The Amaka Arts Festival Fashion Show

 A week ago a new friend of mine, Mukuka of c1rca1964, told me about this amazing festival called "Amaka Arts Festival" that was taking place in Lusaka. The Amaka Arts Festival is the first Zambian international multidisciplinary arts festival and was created to add value to the Zambian arts market. The festival is a week long and showcases five main disciplines which include film, visual arts, dance, fashion and literary arts.

Needless to say, I was almost falling over myself when I heard about the fashion show and Mukuka helped me connect with the organisers of the festival and I managed to attend it. The fashion show was held on the rooftop of The Foxdale Court Shopping complex which was perfect because it's summer at the moment and super hot so the cool air and stunning night scenery added that extra pizzazz!

I wore a black lace dress that I got a few weeks ago. I am so in love with lace and sheers at the moment and I loved how simple and elegant it came out. I also wore a stunning new pair of heels I got in a sale at Foshini!

 I was so psyched to see one of the first Zambian bloggers I ever stumbled upon, Sekayi from the blog Mafashio, at the festival. She was one of the models and looked like a frigging supper model! I was grinning at her the whole time and most of my pictures were biased towards her really..lol. I had to leave early and didn't get to meet her but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

This collection was done by Angolan designer  Avelino Maximento

 

 Thank you for reading and remeber that if you are in Zambia at the moment, the Amaka Arts Festival is still on-going! Visit their twitter @AmakaArtsFest for more information! Follow me on twitter @ghetogal:)

Beauty In Unexpected Places

Catching up with a couple of things I have been up to lately.

Last week I had such an exciting time going into what I can say is one of the “ghetto’s” here in Lusaka. It’s called “Garden” because apparently the area used to belong to an expatriate farmer and now it has so many makeshift houses with locals living there.

I was reluctant to share this because I really hate how the Western world tries to portray Africa as a dirty place where there is starvation and no hope. I believe Africa has some of the most beautiful places in the world but like any continent there are places where people are poor and just trying to get on. It is the same here in Zambia, we have the beautiful shopping malls, people driving very expensive cars and wearing trendy clothes but as always the extremely poor are also among us.

I was having a photography session for a tour operator company called “Lusaka Experience”. They have such a brilliant idea, while most tour operators will take tourists to all the fancy places, this company does the exact opposite! They want tourists to have a sense of both worlds and so they take them to Garden. Tourists can visit the local market, some orphanages, taste the local brews and food and even crazier the tour guides take tourists to see the local witchdoctor!

Unfortunately we did not find the witchdoctor so I did not take any pictures of him for those of you who would like to see what a real life witchdoctor looks like! I do not believe in witchcraft in the sense that though I am aware that witches and wizards exist, I would not go to a witchdoctor to solve my problems because I am a Christian and I believe consulting spirits and magic is wrong.

What I loved the most about the trip was some of the beautiful artwork that “Lusaka Experience” had done in Garden. It is lovely to see a spark of colour in a gloomy place. I would recommend a tour with these guys to anyone if you really want to have a true cultural experience of Lusaka.