Africa

Lessons and commitments graphic recording

Africa, Events, graphic recording, Watercolour

All We Can gathered the participants’ learning and commitments from their partnership conference using a method called cascading, or the snowball, or, we decided, the River. In this exercise, people think individually at first and then gather in increasingly large groups to select the best contributions. At the end, about ten peoples’ thoughts have been distilled into ten points. I drew the process explanation diagram and also the final result… Here’s the resulting poster, drawn live in the session!

Ethiopia field trip

Africa, Events, Sketch, sustainable development

coffee ceremony

Ethiopian schoolkids

These guys were watching us visit the beekeeping centre. They work for ADHENO, but Tarike is the kebede (village) manager.

These guys were watching us visit the beekeeping centre. They work for ADHENO, but Tarike is the kebede (village) manager.

The All We Can partnership conference involved a field trip to two of their Ethiopian partner organsations. I went to ADHENO’s project where they’ve spent twelve years developing conservation agriculture and reforestation. We saw beekeeping, the fuel-efficient stove workshop and the church where the project began. A great day with great people.

Party like it’s 2007

Africa, background

I’ve owned the domain developmentcartoons.com since 2007, when my friend ‘Lovely Chris’ designed it for me. Since then times have moved on, and I’m in the process of making this WordPress pop up at that website. Here’s what the world will be missing! A bit dark…. a bit wordy…

2007: intro. A bit wordy!

2007: intro. A bit wordy for a service whose point is to provide ‘a thousand words’ in one!

devt dot com gallery screengrab

This delight can be perused in more detail on https://malangaillustrations.wordpress.com/portfolio/worldvision-uk/

devt dot com contact screengrab

Education and professional credentials!

But I do like the easy overview, and the yellow/black wallpaper inspired by an African kitenge. Maybe I can scan my shirt and use that…kitenge shirt selfie

Mirerani hairdressers

Africa, fieldwork, Just for fun, Sketch, Street scene, Tanzania

This sketch was inspired by some hairdressers we interviewed in 2012 in Mirerani in Tanzania. Mirerani is a frontier-flavour mining town – the origin of all the world’s tanzanite, a precious stone. Our partner organisation was finding out about the social impacts of the tanzanite companies – and small-scale miners. Our interview with some women at the hairdressing salon turned into a major streetside spectacle.

Sketch Hair salon

Sketch: Seven Survivor

Africa, Comics, Just for fun, Sketch, Street scene, Tanzania

Seven Survivor is a Tanzanian band who play the urban music mchiriku. This is a sketch from a gig of theirs in November 2013. (Another famous mchiriku band is Jagwa Music.) Mchiriku is a frenetic genre based on high-octane staccato drumming. The rest of the instruments and the rapping seem almost secondary to the drumming, which sounds as if the drummer is on speed; or as if he’s anticipating the end of the world any second and is trying to fit in a lifetime of drumming into a few short minutes. The pace and intensity of the drums ebbs and flows but never falls below ‘feverish’. It’s a rhythm that you can only dance to by jumping up and down, but you’d have to do that very quickly – almost vibrating! – to keep pace with the drums. The band also featured a lethargic mini-Casio keyboard player; a rapper (the lyrics are political and worth getting into), another percussionist using sturdy sticks on a small coffee table, and a guy shaking home-made maracas made with nailed-together bottle tops. Here’s a link to one of their gigs. And the main man – the drummer – was in some sort of trance with his head thrown as far back as possible. You’d need to really be at one with the flow to manage to keep that level of intensity going for hours.

Sketch Seven Survivor