John Fredericks had a tougher childhood than most. While food in his house was scarce and gang members terrorized him, it was a traumatic rape that convinced him to form a gang. It led to him spending time in the notorious Pollsmoor Prison and his friends later being sentenced to death.
Fredericks, along with his childhood friend, spent three years in prison for trying to steal a radio from a shop. While behind bars, Frederick’s friend was inducted to one of the infamous number gangs and forced to be a concubine. Fredericks, whose storytelling ability was loved by those close to him, managed to stay out of a gang by telling the prisoners captivating tales.
<div id="attachment_5239" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5239" class="wp-image-5239 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/noem_my_skollie_PR_stories-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />A shot from the film, Noem My Skollie. (Photo supplied)</div>
Today, his story is being told to the rest of the world. Fredericks used one finger to write the script for Noem My Skollie, based on his life in the 1960s in apartheid South Africa.
Based in the gang-riddled Cape Flats, in the Western Cape province, the movie stays true to its roots. Along with Fredericks, the director, Daryne Joshua, and many of the crew are from this area. It’s a film that resonates with many South Africans and summons a tide of emotions.
“I ran out because I was crying, it brought back so many memories, it was hectic,” says Fredericks at the film screening in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The three childhood friends that Fredericks formed a gang with were hanged for killing a taxi driver. In 1968, all four stood trial together; Fredericks escaped the death sentence when his friends told the judge he was not involved. Fredericks is fortunate to be able to tell his tale; he was supposed to be with his friends on the fateful night they committed murder. He missed their rendezvous after deciding to spend time with his girlfriend instead.
His friends were initially persuaded to pin the murder on Fredericks but their brotherly bond proved stronger than their will to live.
Fredericks forgives them for trying to frame him. Before their lives ended, they wrote a letter to Fredericks asking for his forgiveness. They were dead by the time he read it and he still weeps every time he reads the letter.
“On each corner of the page, there are two bunches of flowers with tags which read goodbye with the date of birth and date of death; they knew which date they were to be hanged,” says Fredericks.
While in prison, storytelling was Fredericks’ escape. Reading and writing letters killed time. Years later, as he approaches the age of 70, Fredericks educates youth on the dangers of gangsterism in the Cape Flats, where he still lives. He also teaches reading and writing at Pollsmoor.
The producers of Noem My Skollie, David Max Brown and Moshidi Motshegwa, say they used as few actors and locations as possible as money was tight. Despite the travails that the producers never gave up because the story and script was too strong.
“We made a really big film with 50 cast and 47 locations, everything was bigger than the money and we still found a way to make it work,” says Brown.
The whole film is in Afrikaans to better represent the people of the Cape Flats. Brown also says they tried to make the movie as South African as possible. He hopes the film’s uniqueness will help it win international awards. More than anything though, he hopes it will win the hearts of South Africans.

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From Prison Cell To Red Carpet

<h4>What are the highs of being a celebrity?</h4>
The love people give you. Being able to showcase your work on a platform that people see all over the country and continent, and sometimes even the world. Obviously that also has its downside but all in all it’s a blessing to have the opportunity to put smiles and sometimes tears on people’s faces. Being a walking billboard means you get a lot of glory for a collective and collaborative work.
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<h4>Your current state of mind…?</h4>
I’m always under the impression that success, happiness and love are a state of mind – a choice. You have to make that choice every day, at every turn. It’s not always an easy choice, but it’s the right one, no matter what is going on, don’t change your mind about who you are and what you want. Your mind is very powerful.
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<h4>How are you finding life in New York?</h4>
It’s been incredible. I love the energy and vibe and spirit here. Everyone has a purpose and they chase it relentlessly. That’s how I see it anyway. People are passionate about their work and lives and it’s contagious! It isn’t an easy adjustment but beautiful and worthy acquisitions are never easy, it’s part of the journey. New York is like Joburg, just bigger.
Being unknown here is also giving me the opportunity to really meet the city in its awesome power and strength. It’s like meeting and understanding a machine that is intimidating and could instantly incinerate you. It’s incredible. So I’m learning well but fast. I love this place.
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<h4>What is more important when reading a script – the story or the money?</h4>
I’m an artiste and actor. The story is important to me, but the story alone won’t pay the exorbitant rent and food prices here in New York. So luckily there are agents and managers to sort that out for me here so I can focus on the scripts, the character and the story.
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<h4>When you visit family in South Africa, what do you look forward to?</h4>
To just be home. And bring back what I’ve learned to grow our industry there. I’m also interested to see how it grows and how different it will be.
I don’t want to lose touch with my people and my continent. I want to continue playing a part in the system there. I am not too good to still work in Africa. Africa made me and Africa will always have my love and my heart and mostly my talent. She nurtured it, she will always deserve it.
If you had 10 minutes to change the world, what would you do?
I need to consult a LOT of people to answer this. I want to say remove the power of money and materialism from the face of the earth. Point is, whatever I do, it would be to get people to a point where they love those around them more than they love themselves. We’re all connected; the day we all care about the next person more than ourselves is the day no one has to worry or be afraid. Love truly does conquer all things.
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<h4>Success is…?</h4>
Happiness. Complete fulfillment in every valuable aspect of your life. Accepting and learning from the victories and mistakes you have made. Looking and smiling at your journey with minimal regrets.
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Pearl-etch

Relentless In New York

From the dusty streets of Harare to the glam green rooms of Hollywood, hers was a journey that transcended vistas and visages.
Jackie Mgido, Zimbabwean hairstylist and make-up artist to the stars, was a poor girl in a humble Harare neighborhood with big dreams, an artistic hand and an eye for beauty.
“I did not have an amazing childhood but I had an amazing childhood in my head. Everything that I did was magical and everything that I did, I dared to dream,” says the 42-year-old cosmetics entrepreneur, who worked with Hollywood A-listers such as John Legend, Morris Chestnut, Denzel Washington, P Diddy, Jamie Foxx and Sylvester Stallone, before returning home to start her own beauty brand Vault Cosmetics.
Mgido had moved to the United States 20 years ago hoping to make films, and for a better look at the beautiful faces facing the camera.
“I wanted to understand how they were able to make people look so amazing on camera,” she says.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-31937 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2016/04/Vault_Forbes-2-of-19-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Vault_Forbes-2-of-19.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Vault_Forbes-2-of-19-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Vault_Forbes-2-of-19-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Vault_Forbes-2-of-19-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />
She then enrolled at the Make-Up Designory, popularly known as MUD, in California, where she studied the art and later interned at several Hollywood studios. After spending almost five years meticulously planning her business strategy and her next move, she wanted to start something new but the fear of failure stalled her dream.
For a professional who turned dour to dazzling with her magic make-up wand, she was confronted with a new reality back home in Zimbabwe, and then came the epiphany.
“One time I visited Zimbabwe and noticed there was something missing, women were neglected, I looked at so many beautiful women but a lot of them were really dark and could not see their beauty, so I decided to do something to enhance their beauty,” says Mgido.
That was it. She launched her own line in 2012 but suffered major setbacks, even losing a staggering $60,000 in the first six months, of the $100,000 she and her husband had invested in the business.
“If it was not for my husband, I would have given up. What motivated me to continue is that I have a gift and it’s not about me. This is what I am supposed to be doing in life, touching lives through make-up.”
Vault Cosmetics is available in Zimbabwe’s cities and has branches in the US, UK and now South Africa. She says her brand is worth over $5 million.
Last year for the Emmy Awards, Mgido made up awards host and Glee star Jane Lynch, and has also been contracted by Food Network to do on-set make-up for celebrity chefs including Alex Guarnaschelli, Duff Goldman, Tyler Florence and Cat Cora. Last year, she was awarded Female Entrepreneur of the Year for her start-up business at the African Women Awards.
All her products are made in the US, but she is currently in Zimbabwe setting up a manufacturing company. Her biggest challenge has been getting the product to the people. Zimbabwe’s import laws and taxes have made things tough for her, she says, but she’s currently in talks with revenue authorities and hopes they will appreciate her desire to invest in her home country. Mgido has also invested her hard-earned dollars in Zimbabwean communities, opening windows of opportunity for many young women. Her make-up academy in Harare is training young artists passionate about learning more about the beauty business.
With the right investors, she intends expanding her business in Southern and West Africa, her targets being Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya and Nigeria.
We meet her in Johannesburg on a recent visit to expand her business.
“I came to South Africa because I was told I could not and would not be accepted, knowing perfectly well that every woman has one goal and that goal is to be loved and seen, I had to bring Vault to South Africa.”
And this, she says, is only the beginning, with an excitement no greasepaint can conceal.

Vault_Forbes-18-of-19

The Artist Changing The Face Of Africa

It was the dangerous days leading up to South Africa’s first democratic elections on April 27, 1994. Jodi Bieber, a newspaper rookie photographer, was sent on assignment to cut her teeth in a violent Ulundi, in KwaZulu-Natal, a warzone for the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party.
“I definitely knew I was not the war photographer because we witnessed quite a few violent situations in Ulundi. At one time we slept on the floor of our hotel, we thought we might be assassinated,” says Bieber, then freelance photographer at The Star, in Johannesburg.
In KwaZulu-Natal, Bieber suffered rough times documenting the tragic tale of the dead and wounded on the painful path to democracy.
“When I was not freelancing for the newspaper, I created bodies of work about different subjects; one of my first projects was the crime prevention unit in Hillbrow. I spent six months with police who worked undercover,” she says.
Right from the early days, Bieber and her camera tempted fate. She survived to win the prestigious World Press Photo of the year in 2010, for the photograph of a violated young woman in a refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The picture spoke a thousand horrifying words. It captured the 18-year-old Bibi Aisha who was dragged by her angry in-laws to a mountain where her Taliban soldier husband cut off her nose and ears. She was left for dead as punishment for running from her marriage to escape years of abuse. Aisha survived and ended up in the refugee camp where Bieber found her in 2010.
“It took the photograph in a very plain room. When I created the picture I asked Bibi through an interpreter to close her eyes and think about her inner beauty and her inner power and look at me. She did that and I took the photo. That’s the photograph they used. But I was very worried because I took her very empowered photograph. I thought I had failed because TIME would want something more vulnerable. TIME said it was the most iconic photograph they had seen. And it went on to win the award. For one year I traveled to about 20 countries and I gave talks to universities. I was in front of the cameras for the first time,” says Bieber.
Bieber’s photograph changed Aisha’s life. In August 2010, TIME magazine ran it on the cover. A family in the United States read the story and adopted Aisha and the Grossman Burn Foundation is paying for a reconstructive surgery on her nose.
“When I choose projects, it’s because I identify with the subject. Because I identify, I relate to it, that’s really why I want to do it. Hopefully through what I do I am also learning something from it. Yes, the aesthetic for me is as important as the content, definitely. I like to touch on the subjects that have some relevance to me,” says Bieber.
When FORBES AFRICA met Bieber in late November, she was going on a two-week assignment to Papua New Guinea to photograph women and children scarred by violence. Doctors Without Borders commissioned this project. A week earlier, South African National Gallery had closed an exhibition of her work called Between Darkness and Light; what she calls a mid-career retrospective. It ran for three months.
Bieber says she creates relationships within the communities, because there’s always an element of danger.
“For me, people are people even if they are criminals, if they know you they won’t touch you, they won’t try to hurt you. I went to Iraq but I never felt fearful but you always know that something might happen. But when I was attacked, I was photographing outside a restaurant in Cape Town. So you never know when you could be attacked. Life is not as predictable. That’s why my book is called Between Dogs and Wolves, a title from French phrase entre les chiens et loups,” says Bieber.
Work is a world away from where Bieber was born in 1966, in Hillbrow, central Johannesburg. She grew up in segregated South Africa and went to all-white schools. The system fostered rebellion in her soul.
“I don’t think art was embraced when I was growing up but I used to question things. I had a history teacher I am friends with now. He opened our eyes to what was happening in South Africa at the time. Remember in 1976 was when we first got television. It was a completely different time, but I remember seeing those yellow nyalas [a military vehicle], I knew something was not right in our society. So, I was very rebellious at high school. I had an opinion and I had a voice, I was not just following the crowd,” she says.
In 1993, aged 23, Bieber took a part-time course at Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg – the training ground for many successful African photographers – while she worked as a media planner for an advertising agency in Sandton, north of Johannesburg. After the course, Bieber left her job for a three-month trainee post at The Star. In 1996, she was one of 12 young world photographers selected for a week’s training in a World Press Masterclass in Rotterdam, Holland. This led to myriad awards at home and internationally.
Bieber’s expeditions are recorded in books: Real Beauty; which challenges stereotypes of beauty in South Africa, Soweto; about ordinary life in South Africa’s biggest township and Between Dogs And Wolves: Growing Up With South Africa, which documents the country for over a decade.
“All my work deals with issues relating to broader society and lots of it challenges the stereotypes that exist in the media,” says Bieber.
For two decades, Bieber’s work changed lives around the world and she vows to document the injustices. Her camera and her soul agree.

Jodi-main

The Restless Rebellious Soul Behind The Lens

On a balmy Johannesburg morning, we meet South African photographer and activist Zanele Muholi at the Stevenson Studios in Braamfontein, a colorful cultural hub north of the city. Here, we are surrounded by her collection of self-portraits. Everywhere you look is Muholi, each image stark in mood and meaning.
You turn to the real Muholi – the award-winning photographer known for her work exploring gender, race and sexuality – in flesh and blood, lost in thought, just like her portraits.
Incidentally, blood has been a prevailing topic in some of Muholi’s works.
For her collection, Visual Sexuality: Only Half the Picture, she photographed herself in front of the mirror, portraying her first experience of puberty, trying to figure out what it meant to be a woman. Understandably, it was a difficult shoot.
“It was perceived as taboo to talk about periods, whereas people could easily speak about rape and other issues affecting women,” says Muholi.
“Before I am anything in the world, I am a woman.”
The last of five children, Muholi, 43, was only a few months old when her father died. Born and schooled in Durban in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, those initial years were difficult.
Muholi earned her first salary at a factory producing linen in KwaZulu-Natal. Destiny tempted her in the form of a camera. She left the factory job hoping to bus it to the city of Johannesburg to study film and videography at the Film and Allied Workers Organization.
<div id="attachment_31550" style="width: 899px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31550" class="wp-image-31550 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-Ngonyama-II-Oslo-2015-1-889x1024.jpg" alt="" width="889" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-Ngonyama-II-Oslo-2015-1.jpg 889w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-Ngonyama-II-Oslo-2015-1-300x346.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-Ngonyama-II-Oslo-2015-1-600x691.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-Ngonyama-II-Oslo-2015-1-260x300.jpg 260w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-Ngonyama-II-Oslo-2015-1-768x885.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 889px) 100vw, 889px" />Somnyama-Ngonyama-II</div>
Unfortunately, her interview was unsuccessful and she wasn’t admitted to the program.
She ended up braiding hair at her tiny flat in Century Plaza, Johannesburg, to make ends meet. She realized she was quite creative at it.
But braid after braid, she was getting closer to her dream.
In 2003, she completed an Advanced Photography course at the famed Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, only three kilometers from the Stevenson Studios, where she now displays her self-portraits. In Newtown, she held a camera for the first time.
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“I have always wanted to tell human stories like lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex [stories]. I noticed there was a lack of visual material that spoke to our needs and I wanted to capture that,” says Muholi.
In 2009, she completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in documentary media at Ryerson University in Toronto.
One of her portraits, Hlengiwe (pictured below) is a tell-all on hate crime and discrimination.
“It refers to the number of cases that I have heard, especially from hate crime victims and survivors who didn’t have the courage to report it to the police because they were going to lose it [the case] anyway. As much as it’s a beautiful image, it’s one of those painful and exhausting stories,” says Muholi.
Passionate about “visual history” and women, Muholi says photography is her life. And she has always wondered why there were few female photographers – especially in history.
“There were so many historic moments and stories around us, but I didn’t see any woman capturing those` moments… I asked myself why women are not drawn to this career. If we could have female bus drivers, why would it be difficult for women to carry cameras? I mean a camera is not too heavy,” says Muholi.
In 2012, she faced a serious setback in her career when intruders broke into her flat in Cape Town and made off with her hard drives containing five years of unpublished photographic work. She believes it was sabotage.
<div id="attachment_31549" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31549" class="wp-image-31549 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-I-Paris-2014-1-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-I-Paris-2014-1.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-I-Paris-2014-1-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-I-Paris-2014-1-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-I-Paris-2014-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Somnyama-I-Paris-2014-1-768x1152.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Somnyama-I-Paris-2</div>
“Those people knew what they were doing, they’re were trying to slow me down,” she says.
Calling herself the first black lesbian to tell her life stories through a series of black and white self- portraits, the highlight of her career she says was displaying these portraits at a solo exhibition in Brooklyn, New York, in 2015.
“I felt I had arrived, I couldn’t slow down and that only death would stop me from doing what I love,” she says.
“One thing that people don’t know about me, I cry a lot and get really frustrated when I cannot be creative. So, I guess photography makes me happy.”
Currently busy with a new collection of photographs, Somnyama Ngonyama, meaning ‘hail, the dark lioness’, she has four published books and hopes to have at least 10 publications under her belt by 2020. And she wants to leave a legacy, like some of South Africa’s icons.
“I want to leave a mark just like the legendary Brenda Fassie and Miriam Makeba did with their music,” she says.
Life taught her resilience. Photography taught her about connecting. With the world. And herself.

Ndivile-II-Malmo-2014-9924-1

‘Only Death Would  Stop Me’

<h3>Bonang Matheba, 28 
Media entrepreneur</h3>
She beams down from billboards in South Africa, is a presenter on two premier TV lifestyle shows, was voted the most stylish and sexiest celebrity in the country, travels the world rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous but if fate hadn’t intervened, Matheba would be teaching pre-school children English. That was her dream, even with a distinction in matric.
“I am a Cancerian, I am a nurturer at heart. I love children and I just wanted to work with them but the wind blew me in a different direction and I’m really grateful, now I can’t imagine my life doing anything else.”
Matheba grew up in Mafikeng, in the North West province, surrounded by a family of academics. Her mother, a business executive, a stepfather lawyer and her professor father, were initially concerned when she didn’t follow the academic route but eventually made peace with her choice when they saw her focus and passion.
“I used to sing and dance and I loved being the center of attention from the age of seven or eight. I got attention from everyone, including my aunts and uncles, because I was the only child and grandchild for the longest time.”
At age 15, destiny would see her enrolling for a television presenting course. She was ushered into the world of television through SABC2’s Manhattan Fantasy but it was the music show Live on SABC1, with seven million viewers, that launched her career. She became a regular voice on YFM radio, and is now on MetroFM. Her popularity and exposure would soar to such heights that she became the first face of Revlon outside the United States.
None of this came easy for a woman with over a million followers on Twitter and over half a million on Instagram. She was turned down at least 25 times on auditions before her first break. Live rejected her six times, YFM ignored seven of her demos and Metro four.
“Top Billing as well, I went through an audition after an audition after an audition. You know with me I’m very resilient. There’s always a voice at the back of my mind that says push, push. People say no to me so many times but I’ve learnt that they are not rejecting me as a human being, it’s just that at that particular time I’m not what they are looking for,” says Matheba.
She also runs Bonang Matheba Entertainment (a production company) and has a lingerie line with Woolworths.
“Entertainment has a very short life span. For me, longevity has always been a very big part of it. The only way you do it is by expanding [your business] because, let’s face it, I won’t look like this for the rest of my life and I understood that from a very young age.”
The year 2016 for Queen B, as she’s known, is about giving back. She is sponsoring a young lady who wants to study her master’s. In September, she will be taking girls from across the country to a seven-day motivation camp.
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Caution: Millennials At Work

I will never again say I can’t do anything!” declares 14-year-old Kyle Grant from Mitchells Plain, a crime-riddled township of Cape Town. This young dance student has just witnessed the exhilarating New York-based Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s (AAADT) mini-performance for school children at the city’s largest theater.
Similar sentiments were repeated by youngsters throughout the weeks this modern dance company was on tour in South Africa. By night, the professional dancers performed to standing ovations by paying audiences. By day, the artistes, many who have danced on the biggest stages of the world, taught in cramped classrooms and community halls. They traveled into townships to welcome groups of wide-eyed youngsters into theater rehearsal studios for hour-long lessons.
Over and over they would repeat the maxim which company founder, the late Alvin Ailey, who in 1958 created the dance company rooted in African-American culture, lived by: “Dance came from the people. We must take it back to the people.” The dance company does just this. It moves past the plush seats and well-heeled audiences and down the byways to halls with broken windows and children with holes in their socks but dance in their souls.
On a damp spring morning at Bonga Primary School in Gugulethu, a township 20 minutes from the Cape Town city center, children crowd into a studio created in a small shipping container. Young students of iKapa Dance Theatre gaze at the elegant form of Samuel Lee Roberts, company dancer and former student of the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. His energy is infectious and soon he has them doing head rolls, rises and turns.
“Are we having fun? You guys are brilliant, when I leave you are going to take my job!” he says to the bouncing, and giggling, children.
Artistic Director, Robert Battle, whose elegant shoes fill the huge ones left by Ailey and his successor, the acclaimed Judith Jamison, watches from a corner.
This tour is his first to Africa and one that has touched him.
<div id="attachment_31784" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31784" class="wp-image-31784 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Aileys-historic-2015-Tour-to-South-Africa-Hope-Boykin-teaching-master-class-at-Moving-Into-Dance-in-Newton.-Photo-by-Andrew-Eccles-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Aileys-historic-2015-Tour-to-South-Africa-Hope-Boykin-teaching-master-class-at-Moving-Into-Dance-in-Newton.-Photo-by-Andrew-Eccles.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Aileys-historic-2015-Tour-to-South-Africa-Hope-Boykin-teaching-master-class-at-Moving-Into-Dance-in-Newton.-Photo-by-Andrew-Eccles-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Aileys-historic-2015-Tour-to-South-Africa-Hope-Boykin-teaching-master-class-at-Moving-Into-Dance-in-Newton.-Photo-by-Andrew-Eccles-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Aileys-historic-2015-Tour-to-South-Africa-Hope-Boykin-teaching-master-class-at-Moving-Into-Dance-in-Newton.-Photo-by-Andrew-Eccles-768x513.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Ailey’s 2015 tour to South Africa – Boykin taking a master class</div>
“The community outreach program has been cathartic. It’s definitely the most crystalized and distilled version of what Alvin Ailey wanted the company to be about. Every dancer has just cried or been completely transformed and informed about what they can be. This lets us know that what we do matters,” he says.
Down a corridor, former gangster, Yamkela Bambata (21), is helping AAADT dancer, Michael McBride (21), translate his instructions into Xhosa. He eases between arching arms and squeezes past desks pushed against the wall. A senior dancer with iKapa, Bambata has a moment of disbelief that he is assisting AAADT dancers.
“This means a lot to me. I’ve been Googling them and watching their videos… When I saw them arrive I thought: ‘Is this real?’”
Bambata, who says he was born to dance, was caught at the age of 13, like many other township children, in the violent grip of a gang. But dance would prove to be his escape.
“It gave me the power of knowing what I want. When I dance everything just goes from my mind. Whatever you are going through, dance will help you get through it,” he says.
It is something that is unwittingly echoed by AAADT dancer, Jeroboam Bozeman. Tall and muscular, he co-teaches a class of Amoyo Performing Arts Foundation dancers at another venue the following day.
“When did you start dancing?” asks a student after the teaching session.
Bozeman’s story floors the children.
“For years I didn’t speak. I was mute. I was silent. I experienced something so traumatic that I made a decision not to speak. Dance is what got me to speak – nothing is more fulfilling than what dance brought me. But you have to be constantly working, every day, 24/7 to be great,” he says.
This is the beauty of the dance theater’s program. It reaches out and offers something beyond how to extend a leg and balance on tiptoe. It gives children hope. It also imprints the fact that with effort there is much to gain. It’s a message that Revelations, Ailey’s masterpiece, with its theme of moving from slavery to freedom, does every time it is performed.
Hope Boykin, a company dancer for 15 years, may be short in stature but she is a giant in spirit. The downbeat exterior of the hall in Gugulethu, where she is conducting a masterclass to senior students, belies what is happening inside. Boykin is guiding them through a series of moves from Revelations.
“This is your drama, your fears, your troubles and you are going to get through them,” she urges. “And ladies, make sure you don’t get stuck behind. Remember: small is a state of mind!”
And with that, heads lift, confidence grows and the energy shifts from people being told what to do to dancers finding their own feet and wings to fly through the air.
Theo Ndindwa, co-founder of iKapa with his wife Tanya Arshamian, reflects on what the AAADT program means.
“It’s like seeing ourselves in the future. We want the children to get that from seeing them. I trained in the townships through NGOs. I’ve been down that route. Dance has the power to change individuals. It teaches discipline. It’s very hard work. We come from a hard country. The government must provide rooves over our heads, but it is art that fuels the individual to carry a community.”
Four days later, the city’s Artscape Theatre is brimming with hundreds of schoolchildren. The velvet curtain rises revealing a dancer slowly moving in a twinkling dress to Duke Ellington’s rhythms.
“Yoh!” shouts a youngster. “Is it real? I can’t believe it!”
Chrishande Maarman, 17, who has traveled overnight on a bus from a small town 500 kilometers away, is ecstatic.
“It was amazing to see them live. It has inspired us to be and do better. If I work hard I know I can do it.”
It is these moments that transform lives. Thomas Cott, AAADT Senior Director of Marketing and Creative Content, knows this and is a happy man. He has watched Ailey’s vision unfold in South Africa.
“Even if just one child walks away and thinks ‘maybe I can be creative’ we have succeeded. If we can help them think of other possibilities and just give them the self-confidence, it has worked.”

Alvin-Ailey-American-Dance-Theaters-Hope-Boykin-in-front-of-the-Orlando-Towes-in-Soweto.-Photo-by-Andrew-Eccles

Changing Lives One Dance Step  At A Time

In a decade of dancing, I’ve experienced so many magical moments; it leaves me wondering what else I can contribute in my life and career. One of those moments was a surreal juncture in my fledgling dance profession. I stepped onto the stage of one of the most beautiful theaters in the world. I was asked to represent my nation as Holland played host to a meeting of greats. At a tender age of 20, I was center stage.
In 2002, the South African embassy in The Hague hosted the Faranani! concert at the Royal Carre Theatre in Amsterdam, at which the late Nelson Mandela was the guest of honor. Faranani!, meaning togetherness in the Venda language, was a concert promoting peace, reconciliation and unity between South Africa and the Netherlands, a relationship spanning 350 years. I danced for Madiba and the Dutch royal family with a company of acclaimed South African artists. Through the arts, these two nations commemorate the past.
For the royal family and the rest of the Dutch audience I might have been a symbol of the unusual, the unexpected act of an African woman in Europe dancing a Russian classic. In my heart, however, I was dancing for Mandela and South Africa. I felt like a cultural ambassador crossing borders, inviting audiences to journey with me until the last few breaths of The Dying Swan. As a ballerina, this honor represented  my country’s struggle against a colonial past as well as my struggle to beat the odds as a black woman on pointe in a tutu.
It was a high point in my career and the wonderful memories stick with me to this day. A sense of duty stirs inside of me, sparked by the opportunity to dance for a global hero while on a mission to unite.
Today, a world away, I find myself fulfilling this duty at a dusty makeshift primary school in a township I called home. Alexandra, in Johannesburg, sets the stage for another kind of Faranani! concert in schools for thousands of culture-hungry children electrified by ballet performances in their playgrounds. This is part of my journey as I keep working to take my art and craft outside the garlanded stages of glamorous theaters.
As we mourned the passing of the father of South Africa, I felt the weight of history on my shoulders. That service to my country, which began at the age of 20, continues in celebration of Mandela’s legacy. Inspiring children in the townships is a humbling responsibility I take with pride. The future of these children will be determined by the choices they make and the freedom to believe they can achieve whatever they put their heart and mind into. Following your passion and working towards a dream becomes possible when the struggle of the past is broken. I hope that I can help the children realize that the destitution of a township can result in the beauty and grace of a ballerina.
Touring the world and dancing for dignitaries has its allure, but the shows in Johannesburg are the ones that are most fulfilling. Ballet helps to develop the image of South Africa, a country once segregated from the rest of the world, and entices an international flair to Johannesburg.
Making history is dancing on home soil as the only South African ballerina in galas with the New York City Ballet. Forging peace and unity is dancing on a stage with friends from Kiev and Moscow amid the recent unrest between Ukraine and Russia. Coming home is my affirmation of a passion for a nation that can use ballet to create Faranani!.

CTP3336

From A Township To A Tutu

What makes a made-in-Africa handbag desired by women around the world?
It’s the ingenuity of the designer, who works craft into commerce, and elevates an age-old street art to the realms of global fashion. Akosua Afriyie-Kumi, founder of AAKS (pronounced ‘axe’) luxury handbags in Ghana, has done just that, slowly reviving a Ghanaian craft and taking the colors of Africa to the world.
The timing couldn’t be more perfect, as African fashion, design and art are now center stage internationally.
An AAKS handbag is vibrant; its creator infuses it with hues reminiscent of the rich red earth, the sweet yellow ripeness of mangoes, or the deep greens and blues of an African coast.
Being a creative had long been a part of Afriyie-Kumi’s life in Ghana, where she was born and grew up until the age of 19.
Fashion was a logical choice for her, but it proved difficult to study it in Ghana as the country offered no formal means of education in the arts at the time.
Afriyie-Kumi chose to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she completed her studies at Oxford Brookes University and Kingston University, graduating in 2009. By the time she was ready to return to Ghana in 2013, she had interned for luxury womenswear label Peter Pilotto and British designer Matthew Williamson.
By then, she had already been toying with the idea of creating woven bags.
“I knew that there was basket-making in Ghana. Before, I was thinking I’ll stay in the UK and do it from there, then realized it’s best if I [go back],” says Afriyie-Kumi.
“It was me really coming to Ghana and seeing baskets around, and I felt [that] nobody has reinvented this product. It was just a basket being sold by the roadside, and nobody had moved it on.
“I felt I would be the best person to do that with my fashion background, to be able to push it to another level, and make it more [about] luxury.”
Returning to Ghana to start a business wasn’t easy though: she had to travel to the north of Ghana, almost 12 hours way from her home in the south, with no guarantee the weavers would be able to bring her vision to life.
Ghana, like many other African countries, may not be vast in size but makes up for it with its multiple languages.
Twi is more widely spoken in the south of Ghana, and Frafra is its equivalent in the north, which meant conversing with the weavers was a challenge for Afriyie-Kumi. And they were also used to weaving with straw, as opposed to raffia, the core material of her handbags.
Despite the initial hurdles, Afriyie-Kumi launched her brand in 2014; the handbags are handcrafted by women from 100% local material sourced in Ghana.They are stocked in stores in the UK, United States, South Africa and Kenya. The retail price for a small AAKS bag starts at £67 ($98), and from £210 ($306) for a larger piece. Whoever said there was no money in indigenous natural fiber?

Akosua-AAKS

Bag And Forth

Growing up in Ulundi, in KwaZulu-Natal, Pearl Khethiwe Thusi would watch her mother sew her own clothes at home.
“I was fascinated to comprehend how ideas could be translated into tangible products,” says Thusi.
Those were her first lessons in creativity. In 2007, she completed a three-year diploma in Clothing and Textile at the Durban University of Technology, and relocated to Cape Town, where she worked for a few years. Soon, she launched her label, Pearls for EL, in 2012, designing and manufacturing genuine leather bags and African apparel for men and women.
Starting with 100 leather bags, sold through direct marketing, the brand gained recognition in the first eight months of its inception. Thusi became known as the ‘Bag Lady’, and secured trading space at Durban’s high-end boutiques. She soon opened her own studio in Glenwood, Durban.
Although she often travels to London, Turkey, and the United Kingdom to exhibit and connect with potential customers and investors, Thusi says her customer is here in Africa.
Of late, she has been doing business in North Africa, where she sees potential. In 2014, she supplied 1,000 leather bags, each worth $68, to Air Zimbabwe stewardesses. She also bagged a R3.4 million ($240,000) deal with Zambia Police, and has a continuing partnership with them. Thusi tells us more:
&nbsp;
What challenges have you faced as a woman in the industry?
&nbsp;
I think not many challenges as a woman but just as a general South African. Issues of funding are still a challenge. Often entrepreneurs want to implement ideas now. It is wonderful to have ideas but implementation requires finance which is a long process for approval and response.
&nbsp;
How would you inspire others with your clothing?
&nbsp;
I would like to see women believe in themselves and their dreams. We can’t all be entrepreneurs but in whatever space we play in, let’s do our best with good intentions and motives. Walk away fulfilled after executing a project, give it your best, be genuine and authentic and make your presence felt by being you.
How can businesses or corporates invest in local designers?
&nbsp;
By looking for ‘ideas that can change the world’. It takes time and patience to develop solid leads for investors. I think designers need to start creating and solving problems for today and the future through sustainable production of raw materials to the end product. You can attract investors for a small business with preparation, planning, strategy and proper research. Finding an investor may be the key to launching a start-up business successfully.
&nbsp;
Where do you see African fashion going?
&nbsp;
It looks exciting. More and more designers are focusing on producing quality products, utilizing different and exciting materials. So this really gives a sense of individuality amongst the designers and quite frankly, consumers do want to look different from what’s been offered in the past. Social media also puts pressure for consumers to always look relevant, so designers score here.

IMG-20151103-WA0010

Bagging It!

If you don’t know where you’re from, you can’t know where you’re going. This phrase has never rung truer for thousands of African Americans who have embarked on personal journeys to trace their lineage beyond the shores of the United States (US), back to Africa.
Not since Alex Haley, the American-born Pulitzer Prize winning author of Roots, traced his genealogy to The Gambia in the late 1970s has there been such a thirst for this knowledge. The release of the movie 12 Years a Slave two years ago renewed the interest. Today, science elevates the searches according to Gina Paige, the CEO of African Ancestry, the company pioneering the tracing of ancestry in the US using DNA.
“Other companies can only determine whether an ancestry is African. [Our company] is the first to use the science of DNA to trace maternal and/or paternal ancestry, not just to Africa but to a specific present day African country of origin and ethnic group,” says Paige.
Celebrating its tenth year, the African American-owned firm Paige co-founded with geneticist, Rick Kittles, utilizes its DNA database of more than 25,000 indigenous African samples from nearly 400 African ethnic groups representing 35 African countries. This allows for a high level of detail, accuracy and confidence in its assessments.
The tests use cheek swabs and results are delivered electronically in around six weeks.
“We successfully determine ancestry over 99 percent of the time,” says Paige.
“We find identical matches for approximately 85 percent of the people we test. For the remaining people, we find closely related lineages with greater than 95 percent confidence.”
The firm’s results have impacted the lives of more than 150,000 African American families, individuals, and global icons including Oprah Winfrey, US Ambassador Andrew Young, Condoleezza Rice, Martin Luther King, Jr., posthumously; Oscar-winning actors Louis Gossett, Jr., and Whoopi Goldberg; and Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington, who became the first African American to receive dual citizenship as a result of DNA confirmation.
Not only do the DNA results change the lives of African Americans connecting with their past, they also boost the economies of the newfound African homelands through philanthropic and investment efforts from their long lost citizens.
Security specialist, Brian Williams, used African Ancestry to trace his lineage to the Ga tribe of Ghana. Six months later, he traveled to the West African nation in search of his people.
“During my first visit, I saw an elder who looked identical to my aunt who raised me. I saw her in a marketplace and couldn’t take my eyes off her. The guide brought me to her and she explained in her native language that I looked like her grandfather who was sent to the States and never came back,” he says.
“She introduced me to a group of elders and a linguist who started asking me questions. They accepted me into their group and put me through a traditional naming ceremony. Before long, I was enstooled as Chief Nii Arde Anum I, the Noa Mantse (development chief) of three Ghanaian villages.”
Still living in the US, Williams visits Ghana every three to four months to fulfill his chiefly duties of building up the visibility of the villages and collecting much-needed education supplies.
“On my second trip to Ghana, a man who sat one seat away from me on the plane told me he purchased a hotel in Cape Coast, located about two hours outside of the capital city of Accra. Three months later, I invested in the hotel and became head of security,” says Williams.
He is now CEO of the oceanfront Sanaa Lodge hotel. He has also created a business venture and school that trains security professionals throughout the country.
Randy Williams, who is unrelated to Brian, decided to not just go back but to give back after tracing his lineage to the Fula people of Guinea-Bissau. A truck driver by trade, Williams started the non-profit organization, From Your Heart to the World, using his own money and donations.
“Taking the ancestry test was initially all about finding my purpose. Then, after I visited, I said, ‘I gotta do more,’” he says.
He collects clothing, educational supplies, toys and medical supplies and ships it to the needy parts of the country.
“Our clients have built schools, created businesses and invested not just in their African brothers and sisters, but also Africa’s economy. It’s why we are serious about helping people better understand who they are,” says Paige.
African Ancestry is not restricted to tracing lineages from Africa. It also introduced myDNAmix, a product that determines ancestries from Native Americans, East Asia, Europe and India.
For 10 years and counting, African Ancestry is filling in the holes in people’s history and reconnecting them to the continent.

tinseltown-2

Brother From Another Motherland

Two 11-year-olds, one from Madagascar, the other from Angola, go to class together in a French school in Niger. That may have been their first lesson in diversity.
But if their paths crossed then, in the years following their respective departures to Paris and Montreal, they crossed again, before they finally settled in Brussels and formed a company together.
Urban and culturally-aware, Andrianina Sidibé and Cláudia Pita-Grós, both 36 today, can best be described as ‘Afropolitans’, a word first used by West African writer Taiye Selasi who explained it as “Africans of the world”.
It is to this world that Sidibé and Pita-Grós want to commit Africa, doing what they both know best: fashion. Their clothing company MeyNö, born out of the contraction of Niamey, Niger’s capital city, where they first met, and Noah, Sidibé’s son and Pita-Grós’ godchild, was founded to promote African print and home-grown talent, in the process sharing a rich tapestry of cross-cultural experiences. The handmade clutches and accessories they fashion are testament to their ethos.
“We grew up in Africa; our wish is to make our continent shine by its know-how and richness,” they chorus.
Their company is based in France and they have an online store. Sidibé and Pita-Grós share more thoughts on Africa and its future in fashion:
How did the partnership come about?
Since we were young we were both passionate about fashion; and as we grew up, we both knew that one day we would have to make our contribution, in our own way, to make Africa famous all over the world for its greatness and know-how in different fields.
&nbsp;
Why African print?
We believe that our fabrics and prints are one of the riches we have in common all over the continent. Each country and region has its fabric (wax, bogolan, bazin, kente, capulana) and we wanted to glorify this part of our culture.
While African fabrics often serve as inspiration for foreign fashion collections, we wanted to create our own brand with a mix of these fabrics together with other materials mostly coming from different African countries and, most of all, 100% made in Africa.
&nbsp;
What is the current state of Africa’s fashion industry?
South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria certainly play the leading role. There’s a fashion industry for sure. Locally-known, most of this industry is still composed of tailors that do custom-made rather than prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear), whereas on the international level, so many designers are nowadays well-known all over the world, such as Marianne Fassler (South African) and Shade Thomas-Fahm (Nigerian). We also have strong fashion actors such as first Dr Precious [Motsepe] and also Adama Paris (from Senegal) who have created famous events in Africa like the Dakar Fashion Week, Johannesburg and Cape Town fashion weeks, Fashion Africa, and we also have Brazza Fashion Night, that have widely contributed in building African fashion’s worldwide fame.
&nbsp;
There has been a lot of push, particularly from South Africa&#8217;s fashion industry, to break into the international markets, such as the United States. Is this attainable?
It is true that particularly since Dr Precious has created the fashion weeks in South Africa, the push to break into the international markets have been obvious. We can say the goal was undoubtedly attained when we see worldwide famous artistes such as Solange Knowles and Beyoncé or Rihanna wear clothes with African prints. We don’t think it is vital, but of course we cannot deny that it helps us make people aware that we have a lot of richness in our countries: raw materials, know-how and overall our people.
&nbsp;
What type of investments will boost the industry?
We think that investments in training, mechanization and processing of raw material such as cotton should be reinforced.
&nbsp;
How can policy help?
Africa faces political challenges such as market integrations and infrastructure [transport fees are incredibly high whether by air or by sea, because of the taxes and the lack of proactive policies that would favor employment]. In consequence, some companies would rather buy material from China than from a neighbor. In our case, the materials used to manufacture our products come mainly from African countries (DRC, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast) and routing between those different countries is not always easy. Transportation between Burkina Faso and DRC, for instance, must pass through France, which generates significant costs and lengthening delays.
Government funding for fashion students to start their collections, travel to fashion shows and exhibit their collections is one of the ways in which new policies could help accelerate the growth. We have also noticed that some local craftsmen find difficulties in buying their engines and other equipment. As a result, despite their obvious talent, they struggle to live off their know-how and passion.
&nbsp;
What is the role of young people in this trade?
Creativity! The ‘inventivité’ (ingenuity) of some young artistes, designers or musicians has no boundaries. Just by looking at people’s style in the streets of cities like Kinshasa or Luanda, you realize how creative younger generations may be; and demanding too. It forces the industry to renew itself over and over again.

INNA

Cut  From The Same Cloth

We meet Ofuakuor Ofuatey-Kodjoe, popular as Ofie Kodjoe, in her beautiful home in Tesano, a suburb in Accra famous for one of the country’s first sports clubs. A person with multiple talents deserves multiple adjectives to describe her. Suffice to say she is one of the most pleasant, inspirational, witty, intelligent and down-to-earth personalities you will meet in Ghana.
Kodjoe has had a multifaceted career, from being a corporate executive at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Networks in New York and an award-winning singer to launching three successful businesses and her own radio show in Accra.
Kodjoe, along with her brother and sister, were raised in New York; her dad was a professor of political science and her mother a nurse. The family’s plan was for Kodjoe to attend law school but she changed her mind half-way and switched to medicine. She finally ended up studying political science and African studies.
That was not the end of her academic ambitions. Her real aim was to study music.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30978 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Ofie2-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ofie2-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ofie2-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ofie2.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
“When I was 19, I went to my dad and told him I wanted to go to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he looked at me like I had six heads and said ‘no’,” says Kodjoe, who was too scared to fight, and instead settled for her dad’s career choice – political science and African studies – a decision she regrets.
She went to the City University of New York; her dad ensured she excelled in all subjects. She would rehearse with a band after class while still achieving 18 credits in school. After graduation, the logical progression was corporate America because music was not as lucrative as she had hoped. She managed to get into BET, one of the biggest media houses in America, rising to the position of Director of Corporate Travel and Corporate Services.
Alongside, Kodjoe still maintained her love for music.
“I was with a band and I was singing so I had this corporate parallel to my creative side and I loved it.”
But tragedy struck, and it changed her life. The first setback was when Kodjoe’s brother died of cardiomegaly (an enlarged heart condition) in his sleep. Two years later, her father underwent heart surgery to fix a broken valve; he also suffered from a kidney condition.
“I realized we didn’t have that much time left with him, maybe two years, so we decided to come back home,” says Kodjoe.
It was her father’s wish for the children to relocate to Ghana to give back to the country he so loved. It was a traumatic period. The loss of the two men in her life took a toll on her.
In Ghana, Kodjoe set up a management consulting business with her business partner to teach young Ghanaians to become successful in the workplace and also advice organizations on getting the best out of their workforce.
She set up another company, Moka Entertainment, which got its big break when BET came to Ghana to do a reality show. Its success led to various production contracts. Kodjoe was falling in love with music again. Her sound is a cross between Afro Jazz and Neo Soul. The highlight of her career was opening for the BET Celebration of Gospel event in Los Angeles and also for BET Walk Of Fame, which was celebrating American icons like Smokey Robinson.
She has also performed for the President of Liberia. In her weekly radio show on the hit ‘adult alternative station’, Atlantis Radio, in Accra, she spends her time covering inspirational topics that encourage listeners to look at the upside no matter their ordeal. She spends her time mentoring young talent through her management label, which has a roster of top R&amp;B singers from across Africa. Her biggest regret though is the lack of support for music.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30979 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/unnamed2-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/unnamed2-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/unnamed2-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/unnamed2-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/unnamed2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/unnamed2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/unnamed2.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
“I didn’t have the guts to say I don’t care what you think, I am going to do it anyway,” she says of her journey into it.
This regret led her to found yet another company, Onyx Management, geared towards helping young people understand their purpose and passion – even if they have to fight to make it happen. Her motto is live life, love life and live love.
Accra’s youth stay tuned.

Ofie1

The Corporate Creative

What would you call a person who makes a living teaching women 50 different ways to wrap their heads? A headwrap artiste? Or savvy entrepreneur?
This is serious business, it seems. There are in fact ‘headwrap parties’ and ‘headwrap expos’ around the world exploring the art of headwrapping and the cultures that promote them. We have seen A-listers such as Jennifer Lopez endorsing this trend. Needless to say, the headwrap, worn as a crown or symbol of power and beauty, is currently enjoying its fashion moment.
And where else but Africa to monetize this style, where headwraps are already entrenched in tradition? Known as tuku, originating from the Tswana tribe (one of the major ethnic groups in South Africa), these accessories are made of colorful two-meter long shweshwe fabric, and artfully twisted and layered on in head-turning styles.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30975 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Olga-090-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Olga-090-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Olga-090-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Olga-090-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Olga-090.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Thirty-year-old Olga Mtshweni, the headwrap artiste in question, seems to have mastered this craft. Raised in Soshanguve, a small township north of South African capital Pretoria, Mtshweni was always surrounded by older women who donned these accessories. But her greatest influence was herself. She never opted for braids or weaves, but chose to go ‘natural’, adorning herself with headwraps, meant both to protect (in cooler months) and be a fashion statement. She started experimenting with various looks and devised her own wrapping styles. The exercise was her “creative outlet” beyond a lackluster nine-to-five office job.
After high school, Mtshweni enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in Information Science at the University of Pretoria. A corporate job was the likely outcome, as she worked for big corporations Microsoft and Standard Bank. It was only a matter of time before she gave it all up to start her own company, Wrapsody, in December 2014.
“I got very frustrated of the corporate world, I had no life outside of work and I wasn’t very happy with that because I do have other interests and other passions outside of work,’’ says Mtshweni.
She had been toying with the concept in her head for a while. A social media campaign, consisting of YouTube tutorials, also helped measure the demand for her skills. She claims Wrapsody soon received orders from clients, including celebrities and corporate companies.
From the R30,000 ($2,100) she had saved before she left her corporate job, she used R4,000 ($290) for her first bulk purchase of the shweshwe fabric.
Headwraps to her are not mere pieces of fabric, but are regal and an art form that promotes culture and revives the spirit of African beauty. Mtshweni’s styles include what she calls Giant Flower, Bow With An Attitude, The Badu, Front Swirl, Twisties and Tower of Power.
She hopes to one day work with such names as American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu, who wore mesmerizing headwraps even before they were even considered cool. African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is also on her wish-list, who she says exudes African beauty and pride – “You will never catch her without a headwrap”.
Mtshweni oversees a team of four – a seamstress, two models and a part-time photographer. Her online store sells headscarves made of African fabric, and she offers her services for headwrap parties, tutorials and workshops.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30977 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Olga-061-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Olga-061-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Olga-061-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Olga-061-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Olga-061.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
She is currently looking to open her own boutique, and continues to use her IT skills to do freelance work to support her start-up business.
Her enterprise seems to be based on a simple premise, as she says: “Do what you can with what you have.”
What keeps Mtshweni driven? It’s believing in her idea, more than anyone else.
“The hustling can be quite draining, but I know that it will eventually take off.”
When that happens, it will be her crowning glory.

Olga-117

A Head For Business

The words “the medium is the message” coined by Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan seem apt for Nigerian designer Mai Atafo. He truly is the best medium and model of his work.
When we meet him, the always-immaculate Atafo is dressed in a clean cut black suit, white shirt, yellow tie and socks. His minimalist, unpretentious – and rather understated like the man himself – eponymous shop is located in the heart of Victoria Island, Nigeria. He strides in to meet two new clients in search of the perfect bespoke suit. They have come to the right place.
Pieces of clothing featuring traditional Nigerian design mingle with modern eclectic prints on the racks in the open-plan shop floor. The Mai Atafo brand is known for its Savile Row masterpieces. To the uninitiated, Savile Row is a street in central London known for its bespoke tailoring, and Atafo is a Savile Row Training Academy-certified tailor, of both men’s and women’s suits.
After listening to the new clients and their brief, he asks: “Why do you want this style?” An understanding of what the client is looking for sets the premise for the ensuing four weeks that will go into producing a unique, bespoke suit, typically costing anywhere upwards of N200,000 ($1,000). This level of perfection and attention to detail has earned Atafo an enviable reputation amongst his peers in Nigeria’s fashion industry, and beyond.
Fashion had not always been Atafo’s calling. When he was younger, music was his first love. He was told that as a two-year-old, he only walked when he heard music, and resumed his crawling position when it stopped.
“Until I was 10 years old, all I ever wanted was a guitar, but unfortunately my parents never got it for me otherwise I would be making hits instead,” says Atafo.
His dream of becoming “the next Michael Jackson” was not on the tarot cards though. The sixth of seven siblings, he thankfully also grew up with a keen eye for fashion.
“To me it was more important to look good than to eat,” he says.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30959" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Mai8-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai8-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai8-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai8.jpg 387w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30958" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Mai7-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai7-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai7-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai7.jpg 387w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30956" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/MaiA2-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MaiA2-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MaiA2-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MaiA2.jpg 387w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
After acquiring a degree in Agricultural Economics and a master’s degree in Information Systems in the United Kingdom (UK), Atafo decided to stay on in the West. After five years, he decided it was not for him.
“I decided one day that I am more than a statistic, I am more than yet another African looking to make it in the UK, so I took a chance and decided to relocate back home.”
He secured his first job in the research department at British American Tobacco where he stayed for four years after which a stint at Guinness Nigeria PLC followed as an Innovation Manager and then later as brand manager. While at Guinness, Atafo decided to start his fashion career on the side.
And what was Atafo’s trigger?
“My sleeve length is 27 inches which is quite long because the average length is 25 inches, as a result, I struggled to get clothes that fit.”
So he decided to get his own clothes tailored; a practice from secondary school. There was another impetus. A friend was getting married and the groom’s men decided to upstage the bridesmaids. Atafo designed a range of African print-inspired waist coats and matching trousers in lilac and purple that were an instant hit and after replicating the style for five subsequent weddings, Atafo decided to go with his heart and enter fashion, full-throttle.
“I saved money that was equivalent to my one year salary and decided to take the chance. I said to myself, if in one year it doesn’t work, the worst that can happen is I will be a brand manager again.”
That was never to be – he has only worked for himself since.
Five years on, his brand is the recipient of top accolades in the highly-competitive Nigerian fashion industry. Developing the brand was not without challenges though, especially in light of the perception that it is more acceptable to pay higher prices for bespoke pieces made in the West than for those produced locally.
Even though Atafo holds the certificate from London’s elite bespoke tailoring school, he says he still encounters variables of this perception.
“I remember once a customer came to me with a $4,000 Tom Ford suit from the ready-to-wear range. However, the suit was ill-fitting and I was going to charge less than $1,000 to have it tailored and yet the customer complained that the price was way too much.”
Atafo believes it is still a long way before luxury African brands are fully acknowledged. However, he is in no hurry to open up shops abroad. Far from the contrary, Atafo is a proudly Nigerian brand, the name ‘Mai Atafo Inspired’ is born from what influences him the most – his strong Nigerian heritage. He is on a mission to create the first African bespoke brand for the international market, and be a cut above the rest.

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