how he learned his Change.org petition had blown up. After learning of his newfound internet fame, he provided an online&nbsp;<a href="https://www.change.org/p/hbo-remake-game-of-thrones-season-8-with-competent-writers/u/24572094" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">update</a>, where he told the world that no one from HBO has approached him. He doesn’t reasonably expect HBO to remake anything, he said, but he wants to send a message: he’s disappointed.



In an email exchange with&nbsp;Forbes, here is what Dylan had to say about the petition. Warning: This contains spoilers.



What exactly prompted you to start the petition? You said it was a few days after Episode 4. What in particular were you disappointed by, both in that episode and the next one?



Really it was a combination of Episode 3 and 4’s failures that brought me to the point of writing the petition. There were many, many qualms I had with the episodes, but I’ll mention a couple. The Battle of Winterfell was a strategic disgrace. I mentioned in my long update that the show suffered from “everyone is stupid” syndrome. I’m sure there is a better term for it, but when the plot is intense and dramatic simply because every character involved is an idiot, that is not great writing. You had some of the wisest, most experienced individuals in Westeros all in one room, and THAT was the defense strategy? As for Episode 4 I had many lamentations, but the specific one that made me facepalm the hardest was how Rhaegal died. Easily one of the cheapest deaths of the whole series. I could probably go on for a long time about it, but that’ll do for now.



Have you started other Change.org petitions before?



I have not. I understand that they are normally for more social and humanitarian issues, but maybe this whole thing has drawn more people to the site that can browse these other petitions.



What do you make of the overwhelming response this petition has gotten? And some of the backlash about “entitled fans” and whatnot.



Well in my long update I talked about how I started it and how surprised I was by the response when I checked back in after a week. I was mostly just chuckling at it, taking it lightly, then I learned my parents had contacted news institutions and reporters and I was taken aback. This petition isn’t about me. Any passionate nerd could have written it. Heck I clearly put like the minimum effort into the original post! I have seen a few things calling out the petition and its signers as a whole, but nothing yet that calls me out directly. I guess if we’re entitled, we’re entitled together. I hoped to clear some things up in my update post, but I may have taken too long to put some clarifying words out there.



Did your parents reach out to reporters after you found out the petition had been doing well? Are they fans of the show as well? (Author’s note: I asked this question in a follow up email).&nbsp;



Yeah I had called them on my way home from work after I found out myself, just to say, &#8220;Hey check this out, neat huh?&#8221; They were notably more excited than I was about the &#8220;internet fame&#8221; and started reaching out to reporters on their own. I wasn&#8217;t terribly thrilled about it, but they were excited for me. Yes, I got my parents into the show maybe around season 5 or so&#8230;can&#8217;t remember when, but I introduced everyone in my immediate family to the show.



Has your life changed at all since the petition blew up?



Well since I only learned of its success [Thursday] after work, the only life impact I have experienced so far is a lack of sleep for one night. I think I was too pumped to sleep well last night! I would imagine that after the finale the petition will garner more attention, but we’ll see.



What do you hope to get out of the petition now? I know you said you don’t expect HBO to actually remake Season 8 and that no one from HBO has been in contact with you.



That’s the question isn’t it? Sometimes acknowledgement of the outcry is enough, and decisions are made behind the scenes to adjust for such backlash. I am also one of the somewhat disgruntled&nbsp;Star Wars&nbsp;fans as well – relatively unhappy with the writing of the new trilogy – so seeing D&amp;D (D.B. Weiss and David Benioff) lose their&nbsp;Star Wars&nbsp;contracts might be interesting. I have seen people call for that. I just don’t know why they should be rewarded with another beloved story after what we saw from the end of&nbsp;Thrones, but who knows? If we get a&nbsp;Star Warstrilogy from them that&#8217;s as good as the first few seasons of Thrones, I might be eating my words.



Do you still think&nbsp;Game of Thrones&nbsp;&nbsp;is one of the greatest TV shows of all time?



Absolutely. It is a universal cultural phenomenon. I heard someone once say something along the lines of, “This show shouldn’t even exist. It’s this crazy, convoluted fantasy epic with dragons and zombies and castles and political drama. We should be happy it was brought to us.” That’s some huge paraphrasing, but I do agree with the sentiment. In my long update, I say that D&amp;D deserve praise for their adaptation of the books during the first several seasons of the show. Obviously the praise stops short towards the end of the rushed series.



-Rachel Sandler; Forbes Staff

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This ‘Game of Thrones’ Fan Demands A Rewrite—And 1.2 Million Sign Petition

The award-winning South
African musician Jabulani Hadebe, known as
Sjava, on why he would choose money over pleasure.



1. What sets your music apart?



I always try to make it
different. 



I think most of the time when
people create music, they create it according to what is ‘hot’ and what is
‘popping’; they never really talk about things nobody talks about… 



So I just always try to sit
in my corner and stay true to it. 



2. What specific qualities do you need in order to last in the music industry? 



I think talent and
discipline, in terms of respecting what you do, and being dedicated towards it.
You also need luck and a lot of people don’t believe in that. 



They believe that you create
your luck, but I really believe in luck. 



3. In the future, do you see yourself as a more of businessman or a musician?  



Music is my first love and I
have been doing it professionally since my first album came out in 2016,
however, since then, I have seen and learned a lot of things. 



There have also been many
business opportunities and lessons on how to use money correctly.&nbsp; Branching into business is my new hobby right
now; it has become my obsession.&nbsp; 



4. Why do you think it took you longer to find success in the music industry?



Time. I really believe that
God’s timing is the best, and I thank God every day that it took forever
because I don’t think my music would be what it is today. 



I talk about my experiences,
and how I view things. I don’t think if I made it 10 years ago, I would have
been the same person, and I don’t regret it.



5. What is your philosophy in life?



What keeps me going is not
really caring about what people think of me. I also take things as they come. I
am not the kind of person who says, ‘I see myself, in five years, achieving
this and that&#8230;’



I just take it one step at a
time. Because what if I say, ‘in two years, I want to achieve this’, and it
doesn’t happen, only to find that it is going to happen in the third year? That
would mean I have already been mentally defeated. 



6. What did winning the BET Awards Viewer’s Choice for Best International Act mean to you?



It was crazy. It felt like
they were still rehearsing… I didn’t believe it was real at the time, but it is
what it is. I also didn’t think I would win, because of how expensive data is
in South Africa as compared to other countries on the continent from where
artists were also nominated. I really thought my people wouldn’t have the
resources to help me win. They surprised me and I won, that is why whenever I
see a group of people, I get out of the car, so I can take a picture with the
award, because they helped me get it. 



7. What is more important: money or pleasure? 



I would definitely choose
money. As black people, we have been made to believe that money is not
everything and it cannot buy you love and it can’t bring you happiness, and
that is not true. We need to teach people to like money, and that it is not a
curse. 



I come from poverty, so I
know what I’m talking about. Where I am now, and looking back to where I come
from, my life is better. I might not be as happy as I was then, but my life is
better. So I wouldn’t choose the happy broke life I had. I would rather choose
where I am now, so I can take better care of my family.

SnipImage (10)

Business is my obsession says Sjava

Imagine bringing the best of all academic disciplines, artistic creations, activist experience and health care knowledge to bear on understanding and addressing current health care concerns. Rather than silos of people working in their specific areas of interest, imagine collaborations committed to listening and learning from all participants.



This is the vision of Medical and Health Humanities in Africa. It’s a field that grew out of <a href="https://wiser.wits.ac.za/medical-humanities">the medical </a><a href="https://wiser.wits.ac.za/medical-humanities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="humanities  (opens in a new tab)">humanities </a>in the US and <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/imh/research/">UK</a>. It brings together academics, researchers, practitioners, creative artists, health care seekers and providers.



Essentially, it straddles disciplines and practices in an effort to address health concerns. Artists compose music to open up understandings of health care and specific conditions, such as <a href="https://victoriahume.com/delirium">delirium</a>. Some academics open up new conversations about existing health concerns like <a href="https://uct.academia.edu/CarlaTsampiras">AIDS</a> or use everything from yoga to photography to <a href="https://www.lateralleap.co.za/publications/">observation and drawing</a> to help educate health sciences students. Others pair academics and artists to help young people talk about <a href="https://wellsexuality.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">sex and sexuality</a> or <a href="https://ehwoza.com/">tuberculosis</a>.



At its core, Medical and Health Humanities is about conversations and collaborations between people who are interested in health. This encourages new understanding, practice and knowledge. It also seeks to provide “translators” who can make often complex ideas in science and humanities accessible. They can also use creative arts to change perceptions, frame new questions and direct new discussions that result in more nuanced answers to health issues.



While still a relatively new field on the African continent, it is growing and gaining momentum. The latest milestone is the first English-language special issue of the globally respected&nbsp;<a href="https://mh.bmj.com/">BMJ Medical Humanities Journal</a>&nbsp;to deal exclusively with work on and about medical and health humanities in Africa.



The special issue came out in December 2018. It showcases work from various countries in Africa, among them Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.



The projects profiled in this special issue, and others elsewhere on the continent, reveal the vital role Medical and Health Humanities can play across Africa in bridging the gaps between disciplines to improve people’s experiences of health care.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Beyond disciplinary boundaries</h4>



One of the Medical and Health Humanities projects highlighted in the BMJ’s special edition deals with digital storytelling and antiretroviral adherence in&nbsp;<a href="https://mh.bmj.com/content/44/4/239">KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa</a>. Another article shows how&nbsp;<a href="https://mh.bmj.com/content/44/4/253">opium, thalidomide and contraceptives</a>&nbsp;contributed to the making of modern South Africa.



The projects and articles themselves are, of course, important. But another critical element that must not be overlooked is how the field exemplifies inter-, trans- and multidisciplinary research and practice. It removes people from their disciplinary silos.



This is becoming increasingly important across academia. In the worlds of medicine and health, people often work on similar concerns in familiar ways; in doing so, they miss out on <a href="https://mh.bmj.com/content/41/1/2">new perspectives</a>. Working across disciplines and practices is a way to learn from each other and reflect on how things could be changed for the better.



And, crucially, it creates conversations about how we might improve our collective understanding of health and wellness.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Different forms</h4>



On the African continent, the Medical and Health Humanities community is also trying to do things differently when it comes to how research is conducted and presented.



If a field is genuinely committed to collaboration, collective engagement, building networks and relationships, it must do more than work quickly to “produce measurable outcomes” limited to academic articles. It must spend time building connections that extend beyond one event or “outcome”.



We attempted to do this during the writing of the special issue of the BMJ Medical Humanities journal. We were among a group of practitioners in South Africa who pooled resources from two universities to bring as many people who were working on the special issue together as possible. We wanted to ensure that experienced and emerging writers from multiple disciplines and practices had a chance to benefit from each other’s knowledge and experiences.



A workshop was held in 2017 at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER). Participants came from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Swaziland, South Africa, the UK and Canada and presented and discussed their work.



From this, people put together a range of material for the journal and the <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/">blog</a> linked to the special edition. Some of this material took the form of academic articles; there are also podcasts, photographs, pieces of music, images and poetry.



This allowed us to present creative and academic work in a format that was more accessible to those with digital access and moved beyond academic journals. After all, part of what the field is concerned with is maintaining critical, intellectual rigour while making information available to people in a number of ways. In doing this the field tries to break down some of the barriers that prevent people from sharing work or ideas.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">New networks</h4>



There is more to come for the Medical and Health Humanities field in Africa. A group called the <a href="https://medicalandhealthhumanitiesafrica.wordpress.com/">Medical and Health Humanities Africa network</a>has been established. CODESRIA, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, among others, has been drawn into discussions about growing the field’s networks on the continent. The second conference organised by the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://malawimedhumsnetwork.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Malawi Medical Humanities Network</a> will be held in Zomba, Malawi in August and a workshop in Johannesburg in March called State of Dis-ease will continue these exciting new conversations.



-Carla Tsampiras; Senior Lecturer in Medical Humanities, University of Cape Town



-Nolwazi Mkhwanazi; Senior researcher, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand



&#8211;The Conversation

gettyimages-1042696628-170667a

New Ways Of Thinking On Health, Arts And Humanities Are Emerging In Africa

On a blazingly bright morning at the end of the South By Southwest music and technology conference, Rico Nasty takes the stage at the Fader Fort in Austin as part of a panel discussion—and finds another way to increase her earnings. Clad in a swirly black-and-lime-green jumpsuit, she shows off her threads as cameras flash; after the event, she spends a few moments talking up her outfit.



“I bought it a few days ago, and I’m probably going to wear it once, and there’s going to be a lot of pictures in it,” the 21-year-old rapper says before outlining her plan to sell the jumpsuit on the peer-to-peer shopping app Depop, as she does with most of the clothing she wears in public. “We’ve made like, probably $20 thousand in the past two months.”



Born Maria-Cecilia Simone Kelly in Brooklyn, Rico started rapping in high school before releasing a string of mixtapes. She signed to Atlantic Records and has yet to release her formal debut studio album, but she’s already among music’s most promising up-and-comers, earning her a spot on our list. And with more women like Rico rising up the rap charts, we’re formally changing the name of our ranking to Hip-Hop Cash Princes and Princesses.



The list, presented in full below, comprises the genre’s top ten recording artists and producers under the age of 30 in terms of future earning potential, as judged by an expert panel; no repeats are allowed. This year’s list of judges includes the late Nipsey Hussle,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/03/31/nipsey-hussle-independent-musics-next-mogul/#4da2eb107219" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a 2015 Cash Prince</a>&nbsp;who sent his picks just days before his tragic passing; songwriter and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30/2019/music/#7f9b76294c40" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">30 Under 30</a>&nbsp;honoree Mickey Shiloh; and NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, who found a lot to like about Rico.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cc0b7e44bbe6f4b9c1c8820/960x0.jpg?cropX1=2&amp;cropX2=1198&amp;cropY1=0&amp;cropY2=1196" alt="Rico Nasty"/><figcaption>Rico NastyGETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



“Rico Nasty is one of the best shooting guards in hip-hop right now,” says O’Neal, whose résumé includes careers as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/07/31/how-shaq-became-the-biggest-dj-on-the-planet/#2ffbe2652252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DJ</a>&nbsp;and rapper. “Like a shooting guard, she is able to score in many ways and adapt to the style of play.&nbsp;She is dynamic and always working on her craft, improving&nbsp;her game, updating her sound.”



First, Rico had to work her way off the bench. After moving from New York to Maryland as a child, she started rapping during her teenage years and her mother started working as her manager. For Rico’s first gig, they paid $200 to rent out a performance space, figuring they could more than double that sum by charging $20 per head for tickets. Only six people showed up.



Rico remembers reorganizing her life after that: She moved out of her mother’s house and started working to build her career from the ground up. That meant churning out mixtapes and interacting with her fans on a one-on-one basis—both on social media and in person as she tried her hand at live performances once again around Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.



“I’m bringing them out to the shows, and we’re getting our nails done and shit,” she says, recalling her first efforts to bring fans into her corner. “This is my opportunity to make these people lifelong friends, in a sense.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cc0b81c4bbe6f4b9c1c8851/960x0.jpg?cropX1=0&amp;cropX2=1199&amp;cropY1=0&amp;cropY2=1198" alt="Blueface"/><figcaption>BluefaceGETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



In 2017, Rico’s single “Poppin” took off on YouTube and was featured on HBO’s&nbsp;Insecure; the following year, she signed to Atlantic and released another mixtape,&nbsp;Nasty. Her pay for live shows started to climb in tandem. From her days struggling to top $100 per concert, she zoomed to an average of $7,000 per gig before snagging an estimated $35,000 guarantee for her performance at Coachella last weekend (she wouldn’t confirm the precise amount).



“Five figures,” she says coyly. “That shit feels amazing to say out loud.”



Rico still has ways to go before she gets to the level of the festival’s headliners, whose gigs fetch seven-figure guarantees. In the meantime, she’s working on other ways to extend her brand. In addition to her work with Depop, she recently launched a line of headphones with Skullcandy. And, with the marijuana accessory provider Hemper, she gets a per-unit cut on sales of Rico Nasty-branded bongs, rolling papers and air fresheners.



Says judge Mickey Shiloh of Rico: “Somebody that creates their own lane like this is bound to make waves for the long run.”



<figure><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F_%2Fm53aylm29HQT9WEa7gS5%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2F1p0kymjdzexlnkuexywx27rk15bnqlm1zg0&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6c5afec8-17d1-4fef-a76d-17476e99104f.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram"></iframe></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Hip Hop Cash Princes: Introducing The Class Of 2019</blockquote>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">6LACK</h2>



“6LACK’s tone is completely his own,” says Shiloh. “His songwriting is also what takes his artistry to an entirely new level … it’s like everything you can’t find the words to say, he says effortlessly.”



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie</h2>



The Bronx-born rapper is no stranger to the Cash Princes universe, having collaborated with list of alumni including 21 Savage and Offset of Migos. He’s becoming a star in his own right: A Boogie’s second album,&nbsp;Hoodie SZN, topped the chart shortly after its December 2018 release.



—



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bad Bunny</h2>



The trap rapper blends hip-hop with Reggaeton as seamlessly as he weaves English and Spanish lyrics into wildly popular songs like Cardi B’s “I Like It,” his first U.S. chart-topper. He now grosses more than $500,000 per tour stop.



—



<figure><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-32/html/container.html" width="970" height="250"></iframe></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Blueface</h2>



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/02/28/can-cash-money-the-label-that-launched-drake-and-nicki-minaj-strike-platinum-again/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cash Money Records</a>&nbsp;signee rose to prominence with his smash song “Thotiana”—from his 2018 mixtape&nbsp;Famous Cryp­—which has climbed to No. 8 on the U.S. singles charts. He was a top pick from Nipsey Hussle; both stars have crossed gang lines to record with Cash Princes alum YG.



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Juice Wrld</h2>



Five questions with the Chicago-born “Lucid Dreams” hip-hop star:



Forbes: What was your first job?&nbsp;“Factory job creating car parts.”



What’s the app you can’t live without?&nbsp;“Soundcloud.”



How many hours per week do you work now?&nbsp;“168.”



Worst advice you’ve received?&nbsp;“To change my style of music in order to try and be more popular.”



What is your greatest achievement?&nbsp;“I haven’t reached it yet.”



<figure><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F_%2FVJlSEumS6SG8BTJwF1f6%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2F1px212d9np7620hqn6mkvmplymcn555z5ml&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6d7c7145-09ec-48cb-8ef6-91a0f292ec22.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram"></iframe></figure>



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Lil Baby</h2>



The Atlanta-born emcee is already accumulating princely numbers: His 2018 debut,&nbsp;Harder Than Ever, earned gold certification for sales of more than 500,000 units. He now grosses over $70,000 per tour stop.



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Gunna</h2>



The Georgia native got started with the help of Cash Princes alum Young Thug, whose YSL label co-released Gunna’s studio debut&nbsp;Drip Or Drown—which soared to No. 3 on the&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;charts—in February. His single “Drip Too Hard,” with listmate Lil Baby, earned triple-platinum certification.



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Russ</h2>



Five questions with the hip-hop star who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/12/07/at-26-hip-hop-star-russ-is-earning-15m-a-yearand-showing-how-to-succeed-in-music-now/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">earned</a>&nbsp;$15 million last year:



Forbes: What was your first job?&nbsp;“Busboy.”



What’s the app you can’t live without?&nbsp;“Uber Eats.”



How many hours per week do you work?&nbsp;“168.”



Worst advice you’ve ever received?&nbsp;“Be realistic.”



What’s your greatest achievement?&nbsp;“Being in a place where I can take care of my family.”Play Video



Russ: How I Maintained Control Over My Music | 30 Under 30 2019| 3:05



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rico Nasty</h2>



“I’ve never heard anything like what comes out of Rico Nasty’s mouth,” says Shiloh. “She’s trap, she’s urban, but she’s also rock with hints of screamo … somebody that creates their own lane like this is bound to make waves for the long run.”



—



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tierra Whack</h2>



With a quirky tone and thoughtful visuals, the Philadelphia upstart made her major-label debut last year at Interscope with the critically acclaimed&nbsp;Whack World. The social-media-friendly album featured 15 one-minute songs. She earned a Grammy nomination in the Best Music Video category this year for her 2017 single “Mumbo Jumbo.”



—



<figure><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F_%2FSg6h6E0CozNJv08bzZZB%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2F1pgpd9jj1p6l1yc93266mzpy17iwn0xkww1&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3.amazonaws.com%2F22422677-26f0-4b08-86ea-33f9dfb620fb.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram"></iframe></figure>



—



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Methodology</h3>



Our list of Hip-Hop’s Cash Princes and Princesses ranks the genre’s top ten recording artists and producers under age 30 in terms of future earning potential. No repeats are allowed. This year, the honorees were selected by a panel of five judges: Nipsey Hussle, the late&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/03/31/nipsey-hussle-independent-musics-next-mogul/#4da2eb107219" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2015 Cash Prince</a>&nbsp;who sent in his picks just days ahead of his untimely passing; 30 Under 30 honoree and songwriter Mickey Shiloh; basketball legend and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/07/31/how-shaq-became-the-biggest-dj-on-the-planet/#2638d60c2252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">professional DJ</a>&nbsp;Shaquille O’Neal; and&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;editors Zack O’Malley Greenburg and Natalie Robehmed.



-Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg; Forbes Staff

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Hip-Hop Cash Princes And Princesses: The Class Of 2019

The globally-popular Naomi Campbell was in Durban, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal, for the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA 2019 Leading Women Summit, to talk about her abiding interest and investment in the African continent.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



As a supermodel who&nbsp;
has scaled stratospheric heights in fashion, Naomi Campbell has graced
global runways and magazine covers, so when she came calling in Durban for a
FORBES WOMAN AFRICA event, the anticipation was bigger than any cover shoot we
have ever done.



For the 2019 Leading Women Summit held in the coastal South
African city for the first time on International Women’s Day, the British-born
supermodel, activist, philanthropist and cultural innovator exuded her
signature grace and glamor in a sea-blue Marianne Fassler dress.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 



In 2017, Campbell was named contributing editor of British Vogue by its&nbsp; Editor-in-Chief, Edward Enninful. 



When I complimented her March 2019 cover for British Vogue, she said, considerately: “I wish I could have brought you one, I could have grabbed a copy for you from the airport [in London] yesterday.”



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/03/08/naomi-campbell-africa-is-one-of-the-leading-continents-in-the-world/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Naomi Campbell: Africa Is One Of The Leading Continents In The World (opens in a new tab)">Naomi Campbell: Africa Is One Of The Leading Continents In The World</a>



Campbell caught her break as a fashion model when she was
just 15 years old, and has featured in advertising campaigns for luxury houses
including Burberry, Prada, Dolce &amp; Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton,
Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino. 



Beyond her work in fashion, she has used her celebrity for fundraising and non-profit initiatives across the globe. In 1997, South African President Nelson Mandela named Campbell an “honorary granddaughter” for her activism. She also now has a YouTube channel, Being Naomi. 



Campbell aims to integrate African and international luxury
markets “bringing storied retailers to countries such as Nigeria, South Africa
and Morocco, as well as introducing African artists to global audiences”.



“The strongest woman I have met come from Africa,” she told
an audience of 500 during an on-stage interview at the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA
Leading Women Summit. 



“There’s many great women. I was very blessed and lucky to meet Miriam Makeba when I came to South Africa. I didn’t know her story but it was just her presence. Then Winnie Mandela… I met many powerful and strong women with inner strength and I am very much attracted to women with strength. You learn from them, you take from them, you observe them and how they speak. I have always considered myself a work-in-progress.” 



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/03/13/in-pictures-leading-women-summit-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="IN PICTURES | Leading Women Summit 2019 (opens in a new tab)">IN PICTURES | Leading Women Summit 2019</a>



She added: “For me, modeling has been a blessing in my life.
I am very grateful. It led me to meet the most amazing people. Where I am at in
my life today, is to use the almost 33 years that I have been in this business
to help make awareness, to open the minds to the brands that I work with and
have worked with all these years. 



“They need to come to this continent, not just come in and
out and take, but [invest] in the infrastructure and make a commitment to the
communities in Africa.” 



A day before the event, when FORBES AFRICA caught up with
Campbell, and before settling down for our brief interview, she began with a
disarming: “What do you think is a good restaurant to go to in Durban?”



“I am tired but excited,” she had laughed. More from the
exclusive interview: 



You have said that you are investing in communities and infrastructure in Africa. Can you tell us more about your Africa plans?



My plans are to start serving my industry, brands and the continent. And seeing that we are such big consumers [of brands] in the rest of the world, yet we don’t have it ourselves on the continent… And it’s what works in all businesses, like fashion, architecture and technology. We are big influencers so why don’t we have these things? It’s mind-blowing, so now is the time. 



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/03/11/the-businesses-of-the-future-20-new-wealth-creators-on-the-african-continent/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Businesses Of The Future: 20 New Wealth Creators On The African Continent (opens in a new tab)">Businesses Of The Future: 20 New Wealth Creators On The African Continent</a>



You are working a lot with African designers?



I want to take them out into the western world and bring the
western world in&#8230; so vice versa.



Are African designers in demand in the West?



Yes, because of the textiles. I don’t want to see that their
textiles are copied and they don’t get credit for what they have done. 



For me, the workmanship, the textiles, this is what we need
to keep on the continent. We cannot allow other brands and designers from the
West to come in and take your textiles. 



What are some of your best memories of Nelson Mandela since your first meeting in 1993?



I have many great memories here in South Africa, and undoubtedly
always with ‘grandad’, when he would send me out to the people, to different
townships and villages and just put things in perspective for me. 



Yes, I was coming from a fashion background, but I am a
human being too and coming from a middleclass family, it’s something you feel
to do, it’s not something anyone can push you to do. I am not sure what he saw
in me and thought that I could do it, but I really love him and miss him.



Lending your celebrity to important causes, you have worked for global health, women’s rights etc… is there any passion project that you are working on right now?



My passion project is Africa. It is such a beautiful rich
culture, with minerals and so many natural resources. 



The narrative and perception also have to change. It is
understood in the wrong way.&nbsp; 



All through your career, how have you managed to be so versatile across diverse industries?



There’s no plan to me, I just do what I feel. I [go with]
gut instinct really of each thing I commit myself to doing, and I always follow
through.



Where do you see yourself in five years?



Hopefully, in the continent of Africa. 



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/01/04/the-material-of-life-according-to-textile-queen-nike-davies-okundaye/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">The material of life according to textile queen Nike Davies-Okundaye</a>



What’s it like being a contributing editor on British Vogue?



It’s great working with Edward Enniful and fun to be an
editor. I travel anyway but I get to travel and interview people from all walks
of life. 



It’s interesting to hear other people’s lives, their
experiences, strengths and their hopes to get them on their journey. It’s not
really like interviews but more conversational. 



What is the best part of being an African woman in the 21st century?



African women have always been extremely strong. On the
African continent, people are really smart… I have always had high respect for
them. 



They are so smart and educated, and yet what do they do with
it once they have got it, and this is where it needs to change.

naomi-lr

Naomi Campbell Has Big Plans For Africa

Trumpeter, flugelhorn-player, singer, composer and activist Hugh Ramapolo Masekela has passed away last year after a long battle with prostate cancer.



When he cancelled his appearance in 2017 at the Johannesburg Joy of Jazz Festival, taking time out to deal with his serious health issues, fans were forced to return to his recorded opus for reminders of his unique work. Listening through that half-century of disks, the nature and scope of the trumpeter’s achievement becomes clear.



Masekela had two early horn heroes.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="380" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/gettyimages-141835647-594x594.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-40054" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/gettyimages-141835647-594x594.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/gettyimages-141835647-594x594-300x192.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>SOUTH AFRICA -DECEMBER 28 : Legendary South African singer Miriam Makeba with fellow musician and ex-husband Hugh Masekela. (Photo by Gallo Images/ Avusa)</figcaption></figure>



The first was part-mythical: the life of jazz great&nbsp;Bix Biederbecke&nbsp;filtered through Kirk Douglas’s acting and Harry James’s trumpet, in the 1950 movie&nbsp;“Young Man With A Horn”. Masekela saw the film as a schoolboy at the Harlem Bioscope in Johannesburg’s Sophiatown. The erstwhile chorister resolved “then and there to become a trumpet player”.



The second horn hero, unsurprisingly, was&nbsp;Miles Davis. And while Masekela’s accessible, storytelling style and lyrical instrumental tone are very different, he shared one important characteristic with the American: his life and music were marked by constant reinvention. As Davis reportedly said:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">I don’t want to be yesterday’s guy.</blockquote>



Much has already been written about Masekela’s life and its landmarks: playing in the Huddleston Jazz Band in the 1950s on a horn donated by Louis Armstrong; performing in the musical&nbsp;“King Kong”&nbsp;in the 1960s and at the Guildhall and then Manhattan schools of music with singer&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/miriam-makeba">Miriam Makeba</a>; US pop successes in the 1970s and then touring Paul Simon’s&nbsp;“Graceland”&nbsp;in the 80s and 90s.



What is less discussed is the&nbsp;music, and the innovative imagination he has periodically applied to draw it fresh from the flames.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Breaking new ground</h4>



The Huddleston band, plus time as sideman and in stage shows, were the traditional career path for a young musician. But then Masekela broke his first new ground. With fellow originals, including saxophonist&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/kippie-jeremiah-moeketsi">Kippie Moeketsi</a>, pianist&nbsp;<a href="https://abdullahibrahim.co.za/">Abdullah Ibrahim</a>&nbsp;and trombonist&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jonas-mosa-gwangwa">Jonas Gwangwa</a>, as&nbsp;The Jazz Epistles&nbsp;they cut the first LP of modern African jazz in South Africa.



“Jazz Epistle: Verse One”&nbsp;(1960) featured band compositions marked by challenging improvisation – “a cross between mbaqanga and bebop”.&nbsp;Mbaqanga&nbsp;is form of South African township jive and&nbsp;bebop&nbsp;an American jazz style developed in the 1940s.



Masekela had also joined the pit band and worked as a copyist for South Africa’s first black musical, “King Kong”.



This exposure attracted attention to his talent from potential patrons at home and abroad. Pushed by the horrors of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/sharpeville-massacre-21-march-1960">Sharpeville massacre</a>when the South African police shot and killed 69 people on 21 March 1960, and pulled by donated air-tickets and scholarships, Masekela left for London, and then New York.



In the next two decades, Masekela’s re-visioning of his music took many forms. He found America hard, but with wife Miriam Makeba (the marriage lasted from 1964 &#8211; 1966), the production skills of Gwangwa, and the support of American singer&nbsp;Harry Belafonte&nbsp;he proactively introduced audiences to South African music and the destruction of apartheid.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="925" height="612" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Hugh.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40056" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Hugh.png 925w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Hugh-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Hugh-600x397.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Hugh-768x508.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 925px) 100vw, 925px" /><figcaption> Jazz legend Dorothy Masuka, who died on 23 February 2019 attends Hugh Masekela&#8217;s memorial service. At the back is Sibongile Khumalo. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla </figcaption></figure>



On the ironically titled 1966 live&nbsp;“Americanisation of Ooga Booga”, he demonstrated the creative possibilities of “township bop”. Masekela did this by mashing up repertoire and playing styles from the South Africa he had left and the America he had landed in.



But he was also looking in other directions: in collaborations with other African musicians; towards fusion (with&nbsp;The Crusaders), rock (with&nbsp;The Byrds) and even pop at the&nbsp;Monterey Pop, festival.



That list captures only a fraction of his projects in the 1960s. Some bore instant fruit: his 1968 single,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=8369">“Grazin’ In the Grass”</a>, topped the Billboard Hot 100 list and sold four million copies; the previous year’s “Up Up and Away” became an instant standard.



In 1971, he teamed up with Gwangwa and Caiphus Semenya for another pan-African vision:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/hugh-masekela-the-union-of-south-africa-mw0000625550">The Union of South Africa</a>. In 1972 he explored a stronger jazz orientation on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/home-is-where-the-music-is-mw0000789812">“Home is Where The Music Is”</a>&nbsp;with, among others, sax player&nbsp;<a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dudu-pukwana-mn0000210863/biography">Dudu Pukwana</a>, bassist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/eddie-gomez-mn0000794244">Eddie Gomez</a>, keyboardist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/larry-willis-mn0000114935/biography">Larry Willis</a>&nbsp;and Semenya.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Sixties counterculture</h4>



But as the title of “Grazin’ In the Grass” suggests, Masekela was also bewitched by other aspects of Sixties counterculture. He dated his addiction back to the alcohol-focused social climate of his early playing years in South Africa, but by the early Seventies he admitted:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">I had destroyed my life with drugs and alcohol and could not get a gig or a band together. No recording company was interested in me…</blockquote>



That depression inspired the song that achieved genuinely iconic status back home in South Africa: the 1974 reflection on migrant labour,&nbsp;“Stimela/Coal Train”.



Foreign critics have handed that status to other Masekela songs, such as “Soweto Blues”, “Gold” or the much later “Bring Him Back Home”. Yet powerful though those are, it is Stimela, with its slow-burning steam-piston rhythm that captured the hearts of South Africans in struggle back home, and still does today. And of course the lyrics:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">There’s a train that comes from Namibia and Malawi /there’s a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe/ from Angola and Mozambique…</blockquote>



Masekela said:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">For me songs come like a tidal wave … At this low point, for some reason, the tidal wave that whooshed in on me came all the way from the other side of the Atlantic: from Africa; from home.</blockquote>



Shortly afterwards, Masekela headed off to Ghana, hooked up with&nbsp;Hedzoleh Soundz, and was soon back in the charts. “Stimela” received its first outing on the album&nbsp;“I Am Not Afraid”, with West African and American co-players including pianist&nbsp;Joe Sample.



By the mid ‘80s, the hornman was back in southern Africa, recording&nbsp;“Technobush”&nbsp;at the mobile&nbsp;Shifty Studio&nbsp;in Botswana, and performing for the Medu Arts Ensemble with a Botswanan/South African band,&nbsp;Kalahari. His music shifted again: roots mbaqanga came strongly to the fore to speak simply and directly to people now openly battling the apartheid regime just across the border.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Returning home</h4>



After liberation and his return home, Masekela once more chose fresh directions. In 1997 he banished his addictions and began to showcase the virtuoso player he could have been 30 years earlier without the distractions of the West Coast. He fronted big European jazz bands, and benchmarked a long musical friendship with Larry Willis with the magisterial&nbsp;Friends.



But his shrewd ear for the music of today, rather than yesterday, also took him into younger company. He collaborated with current stars – including singer&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thandiswa.com/">Thandiswa Mazwai</a>&nbsp;– often encouraging them to take centre stage. Just before the recurrence of his cancer, he was&nbsp;planning&nbsp;a festival collaboration with rapper Riky Rick.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="475" height="594" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/gettyimages-99309818-594x594.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-40055" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/gettyimages-99309818-594x594.jpg 475w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/gettyimages-99309818-594x594-300x375.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/gettyimages-99309818-594x594-240x300.jpg 240w" sizes="(max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK &#8211; AUGUST 20: South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela poses for a portrait on August 20, 1968 in New York City, New York. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



To cap the transformation, the individualistic rebel of the 60s and 70s became an elder statesman of social activism. In 2001, he established a&nbsp;foundation&nbsp;to help other musicians escape addiction. Once more he foregrounded the music of continental Africa, to campaign against xenophobia. And the return of his own illness became the cue to&nbsp;exhortother men to get checked for prostate cancer.



Other South African musicians have succeeded overseas; many have made one mid-career image switch – but few have shown us, in only one person but more than 30 albums, so many of the faces and possibilities of South African jazz.



Hugh Masekela, musician, activist. Born: 4 April 1939; Died: 23 January 2018



-Gwen Ansell; Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science, University of Pretoria



-The Conversation



<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86414/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important">

Remembering Hugh Masekela: the horn player with a shrewd ear for music of the day

The tattered stretch of West Slauson Avenue just off Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles isn’t the first place you’d expect to see a Cadillac Escalade roll up and deliver a Grammy-nominated musician. At the tiny strip mall on the south side of the street, storefronts include an off-brand taco joint, a Boost Mobile outlet and an accountant’s office advertising same-day tax refund advances up to $6,000.



This is where Nipsey Hussle decided to spend a recent Friday morning, and for good reason. His Marathon Clothing store, which peddles Crenshaw hoodies alongside his own music, occupies the corner of the L-shaped plaza. His history here goes back even further—in fact, it’s where he got his name.



“Before we was renting here, I was hustling in this parking lot,” says Nipsey, 33, born Ermias Asghedom. “It&#8217;s just always been a hub for local entrepreneurs.”



Change is coming to Crenshaw, and Nipsey is aiming to be on its bleeding edge: This month, Nipsey and business partner Dave Gross swooped in to pay “a couple million” for the plaza. Within 18 months or so, they’ll knock everything down and rebuild it as a six-story residential building atop a commercial plaza where a revamped Marathon store will be the anchor tenant.



In the meantime, a light rail line is rising to link Crenshaw—which, crucially, qualifies as a tax-advantaged Opportunity Zone—to Los Angeles International Airport and other key nodes of sprawling Southern California. The plaza will be among the first to benefit: There&#8217;s a brand-new train station under construction just steps away.



Nipsey may not be hip-hop&#8217;s biggest name, but he’s certainly among the genre&#8217;s most entrepreneurial. His slow-burn career started to catch fire six years ago when Nipsey offered 1,000 copies of his mixtape Crenshaw for $100 apiece—Jay-Z bought 100 copies—and rolled the profits into his label, All Money In. He released just 100 copies of a subsequent offering, Mailbox Money, with a price tag of $1,000.



“[Nipsey] was not trying to be independent just for the sake of it, but thinking about the benefits of being an independent artist,” says Chris Lyons, who has known Nipsey for several years and runs Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund, which counts Nas and Diddy as investors. “The most important thing is his ability to just see where future trends are going and not being afraid to pioneer.”



For Nipsey, the hustle started at home. He grew up down the road from the plaza, in what he calls “the worst house on the best block,” cutting grass and shining shoes to make extra cash as a kid before falling in with local gangs. Fortunately, his musical role models were entrepreneurs as well, offering a way out of a dead-end path.



Dr. Dre, from nearby Compton, built Death Row Records into one of the most influential labels in hip-hop history before eventually shifting focus to his namesake headphone line. Watching Dre from up close and moguls like Jay-Z and Diddy from afar gave Nipsey &#8220;the blueprint of what could be done with the platform of being a successful rap artist,&#8221; he says.



Nipsey started putting out mixtapes in 2005; on one of his early songs, Hussle In The House, he made sure to include a few financial lessons of his own. &#8220;Straight off the block, I sold dope to buy groceries,&#8221; he rapped. &#8220;Now it&#8217;s rap money, no advance, it&#8217;s all royalties.&#8221; Nipsey also prophetically flicked at his future Opportunity Zone gambit: &#8220;Pay taxes to these corners and put in work, it&#8217;s a policy.&#8221;



For his first music video, he wanted to do something that both represented his hometown and offered a path to earnings beyond music. Leafing through an old yearbook, he noticed a picture of local legend Darryl Strawberry in a vintage Crenshaw High School baseball jersey. Nipsey ordered a batch of throwback blue-and-yellow shirts with “Crenshaw” scripted across the front to wear in the shoot.



When the video ended up on MTV, scores of people started asking about “Crenshaw Clothing.” Nipsey had other ideas. A friend had given him a book called The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing, packed with Procter &amp; Gamble case studies. As Nipsey ruminated on these lessons in the context of his own journey, the word “Marathon” came to him—it had more potential, he thought, than Crenshaw, a location most people couldn’t place on a map.



Nipsey flirted with major labels, signing with Epic but leaving in 2010—with his catalog intact—after a management change left his official debut album in limbo. While continuing his prolific mixtape output, he became obsessed with the notion of social currency, prompting the release of his $100 mixtape in 2013.



“I believe that economics is based on scarcity of markets,” he told Forbes at the time. “And it’s possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.”



Meanwhile, Nipsey continued to give away other mixtapes to satiate his fans, who in turn supported him by buying concert tickets and merchandise. He turned down new record deals because the labels all seemed to want a piece of his burgeoning broader business.



He didn’t need the cash, thanks to his ancillary income and his TuneCore catalog, which was earning him monthly royalty checks in the low six figures. After a couple of years, though, Nipsey had built up a good amount of leverage. He decided to cut a deal with Atlantic that enabled him to make Victory Lap, his official major label debut.



“It&#8217;s a partnership. … I shook hands and said I wouldn&#8217;t give full details, but we’re sharing everything: profit, masters,” he says. “I was holding out for a long time for these terms.”



Nominated for Best Rap Album at this year&#8217;s Grammy Awards, the record paired his rapidly improving socioeconomic status with a career-long message of fiscal responsibility. In one verse, he blustered about Benzes and Bentleys—and touted his trust accounts alongside the &#8220;million-dollar life insurance on my flesh.&#8221;



At the same time, Nipsey was looking for other ways to expand his empire. He met Gross, a private-equity and real-estate investor, courtside at a Lakers game several years ago. (“We started drinking tequila,” says Nipsey. “By the third quarter, we was more friendly.”) They bonded over Gross’s idea for an inner-city co-working space now known as Vector90.



They eventually teamed up to buy the plaza on West Slauson, currently zoned for buildings that max out at 40 units. Nipsey and Gross are aiming for 100 units, which requires a lengthy entitlement process, so they’ve been working with the city and local council members on the details—hence the long timeline. And they’re building smart.



Buried in the tax overhaul of 2017 is a provision to encourage investment in state-designated low-income enclaves known as Opportunity Zones. Under the law, investors can shift capital gains into institutions located in these areas, where the capital is taxed at a reduced rate; new opportunity investments can grow tax-free.



There are basically no limits on the amount of money that can be plowed into an Opportunity Zone or the amount of tax that can be avoided. Is it possible the program is excessively business-friendly? Not for its ambitious goals, backers say.



&#8220;The incentive needs to be powerful enough that it can unlock large amounts of capital, aggregate that capital into funds and force the funds to invest in distressed areas,&#8221; billionaire Sean Parker told Forbes last year. &#8220;Instead of having government hand out pools of taxpayer dollars, you have savvy investors directing money into projects they think will succeed.&#8221;



Parker was part of a diverse group of Opportunity Zone proponents that included Senators Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Republican, and Cory Booker of New Jersey, a Democrat. Like Parker, they argue that bold moves are necessary to fix entrenched ills: To qualify for the program, an area must have a median household income 80% less than nearby neighborhoods&#8217; or a poverty rate of at least 20%.



Gross and Nipsey saw a perfect fit for Crenshaw.



“This is the quintessential Opportunity Zone investment,” says Gross. “The law is supposed to support ground-up entrepreneurship, giving opportunities and jobs to all communities and improving the neighborhood.”



The purchase of the plaza also marks the beginning of a coalition called Our Opportunity—led by Gross, with Nipsey as a founding partner—that will aim to team with local legends in 10 cities as part of a broader Opportunity Zone-based fund. From there, Nipsey envisions building a tax-advantaged lifestyle empire, all linking back to his music.



“The vision is to launch franchises,” says Nipsey, imagining a line of The Marathon Clothing stores, barbershops, fish markets, restaurants. “There&#8217;s such a narrative to this parking lot—that&#8217;s a part of my story as an artist.”



-Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg; Forbes Staff

61st Annual Grammy Awards – Arrivals

Inside Nipsey Hussle’s Blueprint To Become A Real Estate Mogul

If distinctive architecture marks a great city, then, Nairobi, chief among the great capitals of the continent, has plenty to appreciate. Unfortunately, faced with the urgent needs of development, the preservation of its historical buildings has often been overlooked.&nbsp; 



Nairobi, as some may know it, presents a bewildering range
of architectural styles. Influences conflict from religion and the decadence of
imperial culture to the studied modernism of post-independence and the
synthesized futurism of late. 



Yet, even in this dazzling array of constructed expression,
the city’s architecture will not be recommended by many, if any, of its locals.




One might notice that a lot of the older buildings, some
survived from the colonial era and others erected in the fleeting euphoria of
post-independence, are taken for granted. Their relevance now narrowly defined
by current occupants and not by what they were and how they came to be.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="434" height="616" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nairobi2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39897" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nairobi2.png 434w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nairobi2-300x426.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nairobi2-211x300.png 211w" sizes="(max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px" /><figcaption> Nairobi Kenya architecture. Picture: Getty </figcaption></figure></div>



The more anonymous international-style towers made of glass
and steel that define the city skyline enjoy more frequent limelight, locating
the ambitions of a modern African city in an increasingly globalized world.



This attitude has been explained by a popular theory
frequently offered in the niche but studied debate within Kenyan architecture.
One that often dominates any headline to do with the designs of the capital.



Evelyne Wanjiku, an aficionado of African architecture and
co-author of a book on the history of Nairobi’s buildings, lambasted the tastes
of her fellow countrymen as a crisis in the city’s property fashions.



“Buildings in Nairobi are a testimony to the influences of
various industrialized countries. A walk around the city reveals buildings of
British, Indian, and even Dutch influence,” she notes in a particularly
disgruntled article in one of the papers of record, Daily Nation.



Beyond the alien persuasions of the Nairobi skyline, she
says that even the well-to-do homeowners in the country reinforce this pattern
through the “Victorian houses or fancy Tuscany structures” that they have built
for themselves.



The assertion is heavy. Kenyans as, consumers of
architecture, are all too willing to be swayed by those of an ‘imported
culture’. 



The reality, however, is a lot more complex.



In just a number of decades, Nairobi has spread, from its
traditional center, to a sprawling network of settlements. In this frantic
urbanization, the designs of architecture have been subordinate to the needs of
development; conditions that the discipline has traditionally tried to avoid. 



This phenomenon inspired a tangent in a conversation with Dr
Bitange Ndemo, a popular newspaper columnist and professor at the University of
Nairobi in Kenya. 



“The beef I have&#8230; is that once we are all dead, nobody
will say that architecture existed in Kenya!” he laments.



To those new to the argument, the beef is two-fold. 



Nairobi’s history is quietly disappearing. Some of it
claimed in a recent spate of demolitions such as those of the colonial-era
bungalows in and around the neighborhoods of Kileleshwa and the famous Kariokor
Estate, home to the African porters of the ‘Carrier Corps’ during the first
World War.&nbsp;&nbsp; 



Their replacements, brutally modern apartment blocks,
allegedly erected for immediate commercial return that the professor, and other
proponents, maintain, do not redefine these areas in any language but instead
deprive them of all identity. Worse still, with average rental prices per month
averaging upwards of $800, only a small slice of the city’s inhabitants can now
afford to call these places home. 



Nairobi, often dubbed as the ‘green city in the sun’, has a
storied history which is told rather vividly through its buildings. 



Founded at the turn of the 20th century, as a depot on the
Uganda Railway, it quickly rose to prominence as a trading post in what would
become British East Africa. It was the industrial center of the country’s
colonial economy &#8211; the main artery in the trade of coffee, sisal and tea.
Eventually, in 1907, it was declared the capital of that region of the British
Empire, a title furtively snatched from the bordering town of Machakos.



As such, Nairobi’s architecture cleverly accommodates the country’s diverse indigenous and settled cultures along with their individual histories.



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Even today, monumental buildings, commissioned by the colonial
government of the day, show a pride in Kenya’s position within the empire.
Designed by a ‘rebel’ architect from the British School of the Arts in Rome,
Parliament House, the home of the country’s legislature, is not a carbon copy
of its archetype as was intended. Instead, it is a cheerful interpretation of
Westminster, showered by the equatorial sun and in constant conversation with
the towering palm trees around it.



The South Asian community, among the city’s early settlers,
is responsible for a large part of the architectural kitsch. Forming the&nbsp; bulk of Nairobi’s established merchant class,
they have left an indelible stamp in the Art Deco styles prominent in some of
the older downtown blocks such as Nanak House, which resembles a distant cousin
of London’s Commonwealth House on New Oxford Street. An example of the generous
extravagance of 1930s design, it is today better known for the upmarket hair
salon on its first floor, than the conditions that inspired it.



While overshadowed by a clustering of modern towers, Jamia
Mosque, in the center of town, is a beautiful specimen of Islamic architecture
in the Arab tradition typical of the period of its construction, the first
decade of the 20th century. Now a central place of worship for Nairobi’s sizable
Muslim population, it is also well known for the businesses that have sprung
from it, including an eponymous shopping mall several yards away.



Even as antiquated foreign fashions identify some of its
streets, there are vernacular interpretations of them shrouded in the edifices
of Nairobi. The Catholic Parish of St. Austin’s, at the edge of the middle
class Lavington suburb, is a glorious showpiece of Gothic Revival with an
African accent. 



With its colossal mabati (corrugated iron) and timber roof
trusses, it is a firm favorite of Ndemo.



“I get satisfaction from good architectural design&#8230; and if
you go inside [the church], you can feel that someone put their thoughts
together to do this,” he says. 



The preservation of these Kenyan relics is not a recent
concern. There is, in fact, a government agency dedicated to this crucial
mandate at the National Museums of Kenya. However, for many of these buildings,
the costs of safeguarding them for posterity far outweigh those of constructing
anew. 



Perhaps no one in the country is more aware of this conflict
than the Head of the Directorate of Antiquities, Sites and Monuments, Dr Purity
Kiura. While adamant that the task of preservation, in an effort to conserve
history and memory in Kenya is important, she insists that there are other
factors that weigh the equation.



“There is agriculture, there is education, there is health&#8230;and all of these are competing with other needs for the nation so monuments are not a priority,” she says. 



She does admit that attitudes are slowing changing. With so
many of the buildings in need of protection poignant reminders of a difficult
period in the country’s past, the need to conserve them is often set against
embittered sentiment. 



A younger cosmopolitan population, a few generations removed
from that time, lends a more sympathetic ear to the obligations of
architectural conservation.



&nbsp;“We are starting to
see a more positive response&#8230; they seem to be understanding their history and
accepting that history,” she continues.



Outside of public office, there has also been, in response,
a modest movement building. Sometime in 2013, the Architectural and Heritage
Advisory Committee (AHAC) was convened. The group, comprised of an eclectic mix
of brand name architects, lay enthusiasts, a prominent journalist and an
architect-turned-photographer, set out to protect Nairobi’s built heritage. 



Its architect, an economist by trade, Aref Adamali, was
compelled to organize it after returning home in 2008. Having lived in some of
the world’s great architectural cities, among them New York and London, he was
met with a fast-changing metropolis in the midst of a property boom.



To him, these developments were not convincing evidence that
it was heading in the right direction. 



“We were losing older buildings&#8230; not just old colonial
buildings made of stone but [some] from the ’60s and ’70s with
post-independence modernist architecture and even cool buildings from the
’80s&#8230; that we could [never] recover,” he recalls.



After a number of conversations, Adamali began the
initiative that would form AHAC. Looking to avoid the taxing listing procedures
of the National Museums, they took their campaign to the interwebs.



“Listing can be contentious [so] we decided not to take the
regulatory approach&#8230; our interest was in casting our net further than the
city center and into the neighborhoods that were quickly changing,” he
explains.



The result was an online poll open to all of Nairobi and a
blog cataloging the capital’s aging architectural gems. After a period of
voting, AHAC compiled a list of 50 of the city’s most treasured historical
properties informed by a broad spectrum of its residents. They also
collaborated with local artists and photographers to immortalize these
structures in exhibitions that appealed to the greater public.



The committee is still contemplating a longer term approach
but they do have a few ideas.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="433" height="617" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nairobi3.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39898" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nairobi3.png 433w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nairobi3-300x427.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nairobi3-211x300.png 211w" sizes="(max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px" /><figcaption>Nairobi Kenya architecture. Picture: Getty</figcaption></figure></div>



“We’d want the owners of these buildings to be, in effect,
the unofficial custodians of them,” Adamali proposes. 



Some of the buildings that feature on the list include some
of Nairobi’s most photographed landmarks like the iconic Kenyatta International
Conference Centre. 



Inspired by the vernacular structure of an African hut and
constructed using locally-sourced materials, it was designed by Norwegian, Karl
Henrik Nøstvik, in close consultation with the country’s first architect, David
Mutiso, in 1968. 



The exercise was a particularly important one for Nairobi.
As the architectural debate blares on, in local newspapers or in intellectual
salons, along with its interpretations of identity, it remains far removed from
the wider Kenyan public. 



Offering locals and laymen an opportunity to locate and
share their own ideas of the city’s heritage gives the preservationists some
support and a lasting shot at success. 



Nairobi is host to not just one but a cornucopia of cultural
connotations through its buildings. Each making conversation, in the language
of design, about their origins and place in the city. Taken for granted as they
are, these monuments of old will continue be lost without memory by the
modernizing nation around them.



As Adamali insists, this cannot be allowed to happen.



“We’ve got to appreciate what we’ve got and together try to do what we can to preserve them for future generations,” he says.



-Marie Shabaya

nairobi

Is Nairobi’s  Storied History Quietly Disappearing?

Vusani Ravele taught himself to craft home decor with an unlikely tool.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Two men quietly sit in the corner of a warehouse, covered in
sawdust, as they deftly carve a rendition of the Johannesburg skyline on a block
of wood, oblivious to the creative mayhem around them.



They are focused on ensuring that the plywood is
silky-smooth and ready to adorn a stranger’s living space.



At this warehouse in Wynberg in Johannesburg that we are
visiting, we are confronted by the constant din of drilling and the high-pitch
buzz of machinery that is in fact etching shapes on a sheet of birch plywood.
In no time, we are covered in pulp and wood shavings. 



A few minutes later, the brainchild of Native Décor, 32-year-old Vusani Ravele, arrives, ready to tell us how he turned a cordless drill that was a Valentine’s Day gift from 2015 into a lucrative online business with a R2.2 million ($154,522) turnover. 



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“She was probably trying to hint that I should make more
things for her — not that I was lazy,” jests Ravele.



This millennial is anything but disinclined to work. He used
the gift as a medium to explore creative ideas at home, most times, this was
after putting in long hours of work by day as an industrial engineer. 



“I just started drilling holes into everything and I
realized that this was a lot of fun,” recounts Ravele.



Originally from Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province of South
Africa, he moved to Johannesburg in 2005 to pursue a career in industrial
engineering, not knowing he was destined to become a business mogul in the home
decor industry.



It all began when he posted some of his work on Facebook and
it led to more ‘likes’ than he had anticipated. 



As he continued to attract a new market, he invested
R100,000 ($7,028) into his enterprise making nifty home accessories and
corporate gifts. 



His creativity grew as did his entrepreneurial edge — something he believes he inherited from his mother, who had an exemplary work ethic and was resourceful. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“At some point, my mother would sell some fruit and vegetables from the back of her car. It was very exciting for me,” Ravele says. </blockquote>



Following in her footsteps, he opened a tuck shop at his
high school which eventually outdid the main school tuckshop. 



“Clearly, I had an affinity for running a business,” he
says. 



A year after establishing Native Décor, he made waves on M-Net’s Shark Tank South Africa, a show on budding entrepreneurs who pitch their business concepts to moguls with the hope of securing an investment. 



Gil Oved, now the COO of investment company LLH Capital, was
impressed.



“I remember saying to my girlfriend if there is anyone that
I need to go home with, it is Oved. I just knew a lot about what he had
achieved. He is a go-getter, he is well-connected and I thought he would be the
perfect entrepreneur to take me to where I need to go,” Ravele says. 



Ravele believed in Oved’s ability to grow his business that
he offered him a 40% stake of Native Décor.&nbsp;




He did not make use of all the funds — an attribute he
wishes other startups would also grasp. 



“Sometimes, when you receive funding so early, it can
confuse everything. You feel like you are successful but you are really not,”
he says.



The mentorship from Oved honed his business acumen.



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“He is one of those guys that you have to go to and know
what you are talking about. So don’t go to him and ask him a question that you
have not researched before… He will give you the feedback that you are looking
for and more,” he says. 



Ravele says that being open-minded has helped him approach
his work artistically. 



“Creativity is everywhere… Look around and just see
different shapes and how they work together and you get ideas. Then you
experiment, and see how things work. When one thing doesn’t work out, you can
try something else with the same concept and it sort of flows.”



He believes that the home accessories market is currently
thriving in South Africa.



“If you are, perhaps, moving into a new house, you need to
buy furniture. The furniture can’t be by itself, you need decor to put on your
walls and those sort of things,” he says. 



Native Décor&nbsp; is an
online retail store, which is also available on other platforms such as eBucks
and takealot.



“In this day and age, we are moving into the online space
rapidly. More people are shopping from their cell phones; forget your
computers. If people are there, that is where you want to be as well,” Ravele
says.



According to eShopWorld, in South Africa, there are
currently 18.43 million eCommerce users, with an expected additional 6.36
million of users by 2021. The online shoppers are expected to be spending
approximately $189.47 each on average. 



Online trading has also proved to be more beneficial for Ravele’s bottom line. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The overheads are low so it doesn’t cost a lot to sell online. The beautiful thing about selling online is that you do not have to have stock on hand,” he says. </blockquote>



“Our model is that we make to order everything that we
dispatch. It can be a surprising thing, because people believe that we have
this warehouse full of stock… and the online space is great for that.”



Ravele might appear to understand the decor business to the
core, but that was not always the case. 



“It all has been, amazingly, YouTube; it has been my friend.
I feel like anybody can learn anything from there apart from professional
things like being a doctor. It is a great resource and anybody can make use of
it,” Ravele says. 



That is why he believes that providing guidance to others is
a necessity for entrepreneurs and that “information should be free”.



“I don’t have all the answers, sometimes people come to me
that are in business and they ask me for advice. It is nice to get that sort of
attention but it is also quite nice for me to develop that sort of rapport with
other people to network.”&nbsp; 



He is still learning as much as he can, but looking after
his money is the greatest lesson that he has learned in his journey as an
entrepreneur.&nbsp; 



“In business, you can make money quickly and lose it at twice the speed. It is a space where you have to be awake all the time and be ready for change. Change drives you to be constantly re-evaluating everything. 



“I decided that I was never going to be in that situation
again. Now we are able to think on our feet and react much better.” 



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The exposure to Shark Tank South Africa enhanced his Valentine’s Day gift, and for that, Ravele will be forever grateful. 



Martin Monareng, a craftsman at Native Décor, attests to his
success.&nbsp; 



“The workload has increased because we are getting a lot of
business as compared to when we were working from his [Ravele] house. Things
were tough for us at that time, we were not even really sure if the business
would grow,” he says.



Despite the din all around him in the warehouse, Ravele is
calm.



“I am no longer working from my living room, so that is a
relief,” says the man turning wood into workmanship.&nbsp;

Vusani

A Valentine’s Gift That Unwrapped  A Craft

South Africa’s local film industry is becoming a serious
economic player, but for all the advances in technology, film distribution has
become far more complex. We delve into whether theatrical releases are still feasible.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



There’s the old ADAGE that “there must be money in film”,
but research and interviews this reporter conducted recently revealed a complex
and tricky new system that needs to be simplified and explained.



The biggest question remains, why do it? What are the models
for making money? 



There must be money being made somewhere since the South
African and African film industry and box office seems to be thriving. The time
has come to demystify one very specific area of the business of film and this
is distribution.



A brief explanation of distribution is in order before we
delve into the technological advancements that have disrupted the entire
industry over the last few years. 



Distribution is defined as the release of a completed film.
Back in the 1980s, 1990s and up until the late 2000s, the process was fairly
simple; write the script, get the funding or studio backing, shoot the film,
post-produce the film and have a distributor release the film to cinemas, then
video or DVD and ultimately television.



The process is no longer that simple. One of the major
reasons for the more complex distribution model these days is the advent of
high-end digital technology. 



Back in the day, about a decade or so ago, all films were
projected on 35mm film. The origination format was irrelevant but the final
product was always 35mm projection. Now, although 35mm has its advantages, it
also has its flaws.



It was both cumbersome and expensive. Prints of film cost
anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 per print, then there was the delivery costs
associated with the prints, as well as the fact that after a certain period of
time, the prints would be damaged and/or ruined – due to their organic nature,
film as a medium does degrade over time.



The advent of high-definition cameras in the early 2000s and
ultimately 4K and 5K cameras in the last five years changed everything. 



Cinemas decided to adopt a new standard, the Digital Cinema
Print (DCP). A DCP is a digital file that, much like a film print, consists of
a variety of digital stills and sound files that are sequenced and recognized
by the digital projectors that cinema owners have now equipped their cinemas
with.



The file can be either in 2K or 4K depending on the
projection system that’s available. 



The cost of the digital conversion from the old 35mm
projectors was astronomical, so much so, that the cinema owners, locally and
internationally, had to be subsidized by what’s now become known as a virtual
print fee. This has effectively replaced the old 35mm print fee and is cheaper,
ranging from $750 per screen to $2,000 per screen. 



Helen Kuun from Indigenous Film Distribution in South Africa
has some insights on this.



“When the world converted to the DCP system, all that equipment had to be funded by two banks in the world who funded it because it was around R1.5 million ($110,000) per screen to the software and hardware conversion. 



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 “So the exhibitors put up as much money as they could and then Arts Alliance Ventures put up the rest of the money; everywhere in the world, they are there for digital conversion as a bank, so that digital print goes straight to them to pay off the digital equipment. But there is an end in sight, it’s November of 2020.”



The financial burden has now been placed on the distributor who owns the film to pay the virtual print fee to screen it. This has become an additional rather large expense, thereby reducing profit margins for the filmmakers and their respective distributors. 



If you want to put your film into 100 cinemas, at $650 per
cinema, that’s $65,000, and this is more than the entire budget of some South
African feature films. 



Also, the exhibitors are keeping on average 55% of your box
office receipts on top of all these fees and this excludes print and
advertising costs.



The burden of profit is far greater than it used to be, even
though it’s become cheaper than ever to produce a film with 4K production and
projection available to almost all. 



“You have to structure your funding. You need to source
money from more than one place in the world. You can tap into various
structures of soft funding and then you can have two environments of recoupable
funding. If you’re spending, say R10 million ($732,000), you should be able to,
quite easily have not more than 60% of your budget recoupable due to soft
money,” Kuun says. 



Due to the complex nature of the business structures behind
the independent film world, this is often times why the cinema market is
flooded with mainstream Hollywood releases and not local independents. 



We spoke to Ben Crowley, CEO of Gravel Road Media in Cape
Town, who’s a South African and international distributor, about the merits of
a theatrical release. Is it still feasible?



“Releasing a film theatrically is not necessarily the start
and the end of the film. It’s a very important part of the life of a film,
certainly if you’re wanting to drive other sales because a good theatrical
performance will drive your home entertainment sales, it will drive your pay TV
price, it can influence your initial batch of marketing that happens, creating
awareness around the project, so it is important especially with the higher
budget films. One shouldn’t be naïve thinking you can do a high budget film and
then release it straight to TV or VOD (video on demand) platforms,” he says.



The truth is this money is being made in the process of
windowing.



It would be remiss of me not to mention that South Africa’s
local film industry is becoming a serious economic player, having contributed
R5.4 billion ($395 million) to the GDP during the 2016/17 financial year.



The research was gathered from an economic impact assessment
study commissioned by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF). 



With the Department of Trade and Industry’s filmmaking
incentive schemes and rebates in place, production has been taking place swiftly
in South Africa over the course of the last four to five years. Let’s face it,
a 40% rebate on all local revenue spent is an attractive offer to any producer,
because it’s soft money.



There are also various regional film commission incentives
around the country and the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Film Commission is one such
office making a viable swing for the stars in terms of what they’re offering
for development in the province. We spoke to Carol Coetzee, the CEO of the KZN
Film Commission.



“We are a fully-funded government organization, funded by the Department of Economic, Tourism and Environment Affairs and we have a very clear mandate. First of all, we look at promoting the region (KZN) as a destination for productions and secondly, we focus on the KZN film industry and how we facilitate the development. One of those areas is through the funding of film productions so we fund right from the beginning of development through to production right through to marketing and distribution and we’ve got about 160 projects on our portfolio at the moment. 



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“We’ve had about 26 productions that have been completed in
the last four years, that’s how long we’ve been around. We really have quite an
interesting selection process. We want to have a balance of historical artistic
films but we also want to have a balance of films that are going to be
commercially viable but our focus is KZN stories so they get priority,” Coetzee
says.



But where are these films being seen?&nbsp; They’re certainly not all at your local
cinema complex. You also can’t find many of them on physical media (DVD or
Blu-ray) but where you can find them is the new on-demand platforms like
Amazon, Netflix, Showmax, DSTV Box Office, Cell C Black and many others and
across specialist local television channels like Mzansi Magic and KykNET.



With the death of physical media, the video-on-demand
platforms have become the go-to for independent filmmakers and, let’s face it,
all African filmmakers encompass the word independent.



We spoke to Crowley of Gravel Road about their distribution
arm.



“We work with all the major VOD platforms, so your Netflix,
Showmax… there’s a plethora of VOD platforms that are popping up. Some are
better than others, some pay more, some pay less. When you’re trying to build a
relationship with anyone, you’ve got to get to know who the buyers are. 



“VOD is all about volume as well, so the amount of content
and the quality of content that you’re pushing through to them as well.
Eventually you become a reliable supplier of good quality content. 



“It’s not something that anyone can do and it’s not
something that a filmmaker should want to be doing. Filmmakers should
concentrate on making movies and let distributors who have these relationships
deal with it because it’s a very complex side of the film business, when you’re
dealing with rights and how they’re carved up amongst the different platforms.
It’s really not for the faint-hearted.”



We also asked Crowley&nbsp;
as to whether or not he thought film was still a viable revenue stream
or business model.



“I think film is still viable, it just really comes down to
doing your research and knowing who your market is. What you find is that
filmmakers often go and make a movie without thinking about their market. 



“You have to take the reverse approach. So, first think
about your market, what does the market want and then produce for that market
and also know what the buying power of your market is. So, if your market is a
hundred people strong you can’t go and make a movie that’s going to cost a
hundred million rand.”



A logical approach, but there’s a conflict of interest with exhibitors. Exhibitors want big box office returns and instant gratification and they seem to propagate the myth that only Hollywood or big action adventure superhero films can deliver these numbers with an attractive young cast, which you’ll have to compete directly against.



Crowley offers another solution – local content quotas.



“Local content quotas would be a good idea from a local
circuit perspective because what that will do is it will open up the market to
a lot more South African content because we need to get our audiences used to
watching more local content theatrically. 



“I think more so what should actually happen is also to have
a levy or a tax on all the international films that get released in this
market, where a small percentage of that box office taking actually gets
allocated back into the industry by some sort of fund that’s administered by
the NFVF or some other body so we can further develop our industry. It’s worked
excellently in France.”



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So what then do you do with your finished film to pay back
those investors to whom you’ve promised the earth. This is where the term
windowing comes into play – it is the gradual platform release of your film to
various forms of media over a period of two years. This is the life of the
film.



Step one is to secure your theatrical release and prepare
yourself for the fact that you’re probably not going to make any money at this
stage. Your exhibitor is going to take a minimum of 55% of the receipts, which
leaves you with about 45% of the box office gross, then your distributor is
going to take off their expenses for releasing your film off the balance before
you see a cent. 



These figures can amount to millions; including things like
advertising and virtual print fees per screen. You’d need to try and keep the
costs down and secure as much free publicity as possible but the chances of you
actually making any kind of return on investment at the South African box
office are slim to none, unless you have the kind of hit that transcends all
markets locally, it’s highly unlikely though.



You’re left with the video-on-demand platforms and
television stations, which your distributor will approach for you. The key to
making money seems to be to get an international buyout from one of the big
international on-demand platforms like Netflix, Shudder, Hulu and Amazon.



Research reveals even these license figures vary wildly;
anywhere from $10,000 to $250,000. 



VOD platforms are broken down into several sub -categories:
TVOD (Transactional Video on Demand). This is a service like iTunes, where you
rent or buy a specific film; SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand). These are
subscription-based monthly services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Showmax and so
on; then there’s AVOD (Advertiser Video on Demand). Free video on-demand
services that have commercials peppering their content, an example of this
would be TubiTV. 



Windowing reveals that an ideal strategy would be to keep a
two- to three-month gap between releases on each one of these services for
maximum impact. After you’ve hit the VOD platforms, there are hundreds of TV
channels crying for content, again the figures aren’t big in terms of rights
but if you take the sheer volume of platforms available today, windowing your
film can become a potential goldmine.



All the VOD platforms and TV stations take into account
whether or not you’ve had a theatrical release in your country of origin since
that automatically pushes the value of your film up. So although you won’t be
making any money off the theatrical release it’s still something important to
secure since it increases the value of your film down the line in the
distribution window chain.



Kuun has some encouraging but sobering words.



“The good thing is volumes of content are increasing across
the board worldwide because there are so many more places to host it but it
doesn’t mean that every single piece of content that goes out there is watched
by millions of people, so every platform has its place. Cinema will always be
there, I don’t personally think it will just disappear, it will always have a
place because it’s about going out and having a communal experience.”



With the sheer volume of platforms and windows available to
you and with a good marketing plan, the opportunity is still there to make some
serious cash, it just takes patience and happens strategically.

cinema

Will Cinema Just Disappear?

Nigeria leads the proliferation of Africa’s new sounds in the West.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



In an Africa fresh from economic liberalization, music found
a new voice, thanks to social media and platforms like YouTube, Spotify and
Apple Music, which streamed thousands of African songs into the homes of
millions in the diaspora. 



The western world, suddenly, was introduced to Africa’s new
sound, Afrobeats. Free from the shackles that had previously plagued the
Nigerian movie industry, known locally by the moniker, Nollywood, artists, now
empowered with this new distribution platform, could begin to experiment in
different languages, sounds and genres that had, until then, remained confined
to only regional pockets. 



The past few years, however, have seen a rapid evolution of
the Afrobeats scene across Africa and Nigeria is leading its explosion
globally. 



Events such as the One Africa Music Fest, an African musical
experience showcasing Africa’s best and brightest talents, have solidified
Africa’s position in the global entertainment industry. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1030097404-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-39819" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1030097404-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1030097404-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1030097404-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1030097404-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1030097404.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>BROOKLYN, NY &#8211; SEPTEMBER 09: Yemi Alade performs on stage at 2018 Essence Street Style Festival on September 9, 2018 in Brooklyn City. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Essence)</figcaption></figure></div>



Afrobeats has not only captured a new western audience but
has also influenced the sounds of some of America’s biggest artists.



“Afrobeats is absolutely taking over. In 2016, Drake’s One
Dance, which featured Wizkid, was arguably one of the biggest sounds globally.
Then you had French Montana with Unforgettable, which was also huge and both
videos were shot in Africa. So, this thing is becoming a movement,” says
D-Black, a Ghanaian Afrobeats artist and founder of Black Avenue Muzik record
label.



It’s almost impossible to attend a party or wedding in
Africa and not be treated to one of Afrobeats’ ubiquitous chart-toppers. 



With hits from artists like Davido, Wizkid, Yemi Alade and
many more pounding out of speakers across the continent, the movement of
Afrobeats not only covers major cities in Nigeria, but also some far-flung
locales.



“You cannot really talk about Afrobeats without talking
about Lagos. The music scene is very fast-paced and colorful. Each local area
has its own unique sound. On the mainland, we have the heart music being pushed
by artists like Small Doctor. 



“We also have the live Afrobeats scene and then the Alte
scene, which is a different music on its own. People like to identify Alte
sound with the western crowd and mainly people who live on the island,” says
Paul Yusuf, DJ and founder of Music Revolution Nigeria.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">But that doesn’t mean that the artists are benefiting from the buzz. Similar to Nollywood, piracy remains rampant making it impossible for artists to sell their music. </blockquote>



“There are several ways of accessing music locally in
Nigeria, from the streets, where you have street vendors selling illegally
obtained music or in a well-known tech hub called computer village, where
consumers can download thousands of illegally obtained new music onto their
hard drive from as little as N2,000 ($5),” Yusuf says. 



“In Africa, the model is different. It is all about putting
out as much free music as you can without necessarily charging, then you become
a big artist once you have enough hit songs and then make your money back from
being booked on shows. When you think about it, some of the biggest stars in
the United States make most of their money from tours,” says D-Black.



Despite these challenges, the advent of Web 2.0 and
community marketing mean the Afrobeats scene has been digitalized, providing
savvy entrepreneurs like Don Jazzy, with a new revenue model.



“Back in the day, we didn’t care too much about online streaming platforms like YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify, but now it is a major focus for generating revenue. Nigeria still lags behind on online platforms but there are people in the diaspora who because of the growth and exposure of the Afrobeats music patronize us online by buying from these streaming platforms. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="685" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1026043782-685x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-39820" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1026043782-685x1024.jpg 685w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1026043782-300x449.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1026043782-600x898.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1026043782-201x300.jpg 201w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1026043782-768x1149.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-1026043782.jpg 1369w" sizes="(max-width: 685px) 100vw, 685px" /><figcaption>PHILADELPHIA, PA &#8211; SEPTEMBER 01: Davido performs onstage during the 2018 Made In America Festival &#8211; Day 1 at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 1, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Lisa Lake/Getty Images for Roc Nation)</figcaption></figure>



“The numbers from Nigeria is not big because most people prefer to download from free sites and most of them use Android, boom play apps and others to get access to the music,” says Jazzy.



Born Michael Collins Ajereh, he is a record producer,
singer, songwriter and entrepreneur. He is also the founder of one of Nigeria’s
most successful record labels, Mavin Records, with a roster of stars including
Tiwa Savage and Korede Bello. 



He pioneered the proliferation of Afrobeats into countries
like the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) when he created his
first record label, Mo’ Hits Records, with former partner, D’banj. The pair was
signed by US music mogul, Kanye West, to his GOOD Music imprint, at a time when
the industry was still in its infancy bringing global attention to the world of
Afrobeats.



“Everything changed with D’banj. Oliver Twist opened up the
labels to want to invest in Africa because that was the first single that was
pushed by a label properly. Kanye West signed D’banj and Don Jazzy and that was
big news. When Mo’ Hits came out with their sound, it was easy to get the
world’s attention on Afrobeats, coupled with improved production and quality
music videos,” says the London-based DJ Flex.



According to Jazzy, the digital revolution of the Afrobeats
sound has led to the proliferation of the music into the diaspora, leading to
different sub-categories like Afro-pop, Afro-dance and Afro-reggae. This has
also affected the revenue model of the business.



“When it comes to Afrobeats, we have to look at two main
revenue streams. The type of songs that impact the clubs and Nigeria locally;
and secondly, the type of sound that moves numbers online, thus digitally. So,
you have to be very conscious of the type of music you make at the moment. You
have to consider whether you are trying to do this song so that you will be
popping in Nigeria and thus offline or are you doing the song for
international.



“For example, Korede Bello has Godwin, which was a very big
song offline and translated into him going for more shows and getting club
plays and party plays. But a song does like that, if you go on YouTube, Spotify
and Apple, the numbers are ridiculously crazy because the diaspora market
preferred that kind of sound and they streamed it more. So, you definitely have
to be conscious about what you want to achieve,” says Jazzy.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="725" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DonJazzy12571-725x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-39821" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DonJazzy12571-725x1024.jpg 725w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DonJazzy12571-300x424.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DonJazzy12571-600x847.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DonJazzy12571-212x300.jpg 212w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DonJazzy12571-768x1085.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DonJazzy12571.jpg 1450w" sizes="(max-width: 725px) 100vw, 725px" /><figcaption> Don Jazzy. Picture: Getty </figcaption></figure>



Social media has played a big role in this new trend by
making artists connect with audiences outside Nigeria. It has also influenced
the new sound of Afrobeats by giving Nigerian and African artists a window into
the world of pop culture in America by removing geographical barriers. 



“You no longer have to travel to the US to see what your
favorite artists are doing because they are all vying for attention on social
media platforms out of fear of dying out,”&nbsp;
D-Black says. 



With a population of 180 million in Nigeria, its music
industry is projected to grow, buoyed by the increase in smartphones and
platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. According to the
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry,&nbsp; the global recorded music market grew by 8.1%
in 2017, reaching $17.3 billion that year on the strength of digital streaming
revenue. 



The big question is, with a largely unregulated industry,
how are these artists making their money?



“Money comes in when you have a good product and you make FX
from digital sales and when that artist starts growing and you go for shows,
then they get paid and you split the proceeds, depending on the sharing ratios
you have with the artist. 



“Different artists have different sharing ratios and that
depends on how long you have been with the artist and how badly perhaps you
want the artist. There are also endorsements from brands as well,” Jazzy says.



His Mavin Records label recently made news for securing an
undisclosed investment from Washington DC-based investment firm Kupanda
Capital, a firm with the goal of creating, capitalizing and scaling up
pan-African companies.&nbsp; 



“We are trying to build a long-term structured platform that
can connect African music on the continent and beyond for further global
consumption. We intend to use the investment for distribution of our own music,
product development and hire new staff to take the brand to the next level,”
Jazzy says.



The alleged multimillion-dollar investment by Kupanda into
the Nigerian record label presents yet another compelling case for the
Afrobeats genre, which presents revenue generating opportunities that are too
big to be ignored.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="706" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-831170890-1024x706.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-39822" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-831170890-1024x706.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-831170890-300x207.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-831170890-600x413.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-831170890-768x529.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-831170890.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>LOS ANGELES, CA &#8211; AUGUST 13: French Montana performs onstage during the Teen Choice Awards 2017 at Galen Center on August 13, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>

Red Bull Music Academy At Notting Hill Carnival – Day 1

Put Your  Money Into These Rhythmic Beats

Emotions run high as Mango Groove celebrate three decades of
one of their biggest-selling albums. The mixed race band, formed during the
apartheid era, reflected the pain and politics of the time in their music.&nbsp; 



South African music has evolved over the years but its
African authenticity remains in the notes of the 35-year-old pop band Mango
Groove.



FORBES AFRICA shared a few moments with them as they
rehearsed in their North Riding studio, 40kms north of Johannesburg, one glorious
summer afternoon in February. 



To celebrate 30 years of their 1989 eponymous hit album, the
band will be performing a one-off anniversary concert at Teatro in Montecasino,
Johannesburg, in March.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="923" height="616" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39770" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango2.png 923w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango2-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango2-600x400.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango2-768x513.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 923px) 100vw, 923px" /><figcaption> Vocalists of Mango Groove at 30 years. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla </figcaption></figure>



We first speak to Claire Johnston, the lead singer of Mango
Groove, who has been with the group for 34 years. Johnston started at the age
of 17 when still in school. 



Those memories are still fresh.&nbsp; 



Born in England, she had moved to South Africa when she was
three with her parents at the height of apartheid.&nbsp; 



“In 1989, things went big for us [Mango Groove]. Prior to
that, we had been playing around clubs and small venues. We had a few singles
on the radio between 1985 and 1989, and then we had this lovely record deal
that got us to all South Africans and huge exposure at the right time. South
Africa was ready for a mixed race band called Mango Groove,” Johnston recalls.



In one year, the band sold out six shows at the Standard
Bank Arena. 



“The album had just come out – we were all over radio, television, and magazine covers; it was very exciting and we were putting on a show at the arena which accommodates about 6,000 people. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">We sold the one show, then the second, then the third, the fourth, fifth, sixth and eventually we had to do the seventh, but because tickets were pirated, we had to put on a show for free for all the people who had been conned.<cite> Claire Johnston </cite></blockquote>



That was the night Johnston saw ‘the Mexican wave’ for the
first time.



It wasn’t easy being in a mixed race band, because of the
racial segregation laws that existed in South Africa. It was during this tense
period that they released their Another Country album with a song written by
group founder John Leyden about the state of the country. It was an overtly
political song, however, their African tunes saw them through.&nbsp; 



There were also instances when the band couldn’t play
together at certain venues. They would play in downtown clubs in Johannesburg
where black and white South Africans would jam and interact as if restrictive
apartheid laws did not exist.



Post democratic elections in 1994, Johnston says she was
proud to be South African. She recalls the band’s performance at Nelson
Mandela’s inauguration that year as one of her most memorable.



“That experience was amazing. It was just an amazing sense
of optimism and possibility. South Africa was on the world stage for a positive
reason and for change. Then, we performed for a massive crowd at the Union
Buildings, it was black and white South Africans, it was the best time, it was
mostly emotional,” she says.



The band, nonetheless, has lost a few members over the years
and Johnston sobs as she remembers the late Mickey Vilakazi.



“When I joined the band in 1985, Mickey was 64 and he passed away prior to 1989 and he missed all the excitement, he missed the changes in the country, he missed the wonderful release of The Hotel Room. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="921" height="614" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango5.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39771" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango5.png 921w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango5-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango5-600x400.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango5-768x512.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 921px) 100vw, 921px" /><figcaption> John Leyden of Mango Groove at 30 years. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla </figcaption></figure>



 “It makes me sad that he wasn’t around to have seen that, and of course Banza Kgasoane who’s the father of Mo T (band member of popular South African house band Mi Casa). He was our trumpeter for many years. Phumzile Ntuli has also passed on. We ultimately had to keep going, move on. I imagine if I go, I hope Mango finds someone to replace me,” she says.



As the conversation flows and the band rehearses in the
background, a cheerful man wearing khaki shorts appears bearing a glass of
whiskey, walking towards a water container to mix his spirit. He is Sydney
Mavundla, a trumpet player and one of the new members.



“I joined the band in February 2008, just after getting
married. The trumpeter before me was Johnny Bower; I used to play for him when
he was not available. He got a full time with an orchestra, that’s how I got
the job,” he says.



Mavundla describes the band as family. He used to listen to
them growing up; little did he know he would be a part of it. He was fortunate
to work with legendary artists such as the late Hugh Masekela. 



“We recorded two albums with Bra Hugh and then an album with
the late Oliver Mtukudzi. If we are talking about Mango Groove, I want to
believe it is different from the beautiful energy the old-timers had. Now it’s
a bit youngish in terms of the horns, it’s not the original horn players who
started the band,” he says.



Playing a tune, Mavundla talks about the freedom they now
enjoy as newer artists.



“I am very excited about the upcoming concert. The first
time you heard Mango and the very last time you heard Mango – that is what you
should expect to hear. Thirty years is a long journey and that is 30 years of
what you are going to hear. Better than that, you are going to see a very
energetic, groovy Mango Groove. Come with your dancing shoes if you want, you
won’t be disappointed,” he says.



The trumpeter wishes Africans would read more about South African music instead of western artists and their music, and recalls Masekela’s quote:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">One day, our kids will be asked ‘who are you’ and they will respond ‘we used to be Africans, they used to call us Africans’.</blockquote>



The band’s founder Leyden also joins the conversation,
saying he just wanted to be in a band as a teenager.



Leyden is Zambian-born but came to South Africa at the age
of eight. He lived his life through the political transformation of South
Africa and as an artist, never affiliated himself with politics. Instead, he
started a band. 



“In terms of the influences of Mango and what drove me, it
was a pop act but we were very easily influenced by South African urban music
forms from the 1950s and 1960s like kwela music, marabi music and African jazz
sounds. They were music forms we loved.



“Mango was a funny little group of people, some came, some
went, it was totally an organic process and we did what we did. When the first
album broke big, we were more surprised than anyone.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="921" height="613" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango3.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39772" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango3.png 921w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango3-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango3-600x399.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mango3-768x511.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 921px) 100vw, 921px" /><figcaption> Sydney Mavundla of Mango Groove at 30 years. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla </figcaption></figure>



For the upcoming concert, Leyden and the gang are working on
a huge production. They want the event to be about memories of the late band
members, as well as celebrating the band’s journey. 



Elaborating further, Johnston says the big night will be
about nostalgia, energy and emotion.



It will be the eighties all over again in a country that has
neither forgotten its bitter apartheid past nor the music that defined the long
hard years of pain and political fervor.&nbsp;

Mango-groove1

30 Years And Still Grooving

In January, Africa lost Oliver Mtukudzi. His friend and
fellow musician Yvonne Chaka Chaka fondly remembers the global icon.&nbsp; 



In October 2012, Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi, South Africa’s
Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Kenya’s Suzanna Owíyo produced Because I Am Girl with
musicians from around the world.



It was released to promote the global launch of Plan
International’s ‘Because I am A Girl’ campaign, marking the first UN
International Day of the Girl Child, on October 11.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/01/25/tribute-to-oliver-mtukudzi-zimbabwes-man-with-the-talking-guitar/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Tribute To Oliver Mtukudzi – Zimbabwe’s ‘Man With The Talking Guitar’ (opens in a new tab)">Tribute To Oliver Mtukudzi – Zimbabwe’s ‘Man With The Talking Guitar’</a>



Dressed in African prints, they sang together, spreading the
word about the empowerment of the girl child. 



Mtukudzi’s bass and Chaka Chaka’s soulful voice in harmony,
they became more than co-artists; they become brother and sister. It was the first
performance of many for the two.



Seven years on, Chaka Chaka is teary-eyed about Mtukudzi’s death 23 days into 2019, when not just she, but Africa lost a music legend.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">In a strange coincidence, Mtukudzi died the same day the continent lost the father of South African jazz, Hugh Masekela, last year.</blockquote>



On the phone for this interview, Chaka Chaka describes
Mtukudzi as a soldier at work. 



“When he was on stage, he was a totally different man. When
he had his guitar, it was like a soldier. Like a soldier who has a gun at
work,” she tells us.



“I think there were two different people. Offstage, he was
just an ordinary man, and on stage, people ate out of the palm of his hand.



“I’ve never known Oliver to never be fit. He has been a
skinny man and he would just twist that body with a guitar and that gravel
voice of his. A big voice in a small body,” she says.



“He has never called me Yvonne, he has always called me
Fifi… Fifi means sister.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The man was always humble, he never raised his voice, I have never seen him angry and all he has ever wanted is just to see Africa thriving. He wanted to see Africa beautiful. He wanted to see Africa with less disease, less hunger, less corruption, a happy Africa – that was his wish.”</blockquote>



One anecdote Chaka Chaka shares is when Mtukudzi was made a
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in Zimbabwe in 2011.



“You know he sat there with me and asked, ‘so, what does
this entail, my sister? You have been a goodwill ambassador for a long time.
You will tell me what needs to be done. How should I act? How should I react?
How should I do things?’



“And I’m like, ‘no, but you know, you are more of a star
than me and you have been in this industry long before I’. He was just so
down-to-earth and had no chip on his shoulder.”&nbsp;




The last performance the two did together was in October
last year in Harare during the Jacaranda Festival, attended by more than 2,000
people and other artists around the continent.



“Oliver was not in his changing room or at home. He stayed
there and watched other artists perform, which was so great,” says Chaka Chaka.



“This year, he promised that we would do it [the Jacaranda
Festival] in Bulawayo,” she said. They had planned to make it a big show and
use their status as goodwill ambassadors to encourage and inspire more youth.



&nbsp;But sadly, that
promise will never be fulfilled.



“The legacy he will leave behind is a legacy of love, the
legacy of pro-African and I think for me he was a pan-Africanist. That’s what
he was,” she says.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/01/23/zimbabwes-oliver-mtukudzi-dies-at-66/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi Dies At 66 (opens in a new tab)">Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi Dies At 66</a>



To this day, Neria is still one of Chaka Chaka’s favorite
songs by him.



&nbsp;Mtukudzi, who died
aged 66 of diabetes, was laid to rest on January 27 in his home village of&nbsp; Madziwa.



Thousands sang and danced to the melodies of his songs.



President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared him a national hero,
posthumously, a status that has previously been reserved for ruling party elite
and independence veterans.



He may be gone but his music will live forever in the hearts of the fans that loved this legend who soldiered on until the end.

Category: Arts

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