H.O.N Weekly : Your Weekly Roundup of Trending News

Welcome (back) to H.O.N Weekly, your weekly roundup of the top lifestyle, current affairs and enter/edutainment trending this week.

Nicholle Kobi’s illustration of the upcoming animated series on Africa queens. Nicholle Kobi Instagram.

1. COVID-19: is South Africa losing the battle against COVID-19?

After what seems like a great start at managing the pandemic, South Africa is unfortunately now ranking 5^th worldwide, on an international COVID-19 chart. Cases in the country are spiraling, despite a strong involvement of the government. The country was first praised by the WHO for its early strict measures and national testing program . What went wrong then? According to an opinion piece published in Quartz Africa, it’s because South African’s leaders want to emulate the” First world” while it is a country being ‘both first and third world”. The article points out to a capacity problem to correctly execute the wide-scaling testing initiative, elitism and exceptionalism views. (Source : Quartz Africa)

2. Edutainments: Artist Nicholle Kobi teams up with Erick Barmack to bring animated African queens’ series to life

French Artist and illustrator Nicholle Kobi, known for her empowering illustrations of black women on social media, is teaming up with Erick Barmack, a former Netflix executive, who is credited with overseeing the streaming giant ‘s game-changing drive into production around the world, on the production of “Queens” a high-concept, stylish animated series about six extraordinary real-life African queens. They will mesh real-life events ranging over thousands of years of history and authenticated by historians with a dash of magic and, as the series’ central visual look, Kobi’s character art. The pair is working on another animated project, a series called ‘La femme noire’ for BET. The series will feature stories of Queen Amanirenas of Kush (Ex-Sudan), Queen Nandi the mother of Shaka Zulu (South Africa) and Queen Amina of Zaria (Nigeria) among others. While waiting for the series learn more about these amazing African queens here. (Source : Variety)

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Bonjour!!! Ready for Queens animations series ? Ready for « La Femme Noire » animations series? Coming soon… #bet #netflix #nichollekobi @variety for this great article!!

A post shared by Nicholle Kobi (@nichollekobi) on Jul 24, 2020 at 8:57am PDT

3. Tech/business: The faces of startups in Kenya

An info-graphic of start-ups in Kenya has been making the rounds on social media and causing a stir because it is revealing the demographic of start-ups founders : they are mostly whites. Unlike South Africa and Nigeria, (along with Kenya, these countries make up the three most-funded start-ups hubs in sub-Saharan Africa), expats founders are more likely to be funded more than locals.

As per data compiled by WeeTracker, Kenya-based start-ups raised a total of USD 428.9 Million in total disclosed funding deals recorded in 2019. Expat-founded start-ups were the recipients of 87.8 percent of that sum, raking in a staggering USD 376.7 Million. (Source Weetracker.com /digest Africa)

4. Viral/US Politics: Watch US presentative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brilliantly shut down misogynistic slurs

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is often referred to by her initials AOC, is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district. AOC is fearless and outspoken while defending her points of view. Earlier this week, she reportedly was accosted and called a ‘fucking bitch’ by a republican congressman, Ted Yoho. Watch belowAOC’s poignant and classy response, a real masterclass in standing up to your bullies and handling misogynistic bullies in the workplace or elsewhere. Her speech has stricken a chord with many women across the world, as the majority of us have, one way or another, had to deal with such mistreatment. Watch the full speech here. (Source: HuffPost)

5. Music : Aya Nakamura is the most listened to French singer

According to Spotify’s world ranking, artist Aya Nakamura is the “most listened to” French singer. She is ranked 288th, in particular thanks to her massive hits like “Djadja”, “Pookie” or “Copines”. With 13 million monthly listeners, Aya is way ahead of the other top 3 most successful French artists on the platform, the rappers Jul (3.3 million per month), Booba (2.3 million) and the duo PNL (2 million). Of Malian descent, Aya has been dominating the French airwaves and international festivals with her unique blend of French pop and afro-inspired beats. Unfortunately, Aya is regularly the target of cyber-bullying and frequent racist attacks highlighting the issues faced by black women in the show-business (misogynoir). Allez Aya! (Go Ava!). (Source Web24.news)