Friday 26 April 2019

We are the World Blogfest # 24: Kugali – the African Comic Book …




Afrofuturism – ever heard of it?  The new Science Fiction Comic Book genre … opening doors to, and introducing, African culture to the world …

Three African friends realised in Science Fiction there are few black people so they decided they would craft their own genre – Afrofuturism – where black people could create and publish their own innovative ideas …



The Kugali Anthology

… for example a Senegalese creates a space opera … but he uses fishing boats as his space ships, rather than the ubiquitous jet fighters …




… while their colours – just enhance the whole … reminding us Africa is many countries with lots of different cultures and voices …


Many Nations, a Multitude of different
cultures, oral traditions, waiting to
be told, stretching back millennia
It is essential that Africans tell their own stories … and that the world has an opportunity to learn the oral histories of the different peoples in Africa …


These three got together and reached out across the African Nation to musicians, writers and artists to develop a work … then crowd-funded to bring together Kugali the Anthology



They would like to kick Disney’s arse in Africa … and by the look of their unconventional approach they are already reaching far and wide …


BBC video - 4 minutes showcase the Kugali project


Kugali showcases the best African stories by Africans using comics, art and animation. 




These are stories that respect the history of Africa, embrace the present and imagine the future.


An African Comics Anthology … 200 full colour pages; 15 incredibly talented creators; six amazing stories; and two wonderfully designed covers.  But above all: a comic book experience you won’t find anywhere else.


We are the World … In Darkness, Be Light


I’ll do another post highlighting other aspects I found while researching this #WAWTB post … (see my next post - thank you!)

Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Tuesday 16 April 2019

Write … Edit … Publish … Bloghop: Jewel Box …




The sun was up … the little one ‘fell out’ of bed in eager excitement …  her young unco-ordinated body rootling around for top and trousers … knickers – what were those …



 … she just wanted to get dressed and out into her jewel garden … first was to get down those large steps with her chubby legs … but she could use her bottom and plump arms to steady herself … plomp, plop, plomp …



Godrevy Lighthouse



… down the first half and onto the landing – here she knelt to look out of the window at the sea … that lighthouse, where the family went to gather seaweed for the garden and have pasty picnics …







a n other (not me!)
… her three-year old self vaguely remembered that lure of the back garden, with the plots of flowers, the box hedging surrounding the jewels …



Anemones - bright and glorious:
jewel flowers



… she loved the beautiful colours of the flowers … similar to those in the stained glass 1920s window – through which the sunlight blazed its colours …






Little Miss Dumpy – the delightful golden curled lass  - her parent’s firstborn … always loved being out with Muddy Label in their garden when they were in Cornwall.


Muddy Label – one of those nicknames that sticks and is remembered … for Mary and Mabel … the twisty tongue of Miss Twinkletoes could not say Mary and Mabel – they were Muddy and Label …



Her jewel box


Her memory was fading … but the familiar names rang a bell … those delightful heart-warming moments of yester year …





… then when she was twenty-one … her parents gave their golden girl the little jewel box … remembrances now of the many decades of her life … the rainbow jewels are here in her room … she can drift off with happy memories …


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories