Mamohlakola Letuka
AMERICAN Hip Hop sensation, Akua Naru, is expected in the country next week where she is expected to hold multiple workshops and poetry sessions in Maseru to motivate high school girls to follow their passions when they choose their careers.
The singer who would be in the country from 20 March also did similar work in the country during her debut visit in 2016 where she sought to empower girls through motivational speaking.
The spoken word goddess proved to be passionate about the well-being of girls by as she went on to feature on Girls like us, a motivational talk at St Catherine’s High School formed by socialite, Miss Kiva, in 2016.
Girls like us is a project that sensitises girls about their transition to womanhood and focusses on individuals at the ages of 15 up to 17 years old.
Miss Kiva said Akua left her pollen on the local girls, when she delivered a talk at St Catherine’s High School.
Relating their meeting, Miss Kiva said it was intriguing to have the renowned artiste envy African girls like she did.
“She was so in touch and intrigued by the African culture, how she studied it and how it influenced her as a woman,” Miss Kiva said.
“Her talk last time was centered on letting young girls know how fortunate they were to be born in Africa, and what was out there.
“And the importance of understanding the power of intuition from understanding our culture and pushing towards girls to unite, which was the topic, helping girls move away from girl to girl hate, and making them understand the need to channel their energy to focus on building instead of breaking relationships.”
She said the talk motivated multitudes of girls and left an evident impact as they also appreciated her gesture to attend to them despite her status as a global icon.
“The girls were happy and felt privileged. I liked her curiosity to learn about women in Africa and our experiences. She’s been genuine and sincere. I also admire that,” she said.
One of the organisers of the trip, Bokang Nku, said the first time Akua was in the country, she fell in love and felt the need to come back.
“We had invited her with hopes to build the brand of our country,” he said adding that this time her trip would include a tour to Lesotho’s heritage sites while she would also have workshops with local artistes.
Akua is from New Haven, Connecticut in the United States of America where as a child she, she already wrote poetry and gained first experiences as an MC in the backyards of her hometown.
She has also lived in Philadelphia and New York while she has had stints in Asia and West Africa as a way of tracing her roots.
Akua’s art mixes rhythms African sounds with a jazz influence.
She is due to release her next album dubbed Blackest Joy, which she says was inspired by her tours of Africa.
On one of her Instagram posts, Akua writes: “After a year and a half of hard work!!! I am so proud to announce that my new album The Blackest Joy will be released on April 27th via Code Black.”
She said the album got inspired by countries like Togo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Brazil, Uganda, Lesotho and Kenya where she was “healed” while tracing her roots.
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