Month: August 2006

The Gap gets RED for the holidays

This winter The Gap will join American Express, Motorolla, Converse and others in support of PRODUCT (RED) and expand its RED product line. 50% of all profits from the sales of (RED) items will be given to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. PRODUCT (RED) is one of my favorite initiatives from…
Read more

Senator Obama fashionable on Vogue cover

Oprah Winfrey’s favorite politician,U.S. senator Barak Obama, is the new fashionable public figure to grace the cover of Men’s Vogue. Following previous cover stars, Tiger Woods and George Clooney, Senator Obama, whose name means ‘blessed’ in Swahili, at first thought seems an unlikely candidate for the cover of a fashion magazine. Since he was elected…
Read more

Djimon Hounsou finds Blood Diamond in December

The word is Warner Bros. has finally set a December 15 release date for the highly anticipated movie ” Blood Diamond”. This comes as a surprise for me considering the pressure they’ve been getting from the Diamond industry about how the movie will hurt holiday sales of diamonds. The movie has been talked about for…
Read more

Namibian Venantia Otto wins Face of Africa 2006

Venantia Otto was announced as the winner of the the 2006 Nokia Face of Africa competition. The Namibian-born Venantia beat out the other 10 finalists from all over Africa and was announced as the winner of the US$150,000 prize modeling contract courtesy Elite Model Management – which has represented models such as Cindy Crawford, Tyra…
Read more

Trend Alert: Celebrities “help” Africans

A couple of posts ago I commented on Gwyneth Paltrow’s recent ad for the Keep a Child Alive organization. Though there was a lot of talk going around about the sincereity of the ad and even some good parodies, it seems the New York Times, in true hype fashion, has taken the ball and run…
Read more

Songstress Goapele Receives Activism Award

For those who don’t know, get familiar with this songstress. Goapele (the name means ‘to move forward’ in Sitswana, a South African language) has been doing her thing for a while both on the music and political front. “The Bay area-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights will honor neo soul singer Goapele with its…
Read more

Gwyneth Paltrow declares “I am African like David Bowie”.

As I was perusing the new Fashion Rocks Magazine during my lunch the other day. I stumbled upon this ad of Gwyneth Paltrow, actress/wife of Bono’s humanitarian heir Chris Martin. I must say I was quite shocked. I still haven’t decided if it was a good or bad shock but a shock nevertheless. As someone…
Read more

Can hip hop change Africa?

While many hip-hop fans in the US have started feeling that hip hop is dead, it’s becoming clearer that there is a totally different sentiment in other countries. A major reason for the pessimistic feeling of the US hip hop fans is the commercialization of hip hop culture and the preference for rap which, without…
Read more

Rwandan coffee makes it’s way to Starbucks

I received my copy of Business 2.0 magazine last week and was pleasantly surprised to see a number of articles referencing doing business in Africa. But these were not just your basic help the Africans by building water sheds articles. The articles were part of the cover article on the Best business ideas in the…
Read more

Virtual game teaches African history to MTV generation

Though it is part of our history many young Africans (myself included) cringe at being characterized by drums, spears, and war paint. But one innovative company is hoping to change the implications of those descriptions. With their creation of a virtual Africa circa 1200 AD, Rapid Reality is hoping their game Africa MMO, a multiplayer…
Read more