We are pleased to inform you that FREE TICKETS are now available for Our AFRICA4U AWARDS FOR AFRICANS AND CARIBBEANS LIVING IN WEST YORKSHIRE taking place on FRIDAY THE 12TH OF MAY 2023 (5PM) at The City Library in Bradford West Yorkshire.
Come and be part of an amazing celebration of Inspiration talks, African & Caribbean history , performances , networking, free refreshments and award Recognitions of community heroes making a difference every day .
KEY SPEAKERS INCLUDE
Ismael Lea South – DIRECTOR OF THE SALAM PROJECT – BASED IN MANCHESTER
Linda Johnson — PAN AFRICAN COMMUNITY ADVOCATE – BASED IN HUDDERSFIELD
COMING SOON ON THE TONY TOKUNBO FERNANDEZ SHOW – INTERVIEW WITH MULTIPLE AWARD WINING AUTHOR – TOLU AKINYEMI
INFORMATION ABOUT TOLU CAN BE FOUND BELOW – THIS IS A SHOW YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO MISS
Tolu’ A. Akinyemi (also known as Tolutoludo & the Lion of Newcastle) is a multiple award-winning author in the genres of poetry, short stories, children’s literature, and essays.
His works include Dead Lions Don’t Roar (poetry, 2017); Unravel Your Hidden Gems (essays, 2018); Dead Dogs Don’t Bark (poetry, 2018); Dead Cats Don’t Meow (poetry, 2019); Never Play Games With the Devil (poetry, 2019); Inferno of Silence (short stories, 2020); A Booktiful Love (poetry, 2020); Black ≠ Inferior (poetry, 2021); Never Marry a Writer (poetry, 2021); Everybody Don Kolomental (poetry, 2021); I Wear Self-Confidence Like a Second Skin (children’s literature, 2021); I Am Not a Troublemaker (children’s literature, 2021); Born in Lockdown (poetry, 2021); A god in a Human Body (poetry, 2022); If You Have To Be Anything, Be Kind (children’s literature, 2022); City of Lost Memories, (poetry, 2022); Awaken Your Inner Lion, (essays, 2022); On The Train To Hell, (poetry, 2022); You Need More Than Dreams (poetry, 2023); and The Morning Cloud is Empty (poetry, 2023).
A former headline act at Great Northern Slam, Havering Literary Festival, Crossing The Tyne Festival, and Feltonbury Arts and Music Festival, he also inspires large audiences through spoken word performances and has appeared as a keynote speaker in major forums and events. He facilitates creative writing master classes for many audiences.
His poems have appeared (or are forthcoming) in the 57th issue (Volume 15, No. 1) of the Wilderness House Literary Review; The Writers Cafe Magazine Issue 18; GN Books; Lion and Lilac; Agape Review; Continue the Voice; My Woven Poetry; Black Moon Magazine; Calla Press; African Writer Magazine; Football in Poetry 2 Anthology; and elsewhere.
His poems have been translated into Greek.
He was appointed as a columnist for 2022 in Malimbe Magazine (Malimbe is the official in-flight magazine of several Nigerian Airlines, including Arik Air, Aero Contractors, Dana Air, and Bristow). Their monthly edition has a readership coverage of 500,000 readers on over 1,600 flights connecting 30 plus cities.
His books are based on a deep reality and often reflect relationships and life, featuring people he has met in his journey as a writer. His books have inspired many people to improve their performances and/or their circumstances. Tolu’ has taken his poetry to the stage, performing his written word at many events. Through his writing and these performances, he supports business leaders, other aspiring authors, and people of all ages who are interested in reading and writing. Sales of the books have allowed Tolu’ donate to charity, allowing him to make a difference where he feels it’s important and showing that he lives by the words he puts to page.
He is a co-founder of Lion and Lilac, a UK-based arts organisation, and sits on the board of many organisations.
Tolu’ is a financial crime compliance consultant as well as a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) with extensive experience working with leading investment banks and consultancy firms.
He is a trained economist from Ekiti State University, formerly known as University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD).
He sat for his master’s degree in Accounting and Financial Management at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom.
Tolu’ was a student ambassador at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, representing the university in major forums and engaging with young people during various assignments.
Tolu’ Akinyemi was born in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria and lives in the United Kingdom. Tolu’ is an ardent supporter of Chelsea Football Club in London.
You can connect with Tolu’ on his various social media accounts:
Tee dot Tee is a Bradford Musician and poet who is currently mentored and managed by the amazing Kath Canoville. He was formerly known by other aliases “Lil T” and “Asher T” when he first started out as a Grime Artist.
Over the years, this amazing Bradford artist has evolved into a profound musician who uses both melodics and rap in a range of genres, straying from the genre conformity
My name is Adefaratoluwa Adefestac Osindero Olutimehin, CEO, of Clevenard Global International Limited (Nigeria) and Clevenard Limited (United Kingdom) a native of Ode Remo in Ogun State, Nigeria. currently residing in Palma De Mallorca Balearic Islands, Spain.
I was born in January 1977 into the “Osindero” family and grow up at Itire, located in Surulere on the mainland of Lagos Nigeria.
My Reason for Being In the media business.
Back then as Clevenard Farm Foods Limited, we dealt with farm produce exportation from Nigeria to the United Kingdom and the main challenge was getting customers for our imported farm products, such as Clevenard Ofada Rice, Beans, Moringa, etc.
As we deployed several marketing channels to achieve our target, we discovered that the most effective approach, which is the use of social media in scaling was not sustainable due to ROI on our conventional strategy.
We also discovered that Africans our target segment of the market can be better reached in a clustered form rather than spread across western social platforms.
Further research into the behavior and buying patterns of Africans, it was realized that we Africans have our ways of presenting our products and services in a unique form different from the terms and conditions of some western social platforms.
As the drive to reach and understand African markets is on the rise, every organization with products and services for offerings is exploring cost-effective means of delivering their products and services with the utmost customer service experience.
Clevenard services and Marketers seamlessly deliver just that by opening the doors into Africa and Africans in diaspora businesses.
MY STORY
Over a decade ago, I ventured into the importation business from Nigeria to Europe, the United Kingdom to be precise. I started by visiting a lot of African small and big food shops in London to market my products.
It even got to a stage when I was begging retailers to accept my products in their shops. They eventually agreed to on credit but in the end, it always led to total loss of both my products and money.
Then I had to think, “what was I doing wrong, what exactly was I not doing right, and who exactly was my target audience?
And I got an answer.
My findings include the following:
1. I am not the only African that has the problem of selling African products or services and running at a loss. I discovered that it is a general problem for Africans in the diaspora.
2. I acknowledged that African countries and Africans in diaspora use social media to stay connected with friends and family, to know what is going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.
3. It is also a known fact that African communities in the diaspora are spread across the world and that we do not have any business or marketing social platform in Africa or the diaspora.
4. I discovered that the unavailability of a single platform to tell our stories or sell our own products or services, not to talk of having a voice in the diaspora when it comes to the commonwealth is our huge disadvantage.
All these reasons gave me the push to come up with an approach where companies working in Africa and the diaspora can overcome the business challenges they face and drive cross-sector growth for the benefit of all.
Conclusively, this vision is borne to deliver a unique one-stop advice service platform, connecting clients to the best business services available at home and in the diaspora.
Now you know why I come up with the idea of creating Clevenard Marketing and a social platform.
Now you also know Why Africa and Africans need their Internet social media and Business platforms (Clevenard).
It is no longer news that some of the shopping service online today is ignoring the African market despite the internet growth of over 10 815% from 2000 to 2020 compared to 88% of the rest of the world.
I strongly believe that it is time we, Africans build our platforms for more prosperous business networking.
I remain your business and networking gap bridger Adefaratoluwa Osindero Olutimehin.
Singer songwriter at Limpopo Groove and a radio presenter on the Berkshire Culture Connect on B Radio.
Born in the Lowvelds of Zimbabwe in a small town called Chiredzi.
I grew up in a sugar estate, Hippo Valley just outside Chiredzi in Masvingo province.
Growing up I enjoyed playing outside just like most kids in Africa, all we knew was playing group games like football, traditional music gathering and hide and seek etc .
At around 8 years old, I developed a passion in creating music and getting involved in school dramas and anything that had an element of performance.
I found myself involved in formations of youth bands and musical ensembles which then took me on a tour to South Africa in my youth age
Drums became my first love and I soon found myself being asked to record with some of the top bands in Zimbabwe .
I played on some of the monster hits and featured on some most popular videos during my time in Zimbabwe
Fast forward to my time in England still involved in music production and now radio .I am passionate about community building and integration given how broken the communities are , people from different places leaving in their small pockets and not learning from each other’s rich background.
I formed a band that mirrors my passion and I also run a football team called Sanctuary Strikers a platform that is giving Asylum seekers and refugees a platform to play football, make friends, integrate, learn to speak English and build their confidence to navigate Reading/Berkshire.
BRADFORD BORN ANTHONY PELTIER will be one of the recipients of THE AFRICA4U AWARDS FOR AFRICANS AND CARIBBEANS IN WEST YORKSHIRE taking place at THE CITY LIBRARY IN BRADFORD on Friday the 12th of May at 5pm . Information about him can be found below
INFORMATION ABOUT MR ANTHONY PELTIER CAN BE FOUND BELOW
BRADFORD BORN ANTHONY PELTIER WILL BE A KEY SPEAKER AT OUR BLACK HISTORY CELEBRATIONS DUE TO TAKE PLACE THIS MONTH.
INFORMATION ABOUT ANTHONY CAN BE FOUND BELOW
Born and raised in Buttershaw in the 1960’s, Anthony has returned to Bradford to be part of the change needed to prevent the knife crime epidemic, which continues to affect many cities across the United Kingdom. Anthony is an accomplished Headteacher with 42 years experience in education with the last 20 years in school leadership.
Anthony has had four successful primary headships both in London and Birmingham. His Executive Headship of four secondary alternative provisions (PRUs) in Southeast London was the most challenging and rewarding. By building trust with disengaged young people and establishing collaborative working practices with statutory settings, Anthony created learning opportunities for some of Southwark’s permanently excluded young people who were at risk of crime and youth violence.
Anthony is an OFSTED-trained inspector, having achieved his NPQSI (National Professional Qualification for School Inspectors) in 2015. After receiving the Pride of Britain Award in 2002 for saving the life of a youth who had been stabbed in the heart, Anthony re-joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 2004. While policing the streets of London on evenings and weekends, he continued his work in education as a Headteacher because he believes working in these two integral public sector positions is the best place to work towards changing the mind-sets of young people.
Anthony is a Sociapreneur and change agent. As well as working to secure a cultural organisational change in all public sector and private sector organisations and institutions, Anthony uses his time to grow agents of change, young people who will develop the skills and attributes to influence and champion social change in their communities and networks. Anthony also continues to support Headteachers in his role as a School Improvement Advisor.
Anthony understands the plight of our black boys in schools. The achievement gap, the risk of Permanent exclusion, and the growing issues around mental health are all things he feels can be addressed through a collaborative working approach with parents, schools, pupils, and statutory agencies.
He believes people need to be honest about their responsibilities and be open to the fact that we cannot continue to lay all the blame on institutions and organisations for the failure of our black boys.
Anthony is the founder of Innovate for Growrh CIC, a social uplift company working towards creating change in our communities.
In 2020 when Anthony learned of Lynne Baird, founder of the Daniel Baird Foundation, and her work to have Bleed Control Kits in communities across the country, Anthony started his campaign to ensure all 32 London Councils had a Bleed Control strategy in place to support their communities. To date, 14 London councils have a Bleed Control Kit strategy in place. Later that year while working with a secondary PRU, Anthony spoke with a group of young people about why they thought so many young people choose to carry knives. He was astounded by the ridiculous reasons they gave. Sadly Anthony has also spoken with young people who have been victims of knife violence and perpetrators of knife crime. He found that none of the young people understood the implications of stabbing a human being. Their lack of understanding of the human body and the consequences of using a knife was clear. The next youth change education program was born – Bleed Control Education. Anthony continues to seek funders to support this vital program for schools and young people across the country.
BRADFORD BASED DARKA VISUALS – WEB DESIGNER, EVENTS MANAGER AND SONGWRITER will be one of the recipients of THE AFRICA4U AWARDS FOR AFRICANS AND CARIBBEANS IN WEST YORKSHIRE taking place at THE CITY LIBRARY IN BRADFORD on Friday the 12th of May at 5pm . Information about him can be found below
Short Bio:
I am a young black entrepreneur from Bradford West Yorkshire. At heart I am a creative in every sense of the word. I am a graphic designer, web designer, animation creator, song writer, music engineer and an events manager.
I founded, created and branded my own youth events organisation called Teen Scene Parties in 2018 to bridge the gap between local creatives/young entrepreneurs and to give a digitally native generation a voice when nobody else would. These events consist of emerging musicians performing alongside established musicians in a safe and secure environment. I have platformed a plethora of local and national artists, hired local creatives such as videographers and photographers, hired local stewards who use to be Teen Scene attendees but are now past our age limit so they have joined our team, and worked alongside other small businesses who provided necessary services for our events. I found it hard to establish my organisation in the corporate world due to a constant stigma surrounding my target audience and the lack of understanding surrounding our culture. This was nipped in the but around 2020 when I was introduced to Nick Greenan who is the head of cultural partnerships at the Bradford council. She then went on to introduce me to the new Mayor of West Yorkshire and the director of Bradford 2025. From our very first event we had the backing of our local authorities but now we also have the backing of our local council and the Bradford youth service. The organisation and our audience has continued to grown and we have continued to drive engagement into our city. Due to having guests travel from all surrounding towns/cities and as far as Scarborough and Birmingham we have decided to answer their request to take our organisation on tour and the first stop is Halifax.
In 2021 I also revived a family orientated event called Peoples Day at the Mapa Cultural arts centre in Bradford. This was created by my late mentor Mikey Roots and his band called creation roots. They struggled to find a place to practice and perform their music to an audience so they created their own event called Peoples Day and it helped establish musicians and small business owners from the Black community in Bradford from the late 80s to the early 2000’s. I basically went head on with this challenge with a retrofitted approach and brought and analogue event into a digital age introducing new digital branding, new social interaction, new musicians and new small businesses owners as well as incorporating my own youth organisation to celebrate our culture and heritage. Peoples Day 2021 was a huge success so I was asked to manage the 2022 event which was even better and I am considering taking it even further in 2023.
TONY TOKUNBO ETEKA FERNANDEZ 