Nile Basin

DSC_1584For 26 years, Africa International House has brought the African Diaspora to the U.S with their unique cultural celebration, the African Festival of the Arts. Held each Labor Day weekend in Chicago, the Festival offers a glimpse into the many unique treasures of the African Continent as well as African-centric offerings from across the globe. This year’s event will take place September 4-7.

Experience a four-day immersion into African culture and heritage as Chicago’s historic Washington Park is transformed into an authentic African village. Over 300 vendors and artisans will present artifacts, textiles, traditional crafts, and museum-quality art. Enjoy the African-influenced food, music, and dance traditions during an entertainment rich, family-focused celebration unlike any other in the Midwest.

The Festival boasts four distinct areas each representing a center of culture and commerce on the African Continent: Nubia (fine arts); Kush (wearable arts); Songhay (African arts & crafts, collectibles and natural products); Timbuktu (African fabric and fashions); and Bank of the Nile (food court).

There will be pavilions highlighting South African wines, health and wellness and fine arts. Pavilions include: the Green Pavilion; Quilting Pavilion; David Durojaiye Olupitan African Heritage Pavilion; Author & Book Pavilion; Drum Village; Dr. Nurudeen Olowopopo Health & Wellness Pavilion; and the Bernice Gardner Children’s & Family Pavilion.

Entertainment for this year’s Festival will be themed into four categories:

Friday, September 4 – Steppin’ featuring R&B performer K’Jon with DJ Sam Chatman.

Saturday – African Beats featuring Muntu Dance Theater, Afrocolumbia EPA!, Abraham Mellish, Nola Ade and other international groups

Sunday – Chicago’s Best featuring Terisa Griffin, the Stella Award winning New Direction, Sax Preacher, Taylor Moore and M.A.D.D. Rhythms

Monday – Soul Fest featuring Joan Collaso, Sax Preacher, Phenom, Soundmine Merchants and our headliner R&B Legend Jeffrey Osborne.

Labor Day headliner funk, R&B musician, singer/songwriter, lyricist, and former LTD lead singer, Jeffrey Osborne’s solo career has brought him five gold and platinum albums: “Stay with Me Tonight” and “Only Human.” He also recorded an album of duets with popular singer James Ingram and scored an international hit in 1982 with “On the Wings of Love.” Osborne follows in the footsteps of other musical headliners who have graced the stage at the African Festival of the Arts, including George Clinton, Erykah Badu, India Arie, and the legendary James Brown.

Kelvin Johnson, better known by his stage name K’Jon’s 2009 solo debut album, “I Get Around,” reached #1 on the R&B charts. His lead single from the album, “On the Ocean,” hit #1 on the Urban AC Radio charts and #12 on Billboard’s R&B charts.His current release is “I Get Around.”

For those wanting to sample the tastes of Africa, you can dine on dishes in the tradition of Nigeria, Senegal, and the Caribbean, as well as Cajun and Southern soul.

But, the real stars of the Festival are the fine arts and the artists who make them—be they painters, sculptors, jewelers, or wood carvers.

The 2015 Artist of the Year is Nii Oti whose vibrant work graces the cover of all this year’s African Festival of the Arts materials. For over 40 years, Nii Oti was a gifted artist who specialized in combining African and African-American art through his paintings and customized jewelry.

In spite of his commercial success, Nii Oti felt a strong desire to live in the Motherland. In the mid-70s, he packed up his family and moved to Ghana. There, he taught art and studied with many renowned artists in Ghana, Nigeria and throughout the Ivory Coast. It was also in Ghana where he was given his name, which roughly translated means “chief.”

Over the decades, Nii Oti has accumulated a body of work that reflects his transition from a child of the South Side of Chicago to a world-renowned master of African/African- American art.

Founded by Liberian-born business leader P. Saingbey K. Woodtor, the African Festival of the Arts has become a national destination point for those seeking to immerse themselves in the African culture. Each year over 200,000 people attend the four-day event from across the U.S.

Woodtor founded the African Festival of the Arts as an outgrowth of his art shop, Windows to Africa, and he, along with his board of directors, have grown the event into a Labor Day staple. In all these ways, the Festival gives attendees a glimpse of Africa without the need for plane tickets and for less than the cost of applying for a passport

South African runner Anaso Jobodwana is aiming high after winning third place in the 200 metres, he said after the race. His under-20-seconds time puts him in the running elite and he plans to stay there, he told RFI, while paying tribute to compatriot Wayde Van Niekerk.

Poultry famously featured heavily in the diet of a certain Usain St Leo Bolt seven years ago in Beijing.

The then 22-year-old Jamaican extolled the joys of chicken nuggets at mealtimes during the day before he went out in the evening and stormed to the Olympic 100 metres title.
Athletics World Championships 2015 – Click here for more articles

Chicken was to the fore in the prelude to Anaso Jobodwana’s record-breaking run in the men’s 200 metres on Thursday night in the Bird’s Nest stadium.

He had chicken and eggs at breakfast time and chicken and broccoli at lunch. The musical menu included J Cole, Kendrick Lamar and Dr Dre. With that nutritional and musical mix he said he was ready to run.

Well, he got all the beats right.

The South African took the bronze medal in a national record of 19.87 seconds. Ahead of him were Bolt and Justin Gatlin in 19.55 and 19.74 respectively.

It was Jobodwana’s third consecutive 200 metres final in a major championships. He was in the 2012 Olympics final and the 2013 Moscow world championships where he finished sixth.

At the start of the 2015 meeting in Beijing, South Africa had never won a medal in a men’s or women’s flat sprint event at the world championships. But following Wayde van Niekerk’s 400 metres gold on Wednesday and Jobodwana’s success, the country is finally on the sprinting map. There’s still some way to go, though, before it’s in the same league as the United States or Jamaica.

“The national record is not going to stay for long,” said Jobodwana after his final. “Because Wayde and I are going to fight for it. We’ve already joked that we’re going to fight for it until we retire. To break the national record in a championship final after two earlier races, it’s a huge bonus on top of the medal, I’m really happy. It shows that I’m now in the elite bracket of runners. I feel good.”

His bronze was a close-run thing. The difference between him and fourth-placed Alonso Edward was two thousandths of a second, their exact times being 19.861 and 19.863 respectively.

For the 25-year-old Panamanian, who took the silver medal in Berlin in 2009 at the age of 19, 19.87 is the third-fastest result of his career.

While Jobodwana was breaking national records in the race, Bolt was writing a different kind of history.

The 29-year-old became the first man to win four consecutive world championship 200 metres titles. His victory also allowed him the boast of first man to defend the 100 and 200 metres at a world championship. It was also his 10th gold medal at the championships since 2009.

Jobodwana isn’t yet in that stratosphere. But then again, that’s no shame. Bolt inhabits a land unto himself.

Back here where the mortals roam, Jobodwana said once he’d recovered from the race he’d spend his time responding to the messages of support that he’d received on various social networks.

“I was receiving all the messages but because I was in competition mode, I didn’t want to write anything but now I’ll start responding,” he said. “The support for me has been huge. There was lots of support and I’ve appreciated all the kind words that have been said. It’s huge and irreplaceable.”

Jobodwana said his next goal would be to maintain the consistency that has taken him to consecutive major finals and to keep running below the 20 second threshold.

“I’m glad I ran under 20 seconds in the final because I feel like I’m an elite runner now,” he said. “Before that when I was running 20 plus, I felt like I was still average and now I feel like I belong on that podium.”

The results show the 23-year-old to be progressing. In the Olympic final three years ago, he finished in 20.27 seconds. At the Moscow world championships, the time was 20.13.

There may well be even faster times ahead for the lad from the Phakamisa township. But the stars aligned for him thousands of miles away from home.

Jobodwana said the British former decathlete Daley Thompson urged him to look back at some old races in the 200 metres. And before the final Jobodwana followed up the tip. He saw a run from 1993 involving the Namibian sprinter Frankie Fredericks.

“I saw what Fredericks was doing when he came from behind,” he explains. “So, when I came out of the back stretch and I was behind, I kept that image with me. I kept on pushing to the line.”

While an African of old helped in a moment of crisis, a contemporary also contributed to the bronze.

“Wayde’s victory was a huge inspiration,” added Jobodwana. “I said to my coach after Wayde’s gold medal that Wayde had just shown me that I couldn’t leave the track without a medal. That was significant. I went into the race with my own expectations and Wayde’s image in mind. He was a huge inspiration.”

Concerts scheduled by U.S. pop star Pharrell Williams in South Africa next month face disruptions from pro-Palestine protesters over a promotional deal he has with major retailer Woolworths, which has trade ties with Israel

The Grammy award-winning producer and performer has been targeted by the South African branch of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (BDS) movement. It objects to Israel’s 48-year-old occupation of territories where Palestinians seek an independent state.

Williams is collaborating with Woolworths on its “Are You With Us” campaign, acting as style director on several sustainability-focused projects encompassing fashion and fundraising for education.

“He is about to face the biggest backlash any artist has faced in South Africa in over 30 years, since the days of apartheid,” said Braam Hanekom, a BDS South Africa board member.

“He is walking into a very angry, unhappy environment because he has chosen to walk with Woolworths,” Hanekom told Reuters after the City of Cape Town denied an application by thousands to protest at Pharrell’s first concert on Sept. 21.

He said protesters could block roads on concert nights, potentially delaying proceedings, or even rally inside venues.

Pharrell’s representatives did not respond immediately for comment. Grand West Casino, where the Cape Town concert will take place, said they would not allow any protests on their property. The second concert is in Johannesburg.

Pro-Palestine marches in South Africa often attract large crowds, especially in Cape Town with its large Muslim community.

Woolworths said in a statement that it did not source produce from the occupied territories, less than 0.1 percent of its food came from Israel and that it clearly labeled every product’s country of origin.

The global BDS movement has also campaigned against British security firm G4S over its Israel links. It says its pleas have prompted musicians including Irish rocker Sinead O’Connor and hip hop star Lauryn Hill to support its cause

“I think the world tends to place African and LGBTQ identities in opposition with each other,” Odera, a queer Nigerian-American, said to photographer Mikael Owunna. “I am lucky because, I have built a home and inner fire within myself that simply does not accept the binary. And it certainly doesn’t accept others defining my identity. It simply isn’t in my nature.” Photo by Mikael Owunna

LGBTQ African immigrants are the heart of “Limit(less),” a photography documentary project that illuminates the lives of first and second-generation LGBTQ Africans in the diaspora.

Photographer Mikael Owunna‘s childhood as a queer Nigerian-American informed his work and the creation of the project, he said. Owunna said he wanted to document the “limitless” ways in which LGBTQ Africans live multifaceted lives while navigating a society that views their multiple identities as mutually exclusive.

“It’s always been a struggle for me trying to resolve these two aspects of my identity,” Owunna said. “Because this rhetoric that LGBTQ Africans are ‘un-African’ has been weaponized against me, I’ve dealt with so much stuff from my own family in terms of homophobia. So that’s been always on my mind, struggling with these two parts of my identity.”

South Africa’s economy faces a turbulent time as the prospect of rising U.S. interest rates and a slowing Chinese economy complicate policy-making, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Reuters Economist of the Year event, Kganyago said China’s devaluation of its currency to stem an economic slide would affect the competitiveness of South Africa’s manufacturing exports to the world’s second largest economy.

South Africa’s commodity exports are also at risk from the slowdown in China’s economy.

The South African Reserve Bank raised domestic rates for the first time in a year in July despite lacklustre growth, citing inflationary pressure partly stemming from a weaker rand.

The rand has weakened nearly 10 percent against the dollar this year as investors have sold off emerging market assets, anticipating that the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon start tightening policy.

“The global economy is entering into new unchartered waters with the prospect of normalisation in the U.S. and a slowdown in China, impacting on commodity prices,” Kganyago said.

“The reality is that South Africa, along with other emerging market economies, is likely to face an increasingly turbulent time ahead.”

He reiterated that the rand exchange rate was one of the main upside risks to the inflation outlook, but added that the central bank did not target a level for the currency.

The central bank’s concern about the impact of U.S. policy normalisation did not however mean it would simply follow global interest rates in conducting domestic policy.

“Our decisions on short-term interest-rate changes are focused primarily on the domestic inflation outlook,” Kganyago said.

The Reserve Bank raised its repo rate in July by 25 basis points after a hike of the same size a year ago, a departure from previous cycles when policy makers adjusted rates in 50 basis point instalments

“Our baseline is that even in the current tightening cycle that we have identified it is going to be a very moderate one,” Kganyago said.

“Even in the U.S. we expect that the lift-off will actually be a fairly moderate one.”