It’s raining heavily the morning Oluchi Orlandi arrives at the Nike Art Gallery in Lagos for the photo session with FORBES WOMAN AFRICA. The Nigerian-born supermodel has traveled from New York, where she lives, and the rain-soaked welcome has lifted her spirits.
She steps in and instantly fills the room with raw energy. There is a moment of quiet reservation, the lights and camera go on, and then there is magic.
It is clear Orlandi, 33, has faced the camera for years, she is a natural in front of it. She struts, sways and smiles for the lens, embodying grace, all six feet of her.
She was only 17 when she first came face-to-face with the camera – and became an instant sensation.
This was in 1998, when ‘Oluchi’ became a household name in Nigeria following her win as M-Net’s Face of Africa. The popular show on the South African TV channel brought her success and fame, and a life she never dreamt of.
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From the fashion runways of New York to Milan, showcasing lingerie to haute couture, this African beauty has traversed the globe, gracing billboards and the covers of international magazines such as Elle and Italian Vogue. She has been the face of campaigns for Victoria’s Secret and Gianfranco Ferre
More recently, Orlandi has added another feather to her cap. She now owns rights to the reality television show Africa’s Next Top Model, a show she brought to Africa in November 2013. As the African version of the globally-televized America’s Next Top Model show hosted by Tyra Banks, it has successfully completed its first season on the continent. The next season is currently being filmed. Orlandi is Executive Producer, head judge and host of the show.
Supermodel. TV hostess. Businesswoman. She has donned many hats. Orlandi says she has had an entrepreneurial streak from childhood.
Ordinary childhood
Growing up in Lagos with four siblings, raised by her mother, a nurse, and her father, a civil servant, Orlandi recalls being a tomboy who loved to play ping-pong in the street with the boys.
It was an ordinary childhood. “We had a normal routine of home, school and church. I remember being very entrepreneurial at a young age though. I’d generally sell and think of ways to bring additional income home. It was entirely my initiative and I wasn’t pressured into anything by my parents,” says Orlandi.
Continuously seeking new projects to invest in, she bought her first property, as an investment, at the age of 23. She recalls not sleeping for a month, worrying about the mortgage she had to pay off.
When the first season of Africa’s Next Top Model was aired, following young supermodel hopefuls from across the continent, it enjoyed note-worthy ratings, creating an appetite for more in viewers, and quelling Orlandi’s long-felt desire to create a better understanding of the modeling and fashion industry in Africa.
For this, she had to step out of herself, and reexamine the industry she had been a part of for almost a decade-and-a-half.
“I have seen this industry grow and metamorphose over this time. It is progressing at a fast rate but the general public has such a limited view of it. There is minimum insight to the enormity of this industry and its existing opportunities. I had a small team that worked day and night to bring it all together. We had designers, fashion editors, creative directors on the panel. It was a joy to put faces to names people had known and introduce their craft to the continent on a different platform. I wanted to bring all of these elements to television and bring the industry to people’s screens.”
Orlandi’s ambition is two-fold: to create awareness about fashion and also a platform for women. It is to modeling that Orlandi owes everything to. After all, it thrust her into the limelight and opened doors for her.
“I’m forever grateful to a corporate platform like M-Net that provided an opportunity like this to young African women, as I believe the continent doesn’t do enough for our women and their aspirations. Today, I appreciate this platform more than anything. For me and many other young girls that were given that opportunity, it is indelible and has shaped my views differently today. As the years go by, it has become my driving force to make a mark in the industry. All I ask myself these days is: ‘How can I give back?’ I don’t think I’ve done anything at all in comparison to what I should and could be doing and this quest has become my unrelenting drive.”
Though tall and slender, Orlandi never thought she would become a model. As a high school student, she wanted to be a banker, or an air hostess.
“I had a stronger banking aspiration though. I just thought it was glamorous. I loved the professional, powerful look of women in suits.”
But it was a family friend, a fashion designer she had become close to, who influenced her. The friend talked her into taking part in the modeling competition that was to change her life.
“I didn’t know what to expect. She took me to the auditions and my life took a 360-degree turn from there. It was a room of over a thousand girls all gunning for the title of Face of Africa. I was lucky enough to progress from stage to stage, eventually winning the title.”
Orlandi represented West Africa at the finals in Zimbabwe – and when she won, there was disbelief, and tears.
“I remember the night before the final stage, I just couldn’t sleep. I knew I had two other strong competitors. When my name was called, it took me a few minutes to believe it and I just broke down.”
Culture shock
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That was the launch of a sterling career but it was no cakewalk. Orlandi’s parents didn’t buy into it instantly as there were reinforced stereotypes about the modeling industry they weren’t comfortable with. They soon warmed up to the idea as time went by. This wasn’t all. It was time to face a world alien to her in many ways. Getting used to it was not easy.
“I suffered a real culture shock when I arrived in New York and was very homesick. I had never lived away from Lagos. I missed everything about home and wanted to be there. I went back home after a few months and was later convinced to return to New York for the sake of my career. Things got better from there and I learnt to make [New York my] home.”
While her career flourished and her calendar brimmed with bookings, Orlandi couldn’t miss the fact that her studies suffered. She had only completed high school when she made the move.
“My life had taken a very fast pace and my education had been affected. One thing I learnt from New York is that you can have anything you want if you work really hard. My education was still important to me and so I enrolled at New York University and started taking weekend classes for an associate degree in business. I later went back for two years to earn another [degree].”
She managed to juggle her studies and career, but starting a family threw a new set of challenges.
“I really struggled. I went through some emotional ups and downs and depression as I had to make a decision between my career and building a family. I was at the top of my career, working on Victoria’s Secret and pregnant with my first son – they had no idea at that point. This posed a threat to my career. I went through it all however and when I had my son, I had to say to myself, ‘you have to keep it going, there are women who have gone before you and have survived the patch’. I adjusted my view.”
Today, Orlandi is married to Italian fashion designer Luca Orlandi and is the proud mother of two children, aged seven and three. To upcoming models, she has a word of advice.
“Take advantage of every single minute. Don’t be culture-blind. Use fashion as your platform to see the world. Have a voice and understand the woman that you are. Don’t be scared to take risks.”
Orlandi is taking new risks now and constantly challenging herself.
“Back then, as a fledgling model, I was just focused on myself. It was all about me. Now, I am my biggest critic. I punch myself everyday saying ‘there must be more you can do Oluchi’,” she says.
Orlandi is very optimistic about the future of African fashion.
“I talk a lot about South Africa as they have been more structured and highly consistent in their approach than any other country on the continent, using magazines and varying portals to showcase the strength and magnitude of this industry.”
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In 2007, Oluchi partnered with the Shine Group to launch O Model Africa, a South Africa-based modeling agency dedicated to selecting and developing African models.
Yet, she feels more needs to be done.
“We need to praise ourselves more. Nobody will do it for you. We should stop idolizing the West so much and start celebrating and marketing ourselves better. I am an African woman and I know beyond doubt that the only way to build a better Africa is to embody, think and celebrate our own grand feats.”
And to achieve her goals, Orlandi has a simple philosophy, which she reveals before wrapping up for the day: “If you’re good to life, it’ll be good to you.”
<h1>Oluchi Unplugged</h1>
<h3>Jan Malan</h3>
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<h4>“The first time I laid eyes on Oluchi back in 1997, I knew she would become a star. Oluchi is an incredible businesswoman; she instinctively crafted and honed her career without losing herself in the glamor of it all. Oluchi has become a dear friend and compatriot and she is the one who guided me on the pitfalls of doing business in New York City,” says Jan Malan, Head of Production at Umzingeli Productions, one of Africa’s leading show producers.</h4>
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<h3>Duro Olowu</h3>
<h4>“Oluchi is great to work with. Super smart and funny too. Her beauty is effortless and so she has a fantastic way of giving her best without it looking forced. And she understands the camera and clothes too, you can’t get better than that,” says Nigerian-born London-based designer Duro Olowu, who has worked with her.</h4>
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Beyond The Catwalk

The art of portraying real life through a camera lens is common practice but, in the past year, great stories with roots to Africa can be seen on global movie screens.
12 Years A Slave, based on a true story, is currently being rated as one of the greatest films ever made about American slavery. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup, a freeborn African-American kidnapped into slavery for a dozen years. Kenyan actress, Lupita Nyong’o, in an excellent performance, portrays Patsy, a plantation slave caught up in a tangle of abuse and liaisons between her master, mistress and Northrup. Hollywood was abuzz when she recently bagged the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ award at the Oscars.
Two other recent releases are Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom which premiered in the 2013 Toronto Film Festival in September and is based on Nelson Mandela’s autobiography; and Half of a Yellow Sun which is adapted from the novel about the Nigerian civil war in the late 1960s, written by Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  With this in mind, it is no surprise that the movie Nairobi Half Life has brought Kenya’s film industry to the world’s attention. It is loosely based on a real-life story and features Joseph Wairimu as Mwas, a young man who leaves his rural home to pursue his acting dream in Nairobi and ends up joining the criminal world in a bid to survive.
What stands out is that the film is a debut for 32-year-old director Tosh Gitonga whose inspiration came from hearing and reading stories on the lives led by youth on the other side of Nairobi.
“When the police shot dead a gang in broad daylight a few years ago, it was front page news for a week. People followed the story keenly and I asked myself, ‘Why can’t we portray that on our screens? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a film scene with a police flying squad car chasing down a Toyota full of gangsters on Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue?’”
He says that directing Nairobi Half Life moved the story from a primetime news item to a meaningful narrative.
“It makes the audience reflect on who these gangsters really are. Why do they choose a risky life? What circumstances led them to these desperate choices?”
The film premiered at the 2012 Durban Film Festival in South Africa and received a Best Actor Award. That marked the beginning as other awards from festivals in Verona, London, Dubai, Kenya, Nashville and Los Angeles began rolling in. The film got selected as the Kenyan entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar for the 85th Academy Awards but did not make the final shortlist. It marked the first time Kenya has submitted a film in this category.
It has enjoyed box office success in Kenya, grossing $118,000 in only two theater screens. In Africa, Nairobi Half Life screened in Zambia, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania and did successful tours in the United States and Europe throughout the past year.
In Hollywood terms, this success is relatively modest and reflects the long journey ahead for Africa’s film industry. The biggest challenge is that most African films have American or British actors taking lead roles. The credits roll with familiar names like Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris and Thandie Newton. There was a public outcry in South Africa when Jennifer Hudson got the lead role in Winnie.
“It’s about bankable actors. The film backers and studios have to make a return on their money. It’s a business and until the African market becomes formidable with low piracy levels, lead actors of films based on African stories will not be Africans,” says Gitonga.
He adds that Nairobi Half Life was shot on a budget of $500,000 due to a training initiative led by German director Tom Tykwer, with the support of the German government. Each year, after a rigorous selection process, 10 to 12 African filmmakers are selected to go through a two-week workshop where they learn the art of making films of an international level and interact with global professionals.
“If the cost hadn’t been subsidized, the budget would have been $1.2 million; a sum that is quite difficult to raise for African filmmakers.”
Gitonga describes himself as a cinema freak who got into the industry by chance during an internship at a film studio. He drifted to the directors departments and honed his skills by directing extras, eventually becoming a first assistant director for several films like Justin Chadwick’s First Grader.
“I never went to film school but spent 10 years learning in the field and got selected as the director through this training initiative, which is one of the best things that ever happened to the African film industry because we have passion and talent but lack the resources. They fund the workshop and film which helps bypass the countless short films one has to do to prove that you are a good filmmaker and can be trusted with money. I now have much better chances as I have a full feature-length film under my belt,” says Gitonga.
He adds that film distribution, where the masses get to watch the movie at affordable prices similar to buying milk and bread, needs to be resolved.
“We have to create a culture of movie going which increases the consumer appetite and results in more films being made, more movie theaters and DVDs available for sale at local stores.”
Perhaps if filmmakers across the continent merge to tell our own stories, it will create a cult following in the theaters. A semi-autobiographical film based on Kenya’s best-selling fictional book by John Kiriamiti, My Life in Crime is currently in production. The film with a proposed budget of $4 million has combined the best of Nollywood and Riverwood—Nigeria’s and Kenya’s film industries. The film rights are owned by Kenyan producer Janet Kirina, Nollywood’s superstar Jim Iyke has the lead role and the script writers are Kenyan.  Time will tell whether this venture will be successful, remembering Chinua Achebe’s famous words: Until lions tell their tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

NHL-Mwas-and-the-Gang

The Lions Roar

It is said that the camera doesn’t lie. In a split second, photographing a boy walking on a beach with a toy gun can, in so many ways, reflect global issues. The trick is making you believe it’s relevant.
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A photojournalist is aware of the story he needs to tell. His images are his tools and sometimes they make you see a completely different reality. In this image a toy gun, child, beach and the word Somalia all combine to tell you that this could be a Somali child soldier.
The reality has nothing to do with this child being a soldier. It’s supposed to be a slice-of-life moment of Ramadan.  The irony of seeing a deadly weapon, even if it’s a toy, carried by a kid on a day of festivity in an Islam based country… complete the dots.  Generalizations are never pretty.
But it shocks. The lesson is simple; readers need to understand that a photograph should never be taken on face value.
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The Camera Never Lies?

Sierra Leone is slowly getting over its long and brutal civil war. That’s what the World Bank statistics tell you anyway. In 2003, Sierra Leoneans, on average, could expect to live for a miserably short 42 years.  It’s now 48 years and rising. Gross National Income, or GNI, is also rising, up from $220  per year to $340. But, two-thirds of the population of six million still live below the poverty line.
In 2013, Sierra Leone finds itself in economic transition, no longer entirely dependent on external aid but still without a vibrant local economy. Although the war officially ended in 2002, it left a legacy of grinding poverty. Thousands of young people are homeless, mainly because of the poverty that high unemployment brings. Eleven years after the war ended, you still find orphans or war-damaged people who are unable to pick up their previous lives.
Hazel Chandler first visited Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia in 2005 to make a film about the Liberian child rights activist Kimmie Weeks. Chandler is an experienced filmmaker, with an interest in making documentary films about challenging topics.
“I still find there are pockets of young men, alienated and angry, ready to go back to war. As soldiers they had money, a purpose, camaraderie and power. On the streets or in the provinces they have nothing.”
Chandler began filming with a dangerous street gang in Kenema, a large regional city North-East of the capital Freetown. When she gave the gang leader, Yumyum or Bad Man, as he is known, a hand-held camera to document his own life on the streets, an extraordinary thing happened.
“I fully expected him to film for a couple of days and then sell the camera. Yet, even when Yumyum went to prison and endured the most difficult of circumstances, he chose not to sell it for bail money. The camera became an expression of his identity and self-worth. He held on to it at all costs.”
The filmmaker quickly realized she was on to something.
“‘Yumyum’, my film, focused on the lives of three young men. Yumyum had briefly been a combatant. A-Class had lost his parents in the war, and KKDog had run away from an abusive uncle. Teaching these young guys to film and edit their own films, to document their own lives, gave them a purpose and a self-worth, which had been missing.”
After two years of filming the soon-to-be released documentary, she did what filmmakers are never supposed to do. She kept filming but stepped into the story and started to help her characters find schooling, jobs and a place to live.
From there, Chandler began to train homeless and poor people of all ages to film and edit, initially working in the offices of other charities.
“I found Sierra Leoneans living on the streets to be a talented and determined bunch, with a hunger for knowledge. They are pulling themselves up with grit and modesty and are a delight to teach. They have been the making of me, not the other way round,” the filmmaker explains.
Four years ago, alongside her son, Michael, she took the plunge to set up WAYout Arts, a charity dedicated to working with the street youth of Sierra Leone. In 2012, the WAYout Arts Hub finally opened in the center of Freetown. A music studio formed part of the Hub.
However, in tough economic times, charities worldwide were not being funded and were closing down projects.
“I think it was a happy coincidence of timing. I wrote to Strummerville, the Joe Strummer Music Foundation, when they were looking to donate outside the UK. They gave us the funds, equipment and the services to set up a music studio and taught our guys to be sound engineers,” she says.
Today, WAYout are recording street artists such as the Black Street Family. Previously, the 200-strong group was known as the Black Street Gang— among the most feared criminals in Freetown. Now, they have released an album, utilizing one of the few professional recording studios in the country.
As Chandler explains: “We won two out of the five film and music awards at Sierra Leone’s recent Human Rights Festival, and our reputation is growing. Our recorded music is regularly played on the radio and we have trained 600 young people, some of whom now work in the mainstream media. I am privileged to be a small part of that.”
In a final twist worthy of Nigeria’s Nollywood, the former gang leader Yumyum, who inspired both a documentary and then the WAYout Arts project has become Chandler’s adopted son. Yumyum is now known by his real name Amara and is regarded as family by both Hazel and Michael.
“Amara was the inspiration for everything, and he has changed my life. In Sierra Leone I am known as Mama Hazel; I fought the age and motherhood thing at first, but now I have accepted the role and I have a real sense of belonging.
“WAYout is helping people’s lives change, not least of all my own. When I’m in Sierra Leone I like who I am, which is a really nice feeling and which isn’t always true when I’m back in Britain.”   FL

Tag: Camera

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Beyond The Catwalk

The Lions Roar

The Camera Never Lies?

THe brit in sierra leone turning gangs into film crews