Lemlem

♥-ing Lemlem. Beautiful handwoven & hand embroidered clothing & accessories from Ethiopia. Started by Liya Kebede.

Deep Dark Africa online shop launches!

Yay! Now I can say this for me...SHOP HERE! Follow the Deep Dark Africa blog for daily special updates. I hope you like.

Cool Ass Folk

Robot Artists

I'm all about promoting Africa, our artists and our unique creativity (watch this space) so when I discovered this touching video on African Cartel, a marketplace for African artists I just had to put it out there. Shop, get involved, donate & support our struggling artists.

"Risking arrest, the weather and enduring the often rude and judgemental passer-by's these artists are desperate to sell their township art to support their families often left behind in Zimbabwe and Malawi, whilst they make the long and dangerous trip across the border..."
 


Robot Artists from African Cartel on Vimeo.

Carla Fernandez

A most amazing woman & fashion designer whose unfailing love of fashion combined with her childhood spent in indigenous Mexican communities to create today's Taller Flora, a fashion label and mobile design laboratory which celebrates Mexican textile-making & tailoring methods as well as the artisans and communities who uphold these traditions.

Google

Robert Wong from the Google Creative Lab (they definitely don't need a link!) was another awesome personality who showed us two videos from Google - the first being a play-around by a Google intern which ended up airing during the Superbowl as a sharing of cool stuff by Google (not an ad!) and the second being a video made by Google employees reaching out to the gay population during a time of many gay related suicides. Both touchingly just about life.

Francis Kéré

Francis Kéré's big heart & sheer enthusiasm and vibrant personality won me over before I had even heard of his life changing architectural feats. Born in Burkina Faso, educated at the Technische Universität Berlin, Francis Kéré is focused on developing the infrastructure for education in his home country of Burkina Faso. Building sustainable schools for an African climate at low cost, utilising local materials and the potential of the local people, inspiring ownership, inspiring change.

Primary School | Gando | Burkina Faso

Secondary School | Dano | Burkina Faso

See more of Kéré Architecture's world-wide projects here. View this interview with Francis at Think Africa Press.

Iliso Labantu

"Apartheid has gone, but gaps in the social fabric, in our experience and understanding of each others' life remains. Iliso Labantu can make a meaningful contribution to reducing them." David Goldblatt

"Iliso Labantu is a not-for-profit organisation started by photographers who live in the townships around Cape Town. The organisation aims to provide training and opportunities for individuals to use photography as a way of documenting their lives, and those of the communities around them, and to be able to make sustainable careers for themselves as photographers."

From the Iliso Labantu team, "most of us live in the townships that surround the city bowl. We have been shooting with donated digital cameras, studying the fundamentals of photography, and meeting once a week to critique our work with professional photographers. We sell our work in the galleries and shops around Cape Town and we license our work for publication. The sales of these images help to support our families and ourselves. Some of us have been photographing for years, others are novices."

Our amazing country is so full of incredible talent and inspiration! Visit their website to find out more about them and to make a donation.

Images from the Iliso Labantu website.

Cute Shopping

These organic, re-useable shopping bags are from here.

Umuzi Photo Club

The aim: "To empower learners from developing communities in South Africa with the skill of photography while promoting artistic self-expression and critical thinking as means for raising social awareness."

Umuzi which means 'village' in Zulu is a photography club for primary and secondary school learners in developing communities in Johannesburg and now, hopefully,  Cape Town. Through a series of workshops, learners are introduced to "photography basics and visual literacy" and are then handed a film camera for a week with which they can "play the role of a documentary photographer". "In the following workshops, they scrutinize their prints, through classroom discussion and peer critiquing, to build a portfolio of their favourite work which is bound into an album they keep."

'Hood Boy' | Mathlodi Monnakgotla, grade 9, Soweto

'Sky's the Limit' | Joao Nzina, grade 11, Hillbrow

'Egoli-wood' | Mandla Mate, grade 10, Hillbrow

'Home security system' | Mandisa Shongwe, grade 9, Soweto

'Exchange for ancestral blessings' | Mpho Masitenyane, grade 9, Soweto

'Be happy for big mama' | Kgaugelo "Captain" Mabjwe, grade 10, Diepsloot

'I'll do whatever it takes to go back home' | Tshepang Masemala, grade 11, Hillbrow

'Shebeen Blues' | Moses Mokgosi, grade 9, Diepsloot

'Ghetto love' | Joao Nzina, grade 11, Hillbrow

If you're in New York City, The Umuzi Photo Club presents "Mi Kasi es tu Kasi" from 9 - 12 December at The PowerHouse Arena, an exhibition & fundraiser featuring the work of young South African township photographers of Umuzi Photo Club.

"Donations and print sales are Umuzi's primary sources of funding. Expenses include the cost of developing film and making prints, transportation, and breakfasts and lunches at each workshop."

Please help Umuzi Photo Club and donate today to keep this amazing project running & our youth inspired.