The Best of AfroFest 2009

I have been having a blast over the past couple of weeks and wanted to share my experience at this year's AfroFest which took place July 11th and 12th at Queen's Park in Toronto. I was having difficulty posting an advertisement for the event but that didn't dampen my spirits. AfroFest featured traditional African music along with Reggae, amazing food, and African owned businesses. Their were publishing companies featuring books on the history of Africa and its people, jewelry companies, clothing companies and of course beauty based companies which I immediately took an interest in. I was taking in all the amazing energy and the abundance of men and women wearing their hair in its natural state. I could have counted on one hand among the hundreds of people I saw of people who wore their hair relaxed and/or with weave. I was very happy to see all the young men and women embracing their hair, they were proud and unapologetic.

With everything going on I was still able to note some great companies featured at AfroFest. My first stop was to Eco Body Soaps where I picked up some black soap, which is one of the best I've tried. My friend picked up the signature soap which has shea butter mixed into the black soap and pumice stone to scrub away dead skin cells, so far so good. Eco Body Soaps had so many different soaps. The owner uses oatmeal, goat milk, shea butter, pumice, plant and herbs, and oils to mix up amazing soaps that naturally cleans and rejuvenates our skin without chemicals. Than we went over to Adiva Natural which is based out of Richmond, Virginia. We tried the Ginger and Brown Sugar Polish, this product really left my skin smooth and supple and we also had the opportunity to smell the intoxicating scent of the Hair and Skin Conditioner in Mango. These are great products and just to prove it when we arrived at their booth they had a few bottles of the Hair and Skin Conditioner in Mango in a basket, by the time we finished doing the demo of the Ginger and Brown Sugar Polish with someone from the sales team and walked back to the front to smell the conditioner again, it was all gone! No lie! I of course promised myself that I would follow Adiva's progress as they grow in the United States and Canada. The last company that grabbed my interest was DabsoluteBest, they sell shea butter, soaps, incense, oils, and creams to name a few of the products they had in stock. I was happy to see that they carry Nubian Heritage products which is pretty hard to get in Canada. DabsoluteBest is based out of Brampton, Ontario and really easy to contact if you are interested in ordering some products.

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I will be sure to mark my calendar for 2010's AfroFest, progress comes in small steps at first and than leaps with a foundation to land on, Black is Beautiful.

Eco Body Soaps - ecobodysoaps@yahoo.com

Adiva Natural - www.adivanatural.com and 1 804 683 3738

DabsoluteBest - www.dabsolutebest.com and 416 892 7984 (Jeff)