Top 7 AFRICAN v/b-logs you need to get onto

Being African in 2015 is a whole new world of opportunities, there is a vast internet on which you can meet other people from all across the continent, finding webtertainment content made on the continent isn't always the easiest, it takes some deep google searching, but i myself have, in recent weeks, done some deep searching and found some amazing content that i love.

 

1. An African City

i LOVE this webseries, capital L O V E, it follows the lives of 5 women from all over the continent who live in Accra, its extremely cosmopolitan and their outfits make me cry of jealously (i need to get my ankara game up for real) anyway. its almost like an African sex in the city, they address so many "taboo" subjects and break the traditional mold of what an African woman should be.

2.Oga's at the top

This Nigerian satire series is to die of laughter for, characters based on politicians portrayed through masterfully crafted puppets, the youtube channel ridicules those in charge (at the top DUH) with a combination of parodies and comedy skits.

3. Yagazie Emezi

She does everything from vlogging to poetry so just go and check her website,i am literally in love with her (and her hair) . The first time i saw Yagazie was on the front cover of my fathers Thisday newspaper, something about modern Nigerian women, i just really liked her hair and now i stalk her everyday (jk.... no not really) but anyway she is immensely talented and also her youtube channel is very entertaining so watch it.

4. Kansiime Anne

I would want this Ugandan comedian to be my best friend if only she wasn't hilarious in such a cruel way. Her videos are guaranteed to make you laugh when you're feeling down. Authentic African humor is what its called(i love it). Her youtube channel is a full of comedy skits, mainly of her insulting people in an African-mother-like-way. 

 5. Mark Fitzgibbon

This South-African vlogger gives me life with his"tief" humour, Alot of his content is based on generating humour about the cape-coloured community. His youthful take on it i absolutely love, kind of like Hazel Grace, he is funny without ever being rude. 

6. Adeola Fayehun

Adeola creates some of the best current affairs content to do with Africa, I especially liked her video in which she discusses Thomas Sankara, She might (in my impartial opinion) be one of the best pan-africanist news reporters on the internet. anyway, her channel is great for keeping up with whats happening on the continent.

7. The Slumflower

This London-based fashion blogger definitely inspires me with her distinctive style. HER OUTFITS GIVE ME LIFE. She is risky and does things with clothes most of the population wouldn't think of, but i love it. The way she puts together clothing is definitely inspirational.

Shea butter and lists.

If you’re in Grade 12 and having a panic attack right now then I understand why completely and I offer you hugs and tissues.
With university applications on the horizon (not really they are here) and decisions coming up (what am I going to study) and then losing confidence in your decisions( WHAT IF I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS IN 5 YEARS EVEN 3 YEARS MY LIFE IS AN ENDLESS DARK PIT, A PIT OF NO RETURN). I find myself having regular panic attacks and then eating, no doubt my pants size will have quadrupled by next year.
Being at this stage of life is truly strange, I remember when my mom wouldn't let me go to the mall alone with friends and my first day of high school, I was so oblivious with my newly pressed school uniform armed with my new edition Angus, thongs and full frontal snogging book in bag, and now with the freedom to hop in the car and go to whomever's party  I actually wish I could go back to a space where I didn't have to make decisions but coming of age is unavoidable and i asked myself “what is it you want?” The answer: happiness.
So following this all the decisions I will make in my life will lead me to happiness and then I’ll breath and be ok because life really isn’t that serious.
I have decided to sort out the lists and clutter in my life and I’ve even done some thrift shopping (after which I had to thoroughly disinfect everything I bought)
But back to the lists
Things I know for sure:
• After every sunset will come a sunrise:
• What makes you cry yourself to sleep today will only leave you with scars that fade, they fade faster if you use Shea butter which is really the cure to everything.
• Nothing can replace and is more important that good friends.
• Loving yourself is the greatest remedy for diseases that rot your insides.

Parts of me that I never want to lose:
• My sense of humor
• Social awareness cause this world aint gon’ fixed itself
• My fro, I need to continue changing lives with my greatness.
• My uncanny ability to see the best in people even when they don’t present it.

Things I want to do before I die:
• Make a difference in at least one person’s life
• Travel the world ( not really Paris, France, Dubai more like Marrakesh, New Delhi and Bali)
• Be a source of light and love (yes, I’m corny)
• Fall in deep, passionate, all consuming love.
• Eat pounded yam ( Yes I’m Yoruba and please don’t judge me)
With this in mind I am ready to take on whatever terrible monsters come at me (in a post-apocalyptic Katniss Everdeen sense).

The season of giving.

hello readers,
Firstly i'd like to apologise for the lack of posts or updates , i just finished exams and I've been recovering, however this is the end of such behavior and i have interesting content coming up in the foreseeable future.
The season of giving is upon us  and honestly i feel overwhelmed. Firstly Christmas is a reminder that my high school career is coming to an end and also it has recently, in the last few years, lost alot of the magic it once held for me.
Instead of moping around however i'm trying to reform my thoughts about Christmas by changing what i do.
In actuality i am a great consumerist but for the season of giving i would really like to tone that down. So over the next week i will be sharing charities i support with you these charities really mean alot  to me so please donate or volunteer, if you can, any little bit counts and that basically it for today.

Child Soliders:
This cause really means alot to me i read Ishmeal Beah's along way gone when i was about 13 and i remember thinking that  it was really horrific that these children my age and younger were being made to kill people like that. I also remember eventually making a movie about it for history class and  finding out that girls were also affected by this and very frequently were also the victims of sexual abuse, i think war is not a situation that anyone should be put in especially not children.
 click here for a UNICEF fact sheet that basically  in broader detail what i said above.

WAR CHILD is the first charity i would like to bring attention to. you can donate anywhere from three pounds to three million pounds and they have opportunities for  you to volunteer your time. they have really cool projects and even though i really doubt that my audience would be first in line to buy Dolly Parton cd's, you could possible sky dive for them? hay living life on the edge is always fun right?
CHILD SOLDIERS INTERNATIONAL  is another great charity the do work in countries like Myanmar, which has been in the news recently, Thailand, Chad and India.click on the name to see more about them. The also do research on the psychological effects of war on children. You can donate here .

If you read this and donated thank you.
Please share and forward this article to raise awareness because this issue isn't really talked about alot and it should be.  This festive season season many children will not look under their tree and find presents they will just be faced with the traumatic reality of going into the world and having to kill people. Help end this.

Fat Shaming

This post could go alot of ways,

firstly i could write a long post about how being beautiful and fat don't have to be mutually exclusive, 

OR i could write about how body size is not at all a factor of beauty and the overused " its not about whats outside its about whats inside" would be the star of this post.

That's not my place, i am neither fat nor am i skinny. so to pass any judgement on fat people would be wrong. 

Lets start by what inspired this post: i was casually scrolling through my instagram and i saw a lovely picture: the comment being "i am not fat i have fat, having fat doesn't define me" as powerful as that was, it was overshadowed by the next post which was a picture of a fat lady with tights clothes on with a comment that read something like; "this is not thick this is fat ew, sorry if i sound rude" now i found it very ironic that this lady was fat and did not merely have fat. 

Body shaming is an exercise we all partake in, well that is a gross generilisation, many of us partake in. Studies done by myself in my mind indicate that we body shame for two reasons

1. We have a weird feeling of superiority because our bodies are more socially desirable 

2. We feel bad about our bodies and feel the need  to exercise this self consciously and demean peoples whose bodies are less socially acceptable.

Do you see the problem with body shaming now?
We don't live in a Utopian society but if we did everybody would wear what they wanted and not be judged for merely wanting to be happy.

In this life i have decided that the Keke Palmer body doesn't happen to everyone and if i dont wear what i want waiting for it to happen to be i'm doing to be 60 wearing bum shorts.

LET PEOPLE LIVE.

Its ok to express your personality by wearing what ever makes you happy, its not ok to judge people for the decisions they make regarding their bodies. 

Freedom park

Just a few shots of the exhibits at my new favorite heritage site in South Africa for HERITAGE day.

Freedom park should be added to bucket lists all over the world because it tells a holistic history of  Africa which is very cool so go.if i had to rate it, probably like a 4.5/5 

the website with directions and stuff: http://www.freedompark.co.za/

Humanity

i find it rather upsetting how little people want to know, not know but want to know. i remember grade 9 history i did a project on holocaust denialism and i still to today find it very upsetting on how that is seen as PREPOSTEROUS however denying the African genocide is not.
Rewind to two days ago when  i looked this women in the eye while she told me that " apartheid was everyone's fault even the blacks, it was a large mis-communication and they stole cattle from the dutch who had already been oppressed by the British"my first thought was please bring the proof of the cattle they brought from the Nederlands here first but on reflection i found this so upsetting ( and yes my continous use of that word is deliberate) that i went to the bathroom and shed tears. How melodramatic of me. 10 minutes later this same woman continued on about how someone people in her family died in Auschwitz and she wasn't too found of German people. PREPOSTEROUS. how could you look me in the eyes and tell me that my great great grandma being brought as a slave from  malaysia was her fault but i however must reconcile and turn around and admit to not having done the same. Bigotry at it finest,
When writing about race and racism i always try to be neutral not offensive i try not to be an angry black woman. But never in my life have i been so insulted. this obviously senile woman reprimanded me after i gave her my ; you're speaking kak face. its just sick that this person completely dismisses everyones humanity but her own.
one day when i tell my children about this i will be sure to instill that in them, many people have suffered and you must respect that suffering learn from it and about it and try your absolute hardest not to become a patronizing twat.

In memory of Stanza

My mom had this friend in university called stanza bopape he was an active part of the struggle.
She tells me the national party government cut him and two and threw him down a well and I tear up.
It's not the first time she tells me this story. Every time I tear up. Sometimes on the way to school I drive past a street named after him and I start to think... What if he was still alive? What would he have named his children? Would I even know his children?
To put this in context I don't know him. I have never met him. All I know is stanza bopape street and my mothers stories. But somehow I feel robbed... If he was still alive I could have listened to his stories. Stories I'd like to hear. About how they burned the banned books in fear that the impimpi's would report them. I just really don't know why his lack of existence in current times bothers me so much but it does. Every single time my mother refers to him I tear up and it's she doesn't even say it in an affectionate way but I cry. Stanza died for me to be free and I don't even know what free means... It constantly haunts me! This feeling of you're not doing enough to thank him. I don't know why I tear up at the mention of his name but it gets me so sad... Is this what he had in mind in detention? Me going to a school with white people who constantly deny their privilege? I wish he could tell me... But they cut him in half and threw him down a well.