Osama the Celebrity Chef talks to Farrah about dealing with fame and spices and herbs at the "spice academy" in Cairo.
Osama the Celebrity Chef talks to Farrah about dealing with fame and spices and herbs at the "spice academy" in Cairo.
(4 comments so far)
As an avid London lover of dancehall and reggae, the last thing I expected to hear when asking this fresh-faced northern Nigerian Osama what he loved was controversial artist "Beenie Man". It almost made me fall off my chair how immediately singing the lyrics "zim zimmer" united as as a cultural reference point!
The concept of Jamaica somehow importing beats back to West Africa after hundreds of years of separation from its roots strikes me as poignant - a kind of musical re-fertilisation. There was no mistaking this boys' dedication to dancehall as he stuck on one of his very own tunes under his stage name of Osama bin Music. With a finesse worthy of his own carnival soundsystem, Osama bin Music delivered his rhymes about riding round Kano ("K-town city!") in an imported car and picking up his "gyal dem suga" who is dressed gorgeously, as if for the annual Eid procession led by the Emir of Kano! Check him out -I still can't get the chorus out of my head: "C'mon everybody let's groove on!"
(3 comments so far)
Last Friday we found an Osama with truly stellar credentials - Dr Usama Hassan, whom we met at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich before heading down to Leyton mosque where he serves as Imam. Highlights of our day with Dr Hassan included ancient telescopes, astrolabes and talk of celestial phenomena. I left gorgeous Greenwich with its soaring views over London feeling inspired and promised myself I'd pay more attention to the heavens in future. I wonder how different the starry sky will look from our next destination across the world?
(6 comments so far)
