Ziggy Marley gets candid on his father’s legacy in Africa
David Nesta ‘Ziggy’ Marley was born on 17 October 1968 in Kingston, Jamaica. He’s the son of reggae icon Bob Marley and Rita Marley.
The musician is the leader of the band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers and spends a considerable amount of time doing philanthropic work throughout the world.
He founded Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment (URGE), which works to help children (especially in Jamaica and Ethiopia) and in 2007, he signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organisation that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout America.
5 things you may not know about Bob Marley
Today (06.02.20) would have marked Bob Marley’s 75th birthday. To celebrate here are some interesting facts about the late musical icon.
For his most recent project, the 51-year-old is remembering his famous father in the year that would have marked his seventy-fifth birth.
Bob died when he was 36 years old of skin cancer (melanoma). To embark on this project Ziggy is on a journey with other members of the large family, including his brother Stephen, to release new content centred on Bob.
Read more here:
Celebrating Miriam ‘Mama Africa’ Makeba’s legacy
Born March 4, 1932, Zenzile Miriam Makeba, popularly known as Mama Africa, was one of the first African musicians to gain worldwide recognition.
Makeba derived her musical inspiration from her family. After suffering from cervical cancer and an abusive marriage when she was 17, she started her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group.
At 21, she joined the jazz group, the Manhattan Brothers, as the only woman and they sang South African songs and a mix of popular African-American ones. She recorded her first hit, “Laku Tshoni Ilanga” with the group in 1953 which shot her into the limelight.
Makeba later joined a new all-woman group in 1956 called the “Skylarks”. They sang a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies. She received no royalties for her work until in 1956 when Gallotone Records released Makeba’s first solo success, “Lovely Eyes”. This record became the first from South Africa to chart on the United States Billboard Top 100.
Makeba later moved to New York, making her US music debut in November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles. Her career flourished in the United States with the support of Harry Belafonte.
Back home in South Africa, her passport was cancelled and her mother and other family members had been killed in the Sharpeville Massacre.
After the apartheid regime was toppled, Makeba returned to South Africa after persuasion by Nelson Mandela in 1990 following his release. She returned to the country with a French passport.
Makeba received loads of awards and recognition including the Grammy Award in 1966 with Harry Belafonte for the 1965 album, An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba; Polar Music Prize; Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize; Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold, among others.
On 9 November 2008, Makeba suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song “Pata Pata” at a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. She was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.
She died at age 76.
The Goethe-Institut Nigeria organizes a Workshop for Children’s Book Authors & Illustrators
The second part of the workshop for children’s book illustrators and authors, which will be facilitated by Ute Krause and Baba Aminu Abdulkareem, takes place from March 16th to 20th, 2020. Six authors and six illustrators, which were selected via an open call last year, will attend. The aim of the workshop is to develop affordable children’s books for the Nigerian market, which tell imaginative, yet realistic, stories that reflect the country’s social and cultural environment. For more information click here.
About Ute Krause
Ute Krause was born in Berlin but grew up in many countries, including Turkey, Nigeria, India, and the United States as well as Germany. She is the author of more than sixty children’s books published in Germany and throughout the world.
About Abdulkareem Baba Aminu
Abdulkareem Baba Aminu is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator who has created work for numerous book publishers, Nigerian and foreign. Also a journalist, he is the Editor of Daily Trust Saturday, one of the most influential newspapers in Nigeria, where his popular editorial cartoon strip ‘Back-Hand’ appears weekly.
About the Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is the Federal Republic of Germany’s cultural institute, active worldwide. Its mandate is to promote the study of German abroad and to encourage international cultural exchange. Today it is represented in 98 countries and has some 3,300 employees. It contributes widely to the promotion of artists, ideas and works. Supporting the local cultural scenes and strengthening pan-African dialogue through the arts are part of its mission on the African continent, where it operates 19 institutes in Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Alexandria, Cairo, Casablanca, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Kigali, Lagos, Lomé, Luanda, Nairobi, Rabat, Tunis, Windhoek, Yaoundé, as well as liaison offices in Algiers, Kinshasa, and Ougadougou and cultural associations in Antananarivo, Bamako, Cape Town, Harare, Kampala and Maputo.
For more information, contact katja.kellerer@goethe.de, Head of Information and Library at the Goethe-Institut Nigeria.
Actress Gabrielle Union introduces a Children’s Book titled “Welcome to the Party”
Gabrielle Union has authored her first children’s book titled “Welcome to the Party“.
“Welcome to the Party” is inspired by the arrival of her daughter Kaavia, whom she welcomed in November 2018, and will hit the stores on May 5, 2020.
This is not her first time authoring a book. She’s already a New York Times bestselling author with 2017 book, “We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True“.
The “Bring it On” actress unveiled the cover of the book on Instagram and it features artwork by illustrator Ashley Evans.
Sharing the cover of the book, Gabrielle wrote:
This is a very special moment for me, to write my very first children’s book. Since the birth of @kaaviajames … I’ve been even more inspired to create stories that are not only representative of the cultural melting pot we live in, but also celebrate life and the fun, teachable lessons that come at every age. Welcome to the Party, will hit shelves on 5.5.20! This is my love letter for parents everywhere who are excited to welcome their bundle of joy to the party that is life.
James Bond “No Time To Die” Release Date Change Rumour
Fans of James Bond‘s “No Time to Die” starring Daniel Craig will have to wait because the highly anticipated movie has been rescheduled for November.
The James Bond sequel was set for debut on March 31st in London, and April 10th in North America, and has now been postponed in the U.K. for November 12th and in the U.S. on November 25th.
“MGM, Universal and Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, announced today that after careful consideration and thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace, the release of NO TIME TO DIE will be postponed until November 2020. The film will be released in the U.K. on November 12, 2020, with worldwide release dates to follow, including the US launch on November 25, 2020″ the official Twitter page for the film shared.
The film will be released in the U.K. on November 12, 2020 with worldwide release dates to follow, including the US launch on November 25, 2020.
— James Bond (@007) March 4, 2020
According to Rolling Stone, a source at MGM revealed that “the decision was based on theatre closures in China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, and France, plummeting box-office numbers in international markets, and a desire to ensure the film has a successful worldwide release”.
The source said, “The film wouldn’t have its greatest chance of success because there are too many unknowables at this point. This is a global film; this is the first time the movie’s been in a marketplace in five years. We really believe in the theatrical experience. We want this to be a theatrical experience in the same spirit of the other films.”
Burna Boy Graces Cover of GQ Magazine
Burna Boy now tagged the ‘Global Giant’ by GQ Magazine got featured on the Spring/Summer issue, showcasing his iconic style. Photographed by Prince Gyasi, Burna Boy talks to the publication about music, authenticity, and letting the world cross over to him.
On his Grammy Nomination:
My uncle ran into my hotel room screaming that I was nominated. We were all so happy.
On Fela as an Inspiration:
Fela is my inspiration and my childhood hero, so if you think comparing me to Fela is honourable, it’s actually not. It actually makes me feel weird. Fela was Fela, and if it wasn’t for Fela, there probably wouldn’t be any me, so I don’t understand the comparison.
On the Xenophobic Violence in South-Africa:
It’s all just very fucked-up and twisted, and I wish to God that it wasn’t so, but it is, and all I can do is try and do my part to change it, no matter how small that part is. It’s almost as if the oppressors have won when the oppressed start acting like this.
My family is Africa, which is why you will hear me speaking on the South Africa issue, which is why it strikes a nerve. It’s almost like having your whole body, and your hand is not working. That’s what it feels like.
There’s too much going on in the world for everybody to just care about being fucking rich and fucking Instagram-clouded; everybody can’t be that. The more of that there is, the more the world suffers, and what’s important just goes down the drain and the downward spiral continues. It’s even accelerated. Now is the time. Everybody should wake the fuck up. South Africa and the whole of Africa needs to wake the fuck up.
On Uniting Africa with Music:
The reason for everything I do and how I do it is for one goal and one goal only, and that’s the eventual unity of Africa. One day we’ll have one passport, one African currency, one Africa. Then and only then will my mission be complete.
But that’s why I’m going to keep on fighting for it, and that’s why I’m going to keep pushing this message in my music. Because I want my children and their children to be proud to be African, to own a part of Africa. What I don’t want is for my children to still feel like foreigners in their own home.
‘The Banker’: Film Review
Apple TV Plus gets into the movie game with a historical finance caper starring Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson as 1950s entrepreneurs who had to become con artists to be players in the banking business.
“The Banker” is one of the rare movies centered on a bank that isn’t about robbing it. That doesn’t mean the film is short on scams or deceptions. Based on historic events that took place in the 1950s and ’60s, “The Banker” tells the true story of Bernard Garrett (Anthony Mackie) and Joe Morris (Samuel L. Jackson), a wily pair of African-American entrepreneurs who made themselves part of the real-estate game in Los Angeles, with the goal of getting rich (which they did) and, at the same time, of breaking the color line, making it possible for black citizens to move into formerly all-white neighborhoods.
Knowing that the real-estate business is the right arm of the banking business, the two sought to maneuver their way into the latter. Yet due to the color of their skin, they could barely get through the door. So they recruited a white man, a home-repair worker named Matt Steiner (Nicholas Hoult), to act as a front for them. They trained him to walk like a banker, talk like a banker, and think like a banker. That’s when the plot thickened.
This past December, “The Banker” was set to be the first theatrical feature released by Apple TV Plus, and it’s easy to see why a company as powerful as Apple would want to present a movie like this one as its “Look out, Netflix, here we come!” awards-bait launch statement. (The release date got bumped after Garrett’s son, Bernard Garrett Jr., who was one of the movie’s producers, was accused of sexual abuse by his half-sister, Cynthia Garrett. His name has since been removed from the film.)
“The Banker,” if you look at it through one lens, is a Civil Rights drama, and a highly original one, since it focuses on men who have the audacity to dream big — not just about political freedom and racial equality, but about making money — at a time of squelched opportunity. It’s a dead-serious story, but it has a sneaky caper side, since Garrett and Morris, in order to make themselves two of the first African-American bankers, have no choice but to act as con artists. Once they start using Steiner as a front, the two dress up, as a chauffeur and a janitor, to go into the banks and spy on board meetings. Talk about a disguise that’s also a social metaphor.
Beyond that, the film has a superb cast, with each actor biting into his role in a different showpiece style. Mackie plays Garrett as a deadpan shark in impeccable silver suits — a numbers wizard with a mind that won’t quit, though his aggression remains concealed behind a pair of horn-rims. Jackson’s Morris, who we first encounter as the lusty, tippling owner of an L.A. jazz club, is his own kind of deceptive hustler; he owns buildings all over the city, and bases every move on a ruefully vivacious perception of how little he trusts…anyone. The white man? Not at all. The black man? A little bit, but never too much. Jackson’s performance is so jaunty that it takes a while to see how much hard-won cynical wisdom he packs in there.
“The Banker” aims high. It doesn’t dumb down the banking jargon or try to trick up the front-man stuff into some sort of facile racial suspense thriller. It’s a movie about finance: how it operates, how to succeed. It’s a movie, to a large degree, about things that happen on paper, and “The Banker,” at least on paper, must have looked like a winner and a knockout. But as directed by George Nolfi (who co-wrote the script with three other writers), there’s something staid and contained about it. Visually, it’s got a picturesque but antiseptic made-for-streaming quality, and as drama it’s like a deep-dive magazine article in movie form. You may wish that you were reading about these events in The New Yorker, because the movie is so choked with neutral detail that it’s a little bloodless. It lacks fire.
Garrett, who overhears and absorbs business arcana like a sponge when he’s shining shoes as a kid in Willis, Texas, arrives in L.A. with his wife, Eunice (Nia Long), and young son, Bernard Jr. (Jaylon Gordon), ready to take over the town. He grasps how bringing an end to segregation will be both a moral act and a financial windfall, tapping the resources of a new black middle class. For a while, the sternly disciplined Garrett and the high-rolling Morris do a skeptical dance around each other, but they start buying buildings and become well-oiled partners. It’s Garrett who comes up with their most outlandish plan: to purchase The Bankers Building, a 14-story architectural jewel that was, at the time, the largest commercial building in downtown L.A. If they can own it, they’ll be able to pressure any bank in the building to give them loans.
Matt Steiner, who they recruit to be their stand-in, starts off as an affable working-class dolt; their main challenge is teaching him how to play golf. But he has to learn to talk numbers, too, and it’s here that the movie starts to seem like it’s bending its own rules. Matt, who once tried to start his own business (a drive-in ice-cream stand), is an ace at memorizing, but he still has no idea what the numbers mean. But then he starts improvising in tricky situations; so he does know? And then, suddenly, he’s an ambitious banker, prodded by his gold-digger wife (Taylor Black), and he’s demanding his own share of the action. The inconsistency of his faux businessman’s journey is actually less bothersome than the way that Holt’s slightly goofy white character starts to exert so much pull on the narrative.
The second half of “The Banker” is all about how Garrett, in 1963, leads his partners to buy the Mainland Bank back in Willis (with Steiner, once again, as the front), so that he can give loans to black businesses there and build an African-American middle class in his old Texas town. This becomes the film’s political statement: that without the support of banks, black Americans were cut off from the possibilities of wealth-building. No right-minded person would disagree, yet as astute as the point may be, for a dramatic feature it’s an awfully wonkish message. And the way that Garrett’s scheme comes apart seems not so much wrenching as, simply, inevitable. “The Banker” fills in a slice of history you probably didn’t know. But it’s history written with vacuum-packed lightning.
Third Eye Blind Documentary to Premiere at 2020 Tribeca Film Festival
Short film will tell the story of their 1997 track “Motorcycle Drive By”
Third Eye Blind during Third Eye Blind Performs in Kansas City in Kansas City, Kansas, United States. (Photo by Mark Peterman/WireImage)
‘Motorcycle Drive By,’ a short film about Third Eye Blind’s 1997 track, will premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival in April.
A documentary short film about Third Eye Blind will premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, screening in New York City on April 17th. Titled Motorcycle Drive By, the film will focus on the band’s song by the same name.
Released on their 1997 self-titled debut — which included the hits “Semi-Charmed Life” and “How’s It Going to Be” — “Motorcycle Drive By” almost wasn’t included on the record due to label concerns.
Directed by David Wexler, the short film will trace the backstory of the song and highlight how it miraculously became a fan favorite, arguably one of their most popular songs. A performance by frontman Stephan Jenkins will follow the premiere.
“It never had anything,” Jenkins says of the song’s history in the film. “The only thing that has kept it alive and vibrant…is you guys.” When asked about the track’s meaning, he adds: “The object of your desire doesn’t love you back. That urge to live, that urge to connect, even when it’s unreciprocated, is redemptive.”
On March 11th, Third Eye Blind will embark on Screamer Tour Part 2, the second trek in support of their album Screamer, released last fall. Saves the Day will serve as their musical guest.
Documentaries on Brian Wilson, Ronnie Wood, the Go-Go’s, DMX, Big Freedia and others will also screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, held from April 15th through the 26th. Passes for the festival are available now, while single passes go on sale March 17th.
‘In The Shadow of Biafra’
Book Talk.
Dr Louisa Egbunike’s documentary, In The Shadow of Biafra, weaves together an engaging narrative of reflections from authors touched by one of the most devastating conflicts of the 1960s, one that still casts its shadow on Nigerians around the world. The Biafra War led to the deaths of at least 1-2 million people in just 30 months — many of them children
The film juxtaposes a variety of reflections by creative writers – both those who lived through the war, and those who have been touched by its impact on their families both before and since they were born. In The Shadow of Biafra engages with topics such as how the war is remembered, the inheritance of trauma and the role of writers during the war.
The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with the director, Dr Egbunike and Sarah Ozo-Irabor, Podcaster and Cultural Critic.
Louisa Uchum Egbunike is a lecturer in English at City, University of London. She completed her PhD on ‘The Igbo Experience in the Igbo-Nigerian Novel’ at SOAS, University of London, where she has also lectured in Contemporary African Literature. In 2016 she was selected as one of the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s ‘New Generation Thinkers’ which has seen her create and present content for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and BBC Arts Online. Louisa has been an invited guest lecturer to a number of institutions including Wellesley College, The University of the West Indies and The University of Bremen. She has published in a number of academic books and journals including African Literature Today and Matatu. She has written reviews for the Times Literary Supplement and appeared on The Guardian newspaper’s podcast. Louisa is the curator of the touring art exhibition Legacies of Biafra and co-writer and producer of the documentary film In the Shadow of Biafra. Louisa is one of the founders and conveners of the annual international Igbo Conference.
Sarah Ozo-Irabor is a culture critic and digital content creator. She utilises new media to engage in honest, insightful, and accessible discussions on literature and reading culture. She is the creator and host of Books & Rhymes, the podcast that “flips the script with a musical twist on your favourite books”. Sarah has been featured on BBC Open Book, Edinburgh Literary festival, Africa Writes Festival; she has partnered with Africa Utopia, Media Diversified, and several organisations and media outlets.
Eko International Film Festival; 10 Years & Counting
The annual Eko International Film Festival (EKOIFF) is an international film festival in the coastal mega-city of Lagos of an estimated population of 21 million (2017) in southwestern Nigeria
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It was founded and established by Hope Obioma Opara in 2009 and Hope Obioma Opara is the also the CEO of Supple Communications Limited under which the festival is Holden. He is also the publisher of Supple magazine a film festivals and culture magazine in Africa showing previews and reviews of movies and interviews on www.supplemagazine.org.
The mission of Eko International Film Festival is to promote the appreciation of Arts and Culture through the motion picture arts and sciences and increase tourism in Nigeria.
Eko International Film festival is owned (Trade Mark and Copy Right) and organized by Supple Communications Limited.
The inaugural edition was held in the megacity of Lagos in summer, July 7-12, 2010, at the Genesis Deluxe Cinemas of The Palms in Lekki, Lagos, with filmmakers from Nigeria, Kenya, UK, Germany, France, Spain and America.
The subsequent editions were held at the Silverbird Cinemas of the Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island, Lagos. till date
Our film festival is on her 10th edition slated to take place in March 10 – 14, 2020
Pa Kasumu, Kayode Odumosu, 66, is dead.
Veteran Nollywood actor, Kayode Dosumu, otherwise known as Pa Kasumu,has succumbed to the claw of death.
Francis Olugbenga Olukayode Odumosu aka Pa Kasumu passed on today Sunday 1st March 2020 in his Abeokuta Home.
He’s aged 66 years. PA Kasumu is a veteran Yoruba Actor acted in so many films and star of lagos na wah where he played Solomon the Lagos JJC.
His remains has since been deposited in a private Mortuary in Abeokuta.
Mr Tunde Odumosu, his Son broke the News this morning to OGUN State Indigene Entertainment professionals forum coordinator, Kehinde Soaga
He said Funeral arrangements will be communicated to the public this week after due family consultation.
Mrs Idowu Olajide, the Consultant Medical expert in charge of Pa Kasumu”s case expressed grief and confirmed the Demise of the Great Actor.
Pa Kasumu had been ‘walking in the shadows of death’ for quite a time now.
The renowned actor, he suffered from a heart disease, which he confirmed to us when contacted on phone on sometimes ago.
“The ailment is also affecting my vision and my memory,” Pa Kasumu faintly informed.
He also confirmed to us that he needs about N12 million to undergo treatment to correct the defects.
We learnt was undergoing treatment at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, Mushin for secondary prevention of repeat stroke.
The actor’s ailment started back in 2009 and was treated for kidney related disease. He lamented that he has spent all his fortunes to make sure he fully gets back on his feet. He pleaded with well meaning Nigerians to help him regain his good health.
Jimmy Jean-Louis Guest of the 9th edition of the Luxor African Film Festival
Festival President, Sayed Fouad, announced that the international superstar, Jimmy Jean-Louis will be the guest of honor for the 9th edition from 6 to 12 March 2020, after Jean-Louis agreed to attend the festival in Luxor to receive an honorary trophy at the opening ceremony which will be held in the Luxor Temple, and two of his films will be screened as part of the festival’s program, “Desrances” from Burkina Faso, directed by Apolline Traoré, which participates in Long Narrative competition, and “Rattlesnakes” from the United States in the Diaspora section.
Director Azza El Hosseiny, director of the festival, has stated that Jean-Louis will hold a press conference at the Luxor Temple, and will take a Nile cruise in Luxor and Aswan to promote tourism.
Jimmy Jean-Louis lived in the slums of Haiti until the age of 12 until he moved to Paris. He worked for three years in a musical theatre in Spain La Belle Epoque before embarking on a successful modelling career in Europe.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to pursue acting. His filmography includes Tears of the Sun with Bruce Wills, Hollywood Homicide with Harrison Ford, Monster-in-Law with Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez, Phat Girlz with Oscar winner Mo’Nique. He also starred in some famous TV series such as Heroes where he portrayed the charismatic Rene aka The Haitian, Arrow, Heroes Reborn, and Joy with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert DeNiro. He is currently a regular on the number drama of the summer Claws which has been screened at TNT since 2017. His most important role to date is playing the title character in Toussaint Louverture, for which he won the best actor at the Pan African Film Festival and a nomination at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2012.
Jimmy Jean-Louis was named Ambassador at large to Haiti by his Excellency President Michel Martelly In 2014.
Netflix Orders First Nigerian Original From ‘Vaya’ Director Akin Omotoso
Netflix has unveiled its first Nigerian original – a drama from Vaya director Akin Omotoso.
The streamer has ordered an as-yet-untitled six-part series that will be directed by Akin, Daniel Oriahi and CJ Obasi.
Starring Kate Henshaw and Ade Laoye, the series is set in contemporary Nigeria and shot in Lagos. It tells the story of Kemi, a goddess reincarnated as a human to avenge her sister’s death. But first, she must learn how to use and harness her superpowers to defeat her enemies and save her family from destruction.
It is produced by Rififi Pictures, producers of Tell Me Sweet Something and Material.
Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said, “Movies like King of Boys, Merry Men and The Bling Lagosian have shown how much our members love Nigerian movies. So, we’re incredibly excited to be investing in Made in Nigeria stories – bringing them to audiences all around the world.”
Dorothy Ghettuba, manager of international originals, who oversees its African original push, added, “Our continent has a wealth of diversity, multiplicity, and beauty in stories that have yet to be told and we want to be top of mind for creators in Nigeria, especially when it comes to stories they haven’t had a chance to tell yet.”
