NEWS, TRENDS AND EVENTS

EXPERIENCE AFRICA - OUR INSIDERS LOOK  AT GLOBAL AFRICAN EVENTS:

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016
Collecting African, Caribbean and African American Art: A Seminar by Loris Crawford, TICKETS HERE.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2016
Experience Africa presents SAYCON SENGBLOH (from Eclipsed) moderated by George Kevin Jordan from Shadow and Act. TICKETS HERE

INVESTMENT AND BUSINESS
Funlayo Alabi: A Female Entrepreneur Rises From Defeat

Four years ago, Funlayo Alabi’s business, Shea Radiance, was riding high — and then it almost went under.

The Baltimore company she co-founded with her husband, Shola, was selling its all-natural skin and hair care products in hundreds of Target stores, in what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. But the demands of supplying and succeeding in a big-box store quickly overwhelmed the fledgling venture, forcing a reckoning. Read more HERE

Why African Entrepreneurship Is Booming

Last month, I visited my village of Ovim in Southeastern Nigeria. I met a painter who also manufactures the paint he uses for his work. According to him, his business nearly collapsed early in the year when he could not access the foreign exchange market to import the raw materials required for his paint production. At that time, the Nigerian central bank was running a currency control regime which stifled the importation of goods for small businesses. READ HERE.

TRAVEL, MUSIC AND FILM
Is this the year that African music will conquer the United States?

Whether it’s through hip-hop, R&B, Top 40 radio or Internet memes, Drake is a ubiquitous presence on our cultural landscape. Yet for all of his inescapable hits in the past few years (“Hotline Bling,” “Started From the Bottom,” guesting on Rihanna’s “Work,” to name a few), it was only in May that Drake finally topped the Billboard charts, with the bubbling, shuffling beat of “One Dance.” And while Drake is known to assist rising stars such as Migos and iloveMakonnen, on “One Dance,” he was the one who got a boost, from singer Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, better known as Wizkid. READ MORE HERE.

U.S. Singer Jidenna to Tour in Africa

A documentary of the singer’s journey back to his childhood home in Enugu will also be filmed. Nigerian-American singer, Jidenna is set to tour Nigeria and South Africa in late August as part of the promotion for his forthcoming debut album, Long Live The Chief. Read more here. 

The end is the beginning.

Thank you for reading the first edition of EXPERIENCE AFRICA NEWSLETTER, we have begun a fabulous journey and relationship with you. Every month,  this newsletter will come to you and 9,999 other readers; and as a subscriber based one, please feel free to share it with others. This newsletter also has ADVERTISING SPACE in it. Details can be found at our website here.