Inspired Culture: Ghana Meets Japan --Aku • Ako Fertility Dolls

Loving this Aku • Ako fertility doll with her monochromatic Kente shirt...

 Singer Inna Modja with her Aku • Ako Fertility Doll by Noumbissi Design....

"Aku•Ako are dolls that allow Ghanaian and Japanese traditional crafts to meet." Noumbissi Constantin

 

 

Paulina says: How cute and uber fabulous are these inspired Ghana meets Japan, handmade wooden Aku • Ako fertility dolls made by Cameroonian Noumbissi Constantin!!!!

 

I don't know much about Noumbissi Constantin -only that her dolls are must-haves and her label is called Noumbissi Designs...

 

Such a clever and inspired idea --I'm predicting that these delectable Aku • Ako fertility dolls are the next big things. They can bepurchased from: http://www.afrikrea.com/fr/shops/noumbissi-design-55 or

http://www.noumbissidesign.com/aku.ako 

 

Anywayssss --I truly hope Noumbissi has patented/copyrighted her dolls as there are many people out there without imagination or talent -but plenty of [cheap] money and no class.

 

Like Singer Inna Modja et al --I'm now a big fan of Aku • Ako Fertility Dolls, and would love to have a keying version to compliment my Akuaba keying, hopefully one that I can buy in London (hint, hint). I hope to see Aku • Ako fertility dolls available globally -soon.

 

For more info or to purchase any of the above Aku • Ako fertility dolls visit: http://www.afrikrea.com/fr/shops/noumbissi-design-55

https://www.facebook.com/NoumbissiDesign

More Info

Culture is what links individuals to one another to create their identity. As a designer, I'm really interested in what Africa, Europe and Asia can teach me and I'm always amazed to notice that these different cultures have a lot in common. That's how Aku•Ako dolls were born !

 

 

 

Akuaba are wooden ritual fertility dolls from Ghana and nearby areas. According to the legend, Akuaba doll comes from the story of a woman named Akua who could not get pregnant and went to a priest and commissioned the carving of a small wooden doll. She carried and cared for the doll as if it were her own child, feeding it, bathing it and so on. Soon the people in the village started calling it "Akuaba" (Akua's child). She soon became pregnant and her daughter grew up with the doll.

 

 

 

 

 

Kokeshi dolls have been made for 150 years, and are from Northern Honshū, the main island of Japan. They were originally made as toys for the farmers' children. They have no arms or legs, but a large head and cylindrical body, representing little girls. From a simple toy, it has now become a famous Japanese craft, and now an established souvenir for tourists.

 

Kokeshi and Akuaba dolls are really similar aesthetically but also in use. So far geographically but so close culturally, Aku•Ako are dolls that allow Ghanean and Japanese traditional crafts to meet. In my very own quest seeking for cross-cultural understanding and respect, Aku•Ako may be the beginning of an answer.

 

Source: https://www.behance.net/gallery/10665305/AkuAko-Fertility-Dolls

Africa's Luxury tourist market: Villa Rosa Kempinski Nairobi

Paulina says: Are you fed-up waiting for the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra to open? So am I... So I thought I would check out their Nairobi branch in Kenya --and I must say, its pretty impressive. The Villa Rosa Kempinski Nairobi, Kenya as you can see from the photos above is lovely --so I'm guessing we are just going to have to exercise [some more] patience...
https://www.facebook.com/VillaRosaKempinskiNairobi

For more info about the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra visit: http://www.kempinski.com/en/accra/hotel-gold-coast-city/welcome/

 

 

More Info:

Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City - Accra, Ghana

Opening in Summer 2014, Kempinski's first hotel in Ghana will be located in the heart of one of West Africa’s most exciting cities. The Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City will set a new standard of luxury in Accra and will boast the largest rooms in the city with a minimum size of 50 sqm. The hotel is set as the centerpiece of a larger mixed-use development, Gold Coast City, which covers an area of 35 acres and will include residences, retail space, an exhibition centre and commercial office towers.

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

 

What if I fall? Oh, but my darling what if you fly?

 

"Back to my Ghanaian roots. Eating jollof rice for the first time in 15 years." Mario Balotelli

Replies to the above caption:
"Asem aba."


"You are an Ashanti, and u got real local and healthy foods available for you when you visit Ghana. We'll be glad to see you. Akwaaba!!!"


"How did he survive all these years without Jollof?"


"NO FUFU?"

"Now u have remembered that ur Ghanaian.. every spell dem Italians put for ur head.. that u forget about your beloved land Ghana i thank God its finally breaking small by small lmaoo ..lol.. Ghana still loves u tho nd i hope u enjoyed your food."


"He'll decide to play for Ghana after tasting such beautiful food."


"I hope u can play for Ghana one day. They have a great team they are just missing a great striker."


"So all these while you knew you were a Ghanaian...anyway, welcome bro...blood is blood!"


"Why don't u come play for Ghana."



Paulina says: Like most of you I absolutely love Mario Balotelli ----and I'm always intrigued and on the look out for his next fabulous offering.... -be it controversial, or about his giving (our Mario is very generous with his charity work) or about the ladies in his life etc etc....

Plus, whatever the media has to say, the world and not just we Ghanaians/Africans are gripped by all things Balotelli -especially those of us --privy to tales about his childhood. Anyway I follow our Mario on Facebook and today he uploaded the above photo with the above caption --and won more hearts. Just look at some of the replies I've posted above!!!!!!

I love Mario, I don't know all of his journey/story ---but I do know that he is loved ---and is now eating Jollof rice again, (how he went without it for 15 years is a mystery to me -laughter) and that makes me and a lot of people happy (laughter).. We Ghanaian are simple creatures -no? May we never become toooooooooo complicated.. More healing and peace for Balotelli -forever xx...

To keep up with Mario Balotelli visit: http://www.mariobalotelli.it/it/home/
https://www.facebook.com/MarioOfficialBalotelli





More Info:

A hyperactive child, who regularly demonstrated his nascent football skills by deliberately kicking

his ball through the glass pane of a door in his home, he has ripened into a hyperactive adult. "He's

always busy with lots of activities. He's doing something and then he has an idea, and he wants to do

something else. He has one thought, and he has 100 thoughts after it," says Cristina Balotelli, his

adoptive sister. "You make an appointment with him, and he changes twice."

 

Like her two brothers and her parents, she is protective of the vulnerable boy, still easily glimpsed in

the full-grown man, who joined her family after a difficult start in life. She praises how quickly he

learned English, his instinct to avoid the flattery and flummery that his celebrity brings. "He's a bit

of a mix," she says. "He's smart, he's mature, but at the same time he doesn't want to grow up." His

agent, Mino Raiola, describes him as a "free spirit" and "a Peter Pan, in the positive sense."

One key to Balotelli's reluctance to put away childish things seems easy enough to locate, in an early

life lacking in childish pleasures. Born in 1990 in Palermo, Sicily, to Ghanaian immigrants named

Thomas and Ruth Barwuah, Balotelli spent most of his first year in the hospital, as surgeons

conducted a series of operations to fix an intestinal malformation that threatened to kill him. Such

medically enforced separations in infancy can create enduring feelings of abandonment, and

Balotelli has indicated in interviews that he has just such feelings. But he traces them not to his time

in the hospital but to the decision of the Barwuahs, by then living in cramped quarters with another

African family in Brescia, northern Italy, to place him in care after his release from the hospital. He

wasn't yet 3 years old when he ended up with the foster parents who would later adopt him, the

Balotellis. "They say that abandonment is a wound that never heals," Balotelli told Sportweek, the

weekly supplement of Gazzetta dello Sport, in 2008. "I say only that an abandoned child never

forgets."  Source: http://www.mariobalotelli.it/wp-content/files_mf/1351851343MB_Time.pdf 


"They say that abandonment is a wound that never heals, I say only that an abandoned child never forgets." Mario Balotelli




 

"Wealthy men can't live in an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance." Ayrton Senna

 

Wonders will never cease!!!!! Apparently, Ghana Police has a Marine division??? Are they having a laugh? Are they pulling our legs? Some advice: why not start small-small-sure-and-steady -with lifeguards who can swim and are stationed at all beaches/swimming pools/resorts or anywhere there's water for that matter... Getting sick of all the nonsense.....