EWI -POETRY AWARDS NIGHT - AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CENTRE LONDON

Another super duper  Exiled Writers Ink! ...occasion.

Amnesty International  offices in  London.
 Hidden along a quite street ...in an area renowned for clubbing, young students, business and so on. But here we are seated talking of literature, rewards of literature, beauty of literature, lull and love of literature. Winners of literature... writing swimming pool.  Words power...

 Dr Jennifer Langer of EWI comperes the evening watched by Dr Fatieh Saudi- collecter of all the poems for the 2014 competition. As the dazzling evening hurtled, Dr Saudi also read a poem about the 1982 Lebanese bombing. Chilling memories.

SAIDI KANDA's NEW ALBUM BRINGS OUT AN UNSUNG HERO...

How long does it take to notice a unique artist?
Good question.

Saidi Kanda promotes his new album Ambush at Rich Mix , East London in November 2014. On his left is singer Fab Moses, whose participation in Kanda's performances is significant.
Pic by F Macha

Our lives are not as unkind as a 1960s T shirt used to say, i.e. cruel world. But the music industry is a tough trek. We have to like and believe in what we do. Just like Musician Saidi Kanda, 
who has been around for as long as I can remember. 

I recall visiting the late musician Remmy Ongala (above) at one of the clubs he performed regularly in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. It was 1983. Then prodigy percussionist  Saidi Kanda was only 21 and already playing with the legend. I was burning and eager to write about Ongala who I felt was not getting due credit for his amazing music and input into international culture. My efforts to pen articles in my then column with the weekly Sunday News, belched something else. Journalism was not enough. I felt I had to write a book about Remmy Ongala's life. I started right away...