Hail brilliant teenage broadcaster hadija halifa and other talented children
Tomorrow, Saturday, 6pm East African time, 14-year-old Hadija Halifa is going to be on the international sweet, gleeful waters of Zoom. The Zoom show will beam our Tanzanian teenager through London based Mwana Events. It is huge, it is hot and, well, aaah! (if you have a well-functioning Wi-Fi ), a no miss occasion. Keep on reading to check for more details.
But before we go into ID and Code numbers (for those familiar with these Zoom meetings and gigs) let us try and dig deep. Zoom annoys because you need good Wi-Fi and sufficient Wi-Fi is not available to the majority of the human race yet. Video meets such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, are among the fastest tools on social media, thanks to the cruelty and menace of Covid-19 pandemic.
In our tricky lifetimes we receive news every single minute. Journalists, like doctors and pilots and parents, the police and cleaners and spies and presidents, pickpockets and robbers and pilots, DO NOT SLEEP. They are constantly churning and cooking.
Journalists feed us with news. News, reports, news, information, reports, news...
There comes moments, nevertheless, when we are startled and jostled and rocked and excited by one UNIQUE piece of news.
A barber friend just coined the word “fish and chips” (considered the ugali na maharage of English people) to mean monotone. Each nation has their “fish and chips” and ugali na maharage.
So with Hadija Halifa we have eloped from the normal Simba-Yanga, MPs scandal news, Diamond and Duchu and fish and chips and ugali and beans and dived into an exciting swimming about a fourteen year old girl: articulate, gifted, brilliantly, confident. A naturally born broadcaster, guided and supported by her loving parents, Bwana Halifa and Mama Hadija, some of you might know her from the Deustche Welle (German Swahili Channel), which she has been broadcasting while carrying on with her secondary school studies.
Social media is really boosting talents. Apart from Hadija Halifa herself we have the London based Jackline Waziri, whose book Mwana, a collection of poems in English, focussing on Africa and Tanzania, was reviewed in this column last year. Great granddaughter of the legendary Swahili icon, Shaaban Robert, Jackline has been steering Tanzania through superb Zoom performances since October 2020.
Mwana Events (initially called Tanzanite Events) aims at promoting Tanzanian artists and self-hard-working entrepreneurs nonstop and monthly.
Among them we have seen the creator of NALA an app for sending money home from overseas, by the wizard laid back Benjamin Fernandes; Prof Joseph Mbele, who teaches literature in the USA; Hamida Mbaga, a Manchester based promoter of All Things African cooperative and many others.
Ms Mbaga believes in the “Made in Tanzania” brand and for decades shines tirelessly through Tanzanian events.
All Things African has a range of arts and crafts, clothes plus the motto of publicising unknown homemade hard toilers. As we speak, Prof Mbele is trotting across Tanzania promoting one of his books on relations between African Americans and Africans. Mr Fernandes’ NALA is a fresh light to a business that makes money easier for Diaspora based Tanzanians.
Soul powered Jackline Waziri, a true heiress to the legendary Shaaban Robert (himself a media lion in mid-20th century) has done more than just beaming Tanzanians, though. She has splashed Mwana Events to include artists from across the continent and globally.
Now. Hadija Halifa’s special gig tomorrow is historic.
Why and how?
It is about Inspirational Youths and Halifa’s litany of colleagues include, children aged six to twenty year old Nawal Ismail Simpson. We featured Nawal on this column in 2021. Nawal and her mother, Layla created “Bigger Heart Zanzibar”- a charity that sees children of Wales and Zanzibar exchanging cultural ideas and goods.
Six year and eight year old Destiny Likambi and John Xavier, respectively, are both authors and will be showcased tomorrow as well. Others, are musician Melissa Robert, 13, and (more) authors, Latoya Likambi, 15, and Michael Likambi, 12. An evening of youthful embers!
The host herself, Jackline, who won the 2021 London “Young Entrepreneur Award “IYEGA told The Citizen exclusively: “We are setting a fine example to our black youths so that they feel they have a place, they have representation...when I was growing up we did not have such a forum....we worked and served big companies as minors...Mwana Events aims at setting the tone...”
If you do not want to Miss Khadija Halifa and this extraordinary array of children and future makers of history please be there on Saturday. Log in with ID 851-8809 3079 and Code 760717.
London time is 3pm, New York, 10am, East Africa, 6pm.
Remember by supporting, clapping and watching you shall be assisting to plant a huge tree of substance and value.
