The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Wow, what a year it's been! 2011 has been pretty good to me. I haven't asked for much all my life and I sure did get a lot this year. Let's recap what happened, the highlights and lowlights. - After loving the word vim during the Mzansi Mundial in which Ghana's Black Stars made a mark, I latched unto the word "more vim" for 2011. I even renamed my blog as a result. I shared the importance of the word vim in this post . - I attended multiple Ghanaian churches in the Oakland/Bay Area. I wrote about my Lighthouse experience here . In fact, I attended the Ghanaian Church of Pentecost in Oakland more than the Stanford Catholic church or my California church -Abundant Life. I love my people. - I had malaria again for the first time in 10 years and in the worst place possible, America. I had to break my promise never go to any American emergency room and it run up my medical insurance bill. And then I missed an interview because of it. Sigh. - I had a spectacular 6th...

Why do we have Barcamps in Ghana? Because we know we can do it and we want to support each other to do it. What is it? Build the Ghana we want. More vim. Participate in Barcamp Ghana on Saturday at our venue - Kofi Annan ICT Center or online through the hashtag #bcghana. BarCamp Ghana 2011 is a free networking forum to bring people together for a day of discussion, demonstrations and dialogue about Ghana, and beyond. BarCamp Ghana 2011 will take place on December 17, 2011 at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre. The theme is “Establishing Partnerships to transform dreams into action-based projects: Lessons from Mentors”. This Barcamp will concentrate on sharing, inspiring and creating stories about building partnership with attendeant mentorship to create successful Ghanaian made projects and businesses. The BarCamp Ghana team has successfully organized 10 BarCamps in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Tamale and Ho, resulting in a network of Ghanaian doers, entrepreneurs and change makers. Ba...

#BAD11 @blogactionday11 So folks are blogging with respect to Blog Action Day and the theme is food. How perfect! I am such a foodian, I love to eat. I am especially carnivorous too. But above all, I really love my Ghanaian food, especially waakye. I have used three levels of especially to introduce waakye so you can tell how special Waakye is to me. In my estimation, it's the best food in the whole wide world. It doesn't matter that if it's not gotten to Afghanistan or the North Pole yet, it's the best. You know why? Because it sells out faster than any other meal in the world. Ask a Ghanaian or a waakye lover and they will tell you. So in honour of Blog Action Day about food - I want to help spread waakye all around the globe. Thanks to the great folks at Nududu.com and Fienipa.com , I am giving you three ways in which you can make waakye. Thank me later and say "na gode" while you are at it for introducing you to "waakye and kyinkaafa". All 3 ver...

Ever since I went to Uganda for the first time, I have been imagining what my Ugandan alter-ego would be like. You might already know about my Nigerian alter-ego, Ayooluwaato Eze . No one has really told me I look like a Ugandan but given the similarities between Ghanaians and Ugandans, I could really pass for one. But then again, all Africans aren't the same so let me introduce you to Richard Nshuti Mayanja. My father is from the famous Buganda kingdom. We speak Luganda and we are part of the proud Mayanja family. Yes, the same one the famous Ugandan musician Chameleon aka Joseph Mayanja is from. The name 'Mayanja' is as Ugandan as you can get. Unless you have a name that starts with two s's like Sserugo. My middle name is Nshuti because my mother is from Rwanda. Uganda and Rwanda have some really good relations as there are Kinyarwandas living in Uganda. Now why am I called Richard? Because there are 256 Richards in Kampala alone. I must have met 10 of them w...

I never imagined that the first ever African country I would spend a night in would be Uganda. Yes, the Mighty African had never even been to Togo or Burkina Faso or found himself in Nigeria. Thanks to my job, I was able to finally show off the few Luganda words I had learnt from Ugandan friends while stationed in the USA. I visited Kampala for four days in September. Before I went to Kampala, I didn't know anyone there that I had met. All the folks I had been in touch with were musicians and a couple of journalists. I left Kampala with 25 new phone numbers! I asked my Ugandan friends et al on Facebook what I should do before I left Uganda (Kampala) and I tried to go through with some of their suggestions. I had every intention of getting stories to tell so let's recount the Mighty African experiences. I must preface the Ugandan debut by saying I had a little stop over at the Nairobi airport. I arrived at the Entebbe airport September 6th and we were driven to Kampala. The airp...

One of Museke's proudest moments! DR Congo crooner Fally Ipupa , Senegal’s Viviane Ndour and Didier Awadi were the top winners at the 2011 Afrotainment Museke Online African Music Awards that took place on September 24 in New York City. The ceremony happened amidst cheers and proud celebrations from fans of African music and African musicians alike. Afrotainment’s studios were given a makeover in preparation for the event that will certainly have left a great impression on all involved. Benin’s very own Angelique Kidjo , gave an impromptu acapella performance following her acceptance of her award. Kidjo was recipient of the Afrotainment MOAMA 2011’s Lifetime Achievement Award - her first ever, which she said she was glad that it was an award bestowed upon her by fellow Africans. The show was hosted by Afrotainment presenters, Zimbabwe’s Farai Gundan - who was dressed by Nigerian haute couture designer Alphadi - and Zambia’s Tivo Shikapwashya . The red carpet ceremony was h...

Our favorite African music website, Museke.com is having one of its proudest moments this Saturday on the occasion of the Afrotainment Museke Online Africa Music Awards. Read the press release announcing the performers, etc below Fally Ipupa and Viviane Ndour headline 2011 Afrotainment Museke Online African Music Awards performers! …. Angelique Kidjo to win Lifetime Achievement Award Afrotainment Family of Channels and Museke Inc have gone all out in ensuring that the first ever broadcasted Afrotainment Museke Online Africa Music Awards will be a mélange of African creativity. The event will fuse elements of dance, fashion and music in celebrating the best in African music, as chosen by the fans. A Celebration of African Creativity Rwandan-born Iyadede will join melodic Viviane Ndour of Senegal, Ghana’s own highly acclaimed wordsmith Blitz the Ambassador , Afropean sisters Les Nubians and the increasingly popular Congolese star Fally Ipupa will all be providing a...

Below are the list of nominees for the Afrotainment-Museke Online Africa Music Awards Nominees 2011! The awards show will be held September 24 at the Afrotainment TV Studios in New York City. Vote today at www.moamas.com General categories Genre Categories Artiste of the year - 2Face Idibia -Nigeria Fally Ipupa - DRC Asa - Nigeria Maurice Kirya - Uganda Viviane Ndour - Senegal Kidumu - Burundi Professor - South Africa Male artiste of the year - 2Face Idibia -Nigeria Fally Ipupa - DRC Maurice Kirya - Uganda D’Banj - Nigeria Professor - South Africa DJ Arafat - Cote d’Ivoire Kidumu - Burundi Female artiste of the year - Nneka - Nigeria Asa - Nigeria Viviane Ndour - Senegal Juliana Kanyomozi - Uganda Patience Dabany - Gabon Angelique Kidjo - Benin Neyma - Mozambique Group of the year Liquideep - South Africa Freshlyground - South Africa P-Square - Nigeria Goodlyfe - Uganda TearGas - South Africa Toofan - Togo P-Unit - Kenya New Artiste Cabo Snoop - Angola Diamond - Tanzania Ice Prince - ...