Friday, August 28, 2009

MARIEM HASSAN THE VOICE OF WESTERN SAHARA!





Man God is Great, we are so numerous on Mama earth, through Mariem Hassan I'm discovering the struggle of the Saharawi people, their years of exile on Algerian lands, the occupation of their lands by the Spanish people, Moroccan and Mauritanian people.

To her people who are still living in refugee camps, Mariem is a sign of hope , she's the ambassador of their resilience. Through her they know that their culture will never be forgotten, their struggles indelible.

Throughout her +30 years of career, this mother of 5, sang for her people, the courageous Saharawis.


Call me ignorant but I didn't know much about their stuggle, the fact that Maroccan monarchy is still occupying their lands. The children of this community only know their lives on their camps where they go to school, eat pretty much the same type of food, they don't really know the meaning of freedom.



I honestly love her music, love her passionate and melodious voice, it makes me think of her people, it makes me wonder how they are getting through day by day..that's the power of music:)

Here's her webbie:
http://mariemhassan.blogspot.com/
You can discover here on a rare interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=visvaXRsAUE


To learn more about their struggle, please check the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmBjVmCLpVg

Djaa we need to honour our Saharawi people:)
Eyee Wayee:)

GHANAIAN BRITISH TV PERSONALITY, MISS AMA ABEBRESE!


Ama doing African style very well


Ama and Edris Elba


It's always cool to discover a sista doing her thing whether mainstream or local, it always warms my heart to see a sista on the go like Ama Abebrese.
This ghanaian sista is crazy about TV, she's a host a producer and actress.
Ama is a sought after MC for Ghanaian events happening in London such as the Ghana Music Awards/UK,Miss Ghana UK.. She has conducted red carpet interviews with Akon, Edris Elba, Neyo, Rihanna ect during events such as the MOBO Awards, theScreen Nation Film and Television Awards ect...
She's currently a producer for a new reality tv show on chanel OBE TV called 'Fresh Acts'..she hosted the premiere for the Ghanaian movie "The Perfect Picture"last july..


You can see her here interviewing Miss Ghana/UK 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYBJgSWz_u4
Here's her webbie:
http://amakonline.com

Djaa my Ghanaian people sont dedans:)
Eyee Wayeee:)

FATOUMATA COULIBALY PROUD MALI 'NDEN AND HER AFRO STREETWEAR LINE "CAURIS WAX"!



Cute


Simple

Sporty
Coquine

Fatoumata Coulibaly aka Arthemis Dossi Din is a young fabulafricana from Mali who was raised and resides in France.
She sings, she raps but for now she focuses on her streetwear line inspired by African wax.
Her goal is to create a line for our people and by our people thus creating jobs and boosting the Malian economy, noble goal:)
She was also inspired by the crisis that Mali was facing over the production of cotton, the price-cutting of cotton due to the allowances granted to European and American planters.
Her ultimate goal is to have Malian people design and create wax textile with the local production of cotton...
Well today her line is available, so take a look:)

http://www.cauriswax.com

You can also discover her , here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBto-WCv0Hs

Djaa les gos du Mali sont trop dedans:)
Eyee Wayee:)

LEILA CHIRAYATH JANAH FOUNDER OF SAMASOURCE ORGANIZATION BELIVES IN SOCIAL RESPONSIBLE OUTSOURCING PROGRAMMES!




Mildred is a young Ghanaian woman , who with the help of Samasource was able to find
a job with Rising Data Solutions.



Paul Parach a young Sudanese SAMASOURCE trainee hoping for a better future

Yes Leila Chirayath is not African but through her non profit organization she's helped young African people find work and hope. Samasource is an ONG which goal is to reduce poverty by training and offering work to young people in the poorest countries of the world such as Sudan, Uganda , Kenya and many more.

A lot of our African skilled youth want to work but can't seem to find the opportunity to apply themselves, Leila and her team of volunteers, employees select partners in those poor countries, , train them so that they can at their turn train their own staff and employees,I love that work model , it's a brilliant chain of sel sufficiency..
Samasource also outsources trained and skilled workers from those poor countries and pay them through their website and donations.

Now you may wonder a bit more about its founder, Leila is an Harvard grad with a degree in African Development studies. It's through one of her trips to Uganda where she was teaching at school that she was impressed by the talents of the youth and the poverty they were facing.
A little bit later she decided to start her program in Kenya with an initial fund of $ 35,ooo , she realized that aid given to Africa was not the answer rather giving the opportunity to people to become financially independent was a far better solution.
Today Samasource is in India, Cameroon, Pakistan, Ghana...

Apart from her very busy life of CEO of Samasource, she's also the director of Incentives for Global Health, and she also teaches boxing to young girls...busy woman:)

Also for those of you interested, Samasource offers internships to undergrads and MBA students with an interest in technology, business and social enterprise, here's their email address:
info@samasource.org

Here's a video presentation of their work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3OOrhH19rM
The webbies are:
http://leilac.wordpress.com/
http://blog.samasource.org/

Djaa we have to support social responsible programmes:)
Eyee Wayeee:)

Friday, August 07, 2009

HAVE I EVER TOLD YOU ABOUT KHADY "DURALA" BEYE!

Khady and I




Mais si I'm sure I have, come on the beautiful and talented Senegalese journalist with her trademark long and thin braids and the almond shaped eyes, no you don't remenber? si si the Italian/French speaking young TV and radio journalist with the sensual voice


Ok ! Ok! as we proceed to give you what you need as Mr Combs would say let me allow myself introduce her to you, people here's Khady Durala Beye:)

She's a young woman "qui en veut"as we would say in French, a fabulafricana who brings African heat through her various tv and radion shows in Montreal. You may have heard her voice on Radio Choq FM, or may have seen her hosting the tv show "Afromonde Paysage"on Canadian TV, I dig her because she grabs opportunities, she's not afraid of hard work, doesn't mind volunteering to get experience, speaks intelligently and eloquently well..:)

Khady was kind enough to want to share some of her time with me over dried lamb (I'll admit it may have been a bad day for the cook at one of my fav' spots Le Toukouleur) and delicious fondant au chocolat.
It was interesting meeting her because we only knew each other from our respective blogs, facebook pages ect:)






Khady grew up in Rome with her brothers and parents, btw 16 and 18 they moved to our lovely Dakar, there she took the time to discover our land as much as she could at that age;


At age 19 just like most of us she wanted to discover another land, another way of living and made up her mind to move to Montreal.



Today apart from Dkar Montreal is home for her, she loves the spirit of that multicultural city, enjoys meeting people, enjoys the husstle of her busy life, doing her radio shows whether in Italian, French or English. She calls herself a duralienne , duralienne is anyone in her book ,who's been living coast to coast, I'll answer to that call sista:)


Over lamb and veal the topic of cultural identity came up, the fact that after having spent a thousand or more days and nights overseas we become citizens of the world, dakar is home but that we cheat on her as well with dame World.




During dinner of course the topic of men came up, I wanted to know how did our Montreal African men compared to the ones in my hometown and the States and with Anta the only married one at the table we all agreed that Dkr lacked of good men mmmm


We shared with her sister in law the beautiful and very interesting Anta our fear for the new generation of young women , our little sisters that think that they know it all, that they have the answers to all the questions that our mothers had our big sisters have and that we face now..






We wonder if we would be able to raise our children the way our mothers did, give us the discipline and the values that are sill living by, ect...

Thank you to the both of you Khady and Anta may Allah lead you both to do greater things in your personal and professional life






Here are Khady's web adresses:
http://khady.durala.com/
You can see her here:
Djaa les gos du Senegal sont dedans'oo:)
Eyeee Wayee:)