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Showing posts from September, 2016

Re-telling the single story on Traditional African Religions

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Golden artefacts from Ghana's Asante region (1920) (c) Musée du quai Branly, Paris Star 100 - a Ghana-focused diaspora network based in London - invited me to share my thoughts on the role of traditional beliefs in Ghanaian culture. The discussion, on 30 September 2016, was entitled Traditional Beliefs and Customary Law, at the Museum of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell, London. The topic is something I have been exploring for some time, particularly during my time living in Ghana. I wanted to share with you my short presentation and invite you to share your views..... Here is an abridged version of a story I wanted to share with you: In the beginning, the universe consisted only of the sky, the water, and the wild marshlands.   God (Obatala) believed that the world needed more and asked the ruler of the sky and creator of the sun – the supreme God - (Olorun) for permission to create solid land on Earth. This lesser God made clay figures in the likeness of

Afrobeat jazz collective out to explore music across the African continent

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Afrobeat jazz collective KOKOROKO is in the process of writing and recording their own original compositions. Left to right: Cassie Kinoshi, Sheila Maurice-Grey and Richie Seivwright part of KOKOROKO afrobeat jazz collective © KOKOROKO The seven-strong ensemble have been playing renditions of timeless West African classics such as 'Kai Wawa' across London since 2014. (The song is a traditional Hausa war chant that was produced by the Mercury Dance Band in Kade, Ghana).  But now they are looking to produce original work which will likely be out later this year, KOKOROKO's alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi told MisBeee.  "We feel that now is the right time to present our own message through music," she said. Multicultural roots The band's music is reflective of their mixed cultural backgrounds. Their heritage covers England, Grenada, the Grenadines, Guinea-­Bissau, Jamaica, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zambia. Their  musical influences are equally

Destination Africa: Why producer Maame Adjei is championing African travel

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Ghana-born actress and film producer Maame Adjei is off to South Africa to film the next season of her travel web series 'Girl Going Places'. Adjei is better known for co-producing 'An African City' and starring as Zainab in the production dubbed the African version of ‘Sex and the City’. But the Ghanaian-American is also carving a name for herself as a bit of a travel guru. Her aim is to encourage more Africans to visit destinations within their home continent. Maame Adjei plays Zainab in 'An African City' sourced from msadjei.com  Travelling culture Adjei believes Ghanaians do not tend to travel internally for pleasure or leisure because “it is just not part of our culture,” she told MisBeee. “My mother would never go to the north unless it’s for work or a funeral. You don’t just get up one day and say: ‘hey let’s take a trip…’ And that’s an issue because when we have someone from say Norway who drops in Ghana gets on a trotro and next thing

Vegan business brings a blast of colour to bath times

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Welsh mother-of-two Sandie Peters made her living as a commercial photographer until she was spurred on to find a remedy for her niece's eczema and acne. Now - a little over a year on - and Peters runs a successful online vegan skincare business in Bridgend with her sister Louise Cattle. ...And her niece's skin ailments have cleared up! Bath Bomb Babes' display at Swansea Vegan Festival in July 2016 © MisBeee Writes "My niece had been suffering from eczema and acne and my sister and I were searching for creams we could use to alleviate her symptoms," said Peters. "We couldn't find anything suitable so decided we would make our own. We started doing our research in June/July last year and just before Christmas 2015, our first product came out." The pair formed the company Bath Bomb Babes after realising there was demand for naturally-made, and cruelty-free products. The pair sell across Britain and in France and source their ingredients

AFWL 2016: African fashion and style in September

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Africa Fashion Week London 2016 starts this month and promises to be bigger, badder and better than ever. I went last year and got the chance to speak to some of the exhibitors and meet Ghanaian afrobeats artiste Atumpan. You can check out what I thought of the event here . Check out my vox pop with the exhibitors here where I ask them what they view as African fashion. And check out some of Atumpan's uplifting musical entrance at the show and a short interview here . MisBeee with Atumpan at AFWL 2015 © MisBeee Writes All comments are welcome on this page. If you are having trouble posting on the Google+ page, please share your views via Facebook  here  or tweet @MisBeee Please be aware that you may not reproduce, republish, modify or commercially exploit this content without our prior written consent.