Recently, my love for kanga has taken on a new dimension. Beyond the reasons mentioned above, I’ve now also come to appreciate kanga for its jina (‘name’ in Swahili), which is what the writing on kanga is called. Care to know how that happened? Here goes.

Two years ago, I found that I greatly enjoyed wearing a green-and-white kanga that I had nipped from my mother . This was unusual for two reasons: first, I don’t generally like green (especially on clothing) and second, the kanga‘s design was rather plain. My pleasure in wearing this kanga came from what was written on it, its jina, which read: Mlisema hayawi mbona yamekuwa? (Translation: You said it doesn’t/wouldn’t happen, so how come it’s happened?). Although this didn’t point directly to something that had already taken place in my life; at the time, I was living an unconventional life, working towards seemingly impossible goals. I hoped, of course, that I would one day achieve these goals and then be able to ask this question of all the naysayers I’d met along the way. The kanga’s jina was feisty…and I LOVED it! From then on, kangas for me ceased to be just about aesthetics and became, too, a form of expression and communication like they have been for countless Swahili-speaking women since the early twentieth century.

A short while ago, I found myself on Uhuru Street, which arguably has the widest selection of kangas in Dar es Salaam. Although I wasn’t really kanga shopping; for the pleasure of my spirit, I decided to look around and see what was new in the world of kanga. After discovering some shocking kanga jinas the last time I was kanga shopping; this time, this is what I decided to focus my attention on. The first thing I noticed was an unusual number of kangas with Islamic jinas, such as Mungu tuzidishie imani tufunge mwezi wa Ramadhani (translation: God, increase our faith so that we fast successfully during the month of Ramadan). I then remembered my brother telling me, the night before, that the next day would be the first day of Ramadan. (On that note, I wish a successful and spiritually-rich month of Ramadan to all my Muslim readers! ). Other jinas that caught my attention were:

• Mzoea nazi samli haiwezi (A person used to coconut cannot deal with ghee)
• Sibora kitu bora utu (Humaness is better than material things)
• Ukijua kupokea ujue na kutoa (If you know how to receive, then know too how to give)
• Usiniwekee majungu bahati kanipa mungu (Don’t spread rumors about me, my luck is God-given)
• Njama nimezisikia nangojea vitendo (I’ve heard the evil plans, now I await the actions)
• Msemaukweli ni mpenzi wa mungu (A truthful person is one who loves God)
• Niko kwangu yanini majungu (I’m in my own home, so why all the nasty rumors?)
• Tuliza roho yako mimi ni wako (Calm your spirit; I am yours)
• Mema na mabaya yapo lakini tusamehane (The good and the bad exist, but let’s forgive each other)

This got me curious about what my own current collection of kangas had to offer in terms of sayings. Checking when I got home, I found that my kangas say:

• Siri si umbeya (A secret isn’t gossip)
• Mungu ndiye kimbilio letu (God is our refuge)
• Nemekuja kutembea sikuja kwa umbea (I have come to visit, not to gossip)
• Kuomba si kupata mungu akipenda atakupa (To ask is not to get; if God wishes, he will give you)
• Muumbaji ni mmoja njoo tuishi pamoja (The Creater is one; come let’s live together)
• Upendo ni nuru ya maisha (Love is the light of life) 
• Maisha ni kutafuta siyo kutafutana (Life is about seeking [for one’s own], not about witch-hunting)

Tell me, do you have a favorite kanga saying? If so, what is it, what does it mean, and why do you like it so much? If you are an avid wearer of kanga but never pay much attention to the words written on them, how about checking now (and sharing) what’s written on your favorite kanga? Does this saying in any way reflect something that’s going on in your life? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

If you would like to know more about kanga, its history, or kanga sayings, then check out the following links: Kanga (African garment), The History of Kanga, Kanga Writings, and List of 254 Sayings on Khangas. Otherwise, that’s it from me. I wish you a great weekend and, as always, look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Until the next time,
Biche

P.S. I apologize in advance if any of my Swahili-English translations are not spot-on.

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Photo credits: jamiiforums.com, Miwani for Mwanza Mission, and faenzamultietnica.org.

That same evening, I returned home to an excited housemate who had spent the afternoon in the new store buying household goods for an apartment that she would soon be moving to. As soon as I got home, she couldn’t wait to show me what she had purchased and within minutes, I found myself seated on her bed as she pulled her new belongings out of bags that she had stuffed under her bed for safe keeping.

Out of these bags, she pulled gorgeous cushions made out of rich fabrics in the most delicious colors. She showed me hip, playful wine glasses that were just perfect for the young 20-something professional woman that she was. She pulled out candles, dried flowers, and all manner of beautiful knickknacks that would turn her new apartment into a beautiful and tasteful home. With the added incentive of actually seeing what Mr Price had to offer, I made yet another mental note to visit the store ASAP!

A short while later, while running errands in Westlands, I decided to make a small detour and finally check out the new Mr Price Home store. My, oh my! Was I in for a treat! In this large store, I was first greeted by beautiful bedding, complete with perfectly-made beds to let you see just how great this bedding would look in your own home. (This is when I first spotted the mattress pads that I wrote about in this post.) While perusing the store that day, I saw gorgeous rugs and glasses of all variety. I saw beautiful ready-made curtains, dried flowers, toilet mats, towels, and laundry baskets.  Basically, I saw everything that you could possible ever think of needing in your home. (Well, that’s not quite true. I didn’t see any hard furniture such as beds or couches or tables but still the range of household items that I saw at Mr Price Home was pretty exhaustive.) As I walked around taking everything in, I nostalgically began to think back to when I first started living on my own in Nairobi and how much I’d have loved for such a store to be open at the time.

When I began to live on my own in Nairobi (back in 2003), I had an apartment that I was totally in love with. I was in my mid-twenties, well set up both professionally and financially, and I simply couldn’t wait to furnish my home in  the way I’d always dreamed. Sadly, reality set in: finding household furnishing in Nairobi that was  functional, chic, and affordable proved more difficult than I’d expected. Walking through Mr Price Home that first day, I began to imagine how much easier, and more fun it would have been to furnish my home with all the stylish functional items that I could see at Mr Price.

Anyhow…bygones. Fast forward to today, two years later. Since that first visit to Mr Price Home, I have since become more familiar with the Mr Price brand and the various Mr Price stores in East Africa. During a visit to Nairobi last year, I visited the Mr Price clothing store located at The Junction Shopping Complex; in Dar es Salaam, I am a frequent visitor of the Mr Price/Mr Price Home combination store in Mlimani City. (I also hear that there’s a new Mr Price Store at The Oasis Complex in Kampala, which opened earlier this year.)

Mr Price in Kampala - Photo Credit: Nicholas Kajoba/UgandaOnline.net

But now, I’d like to ask you: As an East African (or East African resident), how has the advent of Mr Price stores to the region changed your life? Have you ever visited any of these stores? Have you ever purchased anything there? Would you recommend that others shop at Mr Price stores? How do you find the products that Mr Price stores sell? What do you think of these products in terms of price, quality, beauty, utility and/or value?

I look forward to hearing what you have to say. In the meanwhile,  in an effort to attempt to provide you with an answer to the question I posed in this post’s title, here is a link to  the official Mr Price website (I hate to break it to you, but you’ll have to find the answer to the question for yourself. ) Also, if you are interested in finding out more about the presence of Mr Price stores in East Africa, then check out this article from allAfrica.com – it shed a lot of light on the issue for me.

Otherwise, that’s all from me today.

Until the next time,
Biche

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Want to flirt-with-the-idea along with me? How about it? Today, let’s talk about locs! First, I’ll share with you a little of what I’ve learned on my previous four loc journeys, and then you, by commenting on this post, can share what you know about growing locs. Let’s get started!

First things first, let’s start by talking about the motivation to grow dreadlocks: for those of you who sport locs (or have done so in the past), what was your main reason for beginning to grow your locs? Was it simply about fashion, or did you have a deeper, more meaningful reason to start growing locs? For me, the very first time, it was because I was going through some sort of phase. I was at University and was simply tired of all the effort that we women were going through to alter ourselves and our appearances, so I decided to go natural. This first time, I kept it simple: I simply stopped combing my hair (among other things that I stopped doing ). That was an interesting experiment. On subsequent loc journeys, my reasons were a little less radical. For the most part, after that, I started to grow locs for aesthetic reasons.

Once the decision is made, there’s the small detail of getting started. As I mentioned before, the first time I started to grow locs, I decided to use the “neglect” method. The second time, I opted to begin my locs by twisting my natural hair, at home, on my own. The third and fourth times, I acquiesced to saner methods and visited a loctitian. How about you? How did you get your locs started? If you’ve had the opportunity to try different methods, which do you recommend? (I recommend visiting a loctitian! )

The first day you begin your loc journey is just that – simply the first day of a long (gruesome) journey to getting your locs looking the way you’ve always pictured them in your mind – so let’s talk about the process of nurturing your natural hair as it grows to form beautiful, fully-locked dreadlocks. For those of you who have been down this road before, what was your loc maintenance routine during the early months? Did you go to a hair salon to wash and retwist your locs, or rather did you opt to take care of your locs yourself? I’ve used both methods with varying results. Going to a loctitian can be relatively hassle-free, but at the going rates I’ve seen in East Africa, it can be quite expensive. That as well as it means putting your loc-fortune into the hands of someone who may not necessarily share your loc-vision. What do you say? Would you recommend maintaining locs by visiting a  salon regularly,  or is DIY (do it yourself) the way to go? For those who recommend visiting a salon, do you have loctitians/salons anywhere in East Africa that you would like to recommend? With what frequency do you recommend someone visit such salons?

If DIY is your preference, then let’s get  to the nitty-gritty: What is/was your personal loc maintenance routine? How and when did/do you wash and retwist your locs? Do you have any particular way in which you do this? What products have yielded the best results for you? Personally, I like to wash and retwist my locs once a week. I do this because I really like the manicured look. I am not picky about what shampoo I use,  but I do skip conditioner to avoid difficult-to-remove residue. My best retwisitng results have been achieved by using a mix of honey and ordinary (no-alcohol) styling gel, which I was careful to apply early in the day so it could air-dry before I went to bed at night. Oh yeah, that and I always made sure to tie my hair in a scarf before going to bed every night.

I never had to change routines for when my locs were fully locked (I never kept the hairstyle quite that long) but maybe some of you did.  Are you one of those people? If so, what did you do differently at this stage of your loc journey?

Well, that’s all that’s on my mind today. Now, it’s time to turn it over to you! What do you have to share about your loc journey(s)? What loctitians or salons do you recommend (particularly if you are in East Africa)? How about products? Maintenance routines? Styling options? I want to hear it all. Don’t be shy, drop me a comment below.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Until the next time,
Biche

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Today, I am going to do something unusual and tell you not about a place at which to hang out or a restaurant at which to eat. Instead, I am going to tell you about a fashion house that I think produces the most innovative Kenyan fashion designs that I have seen to date. Before I do, allow me to give you a brief background of my experience with African fashion.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I grew up in Côte d’Ivoire. Ivorians are great fans of all things good and really like to dress up. Unlike East Africans, for whom dressing up often involves western style clothing or clothing from foreign cultures, Ivorians dress up mostly in African attire. The Ivorian fashion industry is extremely sophisticated and keeps up with the times. As a young girl in Côte d’Ivoire, dressing in African attire could mean wearing the slinkiest, off-shoulder mini dress made of kitenge that had nothing to do with being traditional, old-fashioned, or stodgy.

When I first moved to Kenya, I was not very impressed with the African wear that I saw Kenyans wear. Very often, what I saw was simply imported West African clothing, often of poor quality, or Kenyan adaptations of West African styles. I rarely saw true indigenous or authentic Kenyan fashion.

In 2004, at the first Kenya Fashion Week that I attended, I continued to have the same feeling for the most part. The designs that stood out most for me were by a fashion house that designed A-line skirts out of Hessian and leather. (Hessian, also know as jute, or raffia, is a material that is often used to make sacks and is rarely used as clothing.) At the time, I didn’t note the name of the fashion house.

In 2005, at the first Party in the Park, held at the Carnivore show grounds, I encountered this same fashion house again. Their designs had evolved to include shoes and handbags, as well as very elegant eveningwear. This time, I noted the name of the fashion house, Dawn of Creation. Dawn of Creation still used primarily Hessian and leather in their designs, but their collection also included a lot of beadwork and metal decorations to adorn these fabrics. The fashion show they put on at Party in the Park was a sight to behold. The colors were bright and bold – bright yellow, fuchsia, and turquoise – and the designs incorporated some of the new concepts that were developed during the search for Kenya’s national dress.

In 2006, in search of an outfit to wear to a friend’s wedding, I finally visited the Dawn of Creation atelier, located on the 1^st floor of the Museum Hill Centre, on Museum Hill. Once more, the Dawn of Creation fashion line had evolved even further. Beyond the usual Hessian and leather outfits, the collection also contained creative uses of fabrics such as suede, tulle, silk, and kitenge. I chose to have a red suede beaded top made. The top was made of red goat suede with gold and purple beadwork.

I don’t think the pictures in this post do Dawn of Creation justice, but there are the best I could find for now. I will try to get better pictures to share with you as soon as possible. For now, you will just have to take my word for it or go see for yourself.

As I said earlier, they are located on the 1^st floor of the Museum Hill Centre, on Museum Hill. Other contact details are listed at the beginning of this post. If you are looking for chic, young, elegant African wear for an upcoming event, this might be the place where you find what you are looking for. At the very least, I guarantee you a feast for the eyes.

Once you do check them out, I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Biche

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