Wantok Travel Blog

New York was waiting for Aaron Douglas, though no one knew just how much, including the artist himself. By the time he arrived in 1925 he had no idea what was waiting, not the lifetime of work, and certainly not the eventual reputation as the Harlem Renaissance’s father of African-American art. Douglas, with the urging of German-born Art Deco artist Winold Reiss and writers Alain Locke and W. E. B. DuBois, was encouraged to study African art. Studying cubism and Egyptian art, he blended them with Art Deco and modern design to help create a uniquely African-American aesthetic. His flat silhouettes and muted colors appealed: soon his work was everywhere.  Douglas’s paintings were reproduced in books, such as Locke’s ground-breaking The New Negro, 1925; James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones, 1927; and Langston Hughes’s Fine Clothes to the Jew, 1927. The magazines Opportunity and Crisis both commissioned him as a graphic artist, and Crisis editor DuBois hired him. Image: B...

MARIO BALLOTELI 🗣️"Saya menantang Anda semua pesepakbola Afrika untuk mengumpulkan uang bersama saya untuk meninggalkan Eropa yang Rasis dan membangun stadion di Afrika serta mengembangkan generasi muda kita.  Kita punya uang, kita bisa membangun setidaknya 5 stadion kelas dunia di setiap negara dan menandatangani petisi bahwa tidak ada lagi pemain yang akan diekspor ke Eropa.  Di sini, di Afrika, mereka akan bermain di bawah kasih sayang saudara-saudari mereka tanpa ada yang menyanyikan lagu-lagu rasis di tribun penonton.  Kami lebih bertalenta kualitas liga. Kami memiliki bakat hebat yang tidak pernah dihargai di Luar Negeri." ~M. Naloteli

Margaret Walker was born on July 7, 1915, in Birmingham, Alabama was a college student at the age of 15 when she begin writing poetry.  She received a BA from Northwestern University in 1935 and an MA from the University of Iowa in 1940. In 1936 she joined the Federal Writers’ Project in Chicago, where she became friends with Richard Wright and joined his South Side Writers Group. In 1941 Walker became the first African American poet to receive the Yale Younger Poets Prize, for her debut collection For My People (Yale University Press, 1942). She was also the author of the poetry collections This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems (University of Georgia Press, 1989), October Journey (Broadside Press, 1973), and Prophets for a New Day (Broadside Press, 1970). Walker married Firnist Alexander in 1943, and together they had four children. In 1949 they moved to Mississippi, where she joined the faculty at Jackson State College. She returned to the University of Iowa for...

Though not a Kenyan, Prof. Taban Lo Liyong of South Sudan and Uganda is hard not to celebrate. In the sixties, he famously or infamously remarked that East Africa was “a dry, desolate, barren stretch of wilderness where literature has simply refused to sprout.” While the assessment was true at the time, it continued to echo for decades. I remember as recently as the early 2010s encountering this sentiment in nearly every issue of the Saturday Nation. Thankfully, the burgeoning independent publishing industry has put paid to such observations. My first encounter with his work was a short story known as "The Old Man of Usumbura", an experimental piece that I was unable to appreciate until I was eighteen years old which is when the power and beauty of the repetition used throughout the piece became apparent. Later on I would read Gertrude Stein's "Melanctha" and in it see the literary tradition Prof. Taban's story belonged to. His most recent book i...

The Moors were a group of North Africans who conquered and ruled Spain for nearly 781 years, from 711 to 1492. They entered the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, passing through Morocco.  African Moors were known for their exceptional architecture and engineering skills, and they built numerous impressive structures, such as universities and mosques in Spain, which still stand to this day.  They made significant contributions in various fields, including math, medicine, chemistry, philosophy, astronomy, botany, bricklaying and history. The African Moors were the first to introduce the use of Arabic numbers in Europe, which are still used today.  They also made significant advances in medicine, developed treatments for various diseases and created medical textbooks that were widely used. In addition, the African Moors were skillful astronomers and developed advanced techniques to measure time and determine the position of celesti...

Great moment with this family at Tsak Valley in Enga Province. I can truly say there is alot of good people in Enga Province.  I have never really felt important till I started travelling to the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.  Honestly, pasin em yupla yah.  In most of my trips up the Highlands, I left my own mother and family back at home. But the way my mothers from the Highlands region of the nation could just make me feel at home. I could not easily forget.  No matter the challenges we as a nation are facing. There is so much good in our country.  We just rarely talk about it.  I can't wait to go up the Highlands again and share the beauty of not only the environment but the people too. Yumi em wan kantry tasol. Stay blessed.  Glen Burua Motivation

Legend in my book 📖📚 Behind the Lucky Dube’s band there was a genius keyboard specialist and Lucky Dube’s hypeman Thuthukani Cele,this man is so talented with a unique style of playing keyboards.  He also did the choreography and vocals for the band. Thuthukani and Lucky Dube were like twins the way they understood each other on stage and most of the things they did on stage just came spontaneously.  This man is known all over Africa 🌍 and also known throughout the world and yet so humble Thuthukani is one of those keeping Lucky Dube's Legacy alive 🫶🏿❤️💛💚

Do you know  The Greeks visited Egypt (kemet) as students to learn about Africàns. Plato stùdied in Egypt for 13 years Pythagoras studied philosophy, geometry and medicine in Egypt for 22 years. Thales, the first Greek philosopher to study in Egypt for 7 years. Hypocrates, who is called father of medicine, recognized the Egyptian multi genius, Imhotep as the father of medicine. The "Pythagorean Theorem" used to build pyramids in Egypt 1000 years before Pythagòrean was bòrn. Plato said Egyptian èducation makes students more alèrt and humane. Plato tòld his students to go to Egypt if they wànted to study the minds of great philosophers. Heredotus, the Greek historian dèscribed ancient Egypt as the cràdle of civilizàtion. 0ur ancestors opened the doors of our Nation to f0reign peoples, these guests were welcomed with respect and honor according to our traditions but they used our kindnèss to destr0y our Nation. Black Inspiration