Middle Class Africa - A Driving Force

Secondary market research publisher yStats.com has released findings in its “Africa B2C E-Commerce Report – 2013” indicating that the growing Internet penetration, the spread of mobile technology and improvement of payment and delivery infrastructure are factors that can boost E-Commerce on the continent.

yStats.com CEO Yücel Yelken states “E-Commerce has a high potential in Africa as the growing middle class seeks more convenient shopping and better price quality, driving local and international Internet merchants to operate in the region.”

Several strong local players have already emerged, such as South Africa’s online fashion retailer Zando, and Nigeria’s online mass merchants Jumia and Konga. B2C E-Commerce sales were less than EUR 1 billion in 2012, but annual growth of around 40% is forecasted in the next ten years. The main obstacles to overcome on the way to B2C E-Commerce boom are poor logistics in rural areas, low banking penetration and limited consumer awareness.

M-Commerce and mobile payment especially have a high potential on the continent, where mobile phones are more widespread than computers, a significant proportion of the population has no banking relationship and the most common type of Internet access is through a mobile device. Moreover, over 10% of active Internet users in Africa shopped on mobile in 2013. In mobile shopper penetration, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco are ahead of South Africa. Read more at Fiber2Fashion

GROWN TOO QUICK by Kalumbu Kapisa

 

 

After the 2010 world cup in South Africa I took a long overdue holiday to my hometown in Blantyre, Malawi. Everything is so surreal I left the place as a 13 year old in 1993 with my parents to reside in South Africa. Decided to visit a few remaining childhood friends whom some are married with children, others young professionals and others have migrated to South Africa and the UK studying and persuading careers. The youth of Malawi paints a picture of doom and gloom in their narratives. The youth have lost hope. They have no place to contribute to the development of Malawi. The Kwacha (Malawian currency) has plunged down to K30 to the Rand. Prices for basic food have are sky high. Living is hard in Malawi and all fingers point to the late Bingu WA Mutharika for his failed economic ideologies of Malawi. The narrative of Bingu WA Mutharika is different depends on who you ask. This is the man who had good economic policies on paper but failed to implement them. A young Africa with old problems. On my last week of visit before I heard back to South Africa I honored a call by my mother to visit her old friend to check on wellbeing. I arrived at the biggest hospital in Malawi the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Blantyre where I was actually born to meet Mrs. Kaoza. She works in a special ward where she administers ARV to children. She is telling me stories of young children as young as 12 who are orphans and bread winners who are working odd jobs to support their siblings as young as 4. Girls as young as 13 are resulting in prostitution to support their families. With the increase of multiple partners with married men, HIV and AIDS is rife in Malawi claiming life of parents leaving children vulnerable.
Upon learning I work in the media Mrs. Kaoza advised I speak to a special boy from Kanjedza, an orphan who is looking after his siblings.
I met Francis Mkhoma a strong willed God fearing young man who started to relate his story of how he became an orphan at age 12 and became a breadwinner to his 3 siblings. His responsibilities including putting them through school, food, clothing and shelter. I was moved by his humbleness through the hardships he encounters on daily basics. Not easy to relate to his challenges as at his age I was more worried about being the next soccer star while playing in the dusty streets of Kanjedza. In spite of his challenges Francis remains positive and hopeful about life and he is committed to being the leader inspiring his siblings. His motto in life is that one should rather channel energies into positive thoughts than worry about issues of the world.
I called my friend Mike Kambalame a filmmaker in Malawi to get me gear as we have a story to tell the world.
Next day I travelled with Francis to Zomba secondary school to visit his two siblings who are in boarding school. They relate to Francis as a father figure of their hardships at schools including being chased away for school fees arrears. Francis promises he will make a plan and come through for them. This is a young man with no money but hope.
We head out back to Blantyre to see the last born who is still in primary school. He appeals to Francis for a brand new pair of shoes and school uniform. The young boy is on ARV and he often takes his medication without food. Francis breaks down, as he has nothing to offer to his young brother but hope of a better future.
My last day in Malawi before I leave for Johannesburg I met up Francis and helped him with a few Kwachas. With the high inflation rate in Malawi I am aware that the money will probably last him a week and he is back to square one. I promise him that I will stay in touch and help wherever I can.
Late 2010 we start postproduction work on the film with my editor Nyikiwe from Mirror Effect media and we complete by early 2011. SABC 2 and Aljazeera license the film and schedule for broadcast in 2012. Aljazeera invites the film to participate at the prestigious Aljazeera documentary film festival in DOHA in 2012.
I travelled to New York in April of 2012 to showcase the film to overwhelming responses of people willing to help Francis and his siblings. We start receiving food parcels and clothing to donate to Francis to help his family.
Upon my return to Malawi in December 2012 to share the news I meet the selfless Francis who insists that we help other child headed family members in Malawi whom are in worse situations than him. I am moved by his selfless altitude to life and always putting other people first and we decide to form an NGO called The Grown Too Quick Foundation with the aim of uplifting the lives of other child headed family members in Malawi.
We team up with other like-minded young Malawians to help the plight of child headed family members in Malawi. In 2013 The Grown too Quick Foundation gave bursaries to 10 child headed school children at the beginning of their academic year.
People will help other people to build better communities. It is not the government that will help people to build better communities. Being part of the Grown TOO quick Foundation gives me hope that with the little bit we have we can make a difference to peoples lives and gives them hope for a better future of Malawi.

 

WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY HERE. 

 

Author: Guest Blogger & Filmmaker Kalumbu Kapisa

FREEOTWN CHRONICLES IV: BARBIEs AND WHAT IFs

Friday was ushered in with fake eye lashes, human hair which continues to irritate me and a fantastic dress by Maryzo Designs that had me emanating the “come hither” look. It was purposeful. The Barbie doll look is one I SOMETIMES aspire to, yes I use the word ASPIRE….one can have such aspirations and I believe it is quite O-KAY. However, I digress, MAJORLY.  This Easter weekend was a heap of fun, looked like the only thing I and my friends and team were up to was fun, but I/we were hard at work, and as usual, there are some moments that stuck with me, MAJORLY.

STYLE MARKET

Nigeria has one, Ghana has one, other west african nations have one, and now Sierra-Leone is having one or so they say. What I do know is that,  I am continually meeting a collective of people who are culturally and visually hungry, how and where do we start, always the 1million dollar questions.

Style Market is an initiative put together by two non-Sierra-Leonean women with an appreciation for Sierra-Leone and the immense talent scattered in this land we love. Its starting off small, the group of vendors/designers are ones that cater to a certain clientele, more expat and upper middle-class group of Sierra-leoneans. Present amongst the mix of vendors that were present at Style Market were: Madame Wokie, Vivid Emporium, Salone Style (a new accessory line created by Style Market organizers), Amaani, some local vendors i don't quite know, and a couple of expats who work with local tailors to make African clothing that land on forums like vogue.

  

To be fair, we usually have 'fairs' at the National Stadium where local and more common arts and crafts, conventional africana styles, materials, artists gather to show case  and sell their products. We also have Ghanian fairs, Pakistan Fairs among others, usually the promo's for those fairs always get to me after the fact, but they are in bigger public spaces and often spread over a couple of days. This further reiterates the point that, Style Market, from the advertising to the selection  of vendors caters to a niche market, its not a bad thing, its just a thing that has peaked my interest. The basis is, every vendor works with local materials and tailors, some vendors are 'building capacity' and sell their pieces based on developmental principles (usually by expats), and other designers are young, educated fairly privileged Sierra-Leoneans who seek to reach a more diverse international market both at home and abroad.

Some of the pieces have me interested, like the Salone Style collection (see blow). They are well designed, from the actual products to the tags, i like it all.  The template for the designs are apparently done by a Danish woman and the actual constructing of the pieces by Prison Women in freetown. The belts you see below are made with Africana materials and rope, very hippster, very neo-liberal Americana. My favorite is the rhetoric, "capacity building" and the credit goes to the Capacity builder who happens to be white and non-Sierra-leonean. Exposure is everything and its quite cliche that its always the westerner that will more than often receive the acclaim in their quest to build capacity and provide local african artists with the 'proper' skills that highlights their 'creativity'. -

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I am definitely purchasing some pieces the second time around, and i look forward to seeing how this intiative builds itself. The lesson here is this: believe in the beauty and purity of your own story to want to be able to tell it yourself, on your on terms.

fambul dem this is how we do...

baw baw beach: we sassy like that

the kids at baw baw beach- pricless. filled with attitude like you'd never seen. they demanded photos be taken of them, they posed, they laughed and asked for sweets. eerrrm okay.  this community deal with the deal realities of a difficult life surrounded by an oasis that is the beauty of the place.

my mentor talks to this young girl and i don't think she realized how much i needed to hear those difficult and yet so pure and price-less those words of wisdom were. i needed to hear that too

Victoria- A Young Mother

fambul dem this is how we do...

I SEE COLORS & OKADAS

I'm a huge fan of Bliss Patisserie on 110 Wilkinson Road, their salads are refreshing and after my slightly dubious Friday night out, i needed a hide away. An avocado banana milkshake,  grilled vegetables accompanied with fried chicken did the trick. This is how the world looked to me on Saturday afternoon (see photographs below), as aforementioned, i blame the rudeness performed on Friday evening. While waiting for my food, i stumbled upon this article

An “okadised” society: implications on teenage pregnancy in Sierra Leone

I must preface this blog post with, please click on the link to read the entire report, Sierra-Leonean journalism always always has me in stitches by the end of the read regardless of how serious (or not) the subject matter is- the style of writing is ---priceless. But I digress, back to Okadisation, which in actuality is problematic. Now, I am easily seduced ( as are a plethora of people in Sierra-Leone) to go on an endless rant about my deep dislike/distaste of Okadas and Okada drivers alike. However, Okadisation according to this article is the 

the shift from traditional trekking to Okada riding between places. Sierra Leoneans no longer fancy walking; which has enormous health benefits but are rapidly cultivating the practice of moving around by Okada. In the pre-Okada era, students trekked, for example from Magburaka to Mathora government girls school (about 6 miles round trip), in the Tonkolili district. This is no more the practice in today’s school going pupils, making it an economically challenged practice for their poor relatives. Most parents can’t afford giving both lunch and Okada service fees on a daily basis to their children.

So instead, some young ladies got creative and:

“ [entered] into transactional sex with these riders to ferry them between their homes and schools as well as supplementing their ‘lunch’ at school.

In essence, this equates to high TEENAGE PREGANCIES BY THE OKADA BOYS COMMUNITY. I declare CONDOMS FOR OKADAZITION | A CLEVER INITIATIVE. If you support, please comment.

Fambul dem this is how we do…

My Random Market Buy

Bliss Coffee- Much Needed

Bliss Patisserie-Outside

 

the day we visited the Mercy Ships, Freetown, Sierra-Leone

My cousin of Madame Wokie, who also works at the ministry of health kindly invited me to join her when she got the opportunity to visit the Mercy Ships in Freetown. All i knew going in was it was a huge ship that offered free medical care (mostly intensive surgery) to Sierra-Leoneans who otherwise could not afford it. How huge and yet so compact and all encompassing it was, i did not know until we actually took the tour. Yes, i am a Mercy Ship groupie, the amazing work aside, they also had Starbucks on deck, which i greatly missed. All superficiality aside, it was a wonderful afternoon and i remained impressed by the level of professionalism and high technology available on board.

fambul dem this is how we do....

from the roof of the ship

its massiveness sprawled

the dinning area

                                                                                                                                                       

Zulaikah Sesay of Madame Wokie