THEMA, AN AFRICAN AMBASSADOR

Not always, at least not on our African soil do you see an enthralling and passionate woman hobnobbing with celebrities on the world’s finest destinations. She is almost like the Oprah Winfreys and Tyra Banks of our tropical world. And rightly so, the latest Official International Face for Dark and Lovely Hair and Body products has been doing her own thing as African ambassador for channel O.

If you watched the maiden episode of Big Brother Africa 4, you would have noticed Nonhle Thema’s wiggly and twisty personality in a near naughty manner in the house. Don’t be fooled by that, Nonhle does not misuse her striking qualities as an African celeb smash; she is an embodiment of a career woman. Preceding her stint as the South African Vuzu TV host, she enjoyed lengthy career as the host cum producer on channel O.

Cynthia Shange, her mother was one of the first black women to enter the Miss World in 1972, so you see; one cannot fault her for her endeavours. Her mother’s role play as a mentor goes beyond that. “My Mom is classy and very sexy at her age. I learnt how to apply make-up and how to walk in her heels. She is the epitome of style and class”

The twenty six years old matriculated from Sundown High School in Sandton in 1999 and left home the same year. She later studied marketing and also took to modeling, doing TV commercials and partaking in beauty contests before landing her first job as an events coordinator. She would forever be indebted to her late boss Ayanda Maswazi Tshabalala and his family, for employing her when no one would.

A thrilled Nonhle takes an insightful and touchy stand on her beauty. “I think people love my personality and spirit more than my looks. That's important for me. Looks do not guarantee you success but personality provides longevity. I also believe my Master and Creator, "God" shines through me”. She has nonetheless hit the clichéd Most Beautiful(s) in Cosmopolitan Magazine's 30 Awesome Women 2007, FHM 100 sexiest woman in the world list of 2008, and named Sexiest South African Woman by SOWETAN readers,

O’Access, an hour long musical show filled with interviews exposed her to stars like Akon, Rihanna, John Legend, Chris Brown, Neyo, 50 Cent, G Unit, Beenie Man, Bob Marley's sons, Fantasia, Lil Wayne, J Holiday, Soulja Boy and Jermaine Dupree. As a mouthpiece of her fans at home, she is able to tell the world that Africa is not a depressing home, not at all and that’s an honour to her.
Nonhle breathes life into the proverbial saying that the child who knows how to wash the hands eats with the elderly. Nonhle Thema Angels Programme, Street Bangers, O-Boma are her production babies but it doesn’t end there for her. She is in fourth season on O Access and was the African rep at both the Channel O Music Video Awards and the BET Awards. To her the experience was awesome with the other journalists wanting first hand supposed African magic from her.

“Never ask yourself what the world needs, rather ask yourself what it is that makes you come alive” and praying to remain focused and dedicated are her walking principles in the spotlight. This woman is thick and Africa should be ready, nothing about her suggest this is the last we are hearing about her.

LIFE WITHOUT HOPE

Hundreds of young women trip into our cities from various villages to carry loads. Most of these young women are from the north of Ghana and a few from the coasts. The situation is what has resulted in the inevitable, “Kayayei Menace” that we have been battling with for years.

Accra and Kumasi are both commercial city centres with business all year round and therefore provide what these poverty stricken youth would call, “greener pastures”. A current research done on 700 kayayei by an NGO reveals the bear and grim facts. A quarter of these load concierges have only primary school education and the rest with no formal education whatsoever. The stakeholders have not been passive in their search for a solution; the ministry of women and children affairs (MOWAC) held a validation workshop on, “Repatriation of kayayei”. 2432 of them between the ages of 6 and 36 years were repatriated between June and November 2007. But one would ask if there has been a decrease in the number of kayayei in Accra? It is open knowledge that when they are sent back, they return to Accra because the situation that brought them down here still persists.

A number of NGO’s like the social affairs agency have proposed the setting up of a multi-sector body to study, brainstorm and find lasting solutions to the menace. Governments, NGO’s and human right activists talk of plans to bring solutions year in and year. One cannot also help but fathom why these girls decide to come down here.

When ethnic misunderstandings are constantly breaking out in some parts of the northern region, the rational thing for some of these girls is to seek refuge where security is guaranteed. They end up here with no relatives, daily income or skills. The only way out then is to do menial jobs in the market place where the only skill required is physical strength and be called, “Kayayei”

Abhorrence of the infamous female genital mutilation also compels the courageous ones to come down here. Though polygamy has solved some social issues, it is currently one of the causal agents since young girls do not consider marriage to men as old as their grandfather as they did in the past.

The removal of subsidies on agricultural inputs makes farming more expensive especially for women who have limited access to land and credit facilities. This coupled with severe dry seasons has resulted in fewer jobs for those involved in agricultural activities which are the basic economic activities in the northern region.

The very lucky ones end up as servants in private homes to perform domestic tasks and earn a slightly higher income than those on the streets. Unfortunate ones on the other hand have to make do with inappropriate shelter, food and places of hygiene. Absence of these basic needs violates quiet a number of personal rights; girls are subjected to sexual harassment from their male counterparts at night. This usually results in unwanted pregnancies. Imagine living without a roof over your head, without a washroom, kitchen or a mattress. This is what a kayayei calls a home at night.

There are over a hundred kayayei who work on the roadside of Novotel. They pay GH 1: OO each week to keep their things in a storeroom of the hotel. Their place of abode is by the roadside where they spread mats to sleep on. Daily income is mostly saved with credit unions; with this money they support families back at home.

Sakina Awani is a sixteen years old Junior Secondary School graduate. Her father has passed away and her suitor who supported her is now gone back to a Teacher Training School. Hence she travelled to Kumasi and worked for three months to carry goods. She heard business in Accra was better so she came here to work and secure enough money to help in her soon-to-be marriage. Someone had taken her 5cedis as at the time of this interview.

Sakina starts her day by parking her stuff to the room in Novotel hotel. Then she stands by the roadside to be on the lookout for those with heavy loads to carry them. On the average she gets 50 pesewas for one load. It is a common practice for them to negotiate a price with a client and yet when they are being paid, they demand for more. Sakina said this happens because sometimes as they carry the goods, they realize it is too heavy for the amount they are taking.

She complains that though the boys who hail from the same neighborhood do not bother her; those of other tribes sexually harass her. Sakina is afraid she might get pregnant very soon and thereby make it impossible for her to marry. The government she said cannot end this menace just by repatriating them but by adequately setting them up in various trades and vocations.

NOT JUST A “BEAU”

Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe; well that’s a long deep rooted Ga name for a man who can hardly speak his father tongue. Perhaps the novelty of that name christened with Boris Frederick Cecil and a great physique helped in propelling him to model for Ralph Laurent, Perry Ellis, Yves Saint Laurent and The Gap while attending Virginia Commonwealth University. En route the recent Ghana Fashion Week, he did well to trace his Ghanaian heritage by gracing the event with his presence.

The platform for Kodjoe to become a favourite character on screen was on the hit series, Soul Food as Damon Carter. He also blossomed into a rare gem as he dabbled in Hollywood movies like Love & Basketball, Brown Sugar, The Gospel and Madea’s family Reunion. On Broadway, he's worked opposite James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

His international acclaim was debatably certified in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder , Surrogates and Resident Evil: Afterlife. Named as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by people Magazine, it is no surprise he is deemed a supermodel, a feat achieved by a few men in fashion world.
Boris Kodjoe plans on helping his grandmother write a memoir about her gruesome holocaust experience. He revealed in an interview that someone once reported her, but she was lucky that when the SS came to investigate and found her hiding in a back room, one of the officers was in a good mood and didn't arrest her.

It was a time of sheer terror and no one knew what was going on, and everyone knew somebody who had suddenly gone missing for no reason. And apparently you didn't talk about it over the dinner table at night. They were just paralyzed with fear. You didn't utter a word about what could possibly be going on or about what they had heard. It was a very scary time.
In a twisted situation, his German grandfather only agrees to the marriage between his mother, Ursula and Ghanaian father, Eric Kodjoe only after he is born(1973, Vienna). At age 4 he started shaving and feeding his grandfather who had lost both hands in a war. Poignant, deep and emotional are how he describes the religion his mother taught his siblings; Patrick and Nadja and him. Though partly Jewish they had to find their own way based on different religions.

Kodjoe is quad-lingual: German, English, French and Spanish and is mulled over to be a power couple with Nicole Ari Parker by his side. They are not exactly a mainstream Hollywood family. Together with their daughter Sophie Tei-Naaki Lee Kodjoe and baby son, Nicolas Neruda Kodjoe, the family relocated from hustle and bustle LA to a pretty-sedated Atlantis. They did this because they needed a place that spoke to them culturally. Perhaps it was also to help in dealing with Sophie’s ailment; spina bifida.

The Sophie's Voice Foundation is a means to raise awareness to let people know that in US alone, there are 60 million women at risk of having a child with spina bifida, the most preventable birth defect in the world. It can be prevented if pregnant women would take their dose of folic acid every day.
For someone who wants to be remembered as a great dad it is startling his phobia is being a father and that’s simply because “… along with unconditional love comes unconditional fear…” that is one of the things they never tell a new father.

OBAMA IN GHANA

The first ever black American president touched down on our homeland Ghana, to the uttermost surprise of Africa’s` powerhouses- Nigeria and South Africa, not to mention his fatherland Kenya.

Whether it was for him to outline his vision for the African continent or probably for Michelle Obama to explore where her possible roots are- this would feature in prominent historical books for generations to come.

In Ghana however, it would also go down memory lane as the day ministers and especially former President Jerry John Rawlings became professional camera men.

EXPLICIT GH. MOVIES

Play back in your mind-those days we used to fidget in our seats as kids because a flirtatious scene was playing on the TV screen and an elderly person was around. Now we seemed to have become open minded and more accepting about sexually sensitive movies, but what hit us when we saw both Shakira and Heart of Men definitely brought to the open we are just not ready for that calibre of screen work.

Casts of the movies have vehemently refused to accept them as explicitly overboard. Some viewers have used every obscene word that comes to mind to describe these movies. To put it mildly; our core traditions as a people have been threatened and all this is in the name of reaching international standards!

From all indicators, the controversy manifested in a good commercial yield and the business world would in no way flinch away from producing such works, so the battle is on, as to whether we are having another blow at our core traditions again can only be answered by time.

KANYE WEST DID IT AGAIN

It was not surprising when Kanye West climbed the stage of 2009 MTV Video Music Award Ceremony; he is a habitual interrupter at such events. But when he mounted the stage to rant against Taylor Swift in favour of Beyonce Knowles for Best Female Video, the crowd was taken aback.

So was a stunned Miss Knowles; when accepting her own Award, she called the teenager back for her to finish her acceptance speech. The internet buzz and rage in opposition to West after this show down has been maddening.

And it looking so much like Kanye West’ act has backfired big time-Taylor Swift now has fourteen awards tagged to her name after the fiasco and has been voted as the Entertainer of the Year by People magazine. How higher can a twenty -one year old climb?