All things considered, it’s been an incredible year for books from the African continent and diaspora. Senegalese writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr won the Prix Goncourt, the biggest prize in French writing, for The Most Secret Memory Of Men. South African Damon Galgut took home The Booker Prize for The Promise - beating fellow South African Karen Jennings and British-Somalian author Nadifa Mohamed.
And Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah trumped the lot, winning the Nobel Prize in October for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Was this recognition of African writing pure coincidence or an intentional, long overdue global appreciation of African literary prowess? An indication of changing reader tastes or a reflection of the demand for more variety and originality? Speaking at today’s World Conference on Creative Economy at Expo 2020 Dubai, Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, president of the International Publishers’ Association and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kalimat Group, argued that the answer is all of those things, but more complex and nuanced, too.
We need to mobilise the creative economy, not just to create more jobs, and financial opportunities, but most importantly to build more bridges and give a voice to untold stories
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi,
President of the International Publishers’ Association
“I see much more profound shifts happening,” she said. “I see a human family that is gradually making space for more diverse voices to be heard - I spend a lot of time interacting with readers from around the world and at every book fair and publishing event I've attended, I've observed a genuine desire to understand and embrace the other.”
Indeed, in a polarised age characterised by social, religious, political and ideological faultlines, Sheikha Bodour argued that the role of creatives and the creative economy isn’t just increasingly important, it should come with an inherent mission.
“We must hold our societies together through our mutual belief in the possibilities that live within books, songs, paintings, films, and other forms of culture,” she said. “We need to mobilise the creative economy, not just to create more jobs, and financial opportunities, but most importantly to build more bridges and give a voice to untold stories.”
Sheikha Bodour reminded delegates of widely-reported research by Washington and Lee University. It found that those who read just a snippet of Shaila Abdullah’s 2009 novel Saffron Dreams - about an educated and strong-willed Muslim woman - made fewer or no racial judgments when they were shown a selection of pictures of mixed-race faces afterwards.
“What an extraordinary example of the power of books to significantly reduce bias,” she said. “So can you imagine the impact on humanity if more multicultural books were widely available?
"I’m thrilled that growing scientific evidence is proving that books can transform us into more empathetic and accepting people - I know how profoundly moved I can be when I see the world through the eyes of others. It shifts my perspective, it gives me a unique opportunity to understand the realities and ambiguities of different people from different parts of the world.”
Of course, the key now is to mobilise these laudable aims and aspirations into actual change. Perhaps Galgut’s The Promise, or Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men do hold within them something bigger, more fundamental than just incredible storytelling.
As Sheikha Bodour put it: “They give us hope that we can still change our world for the better, one book at a time.”
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Super Bowl LIII schedule
What Super Bowl LIII
Who is playing New England Patriots v Los Angeles Rams
Where Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, United States
When Sunday (start time is 3.30am on Monday UAE time)
What is Folia?
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.
Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."
Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.
In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love".
There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.
While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
