TOPLINE Trustees working to claw back money owed to investors, lenders and attendees of the 2017 bankrupt music extravaganza Fyre Festival settled a lawsuit with model and influencer Kendall Jenner for $90,000⁠—less than half of the $275,000 she was sued for in connection to a promotional Instagram post.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>Jenner is among entertainers such as Blink-182 and Pusha T who were paid for their involvement in the festival⁠—which promised days of parties, luxury accommodations and gourmet food, but was instead a complete flop, and generated multiple lawsuits.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Bankruptcy law <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/publications/blt/2020/02/trustee-clawback/" target="_blank">allows</a> trustees to recover, or claw back, payments made before a company filed for bankruptcy, and Jenner and other entertainers were sued by Fyre Festival trustees to recover money for creditors.</li></ul>



<ul><li>According to <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/fyre_festival_trustee_lawsuit_kendall_jenner.pdf?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">court documents</a>, Jenner was allegedly paid $250,000 to promote the festival in a single, now-deleted Instagram post, along with an additional $25,000 a few days after the post went live.</li></ul>



<ul><li>“So hyped to announce my G.O.O.D Music Family as the first headliners for @fyrefestival,” Jenner wrote in the deleted post, according to court documents. “Use my promo code KJONFYRE for the next 24 hours to get on the list for the artists and talents afterparty on Fyre Cay.”</li></ul>



<ul><li>The lawsuit <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/fyre_festival_trustee_lawsuit_kendall_jenner.pdf?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">alleges</a> that Jenner did not indicate she was paid for the Instagram post, and “intentionally led certain members of the public and ticket purchasers to believe” her brother-in-law Kanye West, G.O.O.D’s founder, could attend or perform at the festival.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Jenner, who has 129 million Instagram followers, denied any liability connected to the lawsuit, according to court documents; the settlement still requires a judge’s approval, and, as the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/kendall-jenner-settles-lawsuit-over-fyre-festival-11589991702?mod=e2tw" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a> reported, will avoid spending more time and money on litigation.</li></ul>



BIG NUMBER



Over $26 million. That’s how much money Fyre Festival investors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2019/10/24/fyre-proof-the-sudden-fall-and-swift-re-emergence-of-fckjerrys-elliot-tebele/#24b9cfe564e8">ultimately lost</a>, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.&nbsp;



KEY BACKGROUND



Fyre Festival⁠—which promised attendees (who paid anywhere from $500 to over $250,000) a two weekends-long party full of marquee music acts and models like Jenner and Bella Hadid⁠—was a failure. The reality, as chronicled in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&amp;ai=DChcSEwjgzcKYnMPpAhW87LUKHfP3DkUYABAAGgJxbg&amp;ohost=www.google.com&amp;cid=CAESQeD2Naq493iIchLiPH00lSujsk3BkXm6RuGpYhP5MfzrplJ8a5Dxo-R6Lq8PZo3Yqk9dQ_NuTBcJ8w43wDSkl-c0&amp;sig=AOD64_14YAQP3GC5wvqfp81vZfTd2RFOGQ&amp;q=&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiVgbeYnMPpAhWHhOAKHWq_CAYQ0Qx6BAgsEAE&amp;adurl=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81035279" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">documentaries</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://pagesix.com/2019/01/22/amy-schumer-jumps-in-on-mocking-fyre-festival/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mocked</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thewrap.com/fyre-festival-disaster-twitter-mocks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">extensively</a>, involved FEMA tents, cheese sandwiches in foam containers and stranded festival-goers. None of the promised entertainers showed. The Fyre Festival fallout resulted in multiple lawsuits. Its founder, Billy McFarland, is serving a six year prison sentence for multiple fraudulent schemes. He&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thewrap.com/fyre-festivals-billy-mcfarland-asks-for-early-prison-release-due-to-coronavirus-risk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">requested</a>&nbsp;compassionate release in light of the coronavirus pandemic. It was denied.



TANGENT



In 2019, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/07/05/kardashian-clans-716-trademarks-how-kim-kanye-kylie-and-kendall-protect-their-brands/#2f8d4df24e67">Forbes reported</a> that Jenner held 34 U.S. trademark applications among the over 700 owned by the Kardashian clan (that’s Kim, Kanye, and sister Kylie, along with Kendall)⁠.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/">Lisette Voytko</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

gettyimages-1065147284-594×594

Kendall Jenner Settles Fyre Festival Instagram Post Lawsuit For $90,000

Whilst other industries succumb to the coronavirus pandemic, Netflix is reigning supreme.



With almost half the planet in lockdown, the streaming giant is cashing in on a captive home audience, even in Africa.



Pushing more international content on its platform as it takes on competitors Disney+, Hulu (majority-owned by Disney), Amazon and Showmax, Netflix has been vocal about making Africa a new hub for generating original content.



In February, it premiered its first African original series, Queen Sono, a South African crime drama starring Pearl Thusi, which is now going into its second season after receiving rave reviews.



Netflix has also just announced its second African original series, titled Blood &amp; Water.



The series, focusing on “a world of mystery, raw family dynamics and light-hearted relief”, is directed by Nosipho Dumisa. The female cast includes Ama Qamata, Khosi Ngema,&nbsp;Gail Mabalane, Natasha Thahane, and Cindy Mahlangu.



Blood &amp; Water is set to hit your personal screens in May.



Netflix has also announced its next African original series, JIVA!, currently in production. It will be “a fun and energy-packed drama series” on a talented street dancer, and will be a local African production, from script to screen, with an all-African cast and crew.

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Netflix To Debut Second African Original Series

TOPLINE Netflix is one of the few companies actually thriving during the coronavirus, hitting an all-time high in the market Thursday after becoming more valuable than rival entertainment giant Disney.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="960" height="735" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Tiger-King.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44391" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Tiger-King.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Tiger-King-300x230.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Tiger-King-600x459.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Tiger-King-768x588.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption>&#8216;Tiger King&#8217; has been a huge boon for Netflix, drawing more than 34 million viewers in its first 10 days on the platform, according to Nielsen. NETFLIX</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



The streamer’s stock climbed 5% by midday, after closing at a record price of nearly $427 per share on Wednesday.



With viewers turning to hits like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2020/04/08/34-million-people-watched-tiger-king-in-its-first-10-days-on-netflix/#56e0cff52a9a">true-crime documentary&nbsp;Tiger King</a>&nbsp;and comfort-food reruns like&nbsp;The Office&nbsp;and&nbsp;Cheers,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2020/03/23/exclusive-disney-sees-huge-subscription-spike-as-homebound-audiences-clamor-for-content/#7f50f02e17c4">Netflix is seeing a spike in new subscriptions</a>, according to streaming analytics firm Antenna.



Aside from increased viewership, Netflix is seeing another benefit from the crisis: like the rest of Hollywood, it has had to halt production, says Lightshed partner and analyst Rich Greenfield, freeing up its cashflow as it accumulates revenue.



What’s good for Netflix is also good for its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/reed-hastings/#73a62bcd2782">cofounder and CEO Reed Hastings</a>&nbsp;— his net worth is now $4.9 billion, a $1.2 billion increase since the end of March.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$194 billion. That is how much Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/netflix">NFLX</a>&nbsp;is now worth, having increased its market value more than $50 billion so far this year. Disney&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/walt-disney">DIS</a>, having been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, is valued below $184 billion, down from nearly $258 billion at the end of 2019. Disney and Netflix are two of the heaviest hitters in entertainment, but they have opposite approaches. While Netflix is entirely dependent on paid subscriptions for revenue, Disney is much more varied, as reliant on tourism and merchandise sales as it is on the content it puts out. While that diversity has traditionally been its strength, it has become a liability as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2020/04/14/saving-disney-iger-returns-as-coronavirus-batters-the-company-on-all-sides/#37412867e64f">the pandemic forces Disney to shut down theme parks and delay film releases</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



While that pause in production may be good for Netflix’s bottom line now, it could result in significantly less new content in the fall than planned. Even so, Netflix may still be better off than its competitors. “The reality is they have much more content in the pipeline than anyone else right now,” says Greenfield.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/">Ariel Shapiro, </a>Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

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Netflix Stock Hits Record High, Is Now Worth More Than Disney

They’re all closed.



Movie Theaters. Bars. Nightclubs. Arenas. Cafes. In New York, Broadway and museums are shuttered. In San Francisco it’s even more dire. Across the country and the world, cities are shutting down, leaving humans from Seattle to Shanghai without traditional ways of finding distraction.



The mandate for social distancing that has proven essential at slowing the spread of the coronavirus will cut about $12 billion of entertainment revenue from the U.S. if the shutdown lasts until July,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/03/16/cdc-all-americans-should-avoid-gathering-in-groups-of-more-than-10-people/#255b6cb5283d">as President Trump signaled</a>. Billions more are not being spent on creating new content as film and television production is frozen.&nbsp;



Things could get a lot worse.



“This is definitely unprecedented and turning everyone&#8217;s lives completely upside down,” says Ryan Borba, managing editor at concert tracker Pollstar.



The concert and live event industry brought in $34 billion last year,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/concert-event-promotion-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to market research firm IBISWorld</a>. Simple math suggests that a three-month shutdown at this time of year could cost that industry $7 billion of lost revenue. Any longer and it starts to cut into the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2020/03/06/as-coronavirus-cancels-sxsw-coachella-could-be-next-as-music-industry-braces-for-a-cruel-summer/#24e8eb076886">popular summer concert season</a>, which for LiveNation, the world’s biggest concert promoter, is when 70% of its attendance begins passing through the turnstiles. That’s bad news for the producers, songwriters, technicians and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/concert-event-promotion-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">269,025 concert employees</a>, including janitors, security personnel and ticket collectors. That’s not to mention the world’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/12/06/the-worlds-top-earning-musicians-of-2019/">top-earning musicians</a>, all of whom make the majority of their money performing.&nbsp;



“We’re beginning to see it affect the entire music ecosystem,” one prominent artist manager who <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2020/03/06/as-coronavirus-cancels-sxsw-coachella-could-be-next-as-music-industry-braces-for-a-cruel-summer/#20fa6f7d6886">told Forbes</a> on the condition of anonymity. “We’re getting calls from our agents about promoters canceling individual shows. Songwriters and producers have canceled flights into L.A. for sessions, so it’s starting to trickle down to the songwriting and production communities as well.”



On New York’s Broadway, where all 41 theaters are closed, the hit could be about $600 million, based on the amount they pulled in between mid March and July of 2019. During the 2016-2017 season, those theaters also supported more than 87,000 jobs and contributed $12.63 billion to New York City’s economy, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.broadwayleague.com/research/research-reports/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Broadway League</a>.



The effect on movie theaters is far more drastic. A complete shutdown across the U.S. will mean a $4 billion hit on the box office if they remain closed until July. On March 18, less than a month into the crisis, the national association of theater owner&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/734c2aad0321b93811a13273c112d21f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">requested a bailout</a>&nbsp;from the government.



“From the point of view of studios they are hemorrhaging money on the movie side,” says Mike Bloxham the senior vice president of global media and entertainment at research firm Magid.&nbsp;“There is a lot of money disappearing in China while 70,000 theaters are still closed.”



Once they do reopen, distributors will begin battling to squeeze a large number of films into a limited number of opening dates, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/03/12/hollywood-braces-for-coronavirus-slump-the-movie-releases-pushed-back-so-far/#3be198ba2bed">some major releases</a>&nbsp;that include the latest&nbsp;James Bond&nbsp;movie, Disney’s&nbsp;Mulan&nbsp;and Marvel’s&nbsp;Black Widow, all of which have been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/03/12/hollywood-braces-for-coronavirus-slump-the-movie-releases-pushed-back-so-far/#ad8a4d02bed6">pushed back</a>.



“No one can precisely predict when public life will return to normal, but it will return,” Patrick Corcoran, the president of the National Association of Theater Owners, said in a statement on Match 17. “When those titles are rescheduled, they will make for an even fuller slate of offerings than normal as they are slotted into an already robust release schedule later in the year.”



Last year, entertainment companies spent $121 billion to create original content and they were expected to spend even more this year as new platforms, like short-form video platform Quibi, emerge and streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime continue to plow through cash to produce new shows that lure in subscribers. Disney, Netflix, Universal and a number of other studios have all but&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/03/13/hollywood-studios-disney-netflix-halt-film-and-tv-production-amid-coronavirus/#327ea2195d28">shut down U.S. production</a>. In California alone, that activity supported more than 722,000 jobs and $68 billion in wages, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. In New York City, television and film production support about 10% of total employment, whether directly or indirectly, and generates almost $9 billion each year.



“Right now, we’re working to keep everyone safe, support the industry and find ways to help it come back stronger than ever,” a spokesperson for Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment said.



The sentiment mirrored that of Colleen Bell, the executive director of California’s Film Commission who said, “The entertainment production industry in California has overcome challenges in the past, and it will endure this sudden shutdown. Until the COVID-19 situation improves, the focus is rightfully on the public health crisis. After that’s behind us, the industry will once again thrive here in the Golden State.”



While those logistics will reverberate widely across show business sectors, consumers may be in for even bigger, long-lasting changes.&nbsp;



For TV shows, the near-term effects could be disappointing for fans looking forward to fresh episodes of their favorite shows. FX’s&nbsp;Fargo&nbsp;has shut down production and will have to delay new episodes. More series are sure to follow. Streamers have already changed the way we watch TV—introducing binge-watching and slowly eliminating cable subscriptions—and the more that cable and broadcast series are delayed, the more likely we will continue to move away from the appointment viewing of television’s past.



In film, a far more dramatic shift just happened: consumers may no longer need to fight crowds at movie theaters on opening nights. Universal Studios announced Monday that it would begin releasing films like&nbsp;Invisible Man, Emma&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Hunt&nbsp;available for in-home, on-demand rentals despite the fact that these films were only recently released, blowing up the entrenched windowing schedule that gave theater chains exclusive rights to show movies first before they were released to in-flight entertainment, rental platforms and then television. Sony followed, releasing Vin Diesel’s&nbsp;Bloodshot&nbsp;for digital purchase only 11 days after its theatrical release.



Others will likely do same and if they do, it could&nbsp;lead the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/oscars-keep-rule-requiring-movies-to-have-theatrical-release-to-be-nominated-2019-04-24" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">change their theatrical-release&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/oscars-keep-rule-requiring-movies-to-have-theatrical-release-to-be-nominated-2019-04-24" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rule</a>,&nbsp;which only allows films that open in a theatre and stay there for seven days to be considered for Oscars. It may also prompt Netflix to tighten its grip on the entertainment business with the purchase of a theater chain of its own. In 2018, the streaming giant looked at buying Landmark Theatres, but Cohen Media Group beat Netflix to the arthouse chain.



“If this continues for a long time, that will cause a change in how we consume content and allow newer titles to get to home video much faster,” says Asaf Ashkenazi, the COO of Verimatrix, a technology company that works with distributors in Hollywood. “If it’s a new title, you can delay it, continue to follow the traditional system and just wait. Or you can be more experimental and go directly to selling or renting online, which will allow more people to access it and get the revenue now.“&nbsp;



Other businesses are also turning to streaming, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2020/03/18/zombie-jamboree-for-a-struggling-livestream-startup-coronavirus-lockdown-offers-one-last-chance/#7811d2e15e24">concert-streamer StageIt</a>. The startup, which offers concerts from the likes of Jon Bon Jovi and Sara Bareilles, is on track to have revenue of $250,000 this week—about the same as its best month until now—and added&nbsp;10,000 subscribers in two days while hosting virtual festival “Shut In &amp; Sing.” Even New York’s Metropolitan Opera is in on it,&nbsp;<a href="https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-to-offer-up-nightly-met-opera-streams/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">streaming nightly performances</a>.



The stars themselves are also shifting their approach to how they entertain and communicate with fans. “Together, at Home,” a new series of online concerts presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Citizen, has recruited Chris Martin and John Legend to give casual concerts from their living rooms via Instagram Live, taking requests from fans and singing songs like David Bowie’s “Life on Mars.” Using Instagram, pop star Lizzo led a meditation, Frozen’s Josh Gad read kids a story, and, on Twitter, Yo-Yo Ma played a “<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/YoYo_Ma/status/1238572657278431234" target="_blank">song of comfort.</a>” Entertainers have already <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/style/celebrity-phone-numbers.html" target="_blank">fully embraced </a>this kind of direct connection with fans and the pandemic may only accelerate that.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/">Madeline Berg</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/media">Media</a>

High angle view of audience enjoying comedy movie at cinema hall

Coronavirus Could Be A $12 Billion Hit To Entertainment And Audiences May Never Be The Same

Move over, Lagos and Johannesburg, Accra too has a burgeoning media and entertainment sector. A 2016 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) predicts the sector in Ghana could be worth more than $1 billion in 2019.
Proving this are events such as the Exclusive Men of The Year (EMY) Africa Awards, which last year brought together 1,000 people including some of Ghana’s top CEOs, founders and achievers. Held on Father’s Day the last two years, it spotlights businessmen who are also role models at home, a campaign Daniel Kojo Soboh, Executive Director of EMY Africa, is hoping will transform the role of men in societies across Africa.
“We did a lot of research and realized there were homes that had no positive male role models young children could look up to. We know that the father’s role is very key, so it’s very important we project some of these men who are doing so great with their family, their work and their business,” says Soboh.
The event is dedicated to celebrating men in Ghana and Soboh is looking to expand his footprint in other African countries as well.
Those awarded include previous FORBES AFRICA covers, Papa Kwesi Nduom and Joseph Siaw Agyepong, for their impact as leading business magnates and inspirational role models.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/09/01/father-ghanaian-theater/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Father Of Ghanaian Theater</a>
“We select people from across various industries, people whose work is impacting society positively. We wanted to present them to young people who learn about them and who can read their stories and be inspired…,” says Soboh.
His own experiences growing up in a mining area in the Western Region of Ghana with a father he looked up to helped shape his outlook.
“My father encouraged us to be anything we wanted to be so long as it was 100% legal,” he reminisces as we sit down in his office in downtown Dzorwulu, Accra.
Soboh’s dream was to become a pilot. He opted for computer science at university instead until he stumbled into the entertainment sector.
“Two years into my course, I wanted to quit because I realized it was not something I wanted to pursue. I fell in love with entertainment… I organized a lot of events so everything pointed to the fact that I was an entertainment person. I loved putting stuff together and putting smiles on people’s faces and I also loved organizing and giving people a good time.”
Soboh joined Imajin Advertising, an events company in Ghana, where he was part of organizing some of Ghana’s most successful events such as the Legends and Legacy Ball, The Stand Up GH concert, and The Ghana Stands In Worship concert. The time was right.
According to the PWC report, Ghana’s entertainment and media sector generated revenues of $685 million in 2016, representing a year-on-year- growth above 25% from its $214 million mark in 2012.
Soboh decided he wanted a chunk of this lucrative market.
<div id="attachment_35818" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35818" class="size-medium wp-image-35818" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_9360-1-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_9360-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_9360-1-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_9360-1-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_9360-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_9360-1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_9360-1.jpg 1365w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Daniel Kojo Soboh. Photo supplied.</div>
“I started my own agency called Carbon AD to partake in opportunities in this growing sector. I partnered with Exclusive Men’s Magazine as a managing partner and together we created the EMY Africa Awards… The event has grown very quickly and become a household name&#8230;”
Ghana’s entertainment industry has seen significant changes over the past decade, and it has become imperative for companies like Soboh’s to continue to innovate. This relies on sponsorships, and that has not been an easy task for Soboh.
“We strive to raise the bar in terms of events in Ghana&#8230; I mean other people are doing it in Nigeria and Kenya, where they are producing state-of-the-art events and these things come at a cost,” says the man promoting exclusive men in Africa. Are they listening?

kojo

From Accra To Africa

The African entertainment space is perhaps too vast and too cumbersome to measure. But in the scattered data available we find the continent houses the world’s third largest homegrown film industry in Nigeria’s Nollywood, which according to a recent United Nations report, is larger than Hollywood by volume and second only to India’s Bollywood in worth, estimated at around $3 billion. The music arena is sweeping is similar terms.
If an artiste is defined by wholly the extent of their output and global influence, then these women are candidates for celebration.
<h3>Angélique Kidjo</h3>
<h3>Musician, Benin</h3>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30919" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-478138866-240x300.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-478138866-240x300.jpg 240w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-478138866-300x375.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-478138866-600x750.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-478138866-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-478138866-819x1024.jpg 819w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-478138866.jpg 818w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" />
She is perhaps the most iconic of modern African songstresses. Known for her electric performances and creative music videos, Kidjo began her musical life in Benin, then known as Dahomey, part of a musical family. Her mother was a theater director and her father, a photographer.
She fled her country following a coup in the early 1980s seeking a secure setting to chase her musical dreams.
“It was not possible to write your own music if you weren’t talking about the communist regime and the people in power. It was one thing I didn’t want to do. So the only option I had was to leave, otherwise I was going to end up in jail,” she says, speaking to us in 2015.
Since then, Kidjo has risen to become a Grammy-award winning artiste with over 37 albums in her repertoire.
The youngest in a large family, Kidjo’s childhood was colored by late nights, singing with her older brothers, at a little bar by the Cotonou lagoon. Eventually, she was headlining at jazz festivals across Europe with the legendary pianist, Jasper van’t Hof, and his afro-jazz ensemble, Pili Pili.
It was a difficult road to stardom.
“It was not easy&#8230;my parents were not rich enough to send [me] money. It was very hard, I had to find work. I did babysitting, I did hotel room cleaning, I did hair-braiding, I was a backup singer in a band. It was a matter of survival but I was free and that freedom had no price for me,” she recalls.
Kidjo did more than survive, she flourished. Her time with Pili Pili eventually led her to a recording deal with Island Records in Paris. A string of number one hits followed and she became a world music icon, picking up awards and accolades at every turn.
TIME magazine hailed her as “Africa’s Premier Diva” in 2007 but she remains true to her personal philosophies in an industry that is notoriously unkind to those with weaker spirits.
“One thing I learned as a young girl singing was always to be true to my inspiration, never ever give that up in order to please other people. If you cannot sing your song alone without instrumentation and be happy, don’t put it out there! You cannot be an artiste thinking that you want to be somebody else. You need to know what kind of artiste you want to be and why you want to be that,” she says.
Kidjo’s latest album, Eve, is dedicated to the women of Africa. She details stories of youth and rise in her memoirs, Spirit Rising, My Life, My Music published by HarperCollins in 2014.
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<h3>Danai Gurira</h3>
<h3>Actress and playwright, Zimbabwe</h3>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30930 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Danai-02-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Danai-02-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Danai-02-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Danai-02-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Danai-02-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Danai-02.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
Gurira is a consuming personality. She is both an actress and playwright. Her plot lines are at once accessible and complex, delving into the lives of everyday women fighting the insurmountable and emerging, at their conclusion, to a victorious reckoning. She writes to entertain and educate.
Her Off-Broadway play, In The Continuum, on women making peace with their HIV status debuted when she was still an MFA student at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and won three accolades including the Helen Hayes Award for Best Lead Actress.
Her most recent production, Eclipsed, written in 2009, follows the lives of five Liberian women at the height of the country’s drawn-out civil war as they navigate the horrors of wartime and the people they become.
This has scaled even higher heights than her previous one. It received an African treatment in 2014, at Johannesburg’s Soweto Theatre, in an adaptation directed by South African actress, Warona Seane. The current production opened at the Public Theatre in New York City to rave reviews in October 2015 with Kenya’s Oscar-winning diva, Lupita Nyong’o, at the lead.
As an actress, Gurira can be seen weekly on American hit television serial, The Walking Dead, as the no-nonsense, zombie fighting Michonne. She also has six film credits to her name, notably as Adenike Balogun, a Nigerian woman dealing with infertility, in the independent drama, Mother Of George. Eclipsed ran at The Public Theatre in New York until November 29. A third play, Familiar, based on a Zimbabwean family transposed in Minnesota is slated for 2016.
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<h3>Lupita Nyong&#8217;o</h3>
<h3>Actress, Kenya</h3>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30921 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Lupita-01-206x300.jpg" alt="" width="206" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Lupita-01-206x300.jpg 206w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Lupita-01-300x437.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Lupita-01-600x874.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Lupita-01-768x1118.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Lupita-01-703x1024.jpg 703w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Lupita-01.jpg 702w" sizes="(max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px" />
For moviegoers outside East Africa, Nyong’o must have seemed to burst into view out of relative obscurity. However, she was on the Kenyan stage and television before she took on the hearts and minds of red carpet watchers worldwide.
Nyong’o was a thespian from a young age, as a member of Ian Mbugua’s Nairobi Phoenix Players, she lead as Juliet in a local adaptation of the Shakespearean, Romeo and Juliet.
However, her big break was a culmination of efforts. She signed on as a member of production staff on various big budget films from The Constant Gardener, shot in Kenya, to Mira Nair’s adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake.
From there she won a place at the Yale School of Drama where she was awarded a prize, in her final year, for ‘outstanding ability’ in her craft. Earlier, in 2008, she appeared in an independent short film shot in New York. The year after that, she directed a documentary, In My Genes, on the much discriminated-against albino population in Kenya. It won first prize at the Five College Film Festival.
With all of this behind her, she was cast in her breakthrough role as Patsey in Steve McQueen’s stellar cinematic effort, 12 Years A Slave, just three weeks before her graduation. From there came her surprise Oscar win.
Her most recent project is with Zimbabwean playwright Danai Gurira and her play Eclipsed, playing a young woman who finds herself a sex slave in the rebel camps of wartime Liberia.
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<h3>Souad Massi</h3>
<h3>Singer-songwriter, Algeria</h3>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30931" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-163396633-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-163396633-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-163396633-300x452.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-163396633-600x904.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-163396633-680x1024.jpg 680w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GettyImages-163396633.jpg 679w" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />
Perhaps one of the most successful singer-songwriters in the Arab-speaking world, Massi marries beautifully composed guitar harmonies with her enchanting voice, often the only instruments in her employ, to tell stories through her songs. First-time listeners might compare her music to the American blues softened by the poetic lightness of careful lyrics.
While she is based in France, she was born in Algeria to a forward-thinking, but poor, family of six in 1972. She learned to play the guitar quite early and often performed her compositions to keen family and friends. At the beginning of the 90s, as the country plunged into civil war, Massi joined a political rock band called Akator and had a successful seven-year run with them, producing underground hits and popular music videos.
However, as the war raged on and her popularity soared, she became a target for the conservative fundamentalists that were quickly winning political ground in the country. They threatened her family and they threatened her life. Unfazed, Massi continued her musical conviction, cutting her hair short and disguising herself as a man.
“I grew up in a modest family in Algeria but I [was given] a lot of chances because my parents liked music, so it was easy to listen and to play the guitar. [This became] very hard because it was the civil war, it wasn’t easy to play on stage. In past it wasn’t a problem, but when the movement of Islamists it became very hard for us women to express ourselves, to [wear] clothes that we want. People thought that I [performed] on purpose, to attract attention but that wasn’t my idea,” she told the BBC in October.
Despite her camouflage, it was clear the extremists didn’t care for her music or her opinions. The death threats continued. In 1999, she accepted an invitation to play at a Paris festival and she never returned. Days later she was signed on to a local imprint of Universal Records and two years later she emerged with a celebrated first album, Raoui. It became a commercial success in Europe.
Although a deep yearning for the country she left behind echoes in her music, Massi understands that her voice is much stronger outside the constraints of the conservative society she fled.
“What I did in France, I could never do in Algeria,” she says.
In 2015, she released her latest album, El Mutakallimun, a collection of ancient poems from 9th century Arabic poets living in Cordoba, Spain, put to music. She says she wants the album to counter the negative stereotypes perpetuated of the global Islamic community.
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<h3>Genevieve Nnaji</h3>
<h3>Actress, Nigeria</h3>
Africans, the world over, have patronized a Nigerian movie at one point or another. With complex plot lines and exaggerated theatrics, Nollywood is the undisputed home of African cinema. And of its many on-screen darlings, Nnaji is perhaps one of the more prolific. In 2009, Oprah Winfrey dubbed her the ‘Julia Roberts of Africa’.
A former child model, Nnaji got her start in acting almost by accident. A local soap opera was short of child actors and they called into the modeling agency for recruits. Three names were put forward and she was among them. At eight years old, the actress was born.
“I enjoyed it, it was fun. I never felt so alive,” she told CNN in 2011 about the experience.
Over a decade later, she made her Nollywood debut at 19 with the movie, Most Wanted. Since then, her talent has been lent to over 80 titles of the industry and she has found herself thrust forward as a Nigerian ambassador appearing at film screenings in London and beyond.
This responsibility is not taken lightly.
“As long as you are a celebrity, you are an ambassador [to the rest of the world] they can’t see the whole country so what you show people is basically&#8230;what you show [of] back home,” she says.
In addition to acting, Nnaji has an album, One Logologo Line, released by a Ghanaian record label in 2004. She is also an accomplished model spawning a line of endorsement deals including being the face of Lux beauty products in West Africa.
However, she still has more planned for the future. In 2008, she launched her own clothing line St. Genevieve which donates some of its profits to charity.
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<h3>Warsan Shire</h3>
<h3>Poet, Somalia</h3>
Entertainers do exist in spaces outside music and film. While she is shy to admit she is a performer, writer and poet Shire launched her career at a poetry slam when she was just 16. Although the concept was new and bewildering to her, she got on-stage and performed her piece and to her surprise, won.
“I was very nervous. I didn’t really understand what a poetry slam was. Then I won. My friends jumped around. I didn’t want to ever do another poetry slam, but I think it has a lot to do with how I approach readings,” she says.
Since then she has used the internet to share her work becoming a sensation among a new breed of literary minded young Africans. She has released a popular album of spoken poetry, warsan versus melancholy (the seven stages of being lonely) and has been invited to perform her work from Berlin to Johannesburg.
However, she insists that first she is a writer.
“I’d rather listen than speak. It’s overwhelming, the amount of detail I see in really mundane scenarios: strangers touching one another; someone arguing on the phone; a man falling asleep on the train. I’ll fill in the gaps of the story myself. In my mind I’ll follow them home, I’ll imagine their childhood, what their bedroom looks like, if they are in love with someone who does not love them. The downfall is that I give everything (and everyone) too much meaning. Sometimes a thing is vacant and I’ll create depth for it; that’s not always fair,” she says.
Shire is an also an editor at SPOOK magazine, which focuses on the alternative literary arts. In 2012, she released her debut book of poems, Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth.
&nbsp;
<h3>Anne Kansiime</h3>
<h3>Comedian, Uganda</h3>
Funny woman of East Africa, Kansiime was an internet superstar before she even got on television. Her videos have been liked and shared thousands of times over even though her comedy persona is very Ugandan.
Hailing from a little village in western Uganda, she began her career in comedy while a student at Kampala’s Makerere University. She dabbled in drama and music but continued on with a degree in Social Sciences due to family expectations. Desperately looking for an avenue to showcase her talents, a friend urged her to record her skits and upload them online. After her first few hits, it was clear that she was a big, and unique, talent.
“I didn’t see it coming. I would post a clip and get a reaction, and I thought that I would put it on YouTube&#8230;I got motivated and kept on posting and posting till I started receiving phone calls and [even] receiving money from people who weren’t even in Africa. I didn’t know what I was doing but I knew I was doing a job and I liked it and people liked it,” she told Kenyan media in 2014.
Encouraged by the outpouring of support, she carried on to become a viral hit in no time.
“I just wanted to act. I didn’t understand [then] that acting would make people laugh,” she says.
Already, she has almost a quarter of a million followers on her YouTube channel. Some of her videos have been watched over a million times. She has performed in a variety of venues from London to Lilongwe.
Currently, her weekly online comedy sketch show Don’t Mess With Kansiime can be seen on her YouTube channel. In 2015, she released a debut music album, My Name Is Kansiime, available for digital download on Amazon and Itunes. Kansiime performed live in Washington D.C and New Jersey, as part of her World Tour, in late November.

The Stars  Of Africa

Thrilling entertainment and spectacular crowds; expect nothing less from Tiwa Aganga Williams’ social events. From college students to A-list celebrities, thousands are drawn to his grand parties. Williams, better known as Tiwaworks, is an enterprising socialite who has put his money where his mouth is.
For years, his company, also called Tiwaworks, has created memorable experiences but nothing could have prepared him for his worst day in business.
It was all set. Another spectacular evening of entertainment was set for Atlanta, United States (US), not far from where his career was launched in college. A call from American rapper Jay Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records to have Tiwaworks host a party with one of their artists was supposed to launch his budding brand into the stratosphere. At the age of 22, Tiwaworks, who is of Nigerian descent, set the wheels in motion. It was going to be a huge party, drawing a mammoth crowd from all over Atlanta, and no expense was spared.
But things didn’t turn out as planned.
“Unfortunately, we took a big financial hit that night as everything that could go wrong did. The event was a complete flop. I was sick to my stomach and remember sitting across the street from the venue with my head down. I had raised $10,000 with a promise to repay with interest, and I had to face the music with my investors. My mother came over and advised that the financial loss is a class I paid for as I would never repeat the errors again,” says Tiwaworks.
However unwelcome, the setback reinforced Tiwaworks’ drive. It would be a mere stumbling block in his journey – a journey he had only just begun.
The genesis of his business occurred while he was the Special Events Coordinator at his college fraternity.
“When I took this role upon myself, we pretty much changed the face of marketing and entertainment for the city of Atlanta. We were doing very innovative productions, our flyers looked more creative and appealing than others, we had approached local media companies to enquire about advertising rates. We were able to distribute our product to a population of about 1.2 million people in the area instantly – something no one else was doing. We positioned ourselves strategically. This is how I opened myself to the world of entertainment and events marketing.”
Although successful now, there were lessons that Tiwaworks had to learn.
“I learned to study my market thoroughly and not take chances. Audiences will only gravitate towards what interests them. I also learned to be aware of what competitors were doing and be well prepared,” he says.
Born in England, to Nigerian parents, Tiwaworks’ roots haven’t left him. His interest in programming, while in the US, was influenced by a desire to follow in his father’s footsteps, who owned a computer networking company in Nigeria.
“About a year and a half into graduation, I realized I wasn’t really interested in programming. I didn’t want to pursue it anymore but I was also not prepared to quit on my major and start something else all over again. I decided to go ahead and finish my course.”
With great hurdles to overcome, Tiwaworks revised his strategies for doing events. Atlanta was laden with new attractions. He hosted parties with some big names in American show business: Bobby Valentino; Brandy and Jagged Edge. Sponsorship and alignment was putty in his hands as brands clamored to be a part of his parties. Tiwaworks was expanded to more cities and soon his parties were the hottest ticket.
With the impressive growth of the brand, it soon appealed to different clients.
“Our events were very casual. A lot of Nigerians soon started coming up to me enquiring if I am a countryman. In no time, we started to receive a lot of support from the Nigerian community. Soon, a friend of mine suggested that we take a chance at going back home as the entertainment scene there is really opening up.”z
In 2004, for the first time since he was 13, he returned home. With some feasibility studies and more groundwork, Tiwaworks hosted its first Nigerian event in 2008 and recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of its most upscale event – All Black Everything – an elite annual event for young professionals and celebrities to network in Nigeria.
For Tiwaworks, the secret to success is simple.
“We made our parties very personable. I establish a one-on-one relationship with everyone that comes. I built my events handshake by handshake, brick by brick. That is more powerful than any radio or television advertising spot we could ever buy. We are looking to tour about 11 cities in the US this year.”
Tiwaworks now hosts the largest weekend which draws about 25,000 people annually to the city of Atlanta boasting average revenues of about $ 600,000 on its large weekend events.
“We have used it as a marketing tool establishing relationships with many companies. With our events, you are able to place your product directly in front of the market. Companies that look for non- traditional ways to enter the market approach us. We understand consumerism.”
He also sees creativity and foresight as a crucial element of entrepreneurship.
“You have to be a visionary. You have to visualize each and every aspect of the event and how it all comes together to provide a unique experience. Putting an event together equates to looking at a blank canvas and beginning to piece it together. I am a very visual person and always looking to heighten the experience. Then comes paperwork – budgeting, costs and estimates. Sponsors always seek visibility and return on investment.”
The Atlanta Greek Picnic Weekend is another attraction built under the Tiwaworks stable. This event draws a wide variety of all the black fraternities and sororities that make up the prestigious Divine Nine.
Tiwaworks’ entrepreneurial flair is not limited to hosting social events. He has a passion for real estate and technology.
“Ultimately, I am a businessman at heart. I love doing business. One thing I have learned in business is to diversify and have multiple streams of income. We now have real estate educational seminars and speaking engagements.”
With expansion plans for Dubai, South Africa, Britain and Nigeria, Tiwaworks’ toughest period in business was a precious lesson.

‘I Was Sick To My Stomach’

It only takes a few minutes with Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola to tell she wants to dominate the global entertainment stage. Badly. Luckily for her, talent is on her side. Oozing effortless elegance and charm, her conversation is characterized by infectious laughter and remarkable erudition. Otedola is clearly not your average beauty with brains.
The Nigerian-born DJ, otherwise known as Cuppy (her love for cupcakes as a child earned her the nickname, which stuck), wants to make sure Africa gets a fair share of the billion-dollar global entertainment industry. She is creating a raw new sound in Lagos, and its echoes are now being heard in the rest of the world.
The 22-year-old recently launched Red Velvet Music Group, a music management service and content production platform, which also currently manages her. She sees the brand gaining recognition in the entertainment sphere, through managing other artistes, and music distribution and publishing. For Cuppy, all this has been the culmination of a drive she has had from childhood.
“From a young age, I believe I have always wanted to prove myself in my own right. At that point, I never thought it would be music. I always had that ambition to conquer something though. Growing up with a very hardworking father [Nigerian business mogul Femi Otedola, who was featured on the cover of FORBES AFRICA last year] and a mother who told me ‘you could be whatever you want to be’, helped my drive from the beginning. Over time, I fell in love with music. Being a creative, I had always sought ways to express myself in ways that made sense to me. Music was it for me,” says Cuppy.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29979 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2015/04/DSC2370-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DSC2370-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DSC2370-300x449.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DSC2370-600x899.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DSC2370-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DSC2370.jpg 683w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
DJing is the style of mixing two beat-oriented records into a seamless, foot-tapping listening experience. Over the past few decades, it has acquired pop cultural status, and for some like Cuppy, has become a viable career path.
From spinning the tunes at weddings and toddler parties to representing her country at platforms like the MTV Africa Awards in South Africa and the Financial Times Luxury Summit in Mexico last year, Cuppy’s key differentiator is her fusion of urban contemporary African music with western tunes, increasing the popularity of African music.
It is little wonder she was appointed tourism ambassador for her country’s ‘Fascinating Nigeria’ campaign.
She also represents the continent as the Africa intern at Roc Nation, a renowned entertainment company in New York and home to acclaimed artists such as Rihanna, Shakira and Rita Ora.
“Being born and bred in Lagos, a very culturally-rich city and having a western influence when I moved to the UK for my studies, opened my mind to a fusion of experiences. I started to find ways to express myself so that it was a good reflection of my two influential cultures in a way that was unique. I have memories of listening to Fela Kuti [famous Nigerian musician] in the car with my dad from the age of six. While I didn’t really appreciate it then; I was definitely moved.
“Being the resident DJ for the MTV Africa Awards was particularly special for me too because not only did I represent my home, Nigeria, I got to represent Africa. As a female DJ, it was so exciting for me to have been placed on that platform to send such a great message across for African women. At Roc Nation, I find myself soaking in lots of information, learning how it is all done and wanting to come home and make the changes or be part of it in my own way.”
And how did she get into DJing? Cuppy’s eureka moment happened as a teenager.
“I always wondered why the DJ was a man and what stood in the way of female DJs. I didn’t understand the sexism behind this and knew it must be possible for ladies to give the guys a run for their money.”
Driven by a strong desire, she dug into educational material and information on DJing, purchased second-hand equipment to practice with, spent time at DJ booths and with determination, began to tutor herself and hone her skills. By the summer of 2012, she knew she was ready to take on the industry.
“It is a personal journey I have been through but it is also really about finding something I wanted to focus on and be really great at too. I remember telling my parents when I was 16 that I wanted to be a DJ. My father said ‘go for it but if you will do it, be the best at it’. The positive pressure, push and moral support I received from then has been invaluable in my career. I love my job and I always say that when you find a job you love, you will never have to work a day again in your life,” says Cuppy.
As a voice of the new generation, Cuppy’s message to young people is derived from her experiences.
“I grew up in a time where I believe young people didn’t have as much a say as they do now. I’m almost like a young woman trying to be heard. For me, this comes from growing up in times where young people were told what they should do, how they should live and act. The word support shouldn’t translate to financial. It is also moral and that goes a lot further.”
“I grew up with education being non-negotiable. Being very competitive and seeing the importance that was attached to it, I was compelled to excel at it.”
Through her art, Cuppy hopes to inspire young African women to pursue their dreams regardless of societal constraints.
“Being a female coming into a male-dominated industry, first of all, you have to be comfortable, be a fighter and definitely be great at what you are doing. In my mum’s times, she would never have been allowed to become a female DJ for instance. It was simply unheard of. This is what it represents for me. The wheels are turning, times are changing and the voice of the new generation is being heard.”
Thankfully for her, DJing has become more widely acknowledged as a profession. On an international level, DJs have had to fight to remove the perception that they were second to artistes.
Cuppy is also exploring song-writing and producing.
“I’m constantly trying to push the envelope and be a better version of DJ Cuppy but I’m also careful not to spread myself thin. There is a growing pressure on African creatives to do a bit of everything but I believe helping each other out is a much easier approach…I don’t want to be like every other DJ. I want people to think ‘wow, she is a risk taker’.”
She has also been deeply influenced by fashion, African literature and art.
“For a long time, fashion has been a strong mode of expression for Africans. It is refreshing to see young designers bursting into the scene as well. There is a massive fusion between fashion and music presently which is really great. It is also a very lucrative field and capitalizing on this will be great for the continent.”
Cuppy describes her style as bouncy and chic with her favorite brands being Stella Jean or Mary Katrantzou.
On other career prospects, she highlights her entrepreneurial flair.
“I have always known I wanted to start my own company and really dominate in my own right…I would love to see African women as fearless and unique&#8230;We shouldn’t use the West as the benchmark. We need to start creating and setting our own platforms and be recognized on a global stage”.
In the male-dominated industry that she finds herself, Cuppy has her own experiences of prejudice.
“Being young, I am sometimes underestimated and my skills questioned before I play. I sometimes go into a meeting with my male manager who is always expected to be the DJ and addressed instead of me,” she notes.
As she readies for another busy year, Cuppy plans to tour the continent, lending her voice and urging young African women to follow suit. For now, Africa is dancing to her beats at the console.

DSC2396

Spinning Records And Creating Some Of Her Own

Johannesburg media personality Bonang Matheba is determined to showcase Africa as “the next big phenomenon”.
“My success is not about myself but about making our continent a hub of global cultural integration, in business and popular culture,” says Matheba.
It helps that Matheba is well-known. She has over a million followers on social media.
“We live in an era of social media, and that is where I have been able to influence the market effectively, as Twitter and Instagram have become a global mouth piece and radio is definitely my second-most influential media platform – it has allowed me to reach a broader audience.”
Where did it all begin for her? She first appeared on South African television at the age of 15, but it was popular music show Live that gave her stardom.
“There are many memories I treasure deeply on Live, this show was one of the platforms that propelled my career to where it is today.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29866 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Bonang-Forbes-2-204x300.jpg" alt="" width="204" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bonang-Forbes-2-204x300.jpg 204w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bonang-Forbes-2-300x442.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bonang-Forbes-2-600x884.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bonang-Forbes-2-768x1132.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bonang-Forbes-2-695x1024.jpg 695w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bonang-Forbes-2.jpg 694w" sizes="(max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px" />
She is now presenter on South Africa’s premiere lifestyle and magazine show Top Billing. In July 2013, she won the YOU Spectacular Award as the Best TV Presenter in South Africa. Her success in television has gotten her big brand endorsements, such as with cosmetic group Revlon, and this has allowed her to break boundaries in many ways.
Since the 1980’s, Revlon has sought to associate itself with the ‘Unforgettable Woman’.
Halle Berry and Emma Stone are currently brand ambassadors for the make-up brand, making Matheba the company’s only ambassador outside of the United States.
Fashion being a big part of her personality, she has often been hailed a style icon, having graced the covers of various glamor magazines, and receiving her fair share of awards.
Her fashion philosophy?
“Glamor is a state of mind, it not just about looking great and having a good income. It boils down to how you feel about yourself, what you do with your time and the company you keep.”
Currently she has a lingerie line –Distraction, available at Woolworths SA, and is producing two new shows under Bonang Matheba Entertainment this year. “Let’s activate greatness!” she says.

Bonang-Forbes-2

Bonang Unplugged

Of the names on this year’s Power Women list, 14 are under 45. Whether the majority of their influence remains in business, tech, politics or entertainment, there are two qualities they all strongly share: resilience and the desire to better the world.
Spanx founder Sara Blakely, 43, lands the No.93 spot on the list. In 2012, she became the youngest woman to join our Billionaires list without help from a husband or an inheritance. Blakely has come a long way since age 29, when she invested her entire life savings of $5,000 to invent the line of slimming undergarments. Spanx is worn and adorned by many women: Jane Fonda deemed it as the clothing equivalent of an iPhone, wondering, “How did we ever get on without them?”
While on the topic of body and brand, Lady Gaga is the youngest woman on this year’s list at No.67. With last year’s release of her third studio album, Artpop, the 28-year-old entertainer-advocate’s fame has faltered, but not enough to knock her off the list. The Queen Monster has a loyal following of fans who help her attain concert figures of holy proportions. She earned an estimated $50 million from her Born This Way tour.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29679 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Angelina-Jolie-151x300.jpg" alt="" width="151" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Angelina-Jolie-151x300.jpg 151w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Angelina-Jolie-300x597.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Angelina-Jolie-768x1528.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Angelina-Jolie-515x1024.jpg 515w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Angelina-Jolie.jpg 514w" sizes="(max-width: 151px) 100vw, 151px" />
Angelina Jolie, 38, is another entertainer to make the list (No.50). With $33 million in earnings the past year (2013), she is one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. But even with her unrivaled status, Jolie’s true power and influence comes from her multifaceted ambitions as an activist and philanthropist.
No. 63 is Samantha Power, who was named United States ambassador to the United Nations in 2013. At 43, the former journalist and national security specialist is the youngest American to hold the post.
President Obama describes her as “one of our foremost thinkers on foreign policy”.
Then there are the women in tech, who are helping to redefine the industry as a place that is welcoming for females, like Amy Hood and Marissa Mayer (No.48 and 18 respectively). Last May (2013), Hood became Microsoft’s first female CFO, taking on the responsibility of managing the company’s $83.3 billion in revenue. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, takes the No.9 spot on the Power list. The 44-year-old’s best-selling book Lean In is a title that needs no introduction (and one conference-goers will likely find in their gift bags).

14 Under 45: The Youngest Power Women Of 2014 in the US

In the four decades of entertaining festival-goers, the annual National Arts Festival in Grahamstown has transformed itself from being a small Rhodes University Shakespeare Festival to Africa’s largest extravaganza of art, theater, film, music and more.
The festival’s 40-year anniversary was celebrated with some spectacular performances. And there was the powerful Marikana Musical, capturing the events of the Marikana massacre in South Africa in which 34 striking platinum miners were killed by policemen in 2012.
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The event has evolved, featuring festivals within the main festival. Since its inception in 1997, the Standard Bank Jazz Festival has been one of the highlights. This year, everybody watched to see if it would live up to its reputation. And it did.
The Jazz Festival director Alan Webster invited Grammy award-winning composer and conductor Maria Schneider, who played to a full house. Some of South Africa’s big names in jazz at the festival were Jimmy Dludlu, Hugh Masekela and Sibongile Khumalo.
The Student Theatre Festival’s line-up promised a strong future for South African theater. A number of the plays were around issues and scenes that directly affect the ‘born frees’ – children born post 1994.
Anthea Garman, Rhodes professor and Think!Fest curator, had thinkers and authors in conversation for the duration of the festival. New books were also launched.
The famous Village Green proved to be a popular haunt during the day, between shows, for hot meals and cold beer. Grahamstown’s oldest landmark, 1820 Settlers Monument, had free performances every evening. A number of projects are being developed to position the town as a year-round ‘creative city’.
Ismail Mohamed, director of the National Arts Festival, summed it up as a success.
“Celebrating artistic excellence was central to the festival’s program. We are bold and courageous to take calculated risks on untested works. We have often been surprised by the gems that we’ve discovered.”
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“Often the idea of community theater is associated with black amateurs, and it remains locked in that. When people talk about the mainstream, we often talk about white, musical theater, commercial stuff that plays in Monte Casino [in Johannesburg]&#8230;I still see a lot of that in festivals like this. It still feels like there are certain audiences for certain things. There’s very little crossover in those worlds. So, those who are able to be present, we should be taking on that challenge. I am trying to encourage crossover and encourage exploding these outdated notions about theater.”
– Lindiwe Matshikiza, 31-year-old actor and director of children’s play Donkey Child. She has also starred in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
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Africa’s Greatest Arts Festival

For two months, his eyes, like big saucers, stared at the ceiling, lost somewhere between the living and the dead. The little boy lay listless in his hospital bed in Nairobi, Kenya. A sheet clung to his tiny frame, but it couldn’t hide the scars from the third-degree burns beneath and traces of the violence wreaked on this young life. Into this shattered existence came a ball of paper and string called Chico.
“He couldn’t talk, but Chico raised his arm and talked to him. He clung to Chico’s hand and for the first time in two months, he smiled,” says puppeteer Daniela Hadasy.
Chico is a larger-than-life puppet dog. In the hands of the puppet master, the dog with the cheeky smile has bounced his way into the hearts of sick and injured children in hospital wards across Ethiopia and Kenya.
“The idea is to draw out the emotion from the children so they can deal with their terrible traumas. When it’s a puppet talking to them and not an adult, they feel more free to talk openly. Yes, I’m sitting there and pulling the strings, but it’s the puppet who’s sharing his problems and telling the children how he feels, especially when things are bad. And because he’s telling his story, the children feel safe to tell theirs.”
The art of puppetry is nothing new. History records puppets in ancient Egypt more than 4,000 years ago. In rural Africa, puppets still flourish, but in the cities they are losing out to books and television. “Children everywhere connect with puppets, but in Africa, the puppets immediately become a part of them. It’s the right tool for children there, especially in the slums where most of them have so much anger inside and don’t even have a toy to play with,” says Hadasy, who comes from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Hadasy was seven when she discovered her talent for mimicking voices without moving her lips.
“I used to talk to myself all the time and although I instinctively understood it was normal for children to do this, it scared me that I could use my voice without moving any part of my body. For many years, I kept it
a secret.”
If you look carefully, you can see Hadasy’s stomach moving. Sometimes, there’s a faint quiver on her lips. But most times, she sits perfectly still and lets the puppet create its magic. She holds a conversation with him, alternating between her voice and the one she’s given him. In a typical session, she starts off chatting about everyday things to build the confidence of the child.
“The puppet talks like a child and thinks like a child and so a friendship grows between them. Then, when the child trusts the puppet, we can begin to chat about really traumatic things. I’ve heard everything. Children confess to being raped, abused, to having terrible things done to them. Some of them are so lost and no one has been able to reach inside them.&#8221;
Puppets create a space of safety through which children can express their deepest fears. Follow-up sessions are done with teachers and nursing staff so the therapy is long-term.
“If, for example, medical examinations were done with puppets, it would be so much easier for children. In many of the hospitals, there’s not enough space for the parents to stay over and so children go through scary oncology treatment alone. Especially in the slums in Africa, children have been taught to hold their emotions inside, not to share them. They’re used to keeping quiet. Through the puppets, I help them express themselves, teaching them that if they have a problem, they need to talk about it because only then can someone hear them and
help them.”
Often, Hadasy gives the children small puppets of their own to keep.
“When a child holds a puppet, they feel it’s the puppet who’s doing the talking and so it’s easier for them to open up. They absolutely love their puppets; I’ve seen children take them with them to the toilet. He’s their friend because they really need him.”
She has traveled the world with her entourage of nine puppets, each with a name and a distinct personality. Taking care to create each puppet’s persona, Hadasy spends hours developing the puppet’s voice, giving it a family, making it a part of her and understanding which puppet is right for which children.
“I work in hospitals in Israel where there are a significant number of immigrant children from Ethiopia. One time a little girl asked me why I hadn’t created a black puppet. I felt so ashamed: How could I not have thought of it myself? So I gave birth to Lucia, a popular Ethiopian name in Israel. When I came back to the hospital, the girl was so excited. She said, ‘Oh, she’s like me, she looks like me. I’m so happy—she’s my friend.’”
The beauty of puppetry is that its language is universal and instinctively understood by children everywhere, even the dying child in Nairobi.
“The children in the hospital ward had gathered around his bed where Chico was hugging him, shouting enthusiastically as the puppet clasped the boy’s frail hand in his huge brown paw. We danced with him and we sang with him. I said to the nurse: ‘See that’s the point of puppetry—not just to talk but to dance and to sing and show that life is still beautiful despite the blackness inside.’”

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