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!!