Joe (magazine)

Joe was a popular magazine published in Kenya in the 1970s, at the height of what acclaimed publisher Henry Chakava described as the "fat years" of Kenyan publishing. Joe magazine was one in a number of popular publications aimed at the new urban middle and lower-middle classes. What set Joe magazine apart was its subversive use of humour, as well as its use of art and fiction as a narrative frame for cultural, social and political analysis. This strategy was seminal not only in educating and activating its readers but also in providing a platform for new fiction writers and artists to develop their talents.

Founded by writer/publisher Hillary Ng'weno and artist Terry Hirst, Joe magazine published regularly between 1973 and 1979. The magazine was named after "Joe", a common man who used humour to deal with and expose the realities of urban life in contemporary Africa. This epitomized Joe magazine's aim; readers were encouraged to do the same, and enter into a dialogue with the character, and thus the magazine. Hirst described Joe as "a survivor who has to laugh to keep from crying."

Taking its cue from Drum, Joe magazine employed street-wise language in comic strips, fiction stories and thematic columns to explore everyday problems of the urban population. Its letters column, "Dear Joe", like Drum's "Speak up Man", encouraged interaction from readers. The magazine also carried an original short story in every issue, nurturing writers such as Sam Kahiga and Meja Mwangi, and even Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, who occasionally contributed to the magazine. Joe's main distinguishing factor was its use of graphics, drawings, illustrated jokes and comic strips, such as "City Life" by Edward Gitau, "O.K, Sue! A City-Girl's View" by Kimani Gathingiri and Terry Hirst's "Daddy Wasiwasi & Co" and "The Good, the Bed and the Ugali", all of which created a lasting impression on Kenya's visual culture.

Ng'weno left Joe magazine in 1974 and in 1979 Hirst renamed the magazine Joe Homestead, increasing the number of comic strips and adding a new section on family, nutrition and health - perhaps to take Joe magazine from its original urban setting to a more rural one. However, the new title did not attract advertisers and the magazine shut down in August 1979.

Aspidistra

Several species of Aspidistra inhabit the floors of east Asian forests from eastern India, Indochina, China and Japan. Aspidistra is a genus that has been ignored by field botanists until quite recently, and there has been a very rapid rise in the number of recognised species in recent years.

Many books state that there are eight to ten species, which repeats the knowledge of the late 1970s. In the 1980s, thirty new species were described from China.

Based on current knowledge, China has the most species with some fifty-nine, of which fifty-four are endemic. The biodiversity 'hotspot' of the genus seems to be Guangxi Province, from where no fewer than thirty-nine species have been recorded.

New species are still being found, and the focus has shifted to Vietnam, from where 28 new species have recently been described; it is known that there are many more Vietnamese species. Currently 93 Aspidistra species have been formally described, and it has been speculated that there may be between two and three hundred. (Tillich 2008).

It has long been erroneously assumed that slugs and snails pollinate Aspidistra flowers. Research in Japan has shown that tiny terrestrial crustaceans called amphipods are responsible for pollinating Aspidistra elatior.

Australian amphipods have also been shown to pollinate introduced Aspidistra sp. and collembolans may also be implicated. Fungus gnats have also been suggested as possible pollinators.