My people I greet you! Saturday 13
th May was another fascinating day, I spent
most of it at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston where Ade Solanke’s latest play
‘Pandora’s Box’ was on show alongside a day of workshops and talks with invited
speakers such as Diane Abbott MP, Ron Belgrave (former head of Community Safety
under two Mayors), Olu Alake (President
100Black Men Of London) etc. It was a fascinating day
which
Proud to be African Clothing was pleased to be invited as it covered so
many of the themes that resonate in this clothing line, hence the Born in the
UK Made in Nigeria T shirt picture which as you’ll see kind of resonates.
The play revolves around a family that is split between the London
and Nigeria and takes place mostly in the living room of their house on Lagos.
Pandora is the mother of Toyin and Ronke. The latter remaining in Nigeria while
Pandora and her husband went to England to study. Toyin and Pandora have come
to visit Nigeria for the first time since then with her friend Bev and 15 year
old son Timi in tow.
 |
| Anna-Maria Nabirye playing Toyin |
Without spoiling the plot Timi is a typical inner London youth over
indulged by his mother who is sinking deeper and deeper into London’s gang
life, the family has decided he is to attend a prestigious boarding school in
Nigeria in order to ‘sort him out’, however Toyin is having last minute cold
feet. While big sister Ronke harbours a deep grudge against both mother Pandora
and junior sister for abandoning her, Pandora feels guilty for abandoning her
and for not coming back with her qualifications.
I really can’t say much more without spoiling the plot but it is
an excellently written and brilliantly acted play that covers all the thorny
issues of identity, parenthood and culture from all the angles, from a mother’s
anguish, a child’s bitterness and sense of abandonment, the agonising choices a
parent faces in trying to do the right thing. From a personal (and business) perspective
it neatly encapsulates the idea behind my Born in the UK, Made in Africa/ Born
in the UK, Made in Nigeria brand as I also left the UK and went to boarding school
in Nigeria, although I look back upon it now as an extremely positive and life
changing (in fact life forming) experience, a particular scene between Timi and
Tope his friend from London who had made the transition to Nigerian school boy
and was making a marked improvement reminded me of how difficult it was at the
time.
All in all a brilliant play that addresses a pertinent issue not
just of education and the role of culture and identity but of parenthood and
that bad choices can be made with the best of intentions.
The afternoon matinee was preceded by a panel discussion headlined
by Olu Alake and Ron Belgrave, with support and contributions from the Nigerian
Youth Network, Yemisi Sanusi of International Day of African Childhood and its
Youth (IDAY UK), Anne Olayinka of Youth against Crime not crime against Youth
(
YACnCAY), Black History Studies and Nigerian Women in Diaspora Leadership
Forum.
Following the matinee performance there was another panel
discussion with Diane Abbot MP, Olu Alake, Ron Belgrave, Ade Solanke and Waryla
Abrahams, the lady whose dilemma actually inspired the play. This remarkable
lady who is a teacher struggled with these issues with her son, who was
unfortunately on a downward spiral yet today after his stint schooling back
home he is an undergraduate studying Business Entrepreneurship.
The panels various stories and experiences neatly summed up many
of the plays issues with Diane Abbott sharing her sons experience of 6
th
Form in Ghana, with the experiences of having to fend for himself and Olu describing
his experiences of studying back in Nigeria and stating that if he had the
chance he would send every schoolchild back to experience what life is like
living not as a ‘minority’.
There are so many choice lines in the play but I would say the most thought provoking one was by the character Bev when she said: “What do you see out of that window? People,
right? Just people. Because there are no ‘Black’ people in Africa. Let him
experience that for a change.”
Pandoras Box is directed
by Ola
Animashawun, Assistant Director Moji
Kareem.
Susan Aderin plays Pandora, mother of Ronke and Toyin
Damson Idris
plays Timi’s friend Tope this is his
debut play he is currently studying at Brunel University
Bradley John puts in an excellent debut turn playing
Toyin’s son Timi
Petra Letang formerly on Eastenders plays Toyin’s
Antiguan (not Jamaican!) friend Bev
Anna-Maria Nabirye plays Toyin
Yetunde Oduwole a Tiata Fahodzi favourite and the
mother in ‘Meet the Adebanjo’s’plays Ronke
Ben Onwukwe of London’s
Burning fame plays Principal Osun
Tunji Sotimirin who plays Baba is a lecturer at the University at Lagos currently on
sabbatical at Goldsmiths College
Pandoras Box is
running until 26th May at Arcola Tent, performance time is 7.30pm (matinee
3.00pm), tickets: £14 (£10 concessions).
GO AND SEE IT!!!
Also that Saturday evening saw the launch of a new talk show
Effizi which celebrates achievers of Nigerian heritage, from
all walks of life and fields of endeavour. Special guest for this show was Dr.
Kunle Onabolu a Civil Engineering graduate, where he obtaining an MSc and PhD
in Concrete Structures at the age of 28 from Imperial College London. From
being the technical business manager at Redland Technologies, a FTSE 100
company, where he developed new materials formulation he was head of process
development at Lafarge UK until 2002, when he left to form his own company KAO
Project Solutions Ltd. KAO is an innovative company that provides consultancy
and project management services in transportation infrastructure. In 1998, Dr.
Onabolu founded a charity African Child Trust and is founding president of the
Engineering Forum of Nigerians (EFN).
NEXT WEEK AND BEYOND- A few more events (and plays) to come
On Wednesday
16th May LERECA is holding their ‘Apero’ (it’s all
very Francophone!!) at 7pm at Cotton Restaurant, 70 Exmouth Market EC1, this
event is meant to bring together peoples from all over the African and Caribbean
diaspora (Anglophone, Francophone, Lusophone) to network for business and leisure,
it’s a nice chilled out way to meet likeminded people in a great venue.
Friday 18th
May see’s the
Ghana Golden Opportunities 2012 at Grange City Hotel,
8-14 Coopers Row, EC3N 2BQ , the theme is ‘Investment & Business
Opportunities in Ghana’ and will consiust of presentations by Tullow Oil
Plc, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), Ghana High Commission UK &
many more Q & A and Networking
. The aim is to provide a platform for Ghanaian
Diaspora Entrepreneurs and
Professionals to learn more about the investment & business opportunities
available for them in Ghana.
On Saturday
19th May the London Business School Africa Club will hold
the their
Africa Day at London Business School, NW1 4SA. The theme is ‘
Africa, Taking Ownership: Successes & Challenges’. The conference will explore and celebrate the many
ways in which Africans are taking ownership for their continent’s destiny,
driving reforms, building capacity and propelling growth from within.
The Womenfor Africa Awards UK will also hold that day at 5pm at The Great
Hall, Kensington Town Hall, Homton Street, London, W8 7NX, the awards gala promises
to be an evening filled with entertainment in the form of music and comedy,
networking and the honouring of some of the most outstanding African women in
UK.
On Sunday
20th Rita Ray and Max Reinhardt of ‘The Shrine’ return
for another
Mwalimu Express at Rich Mix featuring awesome music from around the continent. Come
join in the stupendous storytelling sessions, Screen Station films and far out
family arts workshops.
On Wednesday 23rd May a brand new play by an African female
writer opens at the Soho Theatre.
‘Egusi Soup’ by Janice Okoh, is a fast,
furious and funny intergenerational and cross cultural family comedy about the
Anyia’s as they pack their suitcases to head home to Lagos for a memorial
service to honour the lat Mr Anyia. There’s mothers fathers, pastors and of
course Egusi Soup!
The writer Janice Okoh won the Bruntwood Prize and was short
listed for the Verity Bargate Award ad the Alfred Fagon Award and wrote the
play to honour her late father and try and communicate the different attitudes
one has to death and life and to write a play that showed the humorous side of
the diaspora experience. The play stars award winning actress Ellen Thomas (Eastenders),
early bird tickets (23-25 May) are £10.00, 26 May – 9 June £12.50 (conc.’s
£10.00), 6-9 June £15.00 (conc.’s (£12.50)
Bola Agbaje’s play ‘
Belong’ is still showing at
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, the Royal Court Theatre,
Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS till 26
th May and then onto
The Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, London SE15 4ST
from 31st May to 26th June
The sun seems to be back, here’s to an African summer!!
A long weekend, lots of festivities,
barbeques, pomp, circumstance and rain! It can only be a London summer! Well we
at Proud to be African Clothing were happy to get into the Jubilee swing of
things this weekend. 
Also on Friday the 8th of June at the Logan Hall, 20
Bedford Way is the The Spirit of Afrika an exciting new musical that captures
the true diversity of the continent. It consists of an array of UK- based
African dance performance groups, including Kenyan, Senegal, Ivory coast,
Zimbabwean, Guinea, Ethiopian, Mali, Ghanaian, Ugandan, Nigerian and
South African Zulu dance troupes, who have joined forces for a one of a
kind production. The enthralling epic storyline sees East meet West and South collides with North, as all of Africa prays for rain after the villagers
of Bamba commit atrocities and the Gods punish them by bringing drought to the
entire African regions. Instead of acknowledging their mistakes and seeking
forgiveness they get an evil, wicked seer, to lie that the sacrifice should be
the virgin girl called Amani, because she is different. Tickets are from £10-£25 with 10% off for group bookings.
