Nicknamed the “North African Jimi Hendrix”, Vieux Farka Touré is the celebrated son of legendary Malian artist, Ali Farka Touré. In June 2010, Farka re-introduced himself as a maestro of “Desert Blues”, during the opening concert of the South African World Cup. That same month his live album, “Live”, was available to fans.

Kenyan-based literary network, Kwani? Trust previewed a new mobile app during the 2012 Kwani Lit Fest. MKwani was developed by Timothy Mruttu of On Demand Mobile and is currently in beta testing stage. “About a year ago, Angela and I discussed the possibility of creating an app and because the lit fest was coming up, we thought to incorporate some of the information into the app,” says Mruttu during the soft launch of the app at the National Museum of Kenya.

Nawal El Saadawi cuts an impressive figure on the Kwani? Litfest stage at the Louis Leakey auditorium, National Museums of Kenya. Clad in a white top, black trousers and red boots, her snow-white hair seems to assert her matriarchal authority that comes with age, captivating a silent, attentive audience. And she is indeed a brilliant personality, able to locate the missing link between medicine and literature, herself an accomplished physician and renowned writer. Of this she says, “Science and writing both thrive on knowledge. The creative process must be founded in knowledge drawn from a free system.” She goes on to criticize the education system that places emphasis on memorizing and obedience, a trait she blames for breeding oppression and political domination of peoples across the world. According to her, schools offer fragmented knowledge that splits people from the reality.

Erykah Badu was a sight to behold. Wild, wispy brown hair crowned by an orange Indy hat; blue turtleneck knotted at the back; orange figure-hugging pants decorated with a highway of white arrows; bold, chunky chain dangling from crotch to base of the spine; left hand adorned in a set of five gold-coloured circular bangles bordered by a Maasai bracelet while a black leather clasp run from wrist to elbow on the right hand; bronze ring in the shape of Africa; woolly socks peeping out of black ankle boots.