Be Box's Be Woman event

By now i'm sure you have guessed I go to quite a few events! This is a blog I was supposed to write in October :-(...here it is now! 

Getting started...

On the 26th October 2013 I went to Be Box's Be Woman event held at the Grange Holborn Hotel.

I decided to go to this event because Heather Lindsey was the main speaker. For those of you that do not know her, she is an extremely blessed woman of God. I came across her blog and podcasts last year and I am honestly grateful for her life.

She is young woman who is married to a pastor. They both have a beautiful ministry together which focuses on developing relationships with God and also relationships in general.

She takes her walk with God seriously and I admire her a lot.

When I heard she was coming to London, I just had to be there. 

Be Box are an organisation that creates special boxes filled with skin care, health care and make up items for women of colour. The Be Woman event they organised consisted of gathering inspirational females to talk to a group of woman. Quite like a sisterhood event.

The atmosphere was warm and friendly. They even gave us cupcakes which were yummy.

Jenny Jenkins who many will know as the make up beauty queen was the first to speak. She is a pretty in person as she is in the videos. Definitely a very beautiful girl. I was surprised to see how nervous she was! It's funny because she talks with a lot of confidence on her videos but she herself admitted she was nervous! Her tips to the crowd were:

• Accept your flaws, then no one can use them against you!
• Remember everyone has a different path in life to follow.
• Do not waste the gift that God has given you.

After Jenny, there was a small competition for the audience. An envelope had been hidden under one of the chairs in the room. Guess whose chair it was under? Yep, yours truly :-). I won a be box full of goodies ranging from shampoo to lotions and my nails done by Shea'd Beauty. Shea'd beauty were also there during the night doing nails for the guests!

Shea'd Beauty

Chanel Boateng was up next. She did a live make up tutorial in a short space of time in quite a high pressured environment. She did well.

Ms Boateng does her thing!

Lara Peters put on a beautiful fashion show for us next and I must admit she is a talented young lady. She mixes afro print with european fashion. I found her story interesting. She was a designer that stopped designing for a while. She realised that designing was her God given gift. An interesting thing she mentioned was that after listening to Heather she felt she should pick up designing again that is what she did! Check her out:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LaraPetersUK

Arhinarmah was next up. This brand describes itself as 'A luxury lifestyle brand with an African accent'. They specialise in furniture and home decor. 

Catherine Arhin was a joy to watch and definitely worked the crowd. She started her brand in her room one day and now her products have appeared in the likes of Vogue, Elle UK and Pride magazine. She azontoed after naming her accomplishments which was funny. She also encouraged the crowd by saying...'Create the greatest, highest vision of yourself'. 

Heather selling her books and jewellery #proverbs31

The highlight of the evening was the final piece to Be Box's event. Mrs Heather Lindsey...The fire this woman has for God is out of this world. As this event was mostly aimed at ladies she made sure her message was relevant. She spoke about being consistent with God. She spoke about the importance of prayer and spending time with God. What made me laugh was her popular phrase 'sister girl', which instantly brought her to the level of the people within the room.

'Marriage', she said should bring you closer to God as should love and ladies one thing that I will remember is her reference to Proverbs 18 v 22 'He who finds a wife has found a good thing...'. Meaning ladies we don't need to look. HE will find us...

It's something I battle with. I question my age and wonder when it is I will find that person who will wed me. At times I think, i'm not ready for marriage yet no but there are other times I see the world finding their 'Adams' and wish it were me. I thought I would marry young. I would look at twenty somethings when I was in my teens thinking that would never be me.  #honestquote. 

However, It is from Heather I realised that the most important things are to:

• Make God the centre
• Cut of any random waste of timers
• Focus on becoming the best me...

God help me with all of the above!

The event was a success and it was a pleasure to see inspirational young women share tips from beauty, to business to Christ.

I definitely left questioning myself.

XOXO

They Call it Africa...We call it Home

They call it Africa, we call it home was an advert I saw whilst I was in Dar Es Salaam.

It's a clever sentence and for me it fits nicely with the title of my blog don't you think?

Whisk me Back to the Motherland....

Unfortunately for me, the only country I have been to in Africa is Ghana, which is where I am originally from. I do have plans to visit more countries in the continent however. My friend Huda and I decided in our early twenties that we would do an Africa trip. From Kigali, to Mogadishu, Accra to Gabarone. It has to be done...the continent is massive!

Anyways, I had the pleasure of visiting Tanzania with my sister for our dear friends wedding.. I want to share my journey with you...It was too amazing not to document! 

Happy Reading!

                                                   Day One - Arrival

My sister and I left our loveable but worrisome father at Heathrow Airport and although sad to leave him, we were more than excited for our adventure ahead. Our flight was a long one. 11 hours to be exact, with a stop over in Kenya for an hour. I didn't mind so much and to be honest the stop over meant I could add another African country to my tick list. I had a lot of comments...as the time we went was the time of the Westgate bombings in Kenya. There has to be one conversation I can never forget...

Me: I'm going to Tanzania for a week!

Him: Oh...is it safe there?

Me: Yes..it's fine. I do however stop by Nairobi Airport for one hour

Him: Oh...don't worry, i'm sure Nairobi Airport is the safest place in the CONTINENT

Kenya Airways is on point! Ignore the negative reviews!

Continent? Really? I was fuming after he said that. Why oh why do we have the most negative representation in the world? I constantly ask God this question. I guess, it's up to us to revoke that  image and show Africa to be the beautiful place it is. 

That topic takes me on a tangent, so let me continue with my original story..

We arrived in Nairobi airport tired and dry, we rested a little and continued with our journey to Dar Es Salaam. 

When we did finally arrive, we were greeted by not only our beautiful bride to be but... Shuku (hubbie to be), Lenah (younger sis) and Naomi (niece) It was an emotional moment. I'm sure half of the people at Julius Nyerere Airport thought we were mad. The day was extremely rushed and there was no time at all for tiredness. After we were picked up, we quickly visited home and dropped off our luggage. The first stop was a dress fitting for Rehema's kitchen party that was due to happen later that evening. We were tired and pretty weak but it was still fun. The sun was shining and we were around beautiful company. #aintnotbodygottimefortiredness haha!

After the fitting we quickly went home for a quick meal of rice, matoke and beans and started to get ready for the kitchen party. The Kitchen Party is a ladies only party that celebrates the upcoming marriage of the bride. Rehema's dress was so stunning as was her sisters Lenah's. We quickly did hair and her make up and we were good to go! Both of the sisters were stunning <3. The Kitchen party was good fun. 

We danced Kwaito which is a dance that is very similar to the 'electric slide candy dance' but better. It was a blessing to experience the Tanzanian wedding culture and of course eat the food. Chapati, rice, chicken, peas. I backed it all. As the bridesmaids, we also received the gifts on behalf of Rehema. 

Our bride to be was beautiful stole the night.
After a tiring night as you can imagine we went straight to bed.

The Dress...

 

Rehema - Make up done by yours truly!

    

Isn't she lovelyyyy!

Day 2 KARIAKO (the market) 

We started the day at a shopping mall called Mlimani City. It was there where we  were able to change our pounds to Tanzanian shillings :-) we also managed to get wifi too so we frantically sent a few messages home and had a quick FaceTime call with mum. Rehema and Shuku then went to a handy man with a camera to film their wedding videos. I must say it was one of the most cutest things.... We got a bit tired so later decided to sit down in the car. It was here we   listened to Afro beats in the car with Naomi (baby niece). She's a fan of P square and whilst we were there we saw numerous adverts for their imminent visit to Tanzania :-) One thing I did notice was the presence Nigerians have with not only their music but also film.  

Kariako reminded me of Kejitia market in Kumasi - Ghana. A busy and product packed place. 

We bought various things from shoes and chai tea, to ground ginger, mangoes, bananas, oranges and bracelets. We are missing out in the UK when it comes to exotic fruits seriously. I don't know if I can take a forced ripened banana or a fake mango for any longer! 

We frantically searched for shoes to go with our bridesmaids dresses. That experience was funny. The shop was tiny and the guys selling the shoes were jokers. Making comments here and there. They also wore the trousers to their asses. Where they picked that style from I have no idea. 

After an exhausting day we bought some ice cream and continued with our journey through Dar! We drove past the presidential house, and also a place where a lot of fish is sold. The best was when we went to the beach at night and I wrote a message in the sand (Top picture) After that we went home... We relaxed with the family, had dinner (beef, rice and peas) popped to the pharmacy and then discovered a man selling sweet fried rice cakes called Vitumbua they were deliciously, warm, oily goodness!  

                                         Day 3 - Safari - Mikumi National Park

6am start people. It was early but we were in for a four hour drive and also had to get back in time to do some wedding prep. We crossed River Ruvu. A fresh water river. We passed Uluguhru mountains too. It was great. The scenery as we drove through all these places made me think of how awesome the world is. No, not to be cliche or cheesy but honestly, when I saw the beauty of mountains, rivers etc I thought to myself, how can people see nature and not believe that God exists.


We went to the park as 'nationals' to avoid paying extortionate fees but our tour guide quickly discovered that we were not. I tried to say that the reason we couldn't speak Swahili was because we were brought up in London. He didn't fall for it. It was pretty hilarious and embarrasing.


We saw elephants, giraffe, buffaloes, antelopes, hippos, birds. The only thing missing was the lions and tigers but I guess it was too early for that! 




My ladies! 
The cutest Elephant Family <3
 On the way back we stopped by what I think was one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a long time. Mountains and a big lake. We met a group of fisherman we said they would be happy to take us for a boat ride. Oh my gosh. The canoe was tiny. I wasn't sure that it would take my weight. But it did and for the four of us too. It was amazing. The most pleasant scene. The water was fresh. As was the air and company.  I would happily swap that for the pollution of London! I left feeling revitalised. 





Colourful excitement


@plantbasedwoman takes in the view...

                                  Day 4 - Young, talented and Tanzanian

Wedding practice = fun times. Imagine being surrounded by a group of young modern and intelligent Tanzanians. That was us today! We all met in the afternoon to practice our dances for Rey's wedding. There was the bridesmaids entrance and an entrance for the bridge and groom and also the bride's sister and grooms friend.  Our songs of the moment from this practice were: Marry me and Mafikizolo's Khona. When we finished practicing we ate some amazingly cooked rice and beans.
We went home after and got out hair repaired as our edgies were growing. My hair is really short at the sides and normally when I braid my hair usually it is tight for a few days then it falls out. This woman cornrowed my edges and made it look as fresh as the day i had it done! 
The evening ended with another purchase of Vitumbua. Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmmmmm.

                                              Day 5 - Pre wedding day!

Bride, Moi, Bride's Sis and My sis <3

Another day for another party! Sue and myself went to Maureen, one of the bridesmaids houses, to get ready with the rest of the bridesmaids. We did the make up for the 4 bridesmaids and also styled their hair. They were all beautiful. Their dresses were baby blue with a touch of afro print. The Pre wedding was great fun. A collaboration of the culture, colour, dancing (kwatio) and food of course. Only problem was we forgot Rehema's glass, a small gift that she was to give to Shuku, her fiancé, that night :-( but luckily someone was able to drop it at the venue for us. Sue and myself represented Ghana in our attire. We took plenty of pictures and danced the night away. 

Bride with her Maids

#Maids

                                                    Day 6 - Tourists

We visited Mwena today, a market that is not as busy as Kariako! We managed to get gifts ranging from earrings, to rings, to artwork for good prices. The man who sold us our things was HILARIOUS! He was a rasta who told us that he had muzungo (white person) prices and African prices! We paid a little for a lot! We then did our dress fittings. And prepared for a long night of wedding preparation!

#onlyinafrica

                                                      Day 7 - Wedding day

We woke early and Rehema changed into her wedding dress and had the final send off. This was a sad moment as this was the final departure from her parents home. She cried as did her mother but her father kept a strong face. He wisely that although he wants his daughters to marry its hard to let them go. Anita was our extra bridesmaid and she arrived at the house. We got her ready make up, hair did, everything did. A quick dress and make up fix for both Sue and myself and we were on our way. Unfortunately for me I had a nose bleed during our trip to the church. By God's miracle it stopped by time we arrived at the church! Church ceremony was lovely, Rehema and Shuku were officially married! We then went to a restaurant to have drinks and food. Wifi access and check into my flight. The celebrations continued at the venue afterwards. The evening ended with a rushed trip to the airport and a sad goodbye. It was the best wedding I had been to!

We had an amazing time, it was a week full of magic.

To the happy couple...Thank you and May God continue to bless your union.

#whiskmeback

I do...

Sneaky

Married!




Bridesmaid, Maid of Honour, Bridesmaid <3
SwaG


True Friendship...
Mr and Mrs Ketorare
   

Film Africa 2013

Every year, The Royal African Society  brings African Film to London for a week. Much to our delight, for 10 days we are treated to beautiful films from around the continent. 
I went for the first time last year but unfortunately was only able to catch one film. Everything else was #soldout. 

That wasn't going to happen to me this year! 

On the 9th November 2013, a group of friends and I decided to investigate what Senegalese cinema was like. The British Film Institute were showing both Borom Sarret by Ousmane Sembene and Tey by Alain Gomis.

Embarrassingly...I have never heard of Ousmane Sembene but no dismay! Part of this reason I started this blog was to find out more about all things African! (Look out for my future pieces about some of our great leaders).

Anyway....Ousmane Sembene was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. He was born in

January 1923 and died in June 2007. Whilst researching him I discovered that Sembene initially wrote fiction (some of his work include Le Mandat, Précédé de Vehi-Ciosane  and Le Docker Noir. He decided it would be easier to connect with a wider African audience through film. He was therefore able to transfer many of his stories to the big screen #impressive

Ousmane Sembene

This talented man has taken his films to festivals such as The Moscow International Film Festival, The Cannes Film Festival and the FESPACO Film Festival in Burkina Faso. I discovered this hilarious interview conducted by Bonnie Greer. I really encourage you to read this because it made me smile but for the lazy readers out there, the following statements are mentioned in the article:

"What do you think of the big campaigns going on now in Britain: Make Poverty History, Live 8?
I think they're fake, and I think African heads of state who buy into that idea are liars. The only way for us to come out of poverty is to work hard. Poverty means begging throughout the world". 

"I think cinema is needed throughout Africa, because we are lagging behind in the knowledge of our own history. I think we need to create a culture that is our own". 

Yesterday we saw his film Borom Sarret which was shot in . Luckily for you its on You Tube. How would I describe it? A funny but sad story of someones true reality of life in Senegal. It's short, beautifully filmed and thought provoking. It's straight to the point and does not dilly dally. I laughed many times throughout the film  What do you think? Check it out and let me know!

The second film that was screened was Alain Gomis' Tey. It is a film that focuses on a man called Satche's who had one day left on Earth. WOW WOW and WOW. This film really played with my mind. I really don't want to give too much away as you need to see it! Satche, the main character is played by Saul Williams. A beautiful chocolate African American actor. Satche wakes up, pretty uncomfortably. His eyes are wide, he feels his body to see if he's really there and he looks around taking in pictures of his family and himself in his younger days. He leaves his room and is greeted by a crowd of mourning family members. They prepare him for his imminent death and he spends the day celebrating the simple joys of life...laughter, food, friendship, and love. Sarcasm, happiness, sadness and fear are constant emotions I felt throughout this film. The pictures are stunning as were the sounds. There are places where silence is used very effectively. The film does not have a clear ending so the viewers are forced to make their own conclusions of the story.

The film was followed by a Q and A session with Gomis which encouraged discussions about living in the present, perspectives of the story and Gomis' background.

Later in the day I wanted more so booked a ticket to see Mother of George in Hackney Picture House. Mother of George is a film about a newly wed Nigerian Couple who are having trouble conceiving. Now if you are from an African background you will understand the amount of family aggro this can cause The intensity of this film made me forget I was even thirsty. I didn't want to leave to buy water! Can you imagine. Again I can only give you the bear minimal because I want you see the film! It was drama filled and gasp provoking film which I thoroughly enjoyed.

After my film fest Africa day I went to the after party. DJ French Kiss and DJ Fade 2 played us a selection of afro music. Serious good vibes and swag all around.

#lovedit

Looking forward to next year!

Beauty Pageants...What do I really think?

It's that time of year...It's beauty pageant season… September and October showed us the likes of Miss Uganda UK, Miss America, Miss World, Miss Face of Africa and of course Miss Ghana UK. The glitz, the glamour and the beauty are all common themes associated with pageants. You always hear of scandal...fixes, bitchiness, affairs with judges, feminist opposition, backlashes from various religions... So why is it that people still take part? For me personally... all above didn't put me off!

As mentioned in a previous post, in 2011 I took part in Miss Ghana UK. Why? Gosh..various reasons...it wasn't a vanity thing I promise you that. I'm more unconfident than confident trust me...I wanted to do something that was out of character. To be honest, I thought about doing Miss Ghana UK for a few years but I never plucked up the courage. When I turned 25, it was a strange stage because although still young I was disappointed that I was 

a) unmarried 

b) I hadn't flown to all the amazing places I wanted to 

c) I wasn't a CEO of my own company. 

I questioned a lot about my self when I was 25, at one stage I even questioned the career i had chosen. I even questioned my existence. It was what you call the quarter life crisis. Yes, I believe I had a mini one!  Hard times! 

Anyway for me, Miss Ghana was a chance to do something bold, something crazy and something brave. 

I also wanted to find a way to connect with the community because I didn't know what was going on. That stage in my life I also wanted to find out more about my culture and I knew that doing Miss Ghana would help expose me.

One evening, I randomly asked my friend her thoughts on me entering. 

A hurried what’s app conversation with my friend Joanna confirmed that I should apply.

Me: Jo I want to apply for Miss Ghana UK, what do you think?

Jo: Go for it!

Me: If I do it will you do Miss Nigeria?

Jo: Nah you do Miss Ghana mate, i'm not doing Miss Nigeria

Me: Pleaaaaase it will be me and you together!

Unfortunately Joanna still refused so I was on my own. My younger sister helped me take some pictures for my application. I quickly wrote a small 'Why I want to be Miss Ghana",  sent my pictures and speech to Joanna to check and BAM I was ready.

The next day I went to Boots to print off my pictures and send my application. This was a day before the deadline so as you can imagine I was pretty pushed.

By the skin of my teeth I met the deadline. My application was submitted and all I could do was wait! 

A few weeks later I was invited for an audition. 

We were told to wear a white vest top and blue jeans and be prepared for questions. I arrived on the day feeling pretty apprehensive. I got speaking to some of the other girls and really enjoyed their conversations and company. Now Ghanaians are know for their kindness so I wasn't surprised by their behaviour. I did however have to remember that this was a beauty competition - not everyone would be as nice as they seem.

When it was my turn to meet the judges I was naturally apprehensive. I did my walk and introduced myself.

They asked me what was special about me and at that I honestly wasn't sure. I didn't sing, act or dance...it was only writing that I hadn't done for a while.

They asked me what my favourite poem was and asked me to recite it. I stood praying for the words of Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman to enter my head but to my horror that wasn't happening. I was blank. I was asked to free style some poetry and I did. I vaguely remember putting together a poem about Ghana, myself and Nigeria. Haha! I got an applause so it was well received yay! I was also told that I looked a lot like Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson. A comment that kept popping up though my Miss Ghana UK experience.

I received a phone call a few days later telling me I had been selected to be part of the show! I was pretty surprised and excited at the same time. I had mixed reactions when I shared the news that I would be taking part. Happiness, shock, discouragement to name a few. I think the funniest reaction was when I told my work colleagues. I work in HR so naturally, I like to play by the rules.

I asked my manager to check that me participating wouldn't cause any harm. I think they were probably cracking up. I mean why did I feel I had to consult them? What rules would I break? Was it really any of their business? I was innocent and very naive in my younger days. I can only look back and laugh. 

Rehearsals started promptly. My Sunday afternoons became all about Miss Ghana. My routine was church, Miss Ghana and home. Rehearsals were a rude awakening to me. Being totally oblivious to the work behind beauty pageants., I didn't realise how much was involved. The leaders were strict with us. They quickly laid down the foundations of what was expected of us. We were also reminded that this was a competition. I must admit it was at this point I felt a little out of my depth. Yes I understood I entered a competition but competing ferociously was something I wasn't sure I was comfortable doing. Miss Ghana UK is a prestigious pageant especially within the African community and we had to perform well.

Rehearsals consisted of walking (properly in heels, admittedly a weakness of mine), speeches, rehearsing our traditional dances, walking with men for the evening wear section, practicing our talents. It was hard work! At times I felt I wanted to drop out as the pressure was a lot. Be prepared for criticism too but it's all about how you take it. I must at most admit I felt the weakest out of all the girls. I felt that they were all models and I was an amateur. I felt the least attractive and it played a lot with my confidence. 

I wanted to give up many times but told myself that this was a challenge I had decided to bring upon myself. There's no point in giving up when I had already come so far.

 One thing I noticed about myself was that I remained calm in every situation. I am naturally quite a positive person so I did encourage the other girls and kept smiling despite sometimes feeling low.

I won't lie to you. Pressure was high and with pressure came emotion. The arguing, competition, back biting and crying began to occur more often. 

At times it was a hard environment to be in that's why I was grateful when I went to Ghana for 3 weeks. There was only so much emotion I could take! 

The night honestly in my opinion was magical. To get your hair and make up done professionally was something I hadn't experienced before and I was transformed! 

I stood boldly on that stage delivering my speech, danced to my chosen song and was encouraged by the support of my family and friends. I performed my talent well too. It was a poem about identity. A fellow contestant danced ballet to it. I was proud! :-)

Swim wear I walked to Jenny from the block. It seemed like an obvious choice, my evening wear song was Mary J Blige’s Be without you and my traditional wear song was Azingele by Ruff and Smooth.

I left the night winning Miss Personality which is something I am so proud of! The girls voted for me and I appreciated it!

Looking back I do not for one second regret doing Miss Ghana UK. It helped my develop the confidence I never had, it pushed me to do something that I would never do and it opened many doors for me. It also helped me connect a lot with the Ghanaian community and exposed me to events that I never knew occurred. #blessed.

I watched Miss World this year. It definitely did bring back many memories.. I was even proud to discover that our representative Carranzer Naa Okailey Shooter came third in Miss World making her Miss Africa! She is a beauty, intelligent and extremely elegant. I also followed Miss America on the news and was sad to discover many people were unhappy that winner Nina Davuluri faced abuse due to her Indian heritage. People took to twitter to direct insults at her, calling her terrorist and un-American? Will a different ethnicity other than the dominant white ethnicity of America ever be accepted (this is another blog post) but to all the haters, shut up and face it... a person of a different ethnicity got the crown. Cue music "I'm hot cos i'm fly you ain't cos you're NOT"  ;-) 

So would I advise you to enter a pageant? Do it! It’s something different! Get your friends to help you, be confident, be prepared for criticism and bitchness but most importantly enjoy the experience! I am still in touch with some of the girls and value the friendships I made. 

You never know where it will take you and most of all….you want to change the world and save the children right? 

Nigeria Watch First Year Anniversary Celebrations

Nigeria Watch – One Year Anniversary

So I last blogged in January, I went to this event in May and I'm posting my write up now? Serious disgrace and epic fail. Apologies...It was sheer laziness. Will try not to do it again....

Sometimes I do some writing for Akwaaba magazine...I was invited to the Nigeria Watch celebration to cover it. It will appear in the magazine too but I wanted to show the article here :-)

Friday 17^th May 2013

I love African community events, especially ones that celebrate the success of our people. Nigeria Watch is a free monthly newspaper aimed primarily at Nigerians and those interested in the country. The topics covered in the newspaper range from jobs and careers through to health and beauty, education and travel.  The paper has been in circulation for about a year and has become increasingly popular and grown tremendously.  I remember first coming across Nigeria Watch at a free newspaper stand opposite Bow station. I immediately grabbed one. For me, seeing a free African newspaper was an exciting moment of discovery especially given the fact that the free newspapers that we normally encounter are Jewish, Polish or the more popular Metro.  What immediately struck me about Nigeria Watch was the snappy, informative, funny and interesting manner in which it was written.

Akwaaba magazine was invited to its first year anniversary celebration earlier this month. I went to see what how our West African neighbours  -yes neighbours, forget our rivalry for the moment – had in store for us.

Tucked away in Mill Hill stands Greenvue Venue, Mill Hill Country Club, our location for the evening. Driving up the winding path to the place definitely made my car bump and grind but when I finally arrived at the place I saw a woman in kente- walking to the place. I knew that had to be the place.

Inside the gazebo, drapes of green and white material covered the ceiling The tables were beautifully decorated and the guests were dressed to represent.

Swagged up Decor 

The event opened with speeches from Maryanne Jemide, the CEO of Nigeria Watch. The Guest of Honour, VIPs and other invitees themselves were also acknowledged. It was a joy to see so many people coming together to celebrate the milestone within the Nigerian community.

The popular MC Mark and hilarious Congolese comedian Eddie Kadi were our hosts for the evening. They both definitely knew how to keep the crowd entertained. I recall a competition of which side of the room could ‘Ah Ah’ the loudest!

Now what would an African celebration be without food? Dinner was served. There was jollof rice, chicken, moi moi, plantain etc. I even saw plates of pounded yam and egusi going round. There was also dessert which ranged from fruit skewers to cake and ice cream. Pure enjoyment! Throughout the dinner entertainment was also provided for the guests in the form of a musical group called Weray Ent who many may know from their unforgettably named single ‘Ching Chang Wallah’.

Dinner was punctuated by various speeches by important personalities such as Dr Dalhatu Sarki, the Nigerian Ambassador o the United Kingdom. We also heard from Western Union, one of the sponsors of the event.

As I was interested in what some of the guests invited thought of the success of the magazine and of the party itself I decided to speak to a few people.

Kabir Kareen Bello was my first conversationist. Kabir is an author who has had some of his work published in Nigeria Watch. When I asked him what he liked about the newspaper, he told me that he believed it provided a positive representation of Nigeria. For him it gives readers an opinion that displays an unbiased view of not just Nigeria but the African continent generally. We all know that many newspapers in this part of the world are quite the opposite. Kabir commended the engaging style of the newspaper and felt proud that they had achieved such a lot in only one year. When asked what advice he had for the magazine, Kabir responded that they should dig more into areas that Nigerians find hard to talk about.

Going back to the events on stage, the crowd was introduced to the beautiful Lola Rae, a singer of Ghanaian, Nigerian and British origin (nice mix eh!).  She got the crowd dancing and the highlight for me was when the dancers danced to one the songs from Coming to America. Remember the scene ‘she’s your queen to be’? The African dancers before the ‘queen’ enters? Yep that was what they danced to. Classic.

Walking through the crowd, I noticed that the event was dotted with a few familiar faces.  May7ven singer of the popular song ‘Ten Ten’ was one of the guests.  Speaking to her, it was clear that she like many others was impressed with the success of the newspaper. She admired the fact that it was keen to support anyone artist that was doing well. She also particularly liked the music and beauty section and described the recipes feature as bringing her closer to home.

May 7ven herself knows a lot about the industry having worked with a magazine herself. ‘It’s a job that isn’t easy’, she told me. Her words of advice for the magazine was ‘to keep going and never give up’. She praised the fact that they had found a niche within the market. She was impressed with the party itself too, giving bonus points to the food and the number of people who came to support!

Eddie Kadi and Me!

Eddie Kadi was the next person I spoke to who again described the night as being a great success. He observed that the night provided people with the opportunity to network as well as dress well. When asked his opinion on

Nigeria Watch itself he described it as informative, organised and well written. Keep up the good year. It’s been one year but there will be many more years to come!

It was a joy to see Richard Taylor OBE, the father or Damilola Taylor present at the event too.  He came across as extremely passionate and expressed how fantastic he thought the newspaper was. Mr Taylor was with the Nigeria Watch team in its earlier stages. He even mentioned the moment when Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president was being inaugurated as the paper did a cover on the event. Mr Taylor had a positive reaction towards the celebration and said many people, not only Nigerians, were there to celebrate with them. I believe this to be a true reflection of things to come for the paper, which should increase coverage on African events -not only Nigeria but also Ghana, South Africa etc.

It was now time for the cake cutting. The Nigeria Watch team members were called up to cut the cake together and I must admit it was there I saw the diversity of the team. The team is made up of Blacks, Whites and even Asians and to be honest a diverse group of people will allow different qualities and opinions to come together and form a quality magazine. Having a diverse staff team means projecting different perspectives.

Jon Hughes works as the Managing Editor for the paper. I was interested in hearing his views. Jon is from Liverpool but has many Nigerian friends. He has 20 years experience working as a journalist and it was through mutual friends that he got to know about Nigeria Watch. He was interested in creating something from the start and also had an interest in what was happening in the African Diaspora. It was refreshing to talk to Jon because he agreed that newspapers should be honest and true. Stereotypes are easy to form and challenges should be taken to make people see the truth. Jon hopes to see Nigeria Watch increase its frequency and hopes to see it sold in Lagos.

DJ Unbeatable played the event out with a nice selection of Afrobeats from the motherland. As I took my notes for this write up I found myself jiggling in my seat.

After a pleasant evening and conversations with interesting people, I spoke to Maryanne Jemide CEO of Nigeria Watch. Her words of advice for someone wanting to start up a newspaper were. ‘be hard working and never compromise quality’ – Maryanna I couldn’t agree with you more!

I left the event satisfied even as others continued dancing and talking way into the night.

Cheers Nigeria watch! May your years be plenty!