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For it's new season, Afrimaxx starts at Nairobi Fashion week, where Style, Spirit & Sustainability meet. Plus inspiring stories about motocross, music and squirrels.
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00:04when it comes to fashion you already know that africans don't follow trends we start them i'm at
00:13nairobi fashion week to explore just that how style spirit and sustainability meet right here
00:19on the runway before we go into this runway and explore how once again storytelling and
00:29culture are consistently beautifully represented here i want to show you what else is coming up on
00:35the show we see how nikki coleman takes playful photos in nature with squirrels and turns them
00:42into masterpieces that bring everyone joy south african singer-songwriter simpiwe dana shaped a
00:49generation and now we see how music reshaped her and in kenya one visionary is turning an unexpected
00:56material into the next big design i'm wangira longhour and you're watching afrimax
01:16where spirit becomes survival a young endurance rider in lesoto takes on a mountain that refuses to be
01:23tamed he broke his wrist conquering the world's toughest race does the chaba chabili still have
01:29what it takes to conquer the mountain the roof of africa is a 350 kilometer vertical graveyard for
01:36bikes and bodies it's the world's riskiest ride but for such other chabili the mountain is personal
01:43it's where he lost a year to a shattered wrist and where he carries the memory of a father who
01:48never saw
01:52him finish as i'm about to start my race i feel a lot better today the thought of of knowing
02:00i'm about
02:01to finish the whole three days you know yeah i'm still strong i'm feeling great and i want to bring
02:07their wind back off can lesito's top off-road racer overcome injury and make history at the roof of
02:13africa 25 year old satchaba chabili racing name shish moto 300 is the first masuto to finish the final day
02:20of the roof of africa in the silver class in 2023 a crash left him with a broken wrist
02:37sidelining him for a year now he's training for a comeback in the 2025 roof of africa facing the maluti
02:44mountains and world-class competitors i had to to do a lot of procedures you know took uh physio as
02:53a first step on my wrist to heal and just telling myself that i can do this i can do
03:00better hard
03:02enduro is a sport of extreme wealth while international giants have mobile workshops and support stations
03:08satchaba relies on a crew of volunteers and his own mechanical skill on this terrain a mechanical failure
03:14isn't just delay it's the end of a dream this competition is the mother of all hard enduros
03:22spanning up to 350 kilometers and climbing over 3 000 meters my strategy for this yes race is to ride
03:31hard in the mornings uh before everyone get get informed you know hit them hard in the morning and
03:42relax during the day hit them hard in the afternoon on our way back to the finish
03:49but can a recovering rider with no factory backing survive a top 10 hunt against the world's elite
03:55my fitness level is low now so i i needed some tips from other good guys you know most riders
04:04are
04:04international but such other fights for pursuit of pride against financial and physical odds motorsport
04:11is exclusive but each other's journey inspires a new generation the impact in in local riders or
04:18young basuto riders is you know they must get inspired uh they need to keep on seeing him um a
04:25lot
04:25of them know where he started he wasn't always a good rider like he is now but i mean you've
04:29got to
04:30start somewhere you're going to start right at the bottom work your way up and um hopefully look
04:35there's been a lot of up and downs you know with chaba there's been a lot of you know unfortunate
04:39issues where he broke his shoulder this that to the other in the process he lost his dad so at
04:45one
04:45stage he actually was giving up but you know resilient real impact is seen in the eyes of the youth
04:52what does it mean for the next generation to see one of their own leading the pack
04:56i love that it's a sport which obviously is dominated by people who come from outside of the
05:01country i love the fact that the locals are actually partaking in the sport so i think it
05:07really makes me feel good knowing that they're people and the kids who aspire to ride bikes and
05:13do the roof i'm rooting for us which is uh one of the few local people here and i've just
05:21watched
05:21his performance and i'm really waiting for him and i'm hoping to see him win the roof of africa
05:27brings millions to lesotho filling hotels and creating jobs such ever's comeback is more than
05:33personal it's a symbol of hope for disadvantaged youth and a boost for national pride motor sport is
05:39growing now in in lesotho in the roof we have like more numbers of riders like in south africa we
05:47have
05:47like young riders rising there it's a privilege you know representing my my country here and riding
05:56yeah in my own town you know yeah the roof it's is our home race so being part of it
06:06and having to
06:07perform is good honestly i'm more than excited to be to be riding here with limited resources
06:16the final day was excruciating today was really tough you know it was really really tough in the
06:24morning was was flowing the track was flowing but uh the the second loop was very hard and long
06:32but such ever didn't just survive he shattered expectations top basuto ninth racer overall in
06:39the bronze category a victory for resilience representation and the kingdom in the sky
06:51nairobi fashion week brings together nairobi's creative most boldest of minds here with brian
06:58gandas who is the founder and ceo of nairobi fashion week brian what makes this nairobi fashion week
07:06feel different not just in style but also an intention well one of course is we've been trying to really
07:12build
07:13a community around uh fashion we've been having very conversations all through this year's theme
07:20being decarbonized why do you feel like that was particularly appropriate uh for nairobi fashion week
07:262026 well you know fashion is actually thickens to oil uh it's actually the second largest uh global
07:35emitters of number credit and uh in the genia is the largest uh in water long uh that's a uh
07:45second
07:45and pro and if you look at what we import a lot of it you use polyester and synthetic happen
07:51and uh as we
07:53you know the world is really trying to grab problems uh issues with climate change and the global south
07:59is talking about getting support from the global normal managing the effects of climate last but
08:06certainly not least in what ways do you think when it comes to the fashion industry worldwide are african
08:14fashion designers doing things differently i mean if you've seen the horse cars the grammy we have a
08:21way of playing around palace just like your beautiful house because you can go anywhere outside africa and
08:27get something beautiful down like this this vibrance right it was very was done by enough creativity
08:33we are on levels he waits for hours for a single fleeting moment nikki comand takes pictures of
08:43of squirrels so how have these furry cute little creatures changed his life his nickname is the squirrel
08:54man and that's because nikki comand loves to take pictures of these adorable and agile tree dwelling animals
09:04they have great instincts they are smart they are clever they don't give up easily
09:11they are persistent and they can do things like we humans can we can pick things up we can push
09:20things
09:21we can carry things but behind the cheerful photos lies a deeper story one of resilience and a long journey
09:30out of trauma this rwandan born photographer is more than just a squirrel fan he brings smiles to faces around
09:37the world simple comments like i'm glad that you're taking these pictures you make me smile you make my day
09:46great and this is this is what i need to see today yeah let people forget all the bad things
09:51in life
09:53through his lens he's found a way to heal from a dark past nikki was born in 1986 his mother
10:01died shortly
10:02after his birth and his father a few years later at just four years old he fled the civil war
10:07in rwanda
10:08with his sister and was adopted in europe growing up in belgium was very difficult you always had the idea
10:16that you didn't belong here because of my color skin and it was very hard to adapt being in the
10:25forest
10:26waiting for the right moment to portray his lively squirrels is what helps nikki stay mentally healthy
10:32despite his difficult past his photos are often quirky today he wants to make a children's doll marry a
10:40squirrel say cheese chevron squirrels helped me deal with my trauma i had never seen or encounter
10:48a squirrel a squirrel eight years ago and when i first saw one i immediately forgetted all the things
11:00that happened around me he now spends three to four days a week in the woods just a few kilometers
11:05from
11:06his home in henk eastern belgium at home he edits his pictures but only ever so slightly his natural touch
11:13has paid off he's been named a winner of both a national geographic photography contest and the
11:19european photography awards it was great it's like being recognized for the things that you're doing
11:26despite the acclaim nikki can't make a living from his art so the squirrel man works in a car factory
11:33if there's money involved you will have stress it's that simple his girlfriend ina has been there
11:40from the start they've been together for over 13 years when we're walking and people are talking
11:46like it's that the squirrel man so and then he's like come walk further he is also always with his
11:57feet on the ground staying quiet keeping calm waiting for the right moment just like his squirrels
12:04that's how nikki colemont found his peace and in doing so he helps others find a little joy too
12:19joining me now is eminong joy a human rights defender who is marrying storytelling and fashion
12:25so that she can go ahead and fight for social justice across africa tell me what is it about
12:34fashion and about nairobi fashion week that excites you um fashion is inherently political and as a
12:42human rights defender and activist i use my fashion as a way of expressing myself and fighting for
12:50change fighting for justice and it can be little things just like pre-wearing your outfits drifting your
12:56outfits upcycling your wheels that can do so much for things like climate change how have you decarbonized
13:02your outfit assuming you did design your own thing i think just by recycling more instead of always
13:09using new material like always just find a way to use the same material for different things so that
13:16you're sustainable okay and we really need to understand exactly what carbonization is and how
13:21we are going to imagine it first yeah yeah this is also because one of the time you can find
13:27something for somebody that doesn't understand the death here that'll be fashion week they don't know
13:31the name and all that so i think that is where the desire to respond for young ghosts and support
13:35our
13:35designers for two decades in piwe dana's hits have been telling south africa's stories now we go beyond
13:43the music to find out about the journey that shaped them mesmerizing and hauntingly soulful few artists
13:58have shaped the sound and spirit of a generation quite like her how has south african singer songwriter
14:04sam piwe dana held the rare space of cultural air music icon for 20 years i get a lot of
14:13people
14:13that come to me and say you know your music saved my life my music is not entertainment
14:22is is for healing and a lot of people love it as a result of that it's been two decades
14:30since
14:30pure dana first graced our airwaves with her debut album singing in her mother tongue is closer her
14:36songs are soundtracks to struggle identity healing and much more themes will range from black consciousness
14:45and why we needed it in 1994 which the song multiple street alludes to
15:01her critically acclaimed 2006 album the one love movement on bantu biko street reflects on the
15:08ideals of apartheid activist steve biko but even with her numerous award wins and global recognition
15:14it's been an incredibly tough journey
15:19there have been many times you know i've wanted to give up it can be an unforgiving space our industry
15:27uh it's got lots of challenges and we could do with more support and when i say support i don't
15:36mean you
15:37know aid i mean play our music so we can earn royalties why are you so besotted with american music
15:46you know it it it artists influential artists are dying poor like muslim flongo why because we refuse to
16:00play our own music so that artists can get royalties and some of us know why this happened right it
16:09was a
16:09concerted um effort by the apartheid government to make sure that we we do not have a sound that connects
16:20us to our roots and it's how come they they introduced en masse american music
16:29so for me that's one of the the biggest challenges we face and i believe that if we
16:34could just fix that we'll be fine now at 45 simphue's music has not only brought solace to others
16:44but to herself my work firstly has empowered me i come from a poor background to put it lightly
16:57you know i grew up having to go to school with no shoes i didn't have a voice before music
17:06has given
17:07me a voice i was suddenly somebody you know um i grew up extremely shy i think because of my
17:18poor
17:18background and that is why i think i treat music with such reverence
17:25the same as a songoma or spiritual healer simphue's home studio is her sacred space
17:31all who wish to enter must remove their shoes as a sign of respect to the ancestors
17:36this is my studio it also doubles as my ndoomba and ndoomba is basically a spiritual healer's
17:49space i really use it to communicate and commune with my ancestors
18:01by speaking and singing openly about her mother's passing during the covert 19 pandemic
18:06simphue has shown that struggle belongs on every stage
18:12it was a dark time it was a very dark time i lost so much weight you can see i'm
18:19small already as my
18:21way of grieving i did moya the project moya the one that's over there
18:31moya meaning air or breath is the title of simphue's acclaimed music and dance production
18:37it was essentially a call for people to heal
18:43my mom was a great singer herself i still get told till this day we don't care how beautiful you
18:50sing how beautiful you are you will never be as beautiful or sing as beautifully as your mom
18:59so um had it been today umana could have been a huge superstar
19:16music has given me this beautiful home that i have because i understand that the album
19:22was named after my child uzaz and it's one of the biggest songs of my entire career
19:30right music has opened so many doors that had remained closed to me so i owe music my entire life
19:40basically renowned south african composer and music director billy monama recently held the
19:48rebirth of ubuntu concert featuring local artists in soul for song celebrating heritage and reminiscing
19:55on the path to freedom as one of the main acts some pure dana's voice is still rising and still
20:01relevant
20:02while many still enjoy her past hits she is certainly not done and now for the sustainability behind the
20:11style find out how nelly gesada is transforming how kenyans think of design what if the trash you walk past
20:20every day could change lives in nairobi one woman is turning broken glass into beauty and empowering a
20:29generation of women to do the same
20:35i'm very passionate about waste but i think one of the things i would ask him why would you
20:40why would you not be it's like magic having the privilege to convert something from something
20:46unwanted to something extremely wanted and of value without spending too much to acquire
20:55nairobi produces up to 4 000 tons of waste daily only 10 is properly managed the rest it ends up
21:04in
21:04places like dandora one of africa's largest open dump sites my name is nelly gesare i am the founder of
21:13green thing kenya and green thing kenya started as a brand that uses product as conversation status to
21:20sustainability and climate change but i think it's slowly becoming a brand that is trying to reimagine
21:29value that's how i would describe it i was a journalist before and i think i've slowly grown
21:36into working at the intersection of waste justice climate and community 2017 i gave birth to my last
21:46child my daughter and she was born sick and there was nothing that we could do to understand where the
21:54sickness came from but i can tell you it was something that required surgery for hard to be okay
21:59now and we were seeing many specialists at that time one of the big andrologists and they said nizvitum
22:06nakula now when you think about nizvitum nakula when you've been studying and storytelling so much
22:12around waste and sustainability you know the the plastic packaging that is mostly casinogenic
22:20the the lotions that we put on our bodies that are made of ingredients that we can't even pronounce
22:26yet it's okay to put on our body the food the environment the clothes made of plastic the bedding
22:34made of plastic surely there's no way we're going to get away with this i said a green thing now
22:38in 2019
22:40using products that people use every day as provocatively as possible to start conversations
22:47on sustainability and what that means in terms of living a life of dignity within planetary boundaries
22:54thousands of women work without protection sorting through toxic waste to survive but one woman saw
23:03something different in the chaos or unfair or unsustainable consumption has victims
23:10right and some of the biggest victims are waste breakers and it was so important for me to partner
23:15with them for the hot shop and that's why we primarily source our glass waste from east africa's largest
23:22dam site dandora beauty with um impacting one way speakers it's not just the way speaker you actually
23:30teach them that this could be better for your children for your women group for their church members
23:36and that's what i wanted i want more women to understand or imagine value at their category so as
23:44waste because i wanted to get more and i wanted to work with a group because it's easier they have
23:49systems
23:49better it was easier for them to formalize their processes like payment because that's also another
23:55challenge in waste trade in kenya or waste management in kenya is that waste management has been so informal
24:02that it's difficult for formal businesses to operate there at the moment i'm working with dandora women
24:08waste speakers who remove glass waste from the dump site which we then bring to our hot shop where wendy
24:15and william are superb artisans glassblowers i would say they convert them to beautiful beautiful
24:22sculptural art that is functional at the moment kenya is importing 200 000 tons per year of text
24:28a waste but our goal has never been products our goal has always been how do we use this to
24:35educate
24:36community how do we use this to show the community that they have power to actually change my name is
24:42wendy kyla channel and 20 years old at green thing i do as a glass blower assistance the workers here
24:49inspired me to be a glass blower so it's a good thing women can do anything so i inspire them
24:54if you
24:54want to be a grass boy you can be green thing is no longer just a studio it's a movement
25:00a reminder that
25:01sustainability isn't just about the planet it's about people and in nelly's hands broken glass tells a new
25:10story one of beauty resilience and hope waste value schools are so important as important as attitude
25:21change that we cannot have new things anymore new things are going to be made from reimagining waste
25:30from the glitz and glamour here at nairobi fashion week we bid you kwaheri if you want to go ahead
25:36and
25:36find out more make sure you follow our socials my name is one jira long hour ciao
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