#14daysofchigogogo

DAY 1

#CHIGOGOGO

(Chichewa: Malawi’s main indigenous language)

translated #STRAIGHT TALK

Malawi is located in the S.E. Africa, surrounded by Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. She is known as the, "Warm Heart of Africa."

In the Spirit of the 2019 UN’s commitment to promoting and honouring indigenous languages, Black Pace & Patti decided to share 10 Chichewa words, beginning with CHI.

Fans spinning overhead, sipping coffee and water in Zanzibar’s celebrated, “Coffee House,” we begin to plan how to share the words we have chosen while on tour in Zanzibar and Tanzania. Yep..we are the spontaneous type, last minute planning with a limited budget always seems to lead us into adventure that deepens the experience of our initial intention.

Mwayi, "There is too much truth in that."

Patti in Stonetown at her favorite cafeine fix

Enjoy the different lenses through which we experienced each word while on tour as individuals coming from vastly unique perspectives and later when we return to Malawi !!! For those not fluent in Chichewa, try to guess what each word means without looking it up. We will let you know the translation at the end of each blog, well.... we are telling you the first one to just get things going!

CHIGOGOGO

Straight Talk gets SHIT DONE

Here is some of the SHIT we have got done in the last four seasons..

1) We recorded Malawi’s first female hiphop album inspired by Chief Kachindamoto who received the Hilary Clinton Vital Voices Award for ending childhood marriage in her district where she precides over 1 million Malawians.

123 Media with Producer Twin Beats, Kelvin Sings Afropop and R&B Artist and LP recording, "Back to My Roots," from the album Nkazi Moto (fire-women)

123 Media with Producer; Twin Beats, Kelvin Sings; Afropop and R&B, and BP recording, "Back to My Roots," from the album, "Nkazi Moto," (fire-women).

2) 2016-2019 organized fundraisers and awareness speaking gigs to support the Chief’s work.

3) In 2018 we travelled to Kenya together where BP offered a hip-hop leadership program informed by MIT’s, "U Theory," through internationally recognized, “Beyond Hoops Africa."

4)We continue to offer others an opportunity to connect and resource the local hiphop and fashion scene in Blantyre, Malawi and

5)Yep we are committed to keeping all indigenous languages alive and celebrated through our current tour. We also initiated a competition that invites Malawians to come up with some contemporary chichewa proverbs that enable everyone to face into a more positive future.

Its good to have lofty goals and then take small steps. Patti still wants to see an Olympic training facility in Nkhata Bay built to infuse greater economic opportunities in the North and YES to stop any further discussions and exploration of drilling on Lake Malawi, a world heritage site.

Prerequisite: You gotta have a commitment to something bigger than your own agenda and an absolute commitment to standing through the fire of differences with each other that inevitably arise.

(Patti is so done with the thinking that we are more alike than we are different. Maybe we are on an absolute basis but we are not living in the absolute. We are living in a VERY relative world and unless we can breath together at the intersection of those two worlds, the same SHIT happens over and over again.

We are interested in miracles moved through imagination, laughter and desire for things to get better for everyone. Honouring indigenous languages is a foundational ground for that magic to blast through to greatness! Let's Be Great!

Ok..enough serious shit..Let the FOTOS FLOW