negrita's chronicles: kenya

Showing posts with label kenya. Show all posts

Monday, March 3, 2014

grace personified: lupita nyong'o's oscar speech

a beautiful and gracious reminder that 'no matter where you're from, your dreams are valid.' this woman is grace personified. i am overjoyed for her. so well deserved.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

soul food: shad's 'flying colours'

no words to describe this dopeness, y'all. i don't know how shad keeps getting better with each album, but he truly does. this is all kinds of magic. and the collaborations are really smart, too. this is a perfect combination of brilliant storytelling and masterful technique.

it is thoughtful, intelligent, sharp, introspective, and it makes you think. it makes you stop everything to listen. and it consistently knocks you over with just how bloody good it is. it has also rendered me unable to review it properly because i keep jumping out of my seat yelling 'whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!! whaaaat!?' and startling everyone around me. i shall therefore leave that to the professionals and go back to my vigorous head-nodding.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

video: 'matatizo' by just a band

incredibly powerful video from just a band.

'matatizo' is the first video from the group's sorry for the delay and it's dedicated to the memory of issa juma, the composer of the song, and 'all the kenyans who have their hears and bodies so their children could be free'. via their youtube page, the band urges all to read more about the story behind the video: 'we lived to tell - the nyayao house story'.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

soul food: just a band's 'sorry for the delay'

i posted just a band's awesome track probably for lovers a little while ago, and now the full-length album sorry for the delay has been released. it's all kinds of refreshing goodness.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

new groove: 'probably for lovers' by just a band

and now...the first in a list of holy-crap-i'm-late-on-this-but-i-have-to-post!

check out the the latest single from "africa's super-nerdy art/music collective" just a band. it's from their forthcoming album sorry for the delay. i love the entire feel of this infectious track.

@justaband

just a band on tumblr

Monday, July 30, 2012

soul food: 'the village' by ian kamau

beautiful brilliance from the brother, ian kamau. loving his album, one day soon, which is now available, here.

he is currently in south africa and moving up to kenya within the next week and i'm digging following his adventures on the continent via twitter.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

soul food: 'powerman' ~ howaboutbeth

file under: things that took my breath away today.

kenyan-english artist, beth mburu-bowie (aka howaboutbeth) is my latest discovery [via @ophiona] and i'm well on my way to becoming obsessed.

POWERMAN by HowAboutBeth

beautiful!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

yaa, he got it: shad k wins a juno

shad k can finally polish that juno! on the first night of the juno awards, held in toronto, canada, the amazingness [sic] that is shad's tsol received the award for rap recording of the year, beating out the clear favorite: drake's thank me later. so well-deserved. this album is the freshness. (in case i haven't said it before)

shad k, 'listen'

Friday, April 23, 2010

soul food: afropolitana: shad k

i have waxed poetic in previous posts about the awesomeness that is shadrach kabango.

his next album T.O.S.L is due out on may 25th and, from what i've heard so far, we may not be ready for it's dopeness. (yes. that's a word.)

here's the video for his first single 'yaa, i get it'.

listen to more music from the forthcoming album, here. ('rose garden' is killing me softly with it's awesome.)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

soul food: afropolitana: shad k and zaki ibrahim

on his latest album the great escape, louwop collaborates with two of our favorite canadian afropolitans (tm phiona of afripopmag), shad k (rwandan/kenyan/canadian) and zaki ibrahim (south african/canadian) on the songs 'one2check' and 'get up', respectively. in anticipation of his album release, louwop posted an live video that blends both tracks. awesome talent.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

how [not] to write about africa

a satire piece written by binyavanga wainaina for granta magazine
as narrated by djimon hounsou

"Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed."

Wainaina is a kenyan author and award-winning journalist and is currently a Bard Fellow and Director at the Chinua Achebe Centre for African Literature and Languages in Bard College.

read the entire piece, here

[thanks, kweli.]

Friday, March 6, 2009

Oscar Kamau Kingara

Kenyan Human Rights Activist Killed

BBC News A prominent human rights activist has been shot dead as he drove his car in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Oscar Kamau Kingara - an outspoken critic of the government's alleged practice of extra-judicial killings - was murdered along with a colleague.

There are reports of student clashes with police near where he was killed.

A UN report last week called for Kenya's top policeman and the attorney general to resign for failing to address police impunity.

Mr Kingara was shot dead near State House, the official residence of the Kenyan president.

Read more of the news story here: BBC NEWS.

Oscar Kamau Kingara was a lawyer who started a non-profit organization called the Oscar Foundation:

As an organization we invasion a society in which all persons shall demonstrate their commitment to children and young persons. Exercising vision and leadership to assert respect for the rights of the child and young persons especially within families and communities where such respect must begin.

The youths are educated to respect the rule of law, more so the foundation encourages the poor and the youth to seek justice through the law and due process and not through violence or any other unlawful means.
--Oscar Foundation--

through this foundation, he sought to empower those without voices, to ensure their active participation in the decision-making process. he focused on the promotion of legal literacy, especially the domestication of international laws, so that people--youth in particular--were aware of their legal rights and obligations. one of his key achievements has been the establishment of the Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid Clinic Kenya (OFFLACK) which is a mobile legal aid and access to justice service. it is the first non-profit organization to provide legal aid and rescue service to sexually abused children to other victims of sexual violence by providing 24-hour rapid response lines.

The policy of the foundation is non violence and we stand by revolutionizing the NGO sector by conducting demonstration not on the streets but through the power of the pen.

his work and his dedication are an inspiration to us all. may his soul rest in peace.