By Ogova Ondego
Published August 15, 2015
Swahili Fashion Week, the annual platform for fashion and accessory designers from Kiswahili-speaking countries to showcase their talent, market their creativity and network with clients and the international fashion industry has announced the dates for its eighth edition.
RELATED: Specialised Public Policy Practitioners’ Degree Course Launched in Kenya
The 8th edition of Swahili Fashion Week shall take place in the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, December 4 – 6, 2015.
Among the aims of the event that was founded by Tanzanian fashion designer, Mustafa Hassanali, in 2008, are to promote ‘Made-in-East-Africa’ fashion brands, propagate the business Of fashion, improve the quality and output of fashion design from East Africa, provide a platform for up-and-coming designers in the region, and create opportunities for East African products in the African Diaspora.
RELATED: This is What Kenya’s National Music Policy Says
Meanwhile, the biography of a man described as “Africa’s greatest private cultural collector”, shall be launched in Kenya’s commercial and political capital, Nairobi, on September 6, 2015.
Joseph Suzarte Murumbi, the man whose book launch shall be presided over by Dr Willy Munyoki Mutunga, Kenya’s Chief Justice, is often viewed as a shadowy political figure in Kenya where he served for eight months (May-December 1966)Â as Vice-President after Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of the East African country, fell out with his first Vice-President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga due to ideological differences.
A Path Not Taken: The Story of Joseph Murumbi, is said to be an autobiography, i.e. written by himself, though the front cover shows that it is based on “interviews by Anne Thurston and others” and that the “Foreword [is] by Kenya’s Chief Justice Willy Mutunga” who came to office in June 2011.
RELATED: Tanzanian Fashion Designer Launches New Collection in Moscow
In his new book, a historical novel titled Pathways written to document Kenya’s 50 Years of Independence from the British in 1963, author David Gian Maillu describes how Murumbi came to be appointed Vice-President:
“Following Odinga’s resignation as part of his political strategy Kenyatta …replaced Odinga’s position with Joseph Murumbi, a cross-breed of Maasai mother and a Goan (Indian) father…He was a man of substance, honest, uncorrupt and civilized. Those who knew him closely thought something didn’t add up in that appointment. Would Kenyatta’s corrupt nature accommodate him long?”
Well, that is up to the Jury. What is certain is that A Path Not Taken: The Story of Joseph Murumbi, shall be launched at Nairobi Gallery (Old Provincial Commissioner’s Office), next to Nyayo House, Uhuru Highway/Kenyatta Avenue junction at 2.00 PM on September 6, 2015 to the music of Ayub Ogada.
RELATED: Swahili Fashion Week, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and DISCOP Africa Call for Entries
Jomo Kenyatta died in 1978, Joseph Murumbi in 1990 and Oginga Odinga in 1994.
