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Mengo (series) - Mrefu

Osborne Macharia

African Artists' Foundation

African Artists' Foundation
Lagos, Nigeria

Mrefu: Mrefu is the immediate former world mengo champion. He first got into the fight club when he was 5. He spent his entire first decade getting beaten, until he picked a fight with mende, then the champion of the ring. Songs are still sung of how mrefu the brave finished off mende the beast with a blindingly fast volley of slaps delivered by a hand covered with a metal chain. Mende never saw them coming, and he never recovered from this defeat. Actually, to this day, no one has ever recovered from "Vibare soo!", Mrefu's finishing move.

Somewhere in downtown nairobi, in an old abandoned warehouse, is a secret fight club called mengo. Every month, hardcore fighters.With years of intense training and fighting meet up for the sole purpose of beating each other up. It doesn't matter what one does during the day. When darkness falls, it's time for pain. Mengo is not like other fight clubs; its fighters are exclusively people of short stature.
No one knows who owns or runs the secretive, highly organized underground fight club. It’s been said that it is an elite wealthy group of former fighters that sponsors and manages the network. All we know is that attendance is by invitation only and an invite means you have to fight.

"Osborne Macharia is a self-taught photographer and visual artist born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya and based in Vancouver, Canada.

His style of photography fall within the genre of Afrofuturism, which he describes as;

An artistic repurpose of the post-colonial African narrative through integrating historical elements, present culture and future aspirations of people of colour by using Narrative, Fantasy and Fiction to re-imagine a New Africa.

Governed by 2 key elements being Cultural Identity and Fiction it creates a powerful platform to convey important messages on topics such as Equality, Inclusion, Representation, Gender Abuse, Ivory Poaching, FGM, Albinism, Dwarfism, Conservation and Care for the Elderly"

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African Artists' Foundation

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