Rain, rain go away!!
Maybe I spoke to soon in my last post!
I’m thinking that I might need to start a line of Proud to be African wellington boots and rain coats in addition to the hoodys and T
shirts with the way this rain is falling! I didn’t know the UK had a rainy season as
well!
Despite the ever so soggy weather there has been a veritable array
of sunshiney events lined up for you good people.
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| Africa 2.0 UK launch panel |
I attended the Africa 2.0 UK launch at the Pearson Centre, London,
last week which was a fascinating event hosted by Henry Bonsu of
Colourful Radio., with a stellar panel featuring Dr Mo Ibrahim the telecoms
entrepreneur of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation
fame. Africa 2.0 is a pan African global initiative, seeking to formulate a new leapfrog-based approach
to development in Africa built upon collective knowledge and the experiences of
a broad spectrum of Africans back home and in the diaspora. There was a panel
discussion with Dr. Ibrahim, Dr. Shiyghan Navti (IBM Software
Group) , Amina Adewusi (Standard Chartered Group) and Hephzi Tagoe (Founder of
MiS-UK) chaired the by Henry Bonsu
A wonderfully refreshing event with lots of home truths from Dr
Ibrahim that chime which PTBA’s themes of self reliance, enterprise and the
importance of telling ones own story. Africa 2.0 is a relatively new group in
the UK and we hope to be working with them more in future.
On Monday the 30th of April, AFFORD another great
diaspora organisation held a day long event on Impact funding through the
diaspora at the Brunei Gallery at the School of Oriental and African Studies,
again featuring a wide array of subject matter experts in the field of
enterprise, development and diaspora engagement.
Upcoming Events
Coming up though there is a wide array of events for you lucky
lucky people:
On Wednesday 2nd May at 7pm
the London Black Business Incubator and Investment Group will be meeting at the
5th level of the Royal Festival Hall at the South Bank Centre for
their inaugural meeting.
On 4th May Proud to be
African favourite El Crisis will be holding the monthly Word, Power and Sound
event at Centreprise Bookshop and Cafe, 136 Kingsland High Street, Dalston, E8
2NS
This new monthly event of Words delivered
with Power that carry rhythmic Sound vibrations. El Crisis will
have as special guests Native sun, Aamasade, Lionheart, ShakaRa, Leafy Bee, Taniya
Sonko, Shadow and 9 Drummer. Tickets are £6.00 in advance and £8.00 on the door.
On
5th
May there will be the Pan African Conference Oxford
at 9.00am at Wesley Memorial Church Hall, New Inn Hall Street, OX1
2DH, Oxford. The theme is ‘Building Capacity for a New Generation: The Case
for Youth Leadership in Africa’ with a stellar line up of speakers such
as Vera Songwe (World Bank Country Director for The Gambia, Senegal,
Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, and Mauritania), Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi (Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria), He Liehui (Managing
director of Touchroad International Holdings Group), June Arunga Kimani (CEO of
Open Quest Media LLC and a founding partner of Black Star Line SA), Matthew
Kukah (Catholic Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese in Nigeria and a former
Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria), Arthur G. O.
Mutambara (Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe), Gbenga Sesan (
Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria), Patrick G. Awuah Jnr (
Founder and President of Ashesi University College) and many others
On the 6th May Natural November will be at Chelsea Old Town Hall Bar, SW3 between 11am and 7pm. Now
the fact that the event is called Natural November but is holding in May should
not confuse you, this is the second install of the very successful event that
held at the Africa Centre last November. Debrose the organiser has decided that
there should be a summer version and thus we are having the May incarnation,
this event will see Toyin
Agbetu, BBC Radio's Valley Fontaine and Winsome 'Lyrical Healer' Duncan and from the
US Ansylla of My Hairitage .Tickets from £12.50 each or two for £20 in advance, £15
on the door, £10 after 3pm. The first 100 purchased online will receive a VIP
goody bag on arrival.
I am still trying to persuade her to
have meat based products but I think I’m fighting a losing battle!!!
Tis also the season for plays by
Nigerian playwrights, Bola Agbaje’s Belong is playing to sold out crowds
each night (I know this as my usual last minute dot com attempts to get tickets
were futile!) from 26th April to 26th May at Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, the Royal Court Theatre,
Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS.
Also on Sunday 6th May Focus Organisation will be partying with Future
Groove, kicking off the bank holiday at The Luxe, Old Spitalfields Market, 109
Commercial Street, E1 6BG from 7pm-Midnight, for your £5 entry you get soul
Jazz Funk band Future Groove and DJs Bogossy & Oya Bun playing Afrobeat, Coupe Decale, Kurduro, Kwaito,
Naija Beat, Highlife and Azonto
Bola Agbaje’s satirical new play is a co
production with Tiata
Fahodzi and questions
our notion of home about a failed British Nigerian MP who flees back to Nigeria
and gets tangled up in escapades back home.
It’s
all fascinating and I promise to review it soon as I get to see it! This is Bola Agbaje’s 3rd incarnation at the Royal
Court her first Gone Too Far (2007)
was followed by Off
the Endz (2010). Her
debut play won an Olivier Award
for Outstanding Achievement and was also nominated for Most Promising
Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards. She is currently working with UK
production company Poisson Rouge and the UK Film
Council to turn the play into a feature film. She is also a proud owner of a
Proud to be African hoody so she is obviously not just talented and beautiful
but of impeccable taste!
As an additional treat there is an additional run at The Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, London SE15 4ST from 31st May to 26th June
As an additional treat there is an additional run at The Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, London SE15 4ST from 31st May to 26th June
Ade Solanke’s play ‘Pandora’s Box’
opens on 9th May and runs till the 26thof May, at the Arcola
Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, E8 3DL Dalston. Ola Animashawun directs this potent new play, which is
billed as a lively and compelling examination of loyalty, love and betrayal.
Again another play examining the themes of being Born in the UK but Made in
Africa with a mother struggling to decide whether to leave her streetwise
London child at a strict Lagos boarding school or take him back to the mean
streets of inner London
Next time we meet I hope to have some
reviews of the plays and reports from some of the events
May we meet in sunnier times!!!
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