African Voices, a 30-minute magazine programme sponsored by Globacom on the Cable News Network (CNN) is celebrating a decade of promoting outstanding Africans from all walks of life.
The programme, which made its debut on March 7, 2009, is this week focusing on two talented Nigerians, the distinguished novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, and Afro beat musician, Femi Kuti.
This was complimented by Morocco’s Sanaa Hamri, a television and music director.
Chimamanda is described in The Times Literary Supplement as “the most prominent” of a “procession of critically acclaimed young Anglophone authors [who] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature”. She came to prominence with her books including Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay, We Should All Be Feminists (2014).
She received the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008 and her most recent book, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in March 2017. She was nominated for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002 and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize: Best First Book (Africa) in 2005, among other awards.
The second guest, Femi Kuti, who formed the Positive Force in 1986, inherited his father’s passion for music and activism. He honed his musical skills in his father’s band,Egypt 80, where he played the saxophone and keyboard from the age of 16.
Femi’s seminal works include Femi Kuti (1995), Shoki Shoki (1998), Fight to Win (2001), Day by Day (2008), Africa for Africa (2010/2011), No Place for My Dream (2013) and One People One World (2018). He has been nominated for a Grammy award four times in the world music category in 2003, 2010, 2012 and 2013 though he is yet to win.
The third icon on the programme, Sanna Hamri, is a Moroccan-American film, television, and music video director who has produced music videos for musicians including Prince, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, and Sting. She is reputed for her 2010 film Just Wright and the 2008 movie: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, as well as for her music video for the Nicki Minaj song; Super Bass.