Ekari Writes

Meet Jember, the Ethiopian Superhero I had the privilege of chatting with an African comic book creator who is breaking out in a big way. Using the power of Kickstarter , he is raising funds to produce and distribute his brand new comic book from scratch. Since the popular Black Panther  movie, the doors have been opened for African superheroes (which have existed for years) to garner more global attention than ever before.  The strategic release of this creator's project duringUS Black History Month cannot be overlooked... The young man's name is  Beserat Debebe , and we discussed his brainchild;  Jember . Read more to find out more about the Ethiopian Superhero, and how you can be a part of bringing this exciting project to fruition. UPDATE: The Kickstarter fund surpassed its funding goals in just 4 hours! You can still contribute for the remaining days until the 4th of March for their stretch goal to do an epic comic book tour across Africa ... ...

I recently rediscovered the joy of comic books. They are a fascinating medium of storytelling, combining both visual art and dialogue. As such they make a great entry point for people who want to get into reading but struggle to visualize the words as an immersive world which the author has created. Traditionally, comic books are meant to be something you grow out of at a certain age, but now there are many comic book stories which are targeted at adults. The most well known type in this category are known as graphic novels.  But if you don't have access to these, there are countless web comics accessible online, many are free, others not. I've decided to write about a few of the ones I discovered here, and specifically works which have a strong presence by a black character. I selected this category because when I was growing up, I rarely found characters in either books or movies who represented my race and/or gender. Times are changing!  I a...

Hey there. Yes, you with the remote control. Care to put that down for a moment? Just for a moment, I promise... there you go, that wasn't so bad. So, question: when was the last time you got truly lost in a good book? If you can't remember, then this is the post for you! If you're reading a good book now, then you can help me out here.  Let's face it, movies are becoming visual bubblegum. There seem to be more releases every year than ever before, but so many of them are sequels (how much Faster and Furiouser must we get??), or ideas that used to be unique but have been hashed and rehashed, until they lack the "something special" that the original versions used to have. I would even be so bold to say that many of the few good movies that have been released lately have come from....books.  I myself have been guilty of neglecting my passion for reading in favour of watching TV. But I've decided to actively add more books to my leisure time so that...

Gone far too soon.  It seems that when we blink, another great talent disappears forever... Michael Jackson, and more recently Whitney Houston... It's a clear sign that our artists need to be wholly appreciated while they still share this Earth with us. Wisdom Chitedze was a Malawian musician whose talents were truly only just beginning to show their potential before he passed away in late 2011. Thought-provoking songs such as ' Tipewe ' brought him popularity, but what was less publicised was that he was also an extremely gifted writer.   He made many friends in the field of writing; colleagues who recognised the talent he had, and considered him " the most prodigious poet and writer of this generation. ", as well as " a genuine person, of integrity and without artifice ".  ~~~~~~~~ I myself had been looking forward to meeting him, as I am always eager to share experiences with fellow writers, mentors and comrades. At a point in time, it cam...