Away Luxury Magazine 2nd Issue - Preview

VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 2

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CONTENTS Volume 1

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Issue 2

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10 LEADING TAKES ETHICS

52 THERE ARE NO TRICKS, JUST ART

92 PORT LOUIS

Joe Obiago, CEO and Chairman of Global Energy Company Ltd, enlightens us on what it means to be a new generation business man.

Wearing his heart on a very tailored sleeve, Joe talks about business and his passion: African art.

Jack Bell’s gallery does it again and shows in London yet another very successful African Photography collection, by the renowned artist Leonce Raphael Adodjelou.

Mauritius, Mauritius... you tempt us with the beaches, the food and the lush nature. We discover the Capital and find a perfect city destination.

60 A VERY UNPOPULAR CHOICE CAN GET YOU REWARDING RESULTS

100 THE LUXURY OF TEA

16 TIME TO INVEST IN AFRICA Sunderland Football Team went there and got the T-shirt. The message is clear, Tullow Oil is committing to investment in Africa and wants everyone to join with enthusiasm.

20 FIVE IS THE PERFECT NUMBER What a difference a day makes in the stock market. Imagine what kind of a change the past two very challenging years have brought to the Nigeria Stock Exchange. We find out during a conference coffee break, by speaking to its CEO: Oscar Onyema.

28 WILD ABOUT YOU -

Fashionable couples

Do you feel feline? Or perhaps flighty and colourful like a butterfly?

Be fun and unpredictable like a mesmerizing African wild animal, with the stunning couture of Ade Bakare.

40 EDITOR’s PICKS -

For elegant Ladies & Gentlemen

The shopping list you have been waiting for! Fashion Editor Judy Koloko scouts the pieces your wardrobe needs. Always front row at shows and in private jets to join celebrity parties around the globe, Judy knows what you need to wear.

44 A GLOBETROTTER’s FASHION MUST Jenni Button’s Spring Summer collection gives us the true essence of her creative vision. Luxurious fabrics and shapes that emphasize femininity.

48 WHO’s THAT GIRL? The name to remember is Julia Sarr Jamois. Stylist,editor and model, meet the French-Senegalese girl who is going places.

50 AFRICAN PRIDE Perception is changing, Onyekachi Nwanoku takes a look at how the media is getting interested in Africa, finally.

We discover the beauty of the double-bass with an inspiring interview to Chi-Chi Nwanoku MBE, principal bassist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

64 GARY STEPHENS: OPEN TO ANKARA The American artist based in South Africa talks about his latest show, which fascinates us with its strong West African influence.

68 THE ALBUM WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

Make mine special. A truly African brand is brewing up an exquisite Tea, “Or des Anges” is a fusion of rare peony white tea and 22 carat edible gold.

104 AN INSPIRED RECIPE From our resident Chef, follow his practical recipe for Soy-Lime Marinated Tataki of Atlantic Bonito with fennel salad and yuka chips.

After two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards, Lemar is going to charm us all again with his latest album “Invincible”.

108 FORMULA 1: THE NEW SPORT OF KINGS?

70 IN CONVERSATION WITH BEN OKRI

After a very successful 2012 F1 is hoping to keep the momentum going in 2013, but who will have the best ride? Stuart Winder reports.

Spotlight on the foremost African poet and novelist and his opinions on spirituality, writing and inspiration.

114 MERCEDES ML 350 BLUETEC A:L engines expert Kayode Benedict takes the new Mercedes on the road and has a few things to say…

74 PEARLS OF STYLE

122 HAVE IT YOUR WAY, AFRICA!

Icons of fashion and style have inspired with their words this photo shoot, which celebrates the Pearl, an absolute must for every Lady.

A spectacular yacht for lovers of sophistication and glam specifications.

82 REAPING THE WHIRLWIND .. and what is a gentleman’s sign of distinction? A watch, of course.

We take a look at the most exciting time pieces for the season.

128 BACK TO YOUR BEST

88 SLYDE RULE

Between 70% to 85% of the population suffers at some point in their life of back pain. The road to recovery is long but here are some easy exercises to keep your back healthy.

With incredible futuristic mechanisms and a body to match, Slyde is the timepiece for very adventurous men.

135 SPOILER ALERT!

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Finding out about the future of your revenues can be fun, just ask the stars. Your financial horoscope from January to March 2013

by K.Joya.

prosper

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Joe Obiago

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style

Be ferociously stylish - Think Couture!

Photographed by Michael Szelest.

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Short silk strap dress with reflective 7 gold | discs, Ade Bakare Couture, ÂŁ750

style

JET, SET, GO!

A GLOBETROTTER’S FASHION MUST The foremost South African designer Jenni Button is charming us all for the Spring Summer season with a collection inspired by the golden dunes of Morocco, white Bedouin tents, glass mosaics and soft silk curtains blowing in the breeze of a Marrakesh Summer.

Celebrating glamour and travel, the Summer of 2013 collection is designed for the globetrotting independent woman Jenni admires so much.

The suits are feminine but charged of that feminine power we love to rock at meetings.

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culture

THERE ARE NO TRICKS, just | 10

ART

NOTHING CAN BE MORE CONTEMPORARY THAN THE ART OF SHOOTING IN MEDIUM FORMAT FILM USING NATURAL LIGHT.

Cecilia Zoppelletto LONDON

PORTO-NOVO

11 gallery | Jack Bell in his

culture

A VERY UNPOPULAR CHOICE CAN GET YOU REWARDING RESULTS. TRYING THE MOST CUMBERSOME ROUTE IN A CLASSICAL ORCHESTRA AND SUCCEEDING.

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Cecilia Zoppelletto

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LONDON

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Judy Koloko

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LONDON

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aving been one of the most successful British across over the last two years.” solo artists in the last decade, October 8th 2012 saw the release of Lemar’s long awaited album, Lemar will be doing a small series of gigs to celebrate the “Invincible”. release of his new album and to celebrate the last 10 years of his career. He is looking forward to the shows and enthuses The 34-year-old has won two Brit awards and three MOBO that “these run of gigs will be a nice welcome back to the (Music of Black Origin) awards. He has sold over seven road. Can’t wait to get back in front of the people and party. top 10 singles and over two million albums. In the last few It is going to be amazing fun.” years he has shared the stage with everyone from Beyonce, Lionel Ritchie and Enrique Iglesias to Usher, Mary J Blige This will be Lemar’s sixth album, his first full-length featuring and Justin Timberlake. Now the world watches as Lemar new material since his fourth album ‘The Reason’ in 2008 solidifies himself as a household name. (his fifth, in 2010, was a greatest hits package). The reason behind the wait was simply “a break,” he tells me. Lemar Lemar Obika was born in Tottenham, North London in felt he had ticked off nearly everything on his music “to do England, to Nigerian parents from Enugu State in South list”. He laments, “I’ve won awards, I’ve performed on some East Nigeria. From a young age singing was a passion and incredible tours, played at all the big arenas, I’ve done almost he and his brother and sisters would pretend to be the everything I needed and wanted to do. I was just looking for Jackson 5. that next step and I didn’t want to be doing music just for doing it sake. If I had put out an album then, it would have I met Lemar many years ago at my brother’s house that he been more to ‘stay on the proverbial bike’ so to speak. Maybe shared with a friend. My brother’s friend had made one of another good thing that taking a break allowed me to do is his rooms into a tiny studio; I remember going there and realise who I am and where I am.” seeing, or rather hearing Lemar sing. This soon became a thing of the norm; I remember him being a very beautiful Lemar has witnessed firsthand the fast moving changes of man, yet at the same time quite a humble being with the the industry. He analyses that, “The way people listen to, most mesmerising of voices. This amazing voice would buy and interact with music has changed phenomenally, travel through the house sending shivers down my back especially with the Internet. The way the fans can now at times. I was told he had got signed, dropped, and interact with you; how people see music and what the value gone back to work in a bank. However, it was a few of music is now; the value of good live performances. It’s all years later when I tuned into a new series that had been turned on its head.” started on BBC 1 called ‘Fame Academy’. Another one of those reality shows, I remembered thinking to With no pressures and no deadline to meet, Lemar was able myself. Then I noticed a familiar face amongst the to take time out and indulge in his creative side like never contestants - Lemar. I believe he should have won before. Fans of his previous albums will know it has definitely that show, but I am sure Lemar was pretty happy been worth the wait. It is a mix of R&B, dance and pop. It is with third place. Even though he had been singing a natural evolution from the fourth album. Lemar has grown for years, this show definitely put him on the in many areas of his life, including relationships and he map. It also paved the way for many successful believes this album is a good reflection of that. pop and soul R&B artists of today.

At the same time he has seen how society has changed In the past few years there have been some since he was growing up and he advises that young black great changes in his life, the greatest being the boys growing up today should, “Stay Positive and be a great birth of his daughter - Nyiema Obika. Lemar example of excellence in every opportunity you’re given. says, “It’s great having little ones. They love Your best is more than enough.” you unconditionally and give you a new energy and drive. I definitely feel more focused!”

Lemar is of African origin and although he feels he does not travel there often enough, he says whenever he gets the He definitely has been focused. Alongside being chance to he does. “I love the food, the people, the weather, a father, Lemar has spent the last few years the music... It’s always a great experience and I am very writing. For some time he was writing with other proud of my heritage.” artists in mind, however, he says, “I was doing that for a while and every so often, I‘d write a Well known for how relaxed he is about his fame and song which didn’t sound like it was for anyone else, anybody that knows him personally would tell you the same. it sounded like me, I thought... let me have a few What the man himself considers one of his luxuries is - “Time conversations with people close to me and see what off.” he says, “I don’t get much down time so when I do I they think of them, and the feeling was unanimous treasure it.” people saying, “this stuff is really good, maybe you should put out another record.”

Talking of treasures, Lemar says, “In the past I’ve spent probably a bit too lavishly on gifts - clothes, jewellery.

When asked where the inspiration came from for the I won’t say who or what exactly.” new album, Lemar explains: “I think no matter where you come from, at the core of it all we are all very much the It is hard to imagine Lemar splurging on extravagant same and want the same things. Songs that speak about all shopping excursions. His demeanour is humble as he omits the things we secretly think about, or want to say or do, a wisdom seen in few. It is clear that Lemar’s priorities are are always very effective. So this album is inspired by my shifting. At the centre of his focus along with his music, is his 15 | personal life and the lives and stories of people I’ve come beloved family. /

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treasure

REAPING THE WHIRLWIND

Frack | 18Muller Aeternitas Mega’s movement

It’s the new year and time to add to your watch collection. What will it be? Something innovative? Something to start the new year as you mean to go on.

Let’s give you some inspiration to put some serious, serious hardware on your wrist.

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enturies of ground breaking technologies are packed into even the simplest timepiece; but the real feats of engineering are those invented in 1795.

A ‘tourbillon’ is french for whirlwind, and in horologie, it is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement. Developed in 1795 by the French-Swiss watchmaker, Abraham Louis Breguet, the tourbillon aimed to counter the effects of gravity by mounting the escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage.

Defying gravity renders the timepiece with higher accuracy than the conventional movements; and to own a piece of technology that started life in the 1700s with Breguet producing the first tourbillon in one of Napoleon’s carriage clocks, the pedigree cannot get any higher.

First on our list is the ground breaking Freak. In 2001, the Swiss watch house Ulysse Nardin launched the Freak Blue Phantom.

It caused a sensation among watch enthusiasts. The ‘Carrousel-Tourbillon’ and the ‘Dual Direct Escapement’ were innovations never seen before. The Freak lacks a dial or even hands - the case itself is part of the movement and the components were assembled to mimic the hour and minute hands. It is considered by many to be the first of modern haute horologie watches.

Ulysse Nardin Freak Blue Phantom • • • • • •

v44.5mm 18K white gold case Caliber UN-202, 13 ¾ Dual Escapement in silicium Anti-reflective sapphire crystal front, sapphire crystal back 7 day power reserve Alligator leather strap with folding buckle

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engines

Formula 1 The New Sport of Kings?

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Stuart Winder profiles the most glamorous sport on the planet and looks back at a golden year for F1, whilst hoping for more of the same in 2013...

n recent years, some commentators – mostly those with little or no knowledge of the workings of Formula 1 – have levelled criticism at the Sport for being somewhat less exciting than it may otherwise have been. Indeed, the word ‘procession’ was often used to describe events.

As you can probably tell, I’d disagree strongly with such sentiments.

Travelling inches from the tarmac as it races past at almost 320km/h, and where the merest tweak of the steering wheel can ruin a lap at best, or a race / career / life at worst, can never be considered a procession. Formula 1 always has been the pinnacle of motorsport, attracting the great and the good to the stands, the brightest and best brains to the paddock, and the coolest, most talented racers to the cockpits.

One can’t help sensing that some of these detractors would rather return to the days where barely a race passed without a young and talented driver dying in a ditch, having careered off the unprotected track. In fact, the first year a season was completed without fatalities wasn’t until the mid-70s. Thankfully, since the tragic and untimely passing of Ayrton Senna in 1994, there have been no deaths in F1, and far fewer serious injuries than some of the accidents and incidents in the average season would lead you to expect.

The closest to a ’procession’ in F1 being the last time it graced the shores of the United States of America; the disastrous Indianapolis Grand Prix in 2005, where seven teams boycotted the race over a disagreement about the layout of the track and the associated safety concerns, leaving six cars to ‘race’ whilst 100,000 spectators booed and threw bottles on to the circuit. The return to the USA for the 2012 season at Austin, Texas, could not have been further from the last visit as a spectacle, providing much excitement and the chance for Sebastian Vettel to make history, becoming one of only three drivers ever to win three consecutive world championships.

In the end, the battle for the title lasted until the latter stages of the final race on the calendar in Brazil, giving neutral fans the perfect end to a most enjoyably enthralling season.

I don’t think many viewers doubted that Vettel would make it three in a row, with his team Red Bull seemingly - for the greater part of the season at least - one step ahead of their main rivals Ferrari and McLaren ( two steps ahead of Ferrari, some would say) in the technological stakes.

© RED BULL RACING

So perhaps it was more surprising then that the main challenge to Vettel’s imperiousness came from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (also in line for a third title), who seems to be competitive in whatever car he drives, rather than the two former recent champions occupying the seats at McLaren in the form of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, both of who’s patchy form and just plain bad luck in both mechanical and racing incident arenas, put paid to any hopes of reaching the top spot again for another season. F1 is the sport where the fusion of man and machine is most palpable, but it is a sport, so the best man in the best car doesn’t always win.

Much of Red Bull’s dominance over the past few years is due to the technical brilliance of their Design Head, Adrian Newey OBE, the only engineer to ever win championships with three different teams, and the universally agreed brightest brain in the sport. Newey is the only designer to still start the process by sitting down at a draughtsman’s table to hand draw the car, somewhat of a relic in these days of computer designed everything. Maybe that hands-on feel is where his advantage lay. He is also capable of driving these ultimate speed machines, something very few of us onlookers could

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