My Two Songs of Christmas- Vocal Slender and Dare Sweet Videos!!

You know the song, 12 days of Christmas? Well me I have the two songs of Christmas, because Proud to be African Clothings T shirts and hoodys were featured in not just one but two music videos!

Earlier this year we hooked up with Vocal Slender (Eric Obuh) of the BBC documentary ‘Welcome to Lagos’ fame, this young man through his drive, ambition and infectious smile kind of encapsulated for me all the greatness of Nigeria, which doesn’t lie in our oil, agriculture, size or population but is the abilities of our people to work hard and keep going despite all the odds and oddities life throws at us.

Since that documentary Vocal Slender released his first track ‘Owo Yapa’, and toured the UK twice.

Now he has come out with his latest creation ‘Konto’ which is already sweeping the clubs in Naija.

Featuring prominently in the video is the Proud to beNigerian T shirt, when I met up with vocal in London he promised to wear it in his next video, I wasn’t sure how it would come out but its a perfect illustration of all that Proud to be African is about, a good quality product that’s accessible to all, truly makes me Proud to be Nigerian!!

The second video is again so in keeping with the central themes of Proud to be African of giving the diaspora a distinct voice, the track is ‘You Rock me bad’ a song by Sweden based Nigerian sensation Dare Sweet, this singer/ songwriter is a member of Executive All Stars alongside Kenny Blaze and Tone, they are based in Stockholm and have already built up a strong following there as the video for the first club track shows. Kenny Blaze fell in love with Proud To Be African T shirt and Born in the UK Made in AfricaHoody, which all feature in the brilliant video. We look forward to hosting them on their London visit

This will be the last blog post for 2011, thanks for making this such an exciting year, I couldn’t be signing off on a better note, Merry Christmas and see you in the excellent New Year!!

Proud to be African Clothing’s First Anniversary!! 15% off all items online!!

Proud To Be African Clothing is marking its first year of business with a 15% online discount (code at bottom) for all customers on all purchases!!

Proud to be African Clothing has had a crazy tumultuous year since concept and start up in December 2010, to trading in July 2011, watching sales increase monthly and our brand awareness grow and grow.

During this period we were nominated for the New Business Award at the Black Business (BB) Awards in October, collaborated with rising jazz star Femi Temowo on his second album launch, with BBC3 ‘Welcome to Lagos’ star Vocal Slender, actress, singer and poet Oneness Sankara, UK hip hop legend Ty, Estelle, FOKN Bois, Nigerian grime artist and underground sensation Afrikan Boy, Nollywood producer Obi Emeleonye and many many others who have supported, appreciated and represented the brand.

Our first line of male and female T shirts and hoodys with the Proud to be African logo, Afrobeat tribute and Born in the UK Made in Africa logo, have found a strong resonance not just with people of African descent in the diaspora but with a wide variety of people, it is often surprising to us that at some of the events and markets we attend, the greatest enthusiast are actually from Asia, the middle east or Europe, who all seem to love the designs and resonate with the message.

As summer turned to autumn we branched out with sweatshirts and poloshirts and to commemorate Nigeria’s Independence Day in October a line of Proud to be Nigerian hoodys, T shirts, and sweatshirts.

Our T shirts are still made from 100% reactive dyed cotton with male crew neck style T shirts and fitted female T shirts, the baby’s and children’s clothing is made from 100% organic ethical cotton from Tanzania and fits kids from 0-18 months (for babygros) and 2 to 12 years (T shirts)
Bigger and better things are promised for next year, with more African National day tributes, more designs and more offers and events.

We’d like to thank the various people who have supported us, Ty, Afrikan Boy, Estelle, Caroline and Greg for photography, Nathaniel, Fayola, Bimpe, Ayo and Fatimatou for modelling, WOMATT, The Shrine, Afro News for the lovely article, Chinelle and Amaechi of Africa Rocks Expo, Kiskirine Events, Open the Gate Dalston, Bola Agbaje, Inua Ellams, Tayo Fatunla, 100 Black Men of London and so many others but most importantly our fans and customers
To show our appreciation we are giving everyone a 20% discount on the website with the code LEWI15 from 5th December 2011 to 9th January 2012.


Have an extra merry Christmas and a Super Groovy New Year!!!!!

The Shrine-Ty, Estelle and Afrikan Boy at Rich Mix

Estelle-Proud to be African

Born in the UK Made in Africa is not just a catchy slogan but the reality for many of us of African diaspora, some of us are literally Born in the UK and then grow up in Africa whilst others just grow up in African households, a comment I get a lot is why don’t the T shirts or sweatshirts say ‘Born in Africa, made in the UK’? Well other than a load of practical stock management reasons it just doesn’t seem catchy enough. However this weekend we met the 2 people who fit both descriptions.

Ty-Born in the Uk Made in Africa

Ty is a British Hip hop artist with 4 studio albums and collaborations with everyone from Tony Allen to De La Soul. He was born in the UK to a Nigerian family and in his own words was ‘the first to rep the N-IG-!’ on Friday at the Shrine at Rich Mix he headlined alongside Afrikan Boy also known as Olushola  Ajose, who was born in Nigeria and then came to the UK rapidly building up a following on the grime scene with his tune ‘One day I went to Lidl’ followed by his collaborations with M.I.A.

Ty backed by his yellow clad DJ got the crowd swaying and dancing to tracks and was well in the swing of things when who should walk in but Estelle, he dragged her on stage to massive applause. He finished his set with a humorous tale possibly setting stall for a side career as a comedian!

Afrikan Boy- Thanking Jesus!

Afrikan Boy followed with tracks from his new EP Lagos Town. Stand out tunes were the tribute to Da Grin and his final tune ‘Kunta Kinte’, with the immortal lines

“My name is Kunta Kinte,

I don’t drive a hummer,

but I’ve got many whips from my old slave master,

Praise be to Allah, thank Jesus for Obama,

they can never change my name to Toby or whatever....but I go dance!”

 Powerful stuff abi!

For Proud to be African Clothing it was a bumper night with Estelle buying hoodys for all her crew and Ty and Afrikan Boy kitting themselves out with T shirts and hoodys.

All in all a great night for music and a great night for PTBA.

This week and the Weekend

This week sees Proud to be African Clothing at the African Caribbean Business Network 11^th Annual Conference  at the BT Auditorium, 81 Newgate Street, EC1A 7A on Tuesday 6^th December. This will be focussed on Contacts for Contracts the Olympics, with seminars for small businesses on how to profit from the Olympics

Friday the 9^th sees two excellent events, at The Tabernacle, Powis Square, WOM@TT (World Music at the Tabernacle) at 7pm presents Best of British Awards Breakthrough 2011 with Bumi Thomas and Asheber and  The Afrikan Revolution in association with Carnival Village, Colourful, Afropop Live and KMT. Its £10.00 on the door or £8.00 in advance, don’t miss this chance to see these excellent musical talents!

Bumi Thomas is an inspiring singer/composer who has made large strides this past year sharing the stage with such artists as Sona Jobarteh , while Asheber   is an innovative and mutil talented producer, musician, workshop leader and community activist.

On the other side of London at 9pm at the Babalou Bar St. Matthews Church Brixton Hill, SW2 1JF in Brixton, El Crisis presents the Dark Sea Scrolls, 9 artists with 9 minutes to perform, these are always excellent events with spoken word, singers, drummers, DJ’s and comedians getting up and performing in an excellent intimate setting. 9 minutes sometimes stretches to 30 but that’s all the groove! headlining is the legendary Hip Hop pioneer, Jonzi D. There is also award winning poet Kat Francois, powerful singer songwriter and poet FLOetic LARA, Lyrical comedic rhyming master Miraculous as well as Hayereyah Pure Feminien Energy, Cerebral Hyper, Ma’ankha Baast and word and drama groupSilhouettz in the Dark. All of this with KMT on the decks as well! £9.00 less in advance on the door, last one for the year so get involved.

Again on the same day the Igbo Cultural and Social network (ICSN) will be holding their ChristmasParty at 9pm at Biagio, Bankside, 32 Southwark Bridge Road, If we are looking for fine, fine Naija girls and cool Naija boys then you need to be there, apparently their going to party like its your birthday! Early bird tickets are £5.00, £10.00 on the door.

Friday is not going to be easy for me as you can see, but Saturday is worse!!!!

Saturday the 10^th of December is equally jampacked between 11am and 5 pm the Hackney ChristmasMarket will be taking place at the Stoke Newington Town Hall, Stoke Newington Church Street,N16 0JR, its free entry to get in and will see a variety of stalls from fashion, food, arts, music etc, this highly popular local event is building on past reviews and extends over the Saturday and Sunday, its free entry so if you are passing through Hackney, come buy say hello and grab a hoody to keep out the cold!

In the afternoon the Akhaya Cookery School will be holding their Akhaya African Christmas Fair as well in Tottenham Green Enterprise Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, N15 4RX. In addition to the obvious food related stalls and activities there will be hampers for purchase. It starts at 2pm and finishes at 8pm and is free entry.

At 6pm AJAMU will host their 5^th Year Anniversary at the Chesnuts Community Centre, 280 St Anns Road, N15 5BN, this event will be full of music, poetry, stalls, food and entertainment from Oneness Sankara, Mangaliso Asi, King 'Le Cha' Lion, Maskelah, Silas Zephania and Vibs.

Also at 6pm Eagle House Ministries will be hosting Feed the Lamb Charity Fashion Show at 24 Wandle Way, Mitcham, CR4 4NB. This show aims to raise money to rebuild a school in Ghana, entry is £5.00, please support this excellent cause

Sunday sees day 2 of the Hackney Christmas Market as well as Renessence 360 from 12-5pm at Scandals, 82-84 Norwood High Street, West Norwood, SE27 9NW an event for small businesses to showcase their goods in the pre Christmas shopping rush

All in all  very busy weekend again, you have no excuse to dodge us this time! Come over to Hackney, Mitcham, Norwood or wherever and say hello.

Hopefully there's enough here to warm you up and turn your winter into Harmattan!!

Back to the South

Emmanuel Idowu

Another day another waka. I spent Saturday at UEL selling Proud to be Nigerian sweatshirts and hoodys and Born in the UK Made in Nigeria T shirts and sweatshirts at the Nigerian Student Union UK launch.

Alongside all the hoopla and extravaganza I met Emmanuel Idowu the man behind the Naija ‘What's my name (Pounded Yam) Remix'.

Considering I pissed myself laughing (not literally oh abeg) watching that video I went into crazed fan mode when I recognised him.

It turns out Emmanuel is not actually a comedian but a professional actor with credits in Elminas Kitchen, Doctors, Holby City and so on with an upcoming parts in which he plays a Nigerian and also got the producers to play Wizkids tracks as well! Very Proud to be Nigerian on that one, we look forward to Emmanuel’s new work coming out and seeing his work blossom, one day as he’s receiving his Oscar I’ll be reminding him about ‘Pounded Yam’!

Afrikan Boy

Nurture 1^st Foundation held their fundraising party at the Funky Brown, Crouch End, well attended with prizes from Proud to be African Clothing, Lekan and Krispy Kreme. Next week we will be wandering and perambulating again.

Friday will see us at Rich Mix, 35–47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA where The Shrine presents 2 giants of UK/ Nigerian hip hop Ty and Afrikan Boy supported by Nogabe Randriaharimalala, Max Reinhardt and DJ Juls.

 Afrikan Boy otherwise known as Olushola Ajose has risen to prominence first with his underground track ‘One day I went to Lidl’ and his partnership with M.I.A. on her album Kala, this June he released his mixtape ‘What Took You So Long’ on his website.

Ty

Ty as we all know is one of the most innovative rappers on the scene with 4 studio albums, numerous collaborations and an ability to mix wicked beats with thought provoking lyrics as well as always repping Nigeria, (check out the tune ‘Jekelewa’ with Tony Allen), he’ll be wowing the crowd at Rich Mix.

A night to look forward to, £6.00 in advance and £10.00 on the door,  you can’t get more Born in the UK Made in Africa than this!!!!

Saturday the 4^th December sees AfridiziakGifts and Occasions Christmas Shopping Boutique on the 1st Floor and 2nd Floor, at The Bussey Building, CLF Art Cafe, 133 Rye Lane, SE15 4ST, this Christmas market will start at midday and end at 7pm and involves retailers selling culturally inspired gifts for men, women, and children including hair and beauty products, books, toys, educational gifts, paintings, jewellery, accessories, bags, clothing, gifts for the home and greeting cards too.

There’s lot of free stuff as well either a mini cup cake by The Fancy Baker, a mini Dee’s Luxury Jamaican Rum cake or a small cup of warm sorrel to the first 50 shoppers. There will be lots of children’s stuff, complimentary face-painting for the first 25 children by Estar Artistics and free card making workshops by Strange Fruit

The winner of the best card design will receive a family ticket to see Cinderella at Theatre Royal Stratford East.

The African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) will be in residence with a raffle draw by Jimmy Akingbola  of Holby City and  Rev actor and ACLT supporter at 4pm.

Afterwards at 7pm to 2am there’s the after party however PTBA will be at the eLook Casting and Dre Designs Website Launch and Sickle Cell Charity Fund Raiser at Portobello Earl, 36 Golborne Road, North Kensington, W10 5PR. The event starts at 7pm, with the fashion show starting at 8pm, followed by a launch party, raffle with plenty, plenty giveaways. £5 all night!

Lewisham Market will also be hosting a Christmas Market on the High Street which we hope to be attending

You people have been buying hoodys at such a rate that I’m out of stock of Large Black and Greys but don’t worry more are on order.

See you in South London this weekend

Nigerian Students and Nurture 1st

When you wear a hoody with Proud to be African on it or a sweatshirt with Born in the UK, Made in Nigeria, it kind of drops a broad hint as to what your about and where you’re from, so it is a little bit surprising that at an event last week someone decided to engage me in conversation in fluent German.  As my Deutcsh is limited to ‘Ja’ and ‘nein’ (those school boy comics) this was not just a surprise but a rather awkward moment.

So I will start with a hello, move on to a jambo and follow up with a sannu!

After the British Youth Achievement  Awards last Saturday at the Jurys Inn Hotel, Croydon, and Natural November event at the Africa Centre we spent the week checking stock and consolidating but this weekend.

I’m in Naija mode again because Saturday sees the grand launch of the Nigerian  Students Union of the UK (NSUUK).  This event marks the start of an organisation that will be the umbrella (or is that umbullerra?) organisation for the various Nigerian student Unions around the country. The jam packed event will see business and networking (na Naija people after all, business first!), a fashion show and entertainment and key note speeches by invited guests such as the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK Dr Dalhatu Tafida, Dr Olusegun Mimiko (Ogun State Governor) and Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi Federal Minister for Youth Development. This FREE event starts at 11am on Saturday the 26^th November and is being held at the Docklands Campus of the University of East London (UEL), Room 2, Ground Floor, 4-6 University Way, London, E16 2RD.

Proud to be African Clothing will be there selling and grooving so make una bring money!

Later on that evening at 9.30pm the Nurture 1st Foundation will be holding, their  launch at Funky Brown, 5 Tottenham Lane, Crouch End, N8 9DJ.

Proud to be African Clothing is always seeking out organisations that talk less and do more and Nurture 1st is one of these, having set up a school in Obigbo, Rivers State and is providing, education and training for 520 school children ranging from nursery to secondary school level, with 205 children on full scholarship and is supplied with uniform and books.

In addition to a Head Teacher the school has 15 teachers, 2 lab assistants, a nurse, a bus driver and 4 security men. Everything is provided by the charitable donations of the members and through fundraising events such as this, so please turn up show support at 9.30pm at Funky Browns, Crouch End, tickets are £10.00 and there will be DJ’s, Male and Female Auction, Raffles and Prize giving

This night is part of their fundraising efforts and alongside a wide range of entertainment they will be selling some items. Funky Brown is right next to Hornsey Rail station

On Sunday we will be back in North London for the 1st Annual Ghana-UK Fashion Show-. This is taking place at RS Lounge, 20 Woodford New Road, E17 3PR and will see top African designers all under one roof, tickets are available from Bongo Bar, Kumasi Market and Kenkey House

Other events we have an interest in are TedX Euston on Saturday, unfortunately tickets are sold out but this fascinating event with a focus on Africa will be taking place at Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), 66, Portland Place, W1B 1AD London. The theme is ‘Inspiring Ideas about Africa’ and will feature great presentations from people such as Lola Shoneyin, Femi Temowo, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Paula Akugizibwe, Rt. Hon Paul Boateng MP, Arnold Ekpe and so many others.

Saturday evening at the New Empowering Church Dalston, Dele Sosimi will be demonstrating that Afrobeat never die, with his Afrobeat Vibration Sessions.

Last week’s events were hectic enough but as you can see we will be running around trying to be in as many places as possible, if you see me and you are the first person to tell me who wrote ‘Things fall apart’ I will give you a free T shirt.

A Colon and a Bracket aka Dat Facebook Song Single Launch

Oneness Sankara launched her new single ‘A Colon and a Bracket aka Dat Facebook Song’ at the Tabernacle, Powis Square this Friday, complete with Ty, JonziD, LyricL, Geniyo, Best Kept Secret and dancers dressed in Proud to be African Clothings finest attire!

The single launch by the renowned spoken word poet, songstress, actress, director and song writer saw performances by various luminaries of the Spoken word and hip hop scene.

The show was hosted by JonziD and kicked off with a moving performance by Nigerian/British hip hop/ spoken word performer LyricL entitled ‘Daddy Does’.

Best Kept Secret Collective

The three male elements of the Best Kept Secret Collective, with each dressed all in white approaching the stage from different parts of the hall in starting with AmeN NoiR then Tuggs.t.a.r ending with ShakaRa.

Each performed a spoken word piece ending up with Oneness making her first appearance on stage also dressed in white at the end of Tuggs.t.a.r’s contribution, where she gave an interesting interpretation of Angie Stone’s ‘Brotha’ sharing her love for her poetic bretheren.

JonziD then introduced the legendary UK hip hop performer Ty, the former Mercury prize nominee didn’t disappoint launching into a hilarious story that most Nigerian kids can relate to of his stern fathers' attempt at giving them a colour television, suffice to say as a typical Nigerian father his solutions were not quite what you’d think.

He then launched into an acapella rap on that touched on the immigrant experience with all the verve one would expect.

The interval was characterised not just by frenetic selling by the various stall holders but also by a game where people went around sticking ‘Like’ stickers ala Facebook, taking photos and emailing them in.

The second half started with Oneness backed by her all female band and two backing singers, she began with Hair a paean to black women’s hair (yes that again!!), following up with I love you accompanied by a touching dance by two dancers poking each other. This hauntingly poignant tune seemed to resonate with alot of the audience, a tale of love gone sour.

A humorous interlude spoof with a faux Skype conversation was alongside a lovely hymn to her home island of Grenada.

The gig was characterised of by several brilliant interpretations of standards, such as Bob Marleys ‘No Woman No Cry’,with Trenchtown becoming Tottenham!

Oneness with Geniyo, wonder what the girls kept screaming about?

 An even greater crowd pleaser was the duet with brilliant singer/ songwriter Geniyo of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgeralds ‘Baby its cold outside’, fleshing out  this story of romantic temptation, with a back story of how she met 
the warmth seeking lothario in the first place, attempting to involve the ladies in the audience in the decision making process. As most of the women seemed to cheer spontaneously every time Geniyo sang, methinks there was an element of hypocrisy in them telling her to go home!

Oneness ended up with the reason we were all there, the ‘Colon and a Bracket song’ a take on the current Facebook obsession, (obviously I can’t comment on that!), this catchy finale was made all the better by the spontaneous Electric slide performed at the end by ShakaRa, AmenNoir, JonziD and the dancers.

A Colon and a Bracket is available here

1 Jazz Festival and 6 courses

Winter has rolled upon us, I know this because the hoodys and sweatshirts are now outselling the T shirts on the Proud to be African Clothing website and people are hinting I should up my children’s collection from just baby bodysuits and children’s T shirts to all weather onesies.

My reply as ever is buy more and I’ll see what I can do!!

A packed week beckons us with loads of events,  the first being the African Foundation for Development  (AFFORD UK) Enterprise week a series of weeklong events with topics as diverse and varied as ‘Linking Remittances to Business & Savings’ (Monday 6pm at the House of Commons) to ‘Diaspora & Creative Enterprises in Africa’(Thursday 1-5pm Reed Smith, Broadgate Tower) . AFFORD UK was founded in 1994 aiming to organize UK based Africans to contribute to Africa’s economic development. Having been to several of their events I can attest to the fact that these are the people who walk the walk rather than just talk the talk. With a series of trips back home by UK based African professionals they have contributed to capacity building in the Nigerian education sector, enterprise development in Lagos, money transfer and remittances in Sierra Leone. A group well worth watching.

On Wednesday PTBA favourite Femi Temowo teams up with fascinating percussionist  Adriano Adewale for a promising gig at the 606 Club as part of the London Jazz Festival, tickets are £12.00 and the show starts at 8.00pm. This is the last Orin Meta London show for this year so if you’ve missed the last two London gigs you need to get to this one as this promises to be a sublime fusion of Africa and Brazil. A little bit of tropical sunshine to chase away the winter! And for those of us (like myself!) who are a little tardy in their Christmas shopping the Orin Meta CD and limited edition T shirt are definite stocking fillers!

Come Friday there is another extra special event, Oneness Sankara; renowned spoken word poet, songstress, actress, director and song writer and part of the Best Kept Secret  poetry Collective is launching her new single ‘A Colon and a Bracket’ at the Tabernacle, Powis Street, Notting Hill. I had the pleasure of hearing her perform at the Mama Africa event this past Friday at the same venue her repertoire and skills are amazing as you can tell from this.

Oneness has performed on BBC Radio 4, Choice FM, BEN TV, BBC Midlands and even in Norway on Oslo TV. She’s graced the stage at Glastonbury Festival and performed with artists such as Mica Paris, Terri Walker, Swiss, Black Twang, Dead Prez to name a few. She is also the first person outside of the USA to win a prize at The Toronto International Poetry Slam in Canada.
Its not an event to be missed,  it will be hosted by Jonzi D, with special guests UK/ Nigerian hip hop artist Ty (yes Ty!!), Lyric L, Joy Joseph, Geniyo and KMT the Freedom Teacher on the decks.  The Tabernacle Friday the 18^th, doors open 7.00pm and tickets are £7.00.

On Saturday we will be attending the Black Youth Achievement Awards at the Jurys Inn Hotel, Croydon. The Black Youth Achievement Awards seeks to reverse the negative image of the nation’s youth; there will be a 3 course meal, performances and special guests and Proud to be African Clothing will be there to support the cause.

Also on Saturday the 100 Black Men of London will be holding their gala dinner on Saturday evening as well at the Cumberland Hotel Marble Arch. This 3 course gala meal (yes another 3 courses!) has the theme of Conceive, Believe, Achieve, again this is an extremely worthy organisation that is out there doing the things that need to be done rather than just talking about them. Running a highly successful mentoring programme, this unsung organisation operates purely through member’s subscriptions and purely through the efforts of its highly dedicated volunteers. Get your tickets here

We round up the week at Natural November on Sunday the 2oth at the Africa Centre, this natural cultural hair, health and beauty event aims of Natural November is to offer an alternative and to showcase the very best in natural hair and beauty products, Afrocentric fashion and accessories, cultural art and crafts, inspiring books and educational seminars. Tickets are £12.50 or 2 for £20.00

Awards and Beauty Shows!

The past week has been a bit busy for Proud to be African Clothing to say the least but has seen a really great period of trading, networking, meeting inspirational people within the African diaspora and beyond, with the coming cold months seeing the hoodys and sweatshirts outselling T shirts for the first time.

Between the 18^th and the 21^st we had a stall all day at the Albany Theatre in Deptford as part of the Where are we now? Nigeria Heritage Festival, a collaboration between the amazing young Nigerian playwright Bola Agbaje and the Stone Crabs Theatre Company. In addition to the African market which had yours truly Proud to be African Clothing, Monsura Bags, Yorubatik, Ugo, AyoDele Edwards etc there were different events each evening. Tuesday the 18^th was the launch event with the launch of the documentary ‘From Biafra to England’ which was an oral history record of the lives of survivors and veterans of the Biafran war who had emigrated from Nigeria to the UK. This oversubscribed event had delicious food by So-Full Catering Service and a lively panel discussion with which was heated quite and elicited much debate. Wednesday had performances of Bola Agbaje’s new play ‘The Burial’ and Thursday another play ‘Dilemma of A Ghost’ by Ama Ata Aidoo. Friday evening saw the grand finale with monologues by various actors depicting characters from Nigeria’s history from the learned (Wole Soyinka), to the famous (Fela), to the infamous (IBB!). The actor playing IBB stole the show with a barnstorming comedic performance. Interspersing all of these was AyoDele Edwards singing with 3 backing musicians, a selection of beautifully rendered numbers in Yoruba and English, ending with the late Christy Essien Ibgokwe  classic ‘Seun rere’

Friday and Saturday also saw the ‘Best of Nigeria Expo’ at the Excel Centre. This expo was held to highlight the non oil producing sector of Nigeria’s economy. Although there were not as many visitors as the venue deserved there was still a lively cross section of people visiting and exhibiting, with Proud to be African Clothing making a few new friends. Unfortunately my camera decided to die around this time so no photos.

Sunday saw two groovy events, the first being the Africa Rocks Expo at Hotel Russell, Russell Square, a fascinating extravaganza organised by Chinelle and Amaechi of the The Creative Initiative. The event consisted of seminars as well as performances by the London Afrobeat Collective (although they didn’t perform my favourite track from their album despite repeated requests and veiled threats!!) and a spectacular fashion show by Nikki Garriques, featuring yours truly’s creations!

It was graced by luminaries of the African diaspora such as British/ Nigerian sprinter Christine Ohuruogu, Edna Agbarha of Apprentice Season 7, Rachel Adedeji of X Factor to name but a few.

The Africa Rocks Expo was a first effort by the duo behind the Creative Initiative and was an excellent, well organised and patronised event. It was one of the few events I’ve attended in a while in which everything came together for exhibitors, performers and patrons.

I know we will be seeing more and more of them in future, hopefully they won’t notice me holding onto their coat tails as they fly to the top!!

I rounded the day off at the Bronze Bar, with Vocal Slender of BBC3 Welcome to Lagos fame, where he discussed his life experiences and motivations with host Lola Ogunbadejo and then performed his signature track ‘Owo Yapa’.

This week has been a lot quieter however another groovy weekend beckons.

On Friday Proud to Be African Clothing’s favourite jazz artist will be performing tracks from his new album Orin Meta at the Forge, Camden.

Saturday sees the Miss Nubian UK Grand Finale, a pageant with a difference where talented and beautiful ladies of African Caribbean heritage will be representing their countries of origin and demonstrating their talents as well as their beauty. This prestigious event takes place at the Thistle Hotel, Bryanston Street, Marble Arch, W1H 7EH, doors open 6.30pm. The after party will feature DJ Deoba Authentic so generally it will be an excellent evening.

On the same evening Proud to be African Clothing will be doing its best Oscar hopeful imitation as we have been nominated for our first ever award, the New Business Award by the Black Business Initiative!

The Black Business Initiative is a business support organisation and publishes the Ethno News Magazine as well. The 8^th Black Business Awards show will be held at Hilton Tower Bridge, 5 More London, Tooley Street, SE1 2BY. This Black tie gala event  seeks to promote, sustain and reward entrepreneurship within the black ethnic community.

This Saturday will also see Focus organisation’s Afrodite event at ZarZar’s in Stratford, so if your not at Miss Nubian or the BBI Awards get over to grove with Atta, Victoria, DJ’s Bogossy, KMT, Oya-Bun and Freshfrenchy.

We’ll let you know if we win!

October-Upcoming events, shows and groovinesses-continued

This weekend has been a bit of an up and down for Proud to be African Clothing one with tons of events and no sleep, T shirts and sweat shirts getting sold and the Nigerian Carnival UK although not as packed as one would have wanted was a great culture fest where I met many cool people and had a generally groovy time. 

The ICSN Iri Ji festival did not disappoint in terms of fine fine girls so despite having to brave the night bus from Camden it was worth it.

Next week is equally jam packed with the “Where are we now? Nigeria Heritage Festival” at the Albany Theatre, Deptford produced by the celebrated young Nigerian playwright Bola Agbaje in association with StoneCrabs Theatre. This is advertised as festival of theatre, film, music, fashion and all things Nigerian!  A tagline which gladdens my soul!

This week long festival runs from October 18^th- 20^th from 9.30am till 4pm and consists of documentaries, plays, spoken word, fashion shows and an authentic African market (authentic doesn't mean you start haggling when you come to my store!).

Also at the Stephen Lawrence Centre, 21 Brookmill Road, SE8 4HU on Tuesday the 18^th there will be a Black History Month panel Q&A.

The Best of Nigeria Expo at the Excel Centre showcasing Nigeria’s non oil sectors on Friday the 21^st and Saturday the 22^nd with all manner of groovy things such as seminars, kids zones, dances, comedians, fashion shows etc but no discernable way to buy tickets that I can find!

Rounding up the week will be the AfricanMusic Festival (AMFest) taking place on Saturday 22^nd at 4a Roach Road, Hackney Wick, E3 2PA, this celebration of African music and culture will have a salivating assortment of music, food, dance, comedy, poetry, fashion shows, Afro hair/ beauty shows, film screenings, creative workshops and so on. In other words alot, as well as the opportunity to get all your lovely Proud to be African Clothes from me!

Finally on Sunday 23^rd the Africa Rocks Expo takes place at Hotel Russell, 1-8 Russell Square, WC1B 5B from 11am to 7pm, this is a new one day event that hopes to encourage people in the UK to see Africa differently and showcase Africa through a combination of seminars, networking opportunities, fashion shows, comedy shows and cultural activities. This year’s focus is Nigeria (ha!).

A full jam packed period coming up as you can see, hopefully you’ll pop by to one or two of them and say hi!

October-Upcoming events, shows and groovinesses

Lots of things going on in the PTBA universe this week

Cara Titilayo Harshman

On Friday 14^th I’ll be heading to the Yoruba HeritageAwards, being held at The Lighthouse Hall, 262-274 Camberwell Rd, SE5 0D, an annual event that promises many high profile visitors and multiple entertainments, I’m particularly looking forward to meeting the hostess Cara Titlayo Harshman, a young American who has become a Youtube and internet sensation with her ability to speak and interact in Yoruba and her love and championing of Naija. Maybe she’ll act as my interpreter! As you can see she is a connoisseur of African fashion!

Then the weekend starts proper with events galore, first off on Saturday the 15^th there is the Nigerian Carnival at Marsh Lane Playing Fields, Marsh Lane, Leyton, London E10 7DE. This annual event promises to make up for last year’s absence with a bonanza of exciting attractions and entertainments living up to its boast of being the largest cultural and heritage gathering of Nigerians outside Nigeria. This year’s theme is “Uniting Nigerians for the future". It is due to be hosted by Nigeria’s High Commissioner Dr Dalhatu Sarki with the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathon as a special guest. I fully expect Madam First Lady and the good High Commissioner to be rocking ‘Proud to be Nigerian’ T shirts by the end of the day or else I will not be doing my job properly!

On the same Saturday it is the turn of the Igbo nation with the Igbo Cultural and Support Network(ICSN) Iri Ji (New Yam) Culture Festival. The New Yam festival is one of the most important occasions in the Igbo calendar,  yam was considered the  most important crop in Igbo culture and in the old days when men were men and women were women a persons wealth was determined by the size of their yam barn. Iri ji is celebrated at various times between August and October (i.e. whenever the harvest came in). This year’s Iri ji will hold at Haverstock, 24 Haverstock Hill, Camden, NW3 2BQ and starts at 4pm.

Igbo babes!

ICSN is promising food, cultural presentations, Traditional Dancers, Traditional Plays, Musical Performers, comedians, a Fashion Show and Best Dressed Beauty Competition to name but a few. I’m looking forward to admiring the fine fine Igbo girls and enjoying the richness of Igbo culture, let no man born of woman stand between me and the nkwobi!

On Sunday 16^th we are at the Keep it Real Show in the Fairfield Halls Arnhem Gallery in Croydon. Keep it Real is a health and well being show, there will be seminars on healthy living, a fashion show, poetry serenades cookery demonstrations, performances by the JT jazz band and exhibitors including yours truly

Obi Emeleonye-Mirror Boy 

Sunday evening Proud to be African Clothing will be happily contributing to the prizes at the ScreenNation Awards, at the O2 with Proud to be African T shirts for the 3 African Award Categories Favourite West African Actor, Favourite West African Actress, Favourite West African Film). The Screen Nation Awards were founded by Charles Thompson MBE and have been going for over 7 of years and are designed to empower and encourage diversity in the motion picture and audio visual industries. This years event is being hosted by husband and wife team Angelica Bell and Michael Underwood. 

Here's to hoping that Nigeria gets a clean sweep at the awards and some of our Nollywood favourites become fans of Proud to be African Clothing!

Proud to be African Clothing at Mirror Boy Screening

Director Obi Emelonye, obviously Proud to be Nigerian!

The second groovy event of October 1 2011 was a free screening of the Mirror Boy a 2011 movie by Nigerian Director Obi Emelonye, the general synopsis is  of a young African boy who is taken back home to Gambia by his mother after getting into trouble with a bully. When he gets back he gets lost in the market and then begins a series adventures with a guide called the Mirror Boy.

The film in itself was a shock to me in so many ways, in as much as I love Nigeria, Nollywood and its products depress me as the non existent, plots, production values, lengthy interminable multi sequeled titles simply seem to portray an image of mediocrity that doesn't do Nigeria credit.

This movie was everything a good Nigerian movie should be, the production values were good, with good editing, camera angles and plot lines. The acting was of a standard that most Nollywood films didn't bother with.Genevieve Nnaji as Teema the boy’s mother was excellent, for some reason I had not thought of her as a credible actress until this movie. Edward Kagutuzi in the lead role as Tijan seemed a bit stilted but seemed to grow into his role as the movie progressed and ended with a more confident performance so it was a surprise to learn he was in fact not a 12 year old Gambian boy but a 21 year old, Ugandan, 2^nd year Business and Computing student who had an agent and acting credits from the Bill and Law and Order UK under his belt. Osita Iheme (Pawpaw of Aki and Pawpaw fame) was good and ever pleasing to African and Nigerian audiences but the fact that he needed subtitles when speaking in English somewhat limits his cross over appeal. The other thing that tasked somewhat was the sound quality which varied throughout the film, in one scene whilst walking through the woods the sound of the leaves drowned out the voices and then it switched round and the voices drowned out the leaves.

Obi Emelonye and Edward Kagutuzi 

For all these issues it was a well written, well crafted film, made all the more fascinating by the facts that came out during the Q&A with Obi Emelonye and Edward Kagutuzi after the show.

The film was made in Gambia after an offer from the Gambian government, who in the end provided 15 5 star hotel rooms, 20 soldiers and 5 policemen for security, 15 vehicles and the freedom to shoot all over Banjul. As the credits showed; alot of the technical crew were British, with the director of photography Clive Norman being responsible for the generally soft focus of the film. Obi Emelonye dismissed this reliance on foreign talent as part of the evolution of Nollywood.

The funding behind the film was innovative as well with OHTV sponsoring the film, but it was in terms of the marketing and release that the film came into its own, the decision to hold a release in Leicester Square in a 1500 seater venue on a Tuesday was deemed risky however the fact that it not only sold out but on the day had queues round the block were instrumental in getting the Odeon cinema release deal. This prompted a question about leveraging this pool of supporters to provide crowd sourcing funds for future high quality Nollywood releases, but Obi considered having 100 'small' masters worse than having 1 big one! 

So many things about the movie and the story behind it resonate with me, the whole Born in the UK, Made in Africa theme which was the basis behind Tijan returning to Gambia was extremely important to Obi as he was writing it as he has young children in school in this country and was witnessing them going through the identity issues that the character Tijan went through.

The quality for the film and the self belief shown by taking the risk on the Leicester Square red carpet launch show that with good quality production and a decent even if simple plot Nigerian movies can go on general release and stand shoulder to shoulder with other ‘World films’ in the UK market.

Hopefully this movie has set the bar to which other Nollywood movies aspire to and the business model used will be attractive to other Nigerian movie makers.

Obi Emelonye’s next movie (Last Flight to Abuja) is being filmed in the Tinapa Business Resort in Cross Rivers State, Nigeria and is being produced by Charles Thompson.

I trust this film will be as good as the Mirror Boy and we will be able to showcase the beauty of Nigeria to the world

Proud to be African is exceptionally proud of this move and will definitely be at the premiere of Last Flight to Abuja.

Mirror Boys is on release at selected UK cinemas