Migration

Wildebeest migration in Liuwa Plain (care of African-parks.org)

After a long, hectic few weeks I am looking forward to setting off early Saturday with friends for Liuwa Plains National Park in Western Province to catch the annuel blue wildebeest migration.

We will be camping for seven days, relaxing, going on safari and seeing game. It will be a welcome once again to get out of Lusaka for a chunk of time to recollect my thoughts and take a break from work.

As November is coming to a close, I need to start thinking about potential winter travel plans. Due to a lack of finances, I am not sure what to do, where to go and what to expect but I definitely do not want to miss out and have to stay in Zambia while everyone else is away. If only there was I way I could legally get fast cash.

I'm also finally getting back into writing stories for the Monitor after a bit of a hiatus. My work plan has also hanged, for the fourth time (yes, really) and is still not completely functional. It has to do with accompanying reporters in the field which is not happening so my duties will now include writing a human rights column each week, finally doing some training via human rights workshops and analyzing the paper for human rights stories. Here's hoping, as I've got three months left of my contract and want to make the most of it.

School is out so my students at Golden Gates have their exam. Starting January I'll get a new crop and I have also decided to start contributing to an entertainment and lifestyle online mag in Zed called BH magazine (http://www.bhmagazine.com) to help get it kickstarted even though it's already impressive for a country like Zambia.

Well I'm off to the wilderness, so will report back once I return to "civilization."

Wide open spaces

Taking my first breath of fresh air in Siavonga this past weekend was a relief - it felt so good to be out of crowded, dusty and noisy Lusaka and be able to look left and rigth and see greenery instead of adverts on wall fences with barbed-wire.

Backtracking a bit before I get too carried away; we boarded the bus in Lusaka and took off on the three-hour journey through mountains, up and over hills and through lush greenspaces that I had yet to feast my eyes on in Zed. As the sun began to set, I was disappointed that we had not yet arrived in Siavonga, which is well-known for its spectacular sunrises over Lake Kariba, the second largest man-made lake in Africa.

Nevertheless, we arrived at Eagles Rest lodge and after much confusion over accomodations (canoe race competitors were camping and press were supposed to be on a houseboat next to a hippo) we finally got sorted and feasted on a fish barbecue before retiring for the race the next morning.

Salim et moi

Early Saturday morning the lot of us gathered for a buffet breakfast and to receive the clues for the canoe race and listen to instructions. We boarded the boat to ferry us to the starting line and along came a speed boat with the owners of Lake Kariba Inns with the two most wonderful dogs - a wiener dog named Thomas and a half boxer/half bulldog named Wilfred. I claimed my space on the speed boat which would be my transport for the next three hours and I was in utter bliss being surrounded by good company (including the dogs of course) from various Zambian media outlets, plenty of Mosi and being able to feel the breeze in face on the water.

The competitors all gathered in one long line and the horn blew. They raced down to the canoes (there is a term for this type of starting line but I forget it), chaos ensued but people eventually organized themselves into teams of three. Unfortunately four lucky teams had to be placed in rafts which was a huge disadvantage as their speed would be reduced immensely on the water.

The competitors battling or rather paddling it out on Lake Kariba

For the next three hours, we motored around monitoring who was winning, checking out the teams running to find their clues along the route and just having some laughs. The Lake Kariba Inns team was the eventual winner, completing the race in just a little over an hour and too bad, but the rafters finished last. A for effort, though!

Thomas (left) and Wilfred getting in on the action

The rest of Saturday was relaxing, we checked in to Kariba Inn which was beautiful - the nicest hotel in Siavonga with an incredible view. After another fish barbecue, some swimming and napping, the party began. The DJ blasted disco and r&b oldies and goodies mixed with Zam jams and the crowd erupted into a giant dancing movement both in and out of the pool.

Pool dancing at night

After another huge buffet-style breakfast the next morning, we retired, exhausted (hey I can't even complain...I didn't race) to the bus and began the journey home, which was long because we kept stopping for a bunch of rowdy Zambians in the back to get more beer - funny, they were the ones whose boat capsized ten minutes after the race began because they were chugging Mosi and cheap white wine since you couldn't have booze while racing.

The view from Kariba Inns

Siavonga mini-break and election mania

The past week has been rather celebratory. Zambians went wild when they found out Obama got elected and I had an "election breakfast" with some friends at an Irish pub at around 6:30 a.m. our time to watch the president-elect give his speech in Chicago. It was a pretty amazing experience being so far away from home with other Americans (and Canadians) and witnessing this together. Hey, people in Kenya are even naming their babies after the new pres.

Elections in Zambia are also finished. It has been quite a ride - nearly three months of constant bickering between parties, potential corruption and more drama but in the end I believe the election was relatively free and fair...well as free and fair as Zambia could possibly get. The MMD party, the current ruling party prior to 30 October got re-elected and former vice-president Rupiah Banda is now the President. Michael Sata, the Patriotic Front leader lost by only a few tens of thousands of votes which has made things a bit tense lately as he is certainly not happy with the outcome - the way the results from the consitituencies were announced, Sata had a huge overriding lead until Saturday evening when we found out the final results as Banda edged closer, eventually taking over in the first place.

Last week I attended the final political rally for the United Party for National Democracy, with its leader Hakainde Hichilema (nicknamed H.H.) giving his pep speech to thousands of supporters. It was unreal to be standing on the platform nearly in H.H.'s breathing space snapping photos of the massive crowd, donning UPND chitenge, holding flags and signs of support. Everytime H.H. shouted "Zambia" the crowd would raise their fists in the air showing solidarity and then begin chanting political songs of support. Even Petersen, one of Zed's top music artists write now penned a tune for the leader (obviously after being a paid a decent salary for it, I'm sure).

Thousands of UPND supporters in Kanyama

H.H. speaking to supporters at the rally

As luck and good timing would have it, I am heading off to Siavonga along the beautiful Lake Kariba for the weekend.

This is no pleasure trip - I am going on a bus packed with Zambia media houses to cover the second annual Canoe Jamboree, an "Amazing Race style" event that will take place Saturday morning.

The race consists of sponsored teams who are given clues and by canoe and on land, need to find all of the answers (in hotels, around town, etc.) within three hours. I will be following the water component so media personnel are taken out by boat to trail the canoes. After the race ends, there is a beach braii (bbq) and an awards ceremony in the evening and then after a big breakfast Sunday morning, it's time to come home. I'm staying at the Kariba Inns, apparently one of the nicest hotels in the area and we are taking a luxury coach to and from Siavonga. Can't complain about my job, once again.

But this won't be all playtime. A fellow JHR colleague and I are working on a story to pitch to a few Canadian papers about some pertinent issues regarding mining, tourism, etc. in the area that actually has Canadian involvement (don't want to give out my story idea here for obvious reasons). We will be interviewing Chiefs, hospitality and tourism workers and some activists on the mining issue as well.

Photo courtesy of Siavonga-zambia.com

Tuesday I finally made it to my first compound, right near where I stay. I will post more about that experience later as the photos tell most of the story but the experience was uplifting - it felt so nice to connect with people on a local level and the area was great, sandy roads, no wall fences, a very open feeling. Everyone said hello as my colleague fron another newspaper and I passed them and we spoke to people at a women's empowerment NGO, an orphanage and a community school. It was so interesting to learn about the issues which affect each institution, how they are being proactive in arranging to find a solution and how they work as a body within the community. I left feeling slightly more fulfilled.

Zambia Fashion Week Diaries (Saturday)

And finally the day came for the grand finale of Zambia Fashion Week.

The final noon-time show was awash with pink dresses of various shapes, styles and cuts—some of the tacky side, but all of them fabulous. Dodo Wear closed off the individual shows for the week before the glittering grand finale took place that night.

Dodo Wear

Dodo Wear

Dodo Wear

Dodo Wear

Although it was hard to pinpoint exactly where a woman could wear these frocks to a function, the imagination in each robe was certainly held in high regard. Mixtures of different textures including beads, sequins and ribbon were sewn in to each dress, many of them satin which gave off a beautiful sheen look since the deep pink colour was so intense.

And then came our evening show. All 12 designers in the show picked their ten best outfits and the three-hour long finale showed us more than 120 outfits. Alliance Française saw a packed house with standing-room only, proof that the week was a smashing success and that Zambians love their fashion and want to support their local talent.

Throughout the night, designers were congratulated for a job well done, handed flowers and our emcee for the week as well, C.R.I.$.I.$. worked the stage grabbing everyone with his energy and constant movement.

The models were also given massive rounds of applause—participating in every show, twice a day is not an easy job. We saw the crème de la crème of Zambia's supermodels, including Foster Chewe, Precious Mumbi and Mulenga Mubanga (my personal favourite), many of whose credits include the Face of Africa, Miss Zambia, etc.

Left: Model Mulenga Mubanga and friends Valerie, me and Bonnie

So Zambia Fashion Week came to a quick end. It was a great experience being able to attend each show, schmooze with other members of the press, organizers, models and designers and get a taste as to how the fashion industry works on this side of the world. It may not be a fashion destination like New York City, Paris, London or even Montreal for that matter, but Lusaka played host to Zambia's top design talent and the world can get ready to see some of these creative talent going international in the years to come.

Zambia Fashion Week Diaries (Friday)

On the second last day of Fashion Week, we saw our youngest and perhaps one of the most talented designers take the stage for the evening show, Angela Mulenga. Lunch time's show also proved to be a huge creative success with Charity Ngoma's flamboyant (and very big on the pouffe) dresses.

Charity Ngoma

Charity Ngoma

Charity Ngoma

Charity Ngoma

Charity Ngoma was perhaps the most experimental out of all the designers when it came to appliqués and close attention to detail in her outfits. Each dress had either a unique neckline, a skirt that boasted incredible shape and edge and good use of colour clashing (in a positive way as discussed before, of course).

Her venture into bridalwear left many a future wife thinking about how you can be creative and untraditional yet stick to one's tribal roots at the same time. It's not often we see colours or noticeable patterns sewn in to a wedding dress, but Ngoma's confidence in her creativity shone through as she demonstrated her dresses with long, flowing trains marked with tribal designs, neutral-toned appliqués along the bustier and loads of crinoline stuff under the skirt enough to make a debutante envious.

Angela Mulenga's follow-up that evening to Ngoma's show was greatly complimentary. Pretty satine and sparkling party dresses perfect for a formal function or a spin on the dancefloor, edgy clubwear for a woman who likes to be seen on the scene and hip casualwear demonstrated the youthful Mulenga's impressive collection.

Angela Mulenga
Angela Mulenga
Angela Mulenga

Angela Mulenga

Angela Mulenga

Certainly another favourite among the audience for Fashion Week, Mulenga's fascination with glamour and simplicity transcends through her sophisticated designs that show she is well beyond her years. At her age, she understands that fashion is more than a matter of flaunting an outfit and looking food while doing it—it's one of the primary ways a woman can express herself, no matter how old she is.

Her love of satin fabric was certainly noticeable through her smooth and shiny dresses of luscious colours, lots of calm purples, shocking reds and hot yellows showed face down the catwalk.

Mulenga doesn't stick to one theme—she decided to take on every pattern, design and colour possible and does a good job at mastering it. Including chitenge in many of her designs as well, young Zambian women were in awe when they saw the work Mulenga could do transforming a rather blah pattern into a work of art.

Zambia Fashion Week Diaries (Thursday)

Thursday's lunch hour edition of Zambia Fashion Week was chaotic yet fun and creative. Verona Gordon's collection included children and men for the first time, who adorned themselves with flamboyant chitenge outfits, each one hard to imagine someone actually wearing on a day-to-day basis but still imaginative nonetheless.

Verona Gordon

Verona Gordon

Verona Gordon

Verona Gordon

The mother-and-child matching outfits garnered several "awwws" from the heavily muzungu-populated audience but the multi-ethnic catwalk was a welcome change, showing us a little diversity in what Zambia has to offer. Despite the models looking a little less than thrilled at having to carry children (I can't imagine having do strut down a catwalk carrying a child...incredible balance these women must have), the clothes were imaginative, colourful and had interesting cuts and angles using the traditional Zambian fabric we had seen most days during Fashion Week. Overall, it was nice to see a family-friendly show and Gordon stood out from the rest of the designers by having children's outfits on parade (and muzungus in her show as well).

The evening show gave us a double whammy of fantastic eveningwear, club outfits, sophisticated casualwear and all at the same time, intended for a similar audience of extremely fashion conscious and fashion-forward young urban women. Coretta Arnold came first followed by Nada in a double presentation Thursday evening.

Coretta Arnold's designs graced the catwalk first, with ground-sweeping dresses in bright "notice me" hues (a favourite included two white numbers with multi-coloured polka dots complete with a hot red waist-belt and the second with cute green ribbon sewn throughout) and model Precious Mumbi's barely-there sensual blue top overtop white wide-leg satin trousers made heads turn and eyes widen. A favourite on the men was the blue plaid vest (worn on both our gentleman host and the male model with no shirt underneath...definitely caught the ladies' eyes and I'm sure sold out after the show).

Coretta Arnold

Coretta Arnold

Coretta Arnold

Coretta Arnold

Following Coretta Arnold, the multi-talented Nada took the stage. Decked out in a belly-dancing ensemble, the designer herself opened her set with a dance performance, signalling that her show dictated her unique style and the many sides that exist to her.

Nada

Nada

Nada

Nada

Nada's vast collection of glamorous cocktail dresses and shimmering clubwear illuminated the catwalk with the first visibly "real" collection—outfits that you would definitely see women wearing on a daily basis to the appropriate function. It seems as though Nada designs for every occasion from formal evening functions to weddings to a night out with the ladies bumping and grinding in the clubs. She plays around with a lot of black and white working with both shades simultaneously to express her serious side in a fun ensemble and then surprises us with bold shades of red and baby pink to give her looks a softer edge.

She garnered a huge round of applause not only for her large and impressive collection at the end of her set but also for her own costume and impressive dance performance. Talk about bein artistic in more than one discipline.

Zambia Fashion Week Diaries (Wednesday)

You know when you're participating in a week-long event and the beginning is so exciting as is the end, but the middle of the whole thing suffers a bit of a slump? Wednesday was that day, with the exception of Petros Giannakakis, whose lunch time show brought inspiration to casual wear for both men and women.

Giannakakis' signature symbol of "I (heart) PG" t-shirts were everywhere—models sported them proudly with comfy looking bottoms. But what wowed the audience the most was his one-piece outfits (or jumpsuits, if you will), complete in army prints, plaid and with a headlamp as an experimental accessory.

Having lived and designed in Capetown, the international experience brings the unique flair to Giannakakis' work. "I'm inspired by the future and culture. I design something exclusive and original," he said in an interview.

Petros Giannakakis

Petros Giannakakis

Petros Giannakakis

Petros Giannakakis

The unfortunate turn of events in the evening saw the Veronica Sampa collection being presented for a second time. Allegedly there was a tiff between the scheduled designer and some models, but the details are scatty. Not that it was a bad thing to see Sampa's work displays a second time, but her designs were not among my favourites to see for a third time (including seeing them at the Saturday finale). Luckily this was the only mild disappointment during the week.

Zambia Fashion Week Diaries (Tuesday)

After a successful first day, the bar was raised high for Tuesday's shows. Enos Malunga presented his collection of shiny satin eveningwear and casual attire, many of those outfits using neutral colours with a little chitenge action going on.

Malunga tends to take the more traditional route of design—the eveningwear line he showed us stuck to basic blacks and reds, with classy cocktail dresses and some romantic pieces suitable for the theatre or a very formal wedding. It would have been nice to see a little more experimentation with his designs as nothing really struck me as new and innovative. But if Malunga feels more comfortable with safe and traditional designs for formalwear and believes there to be the market for it in Zambia, then he is in the green.

Enos Malunga

Enos Malunga

Enos Malunga
Enos Malunga

It was difficult to find a theme to his designs—his sets, although the formal dresses were pretty and the casual wear was very down-to-earth and something the everyday woman could wear, were hard to find a focal point. Perhaps I just missed the message he was trying to communicate through his designs, but I found his work a little on the basic side and believe he could take more risk in experimenting with cuts, angles and patterns.

The evening show brought us Mary Kaira, a woman of little words when in the spotlight but extraordinary talent. Sticking to her traditional Zambian roots with bright chitenge fabric and crafting modern outfits for the style-conscious woman, Kaira was another highlight of the week by far. With three separate sets in accordance to style and colour, we saw originality including a black mini tube dress with a long teal-hued peacock tail sewn in back to maternity wear so chic that a mother will want to keep on producing offspring just to wear the fabulous frocks again.

Mary Kaira

Mary Kaira

Mary Kaira
Mary Kaira

Kaira's outfits were extravagant, simple, vibrant and classy all at different points in their sets. She knows how to flatter a woman's best features, with modern cuts mixed in with busy attention-drawing patterns and sleek and sophisticated casual wear that can do double time as a perfect outfit for a night out on the town. Her designs were fresh, inspiring, traditional and youthful as she clearly knows who her audience is and is not afraid to present her young, urban women clothes that any fashionista would vie for.

Zambia Fashion Week Diaries (Monday)

The Coca-Cola Zambia Fashion Week took over Alliance Française on Monday, October 20 with six days of action-packed shows featuring 13 local designers.

With shows twice a day, one during lunch-hour and another in the evening, fashion addicts were treated to a new designer each time. These designers, among the crème de la crème in the Zambian fashion industry displayed impressive quality, diversity and creativity in their designs, ranging from the traditional Zambian way of dress with a twist to haute couture meant for the most extreme of fashionistas.

Veronica Sampa was the first one up, presenting three sets of elegant and feminine outfits suitable for the everyday woman. Mixing in chitenge fabric in bold colours to spruce up neutral colours seemed to be a theme in many of her designs, which is a practical way of making both casual and office attire more fun and expressive.

Veronica Sampa

Veronica Sampa

Veronica Sampa
Veronica Sampa

Her designs are definitely geared for a more mature audience, but the bold colours and prints bring out a youthful and fresh vibe which show a woman's wardrobe never expires with age, it only shifts in creative direction.

The evening show brought us Fay Designs' principal designer Faith Mulanga Kabende, a woman who does not shy away from the fabulously extreme and colourfully outrageous. The type of lady who will be sporting any of Fay Designs' grandiose dresses is one who does not shy away from the spotlight and definitely loves being seen on a scene.

Faith Kabende, Fay Designs

Fay Designs
Fay Designs
Fay Designs

Kabende flirts with vintage-inspired patterns and designs in many of her romantic Victorian-style dresses. She does not shy away from any type of material; from crinoline to objects sewn in to the skirt, Kabende's attire clashes wonderfully with bold statements such as mixing bright yellow hues with chocolate in one skirt and beige for the bodice with feathers around the waist-line. Many discerning fashionable people say that mixing neutral colours with yellow is not safe but Kabende takes this to the next level and shows her audience that they should not shy away from colour clashing experimentation — clashing is not a negative thing (as she has proven).

Again with the Zambian flag theme seen in many of the designers' sets, Kabende took it back to the '80s and brought us both a fabulous prom-style dress, completely with crinoline and ribbon sewn around the bodice. Another eye-opener was the neon pink also '80s-inspired jacket matched with a tight black pencil skirt. Kabende seems balance between the Victorian era and 1980s' big dresses with big tops. She should continue her experimentation with the past as we are anxious to see what she'll bring out next.