“This movie looks amazing”, I thought, the first time I watched the trailer. It definitely caught my attention. The cast, the colours, the wardrobe… I can’t say I was left indifferent. And then the film came out. The excitement that ensued was palpable. Countless Twitter threads about the importance of Black Panther; an avalanche of think pieces about the narrative and how the African continent is being portrayed in the film… I didn’t come across a single bad review, a single negative comment. Okay, maybe a couple. But the general consensus seemed to be that Black Panther was the movie of the century, and the fact that it has just made over $1 billion worldwide is a pretty good indication of that. According to everyone, I just had to go and see it now. But here’s the thing… Continue reading “I did not go and see Black Panther at the cinema and here’s why”
Pregnancy is probably the most visible physical experience a woman can go through in her lifetime, yet at the same time the most personal. For some, so personal that the goal is to keep it under wraps for as long as possible. From conception to birth, the details, the ups, the downs, the aches and pains… the less is revealed the better. I am (or I have been) one of those women, to a certain extent. Culturally speaking this is how I’ve been raised and these are the beliefs my mother instilled in me. Where I’m from, pregnancy is as biological as it is spiritual. You’re taught to protect the life that is inside of you by revealing as little as possible about it. You’re told pregnancy is a private matter: the unborn baby is precious, and ‘hidden’ for a reason. And I’ve always embraced this way of thinking. 
À la Waïki 