Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another packed issue of Zen. 2013 has been an incredible year for us that I feel so privileged to have witnessed every single moment from start to finish. There are no holidays when you are a magazine either online or print so let’s get into what’s happening this December. On our cover this month features an incredible sportsman and humanitarian whose passion for charity and community service inspired him to start his foundation back in 2007 to give back to underprivileged kids in North America and across Africa. Born in Lagos, Nigeria back in the 80’s, Israel Idonije is a Nigerian-Canadian defensive player for the Detroit Lions in the National Football League (NFL) in America. This month, we sit down with the sport star to talk about what inspired him to start his foundation “The Israel Idonije Foundation”, and how it feels to be playing for the Detroit Lions. We rarely see sportsmen on our covers so it is a great feeling to have Israel Idonije grace our cover this month.
We had the pleasure of doing an amazing article that will go down in history as 1 of the first articles to ever document inspirational quotes from African born designers. This month, 20 of the coolest designers in the world, each born in Africa, share with us their most inspirational quotes and a shot from their best collection ever made. It took us 2 weeks to gather all the data and I must tell you, it wasn’t easy getting 20 busy designers who are presently attending to Christmas orders to find 30mins to just say a few words and I don’t blame them one bit. Each designer in this piece is an ambassador for not just African fashion, but for fashion in general. They love creating fashion and we want our readers to buy into their quality products.
When it comes to beauty, what makes you feel sexy? We ask Gambian model, Regina Manneh, CEO Dancers star dancer from South Africa, Nqobilé Ntshangase, plus-size model, Donna Summers and Zambia music group ZONE FAM on what’s sexy for December and what’s on their Christmas wishlist.
Finally, we are pleased and honoured to share with you all our Top 10 Women of the Year list starring, Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, Bisila Bokoko, MacDella Cooper, Linda Ikeji, Lupita Nyong’o and 5 other remarkable women. It’s a feature filled with inspirational African women and they are the ladies inspiring millions daily. Find out who the 5 other women are and I can tell you, we have 2 from South Africa.
At this time, I would like to take a moment to thank our entire team for their hard work and dedication. To all our media partners and friends in 360nobs.com, Jaguda.com, Bella Naija, Olori SuperGal, Cut from a Different Cloth, Africa fashion Week Los Angeles, and African Fashion Week New York respectively, Africa Fashion Day Berlin, The GUBA Awards, The Bisila Bokoko African Literacy Project, and to all the blogs and to everyone who has being part of this journey, I would like to say thank you so much for every moment shared. We hope our contents continue to inspire you and we would love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me with any amazing ideas that we may profile in the future. Have an amazing Christmas and see you next month!
Photography by Gavin Smith Photography Studio.