Cape Town’s pop-up store for the homeless goes global

                                                               The South African - London UK

A groundbreaking idea turns the old adage beggars can’t be choosers on its head.

Looking out from their advertising agency balcony onto the main street, a pair of Cape Town advertising creatives has changed the way people give and receive for humanitarian reasons worldwide.

The copywriter and art director team of Kayli Levitan and Max Pazak say they were simply looking for a way to bring together the “haves and have-nots” who fill the streets around their workplace area every day. With support from their ad agency M&C Saatchi Abel, and partnering with the nearby headquarters of the Haven Night Shelter, Cape Town’s largest network of homeless shelters, the team have fine-tuned a concept aimed at changing the process of giving and receiving. The idea is simple, and yet uniquely ingenious, and it has gone viral, and has captured the imagination of people worldwide.

“We work in a very trendy part of Cape Town called Green Point. Restaurants, designer stores, hotels and more line the streets,” says Levitan. “But on the other hand there is a huge problem in the area. From our balcony we see the haves and the have-nots walk the streets every day. You are often told not to give to the homeless, as you are not sure what they are going to do with the donation. People are also sometimes ignorant as to where to take their donations, as they haven`t been exposed to this kind of life before. We saw a middle ground. A place where it would be easy to donate, and more importantly, a place to give with dignity to those who do not have.”

Exactly how does a Street Store work?

“The Street Store is made up of a series of five or more posters,” says Pazak. “They can quite literally pop-up in any community that the store is needed. People bring in their donations, which we help them to ‘hang up’ on our posters with a hanger design. And then “drop” shoes and accessories into our boxes. Shop assistants then help the homeless have a full shopping experience choosing from the clothing on display, for free.”

Thanks to a well-timed web presence and social media drive, an overwhelming number of donors came to donate for the pilot street store in Green Point. So successful were the first four activations in Cape Town that the agency was inundated with requests to duplicate The Street Store across the world.

To date the concept has grown to see street stores being duplicated in the city streets of Brussels, Vancouver, San Diego, Sao Polo and a number of other cities worldwide since then.

Were there challenges in activating the pop-up store?
The biggest challenge was the fear that people would not take up the call to donate. “We had sleepless nights leading up to the first pop up store, but were overwhelmed by people’s generosity,” says Pazak. Another challenge was that the vast majority of the homeless are men (unsurprisingly it is women who spring clean their cupboards more often) but thankfully no one went away empty handed.

So far more than 263 cities from around the world have signed up to host a Street Store — posters have been translated through social media into nine languages. As the Street Store concept rolls out globally, picking up momentum, kudos have been coming in from all corners, including at the 2014 Cannes Lions Festival. M&C Saatchi Abel was awarded a prestigious Gold Lion in the design category, a bronze in the media category, with six other shortlists, including the Grand Prix for Good Award in June.

The Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille said: ‘This is a great example of how progress can be made possible together. It is wonderful to see private companies step up to the plate, using their ideas and resources to play a role in solving social problems in an innovative way. It is our vision in the City of Cape Town that all companies will follow in this example, because that is when our potential as a city will truly be limitless”.

On top of an endless stream of words of encouragement that are received daily, Levitan says that they receive an additional 30/40 questions and requests a day to download the branding material. It is hardly surprising that another award-winning design initiative originates out of the Mother City, the designated 2014 World Design Capital. The Street Store is a demonstration of how simple ideas, that touch people, will find their own way around the world and create remarkable change.

The Street Store in action:

Oscar-nominated SA film ‘Four Corners’ screens countrywide in the UK

                                                                    The South African London - UK
                                                      

The South African award winning thriller Four Corners has been invited to screen as part of a special UK film tour designed to bring attention to South Africa’s 20 Years of Democracy.

Supported by the BFI Programming Development Fund and the SA-UK Seasons, the ‘South Africa at 20′ film touring programme aims to feed into the various events that are taking place both in South Africa and the UK to mark the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy.
A slate of UK Film Festivals will screen Four Corners and other related films at cinemas across the UK – from London to Edinburgh, Cambridge, Bristol, Glasgow and Wales, with the intention of building UK African cinema audiences and raising the profile of African cinema in the UK. The tour will launch at a VIP event in London in early October to be opened by former Labour government minister and philanthropist Baron Paul Boateng – and will continue to run from 2014 through to February 2015.
South African filmmaker Ian Gabriel, director of Four Corners, has been invited to take part in Q&A sessions and other events around the UK. The films will also be complemented by an extensive educational and outreach programme, which would include school and pop-up screenings.

Featuring in a section titled Post-Apartheid Challenges, Four Corners will screen alongside two other South African films, Life Above All and Miners Shot Down.

Four Corners has also been selected to screen in competition during the same period at The Santa Fe Film Festival USA and The Bahamas International Film Festival. It will compete in Best Foreign Film and Best Feature Film Categories at both these festivals.
The film has already garnered international success with two Best Film wins at various film fests and one Best International Film nomination at the Academy Awards. The producers plan to continue to promote South African made film both at home in South Africa, and abroad through initiatives like the British Council Film Africa tour.
“We are very excited to be part of the Democracy Tour,” says the director. “This news comes with the announcement that Four Corners has been picked up by independent film distributor Munro Films for general cinema distribution in the UK. The film opens a window on marginal South African communities and tells a positive coming of age story set in tough circumstances. The ‘forgotten community’ depicted in Four Corners is only one of the many marginal societies in South Africa whose voice is only faintly heard despite the 20 year old challenge to deliver inclusive democracy to all South Africans.
“We’re proud that Four Corners has been added to the voices calling for broadening of democracy among youth in South Africa,” says Gabriel.

Watch the Four Corners trailer:

“What I want to do is to tell a good story, that is all”: In conversation with Caine Prize winner Okwiri Oduor

                                                                      AfriPOP! Magazine

Kenya’s Okwiri Oduor has won the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for her short story entitled ‘’My Father’s Head’’. Oduor visited the Book Lounge in Cape Town last week to launch ‘The Gonjon Pin and other Stories’, an anthology of the 2014 Caine Prize. Daluxolo Moloantoa attended the event and had the importunity to speak with Odour about what it means to her to win the prize, the inspiration for “My Father’s Head”, her favourite authors and the best part about being a writer.

Joining Oduor on the shortlist for the Caine Prize were Billy Kahora (Kenya), Efemia Chela (Ghana, Zambia), Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe) and the South African author Diane Awerbuck. All five were published in “The Gonjon Pin and other Stories“.Oduor directed the inaugural Writivism Literary Festival in Kampala, Uganda in August 2013. Her novella, The Dream Chasers was highly commended in the Commonwealth Book Prize, 2012. She is a 2014 MacDowell Colony fellow and is currently at work on her debut novel.

‘’My Father’s Head‘’ explores the narrator’s difficulty in dealing with the loss of her father and looks at the themes of memory, loss and loneliness. The narrator works in an old people’s home and comes into contact with a priest, giving her the courage to recall her buried memories of her father. “My Father’s Head” originally appeared in Short Story Day Africa‘s collection, Feast, Famine and Potluck, as did Chela’s shortlisted story “Chicken”.

Oduor, the third Kenyan to take the prize, after Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor in 2003 and Binyavanga Wainaina in 2002, receives £10 000 prize money, as well as the opportunity to take up a month’s residency at Georgetown University in the US, as a Writer-in-Residence at the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice.

Congratulations on winning the Caine Prize! How does it feel to join that illustrious list?

Thank you. It is such an honour to have been recognised in this manner, to be given this incredible gift.

Are you going to take up the residency at Georgetown University?

Yes. I look forward to the experience.

The Caine Prize is affectionately known as “the African Booker”. What aspects of your writing – if any – do you see as specifically African?

There is no checklist. I am not too keen to take part in the clamour for categorisation. What I want to do is to tell a good story, that is all.

How did the idea for “My Father’s Head” hit you?

I left home and felt deeply sad and lonely when I realised I was an adult. I was grieving my childhood.

How long did it take you to write the story? Did you feel unusually inspired, or was it more challenging than usual to complete?

I cannot remember how long it took. My average is usually a couple of weeks. Each story is unique and has its own peculiar set of challenges. In that way, I cannot compare it to anything.

What’s your favourite part of writing?

Getting lost in another world. Embodying my characters. Forgetting myself, feeling, seeing, tasting things as my characters do.

“My Father’s Head”  is a story about coping with loss, memories, and finding meaning with the ones we love. What inspired you to write the story?

I was estranged from my loved ones for a while. I thought of it as being in exile — from home, from them, from myself. During this time, I thought a lot about mortality, about the meaning of home and the spaces that one inhabits while there. What happens to home when you leave? Do these spaces lay fallow, waiting for your return? What if you never find your way home again? And what if you do, and you find that it has changed, and that your people are no longer yours? Are your people really, infinitely, your people?

Who are some of your literary influences?

That is a difficult question. Different people see different influences in my work. I would say my first influences were the housemaids of my childhood. Through the oral tradition—those stories they told on the veranda while they shelled peas, about djinnis swirling in cooking pots — they influenced a lot of my writing.

I grew up acutely aware of the existence of several, concomitant realities. It was not that I believed in them, nor that this was necessary, but that the people around me did, and so, invariably, I had to acknowledge that the world is a mysterious place that I will never fully comprehend.
I do not know if I would call it influence, but female Black writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid and Edwidge Dantecat stirred something deep inside me.

You directed the Inaugural Writivism Festival in Kampala, Uganda, can you tell us a bit about that experience?

It was very small then and still floundering, with little by way of financial support but much by way of energy and enthusiasm. I am happy to see that it has improved tremendously since then. Bwesigye [bwa Mwesigire] and his team have done a good job this year, and I look forward to watching it grow even bigger.

You teach creative writing, what is your advice for aspiring writers?

Last year, I taught creative writing to young girls. I think there is plenty of technical advice given by writers far more experienced than myself. To that, I really can add nothing. I would, however, like to advice young writers – and artists — to embrace themselves. You are incredible, and your work is beautiful, and you must honor yourself and it. There is no shame in you or in what you do.
I know that it is easy to dismiss this as overly sentimental, but in my opinion, not enough words of this nature are being said to young people. They certainly were not being said to me. As a result, I was torn between forces within me and those without, each pulling hard in opposing directions. I wish to tell aspiring writers to brace themselves, that the road ahead is long and torturous, but that it is also unbelievably funny.

What else will you be doing while in South Africa?

I will attend the 2014 Mail & Guardian Literary Festival in Johannesburg, which is dedicated to the memory of the most important African woman writer of our times, the late Nadine Gordimer, and I’ll also be teaching a  short story writing workshop in Soweto.

Can you divulge anything about your upcoming debut novel?

There is not much I can say at this stage except that everyone must just sit and wait.

It’s Open Book time for lovers of South African fiction

                                                            The South African - London,UK

For everyone else December is the perfect time to be in Cape Town. For book enthusiasts, that perfect time is about five days each year in September.

Like its jazz counterpart, the Open Book Festival is the city’s grandest gathering of book aficionados from across the world. Boasting an eclectic mix of writers from across the writing world and programmes from panel discussions, comic strip markets and documentary film premiers, the festival clearly aims to go beyond the definition of a book festival by a long stretch.

The line-up of events in this year’s fest is packed with activities guaranteed to appeal to those who do not even make the time to turn a page. But for those who do just to hear the names such as Deon Meyer, Wilbur Smith, Zukiswa Wanner, Margie Orford, Mark Gevisser and Malaika wa Azania will be enough reason for them to book their tickets.

Included in the festival is a series of topical panel discussions on piercing issues in South Africa, from the state of the media, reclaiming Khoi San heritage, getting the born-frees reading, and a reflection on our twenty years democracy through literature are among the many discussions lined up.
Beyond the discussions there are other equally stimulating deviations such as the popular Open Book Comics Fest. The festival includes a marketplace, live drawing sessions and talks with established comics on various industry topics.


It would’t be a book festival without some poetry. Lovers of the poetic verse are well catered for with eleven signature events spread over the weekend. Featured are multi-lingual performances, pertinent discussions, and a range of emerging and established poets sharing the stage for readings and performances. The focus for this year`s poetry festival is the role of mother tongues in contemporary South African poetry. The role of the genre in the fight against apartheid is also looked at.

On top of all this is a film festival hosted in partnership with the legendary Labia Theatre. There will be some premiers for films such as Out Of Print, a film which draws viewers into the topsy-turvy world of words, illuminating the turbulent and exciting journey from the book through to the digital revolution. Another film to watch out for is Gore Vidal – The United States of Amnesia, which is an intimate portrayal of the American writer and his critique of modern American society.

Find further info on booking and schedules on the official website – www.openbookfestival.co.za

Photos by Open Book Festival

Don’t be afraid of Spoek Mathambo

                                   The South African London  - UK

 

In the first of a series profiling South African artists based abroad,DALUXOLO MOLOANTOA connects with Sweden-based music artist Spoek Mathambo, the Soweto-born Afro-pop exponent bringing “Afro-futuristic electronica” to the front row of global pop. Is Spoek Mathambo the best kept secret for post-millennium African dance music? 

 

 In South Africa’s black townships, the name Spoek Mathambo conjures up childhood memories of being terrified to stay out until dark because a ghost of the same name was lurking in the evening’s darkness, waiting to snatch up those kids who defied their parents and played in the streets until dusk. Truth be told, it is just a well-known urban myth told by parents to scare kids from coming home after dark.

The real Spoek Mathambo does exist though, and he is as far from scaring kids away as the North Pole is to the South Pole. In fact, a lot of grown “kids” are very fond of him. The Sweden-based music artist, 24, is much better off described as an urban phenomenon of post-apartheid township music, rather than a simple urban myth.

Part of a new  breed of globally-minded young African artists, Mathambo (Rapper/DJ and Graphic Designer/Illustrator) is pounding the music industry hard with his take on post-kwaito “Afro-futuristic” music. He is carving out his own musical space influenced by hip-hop, electro, and a melting pot of domestic African music genres. Mathambo sees himself as a part of a new wave of artistic energy sweeping through the continent, which is intent on nurturing a sense of musical progressiveness while maintaining a pride in its African identity. He has become an increasingly significant figure in the international electro music scene over the last couple of years, and he wants all of Africa to open itself to his groundbreaking sound. 

He released his debut album, curiously titled Mshini Wam late last year on Stockholm label BBE Records, and he has gathered a worldwide buzz through its unique, all-encompassing flair. “The release of this project is particularly exciting to me as it is basically a sign to the rest of the world of what Africa has in store in terms of progressive electronic music,” he explains. The music video was shot in a Cape Town nightclub, La Referance, and was directed by Beijing-based South African film director Lebogang Rasethaba.

The title Mshini Wam, from the famous freedom struggle song made notorious by ANC and President Jacob Zuma, means “Bring Me My Machine Gun”. Yet for Mathambo Mshini Wam has quite a different meaning: “My Machine in this case … is my platform to express a new wave of electronic African music blowing through the continent!”

Accompanied by a live band he took the album to audiences on a total of four continents, including a coast-to-coast tour of the United States during December 2010. Another highlight was a rooftop performance in his hometown of Soweto, alongside Seun Kuti, an Afro-beat artist and son of legendary Nigerian music icon Fela Kuti, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He has appeared on a number of reputable international music magazines, and the reviews have been unanimous in their endorsement of the album.

Mathambo has recently been invited to perform and contribute to an exhibition of top young South African artists at the renowned Mu Gallery in Eindhoven, Holland. He also honoured an invitation to the Red Bull Music Academy rooms in Amsterdam to give a talk.

“Some of the most fascinating new African music I’ve heard lately comes from Spoek Mathambo.”

- The Washington Post.

He cites a broad range of music artists, (and writers), as having an influence on how African music should sound like in the post-independence era. “Mankunku Ngozi , Nothembi, Dumile Feni, Moses Molelekwa, Ihhashi Elimhlophe, Bhekumuzi Khumalo,  Fela Kuti ,Easton Ellis, DJ Tira, Paul Austre, Wiley, LeRoi Jones, Wally Serote, James Baldwin, Miriam Makeba, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Ralph Ellison, Stevie Wonder… I really love Stevie Wonder… the list is endless… I am influenced by a lot of artists that I hear atv any given moment.” He makes it a point to mention that the guy who is most important but does not get nearly enough credit from him and the media, is  Mshini Wam co-producer Richard Rumney aka Richard The Third. 

What can African music enthusiasts expect from Spoek Mathambo in 2014? 

“First step is to get more of my music onto African and international TV and radio… in newspapers and magazines. I am going to be travelling throughout SA later in the year recording my follow-up album… a kind of an artistic voyage… recording on the road.  I would really like do some shows during this time as well… but there are no plans as yet."

The second half of the year also brings the collaboration - Spoek Mathambo presents Fatasama.Fantasma is a band comprised of a diverse set of South African musicians from varying cities and backgrounds, fusing their respective signature sounds to create something entirely fresh and greater than the sum of its parts.

 Formed at the end of 2013, the Fantasma foursome is made up of multifarious Afro-futurist artist Spoek Mathambo, talented traditional Zulu instrumentalist Bhekisenzo Cele, forefather of Bacardi House sound DJ/producer DJ Spoko and psychedelic rock guitarist Andre Geldenhuys. The group is currently recording their debut album as well as preparing for their 2014 live shows.

His opinion on the state of African music in general? “… African music isn’t so important… the important point is that people shouldn’t stay stuck in nostalgic ideas of what African music was way back before colonisation, or what it was saying during the struggle for independence from the colonial masters. That is the foundation, and we need to keep it moving and let it become a vehicle for the questions of our time. ”

FILM:THE RISING SON OF THE SOIL

                                                   The South African London - UK   

                                          
                                
 Like the sun,Lebogang Rasethaba`s film career is rising fast in the East.In the second of a series of three profiles of young South African artists making waves with their art internationally,Daluxolo Moloantoa chops it up,without the chopsticks,with the Beijing-based film producer.

There is a scene in the film Metro by Lebogang Rasethaba where he is walking along a busy Beijing street, on the run from crooked cops who are out to extort some money from him, and he is speaking fluent Mandarin into a cellphone. Put aside the striking juxtaposition of a towering black man amongst a sea of “little people”, what leaves you utterly gobsmacked is the ease he displays at speaking the language, like… well… a Chinese man eating with chopsticks.

You don’t often get a lad  originally from Soweto spewing smooth Mandarin, and living in China,nogal. But Rasethaba does, and, like the sun, his star is rising fast in the East. Just as it would have struck you as unlikely that people of Chinese origin would be classified as black South Africans, it is quite interesting to know of how he came to work and study film there.

I moved to China in 2007 for various whys and wherefores, mostly generic,” he explains. “I wanted to see the world and do something epic … all the usual reasons for a youngster coming from the townships. My father was on a government-related visit here some years back, and he called me up from a bar and said, ‘What are your thoughts on living in China?’… At the time I was working as a junior copywriter at advertising agency JWT and looking to make the transition into film. So I was like yeah, why not? I got this scholarship to come over and study for a masters degree in filmmaking.”
 
Place seems to be a significant thread that runs through Rasethaba`s life. He spent a lot of his childhood and adolescence trudging along with his family from place to place for various reasons. Perhaps it was not then a stroke of fate that place has formed the basis of his social inspection in his films so far.

                                 
 “I spent a lot of time hanging out with bouncers from nightclubs, prostitutes, car guards… all these people who were in South Africa illegally. Even though the film was picked up and shown by a terrestrial TV channel, I still think that a lot of South Africans do not have a clue on what most these people go through to survive as illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.”

Place, or rather displacement, is a continuing theme in his next effort. Sino (2009) tells the story of two African students in Beijing, dealing with the challenges of resettlement and adaptation in a foreign country.

“Making Sino was important to me because of my own personal experience, and of other students and immigrants here, be they from Africa, Europe or Middle Eastern,” he explains. “Relocation is a universal subject and the implications thereof vary from place to place. I wanted to put it in an African context because I had a much deeper understanding of it through my own experiences here.” The film is part one of a trilogy and is to be followed by a second installment, with the working title Awake.

He followed this introductory Chinese film with Metro, a short film he released early in 2010.This first foray into fiction revolves around despair, and looks at the life of a tormented foreign university student who gets caught up in the Chinese underworld as a result of negligence by his funders to provide him with his monthly living stipend. The short film won acclaim from critics and it was shown at a number of international film festivals.

                                       

Who inspires or influences his work? 

“I think it is very indeterminate, it depends on what I am working on or what I am feeling at the time. But there are some mainstays, directors Ousmane Sembene, and Spike Lee. I like work by various directors of the French New Wave era, John Kani, Errol Morris, Werner Hertzog and Zola Maseko amongst others.”

 He points to a number of local films which he says left a distinctive mark on his imagination growing up. “Sarafina is an obvious one. Mapantsula, Last Grave At Dimbaza, Zulu Love Letter. My only gripe with the South African film industry is that, like a lot of what happens in other parts of the world, you have people making films and telling other people`s stories, and narrating experiences which they haven`t had access to or experienced themselves. It is a sad situation when you have your own heroes portrayed by outsiders.”  

Finally, what type of film can be described as a trademark Lebogang Rasethaba film?

“I don’t know, I think I would not like to give my films an absolute tag, but if I were I would say something more or less along the lines of altruistic. It is what I hope resonates through in all my work.”

                                   

 
 

Mo-laudi: Afro-beat`s international scene

                                           

                                                                      The South African London - UK

                           
IN the third of a series looking at South African artists making an impact abroad DALUXOLO MOLOANTOA chats to Mo-laudi, a music artist who’s making a name for himself, and his blend of Afro-beat,in Europe and on the international scene.

Any artist worth their salt has graced a London stage at one point in their career, and Mo-laudi Bopape is no exception.An artist whose talents lie far beyond mere heritage curatorship and cultural rigidity, Mo-laudi is on a mission to free African music of the patronising and touristic tones that it has carried since the West showed renewed interest in it in the 1990s.

He is among a new generation of young, black, post-apartheid South African musicians who are making a global imprint through their artistic output, and he has been steadily raising his profile ever since he packed his bags and headed for Europe some 10 years back. So who exactly is the artist simply known as Mo-laudi?

“I am an African musician, on a mission to explore opportunities for African music, and how it could sound like for our generation,” articulates the second born of the arts-loving Bopape family. Mom and dad Bopape are long-time choral music administrators in Limpopo, and younger sister Dineo is a well-known South African visual illustrator.Unsurprisingly, London was his first port of call, and the place where he first cut his teeth on how to climb the ladder towards international musical acclaim.

Acclaim, indeed, has been long-time coming for the music production graduate who started emulating rap heroes RUN DMC, Public Enemy and Tupac Shakur at local talent contests in Seshego, Polokwane, as a youngster. The one regular employment he held down in his early days in London opened the path to his sturdy rise towards musical recognition.In fact, had he not been on duty one particular evening tending tables at a chic Notting Hill hang-out frequented by London`s arts set, he wouldn`t have come across the group of Welsh musicians with whom he would get his first break in treading the tricky terrain towards artistic recognition.

“I was serving them late afternoon drinks one midweek afternoon, and I overheard them talk about forming a new music band. I introduced myself and told them about my intentions,” he explains.

 "A few weeks later I was officially a new member of the newly-formed group W.O.M.B, short for Weapons of Mass Belief. It was a beginning of a remarkable music career, illustrious and still fledgling.”A host of producers came forth to help him and the new posse take their first steps out of the womb. Mo-laudi hit the ground running, contributing to the band`s socially conscious, and spellbinding blend of punk and hip hop, with verse after verse of highly-charged political mantras rapped and sung in English, and his native dialect Sepedi.

The result was Terrorist Youth, a 2005 EP which featured some well-known names behind the boards, amongst them Damian Taylor (Bjork, The Prodigy) and Graeme Stewart (Radiohead). The reviews spared no words in heaping applause on the effort, some singling out the South African band member for particular praise: “Frontman Mo-laudi is a Chuck D reincarnation – spitting lethal socio-political rhymes over the most hypnotic meld of rap and punk since Cypress Hill,” decreed London`s The Daily Telegraph.

“In addition to being exposed to such great talent, we started travelling extensively,” states Mo-laudi. Their trudging included a major tour in 2006 across the UK as part of BBC Radio 1`s “In New Music We Trust” tour, an annual summer showcase of British music`s likely contenders for musical kingship.The band also honoured a much-welcomed invitation to grace the stage at South by South West (SXSW) in Austin, Texas (USA) on the back of their instantly-applauded debut effort.

Along with his MC duties in W.O.M.B, Mo-laudi set forth on a path to align himself closer to his purpose of finding his own voice – and a Thursday night spot as resident DJ at FAVELA, a North London club catering for aficionados of African and Latin American music, was the launch pad. His brew of experimental productions and a mix of nostalgic/contemporary African tunes, toasted with live rap in his mother-tongue, proved to be just what London`s afro music scene was missing.

Towards the end of the same year Puma came knocking with a personal sponsorship deal, and a one-time chance to preside over music proceedings at a celebration party for sponsorship companion Usain Bolt in Berlin, Germany.In 2007, while performing at Seccouse, a popular weekly Afro/French club night, members of London-based Swedish producers Radioclit, loved what they heard from the South African MC. They promptly roped him into The Very Best (TVB), a collaborative project between Radioclit and Malawian vocalist Esau Mwamwaya. This came at an appropriate time for him because of an apparent decline in sonic output from W.O.M.B, leading to the group closing shop.

The following year, when Seccouse wanted to extend its brand to Paris, they asked Mo-laudi to shift location to the City of Lights to handle the project. Since then he has equally divided his time between his obligation to The Very Best, and handling procedures on the DJ decks at Seccouse and various other festivals and shows internationally. The same year was to deliver him the opportunity to showcase his skills as an African MC worthy of serious note, through the much-anticipated release of Warm Heart of Africa, the debut album from TVB.

An extensive tour to promote the album followed, taking in festivals, in-store appearances and TV performances throughout Europe (including at the Glastonbury Festival), the US, Australia and Africa – headlining the annual Lake of Stars Festival in Malawi.Apart from his affiliation to TVB, he has shared the stage with a commendable list of acts as a DJ in live shows – Roy Ayers, Miriam Makeba, Salif Keita, Youssor Ndou, Ismael Lo, Fatboy Slim, The Editors, M.I.A, The Roots, Giles Peterson, DJ Oskido and a number of other South African artists on tour in Europe.

As a parting shot, I tell him of a statement made by Ntone Edjabe, publisher of the Cape Town afrochic magazine Chimurenga.He once said: “If an African musician is booked to perform at a gig, they expect him to come with djembe drums. He is not expected to bring a laptop along."

“It is very important that we, as Africans, preserve our musical roots, but we should also ensure that we open ourselves up to what`s going on in the rest of the world musically and otherwise. How about if an artist brings both djembe drums and a laptop,” he replies.

Undeniably, Mo-laudi is the quintessence of the place where African music finds itself in the new millennium – at the crossroads of cultural endorsement and international appeal.

Mo-laudi is featured in the new The Very Best album MTMTMK and is currently working on his full debut album scheduled for release later in the year.

The African Music Store:Cape Town`s calabash of Afro-Beat

     
                                                                       AfriPOP! Magazine  
 
                              

Standing by the entrance of the African Music Store on Long Street,Cape Town's celebrated bustling row of bars,eateries,bookstores and everything else bohemian under the African sun,i see a web of fascinating contrasts. The store is owned by an unlikely bunch given Cape Town's racially divided history – a trio of white African music lovers. It is also interesting to note that the music store is housed in an old Victorian building which used to be the residence of one of the Cape's 18^th century slave masters.

I  am waiting for Mark,one of the owners of the store who acts as the manager too. As I wait I read a magazine cut-out on the store's window. It is a cut-out of the top-ten list of the ten must-visit vynil record stores from around the world. At number 8 is the African Music Store,and it reads: “For one-oneupmanship on other vynil heads,dodge the car-jackers and make your way to the African Music Store in Cape Town,South Africa. It is your specialty store for the most terrifying strains of “world music”,including quaito. Quaito is a local genre made up of Zulu geezers shouting frantically over housey beats. You'll also find other freakish genres such as Congrotronic,where Congolese traditional tribal instruments are wired for sound by attaching them to lorry batteries..Not for the faint of your iPod.”

It is a cut-out from ARENA magazine,a UK dance music publication.

“Like everyone who stands to read it,we were also dumbfounded at first glance” says Mark. “But we chose to go along with it and expose its absurdity. We hope people who reads it gets the point.”

In the midst of negative perceptions about African music and the continent in general,the African Music Store has stood as an ambassador for African music in the centre of one of the continent's leading urban metropolis. For the last fifteen years the one-stop shop for music from across the continent has injected its immediate surroundings and the city with a platform to celebrate music and culture from all corners of the continent. 

An upbringing in the heartland of Zululand,where his parents owned a travel shop,exposed Mark to the strumming and singing of beautiful Zulu melodies by employees at his parent's business. Together with partners Helen Rose-Innes and Trevor Rosenfield they opened the African Music Store in 1997.Lured in by bouncing township bubblegum beats off Paul Simon's epic Afropop landmark album “Graceland”spilling out onto Long Street's perpetually overzealous sidewalks,a visitor to the store immediately feels the aura of the happily contagious and life-affirming inventiveness often associated with African music. Every wall is covered by racks of cd`s and vynils spanning the widest range of African music you can ever imagine. It is all here: Highlife, Mbalax,Makossa, Township Jazz, Soukous, Mbaqanga, Bikutsi,Benga Beat,Chimurenga.The list is endless. The contemporary section is also packed with nuggets: D`Banj from Nigeria is there,so are exciting band-to-watch-out-for Just A Band out of Nairobi,Kenya. Others occupying the section include my personal favourites The Very Best – a collaboration artists Johan Hugo(Sweden),Essau Mwamwaya(Malawi) and Mo-laudi(South Africa).

“We cover the entire spectrum of African music. We even have representatives in some European countries such as Germany and England who look out and send out the hottest Afro-pop releases from those territories” Mark makes the point.

It is not only about about music however,the store also runs a curio section where crafts and curios from rural community arts and crafts projects are sold. “We source our merchandise from communities all over South Africa and we sell them here. A huge chunk of the profits go back to the projects.”

The stores customers are mainly tourists from abroad. “Our youngest customer to date was a 6 year-old American boy who bought a cd to play for his classmates back home. He said he wanted them to see that he was really in Africa” Mark chuckles.

A consistent top-seller for the store to date is a compilation cd titled The Great South African Trip.

“It is one of the ultimate compendiums of South African music on a double CD. It is a feast of legendary music,filled with delicious tastes of the country's best-known and most talented artists of the last century. The music on the album is as South African as you can get. And of course,the album also includes an excerpt of Nelson Mandela`s famous inauguration speech” Mark says.

A number of prominent local and international artists,actors and other celebrities have come through the store's doors over the years. There are images of Mark,Trevor and Helen with some of the store's assistants and some well-known artists and actors adorning the walls.

“ We've had Youssour Ndou,Hugh Masekela, Mariam Makeba,Angelique Kidjo,Abdullah Ibrahim,Vusi Mahlasela amongst the luminaries of Afro-pop visiting us” he points out.”Internationally we've had musicians such as Josh Groban,Bono and The Edge,Chuck D,and Tinie Tempah come over. In terms of the international actors we`ve had Forrest Witaker,Thandie Newton,Denzel Washington and a few others come through during periods when they were shooting movies in Cape Town.”

Despite the onslaught of globilisation and the free availability of music from numerous others sources globally,it remains to be a remarkable testimony that small independently-run and operated African music stores like the African Music Store continue to maintain their presence and vibrancy.

On my exit,i read a sign high up on the door which reads: “Buying music is not an indulgence in luxury. It is an investment in your well-being.”

That should read: “Buying African music..” instead.

The African Music Store - 134 Long Street, Cape Town

Township Surfers Put Nation`s Rebirth On The Big Screen

                                                                  The Big Issue Magazine - Cape Town

                                                                  

Frenzied whispers of "the new Tsotsi" and "best SA film in years" have accompanied the build-up to the big screen release of Otelo Burning,which opened at cinemas nationwide as this edition hit the streets.After opening last year`s Durban International Film Festival,the isiZulu film about three township teens finding freedom through surfing during the dying days of apartheid went on a winning streak.It scooped the Audience Choice Award at the 2012 CinemaBC Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro,was on the selection list for the 2011 London International Film Festival,took Best Feature Film at this year`s Cape Winelands Film Festival and was nominated for 13 Africa Movie Academy Awards,winning two of the awards last month.Daluxolo Moloantoa spoke to writer/director Sara Blecher about her trailblazing film.

Lamontville has always had a clear claim to fame - its Premier Soccer League team, the Lamontville Golden Arrows.Less well known is the fact that within the sprawling Durban township lies a centre responsible for producing some of South Africa`s best water sportsmen.The Lamontville Swimming Pool has produced the likes of Sihle Xaba(actor,champion body boarder,surfer and lifeguard),UK-based water-polo player Ndumiso Buthelezi and countless top lifeguards and surfers.

Now,with the opening of Otelo Burning on big screens countrywide,the Lamontville Swimming Pool will finally be recognised for its role in transforming the lives of black youngsters in the late 1980`s and early 1990`s.Described by some as "City of God meets Blue Crush", Otelo Burning is essentially a coming of age film about yhree teenagers who discover a world previously closed to them through surfing.It is a world completely at odds with the township existence they are familiar with in the early 1990`s,where their daily is facing growing violence and the life-threatening political stand-off between the United Democratic and the Inkatha Freedom Party`s impis.

Mix the political turbulence of the day,betrayal and jealousy and you have the makings of a uniquely South African hit starring three up-and-coming young actors:Jafta Mamabolo(Jerusalema,Generations) as the protagonist Otelo,Tshepang Mohlomi(iZulu Lami) as Otelo`s younger brother Ntwe and Thomas Gumede(A Place Called Home) as New Year,Otelo`s best friend.The film is not award-winning director Sara Bleche`s maiden voyage into the world of young Zulu boys and the open sea as their backround.She previuosly directed the TV drama series Bay of Plenty,chronicling the lives of a group of Zulu lifeguards on Durban`s beacfront.And she seems to have a thing about surfing,releasing Surfing Soweto in 2011,a documentary following the lives - and deaths - of a group of Soweto "train surfers".

But take a step back.Why of all sports, surfing as the central theme to a coming of age moviewhich ties into a nation`s painful rebirth?

"Ask any surfer,surfing is about as close as you can get to expiriencing true freedom.When one is surfing all the negative things that one has to deal with in one`s daily life simply go out the window.You are right there,in that moment..and the only thing that exists is you and the wave.This is the reason why i used surfing as a metaphor for freedom in the movie.I wanted to depict and explore the current state of our freedom in South Africa today" she explains.

MEANING OF FREEDOM

More than just surfing and seeking freedom,Otelo Burning is about what happens once freedom is attained. "Once people have achieved freedom" Blecher continues "it also means means that they have attained the right to become human again in all forms.To love again,to respect each other again,and to learn to see innate value in one another all over again."Otelo Burrning,however, delves far deeper than the intial joy of discovering freedom. "Being human" she adds, "also means having to deal to deal with the unhelpfullness of greed,corruption,jealousy and other social vices.Ultimately it is these sins which begin to cause the rot and eat away at that freedom.The movie is saying that we need to be vigilant and guard against such a scenario unfolding in our country today."

"We make movies with foreign audiences in mind and it does not work because it compromises the movie`s authenticity.If the story works for a local audience it will work for a foreign audience" - Sara Blecher

At this point it becomes easy to draw a comparison to Lord of The Flies,William Golding`s 1954 novel about a group of young boys stranded on an island after a plane crash,who turn on each other in a quest for survival.But Blecher is quick to refute the comparison."Whereas Lord of The Flies is about universal values of individual welfare versus the common good and the gradual regress of humanity to a primitive state, Otelo Burning examines human nature in the unique context of South Africa`s metamorphosis of in the early 1990`s."

It was a conscious decision taken by Blecher to tell the story against the backdrop of the political uphevals of the early 1990`s,as she feels that this period in the country`s history needs to be relooked at. "Just as we had the TRC hearings on atrocities commited during apartheid,we also need to have a TRC-type commision on the tragic events of that period" she emphasises.

 Blecher`s film also examines a curious aspect of Zulu culture - the nature of the relationship between Zulu people and the sea.Historically resident along Kwa-Zulu Natal`s coastline,Zulu people have always embraced a distant relationship with the sea.They belive that there is danger lurking beneath the sea`s waves, and therefore a gulf exists between the two.It is in this context that "ukundiza emanzini" - flying on water,becomes so attractive to the boys.It represents a shift from tradition.
The director also stuck to her guns about going against the grain and keeping the movie in isiZulu and not casting big-name American actors. " I am a firm believer in the local film industry`s ability to tell real South African stories" she explains. " I belive that if a movie is about South Africa then it has to be real.One of the main motives behind shooting in isisZulu was for the community of Lamontville and other Durban townships to watch the film and say..yes that is us."

"Imagine if the Bond movies were made in French?" she continues, "it wouldn`t be authentic because the story itself is not French.Very often we make movies with a foreign audience in mind,and it does not work because it compromises the movie`s authenticity.If the story works for a local audience it will work for a foreign audience" she says,pointing to the success of Oscar-winning local drama Tsotsi.

Blecher also kept the soundtrack 100% local.Amongst the artists featured on it are rap connoisseurs Tumi and The Volume,soulstress Zaki Ibrahim and hip-hop afficionado Reason.In another SA movie release first, the entire soundtrack is freely available as a download on the official movie site.

All this was achieved on a shoe-string budget.No kudos for guessing it,but the greatest challenge she faced in making the movie was, indeed, funding."Our local industry is terribly under-resourced financially" says Blecher "Due to lack of finance we had to resort to turning the story into a televsion series until we could raise the needed finance to begin shooting it as a movie."

For Blecher,the long struggle to get Otelo Burning to the big screen has been worth it,though,and not only for the accolades the film keeps collecting.

"In the end," she says, "the movie is about SouthAfrica`s growing pains,and the need to guard against complacency.It is also a celebration of the country`s unique attributes.It can go a long way in helping to heal the political,economic and emotional rifts amongst us."