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The Aesthetics of Excess: Luxury Fashion Guide And Maximalism Trends In South Africa

Covering five of South Africa’s nine provinces, FORBES AFRICA looks at some gorgeous getaways as the year wraps up and it’s time to hit the road.



If you’re looking for forest trails, waterfalls and rock pools, sand dunes by the sea, mountains and majestic views, long plains and starlit nights, or elephants and giraffe, South Africa has every kind of vista you can visit. Here’s a list of a few choice getaways – ranging from cheap to chic.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KwaZulu-Natal</h2>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Sasi-Bush-Lodge-KwaZulu-Natal-by-Rogan-Kerr-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57079" width="620" height="413" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Sasi-Bush-Lodge-KwaZulu-Natal-by-Rogan-Kerr-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Sasi-Bush-Lodge-KwaZulu-Natal-by-Rogan-Kerr-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Sasi-Bush-Lodge-KwaZulu-Natal-by-Rogan-Kerr-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Sasi-Bush-Lodge-KwaZulu-Natal-by-Rogan-Kerr-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Sasi-Bush-Lodge-KwaZulu-Natal-by-Rogan-Kerr-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" /><figcaption>Photo by Rogan Kerr</figcaption></figure></div>


In the Northern Drakensburg sits Sasi Bush Lodge; with luxury tents, hikes, massages, bush breakfasts and more. Just 3.5 hours from O R Tambo Airport in Johannesburg and three hours from King Shaka Airport in Durban, this destination holiday provides an inexpensive experience than a stay at the Kruger National Park, starting from R2,000 ($117) per night for adults. Sasi Bush Lodge has also tried to re-wild the lands and remove the alien vegetation in the area.



Emzemvelo accommodation covers an incredible range of scenery, from the Big Five to the stunning mountains of the Drakensburg. If you get the Golden Rhino card at R250 ($15) per person, there’s discounts out of season and free entry at Emzemvelo Parks. One of the many options with accommodation include a two-bedroom mountain view chalet at Giant’s Castle, breakfast included, for R1,400 ($82), during peak season. Another great spot is Hluhluwe, replete with the Big Five, at R1,750 ($102) for a two-bedroom chalet. Campsites like Cobham go for R85 ($5) during peak season, while Garden Castle camping goes for the same.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Western Cape</h2>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Africamps-view-in-Cederberg-by-Rogan-Kerr-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57074" width="672" height="448" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Africamps-view-in-Cederberg-by-Rogan-Kerr-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Africamps-view-in-Cederberg-by-Rogan-Kerr-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Africamps-view-in-Cederberg-by-Rogan-Kerr-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Africamps-view-in-Cederberg-by-Rogan-Kerr-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Africamps-view-in-Cederberg-by-Rogan-Kerr-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px" /><figcaption>Photo by Rogan Kerr</figcaption></figure></div>


In Cederberg, Western Cape, there’s de Pakhuys, a camping, glamping or chalet style accommodation, nestled in a valley, with a rocky terrain to go bouldering on or hiking, a waterfall walk and stunning stars over fields of flowers. The Africamps&#8217; custom-designed glamping tents go for R977 ($57) per person sharing, complete with a private wood-fired hot tub and bathroom with luxurious rain shower, among other facilities.



Also in Cederberg, Western Cape, is the Gecko Creek Wilderness Lodge, a self-catering private nature reserve that borders the Cederberg Reserve, and a short distance away is the Olifants River. It offers twin cabins and tents overlooking the valley full of Fynbos and wildflowers, and a salt water swimming pool. Activities include waterfall walks, hiking to caves and treks such as the Wolfberg Cracks and Wolfberg Arch, Maltese Cross and Sneeuberg. There’s also Leopard’s Rock with indigenous San Rock Paintings, and the famous Elephant Rock formation, bouldering, horse-riding, wine-tasting nearby, and canoeing – if you have your own canoe. Self-camping is between R150-R190 ($8-$11) per person a night, safari tents sleeping two are R250-R290 ($15-$17), cabins are R450-R490 ($26-$29) per person per night, and cottages are R1,250-R1,500 ($75-$87) per person per night. None of them have electricity, as manager Shivani Ghai says, “It’s more about the rugged outdoors and the stars without any light pollution.” They do have WiFi. They’re already quite booked up for December and January, so email to inquire about available days.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Eastern Cape</h2>



Hogsback in the Amatola Mountains is perfect for hikes through moss-covered forests and views of mist in the morning in valleys below. Named after the rocky ridge that resembles a hog’s back, it offers many places to stay – quintessentially, The Edge, replete with cottages perched on a cliff overlooking a valley or Airbnbs in the forest. The latter can cost less than R1,000 ($58), with pet-friendly or family friendly options available. Mountain and waterfall hikes abound, with a tiny village of chocolate shops and places to eat.



In Morgan’s Bay is In The Green Backpackers, a pet-friendly and eco-friendly accommodation, one kilometer away from the beach and lagoon, surrounded by greenery. The whole house is built out of recycled material, with a vegetable patch, and various walls made out of cob, a natural building material made from subsoil, water, fibrous organic material like straw, and sometimes lime. In the



Green Backpackers is a small establishment, but a personal one, says Corlia Perry, the manager. The outside double room with a view costs R450 ($26) per night, the inside double room goes for R350 ($20) a night, and the safari tent with two single beds is R300 ($17.5) a night, with a five-person dorm room at R150 ($9) per person. There’s also a tree house, made of tin, for the real adventure seekers, which sleeps three people at R250 ($15) a night.



“We bought the property next to us and have started planting fruit trees. This is obviously a long-term project. The idea is to always have some sort of food source available. We have planted avocado trees and macadamia trees, paw paw trees, banana trees, plum and naartjie, plus coffee plants. Also lemon and grapefruit,” concludes Perry.



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


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-13-at-15.15.31-1024x564.png" alt="" class="wp-image-57082" width="669" height="368" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-13-at-15.15.31-1024x564.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-13-at-15.15.31-300x165.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-13-at-15.15.31-768x423.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-13-at-15.15.31-1536x846.png 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-13-at-15.15.31.png 1576w" sizes="(max-width: 669px) 100vw, 669px" /><figcaption>Photo by Woodland Gardens Lodge</figcaption></figure></div>


Woodland Gardens Lodge in Magaliesburg, an hour outside of central Johannesburg, is a pet-friendly self-catering accommodation of chalets, a pool, a shared bonfire, as well as a charming garden also containing goats, pigs and many dogs, along with a little forest. Nearby, there’s hikes into the mountains, resplendent rock pools and hot air ballooning. Ibis Garden Cottage has an enclosed outside bath, with a view of the stars. Chalets range in size – perfect for romantic getaways or family trips, with braai areas and water features. Some are fenced for peace of mind with dogs. They have mid-week specials, and normal rates range from R445 ($26) per person to R830 ($48).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-free-state">Free State</h2>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/GettyImages-170486697.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-57083" width="680" height="451" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/GettyImages-170486697.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/GettyImages-170486697-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/GettyImages-170486697-768x510.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" /><figcaption>(Photo by: Majority World/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


The quaint town of Clarens in the Free State, just 20kms from the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, is surrounded by red sandstone mountains, dotted with orange and red fauna and flora. A rocky yet lively landscape, it has a vibrant town of small shops and 27 restaurants. If you’re looking to get out of the city but still see the New Year in with some dancing, Clarens has the perfect mix. New years’ see the streets turn into a lively mix of eating and dancing outside.



Clarens Eddies Bed &amp; Breakfast has a two-sleeper room for R590 ($34), a four-sleeper room for R864 ($51), and a six-sleeper for R1864 ($109), with breakfast not included in the base rate. They offer free guided mountain walks every day. Around Clarens, there is horse-riding, white river rafting, hot air ballons, day visits to Lesotho with 10 different programs, a cherry picking festival in November, and a steam train ride through the cherry orchards. Through the conservancy, there are 15 different hiking and cycling trails, where you can rent a bicycle. With all the recent rain, the mountain streams have turned this usually dry vista into a “Niagara falls”, says owner of Eddies, Dawn Trevelyan.

Overview of Sasi Bush Lodge in KwaZulu-Natal, by Rogan Kerr

Planning A Holiday? Cheap To Chic Getaways In South Africa

Classic cars are an investment class of their own with rising value. And there’s always an emotional story attached to them, as these entrepreneurial South African auto-enthusiasts attest.



By Ross Holland 



NESTLED ON A busy road in the Bryanston suburb of Sandton – Africa’s richest square mile – in South Africa, is a car showroom with a difference. It’s like an open vault with vintage gems.



Collectible cars are perfectly lined up in a befitting interior that is both retro and rustic, and with brick and metal and soft lighting. On the walls are automobile memorabilia and one can hear the occasional rumbling of an old car being revved up somewhere in the back. It takes a while to view and process the spectacle of beauties on display here, and the spurt of color and eye-popping metal of the American and European classics, muscle cars, sports cars and iconic names like Camaro, Mustang and Pontiac.



Kevin Derrick, the Founder of Creative Rides, is, needless to say, a car fanatic. So is the entire team, he says. “I’ve built up a collection of motor cars since my twenties,” he begins.



“Big collectors come to us with their collections to sell on their behalf&#8230;and quite often, collectors like to remain anonymous.”



Classic cars are an appreciating asset class and investment. But often, classic and collectible isn’t the same thing.



“A Ford Fairmont GT that came from Australia was put together in South Africa and they made around 2,000 of them&#8230;the result is that they carry a certain amount of value&#8230;,” says Derrick.



Automobile manufacturers also build cars that are special, limited edition models.



“Fiat does an Abarth, Mini does a specific Mini&#8230;now that means around the world, there may only be 30 of them, which means they become sought-after, which means they’re collectibles.”



Certain restorations are also difficult to do if you don’t have the specific knowledge for them. “To have a Ferrari refurbished, you need to be going to an agent that is Ferrari-approved, otherwise you do a restoration that’s viewed as a backyard project,” says Derrick. “It wouldn’t carry value, even if you’re good at doing it.”



Derrick reflects back on his youth and the special stories he grew up with that always involved an object on wheels, such as “the guy across the street from him who had this great car” or the Beetle someone’s grandmother used to drive or even the Kombi that was used on holidays.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="462" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/leftAbdul-Carim-and-his-sonright-Abu-Carim-1024x462.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-56849" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/leftAbdul-Carim-and-his-sonright-Abu-Carim-1024x462.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/leftAbdul-Carim-and-his-sonright-Abu-Carim-300x135.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/leftAbdul-Carim-and-his-sonright-Abu-Carim-768x346.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/leftAbdul-Carim-and-his-sonright-Abu-Carim-1536x692.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/leftAbdul-Carim-and-his-sonright-Abu-Carim-2048x923.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Abdul Carim (left) and his son Abu Carim (son)</figcaption></figure>



“There’s always an emotional story attached to cars,” he says.



It’s a sentiment shared by Abdul Gani Carim and his wife, Zaheera Ebrahim Carim, who run a classic car salvage and restoration business called A&amp;Z Classic Cars &amp; Spares in Vereeniging, an important industrial and manufacturing hub in the south of Gauteng in South Africa.



Their space is a hub of metal and activity featuring disemboweled vehicles: car doors and windows taken apart and packed on shelves, engines and transmission components organized and arranged according to the date received and car shells parked out in the front.



Their speciality? Older models, full restorations and restomods (classic cars that have been restored, but modified with modern parts and technology).



Zaheera doubles as the receptionist and salesperson, following up on leads, and is the first point of contact for prospective clients. She has a knack for negotiating and her husband calls her “the brain of the operation”.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="462" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Carims-classic-car-restoration-business-specializes-in-restomods-1024x462.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-56850" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Carims-classic-car-restoration-business-specializes-in-restomods-1024x462.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Carims-classic-car-restoration-business-specializes-in-restomods-300x135.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Carims-classic-car-restoration-business-specializes-in-restomods-768x346.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Carims-classic-car-restoration-business-specializes-in-restomods-1536x692.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Carims-classic-car-restoration-business-specializes-in-restomods-2048x923.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Carim&#8217;s classic car restoration business specializes in restomods.</figcaption></figure>



Carim describes the humble beginnings of the family business, which started with Mercedes-Benz spare parts. The couple soon realized the yard was getting smaller and decided to open a shop.



Before they knew it, they had 50 vehicles in their inventory. “Some people laugh, they can’t believe we buy a complete car and see the value 



is in parts and in not selling it fully,” says Carim, whose hallmark is sourcing rare cars.



“Sometimes, these cars find us&#8230;people will mention on social media that they have this rare vehicle, left-hand drive, only one in South Africa and we end up going there and buying it.”



A growing but rather controversial trend is electric conversions of classic cars.



Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens (FIVA), the worldwide federative association of historic automobile clubs, states on its website: “Conversion of historic vehicles from their original internal combustion engines to electric power doesn’t comply with the FIVA definition of a historic vehicle, nor does it support the goal of preserving historic vehicles and their related culture.”



Carim says he hasn’t done the electric conversion of a classic car yet but is looking forward to the opportunity and experience.



Vereeniging is known for its scrapyards and metal processing plants catering to car restoration businesses. Cars that can’t be salvaged are despatched to the scrapyards where they are compacted, weighed and sent to a processing facility to be re-purposed.



“You don’t get a lot for scrap, you get about R1,000 ($58),” offers the couple’s eldest son Abu. Carim adds that he used to collect some of the vehicles he restored but has now lost interest; it’s more about the money now and everything being available to be sold at the right price.



“I have a personal motto, I buy the car for myself but there must be another 10 guys out there in the world like me who likes these kind of cars, [then] there will always be a buyer for it.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Founder-of-Creative-Rides-Kevin-Derrick-right-with-Creative-Rides-team-member-Shane-left-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-56852" width="481" height="721" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Founder-of-Creative-Rides-Kevin-Derrick-right-with-Creative-Rides-team-member-Shane-left-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Founder-of-Creative-Rides-Kevin-Derrick-right-with-Creative-Rides-team-member-Shane-left-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Founder-of-Creative-Rides-Kevin-Derrick-right-with-Creative-Rides-team-member-Shane-left-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Founder-of-Creative-Rides-Kevin-Derrick-right-with-Creative-Rides-team-member-Shane-left-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Founder-of-Creative-Rides-Kevin-Derrick-right-with-Creative-Rides-team-member-Shane-left-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Founder-of-Creative-Rides-Kevin-Derrick-right-with-Creative-Rides-team-member-Shane-left-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px" /><figcaption>Founder of Creative Rides Kevin Derrick (right), with Creative Rides team member Shane (left)</figcaption></figure></div>


His father was a classic car dealer too and interested in the same sort of vehicles he deals with.



Now, he wants to pass on the business to his son Abu who already sees himself as quite the entrepreneur. The young man owns a 1988 Toyota Crown saloon that he acquired, repaired and modified with cash he sourced himself. He mentions that he bought his first car shell for around R3,000 ($176) and “flipped it” for around R16,000 ($938).



His parents remain hopeful about what’s to come and believe the next generation will bring about change. But from one generation to another, the older the cars are, the better.

Derrick of Creative Rides has been collecting cars since his 20’s

Vintage Views: Classic Car Enthusiasm In South Africa

Why medicinal mushrooms are the next big wellness trend.



BY TIANA CLINE



MYCELIUM is a vital part of the natural world and lately, it would appear that certain types of functional fungi, namely medicinal mushrooms, are the next big wellness trend. In reality, the use of medicinal mushrooms goes back to the neolithic period. In fact, they’ve been a part of traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years and are still used today by indigenous tribes throughout Africa.



Why mushrooms, why now?



Craig Fourie, the Managing Director of Mushroom Guru, believes that people are losing faith in big pharma. “People are starting to look for alternative medicines and they’re finding medicinal mushrooms,” he says. Fourie, who once worked as a mechanical engineer, is now a medium-sized producer in the Western Cape province of South Africa.



He trains anyone looking to grow gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. “While it is easy enough for anyone to grow mushrooms, there is a steep learning curve. Unlike agriculture where you put a seed in the soil (geoponics) or when you put a seed in water (hydroponics), growing mushrooms is the treatment of air, or aeroponics,” explains Fourie.



Africa is currently undergoing what scientists call a mycelium revolution. In Kenya, mushroom farming is expanding at an alarming rate because the fungus mushrooms are made of can produce everything from plastics to plant-based meat.



“Many people are becoming more concerned about what they eat and are going for healthier alternatives,” says Roussoss Demisse, the Founder of Mushrooms Kenya. “The market has greatly grown and as per our estimations, is at 150 tonnes per month.” Since opening Mushrooms Kenya six years ago, Demisse has trained more than 450 farmers in both Kenya and its neighboring countries.



He is also seeing the boom in medicinal mushroom use as different types become more well-known. “This undoes the myth that most Africans had that mushrooms are deadly,” he says. “As the medicinal research work grows in Africa, the relevant organizations are coming to appreciate these mushrooms and the possibility of using these mushrooms to come up with solutions to some of the dire challenges such as medication for certain types of diseases.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/A-type-of-medicinal-mushroom-498x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-56831" width="391" height="804" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/A-type-of-medicinal-mushroom-498x1024.jpg 498w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/A-type-of-medicinal-mushroom-146x300.jpg 146w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/A-type-of-medicinal-mushroom-768x1580.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/A-type-of-medicinal-mushroom-747x1536.jpg 747w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/A-type-of-medicinal-mushroom-996x2048.jpg 996w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/A-type-of-medicinal-mushroom-scaled.jpg 1244w" sizes="(max-width: 391px) 100vw, 391px" /><figcaption>A bunch of antler reishi mushrooms. </figcaption></figure></div>


There are many different types of medicinal mushrooms which grow in Africa. According to Demisse, the most popular type in Kenya are reishi ganoderma, sometimes known as linghzi, and is available in the market mostly as coffee, tablets or powder. Fourie’s specialty is also reishi and through extraction, he has managed to create a unique extract that is 12 times stronger than the wild red reishi grown in the Knysna forest.



“We sent our extract to the University of Louisville Pathology in Kentucky. Working with Professor Vaclav Vetvicka, he did a preclinical trial on mice and found that the extract is non-toxic and improved the immune function of the mice by 43 percent within 48 hours,” says Fourie. “It is actually unheard of. We are currently sitting with a disruptive technology that is about to take the world by storm.”



ANCIENT REMEDIES MEET MODERN SCIENCE



From reishi to cordyceps, chaga, lion’s mane and turkey tail, mushroom extracts (as opposed to tinctures, pills and powders) are considered the most potent form of ingesting the benefits medicinal mushrooms offer because liquid is easier absorbed. It’s about making the active pharmaceutical bio available so a person’s gut flora can take up nutrients at a faster pace. “The cell wall of the mushroom contains a compound called chitin. Chitin is mostly non-digestible and it also locks in the nutrients within the cell wall,” explains Fourie. “It’s like taking the chocolate out of a Smartie. By taking the goodness out of the cell, you break that cell wall and you retrieve the nutrients and then the efficacy goes up&#8230;” The healing properties of reishi are well-researched with many scientific studies going far beyond ancient tales of folklore. There are clinical trials investigating reishi as a treatment for cancer, type II diabetes, coronary heart disease, chronic hepatitis B, anxiety and neurasthenia.



Cullen Taylor Clark, the co-founder of Aether Herbalist and Apothecary and a member of the Mycological Societies of Southern Africa (MSSA), is certain that medicinal mushrooms, as an industry, could soon surpass cannabis in popularity.



“There’s so much more scope than cannabis with mushrooms,” says Clark, who currently has two mushroom farms in the Eastern Cape where he has invested in high-tech extraction and growing facilities. “We use what’s called subcritical extraction – we utilize vessels that change the atmospheric pressure from one atmosphere to three, and then we’re able to break apart cell walls and we can extract all 



of the chemicals out of it. We then isolate these chemicals and concentrate them in a liquid form,” explains Clark. Through his work with MSSA, Clark has seen how the Zimbabwean government has been quick to fund mushroom farming. “They see it as an opportunity because fungi grows incredibly quickly. It’s happening in Kenya too.”



As someone who has pretty much dedicated his life to mushroom awareness, one of Clark’s biggest drivers is combatting mycophobia – the fear of using or eating mushrooms. “Because of colonization, we have this in-built fear of mushrooms so we need to rebuild the trust of eating fungi,” he says. “The mushrooms that we see growing all around us are non-toxic.”



Working alongside various academics, Clark is in the process of setting up Africa’s fungal industry with extraction protocols, standards and regulations to ensure that when the industry does gain traction, it is ready to take off. He is also writing a book about the use of fungi within Africa, traveling to various countries and speaking to hundreds of traditional healers to uncover what he believes is the backbone of fungal use: “I’m documenting the indigenous use of fungi for medicinal use, for entheogenic spiritual use&#8230; to try and shine a light on the subject,” he says. “I requested access to the University of the Witwatersrand rock art digital archive and I’ve sifted through 200,000 images. In the rock art depictions, they’ll blatantly say ‘sangoma holding unidentified object’. Time and time again – it always says unidentified object but if you look at it, it’s blatantly a mushroom. So perhaps we’ve been eating mushrooms since the dawn of mankind?”



Clark is ultimately hoping to solidify southern Africa as a mushroom hotspot, uncovering history that predates the Chinese use of medicinal mushrooms. “Last December, I walked 80kms through the mountains of Lesotho, hiking up mountains in the highlands to speak to traditional healers about their use of fungi. This book marries traditional medicinal mushroom use with university resources so the information can be verified with modern scientific use.”

Screenshot 2022-11-16 at 14.20.54

Schroom Boom: The Mycelium Revolution In Africa  

PHOTO-2022-07-06-17-02-30

THE GREAT AFRICAN WEDDING FACTORY: ‘I Do’ Versus ‘Do I’ in The Time Of Covid

The word ‘multi’ comes up many times in a conversation with 28-year-old Dubai-based Nigerian businesswoman Gbemi Giwa.



“I am a multi-passionate entrepreneur with a knack for turning ideas into creative impactful brands…. I am a multi-hyphenated person…” she says in a Zoom interview on a hot summer day in August from her abode in the sunny city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.



Although Giwa started out as an influencer and launched several businesses in the glistening Middle Eastern emirate by the time she turned 26, she is wary of calling herself ‘a serial entrepreneur’.



Now making a conscious effort to focus solely on her core competence – the food business – she says her passion project remains Catfish, an online restaurant serving “a healthy twist on African dishes” that she launched in Dubai in 2018.



The realization to hone in on one serious endeavor came after a few “bold moves” and the twists and turns that the Covid-19 pandemic brought when Giwa was forced to close down Gbemi’s Kitchen, the physical restaurant she started in 2019 at the Jumeirah Lake Towers in Dubai serving authentic Nigerian food.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CCA66F4B-1D7E-484C-AFBB-0594059E27E2-2-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-56262" width="639" height="426" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CCA66F4B-1D7E-484C-AFBB-0594059E27E2-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CCA66F4B-1D7E-484C-AFBB-0594059E27E2-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CCA66F4B-1D7E-484C-AFBB-0594059E27E2-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CCA66F4B-1D7E-484C-AFBB-0594059E27E2-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CCA66F4B-1D7E-484C-AFBB-0594059E27E2-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px" /></figure></div>



“In 2020, Covid hit and for the first time, I navigated a big loss with the shutting of my restaurant concepts, forcing me to start afresh with a larger focus on building a Covid-proof business with a deeper focus on digital,” she says of those tough months.



She started by launching a consulting company called Digiboss to help women in business build their online profiles to establish themselves as thought leaders, whilst consistently attracting profitable partnership opportunities.



“I help millennial women build an impactful personal brand and commit to taking action by teaching them profitable action steps to validate their creative ideas, craft them into polished concepts and launch them into the real world,” says Giwa.



“Using the same method I teach my clients, I was able to secure funding to relaunch my restaurant Catfish just at the end of the pandemic. I’m currently navigating our redirection into the e-commerce space and retail by taking a piece of the growing ready-to-eat industry.”



The food business is not new for her. It was while at design school in 2014 that she launched Dubai Fit Foodie, a wellness blog she calls her “longest-paying side hustle”. Her growing years shaped her early love for African food and she wanted to give it the respect it deserved.



A year later, she turned her love for dancing by launching dance classes in Dubai, teaching Afrofit, which she calls her “second longest-paying side hustle”.



In 2016, she specialized in creating impactful digital campaigns for local and international brands in the Middle East. A year later, yet again foraying into the business world, she launched a boutique agency specializing in branding and content creation for F&amp;B concepts.



‘A good idea is nothing without action’. 



Even when she was 16, on a plane to Dubai from Lagos to enrol at the American University of Sharjah, she was already harboring ideas of creating content and an impactful career. Even if at times, this meant going against the norm and using the word ‘no’ multiple times to her now-late father, also a businessman, who took a keen interest in her professional journey.



“I am from a classic African family that says ‘either you become a doctor or a lawyer, or you are nobody’.



“But ever since I went to design school, I’ve been obsessed with ideas. I believe good ideas come when you explore and exhaust several bad ideas, but a good idea is nothing without action.”



Luckily, she was glad to find herself in Dubai.



“It’s one of the easiest places to do business in, especially if you know the right people and have the money… I always tell youngsters it’s better to partner with the right mentor, as they have the experience and you can keep learning from them.”



Where there’s hustle, there’s also heart.



“My passion will always be around creating content, product, and brands that reflect my African roots and help people embrace wellness in order to feel like their happier healthiest selves,” says Giwa.



Currently catering for events and working towards moving Catfish into the e-commerce space, she will also be seen at The Ripe Market, a farmers’ market in Dubai, from October.

IMG_0057

Hustle And Heart: The Nigerian Entrepreneur Promoting African Food In Dubai

Is it time to see the world of architecture, construction and design digitally?



By Tiana Cline 



HOW MUCH OF YOUR TIME IS spent inside? This may be the digital age where everything and everyone is connected but where we are now is also known as the ‘indoor generation’. Our living and workspaces are continually intertwining with technology shifting how we look at construction. It’s not only about the metaverse, but how we design and develop the built spaces around us.



Steven Pinto is someone who is heavily invested in virtual reality (VR). He’s the CEO of two South African technology companies – New Reality and CTRL Robotics – that have managed to attract a global client base.



“There is a commercial aspect of digital twins that is finding its way into mainstream. I think companies are going to start to realize the use of VR in their everyday lives so that they can become more productive and efficient,” he says.



For Pinto, digital twins – creating digital representations of physical entities – and VR are the starting point of a new wave of architecture that isn’t limited by the constraints and costs associated with physically visualizing an end product.



“We’re going to see a lot more adoption of VR tech. There are currently architects in Cape Town doing international work that include VR walkthroughs – these are technically digital twins,” he explains. “Architects aren’t game developers so you need to be able to bridge that gap so that they can use digital tools more effectively.”



Gregory Katz, the principal architect at Gregory Katz Architecture, is someone who has seen first- hand how computers have changed the industry. “And for the better,” he says. “I remember sitting and doing hand drawings in an office in Cape Town and we used to work on tracing paper. If any changes were made to the design you had to try and modify the drawings and sometimes, you couldn’t scratch out what you had drawn. The paper quality was so damaged that you had to redraw the whole building&#8230; In that sense, technology has lightened the burden on the profession.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fit-for-purpose">FIT FOR PURPOSE</h2>



Digital twins present many opportunities for designers that don’t necessarily live in the architectural world. Industrial designers in the manufacturing sector that need to work with mechanical engineers can use a tool like The Wild, an immersive VR collaboration platform for the building industry.



“VR can be commercialized in a completely different way. Think about working from home – it’s becoming more accessible and companies are seeing the benefits of using virtual spaces to collaborate and design,” says Pinto. “It’s inherently a massive cost-saving and logistics is minimal. There are now companies investing in divisions of their business that have people who specialize in building digital twins.”



Using digital twins, the fundamentals of architecture don’t necessarily have to change – technology has the ability to mitigate challenges in the iterative process and ultimately improve profitability. An added benefit is that clients can become more adventurous.



“They trust the process because they can see what they’re going to buy and can be involved in major decisions before irreparable changes occur.



All the theory behind architecture is the same, it is the execution that’s a little different,” says Pinto. “Traditionally, visualizing for a customer called for a model of representation of some sort. Models can be wildly inaccurate but they were the only tool available at the time. Today, architects don’t have to be model builders. They’re 3D artists with all the understandings of light, shape and dimension.”



Pinto says that what he is starting to find is that the line of digital twins is becoming blurred between what is happening in reality and what people are building in digital worlds. “While there are magical, fantastical worlds that don’t apply to the world of physics, there is an interesting part of the market where people are looking into these ideas to try and minimize wastage when looking at the cost of development projects,” he explains. Looking at the commercial potential for VR, Pinto’s team created a simple tool that could place furniture in rooms to allow, for example, an office to work out how many desks would work well in a space.



“Here, you don’t call an architect but rather an interior designer and you only do that after you sign the lease. The customer cannot conceptualize, first and foremost, what space they actually require – and this is where costs end up being exorbitant,” says Pinto. “VR can go beyond simple walkthroughs.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME</h2>



Katz teaches at the Graduate School of Architecture (GSA) located at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. He still encourages students – which at the GSA, are all at a postgraduate level – to draw manually because “the thinking that happens between the hand and the eye cannot be replaced by a computer. The quick sketch, the intuitive understanding of potentials&#8230; it’s different on a computer,” he explains. “On a computer, scale is limited to the size of your screen. You can zoom in and out infinitely but sketch is a natural, scale-less interaction and things emerge in a hand sketch that you could never replicate on a screen.”



While drafting with a computer is more efficient and physical models are not as prevalent as they once were, Katz believes they’re a valuable tool for developing and design: “If something stands in a model, it obeys the same laws of physics it would in reality. That’s a very useful constraint to have at play when you’re designing,” he says. “When designing a digital version of an analogue construction, you’re not thinking through the actual construction.”



Another benefit Katz brings up is measuring the quality of light. While artificially replicating light conditions around a model can done with a computer, Katz says there is slippage between what you get in reality and the computer render.



“They’re seeing a perfect condition of your vision. There’s an ambiguity around those presentations which can be onerous.” The GSA students have Oculus goggles and are using them to explore the interface between VR and key dimension construction and augmented reality.



“It’s exciting technology but I don’t think we can throw out the baby with the bathwater yet,” warns Katz. “There’s still tremendous value in the handmade, in the physical world. The technology is there but we need both.”

Augmented Reality

Designing The Future: Digital Twins Changing The Fundamentals Of Architecture

The wildly imaginative In the Black Fantastic exhibition, running through to September at the Hayward Gallery in London, features the work of 11 artists from the African diaspora.



BY ALASTAIR HAGGER



A SPECTACULAR sequined bodysuit supports a giant, furry, multi-colored eye, like the cyclops emperor of a 1970s funk planet. The gender-amorphous head of a clay-rendered sentinel is crowned with either bird of prey or paradise, and stands alert on black toes that are delicately, unmistakeably feminine. A young African woman, resplendent in scarlet and indigo, reclines like a callow deity before a backdrop of the names of tribes taken in the slave trade, written in gold.



To walk through the In the Black Fantastic exhibition, running through to September at the Hayward Gallery in London, is to be taken on a journey through the black imagination unlike anything ever encountered: a startling, challenging, deeply inspiring immersion into the grotesque, the beautiful and the otherworldly.



“There’s a really interesting cultural shift that’s taking place, where you see black artists embracing myth and speculative fiction, fable and African cultural and spiritual practices, and using those as the inspiration point for works that look quite closely at the nature of the racialized everyday,” says Ekow Eshun, the show’s curator, and writer of the book that inspired it.



“It’s an unnerving undertext, the context within which these works are created. They begin from an understanding of the absolute strangeness of a society that divides itself according to race, and then even further into hierarchies of race. I’ve been very conscious of how the language of fantasy and science fiction has been used by different black creative figures as a tool to interrogate their identity, as a means to new, glorious ways of seeing.”



The show features the work of 11 artists from the African diaspora, each given their own room where their work can fully articulate each unique vision.



“As a visitor, you are within this proposition of the black fantastic not as a movement or a genre, but as a way of seeing,” says Eshun. “The artists conjure their own world, that offers blackness as a site of dreams and possibilities. And the exhibition tries to bring alive their way of seeing.”



There is a visceral political agency embodied in many of the works on display, which harness the creative idiosyncrasies in the artists to tell stories that resonate with the emotional power of each individual imagination. “The fantasy becomes a kind of armor or riposte, but it’s also an assertion of being and possibility,” Eshun says. “None of the works in the show are an escape from racial injustice. They’re partly a response to that, but also an assertion, of self and possibility, that chooses to go beyond the ways the black figure is typically seen within Western society. All of the artists are balancing these different propositions between fantasy and reality, and conjuring something extraordinary out of that alchemy of elements.”



The exhibition feels like a fierce confrontation with that reality via an empathy unlocked by the fabulous and the instinctive. “These works understand this connection between imaginative reach and the lived everyday, as a way to think more profoundly and more poetically about the complexity



of our lives,” says Eshun. “The show allows people space to contemplate beauty, without erasing the difficulty and the complexity that lies within that beauty. I think these artists are exceptionally good at creating this balance, and spaces that feel like they’re alive, that have possibility woven within them.”



After the horrors visited upon the black experience in recent memory – the painful echo of a trauma centuries old – is Eshun optimistic about the future of human creativity, its resilient ability to transcend?



“We can walk through the world with some sense of an ability to make this world on our own terms, through our imagination,” he says. “What else is there for us to do apart from believe in our ideas – even the things we might describe as the fantastic dreams that we hold?”

Screenshot 2022-09-08 at 16.38.10

Glorious Alchemy: A Show In London Featuring The Work Of 11 Artists From The African Diaspora

London’s revitalized and reimagined Africa Centre, which opened in June, boasts a starkly Afro-futurist character: a black exterior accented with confident vermilions and golds, and a plush interior warm with the taupes and saffrons of the African landscape.



BY ALASTAIR HAGGER



THE MOST ENJOYABLE PERIOD WAS WHEN seeds were germinating,” wrote Kenneth Kaunda in his autobiography, fondly remembering life as a young man on the family farm. “All this meant real hard work, but it was all my own and I simply loved it.”



In 1964, the year he became Zambia’s first president, Kaunda opened The Africa Centre in London’s Covent Garden, described by regular patron Desmond Tutu as a hub of cultural activity for “all who are Africans, and all those who have a care for the interests of the continent and its people”.



Opened as a charity in an 18th-century building with a lease gifted by the Catholic Church, the Centre became an incubator for the propagation and exchange of intellectual and creative dynamism; together politicians, writers, and artists enjoyed fierce political debate alongside theater productions, parties, dancers and the best African food the capital had to offer.



The Centre blossomed over the decades, adapting symbiotically with its mother continent’s evolution like a hardy perennial. In the 1970s, the Centre became, in its own words, “a vital instrument for the multiple voices of liberation during the struggles for independence on the continent”.



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="796" height="432" data-id="55888" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.36.10.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55888" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.36.10.png 796w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.36.10-300x163.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.36.10-768x417.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px" /><figcaption>Photos by Felix Speller and Randeric Bishop</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="748" height="514" data-id="55889" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.57.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55889" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.57.png 748w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.57-300x206.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 748px) 100vw, 748px" /><figcaption>Photos by Felix Speller and Randeric Bishop</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1838" height="668" data-id="55890" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.51.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55890" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.51.png 1838w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.51-300x109.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.51-1024x372.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.51-768x279.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-10-at-13.35.51-1536x558.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1838px) 100vw, 1838px" /><figcaption>Photos by Felix Speller and Randeric Bishop</figcaption></figure>
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A decade later it was hosting titans of African music such as Youssou N’Dour, Angélique Kidjo and Salif Keita, and by the 1990s, it was reconfiguring its function in the wider eco-political environment “to promote cultural, economic and socio-political initiatives in Britain and the rest of Europe that assist in the development of Africa”.



It continued to flourish into the new century, but then came the drought: the wilderness decade which began with the Centre’s closure in 2013. “The idea was always to maintain a space that would serve the needs of the intended audience,” says Belvin Tawuya, Head of Digital and Marketing Communications at the Centre.



“But it was becoming expensive to maintain, so there were these conversations around renovation – and the costs associated – or just considering getting a new place altogether.”



The Covent Garden building lease was sold, and with additional funding from Arts Council England, the multi-million pound redevelopment of a new site in Southwark, in the African diaspora-rich south of the city, began in 2015.



The result, a revitalized and reimagined Centre which opened in June, boasting a starkly Afro-futurist character: a black exterior accented with confident vermilions and golds, and a plush interior warm with the taupes and saffrons of the African landscape.



“Ninety percent of the interior elements within the space we actually imported from different parts of Africa,” says Tawuya.



“A phenomenal designer, Tola Ojuolape, has really helped us in identifying incredible artisans from across the continent, and then thinking about how all that could be brought together to create a cohesive but authentic contemporary African interior space.”



The Centre is now a multi-purpose hub featuring a restaurant, event facilitation, a gallery, and a research and education space, which will eventually host live digital learning opportunities for students in Africa. Further development plans include refurbishing one of the 



upper floors as an entrepreneurship nucleus “promoting innovation and ideas, specifically towards that business community looking to invest on the continent”.



Nearly six decades after this seed of hope, solidarity and community was first planted, has The Africa Centre’s self-identity, and its own understanding of its role in the community changed as manifestly as the continent itself?



“I think there’s now more awareness about the need to serve the local community, as much as we remain an organization with international reach,” Tawuya says. “How do we leverage our strength, one of the very few black-led organizations that has its own space, to support others? Particularly amongst the young audience, who might not know about the history of the Centre, but have their own passions now, their own dreams, who need the support and space to be able to express themselves and fulfil their goals and ambitions. We see ourselves taking that position going forward.”

London-Africa-Centre-renovation-domino-6

The Africa Centre in London Flowers Again

Zanzibar is opening up real estate for non-residents with opportunities to spur the blue economy. The spice island beckons with unspoilt beaches and new tourism bravado.



NOT JUST FOR ITS UNTOUCHED beaches and swaying palms, Zanzibar, the sunny archipelago off the coast of Tanzania lapped up by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, may now also be known for its opportunities.



New regulations are set to allow non-Tanzanians to invest 



in property and own businesses for the first time with greater ease; with tax breaks on offer to investors establishing businesses within Strategic Investment Projects on the island and 99-year leases with residence permits.



According to the World Bank, Tanzania is projected to reach 4.5%- 5.5% growth in 2022 and average 6% over the medium term as exports and domestic demand recover, assuming pandemic conditions ease. Agriculture, mining, and tourism contribute to the economy.



The new interest is attested by some of the real estate players on the island. Grant Anderson, the CEO of Blue Amber, a resort and Strategic Investment Project in Zanzibar, says Zanzibar actually is rife with opportunities for young South African entrepreneurs.



“And so the people there are now wanting goods and services and professional services more and more every single year. Houses are being built, there’s a requirement for furniture and healthcare and everything like that,” says Anderson to FORBES AFRICA.



“It’s just this massive, untapped resource that by African standards is amazing because it’s a safe investment; there’s no sort of security risks, there’s no political risks, it’s very stable.”



Anderson, a conservationist first and foremost, is heading up development at the resort with sustainability in mind. The project is installing solar panels, and looking to use synthetic grass for the golf course on site to reduce the use of water and fertilizers that would otherwise run off into the sensitive reefs on the island.



He says normally a golf course would incur $50,000 in maintenance monthly, but synthetic grass cuts those costs in half. Buildings will be constructed 30 meters from the shoreline, in order to protect the turtles, and 10 meters away from the coral heads.



Turtles use the beach to deposit their eggs, and the eggshells provide nutrients that nourish dune vegetation, helping prevent coastal erosion.



Tourists like South African freelance writer and publicity strategist Alice Draper, who visited Zanzibar in December last year, say the best part is the strong sense of community on the island.



“Coming from South Africa, Zanzibar just felt so safe,” Draper says.



ISLE VISION



Part of the plan is also creating self-employment opportunities for youth through agribusiness, but it is not easy. Says Sinthia Habib, training officer at the Zanzibar Technology and Business Incubator: “Among the challenges are poor technological 



knowledge and skills, lack of startup funds for youth to be able to make large production with good machines and high branding which could allow their product to access the big hotel market and be transported out of Zanzibar. In a nutshell, it is expertise, fund capital and some policy regulations and bureaucracy.”



The coast presents plenty of opportunities though to develop the ocean economy.



Ali Sharif, the Executive Director of the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority (ZIPA), said at a news conference in December last year that the small islands, or islets, will be leased to developers for investment opportunities and to promote the blue economy.



The phase one of the small island program that rolled out in 2021 included Chumbe Island, Changuu, Bawe, Pungumbe, Kwale, Misali, Pamunda A and B, and Chapwani Island, bringing in a capital investment of $261.5 million. The islets of Sume, Popo, Kwata and Miwi in the Unguja South region are also for rent. In Pemba North, so too are Fundo, Njao and Kashani, and in Pemba South, Jome and Matumbini Islands. The islands range from a few to hundreds of hectares.



Chumbe Island is most notable among them. A commercial operation with a conservation approach, it’s a zero-impact environmental project with solar power water heating, composting toilets, vegetative greywater filtration and rainwater catchment. The bungalows intentionally have no Wi-Fi, remaining off the grid, and all the products are sourced locally.



Most staff have worked there for 15 years, and 41 of the 43 employees are locals, reports Diane Koerner, a conservationist on the island, to FORBES AFRICA.



Chumbe initially invested $1.2 million into the island. The direct input into the economy of Zanzibar has been $8.6 million, and the revenue generated remains within Zanzibar. The annual turnover has been $527,000, over the last 10 years.



Koerner explains that it is the first privately-managed marine protected area in the world. Though it is run entirely off the proceeds of tourists, it has put fishermen as well as 8,000 children through marine conservation and sustainable management programs, free of charge.



It’s often the first time children have gone snorkeling and seen the wonders of the coral reef.



“So it’s really one of the rare properties and projects in Zanzibar, I would say where it’s really ecotourism at its purest form, and where the 



focus is really to have a few people enjoying the environment or learning and having this very immersive experience,” Koerner explains.



“And through the protection of the islands, so nearly 30 years, we have managed to really create this biodiversity hotspot. We have one of the most thriving, healthiest coral reefs in the whole of East Africa. We have had species that have grown in population that have returned to our ecosystem, because it has been so well-protected.”



The coral reefs are patrolled round the clock, and its protection has replenished fishing as well as seen a return of reef sharks – a sign of a flourishing ecosystem, Koerner reveals. She says having nearby villagers in their advisory committee is important, as is educating school children. It’s crucial for influencing the next generation of policymakers and tourism stakeholders, she adds.



“The fact that a limited number of people visit the island really allows that you can experience nature in its purest form.”



Zanzibar recognizes that the islands have intricate ecosystems that are already home to fishing and agricultural communities. Therefore, potential developments require a holistic approach and careful planning. Sharif has said that the customary practices of the locals will still be allowed on the rented islands.



So, the next time, if you wish to see a coconut crab on Chumbe Island, it’s a short boat trip from the main island. In the near future, you may also play golf by the waters at Blue Amber.



The scene will change, but hopefully not the scenery.

Tanzania, Zanzibar, dhow at  Prison island

The ‘Sea Change’ Happening in Zanzibar To Spur Up The Blue Economy

In March, Evadnee Le Goff and Anita Musevenzo became the first all-women team to summit the highest mountains in South Africa’s nine provinces. In the rain, in the dark, in the freezing cold on those raw, rugged mountains, the two navigated treacherous terrain but stuck together.



ENDURANCE LESSONS ALWAYS go a long way in business – and in life.



And sometimes, you go beyond the boardrooms to find them.



South Africa’s Anita Musevenzo and Evadnee Le Goff found them on the peaks of the highest mountains in the country’s nine provinces, summitted all in one go.



And yet another high point of the 9 Peaks Challenge?



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220326_151237-768x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-55660" width="392" height="523" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220326_151237-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220326_151237-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220326_151237-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220326_151237-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220326_151237-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px" /></figure></div>



They are the first all-female team to do so.



The mountains they summited were: the Iron Crown in Limpopo, De Berg in Mpumalanga, Nooitgedacht in the North West, Toringkop in Gauteng, Mafadi in KwaZulu-Natal, Namahadi in the Free State, KwaDuma in the Eastern Cape, Murch Point in the Northern Cape, and Seweweekspoort in the Western Cape.



Le Goff, an accountant in Johannesburg, has always been a hiker, whereas Musevenzo, a skincare formulator, has been hiking for six years, with a YouTube channel called ‘African Hiker’.



But more challenging than the mountain adventure was the training ahead of it, which included hours in the gym, walks during the week and hikes on the weekends on South Africa’s blessed and most times, tough terrain.



The training was intense.



“Anita and I cut our teeth on wilderness hiking. So all our experience is in dealing with awkward terrain that’s rocky. And you know, every footstep, you’re not sure where you’re landing and it stood us in good stead,” says Le Goff. Musevenzo describes the drama at Mafadi, a peak on the border of South Africa and Lesotho.



They slept on the escarpment because they didn’t get down before dark.



“So we get to the summit at about three o’clock in the afternoon. And now we’re hiking back. All is good. But the sun is setting and the sun sets fast on the mountain. It’s just dark suddenly.”



They came across a cliff they had not seen in the daylight, and the wind started picking up speed, eventually going up to 50 knots. They began hiking towards the pass.



“We arrive at the pass and we look down and it’s pitch black. And so I just thought to myself ‘nope, not happening, not going down there’,” she says.



At this point, Le Goff posits that either they get down the mountain or die of hypothermia. Musevenzo set off as cheerily as one could to find some reeds to settle in for the night and ward off the wind.



They used their backpacks to sleep on the damp grass, share a protein bar and settled down around 10PM. A survival blanket was the only thing they had to keep warm.



They waited for first light, periodically checking on each other, and set off in the morning again.



Together, they traversed the country and up its mountains as everyone else carried on with their daily lives. For them, each day was different as it unfolded new views and vistas about life.



“Some of it was also quite tragic, because there are sections in our country, especially the Eastern Cape, where I was really affected by the poverty and the social problems,” says Le Goff.



The duo also savored some beautiful moments; from taking in the variety of animal footprints on the river beds in the Northern Cape, to the locust swarms, the dusty back roads, as well as the two leopards they spotted.



At sunrise one morning, a kudu ran in front of their car.



Musevenzo says one of the best parts was the friendly community at the Drakensburg and the magical feeling of the whole area.



“We all know that the country is very diverse. But to see it all in one go and just see the change as you go from province to province, and also how the mountain changes even the Drakensberg; there are three provinces where the peak is on the Drakensburg, and all three of those are different,” she explains.



A particularly difficult moment for Le Goff was encountering the chain ladders at Tugela Falls.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220328_084224-1-1024x768.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-55661" width="553" height="415" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220328_084224-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220328_084224-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220328_084224-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220328_084224-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220328_084224-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 553px) 100vw, 553px" /></figure></div>



“There weren’t any moments where I felt overwhelmed. There were one or two, I’d say, going down the chain ladders, in the dark, in the rain, I think it was challenging for Anita as well, because I was definitely very reluctant. I was trying to negotiate my way out of something which was unavoidable. “We had no other way to get off this mountain. And I’m not a huge fan of those chain ladders, because they are really treacherous,” Le Goff says.



Musenvenzo distracted her by telling her stories about her goldfish. She distracted her on the way up by telling her the story of how the tortoise got its shell. 



They took turns looking after each other throughout the journey. One of the most challenging peaks was Seweweekspoort in the Western Cape. It was their last one. It was also one of Le Goff’s most memorable, for the raw ruggedness of the landscape.



“We were already so exhausted, and the terrain is very difficult. By then, we were physically and mentally so drained, it’s just a really rough climb to finish on,” says Le Goff.



“That would be the most challenging one for me too. I did not really enjoy Seweweekspoort. The mountain has teeth, and claws and nails,” adds Musevenzo.



The duo was supported by DecathlonSA, Garmin, Entsika Consulting, forever.fresh.foods and Racefood. After eight days, 22 hours and 42 minutes to complete the entire adventure, the women came home to Johannesburg with sore feet, but with full hearts and memories to last a lifetime – creating history along the way, one tough, treacherous peak at a time.

20220321_133831 2

Through Peaks and Troughs: Meet The First All-Women Team To Summit The Highest Mountains in South Africa’s Nine Provinces

<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-backed-by-timbaland-and-nas-imelda-walavalkar-s-los-angeles-based-cannabis-brand-leans-into-the-joy-of-getting-stoned-and-having-fun">Backed by Timbaland and Nas, Imelda Walavalkar’s Los Angeles-based cannabis brand leans into the joy of getting stoned and having fun.</h3>



In 2017, three friends from New York moved to Los Angeles to reimagine the cigarette. But the kind of smokes Imelda Walavalkar, her husband, Tracy Anderson, and art director Irwin Matutina wanted to make would contain no tobacco—just marijuana.



“Personally, I think it’s an iconic form factor,” says Anderson, who helped launch Bob Marley’s cannabis brand, Marley Natural. “The cigarette, it’s beautiful.”



The three soon founded Pure Beauty, a boutique cannabis brand that specializes in high-end, environmentally friendly grown herb that’s rolled into marijuana cigarettes, complete with a wood pulp filter. Today, its bestselling product is a box of mini pre-rolled joints the company lovingly refers to as “Babies.”



The cannabis legalization movement owes its growth—37 states now allow for some kind of legal sales—to medical marijuana. But for Walavalkar, Anderson and Matutina, they felt as if there weren’t enough brands just trying to have fun and get people stoned. Many cannabis entrepreneurs often cite deeply personal stories about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2022/04/20/nba-star-al-harrington-viola-100-black-cannabis-millionaires/?sh=c49ea45451af">how marijuana helped a loved one battle an illness</a>, while others have virtuous narratives about wanting to heal the world with a plant bestowed by the gods. But for the founders of Pure Beauty, weed is all about kicking back.



“We are unabashedly recreational,” says Walavalkar. “It&#8217;s okay to want to get high just for the sake of getting high.”<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2022/06/10/dutchie-the-cannabis-industrys-highest-flying-software-company-falls-back-to-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MORE FROM FORBESDutchie, The Cannabis Industry&#8217;s Highest-Flying Software Company, Falls Back To EarthBy&nbsp;Will Yakowicz</a>



In many ways, Pure Beauty, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/john-baldessari-pure-beauty" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">takes its name from the artist John Baldessari</a>, is a typical startup. The brand launched in a South Central Los Angeles garage with a $30,000 cigarette rolling machine and went through dozens of different types of paper—one burned too quickly, another too slow—until they landed on a marijuana cigarette that felt and smoked just right.



In its first year, Pure Beauty had around $200,000 in sales, most of which were drummed up by Anderson, who drove around L.A. in the company’s minivan, selling jars of pot and packs of joints to dispensaries. But by the end of 2017, it landed its first big order:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2021/12/21/medmen-opens-first-store-since-management-shakeup-bostons-fenway-park-gets-new-cannabis-dispensary/?sh=750f3c3e17c4">MedMen</a>&nbsp;wanted $100,000 worth of Pure Beauty cigarettes.



“To us, it was all hands on deck, working all day and all night, double shifts,” says Walavalkar, who is the company’s CEO. For two weeks, the founders marshaled a “cadre of help” composed of dozens of friends of friends, fed them burritos and tacos and worked around the clock. Pure Beauty met the deadline, but realized it had to scale up—their bootstrapped operation wouldn’t be able to meet future demand.



During Hall of Flowers in 2019, a cannabis trade show in Santa Rosa, California, David Mars, an investor with New York-based White Owl Capital, came across Pure Beauty’s booth. He was struck by its clean, minimalist design and intrigued by its sustainable cultivation methods. The brand’s 22,000-square-foot grow site in Sacramento is off the grid, generating electricity through microturbines and boasts nearly net-zero water usage—HVAC units and dehumidifiers pull moisture from the air to water the plants.



Mars says he sees Pure Beauty as a “stand-alone, national brand” that has created an authentically chic and cool vibe. “I think they would fit into a portfolio at LVMH,” says Mars, who eventually invested in the company.



Pure Beauty has raised a total of $7 million from Gron Ventures, Subversive Capital, Ceres Group Holdings, White Owl—all cannabis investors—and has also been able to get musicians Timbaland and Nas to open their wallets.



In 2020, the company generated what&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates to be around $20 million in revenue and last year Pure Beauty pulled in $44 million. The California-based company has now expanded to Michigan, through a deal with Gage, which has about a dozen dispensaries in the state.



At Cornerstone Wellness, a 15-year-old cannabis shop in L.A., Pure Beauty products don’t stay on the shelves for long. “I think very few brands hit the marks—a really well-designed package, an eco-conscious brand, woman-owned and an art-forward company; it’s refreshing,” says Cornerstone Wellness founder Erica Kay. “Their pre-rolls have been a smash product for years now and are always selling out. You can’t keep enough.”<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2022/04/20/nba-star-al-harrington-viola-100-black-cannabis-millionaires/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MORE FROM FORBESHow Former NBA Star Al Harrington Is Building A $100 Million Team Of Black Cannabis EntrepreneursBy&nbsp;Will Yakowicz</a>



Pure Beauty also makes a THC beverage “enhancer” called the Little Strong Drink, or LSD for short. The 2-ounce bottle is packed with 100 mg of THC from live resin from high-grade buds and is made with Concord grapes, cardamom, Egyptian hibiscus and Ashwagandha grown in India.



Cannabis beverages currently made up around 1% of the $25 billion in legal cannabis sales last year, but Big Alcohol is moving into the space quickly. (Boston Beer Co.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2022/05/23/boston-beer-co-launches-teapot-cannabis-infused-iced-tea/">is launching a THC-infused iced tea</a>&nbsp;in Canada.) For Walavalkar, who admittedly “loves weed,” beverages are a way to bring a session into the family backyard without the stigma of smoking.



“My parents won’t smoke a joint, but they’ll have a beverage,” says Walavalkar. “The ceremony of drinking is still inculcated in our culture. If you&#8217;re at a barbecue, there&#8217;s no ceremony around handing out a gummy to everybody. The beverage doesn’t have that stigma [like a joint] and anyone can engage in that way.”



For now, Pure Beauty is still a small, boutique brand, but the founders have successfully harnessed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/07/26/beboe-cannabis/?sh=69f59f241069">a coolness factor reminiscent of Beboe</a>, which sold to cannabis giant Green Thumb Industries for $80 million in 2019. In an industry that is increasingly dominated by corporate brands, Pure Beauty is a repudiation of market research-driven products developed through a series of focus groups, says Anderson.



“We threw it all out and followed our intuition,” says Anderson. “We’re doing it from a true sense of self and art and culture and things that we really care about.”



Walavalkar believes many companies justify cannabis use by focusing too heavily on the medicinal benefits. For Pure Beauty, the strategy is to help destigmatize pot by admitting that getting stoned is fun. “The beauty of getting high is that it makes you happy, it gives you a perspective shift, similar to art,” says Walavalkar. “That perspective shift for me is a wellness thing—it’s more about the joy of getting stoned.”



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/"></a>By Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff

Friends passing joint

Forget Weed For Wellness, Pure Beauty Wants To Get You High

BY ALASTAIR HAGGER



AFRICA FASHION MEANS THE past, the future and the present at the same time” is the apposite sentiment by Moroccan designer Artsi, fronting the publicity for a major new exhibition launching in July this year at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&amp;A). As the world finally begins to embrace the idea of Africa as a thrilling and vibrant continent of powerful, individualized creativity, rather than as a collection of recycled assumptions and stereotypes, the stage feels perfectly set for an exhibition that celebrates an entire constellation of African fashion ideas, in all its joyful diversity.



“Now feels like the right time, because as far as we’re concerned, we can see that African fashion creators are absolutely shifting the geography,” says Dr Christine Checinska, the museum’s Curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion.



“It’s one of those moments where everything aligns. We want to give a platform for these creatives to speak about their work in their way: it is this idea of many, multiple voices.”



The Africa Fashion exhibition, which will run through to April 2023, will trace an effervescent path from “iconic mid-20th century to contemporary creatives through photographs, textiles, music and the visual arts”. In ten sections – African Cultural Renaissance, The Politics and Poetics of Cloth, Vanguard, Capturing Change, Minimalism, Mixology, Artisanal, Afrotopia, Sartorialists and Adornment, the show will be more than just a feast for the eyes; it will be a living, breathing conversation about eight decades of cultural dynamism.



“The theorist Stuart Hall said that African diasporic cultural expression often evolves around music, movement and the body, where style becomes the thing that’s really going on,” says Checinska. “The body is a canvas for expressing identity, for expressing one’s culture. And this is often the way in which we enter into the African fashion scene – through photography, or film, or digital platforms, and the body is central to those kinds of arenas. It’s about ‘movement culture’, where it&#8217;s not just the garment; it&#8217;s the gesture, it&#8217;s the walk, it&#8217;s the performed identity through fashion. One of the reasons the exhibition jumps off from the mid-20th century is that, yes, it&#8217;s that galvanization of creativity that is centuries old, and it&#8217;s that moment of agency. It still has political relevance, I think, and artistic relevance, and I feel that contemporary designers are almost taking it back and reclaiming it.”



The show will cover a broad portfolio of topics with both Africa-specific and global relevance; from LGBTQ+ issues, to sustainability, to women’s empowerment, to cultural appropriation.



“We&#8217;ve always felt that this exhibition needed to give a glimpse of the glamour and politics of the African fashion scene, and so you&#8217;ll be able to read, hear and see the creatives voice themselves,” says Checinska. “We felt it was important to tell a story of agency, abundance and unbounded creativity, but tell it from the creators’ point of view.” This shift in perspective can also be seen as the beginning of a fresh era for the museum; the V&amp;A has just recruited new curators within the Africa focus. “We see it as the start of a deeper and sustained engagement with African creative 



excellence,” she says. “And what we learned through the conversations we&#8217;ve had with the creatives on the continent will absolutely shape the work I do in coordinating with the three new curators in rippling the African fashion events throughout the museum. This change is non-negotiable. We’re in it for the long term.”



One of the creatives whose work is featured in the exhibition is Nigerian designer Adebayo Oke-Lawal, founder of Orange Culture, a brand very much aligned with the exhibition’s appreciation for the differentiated voice. “I really wanted my brand to be about representation,” he says. “Orange for me felt like more than a color; it’s the idea of this secret, this thing that is misunderstood. It personifies the idea of individuality. Orange Culture is basically a culture of safe spaces.”



Oke-Lawal is proud of the brand’s 11-year growth, and the statement it makes about Nigerian entrepreneurship and resiliency. “From a third world country with an industry that is so young, that doesn&#8217;t even have the support of our government, we&#8217;re still able to create something beautiful from nothing,” he says. “And so it&#8217;s allowed us to celebrate our culture and our backgrounds, and the beauty of our individuals. Your brand is who you are. It should be the things you feel passionate about. Anyone who is building something needs to contribute to change; everybody should contribute to where they&#8217;ve come from.”



His brand “covers universal silhouettes with an African touch”, and “answers to just about anyone who&#8217;s interested in telling a story with the way they present themselves.” These stories often address preconceptions about masculine identity, and the role of fashion in gender identity, sexuality and individuality. “We’ve always been a brand that has challenged or opposed this idea of toxic masculinity,” says Oke-Lawal. “It’s about telling African men that they can be different, that they can have different expressions of themselves. It’s about expressing the richness of my culture through non-shaming.”



This defiance has a broader objective: an articulation of the desire for a re-calibration of external attitudes towards African fashion, which have tended to demand a specific visual narrative rather than demonstrating an openness to idiosyncrasy and innovation.



“It’s basically just teaching people our own stories, rather than allowing them to tell us what those stories are,” he says. “And I think we’ve allowed that for too long. I don’t go to China and say, ‘Why don’t you put chopsticks in your designs?’ You know? I think that that&#8217;s one of my favorite things about this exhibition – it’s really just allowing us to finally say, ‘Hey, this is who we are. This is finally ours, and this is what we&#8217;re telling you. So now you need to listen’.”

‘Chasing Evil’ collection, IAMISIGO, Kenya, AutumnWinter 2020. Photo Maganga Mwagogo

A Perspective on The Art Of Agency: London’s Victoria and Albert Museum celebrates eight decades of African fashion

Africa is a hit on TikTok, with instant global acceptance of the music coming out of the continent – and the artists are cashing in.



BY PAULA SLIER AND SASHA STAR 



An earworm is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as &#8220;catchy song or tune that runs continually through a person&#8217;s mind&#8221;



The song tends to crawl into one’s brain as easily as a worm would in some squishy earth and there it lies in wait for the most random of moments. It then squirms, on its own unexpected accord, just long enough for a few select beats or lyrics to be recalled. The metaphorical maggot goes round and round, with no time limit for the internal soundtrack. The musical experience is known to last anything from a couple minutes to several weeks and all one can do is pray that some other bizarre tune replaces it at some point.



Some people hate having a particular melody or phrase stuck in their head, but one social media platform is banking on the phenomenon.



Although it was launched worldwide in the middle of 2018, it was not until the global Covid pandemic hit two years later that TikTok went truly viral. Stuck indoors during lockdown, people began making videos to keep themselves occupied while scrolling endlessly through other people’s videos to banish the boredom.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:37% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="396" height="584" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.33.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55124 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.33.png 396w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.33-203x300.png 203w" sizes="(max-width: 396px) 100vw, 396px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">A lady reached out to me from Germany to tell me she heard my song doing well on TikTok and that she appreciates my music.<cite>– Nigerian artist, Goya Menór</cite></blockquote>
</div></div>



With more than a billion users around the world (and the figure is expected to grow to 1.5 billion by the end of 2022), TikTok has enabled global citizens to interact with one another even as countries closed their borders.



“A lady reached out to me from Germany to tell me she heard my song doing well on TikTok and that she appreciates my music,” shares Nigerian artist, Goya Menór. If his name does not ring any bells, the earworm he created with Ghanaian producer Nektunez likely will.



“You want to bamba? You wanna chill with the big boys?”



Those were the questions plastered across TikTok in December 2021. The track from which those lyrics are borrowed was initially released in June 2021, but it was not until someone decided to share four lines of the chorus on TikTok that Ameno Amapiano 



became one of the most recognized songs in the world. And even if half of the global population didn’t understand what it meant, they were still asking the questions — over 4.7 million times.



“A lot of my friends in Nigeria began messaging me and sending me videos of different celebrities using the song to make videos. To my greatest surprise, it popped up to be one of the biggest songs worldwide.”



Amongst those who have filmed themselves lip- syncing or dancing to the now-famous words are LA Lakers star, Shaquille O’Neal; Manchester United midfielder, Paul Pogba; musicians Shakira and Janet



Jackson; and actress Liza Koshy.



“On TikTok, every artist in the world has an equal opportunity to make their song a global sound,” believes Menór who, prior to Ameno Amapiano’s success, was considering giving up music.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:36% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="356" height="414" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.39.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55123 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.39.png 356w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.39-258x300.png 258w" sizes="(max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Music discovery on TikTok has been a huge thing that we’ve been focusing on in Africa. It’s the best place to find new music on the internet right now.<cite>– TikTok’s Music Operations Lead for Sub-Saharan Africa, Yuvir Pillay</cite></blockquote>
</div></div>



“Irrespective of whether you are an upcoming artist or in competition with a superstar, if you have the best sound, TikTok users will vibe with it and it will start trending.”



“Music discovery on TikTok has been a huge thing that we’ve been focusing on in Africa. It’s the best place to find new music on the internet right now,” says TikTok’s Music Operations Lead for Sub-Saharan Africa, Yuvir Pillay. “The platform has somewhat democratized the music industry. If you as an artist are able to engage with the community on TikTok and make sure people are using your music to create videos that are also interesting for other users, you’re going to find some kind of success.”



Menór is not the only African artist with an instantly recognizable song thanks to the Chinese app.



There are well over three million videos featuring Love Nwantiti by CKay. The track was successful when the Nigerian artist first released it in 2019, but the acoustic version made popular by TikTok in 2021 is what entered the US Billboard 100 and found itself as the most Shazamed song in the world.



“Love Nwantiti is so accepted that people use it as a soundtrack to their lives, whatever their lives may be. From fashion, to sports, to cooking, to dancing,” CKay says of the Afrobeats ballad. The song was originally used in a challenge where users introduced themselves by name, age, and country, but the majority of videos consist of TikTokers copying a dance routine choreographed by fellow user, Tracy OJ.



“There’s lots of amazing content there,” CKay states of the platform. “The creators keep the app alive. TikTok is just an app — it’s the people on it that make it interesting.”



Angella Summer Namubiru is one such creator.



More than 4.4 million users follow the model whose videos are typically shot in her rural village.



“My content is about Africa and my culture as a Ugandan woman. I wanted to show people how we used to do things way back then, because if we as Africans embrace our cultures and start showing them to the world, maybe they will understand who we truly are,” Namubiru explains.



“My purpose is to teach the current generation and people who don’t know about my culture as I think showing them will give them another view of Africa.”



According to the breakdown which TikTok provides, the majority of Namubiru’s followers hail from the United States, Germany, the Philippines, Nigeria, Canada and the United Kingdom.



“Some think that my background is a green screen,” she laughs.



Although the majority of the comments she receives are positive, that is not always the case. The 26-year-old has been subjected to nasty remarks about her skin tone and facial features.



“In the beginning, I used to sit down and cry and ask myself if I’m good enough, whether I should stop recording myself. But then you realize that it is not only about you, because they do it to everyone. At the end of the day, what they say is not real. You just have to love yourself and keep doing you.”



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:40% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="428" height="534" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.21.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55126 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.21.png 428w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.21-240x300.png 240w" sizes="(max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">My content is about Africa and my culture as a Ugandan woman. I wanted to show people how we used to do things way back then, because if we as Africans embrace our cultures and start showing them to the world, maybe they will understand who we truly are.”<cite>– Angella Summer Namubiru</cite></blockquote>
</div></div>



“I think once you do something just for the views, there is no point,” says Wian van den Berg.



The self-taught magician is the most- followed creator in his native South Africa, with 1.4 out of every 100 people in the country watching his magic tricks.



“[Being most-followed] is a title that I never really thought about; however, I am also open to being passed one day. I think it would be great for influencers like myself to be taken seriously, as people usually think only Americans can have tens of millions of followers.”



Van den Berg says that TikTok has changed his life by enabling him to make a living from doing what he loves, something which Pillay says is entirely possible.



“Because so many brands are now looking to TikTok to showcase their products and services, there are many ways to monetize being on the app,” Pillay explains. “It’s easy to grow from zero to 100,000 followers in a month as long as you are putting out great content. As soon as you become a big creator, a lots of these brands may be reaching out.”



One of the reasons that sudden, exponential growth is achievable is due to the way TikTok has been designed.



“The app has an algorithm that actually favors creators,” CKay notes. “To reach a million people on another app you probably have to pay for advertising and all that stuff, but to reach a million people on TikTok is kind of easier.”



“It always feels like TikTok just knows what you would want to see,” agrees Van Den Berg.



That said, Namubiru hopes that creators realize who is being influenced by the content that they post.



“Sixty percent of people on TikTok are young kids. What are you showing them? Your nakedness, your stubbornness? I think as influencers we need to focus more on what we are doing because if members of the younger generation love you, they want to copy what you’re doing.”



The tendency to present “perfection” on social media — from using face- augmenting filters to portraying glamorous lifestyles — has the ability to create unrealistic standards which Namubiru believes can be exceptionally dangerous.



“If younger people are unable to do things the same way as the influencers do, it makes them feel bad. And when they get depressed, sometimes they do harmful things to themselves. They need to understand that social media is not real, and parents need to monitor what their children are watching.”



When done right, however, social media platforms like TikTok have the potential to showcase the continent’s vast talent pool and alter inaccurate perceptions.



“I ran into a guy who is a waiter, who also happens to have a ton of followers and be a DJ. That is what I admire most about our continent — we have so much talent and drive to put our names out there. The rest of the world is watching Africa and very interested in what we can do,” Van den Berg says.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:36% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="516" height="668" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.26.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55125 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.26.png 516w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-19-at-09.18.26-232x300.png 232w" sizes="(max-width: 516px) 100vw, 516px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">We have so much talent and drive to put our names out there. The rest of the world is watching Africa and very interested in what we can do.<cite>– Wian van den Berg, magician</cite></blockquote>
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“I want people to understand that when they see a mud house, it doesn’t mean someone is poor,” states Namubiru. “If someone is happy and enjoying life in that mud house, to me, they are rich! I don’t want people to see only the poor side of Africa — I want people to see Africa as ‘Africa the continent.’ It has so many countries and so many cultures and so many beautiful things.”



As well as a habit of producing some outstanding earworms.

Young handsome African man wearing headphones listening to music and dancing in futuristic purple cyberpunk neon light background

Banking on Earworms: How Artists Are Cashing in On Africa’s Tik Tok Market

Farming flies and cockroaches to ensure food security? Read on for some of the most fascinating insights on alternative agriculture in Africa.



BY PAULA SLIER AND SASHA STAR



ANY CHILD GROWING UP IN THE 90S — OR their parents, for that matter — will likely recall the scene from The Lion King where Timon and Pumbaa introduce a young Simba to their staple diet.



“This looks like a good place to rustle up some grub,” says the meerkat as he lifts up a log to expose a plethora of creepy crawlies underneath. “These are rare delicacies,” he tells the lion 



cub. Their warthog friend slurps up a maggot before declaring, “Slimy, yet satisfying.”



The look of disgust on Simba’s face mimics those of many people when the idea of eating insects is mentioned. Yet, consuming bugs is something which has been done in Africa for centuries.



“Africa has more than 552 species of insects which are edible. They have been consumed in more than 45 countries across the continent by close to 300 million people, so it’s a culture that we have,” confirms Dr Chrysantus Tanga who heads the Insects for Food, Feed and Other Uses (INSEFF) Programme at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE).



That last number is an important one. According to the United Nations, the population of Africa is anticipated to grow to around 2.53 billion people by the year 2050, leading to a significant increase in the demand for food. It is here that ICIPE’s program comes in.



“About 29% of the population is chronically undernourished,” Tanga explains. “And so if we are able to promote insects as a food source, that will go a long way to increase food production and ensure food security.”



Dr Amy Franklin understands this undernourishment first-hand. “My husband and I adopted two children from the Congo,” says the Colorado native. “We saw the conditions that these kids are raised in and how poor their nutrition is. It was this experience with my own kids that moved me to do something for other children in the country.”



The result was the non-profit organization, Farms for Orphans, which in 2017 began farming African palm weevil larvae to provide a healthy, sustainable protein for children.



“I never in a million years thought that I’d be farming insects in the Congo! Protein malnutrition and iron- deficiency anaemia are huge problems in this population and I came to realize that most of the orphanages, especially in Kinshasa, have no land or access to land, meaning there’s nowhere for them to grow crops or to raise even small livestock.”



The beauty of farming bugs is that barely any space is required.



“I keep them in a small room in special crates for keeping small insects,” says Daniel Rwehura, who has become known as the Cockroach King in Tanzania. The 30-year-old started out as a poultry farmer, but a shortage of animal feed for his chickens led him down a different path.



“I began searching for alternative sources of animal feed and discovered that cockroaches are very nutritious. When I started farming cockroaches, the goal was to find a solution for animal feed, but during the process I found that some customers request them for other uses, like human food.”



According to Tanga, insects are the real deal when it comes to ticking off one’s vitamin intake. “The protein level of insects, in most cases, ranges between 38% and 78%, making them superior to plant-based protein sources and comparable to animal-based protein sources. In some instances, they are even superior. Insects are also extremely rich in minerals like iron, zinc, and calcium.”



Studies have shown that locusts, grasshoppers, and caterpillars are high in sterols which have anti-inflammatory and cancer- fighting properties, aid in lowering cholesterol, and improve the production of Vitamin D. Crickets possess 2%-3% more folic acid than plant and animal-based sources, making them beneficial for children and pregnant women; and a variety of insects are rich in amino acids and antioxidants. Insect oils also contain all three types of Omega-3 fatty acids, compared to sesame and olive oil which only include one.



“With just a handful of crickets, you get your iron, zinc, and protein intake for the day. They are like nutrition powerhouses — you can do so much with so little,” says Talash Huijbers who founded InsectiPro in Kenya. The organization farms crickets for food and black soldier flies for feed, with 3 million crickets and around 500,000 flies produced each day on their 1.2 hectares of land.



In addition to reproducing so rapidly, insects involve far lower maintenance than farming animals. “Because cockroaches feed on residuals like fruit and vegetable peels, I don’t need a budget for feed. I also don’t need to buy medication for them, so it is easy and affordable to farm them.”



Insects may be the hot new item on the menu, but farming them is also facilitating the production of other protein sources.



“When farmers see a difference in the growth of their animals, they come back to buy more,” notes Huijbers. “Pigs grow faster, chickens are laying eggs for a bit longer and fish are growing a bit faster because the amino acid profile of black soldier flies is very complementary to animal growth.”



“The recycling of 200 million tonnes of organic waste is able to produce 16 million tonnes of insect-based animal feed annually. In turn, this provides five to 14% of the protein which is required to farm pigs, fish, and chicken as food within the continent,” Tanga further explains.



“What I think we’re going to see in the next few years is a shift with insect producers from Europe coming to Africa,” Huijbers believes. “We have the land, we have good climate to grow insects. Labor makes sense. It can be done almost anywhere. So I think as a continent, we can gain a lot from insect production.”



“Africa has plenty of resources,” agrees Rwehula. “We have a habit as Africans of undermining our resources and rather valuing those brought out by foreigners. We need to do research on our resources and utilize them to make improvements to grow our economy.”



Although it may appear as though farming creepy crawlies is simple enough for it to practically do itself, the practice does involve its difficulties.



“One of the biggest challenges was that the orphanages kept eating everything that we gave them to start their farms,” Franklin recalls. “We tried several times. We kept replenishing the larvae and they just kept eating them. I mean, they get no protein and here we were bringing them kilograms of larvae and telling them that they had to leave them in a container and feed them so they would pupate and make beetles which would make more larvae&#8230; It just got to the point where we couldn’t give them anymore to farm.”



Palm weevil larvae, known as mpose in Congo, is considered a delicacy. One kilogram of the wriggly creatures can easily sell for over $20. “They taste like little breakfast sausages,” Franklin quips.



Dr Leah Bessa focused both her Masters and PhD on insects as an alternative for human consumption which inspired her to found Gourmet Grubb. The company’s signature product was EntoMilk (from the word “entomophagy”, meaning the practice of eating insects) which was made from black soldier fly larvae and then used to create artisanal ice cream.



For a short while, the business also had a pop-up restaurant in Cape Town where bugs were the main ingredient on the menu. Think tagliatelle made from insect flour and served with crispy larvae crumbs, and chickpea and black soldier fly larvae croquettes served with a mopane worm dip.



“The idea was really to bring insects to people in a gourmet cuisine, to sort of change the perception. We had people flying in from different parts of the country to try the food, and some customers did not even realize it included insects.”



Bessa believes that not serving the bugs in standard form helped to normalize the eating experience – an opinion which Huijbers shares. “We realized at InsectiPro that a whole insect can be pretty scary



to eat. But as a powder, it’s a lot more acceptable. We are now doing a lot of tasting sessions and we’re working with different chefs just to get crickets to be a bit more normal.”



Huijbers claims that crickets have a nutty taste but have the ability to adapt.



“Depending what you feed them, they can taste like that. So if we feed them garlic, they’ll taste kind of garlicky. We also have a caramel cinnamon flavour and a barbecue flavour that we will be selling as snack packs. My COO is not very big on the crickets, she doesn’t like the flavor profile, so when she ate them happily, we knew we would be okay.”



Although the health benefits and creativity cannot be denied, it still takes a mental adjustment to be alright with downing a gogga.



To those who are apprehensive, Huijbers says, “Just try one.” According to Timon, it tastes just like chicken.

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