Your podcast discovery platform
Curious minds select the most fascinating podcasts from around the world. Discover hand-piqd audio recommendations on your favorite topics.
piqer for: Global finds
Ciku Kimeria is a Kenyan author "Of goats and poisoned oranges" - (https://www.amazon.com/goats-poisoned-oranges-Ciku-Kimeria-ebook/dp/B00HBBWPI6), development consultant, adventurer and travel blogger (www.thekenyanexplorer.com). She writes both fiction and non-fiction focusing on African stories that need telling. She has worked on diverse pieces for various international and local publications including Quartz, Ozy, The East African etc. She has travelled to 45 countries – 16 of them in Africa. 153 countries to go and 63 territories!
"Of goats and poisoned oranges" has been extremely well received in Kenya and beyond. It tells the story of a Kenyan middle aged power couple and their complicated marriage. The novel explores issues of greed, revenge, betrayal and murder. It runs from the 1960s to 2013. It has been described as “Wicked, funny, poignant, wacky, human, a big ball of fun and danger”, “A unique and captivating book”, “Fun and intriguing”, “Impossible to put down once you start reading.”
She recently moved to Dakar, Senegal from Kenya to work on her second novel. She also works at as the Africa Communication Manager at a leading global strategy consulting firm.
She holds a B.S. in Management Science from MIT with minors in Urban Planning and International development studies.
Afro-Brazilians Rethink Self-Sufficiency As A Result Of Black Panther
A few years ago, I backpacked across South America. Before traveling to Brazil, I stumbled upon a fact while doing my research that completely astounded me: Brazil has the largest black population of any country after Nigeria. In all the Brazilian soaps I had seen growing up in Kenya, the black faces had been very few—maybe a maid or a driver. It had never crossed my mind that Brazil had that many black people, but due to their marginalization, their economic power and visibility on a global spectrum was low. In fact, all the Brazilians I had ever met in the US or elsewhere were all white.
Black people have institutionally been shut out from building wealth in Brazil via large-scale entrepreneurship because they have lacked capital and access to credit. Afro-Brazilians, on average, earn just 55% of the monthly income of white Brazilians—1.531 Brazilian real ($472) compared with 2.757 Brazilian real ($850) for whites.
Afro-Brazilians are embracing the message of self-sufficiency seen in the fictional country of Wakanda in Black Panther.
Despite these disparities, the annual consumption of Afro-Brazilians is 1.6 trillion Brazilian real ($493 billion), according to Instituto Locomotiva. These numbers would make Black Brazil the world’s 11th largest country by population and the 17th largest economy in consumption terms.
Of course it would be overstating it to claim that all these discussions and movements are a result only of Black Panther. What Black Panther has done is give black people an image that mirrors exactly what they hope this world represented—one where blackness comes with no disadvantages.
“Black Money is a movement to increase black economic empowerment and black connections,” said Rogerio, who was the only Afro-Brazilian invited to lunch with president Barack Obama when he came to Brazil last October. “With Black Panther, black people in Brazil are finally starting to think that they do big things on a major scale.”
