Koriarts2010's Blog

Truth at 17 – Onome

African Journeys 2010 — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:39:25 +0000

See it’s easy

Easy to play the victim

And

It’s Easy

Easy to point a finger and blame the system

Yes

It’s easy

Easy to play the victim

And

It’s Easy

Easy to point a finger and blame the system

Though what’s not so easy is to assume responsibility

To take a realistic look at happenings

Check yourself and say- this is of my doing

This is our doing

Cause until we recognise what’s really going on

As a people are stuck

See I could easily blame the system for me

Not excelling at school

Cause the system told me not to work

Was the same system that made me talk

And the system that told me not to listen

Was the same system that made me walk

Round the grounds, with the blunt smoking, blade bearing

Shit talking fools

We was on that whole ‘forget this’ youth rebellion vibe

Used to preach bout how the teachers were ‘fucking up our lives’

Even though it was half past and lesson started at nine

Yet we can always shift the blame

Because it’s easy

Easy to play the victim

And

It’s Easy

Easy to point a finger and blame the system

Yes

It’s easy

Easy to play the victim

And

It’s Easy

Easy to point a finger and blame the system

They never taught me black history in school

So what

Didn’t learn bout the Chinese either

Simply

As a half Brit, British citizen

I studied a lot of British History

Fault that?

See we can talk bout

How it would be lovely

For the English education system

To teach our African kids some African History

But hear me

FROM THE ROOT THE TREE GROWS UPWARDS

And as the parents of our community you are our roots

Our single grip on yesterday’s victories

So if anybody should teach us our history

Inform our sons of what their forefathers achieved

Inform our daughters of their foremother’s beauty

It should be you

So we can blame who we want, when we want

But in reality

Where we fell, we must rise

And where we failed we must succeed

Where we are scared to look

We must now see

And where we were scared to talk we must now speak

Cause we have a situation on our hands

An international epidemic of self hate and under achievement

And until we see that we had a part in our own downfall

We shall never witness

The uprising of our people

Salute Wangari Maathai

African Journeys 2010 — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 23:52:50 +0000

Kenya’s tree woman

27 February 2007 11:59

One day Wangari Maathai went out with some friends into Nairobi to plant a tree. This was not unusual, given that she has been responsible for planting 30-million trees in Kenya in the past three decades. But on that day, January 8 1999, as she raised her hoe to dig a hole for the sapling, she and her friends were attacked by 200 guards armed with machetes, whips, bows and arrows, and swords. “When the blow came,” she writes in her autobiography, Unbowed, “I felt not so much pain as surprise, even though from the beginning the thugs clearly wanted to hurt or even kill us.”

Her face still warm with blood from a deep head wound, she reported the attack to some local police officers and offered to take them to the scene so her assailants could be arrested. They insisted instead that she sign a formal complaint. Bloodied but defiant, Maathai took a finger, dipped it in her blood and signed the complaint with an X. Nobody was arrested, and no wonder: that evening she saw TV footage suggesting that the police might have colluded with her attackers.

This was not the first or last time she would be attacked for planting trees. Maathai, who became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, has been beaten frequently, often by riot police, and jailed repeatedly. She was described as “that mad woman” by former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, who said she had no moral authority to speak on environmental or any other political matters because she was a divorcee (the fact that he too was divorced did not seem to matter). Once a Kenyan MP from the ruling Kanu party even suggested that she should be forcibly circumcised. Yet no one has succeeded in frightening her away from her chosen course: “It is wonderful when you don’t have the fear, and a lot of the time I don’t,” she says. “I focus on what needs to be done instead.”

Why was tree planting so dangerous? The main reason was that it flew in the face of then president Moi’s policy of development for Kenya. When Maathai received her head wound, she had been leading a protest against the planned development of Nairobi’s only remaining forest. “They wanted to take public land that was there for the common good and give it to friends and political supporters to build expensive houses and golf courses,” she says.

By that time she had become a veteran at successfully opposing such luxury developments. In 1989 she had campaigned against the construction by Moi’s business associates of a 60-storey skyscraper in the middle of Uhuru Park, one of Nairobi’s few remaining green lungs. “It would have been like building over Hyde Park,” Maathai says. One of the investors, she discovered, was Robert Maxwell. That project foundered in the face of the opposition generated by her campaign.

Later, when Moi had to cancel the plans to build on Karura Forest, he said he couldn’t understand why people would object to a development that would be an example of Nairobi striding forward into the future.

But Maathai’s life struggle has been against such deforestation in her country. She was born in 1940 in a village called Ihithe in the central highlands, about which she writes nostalgically. “We lived in a land abundant with shrubs, creepers, ferns and trees … Because rain fell regularly and reliably, clean drinking water was everywhere. There were large, well-watered fields of maize, beans, wheat and vegetables. Hunger was virtually unknown.”

Little of Kenya is like that now. The colonial era and mismanagement since independence have, she says, given rise to poverty, hunger, soil erosion, even political corruption. Today only 2% of the country’s indigenous forest remains. In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organisation made up mostly of poor women from rural areas. Her aim was to help these women by paying them (initially from her own funds, but later with grants, the largest from the United Nations) to plant trees in their villages; for Maathai, conservation and feminism have always been closely allied. Those 30-million trees have been planted by an estimated 100 000 women in Kenya, and Maathai has become known as the “tree woman” whose green activism has become a model around the world.

Given her belief that “without the British, we would not have had the corruption and greed that accompanied the first 30 years of independence”, it’s disarming that Maathai manages to smile so much during this interview with a British journalist in a smart hotel in the capital of the former colonial power. British rule not only created Kenya from 42 ethnic groups, but initiated the devastation of the landscape and worsened the position of women in Kenya, she says. “When the British arrived [shortly after the 1885 Congress of Berlin that carved up the continent betweeen European powers], they started cutting down indigenous forests and replacing them with monocultural forests, such as pines and eucalyptus trees, which were quick-growing and so would supply material for telephone poles and housing.” This led to soil erosion and destroyed natural habitats.

Then there was the colonial administration’s eroding of the position of Kenyan women. “When the British came they introduced the concept of title deeds for land, which they insisted be in the name of the head of the household. That was always the man,” explains Maathai. “That undermined the traditional setting whereby land belongs to the family. This reform stopped women having legal right to the land.” British rule also meant that arable land was used increasingly for cash crops (tea, coffee, sugar cane) rather than subsistence farming. “When the cash came in, it went into a bank account held by the man, even though it was women and children who did the work in the fields. Women were completely disenfranchised.” That is a prime reason why the struggle of the Green Belt Movement was closely connected with improving the lot of rural women.

Unlike many of the women for whom she campaigned, Maathai was lucky. She was educated at St Cecilia’s in the regional centre of Nyeri, a boarding school run by a Catholic mission. In 1960 she was one of hundreds of Kenyans sent to study at colleges in the United States as part of the “Kennedy airlift” of Africans to US tertiary education. She earned her first degree in biology from Mount St Scholastica College in Kansas and a master’s in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh. “The time I was there coincided with Martin Luther King’s campaigning. When it became clear Kenya was going to become independent, King’s words were resonant for me: ‘Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

She returned to Nairobi filled with hopes, but was brought down with a bump. The job she had been offered in the department of zoology at the University of Nairobi was withdrawn. “I began to see that I was being mistreated as a woman,” she says. She got a job in a different university department, but soon found herself campaigning against discriminatory terms of service that not only meant women academics received less pay than men, but were denied pensions and medical insurance for children.

Maathai became the first East African woman to hold a doctorate (one section of Unbowed begins, divertingly: “In 1971, I completed my PhD on the development and differentiation of gonads in bovines”). But such was the sexism she encountered at university in Kenya and from Moi’s political allies that she was unable to quietly continue her academic work. “That has been the tragedy of my life and that of many other well-trained African women,” she says. “We have not been able to do what we trained to do. I had to take part in the struggle rather than do academic work.” Yet, she says, she realised her encounters with discrimination “were luxuries by comparison with the immiseration of poor, rural women. And I knew that healing the environment was central to my country’s future health.”

Maathai got a reputation for being a strong and, for some, troublesome woman. In 1977, her husband, a former politician, instituted divorce proceedings. In court he is reported to have said that he wanted a divorce because she was “too educated, too strong, too successful, too stubborn and too hard to control”.

Moi’s rule came to an end in 2002 when an election swept a multiparty coalition to power. One of the new MPs was Maathai, who was elected with 98% of the votes cast. “I got into politics because I wanted to show that we don’t need to be thieves. There must be another way of doing politics in my country.” From 2003 to 2005, she served as assistant environmental minister, but found the budget for environmental action “peanuts”. By comparison with the security budget, “it is nothing. But the Kenyan army has not fought for decades! What we have done is hold seminars for the army and demonstrated to them that the land they are supposed to be protecting is disappearing under their feet.” They have now started planting trees, she says, starting in their own barracks. And they are not the only recent converts to tree planting. Rarely does a visiting dignitary miss the chance to be photographed with Maathai planting a tree. British Finance Minister Gordon Brown and US Senator Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, are among the latest.

Maathai says her hopes for her country are growing. “I have seen rivers that were brown with silt become clean-flowing again … The job is hardly over, but it no longer seems impossible.” — © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2007

Looking to 2011

African Journeys 2010 — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 22:56:01 +0000

Coming back and coming down from the achievements of this year – KORI Arts is looking towards a new future. No matter how you look at it if you are conscious and of African heritage and living in London - your eyes and your heart hurt everyday. Yes we have to be positive and God knows we have a whole industry chirping pretty affirmations daily but things through Garvey eyes are not looking any better for Africans. In London we run around over weight, high blood pressured, mentally ill or violent and we crush each other every day. Coming back to London this year meant a serious consideration of how to move forward.

Consequently, after the report was done we called a gathering – ‘African Journeys 2010′ – it brought together many positive organisations, mainly led by exhausted inspirer’s that had been doing their best to uplift and support the community. They had a list of good works but mainly led their organisations with little support from the people that used them. No unity in the community – still! Wow what does it take, even our youths blood all over the streets leaves us passive cowering in our homes, holding on to our sons and praying that the big white policeman is going to make it better!

People, where are we going – there is no where to run! Well our response is to create Ebony Tree. A charity for the ready. Ready to work that is. Ebony Tree is about partnerships here and in Africa. First however, Ebony Tree will support structural development in willing organisations. Kori Arts is focused on being a social enterprise that develops young people that will continue to lead well into the future. Ebony Tree has a different path to travel………watch this space!

The final on Tanzania 2010

African Journeys 2010 — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 22:35:22 +0000

tanzania report 2010 final

African Journeys 2010 — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 22:24:14 +0000

KORI ARTS ANNUAL REPORT 2009 – 2010

Olusola Adebiyi

African Journeys 2010 — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:41:26 +0000

My journey to Tanzania like everyone else’s in KORI Arts began in January when
we were invited to the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) by Edward
Jacka Lusala. However, due to term time commitments (working in a Tottenham
primary school) I was unable to go until the final week of the KORI Arts
programme…

After an interminable journey including a Transit stop in Muscat Airport Oman
- (Ironic considering the enslavement and conquest relationship the Arabs of
Oman built with the Africans of Zanzibar: Tanzania) – Landing at the Julius
Nyere Airport, Dar es Salaam was a blessed relief. I walked out into the blazing
sunshine of the land of Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti and that enigmatic people the
Masai; hoping to be met as arranged by Steph’ and Lyd’ two of our mentees whose
Tanzanian odyssey had ended and who were preparing for a homeward journey.

Sights: concrete paving stones, tiny boutiques crammed with a mish-mash of
western orientated must haves… A dingy internet cafe serving the urgent and
the ungodly, friendly faces: smiling. familiar faces(!) smiling… Steph’ and Lyd’

(whoop whoop!)

Sounds: cacophony of excited greeting yells, chaos of taxi touts, rich sea tones
of musical language, Swahili, flowing like a welcome torrent ‘karibu’ to virgin
ears. Friendly shouts; happy. Familar shouts: joyful Steph’ and Lyd’ (you guessed
it)!

That first evening is a whirlwind of sensory overload, puddle laden dirt roads,
contrasting with ultra modern (deadly to cross) highways. Roaring smog belching
4 by 4s jumbled in with a mix of the ancient (oxen drawn carts) and the
sublime: timeless call of the Athan (the Muslim call to prayer). Laden with
luggage, nostrils clogging with ever present dust, catch-up conversation with
the recently met (you know who they are)! Cloudless sky, red kissed with dusk’s
evening tones, gigantic poster shouting: Vodacom! adjacent to another featuring
a cowrie shell laden, whirling dancer emblazoned with the obvious caption: I
love to dance! KORI means Cowrie so perhaps this was an affirmation of our
presence in the Motherland.

Knowing that I had only a short time with Lydia and Stephanie, we decided to
dump our stuff in the nearby cheap but clean hotel (with working ceiling fans:
thank the almighty)! Then to sit under the quickly darkening African sky and
press on with the evaluation. That as far as I knew was my sole purpose on this
journey: to evaluate the experience of the mentors and the leaders, concerning
their work and experiences in Tanzania. Hmm! I was far off the mark! More of
that soon.

evaluation as I explained to the young ladies was for our report, but more
importantly it was for their own understanding. Often people engage in
potentially life changing experiences, but they lose the learning because they
don’t work out what is important to them within it all. I hoped to eliminate
that process of experience leakage… Did it work? You’ll have to ask
the Mentors!’”

After a (short)! sleep I said goodbye to Steph’ and Lyd’ and started the next
leg of my journey, by bus to Arusha in the north of Tanzania. Bus journeys can
be dire but the welcoming protectiveness of the driver and the assistant made
mine pleasant… all ten hours of it! Ten leg stiffening hours of thatched hut
watching, cook fire smelling, street pedlars (narrowly avoiding death by bus
tyre), Masai thronging (what is this western fascination with this tribe
anyway)? Above all else though, the landscape inspired and almost prayerful
awe. Stunning? beautiful? breathtaking? Small words that cannot capture even a
fraction of the magnificent cloud kissing hump backed undulating progress of the
road to Arusha. Never have I been so completely encompassed by mountains and
for so many miles…

Eventually, travel worn and artistically inspired, I arrived in the busy town of
Arusha at about 4.40pm. After a very happy meeting with Odiri she (somewhat
gleefully) informed me of the following
“you’re teaching a KaZimba class to 200 students at 6.30 tomorrow morning!

And you’re going to story-tell and coach a class to perform the story you tell
them in 3 days!”

Yikes! What could I do? ‘Falling into deepwater learning’ is what we do to the
mentors so how could I balk from a taste of our own medicine?!? Besides Odiri
got up and trained with us too, plus she also had the same story telling task
with a different class.

Sola and Aaron doing their thing!

St Jude’s school in Arusha was a truly blessed encounter with the humble and yet
indomitable spirit of African children. They were magnificent and so committed
to learning (they practiced at home and in school breaks) that we all had to
work hard to remain one step ahead of them in terms of teaching! Some of them
take Fourteen(!) subjects and because they are boarders, school from 8.30 til 6pm
every day. And yet they still practiced what we were teaching them! Just like
London children (yeah right!!!)

The teachers watched and seemed impressed / inspired. We put our hearts and
souls joyfully into bringing the best out of the children and they exceeded even
our very high expectations. Their performances were rich with nuance and a
sublime testimony to their deep talent… wow! What a rewarding experience…
There is nothing like having to think on your feet to get the juices flowing.

Arusha to ST JUDES

African Journeys 2010 — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:29:27 +0000

Olusola Adebiyi

My journey to Tanzania like everyone else’s in KORI Arts began in January when we were invited to the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) by Edward Jacka Lusala. However, due to term time commitments (working in a Tottenham primary school) I was unable to go until the final week of the KORI Arts programme…

After an interminable journey including a Transit stop in Muscat Airport Oman – (Ironic considering the enslavement and conquest relationship the Arabs of Oman built with the Africans of Zanzibar: Tanzania) – Landing at the Julius Nyere Airport, Dar es Salaam was a blessed relief. I walked out into the blazing
sunshine of the land of Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti and thatenigmatic people the Masai; hoping to be met as arranged by Steph’ and Lyd’ two of our mentees whose Tanzanian odyssey had ended and who were preparing for a homeward journey.

Sights: concrete paving stones, tiny boutiques crammed with a mish-mash of
western orientated must haves… A dingy internet cafe serving the urgent and the ungodly, friendly faces: smiling. familiar faces(!) smiling… Steph’ and Lyd’ (whoop! whoop!)

Sounds: cacophony of excited greeting yells, chaos of taxi touts, rich sea tones of musical language, Swahili, flowing like a welcome torrent ‘karibu’ to virgin ears. Friendly shouts; happy. Familar shouts: joyful Steph’ and Lyd’ (you guessed it)!

That first evening is a whirlwind of sensory overload, puddle laden dirt roads, contrasting with ultra modern (deadly to cross) highways. Roaring smog belching 4 by 4s jumbled in with a mix of the ancient (oxen drawn carts) and the
sublime: timeless call of the Athan (the Muslim call to prayer). Laden with luggage, nostrils clogging with ever present dust, catch-up conversation with
the recently met (you know who they are)! Cloudless sky, red kissed with dusk’s evening tones, gigantic poster shouting: Vodacom! adjacent to another featuring
a cowrie shell laden, whirling dancer emblazoned with the obvious caption: I love to dance! KORI means Cowrie so perhaps this was an affirmation of our presence in the Motherland.

Knowing that I had only a short time with Lydia and Stephanie, we decided to dump our stuff in the nearby cheap but clean hotel (with working ceiling fans:
thank the almighty)! Then to sit under the quickly darkening African sky and press on with the evaluation. That as far as I knew was my sole purpose on this
journey: to evaluate the experience of the mentors and the leaders, concerning their work and experiences in Tanzania. Hmm! I was far off the mark! More of that soon.

I devised an evaluation format based on a Nigerian wisdom story. It was divided into useful sections that provided ‘signposts’ to make reflection easy and a story format to inspire memory and possibly more intuitive responses. The
evaluation as I explained to the young ladies was for our report, but more importantly it was for their own understanding. Often people engage in
potentially life changing experiences, but they lose the learning because they don’t work out what is important to them within it all. I hoped to eliminate
that process of experience leakage… Did it work? You’ll have to ask
the Mentors!’”
After a (short)! sleep I said goodbye to Steph’ and Lyd’ and started the next leg of my journey, by bus to Arusha in the north of Tanzania. Bus journeys can
be dire but the welcoming protectiveness of the driver and the assistant made mine pleasant… all ten hours of it! Ten leg stiffening hours of thatched hut watching, cook fire smelling, street pedlars (narrowly avoiding death by bus
tyre), Masai thronging (what is this western fascination with this tribe anyway)? Above all else though, the landscape inspired and almost prayerful
awe. Stunning? beautiful? breathtaking? Small words that cannot capture even a
fraction of the magnificent cloud kissing hump backed undulating progress of the road to Arusha. Never have I been so completely encompassed by mountains and or so many miles.

And you’re going to story-tell and coach a class to perform the story you tell them in 3 days!”

Yikes! What could I do? ‘Falling into deepwater learning’ is what we do to the mentors so how could I balk from a taste of our own medicine?!? Besides Odiri got up and trained with us too, plus she also had the same story telling task with a different class.

St Jude’s school in Arusha was a truly blessed encounter with the humble and yet indomitable spirit of African children. They were magnificent and so committed
to learning (they practiced at home and in school breaks) that all had to work hard to remain one step ahead of them in terms of teaching! Some of them take Fourteen(!) subjects and because they are boarders, school from 8.30 til 6pm
every day. And yet they still practiced what we were teaching them! Just like London children (yeah right!!!)

The teachers watched and seemed impressed / inspired. We put our hearts and
souls joyfully into bringing the best out of the children and they exceeded even our very high expectations. Their performances were rich with nuance and a
sublime testimony to their deep talent… wow! What a rewarding experience… There is nothing like having to think on your feet to get the juices flowing.

Tanzania Team 2010 – first impressions

African Journeys 2010 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:10:06 +0000

Ebru Edgerworth

”Flying over to Tanzania for the third time I felt like it was my once again my first. I felt I had grown so much in two years since my last visit, I was sure the experience would be almost all new. It’s easy to forget your brain’s potential to surprise, to present gifts it has held hidden, waiting for the right moment to fall.

You know when you catch a certain smell and it sets your mind alight, like the scent of a perfume a girl you used to know wore, or the sweet smoke from a burning bay leaf and it acts as a trigger, instantly opening the doors to your brain’s auditorium of the past, rewarding, reminding and sometimes punishing you with images you’d think would be lost. That’s what I experienced when I stepped out of Dar Es Salaam International Airport.

That earthy, hot air licked me straight in the face and there it was, the projector started flickering, picture to picture; the sun, the sweat, the beauty, the wealth, the poverty, the food, the surprises’, the hustlers, the sea, the confused smiles like “what did he just say?”, the love that everyone shows, the palm trees, the sweaty bodies pressed up against you on the buses, the embarrassment like “my freshest trainers definitely weren’t necessary today”, the welcomes, the youths’ smiles, the reflecting… and most of all the feeling of being as close as I have ever been to content.

I overheard one of the mentors ask a senior if they were ready, “ready?” I said to myself “I can’t wait.”

Kadija Gooden
“When Odiri first said to me “You’re coming to Tanzania with us this year you know” the excitement started to kick in. But the fact that I was leaving London, and my homely comforts for a completely different culture only sunk in when we first arrived at Muscat. We came off the plane and the heat literally knocked me over, it was so hot! The horizon was breathtaking, yellow pains of sand, and the permanent blue skies.

Even though I was extremely tired, I still made time to completely take in my surroundings. We went to the night market and ate some local food there. It was a strange experience for me because we were thrown into a whole new culture and had to pay for things in thousands.

We also went to a beach resort, and I can truthfully say it is the best beach I have ever been on, part of this feeling was created by just being in Zanzibar with KORI.

”We went to Jang’ombe Secondary School and met the teenagers we were going to work with over the next two days and found out a little about their lives , on the rehearsal day they all created pieces for the performance. I worked with Lydia and Vanessa on the drama workshops, helping them to warm up the teenagers before they took over the heavy-duty acting development. The teenagers were all lovely and warm. I could relate to them whilst watching them acting.

I spoke to one of the teenagers who was my age and he expressed how he was jealous about me having the opportunity to do these activities, and it was a real wake up call for me to appreciate everything that I’m offered.”

Lydia Newman
”In this account I am supposed to write about my first week here in Zanzibar… however I don’t feel like I can adequately convey what this week has been to me without give a brief account of the weeks approaching this journey.

For me I have been heading towards Zanzibar from January – no strike that – I think my subconscious has been heading towards Zanzibar since November ’09, when I wrote my self a letter from the future (2011) to cheer myself up on a particularly sad day. In the letter I was living and working in Zanzibar, the place, which from my last visit I had felt was my favorite place on earth, the place where I could be completely content, with my heart and mind in sync.

When I spoke to Odiri early January (2010) and she told me that we had been invited to come out to Zanzibar in July it was as though my dreams burst through the realms of possibility and collided, head on, with my reality. Since that phone call Zanzibar is all that I worked towards, all of my family and closest friends saw less of me because if I was with Odiri planning, then I would be at work trying to get together money to cover my rent and bills whilst I was away and if I wasn’t at work then it I would be at a fundraiser… I moved closer to Odiri and Sola’s (not intententionaly!) but it meant that the majority of my week was filled with Kori in some way shape or form. All of the people close to me bugged me about working so much; my brother Daniel bugged me about always being so tired and not in the mood to play. I was tired, I was so tired of London, life for me there felt like the weather; cold, grey and desolate. To be honest I almost felt as if my mind depended on me being able to get to Zanzibar, so that everything could make sense.

Hmmm… … a not so brief background to the trip! Now I am here… in Zanzibar! For the first few days I felt as though I was out side of my self, not really present. Although we planned and planned and planned for the trip, there were many things that were out of our control and so the reality is nothing that I imagined it would have been.

We have just finished our first project working with young people from a Jang’ombe Secondary School. It was not what I expected; I think this time has been different to what I thought it would have been because this first project was to last for only two days. I had initially thought that it would be like our 2008 trip and that we would have a set group of young people that we would work with throughout our stay.

However, I was excited by the challenge as it meant that we would have just enough time to get to know the young people in Jang’ombe and hopefully build bonds and make lasting imprints on each others lives so that we both felt changed and enriched. I think that this was naive of me and too ridged an outcome for an experience like this one. I don’t think that it is the length of time that places its mark on my life but the energy that I give out whilst doing life that will create the difference.”

Maya White
“Arriving in Tanzania for the very first night felt exciting and scary at the same time. Going to the night market on our first night was not a huge culture shock but a very nice surprise. I felt initially quite uncomfortable by the amount of locals trying to rope in the tourist into buying their food, bracelets and art. I did think if this is what I will have to deal with for four weeks then I don’t know how I will cope. Having to say no to the friendly locals every ten minutes who are only trying to make a business is quite difficult and can be stressful because they are so nice and we are meant to be here to support the Tanzanians but I thought not quite in this way. The locals are really welcoming, only a few were unwelcoming, clearly judging us thinking we must be rich and greedy because we are from England. One local on the beach called us ‘Mzungu’ in quite a threatening way that was a bit worrying and I found out later the word meant white people.

Working with the children in Jang’ombe Secondary School today gave me a great sense of reward especially as the children have not experienced dance classes before. It was clear that they picked up the moves quickly, learnt a lot from us and really enjoyed it. I find it unfair that the kids and adults have to learn English as most countries usually do, but I think particularly here they learn so they can accommodate us travelers. I have already learnt a lot from the kids and Tanzanian people already, conversation is free and there is no harm in stopping to really help someone or to make just general chit chat, which is what they do so well here.

I see this opportunity as a chance to develop myself and bring my experiences and lessons back to the English culture… who let’s face it, really need it. I find myself more content here with the people than in London, and I hope to learn more Swahili so I’m able to connect with the people better. I think that it will make a difference to know they really perceive us if we show them we are also making the effort to communicate.”

Yoma Edgerworth
“An extremely long journey, however it’s one week in and I can already tell that the twelve hours flying and the extra hours waiting around doing absolutely nothing was 100% worth it.

A jam packed tiring week is one way to describe it, although I’m going to choose my words better by describing these first seven days in Zanzibar as, interesting, fun, highly energized, a family atmosphere, entertaining, quiet and peaceful at times, sweaty hugs and hand shakes within Jag’ombe Secondary School, dancing in dramatic heat for two days with a young enthusiastic talented students, sandy toes, wet bodies, amazing orange yellow and purple sun sets, lit up skies, hilarious talks and in general just a beautiful week.

So whilst my friends are stuck in an over heated stuffy classroom, I’m in Africa, in the sun, waking to a fresh blue skied day every morning with people I love and look up to, learning three times as much as I would in a school day. I would not say every thing’s easy, but I’m pretty much having an experience of a lifetime.

The week ahead can only get better. There is most likely going to be a busier schedule, although I think it’s always good to have a challenge.”

Stephanie Turner
“An introduction day in, Jang’ombe Secondary School, with just two hours to play with and one hundred young people! So we decided to run three 30-minute taster sessions. The children rotated around the three art forms drama, dance and so that they had a chance to experience all of the art forms.

I arrived buzzing, ready to ignite some fire! We began with a quick warm up which transitioned into a call and response with rhythms on the drum. The session was split into two parts, for the first part Onome lead a body percussion exercise, and for the second part I taught them a song and played with the performance of it.

The first session (which is always challenging, as no one is unsure of what to expect) ran smoothly, the second group was on fire! Clearly, the drama workshop had warmed them up nicely for Onome and I, and we had a better sense of how the group would respond to our session. The third group was not as interested in the singing, and seemed to take the session for joke at the beginning, but as it went on the energy picked up and we ended on a high.”

Saturday 3^rd July – Stephanie Turner

I struggled with my emotions this morning.

Darrian and Anthony open the session with the warm games; zip zap boing and riverbank, while I communicated the days plan with the translator in Jag’ombe Secondary School.

I begin with a warm up and talk about engaging the muscles we need to use to sing with breathing, humming and buzzing. The warming up leads into a call and response with Onome beating the drum, playing with song, testing the young peoples’ vocal abilities and exploring their ranges. We lead the group outside and I attempt to teach a simple rhythm, they pick this up perfectly vocally but when I attempt to transfer this to body percussion the group doesn’t quite grasp this. I move on to a short story/simple rap, which also proves to be difficult.

We close the first part of the day setting a writing task off of the back of the short rap story, exploring the theme of punishment. The response was mind blowing, the level of writing, and the social and political awareness, the owning of style and stories took me away.

After lunch we split the group in two and shared amongst our groups. I spoke about the importance of performance, expression and sharing and then worked with the young people giving individual and specific feedback and directions. Working through translators is difficult; especially when they are not artists themselves, you never know how much is lost in translation. We brought the two groups back together, sharing and giving each other feedback and then ended in song, which turned into a massive song and dance! The dance group running over to join in! Amazing! Inspired! KNACKERED!

Stephanie Turner

Reversals Rehearsals Rehearsals!

“9am start today – which so far, on this journey is to be considered a long lie in – The documenting team and the seniors go off into town to have a meeting with The SOS Orphanage. 36 young people from their talents group into the three different art forms (Music, Dance and Drama). The seniors are left at the ZIFF office with the Ziff Festival team to get briefed on their coming work experience in, leaving the artists in the house to rehearse.

The day began with a long jam with Onome, writing rhymes, filling out choruses, arranging pieces and improvising. I didn’t realise how much I had missed working with him, we just vibe! We develop our pieces, but they are not quite there yet. I have a play with the looping station and work out with Aaron how this will fit with our set and the drums.

The rest of the team arrived just in time for our late lunch early dinner; the dancers rehearse their routines whilst I go through the timetable with Odiri filling in our performances and workshops. We end the day with a meeting sharing our work and all the information that had been collected by the documenting team during the day. From the sounds of things the young people we will be working with at the SOS Orphange this week, are a lot more enthusiastic and have been chosen specifically for their performing arts skills! Yes! “

Bayo’s blog

Upon landing here I received many positive vibes from the people within the area. Over the course of the days that I have been here I have seen many different things that I hope will help me grow as a person. Also whilst being here I have heard about some things that have been emotionally draining. An example of this is when a girl at the SOS orphanage told me that she lost her mother when she was born her father shortly after, then her aunty (who had looked after her until that point) when she was 4. It was hard to listen to but I can only imagine what it is like to experience. However, my spirits were lifted when I saw how she and all the other children have dealt with their past and live for their future. All of the children interacted enthusiastically towards me and the group.

A thing that I found surprising was that all the Zanzibarian English speakers spoke with an American accent. I suppose it is because when they watch T.V or listen to music the main western influence is an American. I am learning quite a bit of Swahili rapidly (in comparison to the rest of the group) probably because I can learn languages quickly when I want to.

The ZIFF (Zanzibar International Film Festival)

African Journeys 2010 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:07:54 +0000

With the first week, and first successful workshop behind us, our focus has finally turned towards the ZIFF (Zanzibar international film festival. It was our main reason for coming back to Zanzibar, as our ultimate goal, albeit dream at the moment, is to get a group of children to perform on the stage. Our hopes of achieving this feat were boosted by our second workshop enterprise, with SOS Orphanage Children’s Charity. This magnificent organization takes in children whose mothers are either no longer with them, abandoned or have illnesses that restrict their ability to look after them. For more information on the charity check www.sos-childrensvillages.org , or refer to our SOS children’s charity BLOG that has all the relevant information.

This Majestic charity helped develop the children’s interpersonal skills, and it was certainly the first thing I noticed when being introduced to them. Their performing arts skills were also exceptional, and they are definitely the perfect group to bring up to the necessary level needed to perform on the international stage. The ZIFF presents an amazing opportunity for KORI to become a world wide respected charity.

Written By Antonio Peruga

The following is Courtesy of www.ziff.or.tz

ZIFF is East Africa’s largest film, music and arts festival, bringing new talents together from all over the world for a Zanzibar Tamasha!

Film

For the 13^th ZIFF, some of the most captivating and cutting-edge cinema from Africa and beyond will be screened in venues across the island. From world-premiers to local shorts, we’ve got it all, with a long history of showcasing the highest quality film from all over the world. Films are submitted based on a yearly theme – this year is ‘Hopes in Harmony’ – and entered into various categories and competitions. The final night is an awards night, where the winning films are recognised and celebrated.

Music

ZIFF also puts on the island’s best parties. Live music, dance, DJs and performance across several venues means that carnival fever hits Zanzibar for 2 weeks! We bring musicians together from all over Africa, as well as recognised international acts.

Community

A Zanzibar institution, ZIFF is a truly local festival, with exhibitions, workshops, and cultural tours that take you to the heart of the community. We promote local talent in film and music, showcasing new and old creative achievements. As ZIFF comes to town, so too do opportunities for recognising arts and crafts – the festival is always a hotbed of activity!

World Cup!

We are particularly excited to cooincide the Festival with the closing of the World Cup. 2010 really is The African Year, and ZIFF will be at the heart of it – watch this space for news of a special World Cup Final event…

Yesterday, today , tomorrow – what’s the story?

African Journeys 2010 — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:45:25 +0000

Odiri Ighamre
Managing KORI is all about popping the visions and plans into titled envelopes and pulling out the appropriate vision and experience to support the learning of the moment or the future plan. I know, it sounds confusing but it makes perfect sense to a manger who has been a professional Storyteller for twenty years.

Our trip to Tanzania 2010 began in January with a call from Edward lusala who is based in Dar es Salaam. He called to invite us to Tanzania just in the middle of our plans to fund raise to work with a youth group in Namibia organised by one of KORI’s former managers who is now based in his homeland. The invite however, was tantalising ‘would KORI please come and support a group of eighty orphans to perform at the Zanzibar international Film Festival? Wow! I hesitated for a day and rang the team to see if they would mind changing direction. They all felt such a chance to further develop our work in Tanzania was to be jumped at. So the answer back to Edward was: ‘Yes indeed!’

Six months later after an administration nightmare of meetings, fundraising, funding applications, journey planning, publicity development and organising team Tanzania 2010 – we made it to east Africa once again. The dream that was carried from our last visit in 2008, when we worked in the Debrabant Secondary school on the outskirts of Dar – was to bring arts and sports programmes to schools all over Tanzania. We knew for the programme delivery to be worthwhile it had to be consistent, and that we would need to return to train and develop skills that would sustain the inspiration of our programmes well into the future.

The most wonderful part of the work in Tanzania is that it is a two way partnership each time. KORI Arts has worked with young people through the arts and sports in London for eight years. The work has established a hub of young artists and coaches with great skills and experience, keen to work with others. The programmes are especially focused at engaging and training young Africans and Caribbean’s in London through the arts, sports and academics; keeping them away from potential negative pathways. It was a logical step for the work to land in the continent of their heritage; Africa, where they could test the leadership skills they had gained at KORI in London, connect with African culture and broaden their life experience in the most incredible ways.

Arriving on the 28^th of June in Zanzibar and being met by our contact Edward Lusala was joyous. The team that had come together organically over the previous six months held a multitude of skills that divided into three parts; KORI Artists, documenters and seniors who came to support and gain work experience. The first few days after landing were both enjoyable and difficult as we were challenged by the organisation that had taken place in lieu of our arrival. The apartment, workshop and performance schedule at the Ziff Festival were still being developed and we had to be patient whilst these issues were sorted out.

By the Friday however, we finally began work in our first school, Jang’ombe secondary School, organised by Robert Manoneolo, project manager of the children’s programme at the Ziff Festival. The expertise of the group settled into its various roles. KORI Arts were officially open to learning experiences and all the ups and downs of the journey. The partnerships in Tanzania will be strengthened by this visit and enable the youth of KORI to further empower the youth in Tanzania and that is both the magic and the dream!

Koriarts2010's Blog

Truth at 17 – Onome

Salute Wangari Maathai

Looking to 2011

The final on Tanzania 2010

Olusola Adebiyi

Arusha to ST JUDES

Tanzania Team 2010 – first impressions

Saturday 3rd July – Stephanie Turner

The ZIFF (Zanzibar International Film Festival)

ZIFF is East Africa’s largest film, music and arts festival, bringing new talents together from all over the world for a Zanzibar Tamasha!

Film

Music

Community

World Cup!

Yesterday, today , tomorrow – what’s the story?

Saturday 3^rd July – Stephanie Turner