Vlog: August in Africa @ Covent Garden 2015

By -
African pride was in abundance across central London as musicians and fashion designers showcased their creative talents on Saturday 1 August.

You can't go wrong with a Singer © Anthony Ayakwah
As part of the Africa Centre’s ‘Africa in August Summer Festival', designers including those from the Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya drew in crowds keen to acquire one-off designs and sample some of the Continent’s unique live music.

Singers including Nigerian-French singer Asa and Angolan folk musician Bonga helped to capture the vibrancy of the day and showcased how rich and culturally diverse the Continent is.

British-Ghanaian Fuse ODG aka Nana Richard Abiona made sure the audience didn’t lose sight of the need to foster balance when portraying images of Africa and Africans globally. 

Interspersed between his uplifting tracks, he recounted his dealings activist Bob Geldof KBE during the West African Ebola crisis in 2014. He used his musical platform to explain why he chose not to participate in creating the Band Aid 30 single, (see MisBeee ‘Why I am not buying the new Band Aid 30 single). 

“I grew up watching these videos and they were showing kids with flies around their mouths and people dying all the time and they felt that was the way to raise money,” the south Londoner said. 

“When Bob Geldof called me I said to him we could make a hit and still make some money and actually help the Continent because I already had a top 10 by making a positive song so why can‘t all of these great artists get together – let’s get together and make a hit.”

His words inspired cheering and clapping from the audience.

Crowds thronged to listen to Fuse's hits © MisBeee Writes
Later, he appealed to revellers to keep praying for African-Americans who continue to be killed at the hands of the police.

“It’s a spiritual battle going on right now,” he said. “We need to pray for our brothers and sisters in the States because we’re just dying just like that and there is no explanation.”

Fuse fans got to hear a string of his hits including ‘Azonto’, ‘ Million Pound Girl’, and T.I.N.A (This Is New Africa) and for those of you who missed out, here is a little snapshot of the experience.


By Kirsty Osei-Bempong.
  
For more blogs about music, check out:
 Ghanaian tenor out to transform opera
Afrobeats star Atumpan @ African Fashion Week London 2015
MisBeee @ Africa on the Square  
MisBeee @ Africa Utopia 2015


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 prior written consent. 

Comments

  1. Unknown3 August 2015 at 23:57

    Sounds like it was a great event. Lovely article x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kitdan4 August 2015 at 01:06

    Great gig by Fuse ODG. I would go to his concert if he had one in the UK.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Abena Sɛwaa4 August 2015 at 07:47

      @Kitdan i believe he has one coming up in November

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ghanaian sitcom star leaves lasting legacy in Kwahu

By -
Image
The late Gyearbuor Asante, who famously played long-term mature student Matthew in hit British sitcom Desmond’s , was also a royal. Gyearbuor Asante: Image credit Carole Latimer He came from Tafo, Kwahu, in Ghana's Eastern Region but rather than follow tradition and become a chief, the young thespian got himself circumcised instead. The reason, according to details from charity the Friends of Tafo (Kwahu), was to rule himself out of enstoolment. He then left Ghana in the late 1960s to become an actor and the rest, as they say, is history. But life has a funny way of panning out and although Gyearbuor never became a chief, his close friend Humphrey Barclay, who incidentally was the executive producer of Desmond's , did!  "I met Gyearbuor (or Christopher as he was known in UK then) in 1972, when he was doing such shows as Crown Court and so on," he told MisBeee. "I visited Ghana many times as his guest and when he died in 2000 at the age of 58 o
Read more

What's your favourite Adinkra symbol?

By -
Image
Screenshot of hand-painted Adinkra symbols from charity Mmofra_Ghana.  I put this question to MisBeee readers after blogging recently about the origins of Adinkra in the post: 'Adinkra - more than just a pretty face'. A dinkra is a series of ideographic symbols from Ghana and the Ivory Coast depicting age-old proverbs that incorporate aspects of Asante culture, flora and fauna. These symbols are strongly linked to religion, language, and geometry but in modern times are used widely in and outside Ghana for their aesthetic appeal. The list includes jewellery, pottery, clothing and architecture.  Below is a snapshot of some of the responses I received, feel free to add your own. All images below come from adinkra.org.  Kwame from Birmingham My favourite symbol is Gye Nyame because everything starts with God, and ends with God. God creates, sustains and destroys and generates again. It is self-germinating. The symbol of Gye Nyame looks like a circle when connected
Read more

Insane in the membrane: Sticking two fingers up to the virginity test

By -
Image
Colonisation from within of the female form © MisBeee Writes There has been a slew of media stories since the start of the year fixated on the supposed potency of the female form and the responsibility women have with making their bodies less desirable to the opposite sex. The idea that a 16-year old girl groomed her married 47-year-old religious education teacher into having an affair, according to UK judge Joanna Greenberg QC , was one that stuck in my mind. It got me recalling the experience of a friend of mine whose mother directed her to wearing a dressing gown over her night dress whenever she ventured out of her room. The extra layer was supposed to act as deterrent against the licentious attacks she suffered most nights at the hands of her stepfather. It didn’t. More recently, fresh efforts by an MP in the Indonesian district of Jember to introduce the controversial 'two-finger' or virginity test to schoolgirls before they can graduate have been denoun
Read more

Ghanaian tenor out to transform opera music

By -
Image
Ghana is best known for such musical genres as highlife, hiplife, afrobeats and gospel. But one Kumasi-born artist is bucking that trend by carving a name for himself as Ghana’s first opera singer, (see here ). Nino's staff is a reminder of his journey* Nino – aka Agyemang Kofi Offeh – has been singing and composing since childhood. Thanks to his father’s interest in classical music, Nino developed a passion for this genre even though he started out singing gospel and highlife. Despite gaining some success as a highlife artist, Nino couldn’t shake the feeling that he was destined to do something else. A turning point came when he was hospitalised after having a car accident that could have cost him his voice and limbs. “I remember lying in the hospital bed and watching myself performing my highlife tracks on TV and hearing my songs on the radio, but I thought - I haven't done what I am supposed to do," he said Inspiration As softly-spoken as Nino is, his
Read more

Vlog: Chieftaincy in Ghana - time for modernisation or time for an end?

By -
Image
Although on the surface it seems Ghana's archaic chieftaincy structures have survived colonialism and are still celebrated and revered in modern times, I did not realise how much influence neighbouring tribes and British rule have had on the institution. Alhassan Mbalba and Queen Mother Naa Tsotsoo Soyoo I © MisBeee Writes Star 100 UK's seminar: 'Tribes: Chieftaincy in Ghana' brought together four speakers representing the Akans, GaDangmes, Ewes and Northerners to shed some light on the intricacies of this much-celebrated institution. Jamestown chieftaincy According to Her Royal Highness (HRH) Queen Mother Naa Tsotsoo Soyoo I, the current chieftaincy tradition used among the GaDangme people was adopted from the Akans. She also explained that enstoolment of the chiefs in Jamestown was decided by the British who governed the Jamestown area - hence the English name.  Ghana and the Levites During the seminar, the strong connection between the Hebr
Read more