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Ever wondered how young Africans skate the norm? Well, from Abuja, Nigeria to the kingdom in the skies, Lesotho, this episode of Afrimaxx shows you how they're rewriting the rules.
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00:00Ever wondered how young Africans skate the norm?
00:09Well, from Abuja, Nigeria to the kingdom in the skies, Lesotho, this episode of AFIMAC
00:14shows you how they're rewriting the rules.
00:18And from the leafy area 44, we dive straight into Malawi's creative scene.
00:23But first, discover how King and model Juli Nasuju is transforming stigma into art and
00:29challenging traditional beauty standards.
00:32Meet the designer redefining Lesotho's fashion future by using data and strategic thinking.
00:38Then, from living on the streets to fine dining, see how Chef Lucky Masinia became a true taste
00:44master.
00:45I'm Zaheer and you're watching AFIMAC.
00:59Up first, we meet a clan in Abuja, Nigeria that really takes skate the norm very seriously.
01:08The Shinobi rollerblading clan manages to get around every obstacle.
01:14In Abuja, Nigeria's first rollerblading crew is turning streets into safe spaces and movement
01:19into meaning.
01:20Skating, to me, is more of a philosophical thing, like it's not just a sport.
01:31Rollerblading is my therapy.
01:33It's that escape and I find it so captivating and so inspiring.
01:37So I don't look at it as just a sport, I also look at it as medicine.
01:42They call themselves the Shinobi clan.
01:44No rinks, no sponsors, just wheels, grit and a dream.
01:49For these skaters, community is everything.
01:56One of the greatest assets is community.
01:58Community is the new currency and with having that, you know, you're able to do so much.
02:05There is so much in terms of spreading the culture to other parts of Nigeria.
02:12Rollerblading makes me to be free, like if I'm skating but I'll be free.
02:17I won't be worried, I won't be overthinking much.
02:24Everywhere, the clan finds challenges, hurdles, obstacles and spaces that they know how to repurpose
02:30for themselves.
02:32What serves as fun or sport is actually mental training, namely accepting the unexpected and
02:38transforming it into something positive.
02:42Abuja is a very dynamic city.
02:44The hills, it's pretty, pretty hard trying to find some spots but if you have a keen eye
02:51on looking far deeper than the surface, you'll be amazed with what you see.
02:56Like you can go to a location and, you know, today it's empty and tomorrow falling streetlight
03:03can become a skatable sport so there's room for possibility.
03:08In a country where unemployment is high and stress runs deep, skating becomes therapy.
03:14It's not just sport, it's survival.
03:17The reality of like maybe the economy, the pressure of wanting to achieve a lot of things,
03:25there's all that constant, there's this vicious circle that is currently like going on but
03:31when I'm skating, when I'm rollerblading, I feel like okay yeah I can achieve something
03:38that's okay yeah I really enjoy doing and it kind of makes me really like look forward to
03:43oh what can I do, I can do this.
03:45So it kind of like has positively impacted me.
03:48Roller skating really helped my mental health and you know, you know how this country is,
03:55like there is a time like you just find yourself like depressed or sad, you're feeling bad mood
04:01but whenever I find myself in that situation, I go around, skate, I listen to music, it really
04:07makes me feel happy the moment I skate.
04:09It's definitely a relief from the things that happen and I'm going on in this country.
04:13Daniel started skating to feel free, now he's a photographer, filmmaker, mentor and leader of a movement.
04:21Shinobi isn't just a crew, it's a way out.
04:25The most beautiful thing about rollerblading is the freedom that it provides.
04:30That freedom is what makes you want to go out and find new places, skate new terrains and that pretty much is what fills our desire to want to go out every day.
04:41My way of expressing this culture or sharing it to the world is using documentary through photography and through video.
04:49Every city has a certain feel, every city has a certain energy and being a photographer, I'm always looking for a way to connect rollerblading with the aesthetic of the city.
05:01So most times that allows my experience with photography and my experience with setting up a shot or my experience with how I can engage with the sport.
05:12I take a lot of photographs of my community and it is so interesting to be able to capture all these moments
05:21because I believe it tells the stories of the time that we're in and hopefully in the future it will shape people's perspective on the sport.
05:34They skate over slabs, hills and broken sidewalks turning obstacles into art.
05:40For the youth of Abuja, skating is more than just exercise. It's a way of life.
05:57Skating forward means finding the difference and making it happen.
06:00Chris Clayton, a South African, came from Switzerland five years ago and found the gap.
06:05Lilonga needed a fresh new spot for young locals to vibe.
06:08What was lacking in Lilongwe that made you say, I gotta build this?
06:14Ambience, food presentation, craft cocktails and a natural environment all mixed up into one.
06:21That was lacking to bring international, locally international.
06:25First impressions matter. What hits you the moment you walk in here?
06:28Space, greenery, a connection to the materials we've built which people can relate to.
06:34And for Lilongwe's culture, what impact do you think that river or yourself has made?
06:44We're showing them that we can be locally international, that there's more out there and Lilongwe and Malawi as a whole deserves that to see these standards.
06:51And giving people the freedom to feel as if they've traveled when times getting very tough in Africa and some people can't travel.
06:59That's what we're offering here is a lifestyle and a journey outside.
07:03You feel like a homegrown vibe here.
07:05Absolutely.
07:06All right.
07:07Well, Chris, thank you so much, but we will catch up soon. Thank you.
07:10You're most welcome.
07:14Julie Nasuju is a Kenyan model that is using her vitiligo condition to redefine beauty and inspire confidence through her Royal Patches Foundation.
07:25During a photo shoot, Julie presents herself confidently, which is far from a given.
07:29The Kenyan woman was diagnosed with vitiligo as a young child.
07:32The visible difference in her skin made her the target of cruel comments and stares.
07:50Most people living with vitiligo are either depressed, have anxiety, have schizophrenia because they feel they're not good enough to be in this world because they feel people judge them because of how they look.
08:02But the prejudices didn't stop at her doorstep.
08:05To me, the main person who triggered was my biological father, who made me feel like I am a nobody.
08:13I believe I'm the only one who had vitiligo as a child.
08:19At that moment, no one could understand what's happening.
08:22Why am I the only one affected with this?
08:25Let's just say most of the time they used to seclude myself a lot from even my own family.
08:32The medical condition vitiligo remains largely unknown to many Kenyans, leading to widespread stigmatization and even considered a curse.
08:41There are people who see me and get scared and run away.
08:45Some think it's maybe a curse.
08:47Some will also meet with you and think it's contagious.
08:49And the first thing will be, don't touch me.
08:51Don't come near me.
08:52I'll give you an example of the first time after I've finished school and I've gone to look for work at a supermarket.
08:58The reaction I got was, you cannot work in the supermarket.
09:01Asking the reason is being told that you will infect my customers.
09:05You're going to make customers stare too a lot.
09:08You're going to create a lot of commotion.
09:10Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease and not contagious.
09:14It causes white patches on the skin because it destroys the cells that make skin pigments.
09:19Me embracing my vitiligo in 2015 is because of all the trauma and hardships that have gone through for a long time.
09:28And to me it was me saying enough is enough.
09:31I need to change the narrative that has been going on for a long time and I need to see it in a different perspective.
09:37A common misconception about vitiligo is that it has to do with albinism.
09:42However, the two conditions are fundamentally different in both cause and progression.
09:47Albinism is genetic and you get it from birth.
09:51There is no changing.
09:52Your color can never come back.
09:53Vitiligo, your color changes from time to time.
09:56There are times you will be dark.
09:57There are times you will be bright.
09:58Things are different.
10:00And we have hormonal imbalance.
10:02There is no proper research that has been done.
10:04We need institutions which can come up to be able to even give out like a pure analysis for vitiligo.
10:13In 2017, Juliana Suju founded the Royal Patches Foundation to raise awareness about vitiligo and fight the stigma she had experienced firsthand.
10:22With her organization, she also aims to promote visibility and representation, reminding everyone that vitiligo is beautiful.
10:30She now knows she's not alone in her pigmentation.
10:33An estimated 70 to 100 million people worldwide are affected by vitiligo.
10:38And I felt like if I'm able to change or inspire one, two, three people living with vitiligo.
10:47And they will come out of that cocoon and embrace themselves and step out and do what they're supposed to do their purpose in this life.
10:54The Royal Patches Foundation offers more than just a network.
10:58It creates a sense of belonging.
11:00It connects people living with vitiligo and provides access to counseling and psychotherapy sessions.
11:06It was more of building them to come out of the state of depression.
11:10Because for me to come out and try to show people the beauty in it is what made me feel I need other people, not just me.
11:19Other people need to come out so that people can learn to love themselves and accept themselves.
11:25She's partnered with Tom Radido, who has had vitiligo since 2004.
11:30Tom says the biggest challenge is the limited knowledge on how to manage the vitiligo condition and the lack of job opportunities.
11:37I think I've spent over 20,000 every month previously until I had to actually stop to treat the condition.
11:46And it's been over almost like 20 years with it and nothing really has changed.
11:50So it's a struggle, so it's a real struggle if you're being denied a job.
11:57There's a lot of misconceptions and myths.
11:59You're being discriminated upon.
12:01You're being ostracized.
12:03And you can't meet your daily needs.
12:05And your living standards is actually low.
12:07So it's really a huge struggle for persons who are living in the condition.
12:11Royal Patches Foundation continues to campaign for the rights of people with vitiligo.
12:16Julie leads a support group.
12:18People share their stories, tears, and laughter.
12:22The atmosphere is one of acceptance and understanding.
12:27But today, Julie has a special appointment.
12:30She's discovered her passion for art and is getting tattoos on her skin patches.
12:35Art is what got me out of depression.
12:39It got me out of anxiety issues.
12:42I used to look at art and look at myself.
12:45And I see the patterns that vitiligo forms in my skin.
12:50And I'd look at the patterns and I'm like, oh, I have a love art here.
12:54I have the map of Africa here.
12:56I have the map of Kenya.
12:58Things were just, patterns were just forming all over my skin.
13:01And I started looking at me as a muse, like a piece of artwork that is working.
13:06And I was like, why would I feel bad having patterns?
13:10Julie isn't trying to hide her vitiligo behind her tattoos.
13:14She wants to celebrate it.
13:16Adorning her skin symbolizes her journey towards embracing her unique beauty.
13:20Now let's explore another type of modern day African art.
13:29The craft of making a signature mocktail, or in this case, a mocktail.
13:33I'm still here with Chris Clayton at River, where the vibes are fresh and the drinks are even fresher.
13:38Now I just want to find out, when it comes to making a mocktail,
13:42how do you keep it with local fresh products, but also keeping that global vibe?
13:47Keeping the global vibe by using the standards of how we make it.
13:51So our bartenders will, as you can see, be straining it, not to get any pieces in as well.
13:58How they're muddling properly and taste profiles with flair.
14:02How do you support local farmers and also small growers?
14:06And what is the bigger food picture?
14:08How we support them is we look through our family here, our employees.
14:12So our head chef will have a relative who is doing smallholding farming,
14:17and we will buy from them.
14:19So we keep them within our community and we help support their community at the same time.
14:23And we build a trust basis on that.
14:25So basically, in and around?
14:27In and around, and keep using local as much as possible.
14:31Well, thank you so much, Chris. This place looks amazing.
14:34You're most welcome. Happy to have you.
14:36In the remote highlands of Lesotho, Katiso Joakim Soho is using data strategies to transform Lesotho's textile heritage.
14:47That's a very unique turn on cultural pride.
14:54In a world where data defines our reality, can a nation's identity be reimagined through design?
15:00In Lesotho, one visionary is proving that the future of African fashion is a marriage of tradition and strategy.
15:08The purpose of culture, traditional culture is basically just to serve as a reference for the continuous evolution of fashion.
15:19How is Katiso Joakim Soho, a designer with a background in data, using both his passion for culture and his strategic mind to stitch together a new economically viable future for Lesotho?
15:31I know Lesotho is well known of, you know, blankets and Ilwani head, famous head, and different other terrains.
15:44But I feel like through fashion, it can sort of like insinuate a broad scope on how people perceive the country through bold storytelling, through craftsmanship, and also through different silhouettes.
16:00Joakim's journey into design began not with a sewing needle, but with data.
16:05Trained in health information management, his mind is wired to see patterns, analyze systems, and build solutions from the ground up.
16:14He is the quiet force behind a design house driven by strategy, and a new wave of fashion designers is emerging alongside him.
16:22I believe in co-existence of data and design because data without design is soulless.
16:28It has no purpose and it has no, you know, end product.
16:33And also similarly design without information or data.
16:38We can be beautiful, but it's unsustainable because it has no market reach or purpose, you know.
16:45So a combination of both means a proper direction and clarity.
16:49The industry is quite developing.
16:52It is young.
16:53It is at a growth stage.
16:55It is natured.
16:56It's a baby that we need to keep ensuring that it meets the competitiveness of the fashion industry outside of Lesotho.
17:07The challenge was to bridge the gap between Basotho traditions and a brand that could thrive in a global market.
17:14For Joakim, the question was, how do you convert cultural pride into a product and a viable business?
17:21I think my greatest advantage has always been the fact that I grew up in a very small village called Hamantikwa in the Kachasnek district.
17:31This is where I experienced the true definition of being Mosotho.
17:35All the experiences taught me the culture and the heritage of Basotho.
17:40So for me, that gave me advantage of, you know, translating all these ideas because I've experienced and it's easy to narrate and tell the stories you've lived.
17:52The solution lay in vertical integration.
17:54Joakim didn't just build a brand.
17:56He built the infrastructure to support it.
17:59By establishing the Diaparo Group, he created a system that ensures quality and ethical production from start to finish.
18:07It gives us the power to be agile, to respond quickly in terms of like if we have a concept, we can test it immediately.
18:16If we have an idea, we can run it immediately without having to go through processes of outsourcing or finding other different factories.
18:26Joakim's vision has created a ripple effect.
18:29His success is not just his own.
18:31It's a testament to the power of a collective.
18:34Bege Aleseyla, the Soto Fashion Week which he founded, provides a platform for a new generation of Basotho creators.
18:41And the retail market is now embracing premium local brands more than ever.
18:47The reception has been amazing.
18:48I mean, people love our stuff.
18:50They always tell us to do more.
18:52They bless us every day.
18:53They tell us that they're very proud of what has become of this brand.
18:57And I think mostly they love the way our designs are made.
19:02They love also the sense of belonging, the sense of being part of the family while wearing our brand will make you understand or make people see that.
19:12But as popular as Joakim's garments are, is there a real demand for Lesotho's rising fashion style?
19:28The quality of the brands that we have locally, they've created the demands because they're able to compete with international brands.
19:37Also, the creativity amongst the local designers, they're able to compete with international brands.
19:43So that demand has grown immensely.
19:46Also, even the product itself, we're able to offer like different products, not just T-shirts only, but from the range of maybe blankets, footwear.
19:57So the demand is rapidly growing.
20:00Joakim's journey shows us that the future of African design is not just a creative pursuit,
20:06but a strategic one.
20:08By using his unique blend of cultural insight and data-driven precision, he's not only creating beautiful garments,
20:15but also a new future for himself, his team, and a new generation of Basotho creatives.
20:22The skate routes were difficult for Chef Lucky, but luckily he found himself from under the bridge and onto the table.
20:28The formerly homeless won Tastemaster Essay as well as the heart and palate of his fellow South Africans.
20:36Ten years ago, Chef Lucky Messina slept under this bridge.
20:40Today, he's a national TV reality show winner and a patisserie lecturer.
20:46I catered for stars like Adele, Drake, One Direction, Justin Bieber, Coldplay.
20:52Yeah, so it was really, really mind-blowing.
20:55So these are people that I grew up watching on Channel O and Trace and MTV, and now these people are actually consuming my dessert.
21:03The young pastry chef, who dreams of having his own dessert bar, knows how to turn rock bottom into a recipe for success.
21:11Because before the chef's coach, Lucky's life was anything but sweet.
21:16I never thought I'd be there for so long.
21:19So when I say five years, I always think about the winters in the streets.
21:23That was the worst.
21:24You know, there's people that I stayed within the streets that would go to bed and some of them won't even wake up because it was that cold.
21:30Yes, it was hard.
21:31Yes, there's times where I was even smoking glue, the glue that used for issues.
21:37When we're at a parking lot in the mall, this is very bad.
21:40We used to go to the parking lot, open the cars, and we'd put cloths and move the cars so we can start sniffing petrol,
21:46because that keeps you warm when you sleep, when you're high on that.
21:48And I feel like I went through that journey for a reason.
21:50I feel like if I didn't go through that, I wasn't going to appreciate everything that I have today.
21:55In 2025, Lucky won Tastemaster South Africa season six, taking home 200,000 rands and national recognition.
22:04But the real prize? A new sense of self-worth.
22:08Winning the Tastemaster SA was literally a launchpad for my career.
22:12It's changed my career and my life upside down in a really positive way.
22:17I mean, doors of opportunity are flooding.
22:20Before his TV show Win, things changed when a local church helped him off the streets and back to school.
22:26From there, he earned a scholarship to study patisserie and refined his skills in some of London's top kitchens.
22:33And eventually returned home to teach the next generation.
22:37When I was there, I got an opportunity to work at the Ritz Hotel of London, which is one of the best hotels in the world.
22:45I also met a really good chef called Chef Claire Clark. She runs Pretty Sweet London.
22:50So they do really big events. They do like Wimbledon.
22:53And when I was there, they were busy doing mise en place in prep for the Brit Award.
22:59So that was just like a really life changer for me.
23:04After a long journey from the streets to the kitchen, Lucky is committed to giving young people the opportunity to develop their skills and build sustainable careers in the culinary world.
23:16So what's, what's this type of dough? Is it a bark fermented dough? Is it a single fermented dough? Is it an enriched dough? Enrich, why do we say it's an enriched dough?
23:28The eggs.
23:29The eggs and butter.
23:31His passion shows how he works, how he talks, and the things that he does is outcomes are really always great.
23:37And he has a lot of knowledge and that's something that we get from him a lot.
23:42He's very wise. So that's, I do look up to him and it's very motivating to have a lecture like that.
23:48Definitely the biggest takeaways I've taken from Chef Lucky is the amount of precision that we need.
23:55Just as a patisserie, we're working with very delicate ingredients and the products have to be precise.
24:02And then another thing it does teach us is to show off all the time.
24:06So whatever you're doing, wherever you are, just show off your talent, show off how you work, show off your skills. Yeah.
24:13Lucky's next chapter, opening Johannesburg's first dessert bar. A bold move to redefine South Africa's sweet culture.
24:22So I was inspired by a pastry chef called Janice Wong. She's based in Singapore and New York.
24:30She has what she called a dessert bar. We have a lot of restaurants. Also, I feel like we can have a lot of dessert bars.
24:38So looking at the food, there should be a theme. Is it inviting? Is it overwhelming? Is this a warm dessert? Is this a cold dessert?
24:45So those are things that really excite me. Because before I even put the dessert together, there's a lot of thought process that has gone into it.
24:52So it's something that's new, something that's trendy at the moment.
24:57For young chefs dreaming big, Lucky has some advice.
25:00When you work with patisserie or desserts, you need to be very good with flavour, flavour counterbalancing.
25:06So whenever I put something slightly sweet, I need to make sure that there's some sort of a lemon creme oil that's going to cut through the sweetness.
25:13I need to make sure that when you're done with the dessert, your mouth is refreshed.
25:16It's not, you're not overwhelmed with the amount of flavour. So everything comes into place.
25:24From the streets to a reality show winner, Chef Lucky proves that with resilience and passion, even the sweetest dreams can come true.
25:33From Lilongwe's creative scene, we hope we've given you some insight into Africa's skate of mind.
25:39Now keep on skating. For more information, go to dw.com forward slash AfriMax.
25:44Until next time.
25:45Ta!
25:46We'll see you soon.
26:01Bye!
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