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As we reflect upon the principle of Ujamaa and collective economics, Mfunguamoyo Kiakanua is a colleague we would like to give credit to.

Mfunguamoyo KiaKanua, who is the son of an illustrious Major general who fought for Angolan independence, is the founder of LobbyNoir. LobbyNoir is both a site and an App, downloadable from Google Play and Apple Store, which is a global directory of Black Owned Businesses with a SEO functionality. It also provides a multilingual MarketPlace in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and digital services for Black Owned Businesses. Click below to visit LobbyNoir's site and to watch Mfunguamoyo's interview with our cultural mediator Caro Sika. The interview is in French but subtitled in English.

As we reflect upon the principle of Ujamaa on Day 4 of Kwanzaa, Paul Muhammad, the founder of the Moneymob movement and community leader, is an awesome colleague we must give credit to.

Paul Muhammad is the founder of the crowd purchase movement, Money Mob. Money Mob promotes, markets and implements group economics to support Black Owned businesses. Over the last 25 years, Paul has travelled throughout the world on one business venture or another and sees it as his mission to support Black Economics, a mission that is gathering pace with others in the UK, the US and throughout the world. Click below to watch Paul interview Paulette Simpson, the Executive Director of the Top UK Black Magazine the Voice.

Click below to watch more of Paul Muhammad interviews and suscribe to the Moneymob Youtube Channel.

What is Kwanzaa?

As previously mentioned, today is Day 2 of Kwanzaa. Unlike other celebrations over the holidays, Kwanzaa is a non-religious but a cultural celebration. It's a weeklong observerd from 26th December to 1st January of each year. Each day highlights a core principle which is symbolised by lighting a candle. It culminates in gift giving and a big feast. The 7 principles derive from the Swahili languague and honor African heritage. They are inspired by African harvest celebrations such as those of the Ashanti and those of the Zulu. Kwanzaa was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chairman of Africana Studies at California State University, in 1966. He created this holiday in response to the Watt Riots in Los Angeles in 1965 as a way to bring African-Americans together as a community.

5 shows in the first 3 months of 2022 - sounds promising, doesn't it?

Continue to read on to find out more about the artists and to book your tickets.

Described as Africa’s greatest vocal ensemble and renowned as one of Nigeria’s biggest musical exports, The Yoruba Women Choir always delivers a spectacular show bursting with passion and astounding power. Boasting eleven joyful singers who together create exquisite harmonies, the group is also backed by a six piece band playing traditional Yoruba rhythms and melodies that will keep you dancing all night long.

Yoruba Music was highly influential in the development of Afrobeat, Highlife and Afro-Cuban styles, making this an unmissable show for fans of Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor or Buena Vista Social Club. Click below to book your ticket and get a feel of who they are.

Stay connected for more.

Christine Natasha Smith (see pic below) is a mother, artist, teacher and what she likes to call 'creator of magic'. The Afrolights are her current project, a dynamic duo (her children) who are on a mission to bring positivity and light to a world where darkness and doubt seeps into corners waiting to infect our youth - but with the right teaching - which the Afrolights are armed with, plus their innate powers, children can find the positivity from within and shine their own lights to banish the darkness.  

Lindon Rankin, Founder of Melanin Health & Wellness, recognised during the first lockdown that there seemed to be a lack of support for the local BME community.

Melanin Health & Wellness, a Southwark based community group supporting local ethnic diverse individuals and groups, started out of this, delivering shopping and medical prescriptions for the elderly, and then went on to provide culturally appropriate cooked meals for children receiving free school meals within the local BME communities, during the school holidays. This was the start of the Melanin Lunch Box project.

Lindon (see pic below) has also been running (free) Health and Wellbeing sessions, fitness classes and most recently organised community events in collaboration with other community groups, and mental health and wellness programmes, providing opportunities to local people in order to help them to engage and improve both themselves, their lives and their community at large.

Lindon’s aspiration is to empower people, to come together, celebrate diversity, and for all of us to participate in building a more robust community.

“I always seek the opportunity to work with others and I have learnt by pulling together, we achieve  together”, says Lindon.

He is pleased to highlight the support received from Berkeley Foundation in partnership with some of their present projects.

As we celebrate Black History Month in the UK, have you ever wondered who was the mastermind of it. Well,  his architect is Ghanaian born Akyaaba Addai-Sebo. After visiting the US in the 1970s and being inspired by the Black History Month US held in February, Akyaaba Addai-Sebo initiated Black History Month in the UK in 1987, which is celebrated in October. Its initial aim was to support Black children sense of self esteem and social construct. October was chosen because it was shortly after the UK summer vacation and was the traditional harvest period and time when African leaders gathered to settle differences and appraise the state of the community.

Akyaaba Addai-Sebo also worked to promote diversity in a variety of roles for organizations including the Greater London Council, African Refugees Housing Action Group, Notting Hill Carnival, and Organization of African Unity. In 2014, he was executive producer of "One Humanity," a documentary on the 1988 and 1990 Wembley concerts for Nelson Mandela.

For further reading: Akyaaba Addai-Sebo - Black History Month 2021

Flashback to a special interview with Soul singer, songwriter and musician Noel McKoy where he shares with Caro Sika his earliest memories of Black British Music talking about Lovers Rock, Reggae, Soul artists and more.

Click below to watch the interview.

Noel McKoy is a British-based soul music singer. His music is a collection of soul, R&B, gospel, funk and Northern soul. Born in South London, he fronted the James Taylor Quartet in the early 1990s and has worked and duetted with several artists such as Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Cliff Richard, Lenny Henry, Jessie J, Mica Paris, Beverley Knight and his favourite - Stevie Wonder, as well as being known as the Dutch Pot owner, a nightclub located in London. He is currently part of the British Collective and also continues to tour and collaborate on a number of musical projects, one of the most recent being an international production with EEDB in collaboration with artists from Brazil and the US called "What are we gonna do? "

 Click below to watch the video clip

Tiramagan Traoré was a general of the great Soundjata Keïta, founder of the Mandinka empire, also referred to as the Mali Empire at the end of the twelfth century through to the sixteenth century.

The story goes that Tiramagan Traoré went to the heights of Kabul (present-day Guinea-Bissau which was formerly a territory of Gambia) with his griot Djelimadou Woulen Diabate and two hunters. During this expedition, Tiramagan spotted a Jinn, in front of a cave, which is a spirit in a form of a woman, living in the mountains. When she saw the expedition, the Jinn became frightened and took refuge in the cave.

Back home, Tiramagan told Waligelenjan, a descendant of Kamisoko, about his adventure. All decided to leave the next morning with a fishing net in order to catch this famous Jinn. When they arrived on the scene, the spirit woman was sitting in front of the cave. Immediately, the hunters launched the net on her to capture her. She, once more, took refuge in the cave and came out with a Kora. Tiramagan married this very beautiful woman and gave the Kora to his griot since he was a nobleman and wasn't permitted to play it. Djelimadou Woulen then exclaimed: "Nobleman, that's an instrument of ours, which belongs to the Mandika people".

It is from this story that the Kora, a stringed instrument of twenty-two strings with crystal sounds, draws its feminine gender. The first person to play it was this griot. When he died, in his honour, a string was removed. Since this time, the Kora has twenty-one leather strings. From the time of the first griot Djélimadou Woulen Diabaté, the Kora has been transmitted from Father to Son and has known more than 70 generations of griots.

Here is below an interview that took place at the Jazz Cafe couple of years back with a griot from the Cissokho family "Diabel Cissokho" by Caro Sika. Enjoy :)

"Music is my first love, the first thing I actually fell in love with" - Mic Assassin. 

Following a 6-month Caribbean holiday which turned into an 8-year hiatus from music, Mic Assassin returns once again with more hunger, focus, and renewed vision. 

 Musician, Entrepreneur, Director, and Lover of life are the words, which most astutely describe this street-savvy South Londoner. Being disheartened and disillusioned with the politics of the music industry, his time away from music was productively spent setting up entrepreneurial ventures including a visual production company ‘FWD360’ under which Mic directed & edited over 100 projects for global brands, charities, and many grassroots organisations and independent artists. 

 But what is a man to do when his childhood dream and passion for creating music just won’t go away?  

 “I thought about it all the time, envisioning myself performing to massive concert venues. I wrote down everything even the thoughts I'm scared to say out loud. I’d hum melodies into voice recorders then start piecing the tracks together. Inspiration can come at any time of the day, I just have to stop everything and be on it when it does”. 

 From the tender age of 9 rapping in school assemblies to a 16-year-old appearing in magazines like The Face and The Fader, to an 18-year-old setting up his own record label selling CD’s hand to hand, Mic knows the true meaning of dream chasing. 

 Inspired by the hustle and grind of US / UK Indie labels such as Roc-a-fella, No Limit, So Solid and 57th Dynasty, Mic and his team learned and perfected the art of hand to hand selling moving units of CDs around their Lewisham college campus and outside popular music venues. 

 In love with the art of freestyling and eruptive crowd energy, Mic entered many "open mic" and Mc Battle competitions winning many of them and eventually being crowned Jump Off’s 2005 UK Street Battle Champion. This journey of gladiatorial words took Mic around the UK and USA where he would cross paths in combat with the likes of Professor Green, Lowkey and Iron Solomon. 

 The buzz around Mic Assassin grew and lead on to great coverage with live performances and Interviews on Kiss 100 FM (Shortee Blitz & Big Ted), BBC Radio (Ace & Vis, Twin B, Ras Kwame) and Dan Greenpeace (Xfm / Capital radio). His witty off the head freestyles lead Mic to feature on MTV’s Barrio 19 and host a part-time Hip Hop show “Mic Check With Mic Assassin” on BBC’s Asian Network. 

Returning back with renewed focus and love for music-making, combining the visual and business skills learned within the 8-year gap period he is funnelling this new artillery into his new music. 

With a more mature sound and reflective disposition Mic is open to all possibilities that may come his way. 

 “The most important thing this time around is having fun, travelling, connecting with people and making the best music I can. I’m legacy-building right now, building a foundation that can outlive me. I have many creative visuals, films, business ideas it’s all one, it’s all me and they intertwine with each other, but music is my first love and I’ve missed it. I am a better person when I'm making music,  I feel like me again”.

Click below to download and listen to the new single release: