On The Gambia’s Longing for Change: The World Must Stand with Freedom by Any Means Necessary (OkayAfrica)

I'm half-Gambian and spent many an idyllic childhood summer living on the Smiling Coast, which is now in the midst of an electoral crisis. Read my op-ed for Okayafrica on what's at stake for The Gambia, and why the international community must intervene. 

In July 1961, my grandmother, Rachel Palmer, travelled to Marlborough House in London to attend a Constitutional Conference on The Gambia. She was the only woman to participate in the talks, which led to the signing of The Gambia Independence Agreement.

The delegation, comprised of political parties, unions, and civil society, represented the era’s jubilant spirit of cooperation. For the smallest country in mainland Africa, independence marked a new beginning. In the eyes of my then 27-year-old grandmother, it meant hope.

For three decades, under President Sir Dawda Jawara, The Gambia’s future seemed bright. Despite limited natural resources in comparison to the other oil and mineral-rich nations of West Africa, The Gambia’s economy ranked third in GDP per capita in 1994. A leading tourist destination on the continent, The Gambia earned the nickname “the Smiling Coast”—a testament to its culture of hospitality. Despite the predominance of the ruling party, The Gambia was one of the few early African states to permit a multiparty system.

In 1994, the country that was once a sliver of tranquility in a troubled region changed as Yahya Jammeh, then a junior military officer, seized power in a bloodless coup. In the years since, the president has won four elections as his opponents have been intimidated or tortured.

In 2016, The Gambia was one of the largest per capita sources of migrants making the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean. Those who risk death fleeing across desert and sea not only run from authoritarianism and poverty, but also to escape despair as Jammeh’s incendiary rhetoric reaches new heights.

Last year, he threatened to “slit the throats” of gay men. Earlier this year, he called Mandika, the nation’s largest ethnic group “vermin” and proclaimed, “I will kill you like ants and nothing will come out of it.”

My mother was raised in the Jawara years when the small size of the country bred camaraderie rather than fear. Neighbors were friends rather than suspected spies. Government positions were career boosts rather than possible death sentences. Under Jammeh’s rule, The Gambia of my grandmother’s youth and my mother’s childhood, has been erased through a culture of repression.

Despite the risks of facing off against a despot, the nation’s opposition united under Adama Barrow, who won the Dec. 1 presidential election. While there was initial uncertainty that Jammeh, who once promised he would rule for “a billion years” would respect the results, he appeared on national television to concede. The hope for peaceful transition was short-lived, however, as Jammeh reversed course and demanded a new vote.

Criticism for this shift is widespread at the domestic and international level. Groups including the Gambian Bar Association, The Gambia Teachers Union, and The Gambia Chamber of Commerce have issued calls for Jammeh to step down. The African Union, Senegal, United States, European Union, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also quickly condemned the move. A delegation of African leaders including Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and Ghana’s own recently ousted President John Mahama recently flew to The Gambia to mediate the dispute.

Yet even in the face of this isolation, Jammeh refuses to step down, no doubt emboldened by his continued control over the country’s security forces. On Dec. 14, the military took over the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Following death threats, Alieu Momar Njai, the 82-year-old IEC chief, has now fled the country.

In the face of these developments, ECOWAS has agreed to uphold the Dec. 1 presidential results, guarantee the safety and protection of President-elect Barrow, and “take all necessary action to enforce the results.”

Although ECOWAS support will be critical to ensuring the smooth and rightful transition of power, West African leaders must be explicit in showing a credible military threat. If Jammeh refuses to step down, he must be forcibly removed like Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo and Liberia’s Charles Taylor.

Ignored due to Gambia’s lack of strategic value, the Gambian people have suffered in silence for decades. My grandmother died in 2000 after witnessing The Gambia that she knew wither into a shell of its former self. Must another generation pass before there is change?

As the world watches Gambians’ courageous efforts to peacefully oust a brutal autocrat, the international community has a responsibility to act to aid their cause through sanctions and military action. To allow murders and disappearances to persist unchecked for over twenty years is an indictment on regional and international bodies.

Now, as Gambians raise their voice, the international community has an obligation to hear it and protect it—by any means necessary.

Afropreneurs: Meet the Home Décor Company Fusing Brooklyn Cool with Afro-Chic (OkayAfrica)

Next up in Okayafrica's Afropreneur series -- home decor company xNasozi. I first came across the brand several years ago via Pinterest (the black hole where I spend far too much time dreaming up recipes and interiors) and fell in love. 

You can check out the profile via this link or read below. 

(Hint hint to those searching my Christmas present -- this apron is on my wish list!)

While other children grew up playing video games, Ugandan-American interior stylist Nasozi Kakembo designed blueprints. After a stint in the human rights and social justice world, Kakembo harkened back to that childhood creativity to launch her home décor company, xNasozi.

Originally launched under the name “Origins Style by Nasozi,” Kakembo’s venture in home décor has come a long way. “It all started with six really badly photographed pillows,” she laughs. Poor images or not, a gradual uptick in interest on Etsy helped the Brooklyn-based designer realize she was on to something. As orders trickled in, Kakembo began to wonder what would happen if she worked full-time on the company. The answer came soon enough when the challenges of juggling her young son’s elementary school schedule with a full-time position increased. In April 2013, Kakembo decided to devote all of her energy to growing the brand, re-named the company xNasozi, and shifted from Etsy to an independent e-commerce store.

Now 4 years old, xNasozi bridges Brooklyn cool with Afro-chic. With a wide variety of minimalist prints and unique textiles sourced from artisan networks across Africa, Kakembo also stands out from the recent wave of African-inspired design with her innovative approaches to mud cloth and indigo. Her e-commerce store is a design addict’s paradise full of everything from a wax print yoga bag to mud cloth Christmas stockings. An indigo butterfly chair, a bestseller among Kakembo’s wholesale clients, is a particular standout.

Based in New York City, Kakembo sources textiles from the wide network of West African businesses in Harlem and Brooklyn. Some of the fair-trade woven products, such as baskets and sisal bags, are imported from Uganda with the help of her supportive family. Kakembo has recently started to design mud-cloth-based textiles with her own original hand-painted work. In addition to a mud-cloth version of her signature butterfly chair, xNasozi also sells an industrial, modern mud-cloth-upholstered bench.

The more unusual takes on modern African design, like the bohemian denim and wax print aprons she sells as part of her kitchen collection, are inspired by Kakembo’s neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. “There’s a very playful juxtaposition in the environment of Bed-Stuy,” she says. “There’s nothing that fits into a box; everything is whimsical and people express themselves fully through their style and interests.”

A quick glance at the xNasozi Instagram shows that the poor photos of the past have been replaced with sleek images of modern, colorful interiors. Kakembo credits these ideas to learning on the job. “xNasozi is more-or-less a one-woman show, so as my brand grew, I had to explore other skills in order to grow my sales,” she says.

Brands and blogs from Travel and Leisure to West Elm’s blog, Front + Main, have taken note of Kakembo’s new-found expertise. In addition to the xNasozi home décor products, she also writes and photographs for a variety of clients including crowd-favorite Apartment Therapy. “In the independent e-commerce world, there’s a lot of competition, so you have to have strong visuals with high-quality photographs of your products as well as lifestyle photos. I taught myself photography by picking the brains of my photographer friends.”

In addition to her hats of designer, writer and photographer, Kakembo has recently added philanthropist. Drawing from her experiences in humanitarian assistance, Kakembo supports Suubi Nursery and Primary School in her father’s native Uganda by donating a portion of Nasozi sales. As a small business, xNasozi’s contributions are small, but Kakembo hopes to scale the impact over the next few years. With a growing network of retailers in over 10 states, xNasozi might just meet its goal and live up to the meaning of Kakembo’s own name—“something to look up in praise of.”

Fields Magazine: The Design Issue + Upcoming "Migrant Talks"

Last year, while living in Accra, I met the dynamic Saran Koly, editor-in-chief of Fields Magazine, a bilingual (French/English) contemporary African publication focused on alternative reflections on international affairs, human rights, arts and social justice. In Saran, I immediately found a kindred spirit. Through Fields, she hopes to build a community of "global daydreamers" stretching across Africa and the diaspora.

I'm honored to be a part of the team of writers contributing to Fields' "Design Issue" which takes readers from Brazil to Colombia via Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, and the U.S. " to explore the stories of makers who decided to live their life by design and not by default."

You can buy your copy here, and look out for my pieces on Ghanaian architect Joe Osae-Addo, experience curator Tameshia Rudd-Ridge, and entrepreneur Yvette Ansah of Accra's Cafe Kwae.

P.S. Watch this space in the next few weeks for a link to an episode of Fields' "Migrant Talks" series with Nargisse Benbakkou of My Moroccan Food (which I proudly co-produced). 

Afropreneurs: This New At-Home Salon Service Amplifies the Gift of Having Black Hair (OkayAfrica)

Ladies, if you live in New York, listen up. New service Yeluchi by Un-ruly is poised to help you re-imagine the salon experience — by bringing it to your home. Read more in my latest for Okayafrica's Afropreneur series below. View the originally published piece here. 

Antonia Opiah just wanted to get her hair done. As she prepared to go on vacation, the serial entrepreneur struggled to find time to have her hair braided between the demands of work. “I wished that someone could come to my house and do my hair, she lamented, “so that I could feel justified spending time on my hair by being simultaneously productive.”

In New York City, there are a handful of apps from Glam Squad to Priv that allow stylists to come to you, but they primarily cater to white women. In researching better at-home hair options, Opiah asked her sister Abigail to try out a few existing options. The results were disappointing. When Abigail booked an appointment with one of the services, the stylist arrived not knowing where to begin. After poking around her hair, he took a picture for his records.

“Abigail’s experience confirmed for us that these services aren’t catering to black women, so we decided that there was space in the market.” Opiah says. In March 2016, the sisters jointly launched Yeluchi by Un-ruly, which focuses on bringing the salon experience to the homes of black women.

The service is an extension of Un-ruly, a website that celebrates the beauty and versatility of black hair. Opiah founded Un-ruly in 2013 as a kind of online beauty shop—a space where women could come together to discover hair and their day-to-day lives. “Like many black women, I change my hair pretty frequently,” Opiah says. “When I started Un-ruly, I wanted a nicely designed website where I could find inspiration for my next hairstyle.”

Un-ruly breaks down the ins and outs of every hairstyle under the sun—from natural hair to wigs and extensions. Opiah and her team of contributors live and breathe hair. They capture street style inspiration and write about healthy hair care regimens; they reflect on society’s beauty standards. Yeluchi builds on the impressive knowledge base that Opiah has built through Un-ruly to help its clients pursue a happy hair journey.

The name of the service, Yeluchi, is a play on Opiah’s own Igbo name, Chinyelu, meaning “God’s gift.” To Opiah, choosing a name with such a powerful meaning was not only a way to leave her mark on the business, but also to challenge perceptions of black hair as difficult.

As the sisters have rolled out the service, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing—there are several unexpected surprises. Despite the limited menu of hairstyles, for example, clients routinely ask for variations on simple styles like ends curled or edges laid a certain way. To Opiah, this is not so much a challenge as it is an affirmation of the versatility of black hair. “You can’t put it in a box no matter how hard you try.”

Now operating across New York’s five boroughs, Yeluchi boasts a network of top quality stylists who cater to a menu of protective styles like braids and weaves. Prices range from $50 for a simple cornrow style to $300 for the waist-length box braids of #carefreeblackgirl fame. With bookings taking place primarily online and a small network of stylists, Yeluchi aims to grow slowly to achieve quality service before expanding its reach in New York and to other cities. While an app is planned down the line, Opiah is in no rush.

“The service comes first, and we want to understand our customer because we’re seeing that there are so many nuances that go into styling black hair,” she says. “We’re prioritizing the service before creating the app because the app is just a vehicle for the services people are purchasing.”

As consumers become more accustomed to an “Uberized” environment, Yeluchi stands apart from the rest of the gig economy as more than just a service. With the support of the Un-ruly platform, Opiah has created a product that is not only revolutionizing the notoriously time-intensive nature of protective styling, but also educating consumers on their hair’s endless possibilities.

Afropreneurs: The College Student Running a Luxury Jewelry Brand From His Dormroom (OkayAfrica)

When I think of people I'd like to have over for dinner, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ranks at the top of the list. The Nigerian author is one of this generation's most celebrated fiction writers, but I've enjoyed watching her dive more into the world of cultural commentary. In a recent interview with the New York Times on femininity, she said:

"There’s a part of me that likes shoes, and likes dresses, and likes makeup, and likes books, and likes to write. I think that’s the case for many women. But our culture makes us think we have to choose slices of ourselves that we’re comfortable showing the world."

As a social scientist who enjoys fashion and design , I'm glad that Chimamanda is leading the charge to create more space for feminine women to be taken seriously in business and society. With that set-up, I'll say that I thoroughly enjoyed writing this piece on jewelry brand KHIRY for Okayafrica. Not only am I an avid collector of statement jewelry and an amateur designer myself, but I also am in awe of Jameel Mohammed's efforts to re-define the meaning of luxury at just 21-years-old. Read more below or hop on over to the Okayafrica website for more. 

While most college students pull all-nighters on term papers, Jameel Mohammedalso manages to spend his evenings looking at jewlery prototypes. Mohammed, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Pennsylvania, founded luxury brand KHIRY (pronounced “cai-ree”) in 2014 after interning at Barneys New York. Just two years later, KHIRY products are now sold by luxury online fashion retailer Moda Operandi and will launch an e-commerce store within the next year.

KHIRY celebrates the depth and beauty of the traditions of Africa and its diaspora through high-quality goods. Its inaugural jewlery collection is crafted from 18-karat gold, silver, rose quartz, with the occasional leather touch.

Building the KHIRY brand hasn’t come easy. Mohammed funded production of the first collection by raising over $25,000 on Kickstarter, and manages the growing brand with a motley crew of fellow Penn undergrads passionate about fashion and design.

Despite the challenges of juggling schoolwork and running a business, Mohammed is driven by his goal of developing an alternative vision of luxury in an industry dominated by European brands. “Luxury isn’t just in a vacuum—it’s steeped in the history of the nation and community. France and Italy, for example, are often viewed as having luxury as a part of their national heritage. That’s informed by the history of those nations and the power they were able to accumulate during the height of colonialism and empire,” Mohammed says.

KHIRY’s first production, its Spring/Summer ’16 collection, draws from some of Africa’s most notable icons: Malick Sidibé’s striking portraits of Malian youth, Djibril Mambety’s seminal film Touki Bouki, and the Dinka, Sudan’s legendary cattle herders.

As a political science major at Penn, Mohammed has benefitted from a diverse student body and course offerings that have nurtured his interest in the many cultures of the African diaspora. Aimé Césaire, celebrated Martiniquais author and founder of the Négritude movement, is a significant influence on the KHIRY ethos.

Mohammed grew up in a low-income, predominantly black community in Chicago, but attended Phillips Exeter Academy, one of the United States’ most prestigious boarding schools. His experiences living at different extremes of American society has fueled a desire to use fashion as a tool to start a dialogue between communities that aren’t always in conversation with each other.

“What really struck me about Césaire is his focus on finding, researching, and developing ideas about his own culture as a means of accessing his own truth and that of his people,” Mohammed says. “That has made me think about what role culture and image play in our society, especially because both are such fraught topics in our public discourse today. Césaire’s work really has inspired our latest project—a journal of art and culture called Négritude, which will have a bunch of interviews on black creatives and essays on things that inspire me and KHIRY.”

As Mohammed grows KHIRY’s imprint, he hopes to expand in the future to new products like shoes, bags, and clothes. Like its bold and expressive designs, the brand is taking a stand by openly embracing its roots in black aesthetics. At a moment when black culture and black lives feel under attack, KHIRY is celebrating the most compelling, moving parts of the history of Africa’s diaspora.

African Art Fairs Like 1:54 Are Transcending Boundaries (OkayAfrica)

Originally published on the Okayafrica website.

The new international scramble for Africa via the rise of contemporary African art and its global appeal begs the question: what exactly is African art?

Given the effects of globalization, the line between local and international has become increasingly arbitrary. British-Nigerian Turner Prize-winning painter Chris Ofili, for example, grew up in Manchester and now lives in Trinidad; Gabonese artist Owanto has spent the majority of her career living and working in Europe. While both artists are certainly African, their work, which incorporates a variety of media, often does not directly address the continent. It often seems that the artist’s identity is enough to be categorized as African art, rather than the substance of a piece.

When the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York first acquired the art of El Anatsui, the celebrated Ghanaian artist, curators first placed his work in the African gallery. Only later did they add his pieces in the Modern and Contemporary Galleries. For Anatsui, it “raise[d] so many questions as to what precisely [he is]…African artist or an artist? An artist in India is the same as an artist in Africa, Ghana, Japan or America.”

With sales directed at a public largely unacquainted with Africa’s vast diversity, some curators are adding nuance to the idea of “African art” by casting the new wave of talent as a coterie of artists of African descent exploring universal themes through locally-rooted perspectives. Indeed, the use of ‘1:54’ itself in the name 1:54 Contemporary Art Fair is an attempt to draw attention to the 54 countries and hundreds of cultures that make up the African continent.An expanding network of galleries across the continent helps contribute to that diversification. Over 14 Africa-based galleries from the continent’s five regions exhibited at 1:54’s London 2016 edition—a number that stands to grow in the near future.

For all the shortcomings of the term “African art,” it does serve a purpose in driving sales. In light of limited domestic markets and the fact that 80 percent of African art primarily sells in the United States and Europe, grouping together African artists is key to elevating their international profile. In this light, it is somewhat fitting that this year’s 1:54 London featured a discussion on locating “African design” and its constituents. The art of the continent’s leading talents sells at a relative discount compared to their peers from regions like East Asia. At 1:54, for example, pieces generally range from $1,500 to $100,000 (with a few notable exceptions from venerable stars like Sudan’s El-Salahi). Increasingly, the visibility of these artists on an international stage as “African” can help their investment appeal among collectors.

The wide umbrella of “African”—which often includes the diasporic perspectives of the Afro-Latin, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-American perspectives—also allows for an opportunity to explore commonalities of the black experience on a global platform. Increasingly, African-American artists like Kehinde Wiley and museums like Brooklyn’s MoCADA Museum have been catalysts for transatlantic conversations on black aesthetics. 1:54’s inclusion of an installation by British-Trinidadian artist Zak Ové and photographers by African-American photographer Gordon Parks speak to the inclusivity of the current African art market, and a willingness to expand its vocabulary beyond references to tradition and neo-colonialism.

Although some may criticize the explosion of Africa-centric art events, they may be seen as a statement of possibility rather than a reflection of constraints. With a rapidly expanding creative class across the continent, Africa is increasingly becoming a locus of discursive gaze and thought. Artists like Ghana’s Serge Attukwei Clottey are pushing the limits of the gender binary, while Algeria’s Zoulikha Bouabdellah probes religious lines. In showcasing an array of African artists working across styles and mediums, fairs like 1:54 challenge society to pursue a more wide-ranging definition of “Africa” that embraces and frees the continent from its historical baggage by claiming all these artistic representations without being beholden to just one.