Blogger of the Week memories - Q&A with the MIghTy African #BlogCamp13

#BlogCamp13 is here on Saturday! It's going to be the biggest ever gathering of bloggers and social media users in Ghana. BlogCamp Ghana is organized by the association of Ghanaian bloggers - Blogging Ghana. In late September 2012, I was named as the Blogger of the Week by Blogging Ghana. I was interviewed on Twitter (really close to 2:30pm) where various people asked me relevant questions. I covered the blogging related ones in this post. I'd like to cover some other questions of interest in this blog post. I live-blogged the questions and answers so people could follow the conversation. See the raw live-blogging post here. Naturally, the first question was "how did you come by the name 'MIghTy African?", asked by Courage (@couragedarling). I once wrote a blog post about that and my other online & pseudo-names. When I was in MIT, I started calling all African students there MIghTy Africans because it was a cool name to have given where who we were. They (or we) adopted it and it's used to this day. A friend from Wellesley (actually) started alling me MIghTy African and it became official for me when I started my blog, well, this blog :-)
Courage also wanted to how I came up with my Twitter handle called "Abocco". I learnt about the name #Abocco while at KNUST JSS. Folks said it meant "JE" or something cool. Apparently, the word is more popular in Koforidua. So I shall finally go to Koforidua proper to do full circle on the Abocco name and see a Koforidua flower. I heard the opposite of Abocco was Abotsi. I liked the name Abocco & I called myself "General Abocco Darling".
@BloggingGhana asked if I had any advice or tips for the youth of Ghana/Africa. My answer was to "be ambitious, don't play small". look for inspiration around and not far away from you. The best way tp predict the future is to create it. I lived my passions & I am creating mine. We can create what we want. Internet/technology is at our disposal. It really puts the power in our hands. Let's not just consume technology, let's create some.


AlessondraSpringmann ‏@springingly asked "What was the weirdest part of MIT? :)". The weirdest part of MIT for me was seeing how many atheists there were there and how many didn't care about religion. Coming from a heavily-religious school like Presec, I was one of the 'Spiritos' at MIT. I even headed a religious group, something I couldn't have imagined at Presec. My faith was questioned but I knew how important God, my faith & deeds were to me. I was not about to be swayed. #TYLJ Michael Annor ‏@kobbyannor asked "How much of his MIT/Stanford education does he use daily, and what was most difficult about returning?" I use a lot of it daily. Not just the education, but the experiences I have had. Education/schooling is only 30% classroom. My passions have changed as I've grown. I've become more versatile. Nothing I've studied before is a waste because I apply it all.
Gameli Adzaho ‏@gamelmag wanted to know where I derive my "vim" from and whether this source is universal. Quite simply, I derive my vim from my personal ambition. I'm stubborn about making the best things happen. My vim comes from my positivity. Nana Fynn ‏@Nana_fynn asked something similar. "Where does he get his inspiration from? and what's his biggest aspiration in life?" I'm inspired by my cultural neighborhood. Inspired by overcoming odds & being ambitious. Inspired by making "us" the best. ‏@couragedarling asked "That unique love for Africa..... where did you get that from?" I got my unique love for Africa simply cos I wanted to prove to everyone that Africa also is valuable. I didn't like how Africans didn't like Africa as much as Americans loved America. This made me 'passionate'. MIghTy African things.
Asked by @BloggingGhana, I had to choose #Africanmusic over Waakye and parties. I absolutely love listening to African music. I learn with music, sing in public, etc. This love for African music gave birth to Museke.com. GhanaThink, Museke and co deserve their own blog posts, so we would leave that till later. @nas009 of @adventurefrom who was the Blogger of the Week just before me, asked "what inspired #233moments? Because I love Ghana so much I started loving the number 233 in 2011. I would use the number at every opportunity. I started loving 2:33pm. So I thought, why not do something special at 2:33pm (& maybe 2:33am) every day? So #233moments would be a time where people tell d world what they're doing or something @ 2:33pm anywhere they're with #Ghana in mind. Via 233.com.gh (yea, you should check that site out), Nana Kwabena Owusu @just2izy & I introduced #233moments to the world. Hope this post left you with a couple of things you didn't know about me. This year dier, I am revealing all. I might end up blogging about previous no-go areas like love and sex sef. Did I get your rapt attention? I am coming to release.... more blog posts koraa. The march to 233 posts in 2013 is on!