Sign Me Up!

Greatness in Ghana Seems to Be A Bottle of Something Shapely. Hmm....

Am so in love with the awake colors living in Accra. Have you ever seen so many billboards? Pastors & Church Announcements, Cellphones & Banking, Vlisco Fashions & Milk Maids--everything printable  is signed to a billboard. Maybe a KoKOFIFI Stand Proud. Live. Love. Outloud Shout-Out?

Got Milk? After School. M. Makhene, 2011

What is this advertising, Someone Enlighten Me Please? M. Makhene, 2011. 

MADE IN GHANA

Ghana. Long sticky nights, cacophenous activity and street lights where you can get fitted in the perfect size 9 men's shoes, a proper hair cut and supper--all before the light changes.  I'm posting from the motherland the next couple days and will have some really hot stuff to drop, so don't miss out.

Sending you Lipstick Jungle Kisses (at least i'm in the tropics:)...

At L, Ghanaian-Nigerian designer Titi Ademola.

Fun Fact:

Ghanaians are encouraged to wear tradition-inspired clothes to work on Fridays, in support of Made in Ghana gear. Thing is Chinese cheap good have been brutal to the local textile industry, which is centuries old but cannot compete with the Chinese. So, wear something celebrating your heritage on Fridays to show your pride and support Made in Ghana. I like. I like.  

Taking Back The Mother. Ship-GHANA Baby!

Kofi Ansah. Seriously, So Feeling Them mod mud cloth Leg Warmers. 

Must.Have! Drool. Image: Reuters.

So, incredible things are happening all over the african fashion map. Today marks the launch of The Young Designers Association of Ghana. Flygirl Dedo Azu is part of the miracle team sprinkling ashanti-gold glamour all over us. And we so LOVE. IT. Along with Kofi Ansah, design superstar and mastermind of the association. Take back that mothership, Ghana..in case you're lost to the title, i'm reading Lose Your Mother by Saidiya Hartman. Hot Shift-ing. Nuff said.

Monkey See. Monkey Do. 

WILDBLOOM: See Inspire Everywhere

A Flower Blooms. Image: Diyana Kamaruza.

If i was part of the banana republic of Banana Republic, i'd bombard and besiege every nook and alleyway in this city with images of their ad campaign for Wild Bloom, the new fragrance. Stopped me dead in my tracks today and really worth checking out. The Blooms bud and bleed beauty. Behold, here. (look for the upside down woman billowing in pink)

And then i also got this lovely little surprise from KoKOFIFI's Co-founder. Isn't the sign and displacement of it all amusing? Someone had to think of that, people. I'm telling you--inspiration is in the darndest spots.

Don't Speak Funny Languages, In The People

LOVE this guy's stuff. Zwelethu Mthethwa. Go Ahead Bro!

Language can be so thick, and so pungent with meaning it licks thoughts clean. Especially South African language, which is a rich amalgam of all things African, European, and all the little islands between those dots. My favorite expression of our lingo's mutation is the funny translations of African axioms, birth names and little expressions that are otherwise harmless.  Here's my pick of Top 5:

Lost In Translation?
Soweto Home 

Soweto Style. LOVE. Image & Book of same: Mark Larring.

1. Don't eat my jealous--stop being envious of me

2. I am eating joy--i'm living the dream, baby!


3. Fillip is here--Feel it. It is here (world cup fever)
4. You are embarrassing me, in the people--in  public
5. Ditulo, Cheers!

Yes, You Are Still In Soweto, DK most def, Diepkloof. Leave At Your Own Risk.

Me& My Hair: I Paid For It Ain't I?

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. And have been feeling the hair accessories thing of late. Getcha Fly 

On! Check out natural hair accessories whizzes, Boutique de Bandeaux.

So, i'm getting that quarter month itch--well, it's actually been more like 3 months--to give things a shakeup and get my hair did. A lot has been made about black hair, so i won't do a Chris Rock standup here, but i will say how much i love the freedom to just be and not allow too much of who i am (or not) to be tucked between the tangles of my nappy coils. i think it hysterical how many "keep on, sistah!"s i get when i wear my hair out, sans braids. And the counterpoint to that is amusing too.  i was home in jozzie, celebrating my birthday with my sisters. they suggested dinner at Sophiatown Bar Lounge--LOVE--followed by some shimmy in Newtown. 

Okey worthwhile deviation...Anyone who carries Kofifi's spirit is worth our time and Sophiatown Bar Lounge has a charming little story-
two African brothers (no, not making a conscious reference to their hairstyles:) founded the spot, Rasta and Mzwandile Thabethe.  Love that they got bit by the entrepreneurial bug lending a hand at the family's fruit+vege store. Sweet, right?

Clearly, It's A Hair-Attack. LOVE! Image: M. Makhene, 2009.

Back to the birthday. You know your girl looked fly. Hair did, fitted all fierce, I was def rocking it out.
So i convince my sister to pop into a poetry reading next door, a friend had organized it. i mean, why can't i supplement shimmy+moonshine with some high minded words, right? And here we walk in, store-bought hair gleaming and all. The place heaved such a loud silence. Everyone was in dreadlocks and hot neat little fros atop i'd be dead before i wore anything approaching lipcolor faces. Beautiful, honest. But i will never forget the chill that entered the room when we walked in. Our hair and peanut buttered faces seemed to shout out our otherness, our westernization and probably also our questionable consciousness. No one called me Sistah! that night. No one mistook me for "Queen" or "Empress".
Funny, cuz i was still me, afro/weave/braids or no hair and all.

WHAT YOU SEEK--SEEKS YOU TOO

Seek Sole. And So, So Seeking/Lusting That Anna Dello Rosso Inspired Getup. Nice Job, 9W!

The wildest thing i chose to entertain while in kiwiland:) last year is a quote from What Color Is Your Parachute?,"WHAT YOU ARE SEEKING IS ALSO SEEKING YOU". Wild because it sounds like something out of a sci-fi comic book or those skitzy clairvoyants lining the East Village. But also strangely true. Hear me out here. I allowed myself to seek/dream outloud about fierceness+fashion+a life convergence big bang.  All i had was an inspiration board, ie. trashed out magazines (sorry MiNDFOOD--amazing mag btw) and a head crazed enough to believe pithy lines from books with cool titles. But thankgoodness for that gullible me. KoKOFIFI would never have been born without that wildly true quote, without the trip to New Zealand and without believing in magic. So, what seeketh thou, O shoe lusting Hustler-Diva?