The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Before BarCamp Accra happens on October 2, you should attend TEDxAccra as well. It is one of the TEDxChange events which are happening all over the world on September 20, 2001. The Accra event will be held from 9am to 7pm at The African Regent Hotel at the Nhyiemu (what a cool name huh?) Conference Hall, 237/238 Airport West, in Accra. See the programme at this link . You can join the event here . Partners for the event include Google, AfricaGathering, BBC World Service, Spot One Global Solutions Group and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. One of our favoritest people, Estelle Sowah is listed as a speaker. On September 20, 2010, more than 150 of the world’s leading thinkers and doers will come together in New York for TEDxChange. Convened by Melinda French Gates on the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals, this event will explore what the future holds for health and development around the world. What changes have taken place in the last decade? And what more need...

OMG! It works. Do something cool today. Find the meaning of words by simply sending SMS or Chat using your Mobile Phone or Gtalk. I just sent good to the English to Swahili number and had a number of translations sent to me. Next time, I want to impress my East African friends and Swahili speaking confidantes, I'll text all I want to say to the number and 'show off'. You can do the same for Twi/Fante/Akuapem and Yoruba too. :-) This is brought to you by the lovely people at Kasahorow and Fienipa . Via Chat Send invitation to chat with any of the email addresses associated with a particular language listed below. Receive live response to any word or words requested. Via SMS Send text to the phone numbers of any language of your choice listed below to get a dictionary translation sent back to you. English to Swahili fienipa4en2sw@bot.im (Google Talk) +1 713 487-6941 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +1 713 487-6941 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (...

I love food. Literally. The other time I was having a discussion with some friends and I concluded I love food more than sleep. Yes. I love cooking too. I can't cook many different types of dishes but I love the idea of eating food I have prepared myself. I feel cooking is soothing and quite the fun activity. Especially, when I am alone and I can sing along to loud African music in addition. Hey, maybe we should make a cooking playlist too. I think I should learn to cook a few new dishes, or maybe not so new. Some African dishes. Like all those listed on nuɖuɖu! Nududu is the Ewe word for food (Ewe is a popular language in Ghana and Togo). Nududu.com aka food.fienipa.com is a website for African food recipes and places to eat. It's an African food lover's dream and paradise. The website is the brainchild of Esi Cleland and it's being worked on by the lovely people at Fienipa.com . (abinci - eduane - riziki - food - nourriture : Eat well) Their little blurb prov...

Yesterday, I thought I should get the kasahorow Ghana language keyboard again. For a while now, I've been typing ɛ and ɔ by stealing the characters from Museke.com. I've installed the Kasahorow keyboard which can allow you to type characters and even more. I want to show you how you can do the same. The Kasahorow keyboard installer has keyboards from many other African countries too. Download this (it's a zip file) to get the Kasahorow installer application. Then you can check out this PDF for instructions on Windows computers. If you use a mac, download this (it's a zip file) to get the Kasahorow installer application and here are your instructions - this link (another PDF) . You can also check this presentation for a step-by-step process. How To Install kasahorow Keyboard For Windows View more presentations from kasahorow . Now, isn't this cool? The folks at Kasahorow.com are so inspiring. Support them today. Support African languages. Support Africa.

I've had quite the South African day. I wore a South African t-shirt, I skyped with my Ghanaian friend who lives in South Africa, watched Tsotsi again, blogged about South Africa, reached out to Terry Pheto, sang South African songs in the shower and have listened to South African music all day. (Sure, I didn't eat pap, shout a Vuvuzela and tell a friend about Tshabalala, but still) . The best way to round it up is to tell you something about my favorite South African website. Sagoodnews.co.za . They "highlight South Africa's progress and positive developments and concentrate on solutions not problems." That's my kind of site. Hey, they even have africagoodnews.com too . AfricaGoodNews is sponsored by MTN (hehe) and SaGoodNews by FNB. They're proudly South African. They've started a legacy campaign and I want to help spread the word about that. It wasn't one week after the end of the World Cup that media headlines turned our attention to the loom...

It was extremely beautiful when Africa was solidly behind Ghana's Black Stars at the latter stages of the World Cup in South Africa. One South African journalist re-designed the Ghana flag, replacing the Black Star with a Black map of Africa. I loved it. The Black Stars had been crowned 'Africa United' and the South Africans applied their "local is lekker" touch by christening them 'BaGhana BaGhana' to rhyme with their own Bafana Bafana. It made us all forget the May 2008 riots and xenophobic attacks. We've had the good and bad times, After a recent conversation with a friend in South Africa, I have come to learn that xenophobia in South Africa towards other Africans is quite real. It disappoints me. I love Mzansi, but such news troubles me greatly. To think that black South Africans would treat other black Africans with contempt is atrocious. We see South Africa opening up to the rest of Africa through Channel O, etc, but we need more than that. C...

While looking for more recent acting info on the lovely Terry Pheto, I came across a few movies. I had just seen the South African award-winning Oscar movie, Tsotsi , for the 27th time. Terry Pheto is something else. I wanna marry her. "You're having an affair with Amos?" Terry, Thando Iwam (Marry me) . I went to her Twitter page and in response to a tweet directed at her about her next movie, she had tweeted - "Hopeville The Movie opening 3rd of Sept nationwide." Excitement! Cheza cheza! Woza woza! I went on a Hopeville trailer hunt and found it. And then this blog post was birthed. Ke nako! Seriously, the fact that Terry Pheto is in a new movie, Hopeville, makes me want to clap. Applause. Hopeville is a TV series she's been in lately. If you can't make her out, she's the character called Fikile. I saw her in Goodbye Bafana and have been waiting for more movies with her. She's heavenly . I was almost going to change my facebook profile p...

Register today at http://barcampaccra10.eventbrite.com/ BarCampAccra 2010 , ad-hoc gathering where attendees meet for discussions, demos and networking, will take place on October 2nd, 2010 at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) campus at 20 Aluguntuguntu Street in East Legon, Accra. The theme is be “Creating wealth and employment in a challenging environment”. Following the successes of BarCamp Ghana '08 and BarCamp Ghana '09 , regional BarCamp events will be organized in selected regions in Ghana to enable as many people as possible partake in BarCamps before the main national event in December. On December 22, 2008, over a hundred young Ghanaians met in Accra for BarCamp Ghana '08 to exchange ideas on entrepreneurship, innovation and development for a rising Ghana. BarCamp Ghana '09 followed on December 21, 2009, in Accra, under the theme "Leadership for our times - cultivating change makers". BarCamp Accra 2010 will br...

Register today at http://barcampkumasi10.eventbrite.com/ BarCamp Kumasi 2010 will take place on September 18, 2010 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Engineering Department at the KNUST campus in Kumasi, Ghana. The theme is be “Collaboration: The key for opportunity and development”. Following the successes of BarCamp Ghana '08 and BarCamp Ghana '09 , regional BarCamp events will be organized in selected regions in Ghana to enable as many people as possible partake in BarCamps before the main national event in December. On December 22, 2008, over a hundred young Ghanaians met in Accra for BarCamp Ghana '08 to exchange ideas on entrepreneurship, innovation and development for a rising Ghana. BarCamp Ghana '09 followed on December 21, 2009, in Accra, under the theme "Leadership for our times - cultivating change makers". BarCamp Kumasi 2010 will bring together stakeholders in Kumasi to for a day of dialogue, dem...

Earlier today, I received this email from one of my favorite people, Paa. He mentioned a study that the World Bank conducted about Ghanaian student migration abroad. I thought his thoughts were super and felt you all should know. Hence, we feature our first guest blog entry and who else to choose from than my favoritest buddy? Here's what Paa had to say. I find the results to be unrevealing since it merely concludes that Ghana doesn't lose much from having a large portion of its 'brightest' formally-trained bɔgas spend their productive years abroad. Note that the survey only asked 238 people for their opinions so take care in extrapolating the results. The data points themselves are more interesting: - 47% of all Ghana university grads live abroad. - there are nearly 3 times as many Ghanaians living in the US than the UK (the 2nd top destination) - on average each bɔga makes about $74k every year - on average each bɔga sends about $5k to Ghana every year - the value of ...

Last weekend, I attended my very first wedding in the USA. I've been here close to 9 years and this was the first one. I had known people who were tying the knot, but they were normally marrying in locations that I couldn't afford to go to or I wasn't getting invited. Canada did beat America to my first North America wedding (yay Canada) when I debuted my credit card to fly me to Toronto for my buddy, Eric Hammond's wedding, supposedly as best man. I ended up emceeing the reception. What a Canadian debut! I was very interested to see the songs that would be played at Ernest and Kai's wedding ceremony and reception in the Bay Area. The music selection was cool but I already have a good idea what will be played at my wedding. Unless, my partner comes up with some recipe of her own. A few African party songs made the list together with some usual suspect Yankee songs. It was a wedding between a Ghanaian born in Canada and an African-American. At Ernest and Kai's re...

Asamoah Gyan aka Baby Jet was the first Ghanaian to score in a World Cup and he's scored another first, by becoming the first footballer to venture into hiplife music. He features with popular hiplife star, Castro the Destroyer , in a classic video, African Girls. Asamoah Gyan is also very popular for his goal celebration dances, some of which he performs in the music video. The song and music video has been greeted positively by music fans as it is becoming very popular. The song is produced by Castro's Wondzie Entertainment. The Takoradi native has been struggling to enjoy the same success he had during the times of hit songs like Sradenam and Toffee, and this Asamoah Gyan collaboration might just do the trick. The idea of singing about African women is not as fashionable as of 2005 but it is the focus of the song. Castro and Asamoah Gyan sing about Ghanaian and African women. The song mentions "African girls dey be, dance to the groove and feel the heat". "Afr...

Maker Faire Africa is a celebration of African ingenuity, innovation and invention. The first event was organized last year in Accra, Ghana at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT . It featured exhibitions of African-made products amongst others. It was great to see some African makers, inventors and other passionate Africans come together to showcase African ingenuity and creativity. If you are in Kenya this August 26 to 28, you should attend this event at the University of Nairobi campus. The event helped me learn about a lot of awesome young Africans, including Johannes Arthur who built sofas using water bottles and, Alfred Sirleaf who is the Liberian analogue (blackboard news) reporter, amongst others. Some info from the Maker Faire Africa website. The key words here are to celebrate and have fun while absorbing,interacting and learning from the creativity of others. The core of the Maker Faire Africa is ‘Makers’ showing their work. We expect 100 / 120 Makers ...

You all know I am a big fan of Shirley Frimpong-Manso and Sparrow Productions . I really loved her movie, " A Sting In A Tale " which featured Adjetey Anang, Majid Michel, Lydia Forson, etc. Under the auspices of Sparrow and Sribuo , we can now watch the movie for free and anytime online. Yes, on Youtube. Remember all those movies you'd watch in 10 parts on Youtube? They were illegal and they've disappeared. Not this one. So this is history in the making, screening to you, full-length and in HD an award winning Ghanaian movie: A Sting In A Tale from Sparrow Productions. Why should you see this movie? I reviewed it and gave you 233 reasons . Before you see the movie, you should see the trailer. A good trailer can 'make' a movie. Like this blog post proves . So let's start you off with the trailer for this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnS01tLFOmA Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you - A Sting In A Tale. Watch it right here (Unless, you are reading...

Following the successes of BarCamp Ghana '08 and BarCamp Ghana '09, regional BarCamp events will be organized in selected regions in Ghana to enable as many people as possible partake in BarCamps before the main national event in December. We are lining up BarCamp Accra 2010 which will take place on October 2nd, 2010 at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) campus at 20 Aluguntuguntu Street in East Legon, Accra. The theme is be “Creating wealth and employment in a challenging environment”. On December 22, 2008, over a hundred young Ghanaians met in Accra for BarCamp Ghana '08 to exchange ideas on entrepreneurship, innovation and development for a rising Ghana. BarCamp Ghana '09 followed on December 21, 2009, in Accra, under the theme "Leadership for our times - cultivating change makers". BarCamp Accra 2010 will bring together stakeholders in Accra to for a day of dialogue, demos and discussions about how to navigate the challen...

Earlier this week, I received an email from Akosua Adoma Owusu. She is a Ghanaian-American filmmaker based in Alexandria, VA. Not Ghanaian, or American, but a Ghanaian-American. Makes me think of Kobina Aidoo's Neo African-Americans documentary . She told me about her short film, Me Broni Ba (My White Baby) - a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi has shown at various film festivals around the world. Find out more information about her brilliant work at www.mebroniba.com or mebroniba.tumblr.com . In her own words, Me Broni Ba is definitely not your typical Ghanaian/nigerian film. It doesn't look typical. It's a short film, the trailers hardly have any dialogue. It talks about a subject I haven't seen any Ghanaian film touch - hair, hair salons. It's not the Ghanaian version of Chris Rock's Good Hair either. The synpsis reads - "Me Broni Ba is a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana. The tangled legacy of European colonialism in Africa is e...

While I look for some great new Ghanaian movies to be recommended so I watch, I've been wondering what some of the other awesome African movies out there. I found a few when I bumped into this link about one Yvonne Cherry winning Best Actress @ the 2010 ZIFF Awards . ZIFF stands for Zanzibar International Film Festival Awards. Here are a few movies I want to check out and if anyone has access to them, buy them for me. First off, we start with Mzansi. Themba is a South African movie with the tag line - A boy called Hope. Filmed on location against the stunning rural landscapes of the Eastern Cape, Themba tells the story of a local boy who triumphs against adversity and proves that with talent and determination dreams can come true. Themba depicts the triumph of the human spirit and how belief in oneself and ones talent is tantamount to never giving up. Themba goes behind the pin-up posters of soccer stars and shows us what really makes for a hero. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22N...

From the people who brought you Makmende , they also bring you Kuweni Serious. Just A Band and their crew are just too awesome. As #Kenyadecides, we join them in prayer for a peaceful period and a period that will help shape the nation's march onto greater heights. Kuweni Serious - Fighting the EVIL powers of apathy Featuring a random sampling of Kenyans. Produced/Directed by Mbithi Masya and Jim Chuchu for Kuweni Serious. Edited by Mbithi Masya. Narration by Bill Sellanga, words and music by Jim Chuchu. Narration --- There is a difference between the one who rents a house, and the one who owns a house. The one who rents a house doesn't care if the walls crack and crumble, they can always move to another house. The one who owns a house knows that no one else will take care of it, thus they paint the walls and mend the cracks. More than 60% of Kenya's population consists of young men and women like us. The problem is that we behave like tenants of Kenya. We have let the old...