Zawadi Alba, African Women’s Choir raising awareness of the Africa Centre with a performance in West Lothian

That very brief extract from the job advert hardly does credit to the creative energy of the Africa Centre Scotland who were actively involved in an innovative dramatic event at the Scottish Parliament in May this year.  And on Thursday (19th August) Zawadi Alba women’s choir will be at Holyrood again to support the lecture by Annie Lennox during the Festival of Politics.

But back to that job vacancy. The job – a 12 month part-time post paying £7 per hour –  is for a sessional admin worker to support the ACS Project Co-ordinator. Based in Blackfriars Street, ACS runs a support service and drop in centre for Africans who live, work or visit Scotland.  The Centre also encourages African Scots to take an active part in supporting international development in Africa so the job covers a wide range of office responsibilities as well as opportunity to meet many different people.

As the advert says: ” If you enjoy working with a community based organisation and would like to become a crucial worker to serve people of the African heritage please email: info@africacentrescotland.org.uk and reference SAW/002 to request for an application pack.”

Applications have to be in by 25th August.

This is a busy month for African communities in Edinburgh.  There’s a brave new play  exploring difference and diversity through children’s eyes, and the annual celebration of Africa Day focusing on international issues.  But first the play which is being launched at the Scottish Parliament next week…

Saltire Sky is a ghost story with a difference based on a secret friendship between 12-year-0ld Calum and Thandiwe.  It was written and directed by Maggie Aitken as part of Simpson House – Sunflower Garden’s, ‘Difference/Diversity’ project and it draws on the thoughts and experiences of young people taking part in workshops organised by Simpson House and Africa Centre Scotland.

We hope to add more background information about this remarkable and inspiring project which brings together young African Scots to explore the meaning of difference and diversity with young Scots from families affected by drug or alcohol abuse. But meanwhile we have booked our tickets for the performance hosted by our MSP Malcolm Chisholm in the Garden Lobby at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 20th May.

Then its back again to the Garden Lobby a week later for Africa Day.  On Tuesday 25th May the Garden Lobby is the setting for this year’s celebration of Africa Day, hosted by Sarah Boyack MSP and organised by Africa Centre Scotland in partnership with Malawi Initiative for National Development (MIND).  Africa Day is an annual commemoration of the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963. This year’s theme is Peace and Security in Africa but as Agnes Holmes of Africa Centre Scotland explains the Edinburgh emphasis is on global issues and international development.

One other event worth mentioning. Prevention of HIV Aids is the subject of a presentation in the Church of Scotland, George Street on Monday when there is a chance to meet Dr Ade Adeagbo of the African HIV Policy Network. The AHPN is an alliance of African community-based organisations and their supporters working for fair policies for people living with HIV/AIDS in the UK, providing training, support, research and information.

The event – of special interest to people working in health, local government and voluntary organisations – is from 2-4pm on Monday 17th May at 121 George Street. 

Picture taken by Yvonne Baginsky on her trip to Tanzania with the Shirati Hospital Energy Project

Zawadi, African women’s choir at the Diversity event in West Lothian.

“It’s getting busy,” emails Agnes Holmes in her new year greeting from Africa Centre Scotland. As always the diary is full of events and activities which is why ACS is looking for volunteers to join the management committee. Specially welcome are people skilled in money matters, media and marketing. If you have time and experience to offer, please contact info@africacentrescotland.org.uk by 12^th February.

As Agnes explains in her email there are interesting developments at the small office in Blackfriar’s street where a past volunteer successfully applied for funding under the Vodafone World of Difference Campaign.

Jessica Carzoli applied for funding under the new Vodaphone programme, the first of its kind in the UK, which pays highly motivated young volunteers to work for their favourite charity for two months.   “Jessie, applied for this programme and now we have her as a full time worker for two months,” says Agnes,  “We hope this will help with capacity building and increasing awareness of important causes for the BME community.”

For her part, Jessie, who was one of 500 successful applicants, says, “I am ecstatic about being chosen as a participant in this programme, especially because I feel the Africa Centre Scotland deserves assistance and recognition for its amazing mission statement and potential.”

You can follow her progress on her blog,

We could call it just history month, but it’s more than that. It’s about forgotten heroes and stories that we never get told at school.

October is Black History Month in Britain and has been since 1987. This year’s celebrations by  Africa Centre Scotland in Edinburgh are a reminder that when it comes to history there is no line between black and white.

One of the key speakers at the Africa Centre event in the City Council Chambers on Saturday was Dr Eric Grahame a maritime historian giving a talk titled “Villains and Heroes: Edinburgh’s early connections with Africa.” (Dr Grahame has also written about Scotland and black slavery). A different insight came from Evelyn Nicodemus, a writer and artist exploring black culture,  Alache Ode manager of the Diaspora Volunteering Partnership Manager and Nick Croft, the city council’s equalities manager.

The origins of Black History Month can be traced to London. Akyaaba Addai Sebbo, a co-ordinator of special projects at the General London Council, was saddened when a council worker told him her son wanted to know why he was not white.  That led to the first GLC event on 1 October 1987 celebrating the contribution of Africans to the economic, cultural and political life of London and Britain.

Now every year events continue across Britain with the aim of encouraging confidence, pride and awareness of Black Africans in their cultural heritage.  Not least in Edinburgh where the Africa Centre Scotland is actively involved all year round in cultural and social activities to bridge the gaps between black and white communities.

As Agnes Holmes, chair of AFS, told us earlier this year: “It is about reducing isolation, nourishing well-being, making friendships  and promoting African culture…”.  At that point she was talking about Zawadi, the African Women’s choir, (pictured here at their first Edinburgh performance this summer) but it seems a pretty good description of all their other work. And of course Zawadi were performing at the Black History Month celebration in the City Chambers too.

By the way, the quote at the beginning of this blog comes fromWilliam Wilberforce BBC 1Extra’s Deputy Head of Programmes. And he adds:

Black History Month is about those who made a difference not purely because of the colour of their skin, but their actions. From William Wilberforce (my name sake) to Eminem to Dizzie Rascal they are all a part of history and ultimately our Black Music legacy

Marching in violet, white and green

A pageant of creative conviction …

Agnes Holmes answers the phone with a needle and thread in one hand.  “I’m sitting here writing emails, answering the phone and stitching at the same time,” she says with her usual good humour.  As always there’s lots going on at the Africa Centre and only three days to finish the banner they will unfurl for the Gude Cause march on Saturday.

Like other women and women’s groups all over Edinburgh, Agnes is putting the final touches to plans for the event celebrating 100 years since hundreds of suffragettes marched along Princes Street demanding the vote for all women.

Agnes, who chairs Africa Centre Scotland is also a member of the Gude Cause organising committee. For the Africa Centre preparations began early in 2009 with two workshops at the National Library exploring the lives of inspirational women who succeeded against all odds.

“Somehow these women did it, many years ago. That gave us the inspiration to make our own collage of all the women, mothers, sisters, aunts who have inspired us.”  The result is a banner of purple, green and white (the colours of the Suffragette movement), bearing rosettes stitched with pictures, letters or emblems of individual inspiring women. Agnes has chosen her mother.

“She died very young but she was strong and determined. There are so many women we can remember, women who are making ripples in political life and breaking down barriers. We also want to include the words for women and empowering women in different African languages.”

And the singing?  Well, that’s a different story. Click here to find it.

According to the Gude Cause over 3000 people have now registered to take part in the march on Saturday. And of course they are not all women.  Men and children are coming out in force too.

There’s still time to join but if your group has not registered with Gude Cause it would be a good idea to do it soon by downloading a registration form from the website www.gudecause.org.uk and emailing it back to gudecause@peaceandjustice.org.uk.

I’ts a gude cause

Marching in violet, white and green

A pageant of creative conviction

For the women old and young

For the women yet unborn

For us all to rise and take our rightful place

An extract from the song by Jane Lewis

Smell the coffee: Jerusalem Barnabas demonstrates how to make a cup of Ethiopian coffee.

A heady smell of roasting coffee greets you. Women in bright colours laugh and chat as they pass plates of African food.  We’ve just dropped into a fundraising coffee morning with a difference and it feels a long way from the grey Edinburgh summer on the other side of the door.  Welcome to the Africa Centre Scotland…

There is an extra buzz in the room because Africa Centre Scotland (ACS) has just been awarded funding for a part-time project co-ordinator. If this morning’s Ethiopian Coffee Experience is anything to go by it will be a great job for someone.

Agnes Holmes, ACS chair, wearing a beautiful Ethiopian dress for the occasion, has a long list of projects in her diary. To mention just a few, there’s  Zawadi Women’s Choir, art workshops, and youth drama activities connecting Scottish and African communities.

All this organised from the small office in Blackfriar’s Street brightly decorated with posters and crafts from different African countries. The centre run by volunteers offers support and a social meeting place for Africans newly arriving in Edinburgh.

Thanks to Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland, ACS now has three year funding to employ a part-time project co-ordinator helping to run the office and organise events as  well as working with volunteers and developing links with other community organisations.

“It is very exciting. We are already getting enquiries,” says  Agnes  breaking away from the coffee ceremony to answer email queries. “We are hoping to interview people during August so that the job can begin in October.”

She points out that the deadline for applications is 12 August 2009 and that applications from minority ethnic individuals are particularly welcome.  (For more details and the  job application pack phone 0131 557 6145 or email info@africacentrescotland.org.uk )

Now, back to the coffee. Breakfast might never be the same again.

Millet ‘popcorn’

Ola Kasprzak at the Swietlica art workshop

We were delighted to get the chance to put artist Stephen Raw in touch with some of the community groups representing Leith’s wealth of cultural diversity.  Stephen contacted us a couple of months ago when he had just a few workshops left to  complete the art work for the banner. This is a project to produce a spectacular display in Market Place as part of the Homecoming to celebrate the 250th birthday of Robert Burns.

The banner is made of letters painted by Scots across the world. And quite a few back home. Stephen was particularly keen to illustrate Scotland’s increasing multiculturalism and he thought Leith seemed the ideal place to come. “I would love to do a drop-in workshop in Leith,” he emailed as he headed south a couple of months ago.

We tracked him down somewhere in Manchester on his mobile phone and he explained he just needed a small group – all ages, all abilities – and a place to meet.

“It’s very simple,” he said, “It only takes an hour and all you will be asked to do is paint a big letter.” We started emailing everyone we knew…

Swietlica and some members of the Africa Centre and Shakti women’s group took up the challenge. You can see some of the results of the workshops  on the Burns Banner pages of the Scottish Poetry Library Website. Click here. [Thanks to Stephen for letting us pinch some pictures taken at the Fort Community Centre off the website!] You can also hear Brian Cox reading the Burns poem by clicking here.

Best of all, you can see the banner being unfurled in Market Street aat 11 am on 6 August.

Sneak preview: a mock-up of what the banner might look like. But go and see the real thing for yourselves.

Warming up: Zawadi with choir leader Rachel Milne at their first public performance in April

Great to hear the Zawadi Women’s Choir is going from strength to strength. Since their first appearance in April this year they have been collecting a growing list of requests (and some new members).  If you didn’t hear them in the Festival preview on Leith FM you can see and hear them in person at the Mela on Saturday 8 August in the Garden Stage from 5-5.30pm.

Zawadi also have a busy autumn ahead with performances in Penicuik, East Lothian and Edinburgh.  See more on Africa Centre Scotland website.

And of course there is plenty more to see and hear (not to mention lots of good things to eat at the Mela) which will be back  in Pilrig Park from 7-9 August.

(We’re intrigued to see the Lothian and Borders Police choir  take the Garden Stage on Sunday 9 August.)

It didn’t just rain, it absolutely poured. Recipes and posters got washed away as the deluge battered our poor gazebos.  But cooks just kept on cooking which was just as well because as soon as the rain stopped people came looking for food.  Crowds of them. We might have hoped for better weather but we couldn’t have asked for a better beginning for the World Kitchen than the Gala Day in Leith Links on Saturday (13 June).

The aim was to bring people together to enjoy eating food from different cultural traditions of the world.  To break down some of the barriers daily life seems to set up. And it worked better than we ever dared to imagine.

“This is good,” said Luis with a broad smile on his face as the rain leaked in all around us. He had been just about to start his cookery demonstration when the sky opened. “We can improvise,” he said, setting out a dish of Portuguese food: prawn and coriander ‘pancakes’ made with chickpea flour and served on crisp lettuce topped with a delicate tomato salsa flavoured with lemon grass.

Loving Leith: Gurmit and Luis (on the right) enthuse about food

Cookery demonstrations were abandoned but there was still plenty to see. On the stall there was Maryjannas delicious sour apple cake from Poland (donated by the Kleofas Cafe), a basket of perfect Pakistani mangoes (thanks to Planet Asia), loaves of wonderful Irish soda bread (baked by Celia to Granny Barron’s recipe), and Fran’s tray of American choc chip cookies which stayed miraculously crisp despite the rain.

Then there was the hot stuff. A big pot of chilli pepper soup (a Nigerian recipe made by Patricia) began to draw hungry folk around noon.  Agnes (from the Africa Centre) arrived with trays of African maize porridge, chicken, beans and spinach cooked with peanuts. Mridu served up courgettes stunningly crimson in tandoori masala sauce and a chutney made with pineapples and almonds which went amazingly well with my Scottish potato scones (just as Mridu had promised).

Not dreaming: these are definitely real life pakoras!

And all the time Pip was conjuring up home-made pakoras at the other end of the stall along with her daughter-in-law Balvinder (pictured above),  “I was dreaming about pakoras in the night,” she says laughing at the end of a very long but successful day over a hot stove. I wasn’t sure if it would work.”  In fact it worked so well Pip was kept busy right until the last drop of onion, potato and batter.  (Fortunately we had brought an extra bottle of gas to fire the heroic old burners kindly provided by the Scouts).

Serving the last few spoonfuls: from the right Agnes, Alice and Jo

And still people kept coming back for more.  Just when we thought we had run out Alice arrived with a new pot of beans and coconut and reinforcements of maize meal.  Meanwhile, we began to invent combinations of food we had never thought of before. Not just Scots potato scones with Indian chutney, but Irish soda bread with African beans, and Portuguese prawn and coriander with Indian pakoras. And…”just give me a taste of everything you have got,” said one happy customer loading his plate.

Nick enjoys a multicultural meal

That’s it for now. But we will be back.  The World Kitchen has loads more stories to tell about our sponsors, the people who made the food and the places it came from.  And more events to plan. Thank you, thank you to all our friends and supporters. And special congratulations to Gurmit and Mridu who had the brilliant idea of creating a World Kitchen just a few months ago!

Flashback to April: Gurmit and Mridu making plans at Out of the Blue.

Just five days to go to the opening in Leith Links on Saturday 13 June and it’s getting decidedly hotter in the World Kitchen in Leith. [See also World Kitchen Cooks up a Storm]

At today’s planning meeting we started writing those last minute lists that always keep on growing. We’ve ordered tables, gas burners, and hot plates for the cookery demonstrations. Have we remembered the kitchen roll, bin bags, first aid kit, and paper plates? Don’t forget napkins, cutlery and table clothes. Oh yes, and how about some fine weather!

Gurmit Singh is collecting marquees to cover our stalls (whatever the weather). Mridu Thanki  will soon be heading for  Planet Asia in Norton Park, off Easter Road, who are generously providing  ingredients for our cookery demonstration on Gala Day.

Since our first story about the World Kitchen in Leith, just about a month ago, the planning team has grown.  We are really delighted to be joined by Agnes Holmes, chair of the Africa Centre,(see also Women in Harmony, another creative venture bringing people together) and Luis Lino, an electrician with a passion for food .  And there will be plenty of room for more to get involved in future World Kitchen events.

Between 12 and 4pm on Saturday 13 June we will be celebrating just some of the wonderful mix of cultures in Leith with food from Africa, India, Portugal and Scotland.  Not to mention a display of baking from different parts of Europe and Asia when the World Kitchen stall opens at 10.30 am.

Until World Kitchen in Leith has its own website, Leith Open Space will be keeping tracks of recipes and recording stories about food from different countries.  Right now we are concentrating on spices, prawns, chicken, potatoes, courgettes and peppers for Saturday’s menu. And I am off to practice making potato scones on my camping gas cooker!

A planning session in Out of the Blue: from the left Fay Young, Gurmit Singh and Mridu Thanki. Pictures by Nick Gardner