So it's that time again and yes we know we've missed a month but don't worry we'll catch up anytime soon. 

Our last Words of Africa decided to explore the work of British Nigerian writer Helen Oyeyemi by reading one of her most recent books Mr Fox. This book is unusual to say the least. I don't think I've read anything quite like it. Oyeyemi is clearly an original mind and interweaves worlds that we would not believe could co-exist, from mythology to 1930's New York, Oyeyemi allows herself no boundaries. The book often felt like a collection of short stories, intertwined by the obvious connections within each story and yet each story sits on it's own laurels, not needing the assistance of a continuous thread to survive. Oyeyemi manages to balance the light and dark well, marrying the morbid with the beautiful. She does this quite effortlessly and I can't help but admire the genius in the craziness of her work. I don't get the sense it's her best work but that shouldn't put you off, Mr Fox is a compelling read and supports one fact that Oyeyemi's talent is no accident. There's a definite sense of craft in the creativity of these stories and even more than that is the fearlessness she exhibits having poured life into them. 

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

This month's book is considered something of an African classic, The beautyful ones are not yet born. It's a title and a half and supposedly the book is also an immense read. It is a book that has appear on numerous must read lists so I guess it's time we read it. 

Whilst we continued on our journey of We Need new Names, Bulawayo continues to garnish great acclaim for her work, having this week just won the Etislata Prize for Literature. Here is  what we thought about this small lady (she really is petite) with a big book.

Mr Fox - Helen Oyeyemi

So from Zim we move to Naij. The book we will be taking on this month is Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi. Again the only glimpse I have had into the depth of her work is through having read her BBC short story ‘My daughter the racist’. Her books White is for Witching and Icarus Girl have garnished much praise, so I wanted to read one of her books that had made less of a splash. So that’s it for now. We’ll see you next month for more Words of Africa.

As we continue to put Burkina Faso under the microscope, this month’s Taste of Africa is unsurprisingly a Burkinabe cuisine. I have chosen to profile a dish that reflects the simplicity of African cuisine -"Riz Gras," which literally translated means "fat rice."

Riz Gras is the national dish of Burkina Faso and the name is not a reference to the type of rice used but reflects on how much oil is in the dish, which is usually a lot. Don’t worry though you can ease the amount of fat you consume by using a low fat meat to cook with.

It is a simple dish - essentially rice cooked with onions, tomatoes and a meat of your choice. The dish is eaten widely in Burkina Faso and is the usual food of choice for occasions such as Christmas or Easter. As a big rice fan this dish looks and smells delicious and is an ideal accessory for another main meal.

The recipe is as follows;  

• 2 habanero peppers
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped 
  
• 4 Tomatoes, chopped 
• 1/2 cup oil  
• 1 lb beef or 1 lb chicken, cubed
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste 
• 4 1/4 cups water 
• 1 maggi seasoning, cube (or chicken bouillon) 
• 2 1/2 cups long grain white rice 
• Salt and pepper 
  

Until next time!

Ben

@Kwesitheauthor | @creativafr

Today will be a cataclysm of love. For women all over the world it marks a day of great movement and I don't mean in the shape of a ring, or a heart full of chocolates or an expensive dinner at the Ivy (even if their sous chef is amazing) but rather in the way of V-day. V-day is a global activist movement that aims to end violence against women and girls. It started 16years ago and has resulted in the creation of the campaign One Billion Rising. Why one billion rising? Because statistics show that 1 in 3 women has been beaten or raped in their lifetime, which comes up to over a billion women worldwide who have been abused. To put this in perspective this would be the
population of Africa or the UK 16times over or Nigeria 6 times over. Lets make it even more palpable, if there is a group of 6 girlfriends, 2 of them statistically will have been beaten or raped in their lifetime. In other words, if you have a church or mosque with a congregation of 3000 split evenly between males and females (1500 each), 500 of these females (women and girls), which you would encounter, would have suffered some kind of violence from men. This is what 1 billion looks like.

The One Billion Rising campaign came about on the 14th February 2013 on the 15th anniversary of V-day movement. The aim was simple to get women and men all over the world of every creed, colour, culture, religion, to walk out, rise up, dance and demand no more violence against women and girls. The non-discriminatory nature of the movement means that it encourages men too to get involved because violence against women is not a gender issue but a 'human issue' and one that all humans should stand up and fight against. Fathers of daughters, husbands to wives, brothers to sisters, sons with mothers and anyone who loves a woman wants a world in which women are protected, free without oppression and for whom the justice system also fights for, for women are also leaders of our free world.

This may seem like a feminist movement but as the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche said ‘All men should be feminist’. This shouldn’t frighten our fathers, brothers, sons or friends because feminism is about equality and not domination. It is not about disempowering men, it is about empowering women. This isn’t saying that women should rule the world (at least not by themselves). It’s about encouraging the women in our lives to be their best selves. For if behind every great man there is a great woman, wouldn’t you want the woman or women behind you as a man to be their best possible selves? Any society where women are treated as second-class citizens should not be deemed as acceptable. 

We are raising sons in a world where women are violated and considered as merely objects of affection. Thus they are used as tools to cater to the sexual desires of men. When it comes to sex there is often a lack of respect for mutual consent before getting involved in the act, and this is why we find situations in which rape is used as weapon of oppression against women, so much so that it is now an officially recognised weapon of war. Women are not facing battle from male oppressors only in the Congo or Iraq but in the streets and in their homes. War is not something we enter into with those that we love and therefore such a weapon should hold no place in society, yet it does. We must consider that sons will be fathers, husbands and leaders tomorrow and therefore we must ensure that we encourage the right worldview, that their mothers, wives and daughters should be treated with respect and should be given the equal opportunity to be successful human beings without fear of abuse.

Women and girls are continuously at the losing end of gender violence. Violence need not be limited to just beating and rape. The oxford dictionary defines violence as ‘a strength of emotion or of a destructive natural force’ and as a result there are many women who suffer at the hands of political, economic and educational violence. This again leaves the woman in a position that is destitute and unjust.
 
The question that arises when we look at violence is why would any individual want to demean, erode and disenfranchise one half of society? The answer is simple, fear. Fearful men rape and beat women; powerful men love, support and elevate women. If we consider those men at the forefront of history Mandela, Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr, it is their non-violence as well sacrifice that is held up as an example (not to mention they all seem to be very much for the feminist agenda for equality).

So today on V-day, the day we celebrate the victory we will one day have over violence against women, One Billion Rising encourages female survivors and their supporters to break their silence and rise in whatever best represents the release of their story through ‘dance, art, marches, ritual, song, spoken word,testimonies, and other ways that best express your outrage, your need, yourdesire, and your joy.’ Thus I ask that today that on 14th February (whilst you maybe consumed by the love of your wife, husband, wife to be husband to be, son, daughter, friend, whoever), I encourage you to be one of the billion that rise. And whether you are organising a rise party in your work or your home, church, mosque or synagogue it doesn’t matter, the important thing is that we rise together for betterment of our society. For we are all human and we are all one. 
 
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one.


Femi


 Photo source: Vday.org

So this dude is literally my favourite director right now and that was after only one film - Twaaga. If you know me well and have seen me anytime since mid to late October when I had the pleasure of seeing Twaaga screened at the London Film Festival (courtesy of another great film impresario) you would have heard nothing but praise for this film and its director – Cedric Ido.  

The film is set in 1980’s Burkina Faso as the revolution against Sankara is about to begin. It follows eight years old Manu - a lover of comics – and his brother’s tag along. Manu’s comic world and real world soon collide as he begins to realise there are real powers to rival those of his comic-book superheroes.

Born in France, of Burkina Faso descent, Ido is definitely a filmmaker to watch. His work is exciting, interesting, playful, charismatic and just great filmmaking with even better storytelling.  His film ‘Twaaga’ will be showing at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles from 6th – 17th February so I strongly suggest you buy yourself a ticket – this is a half an hour worth paying for.

His first short Hasaki Ya Suda was also well acclaimed. I haven’t seen it as of yet but trust me I’m trying to.

Our first country under the Microscope will look at The Land of the Upright People - Burkina Faso. 

Burkina Faso Basics
Capital: Ouagadogo
Population: 16.4 million 
Official Language: French
Major religions: Indigenous beliefs, Islam, Christianity
Date of independence: 5th August 1960

Formerly a French colony known as the Republic of the Upper Volta, Burkina Faso declared full independence from France on 5th August 1960. It was in 1984 that Thomas Sankara - President of the Upper Volta, renamed it Burkina Faso – The Land of the Upright People, a name derived from two of the major native languages – Mòoré and Dioula. It is with Thomas Sankara, a Marxist, supporter of pan-Africanism and military leader that this section begins. His story is one of great hope and tragedy for his beloved Burkina Faso. In telling the story of the revolutionary that was Sankara, I have found this documentary: Thomas Sankara – The upright man.

The documentary provides an insightful look at the complexity of Sankara’s position and the politics of Burkina Faso in the 1980’s. Sankara remains an inspiration African figure, and one who truly believe in an independent and self-sufficient Africa. The question as to whether Sankara’s vision for Burkina Faso was idealistic rather than realistic is to be debated but the vision he had for his country is one to be admired.

Femi

We all know that the internet is a vast and powerful tool. It has more information than we can begin to comprehend. The greatest thing about the internet is its nondiscriminatory nature– it cares not how you have collected you’re your information, from whom you’ve collected your information and why you have collected it – it aims to be only one thing; the holder of where the information is stored. Having spent hours trawling through this magnanimous tool what has become apparent is that there is a lot of information about the African continent.  art, film, literature on Africa that many individuals aren’t aware of. This brings me to our newest section the Microscope.  Microscope will be a means by which we focus on each African country, starting with West Africa, providing you pockets of information in a variety of forms. We will post videos, music, art, politics, history and all we can find connected to the country in question. Our aim is to educate, enlighten and share information and to give each country its own spotlight. We will not provide a comprehensive library of all arts pertaining to the country under the microscope but an overview of what we  think is important or interesting when it comes to their arts, politics or history. The aim is to showcase rather than condemn, to foster discussion rather than to impose an opinion. This doesn’t mean that we won’t share our opinions but the opinion is that of the individual rather than that of CREATIV. 

We'd like this to be as interactive and creative as possible so we welcome any comments and any information you may have on our country under the microscope - we can't promise we'll get it all up here but we'll definitely try. Otherwise we hope that you just enjoy learning more about the continent.

Photo source: African and African-Caribbean Design Diaspora 2011 

Happy New Year all.
 
CREATIV returns in 2014 with the Word of Africa book club. This month we will be reading ‘We Need New Names’ by Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo. Bulawayo is a former winner of the prestigious Caine prize in 2011 and was the nominated  for the Man Booker prize in 2013, being the first African woman to have ever been nominated. I know very little about the book and I am not super familiar with Bulawayo’s work but she seems to be a definite one to watch. For a taste of Bulawayo’s writing you can read her Caine Prize winning story 'Hitting Budapest' in the Boston review here . However, feel free to jump in cold – I sure am. Anyway till next month enjoy Bulawayo’s words. 

Femi x

Happy Easter! I hope you all had a an enjoyable break. Once again Taste of Africa is back but sadly for the last time ever !......................... April fools! Sorry I couldn't resist.

There are no plans as of yet for me to stop wetting you're appetite for the colourful cuisine from mama Africa. So without further ado this months dish is the national dish of a vibrant west african country, Cameroon.

Ndole consists of a stew of nuts, ndoleh (bitter leaves indigenous to West Africa), and fish or ground beef.

This dish originated in the coastal region of Douala (capital city of Camerron) but is a celebrated delicacy for people all over the country. The scientific name of the vegetable used to prepare Ndole isVernonia amygdalina – however it is more commonly known as “bitterleaf”, Ewuro or Etidot depending on the region of Cameroon you happen to be in. The plant is named because of its natural bitter taste; it requires a complex but fascinating washing process to reduce its aridity. However, once cooked with tasty spices, dried fish, beef, and ground peanuts, this vegetable delicacy becomes a savory, mouth-watering meal, especially when served with rice, boiled, or fried plantains.

The ingredients are as follows;

½ pound cooked shrimp/dried fish/meat (optional)

2 cups of dried bitterleaf

2 cups spinach/collards/kale/turnip greens

1 large onion

1 cup blanched peanuts (groundnut)

2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger

2 cloves of crushed garlic

6 chopped tomatoes

2 to 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Salt and pepper for seasoning

2 cups of water

For preparing Ndole, the bitter leaves are soaked and boiled. Shrimp and choice of meat are cooked until tender. Then, the boiled peanuts are skinned and blended with water to form a paste, which in turn is poured in a pot and cooked with onion, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper.

It can be served with the side dish of your choice (rice, plantain etc).


Until next time ( I mean it! )

Ben

@creativafr | @kwesitheauthor