Maisha Yetu Staff

In Maisha Yetu we work with both upcoming and established artists. We have birthed creative spaces such as WAPI for  aspiring artists and art enthusiasts to converge and share. Same venues have also been used in collaboration with the Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) to educate artists an copyrights and intellectual property.

Maisha Yetu uses popular cultural expressions to disseminate its objectives in a creative fashion; entertaining,sensitizing and educating the youth. The genres are Alternative, Hiphop, Reggae, Afrobeat, rock and selective African local genres. Though the five elements of Hiphop; Mcing, Djaying, graffiti, B-Boying and entrepreneurship  are key mediums of expressions by our constituents, we do not limit ourselves around them but are permeable to creativity. Case in point  last year working with a  Congolese Rhumba Maestro Fally Ipupa Nsimba.

I met Fally Ipupa back in 2009 at the MTV MAMA Awards, we had alot to share as artists and Pan Africanists. Most would be surprised to learn of Fally’s  profound views on peace and harmony in Africa. It comes as no surprise owing to  the fact that he resides in war torn Congo.

Sawasawa Festival has grown to be an international event that attracts alot of international artists and music lovers. Maisha Yetu through Bra Muki as the liason  facilitated Fally Ipupa’s first and only successful perfomance with his full band Sons Orchestrae at the Carnivore Gardens on May 28th 2011. With an attendance of 7000 thronging the grounds to enjoy the 3 days event.

We in Maisha Yetu are always ready to provide your organizations/company with connections to international artists you may not have access to. The traditional Sawasawa festival is hosted during the month of May and we await to see the surprise Sarakasi will unveil this year.

You can listen to the commentary here 

Snow Bizzy comments :  For me the Malema effect is quite simple. It is not even about youth it is about South Africans being able to debate and
talk about issues. What i find very important is the debates and the issues that he raises about the state of south africa.
There’s a transformational agenda in this country. It’s good that we’re politically emancipated but economically we still
got a long way to go. And people like Julius raise those kind of issues.
It does not help to have politicians who are scared, to talk about issues that affect their people simply because they are
afraid its going to have an impact on the currency on the foreign exchange markets and so forth. It does not change our
reality,our reality is that black people have suffered alot of injustice and they want change.

And people like Julius bring it back and we need to build a more caring society, a more inclusive society, and stop talking
about issues along racial lines and racial divides. The only way you can address that is by removing traces of racism within our society in however way they manifest themselves.

Whether its through ownership of property,through income levels,demographics in terms of work. Occupations lets say, the number of white people versus black people versus Indian people versus colored people in top management. We really need to come to a point whereby we have a society which is purely based on merit. A sociaty which has eradicated all these historical injustices, which are still there in the structure.

Photo: REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/Files

Listen to tender boy

In Maisha yetu our  activities  revolve around  pillars of the youth culture  identified as; Music, Sports, Entertainment and Technology.  In terms of music, Motswako rap master Apu Sebekedi  the A Dollar a day MC  antes-up this track Tender Boy. Here Apu  describes the demise of a flaunting and unsuspecting over confident individual .

I do hope  the Chelsea team, my boy Didier Drogba , a friend to my boy Fally Ipupa  (who is  Adebayor’s homie and a big fan of Real Madrid,sorry bro) and football fans alike, find Apu Sebekedi’s joint, the  ideal  theme song during The mighty Blues entry to the pitch in  Allianz Arena to face it off with Bayern Munich on the 16th of May 2012 kick off 2045hrs local time.

Tender boy is a nudge to be observant of your surrounding and never underestimate your opponent. Bump it and share the link with your friends. The production is by Akili Blaq MM3rD .

Dr.Rahel Kassahun Executive Director of Africa Unbound expounds on what is thought emancipation. This is the outro after her interview with the President of the African Development Bank Donald Kabaruka.

 Rahel says :   In this program Dr.Kabaruka talked about the need for emancipation of our thinking. You may ask what does that have to do with growth and development? I would say everything.

Free thinking people find solutions to problems,free thinking means questioning established beliefs and world views that don’t make sense to you.  This develops your capacity,forming your own opinions and coming up with a new idea. If you do not  have a new idea, then you cannot change your life or make a difference in your community,it’s as simple as that..

If something doesn’t make sense to you or you do not like what you see around you,start asking yourself some questions.  And  continue to think about the issue.  The more you focus and put your attention on a particular problem, the more likely you are to come up with a new idea or a solution to the problem.

When more and more people think about specific issues and come up with new ideas and solutions, we’ll begin to effectively deal with all the challenges that come with under development. Your liberated mind is the key to freedom and prosperity, engage with it constructively by asking questions reading and talking with other like minded individuals.

At Africa unbound we are building communities of like minded individuals all over the continent.

While in Nairobi together with with Ndanu Mung’ala an associate, we talked about Coumba’s book which brings back the essence of children’s literature authored by creative African writers.

This book captures my attention perhaps  due to the delicacy of the story, “One day, Bama tells her twin girls that she is not their birth mother. The girls embark on a journey to find their mother and discover many mothers along the way.”

“Who then, is our mother?”
Baji Spoke with much sorrow.
“I don’t know her. That’s why it was difficult to tell you this news.”
“We must try to find her.” Sanji said,with tears in her eyes. “Why didn’t you ever tell us this before?”
“How are we going to find her? We don’t knowanything about her!” Baji added. “We do not know her name or her face.”

Coumba Toure shoes us, through adaptation form a traditional tale, why children in the Sahel have many mothers.

Coumba is currentl the director of the Sahel/West Africa region of Ashoka Foundation she is also running the Falia Children’s Program in Dakar, in which children’s brilliance in poetry, theater, visual arts and writing, consistently enchants her.

She also runs a publishing house, to put more children’s books out to the public. These days, Coumba is learning to live with intimacy, without fear. She dreams of living outside of the city, finding ways to use solar energy, growing food, being more patient with herself and others, trusting her intuitions, and having more time for her writing.

It’s amazing  these are the same dreams i long to see manifest in my life.  Folks, we’ll be bringing Bama’s twins to a shelf or school near you. Sharp! Sharp!

Maisha Yetu is an arts NGO based in Nairobi, it’s scope as per the Non-Governmental Co-ordination board registration is local. This does not deter us from exploring collaborations with youth from other parts of Africa.  A dollar a day is such a collaboration that marks our main project for 2012, to organize for a concert of all artists who produced in the 18 track album.

The album is available for free download in our blog and music enthusiasts are encouraged to share the link .

We are working towards producing concerts in  Nairobi,Lagos and  Johannesburg as a symbol of friendship between African youth from the participating countries namely; Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe,Botswana and South Africa. Increasing free movement between our borders, thus mitigating on negative aspects of society such as Xenophobia and negative ethnicity.

A Dollar a day addresses social ills and confronts the stereotype of Africa’s majority population living below the proverbial dollar a day. By the use of popular culture  Hiphop,commentary and Spoken word poetry encourages Africa’s youth to tap within their talents and exhaust economic opportunities. As a result living  dignified beyond the stereotypes associated with Africa.

Lastly because donor funding is a myth, we support each other in our projects from our own pockets. Due to  minimal resources we are unable to absorb a number of artists in this project.  Currently the best we can do is  country by country, song by song,the first step of many to come.

You are most welcome if you share in our ideology of a united Africa, whatever you can do to contribute in aiding the production of  Music for border hoppas - (as we refer to our music) is highly appreciated. Be it it in form of studio time, accommodation, plane/bus tickets food and publishing.

Enjoy our album A Dollar a day -Music for Border hoppas for brodas and sistas!

Play #Crazy shopping 

In this post, Regos is the MC who sparks off the life in A Dollar a day with the intro I love musics  

Play Heart Attack    

When Villa aka Andyvidual returned to South Africa from his studies in the UK, he was torn apart between two passions. These were rap and proffesional graphic design. Over time Andy has managed to sustain both passions. Andy was busy consumed in working on the Art work for A Dollar a day and as a result became its Art director.

Villa resides in Jo’Burg but travels back to Mafikeng often owing to the fact that he still has his love for The Lefoko Movement started 10 years back.

To have Andy’s input was quite a plus this cat brings in 10 years of experience and is one of the leading designers in Mogote Lab in JOhannesburg.

Play Source capital  track #4 in A Dollar a day  

In an industry temple dominated with materialism and fantasy, the Relevant Source stays Reverend and keeps it grounded to its true essence, real Mcing and relevance. This young Maftown lyricist is a point of reference if any Hip-hop fan forgot how it really is all about. Skill galore.

In A Dollar a day,Source Capital graces the true essence of purist Hiphop that he embodies.

The source thrives in Ciphers and studios and leaves no question marks. He is a Supa Mc with an articulate thought and rhyme sequence littered with mind boggling punch lines that resonate reasonably with reason.Source appears to be a well informed lyricist with a diverse range of topics and references which project from his scripts and freestyles.

Play Aszez&Bresstzz

Featured in Track 17 #Asszes & Bresstzz in A Dollar a day by Atmattatva Das aka  Fullovit.

Bra Sam Bass is currently residing in South Africa where he is a freelance bassist and a session player for a couple of Bands including Bonolo Molosiwa and TBIC.