A Black British Girl's Perspective of a Global Village
A visit to see my cousin Rita in Amsterdam lead to us checking out Kwaku Summer Festival over a weekend. It was a beautiful display of African, and African-inspired Asian culture (who knew Indonesian music could sound like Ghanaian High-Life?)! Yes, Kwaku is a Ghanaian name for 'born on Wednesday', however this event is organised... Continue Reading →
When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade We've braved the belly of the beast We've learned that quiet isn't always peace And the norms and notions of what just is Isn't always just-ice And yet the dawn is... Continue Reading →
Despite my passion for travel and a second hat as a travel journalist, Greece hadn’t yet made its way on my ‘been there, done that’ list. Prior to this trip my nearest connection to the host country of the first modern-day Olympics back in 1896, was a short-lived stay on Greek Street (London). 15 years... Continue Reading →
I woke up yesterday to a WhatsApp message from my cousin Rae "looking great on my Twitter feed cuz!" What nice surprise, I thought. I hadn't heard from Rae in while. I clicked on the click to be sure of what she was referring to. I have to admit my social media presence fizzled away... Continue Reading →
After months of being cooped up indoors, nothing quite says 'post-lockdown' like the Eat Out to Help Out scheme being rolled out throughout the UK from today !... Looks like I'll be eating my way outta of the lockdown blues! From 3 to 31 August, get a 50% discount when you eat in at restaurants... Continue Reading →
As London begins to ease lockdown restrictions, and the capital slowly opens up again, TFL (Transport for London) is encouraging us to find new ways of travelling if London is to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Taking a trip down memory lane to when I lead a guided tour through Jamestown and Otublohum with a few international friends who took me up on the offer to learn more about what remains of the Tabom community (descendants of Afro-Brazilian returnees) in Accra, Ghana. The Year of Return was perhaps Ghana's biggest PR... Continue Reading →
Brazil's Black Queer scene is a beautiful act of resistance... See for yourself - meet the Afrobapho collective!
I don't think any of us could have envisioned 2020 the way it has paned out. A global pandemic (COVID-19) brought the world to a standstill, while the Black Lives Matter protests march through our cities demanding an end to police brutality and systematic racism. The brutal killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a police... Continue Reading →
2019 has been dubbed 'The Year of Return' by Ghana's Tourism Board who's campaign to acknowledge 400 years since the first Trans-Atlantic slave ships left its shores for North America (Virginia), has attracted the Black Diaspora - particularly those from North America, to visit Ghana. The Year of Return is particularly symbolic in my journey... Continue Reading →
Is it's possible to have more than one spirit place?... That place where your soul feels completely as one with your mind and body. It's as if you're on familiar territory; perhaps from a previous encounter, perhaps from a previous life... That feeling usually comes to me when I'm by the sea and was especially... Continue Reading →
If you've ever visited Brazil, there's one thing you would have noticed - hardly anyone speaks English, or at least it can feel that way at times. If it comes as a surprise, shock or irritation - it's time to recognise your 'English as a first language' privilege... Need a guilt-free way to use that privilege... Continue Reading →
Medellín, Colombia is famous for so many things - Pablo Escobar, city of Eternal Spring, surrounding coffee growing regions, amazing mountain top views... And it's latest arrival - Afro~Vibes! Staying true to my mission to highlight the often unseen 'Blackness' of Colombia, a stop over in Medellín gave me an opportunity to interview Marian Valoyes... Continue Reading →
How Stella Got Her Groove Back is one of my all-time favourite films! On many levels I can relate to Stella (played by the amazing Angela Bassett); a forty-something, highly successful corporate black woman from San Francisco who is persuaded by her friend to take a well deserved, first-class vacation to Jamaica in an attempt... Continue Reading →
Finding my roots in Brazil Part of understanding who my Tabom ancestors were, and subsequently who I am, includes unravelling the past events which lead to them fleeing Brazil for their freedom back to West Africa... To be back in Bahia, in 2019 - The Year of Return - on the date of the... Continue Reading →
"First of all, I need to say the word fat is alright. I prefer to be called fat..." As fat phobia continues to marginalise and discriminate, this body positive Brazilian model and influencer tells why it's ok to call her fat. Meet Bianca Guirgel...Watch the short video interview 👇🏾https://youtu.be/du-M-AwI86w Bianca wears: Aline Vito dress and Boutique de... Continue Reading →
Fridays are great for so many reasons - the start of the weekend and also an opportunity to #FlashbackFriday and share some amazing moments I might have missed out on sharing on this blog... Take this 'Another Travelmakerkai Experience' in Mombasa, Kenya for example. Let's flash back to January 2017, I happened to have... Continue Reading →
So I took my own advice and found myself heading to Stanstead airport last Saturday to czech-in for a flight to the Czech Republic... And no, it wasn't to Prague this time.
I wrote this article back in 2017 for TimeOut's My London Story segment however it never got published. So here's my London Story on Diversity Matters...
Travelmaker Kai 