AlterNativeArt

culled from: http://blog.euromonitor.com/2010/07/afropolitans-the-face-of-a-modernising-africa.html Published: 9th July 2010 The Face of Modern Africa Africa has historically had a very small middle class base, mainly comprised of government workers. Today there is a growing upwardly mobile class that is also associated with the private sector, both globalised and localised in their aspirations and anxieties, proud of being African and ready to bring a new image of the continent to the world. As a direct witness, Kenyan retail chain Nakumatt keeps expanding with Malls in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. "It's psychological - people want upward movement," said Thiagarajan Ramamurthy, Nakumatt's operations director. "The appetite is increasing - the 14-inch TV became a 21-inch. The 21 became a 29 and the 29 became plasma. It's an aspiration." Key trends * Mobility is key; * Creative soul and trendsetters; * An expanding film industry. Commercial...

by Taiye Tuakli-Wosornu culled from http://afropolitans.typepad.com/ It’s moments to midnight on Thursday night at Medicine Bar in London. Zak, boy-genius DJ, is spinning a Fela Kuti remix. The little downstairs dancefloor swells with smiling, sweating men and women fusing hip-hop dance moves with a funky sort of djembe. The women show off enormous afros, tiny t-shirts, gaps in teeth; the men those incredible torsos unique to and common on African coastlines. The whole scene speaks of the Cultural Hybrid: kente cloth worn over low-waisted jeans; ‘African Lady’ over Ludacris bass lines; London meets Lagos meets Durban meets Dakar. Even the DJ is an ethnic fusion: Nigerian and Romanian; fair, fearless leader; bobbing his head as the crowd reacts to a sample of ‘Sweet Mother’. Were you to ask any of these beautiful, brown-skinned people that basic question – ‘where are you from?’ – you’d get no single answer from a single smiling dancer. This one lives in London but was raised in Toronto ...