Your favorite group of African musicians not only has a new sound but is branching out into fashion this week.
The Pan Africana Cultural Troupe has been performing in Taiwan for the past four years and has built up a steady following with its frequent gigs and occasional TV appearances.
Led by the enterprising Ben Stobite Sampson and the musically challenging Rankin' Kim Douglas the ever-evolving group has a more Caribbean lilt these days.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
A steel drum, xylophone and trumpet have been added to the base sound of African drums and the result is a tighter and more melodic sound that will attract new fans.
Outside the band's studio in Shida, Taipei, Sampson reaches into his suitcase and pulls out some men's shirts and women's dresses, all in brilliant colors and patterned with animal prints.
A leather bag made of bush goat is deep brown and has white leather stitching and innovative tooling. Sandal uppers are fashioned from goat hide and the soles are made from car tires.
There are also dried-wood African pendants, bracelets constructed out of colored electrical wire and big round nteh seeds formed into necklaces.
Sampson has just started importing textiles and jewelry from Takoradi in his native Ghana and plans to expand his business to China and other Asian nations.
“I want to open up the market to African goods,” Sampson said.
“Europeans and Americans know about these things but here people are still learning.”
Pan Africana will be showcasing its new sound and putting on a fashion show this tomorrow, at Sappho, starting at 10pm. The lounge bar is located at B1, 1, Ln 102, Anhe Rd, Sec 1, Taipei (台北市安和路1巷1號B1). Entrance is NT$200.
For more information visit www.panafricana.blogspot.com.
As mega K-pop group BTS returns to the stage after a hiatus of more than three years, one major market is conspicuously missing from its 12-month world tour: China. The omission of one of the group’s biggest fan bases comes as no surprise. In fact, just the opposite would have been huge news. China has blocked most South Korean entertainment since 2016 under an unofficial ban that also restricts movies and the country’s popular TV dramas. For some Chinese, that means flying to Seoul to see their favorite groups perform — as many were expected to do for three shows opening
A recent report from the Environmental Management Administration of the Ministry of Environment highlights a perennial problem: illegal dumping of construction waste. In Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅) and Hsinchu’s Longtan District (龍潭) criminals leased 10,000 square meters of farmland, saying they were going to engage in horticulture. They then accepted between 40,000 and 50,000 cubic meters of construction waste from sites in northern Taiwan, charging less than the going rate for disposal, and dumped the waste concrete, tile, metal and glass onto the leased land. Taoyuan District prosecutors charged 33 individuals from seven companies with numerous violations of the law. This
Apr. 13 to Apr. 19 From 17th-century royalty and Presbyterian missionaries to White Terror victims, cultural figures and industrialists, Nanshan Public Cemetery (南山公墓) sprawls across 95 hectares, guarding four centuries of Taiwan’s history. Current estimates show more than 60,000 graves, the earliest dating to 1642. Besides individual tombs, there are also hundreds of family plots, one of which is said to contain around 1,000 remains. As the cemetery occupies valuable land in the heart of Tainan, the government in 2018 began asking families to relocate the graves to make way for development. That
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) alone accounted for more than 9 percent, or 2,590 megawatts (MW), of the nation’s power demand last year. The factories that produce chips for the world’s phones and servers run around the clock. They cannot tolerate blackouts. Yet Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with liquefied natural gas reserves measured in days. Underground, Taiwan has options. Studies from National Taiwan University estimate recoverable geothermal resources at more than 33,000 MW. Current installed capacity stands below 10 MW. OBSTACLES Despite Taiwan’s significant geothermal potential, the
RSS