When was the last time you saw your favorite artist or band perform at a live music event in a crowd of hundreds of people? With the Corona pandemic, music festivals and live music events across the world were cancelled. In Africa, Lake of Stars, Capetown Jazz Fest and more of our favorite festivals were cancelled or moved virtually.
In the last episode of season 2 of Mwende Bwino, I took a trip down memory lane to remember the music festivals my friends and I attended from 2013-2017 as part of The Fest Gurus, a group of four friends (Gwi, Lo, Zash and me ) who ventured across Southern, East and West Africa interviewing artists and vlogging our experiences.
My guests are Gwinyayi Mabika (Gwi) and Ngonizashe Chinara (Zash) who are from Harare, Zimbabwe and made up The Fest Guru camera and video crew. Gwi and Zash run the Production company Crafted Media.
In the last episode of season 2 of Mwende Bwino, I took a trip down memory lane to remember the music festivals my friends and I attended from 2013-2018 as part of The Fest Gurus, a group of four friends who ventured across Southern, East and West Africa interviewing artists and vlogging our experiences.
Follow Zash on Instagram @Zashcraft
Follow Gwi on Instagram @MrGwi
Follow Crafted Media @CraftedMediaGuys
Follow Mwende Bwino on Instagram and Twitter and please subscribe, download , rate and share this podcast and any other episode you enjoyed. See you next year for Season 3!
Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo is known for its sapeurs and it's amazing music. It is also the city that Paris born Congolese stylist Laëtitia Kandolo uses as inspiration for her womenswear line UCHAWI. Laëtitia has worked with some of the biggest celebrities in the world including The Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, Madonna, Rihanna and more. In this episode, she shares her favorite things to do in Congo, how to pack for a trip and more. Laëtitia also served as Editor in Cheif for issue no 28 of Hamaji magazine, Africa's first bilingual travel magazine.
Follow Laëtitia on Instagram| @TitiaKandolo
Follow Laetitia on Twitter @TitiaKandolo
Follow UCHAWI on Instagram| @Uchawiworld
Read Hamaji Issue 28 that Laëtitia edited
https://www.hamajimagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Hamaji-28.pdf
Have you ever wanted to go on a camping trip in Zambia but haven't known where to go or how to plan your trip? To answer those questions, we brought on Petra Chikasa. Petra is an outdoor enthusiast, adventure travel writer and destination development officer. She shares her favorite places to camp in Lusaka, Central, Northern, Luapula, Muchinga and Copperbelt provinces. She also shares her tips on planning your first camping trip in Zambia.
Read Petra's article on women friendly spots in Zambia
https://girlcanwander.wordpress.com/2020/04/19/7-of-the-best-camping-spots-for-women-in-zambia/
Follow Petra on Twitter @GirlCanWander
Follow Petra on Instagram @GirlCanWander
When it comes to traveling for wine, the most known travel destination is South Africa which boasts five regions. However, the East African country of Kenya should be on your radar. In this episode, we spoke to Mukami Mwaraina, a viticulturist and wine maker who has her own winery called Saikeri Estate. Mukami is also a wine expert at Karen Country Club. We spoke to her about starting her own winery and the future of Kenyan wine.
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Love wine? So do we. One of the best ways of traveling without traveling is through the wine of a particular country. Our guest this episode is Ayele Solomon, a conservationist turned wine maker. Ayele is the founder of Honey Wine Co which produces the Bee D’Vine brand,inspired by his home country Ethiopia. Bee D'Vine is a super premium barrel-aged honey wine crafted in Sonoma exclusively from select raw California honey and springwater. It is available dry & semi sweet.
Ayele shares memories of his travels across Africa, what it's like running a black owned winery in Sonoma, California and how to support black winemakers.
Listeners of this episode get a special discount when purchasing wine from Bee D'Vine. To claim this discount, reach out to Ayele via the Bee D'Vine social media pages
In honor of World Tourism Day 2020, Mwende Bwino collaborated with Discover Zambia to host a webinar under the theme 'Tourism and Rural Development'.
Guests were Brian Ross from Prospero Zambia, Dorothy Walker Partner at Discover Zambia and Travel content creator, Luwi Nguluka from Women for Conservation and the Wildlife Crime Prevention Progam, Gemma D'Souza Editor and Founder of Nyayo Magazine, James Milanzi Country Director at African Parks and Gilmour Dickson Safari Manager at Kaingu Lodge.
The webinar was moderated by Mwende Bwino host Mazuba Kapambwe.
Livingstone is the tourist capital of Zambia, and home to the Mosi-o-Tunya (Victoria Falls). In this episode, our guests content creator Chisumbu (@alwayschisumbu) and Mimi from Adventures With Mimi share their tips for visiting Livingstone; from the best activities to do, where to stay, where to eat, how to get there and more.
Photo Credit: © flowcomm / Flickr
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Follow Mimi on Instagram
instagram.com/adventureswithmimi
Follow Mimi on twitter
Read my article The Best Things to do at Victoria Falls
https://theculturetrip.com/africa/zambia/articles/the-best-things-to-see-and-do-at-victoria-falls/
Is skiing on your bucket list? Meet Tobi, Wenona, Simi, Blessing and Adeola, the founders of Mount Noire a luxury ski company. The lovely ladies of Mount Noire help plan your first or next ski trip, share what it's like to be black skiers, how the ski industry needs to change and where they're excited to hit the slopes when corona is over.
Check out Mount Noire's website mountnoire.squarespace.com
Follow Mount Noire on twitter MountNoireldn
Follow Mount Noire on Instagram instagram.com/mountnoire/
Check out Mount Noire's feature in Powder Magazine
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instagram.com/mwendebwinopodcast/
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Traveling by train is one of the best ways of seeing a country. In this episode, meet Lululama, a travel writer and blogger from South Africa who took the Shosholoza train from Johannesburg to Capetown on a solo adventure. She shares how the trip helped her come out of her shell.
Wongani Ngulube from Zambia is an outdoor instructor and travel vlogger/blogger who took a group trip with her work mates on the Tazara train on a return trip from Zambia to Tanzania. She shares her tips for what to pack, how to survive delays and the secret item on the menu.
Follow Lulu on Twitter |
twitter.com/wanderlust_lulu
Lulu on Instagram|
www.instagram.com/wanderlust_lulu/
Lulu's blog post about her train trip
wanderlustlulu.travel.blog/2019/10/14/…-cape-town/
Follow Wongani on Twitter
Wongani on instagram|
Watch Wongani's vlog from her Tazara trip
Tazara Website
www.tazarasite.com/
Mazuba's article about Tazara
theculturetrip.com/africa/zambia/a…-to-see-zambia/
Photo Credit: Tazara| © Richard Stupart / Flickr
In honor of #WorldElephantDay (August 12), we're releasing a bonus episode which was recorded in Lusaka at the Game Rangers International offices. My guests are Rachel Murton and Sport Beattie who have dedicated their lives to helping orphaned elephants in Zambia through the Elephant Orphanage Project. According to their site, "Game Rangers International is a holistic wildlife conservation organisation, specialising in resource protection, community outreach and wildlife rescue".
To support Game Rangers International, adopt an elephant via their website
https://www.gamerangersinternational.org/
Game Rangers International on Instagram
instagram.com/game_rangers_international/
Game Rangers International Twitter
https://twitter.com/GameRangersInt
Photo Credit: Unikue Moda
The towns in the Hudson Valley region are some of our favorite to explore in the empire state. From historic homes, museums, festivals for everything from tulips to cheese, there is something for everyone in the Hudson Valley. Nigerian-American Travel blogger Kemi joined host Mazuba to talk about their favorite Hudson Valley trips they've taken recently.
Follow Kemi on Instagram
instagram.com/musingsandadventures
Follow Kemi on Twitter| twitter.com/NYCapricorn
Photo Credit: Kemi
Read Kemi's blog post on Albany
musingsandadventures.com/2020/05/12/e…ol-building/
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According to the UN Women's global report on Women in Tourism published in 2019, women employed in the tourism industry account for 54% of the workforce, yet they earn 14.9% less than men in tourism. However, in Morocco, due to a lack of issuance of licenses for tourism guides, there were fewer women employed.
Zina Bencheikh who is the Regional Manager for Europe, Middle East & North Africa for Intrepid Travel is trying to chance that statistic . In 2019, she was featured in a Forbes Magazine article titled ‘The Woman Who Challenged Morocco’s Tourism Industry For Women’s Rights and Won’. Zina has spoken at various tourism conferences including the Skift Forum, the London WTM Travel conference and more.
Follow Zina on twitter twitter.com/ZBencheikh
Visit Intrepid Travel https://www.intrepidtravel.com/us
Follow Intrepid Travel on Instagram| instagram.com/intrepidtravel/?hl=en
Hannah Ajala is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared on BBC Africa and other platforms. In December 2019, Hannah left the UK to begin a slow travel journey across four West African countries: Gambia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Ghana. In this episode, Hannah speaks about why she began the trip, how corona virus changed her travel plans and shared tips on saving and spending money while traveling.
Follow Hannah on Twitter: @HannahAjala
Read Hannah's blog re-capping her 3 month stay
Read Hannah's blog re-capping her 6 month stay
https://thisishannahajala.com/2020/06/29/6-months-in-west-africa-my-detailed-itinerary/#more-3379
Watch Hannah's travel video re-capping her trip so far
In 1911, British born Sir Stewart Gore Browne moved to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) to be a member of the Anglo-Belgian land commission. In 1914, he bought land in Shiwa Ngandu, a place in Northern Zambia that he also named his estate and english manor home that he built.
Now almost 90 years old, the house and the Kapishya hot springs on the estate draws visitors. In this episode, I spoke to Emma Harvey, Sir Gore-Browne's great grand daughter. Emma shared her fond memories of growing up at Shiwa house, some of the activities that can be done by visitors and shared which traditions of her great grandfather are still practiced.
For more on Shiwa Ng'andu and to book a visit, here's the website
www.shiwangandu.com/
Read Christina Lamb's book about Sir Gore-Browne called The Africa House: The True Story of an English Gentleman
amzn.to/3fxNaUZ
The continent of Africa is home to thousands of languages; from Akan to Zulu and everything in between, African languages connect us to our culture. When traveling to a new country, one of the best ways of connecting with locals is by learning a few phrases in their language . It is a way of showing effort and respect. In this episode, I speak to Omokolawole Lamikanra who is the founder of Lingua 54, an online learning language platform that will launch in a few weeks with three languages ; Igbo, Twi and Yoruba and then roll out more languages including Somali, Ga and Swahili.
Lingua 54 Website| https://www.lingua54.com/
Lingua 54 Instagram| https://www.instagram.com/lingua_54/
Lingua 54 Twitter| https://twitter.com/lingua54
Everyday Lusaka is a photography and stationery company based in Lusaka, Zambia. EL started as an Instagram account in 2018 founded by Sana Ginwalla and Sebastian Moronell.
Sana shared the inspiration behind EL, why postcards are essential travel souvenirs, the importance of consent in travel photography and more.
Purchase EL postcards at Lsk Collective in Long Acres in Lusaka
Follow Everyday Lusaka on Instagram| www.instagram.com/everydaylusaka/
Everyday Lusaka Blog| everydaylusaka.wordpress.com/
Follow Sana On Instagram| www.instagram.com/sana.ononas/
Irin Journal is a biannual publication that explores African culture through travel, people and communities.
Founded by Mimi Aborowa, each issue of Irin focuses on a different African city. We spoke to Mimi about the inspiration behind founding the magazine, Intra-Africa travel and why Irin should be your new favorite African travel magazine.
* Irin is currently 20% off for a limited time. Shop here| www.irinjournal.com/shop/
Find Irin on Instagram| www.instagram.com/theirinjournal/
Follow Irin on Twitter| twitter.com/theirinjournal
Website|www.irinjournal.com/stories/
Alpha Sipho is a self described foodie and traveler who has visited every province in his home country South Africa. When the South African government instituted the 21 days lockdown due to corona, Alpha created the #21days21Destinations campaign to showcase past travels.
Upon hitting a milestone of 1 million impressions, we spoke to Alpha about the future of the campaign post corona.
Alpha's twitter
twitter.com/alphi_s
Alpha's Instagram: www.instagram.com/alphi_sipho/
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The Corona virus has affected the travel and the tourism industry in Africa in a major way, with airlines, hotels, travel guides , park rangers and more affected.
For this episode dedicated to exploring the impact the virus will have on the continent from a tourism perspective, I spoke to three previous Mwende Bwino podcast guests.
Chibuzo is the co-founder of Africlaim, Nigeria's first flight delay compensation company. He spoke about the impact of corona on African airlines.
Find out more about Africlaim below
Website| www.africlaim.com/
Blog| www.africlaim.com/blog
Twitter|twitter.com/africlaim
Next, I spoke to Rhoda Nuhu, a consultant in the hotel industry in Nigeria. Rhoda spoke about the impact of corona on hotels in Africa, as well as recovery efforts.
Instagram| www.instagram.com/rhoda_yn/
Twitter| twitter.com/RhodaNuhu
Lastly, I spoke to Chiedza and Tariro of Afronomads Zim. The Zimbabwean travel influencers had to postpone their group trips to Bushfire in Eswatini over covid. They share where they are excited to travel to next.
Twitter| twitter.com/AfronomadsZim
Instagram|www.instagram.com/afronomadszim/
Vlog | www.youtube.com/channel/UCXMqO1T21vy1zQcptw2aagQ
Welcome to season 2 of the Mwende Bwino Podcast. To kick us off and in celebration of Women's month, I interviewed Winnie Rioba, a travel blogger from Kenya who organizes all female group trips in Africa.
Listen in to find out where she's traveling to this year, what she's learnt about group travel and her tips for planning the best group trip ever.
Follow Winnie on her social media channels @justrioba
twitter.com/justrioba/media
Read her blog| justrioba.com/
Get on the waitlist for her all female trips here
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQL…amgSiznA/viewform