The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

The  Konnect Kouch  is a version of hot seat  in Konnect Groups for its members. These Konnect Groups are WhatsApp Groups run by or in conjuncation with the  GhanaThink Foundation . We have had  Konnect  members   to volunteer as a  Kouchee  to be on the  Konnect Kouch , on Saturdays & Sundays starting from 2:33pm  . This is basically a personality interview. We at  GhanaThink  moved this  #KonnectKouch  into some of the Konnect meetups (3 hour networking events mostly in the weekend evenings) and also to Barcamps (free networking forums on Saturdays). A couple of Saturdays ago, I was on the Konnect Kouch for Sunyani Konnect thanks to the proactiveness of Wilhemina Nunu. Exciting. Are you excited to read about what transpired? I love Sunyani a lot. I have spoken severally about how I want Sunyani to become the capital of Ghana, if we change it from Accra. More on this in another blog post. My favori...

The first time I heard of +kobla nyomi  was when he'd gone to participate in the Google Internship program in Zurich in 2010. For an Ashesi student, it's a regular occurrence for one to do an internship with a top-class company or institution for the summer, but this is Google we are talking about here. Kobla was one to watch . I'm not sure I met him in person until I was at Rancard. So now I've been watching him . Late last month, he won the MTN Apps Challenge in Ghana, picking up a cool GHC 10,000 and a trip to San Francisco. Are you going to have a watch on him now? :-) Sometime this year, when I was thinking through cool Ghanaian apps and technologies, I remembered that Kobla Nyomi had built an Oware computer game. It was a 3D app and on Android too. I googled for info on it and found very little, apart from this Ashesi.edu post and another. So I asked him, " What happened to the app? " He said something like " Oh, I haven't really touched ...

My favorite album right now is whichever selection of Lira songs I am playing in the #vimride these days. Talking of vim, none of Lira's songs gives me 'vim' quite like this one - The version I listen to a lot (and on repeat) is the live in concert version, which includes the audience reaction and people singing along, with the backing vocals and all the lovely instrumentals. The version you would listen to here is lovely but it just doesn't do the song justice like this one does. So, go get that album - Captured Tour (A Concert Film) . I have a signed copy of the CD and then the  DVD too. So I decided to write a blog post sharing the lyrics. You can find the lyrics for the original in many places, but you can find the lyrics to Lira's version in a few places . And now, here, on the MIghTy African blog. The higher you build your barrier The taller I become The farther you take my rights away The faster I will run You can deny me You can decide to...

Due to Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday falling on Thursday, July 18, I started listening to South African music a lot. I even changed my Twitter name to that of my South African alter-ego, Siyabonga Mthimkhulu . I listened to some house, kwaito, hip hop, jazz, R&B and gospel music from Mzansi. Heavy on the rotation was music from Lira. Yeap, the one I met in South Africa . She's simply the rockas. My father is also in town and he's been listening to me rock Lira in the car all the time. Yesterday, I made him watch Tsotsi , my favorite movie of all time. But these occurrences didn't drive me to write this blog post quite like what happened this morning. I was listening to Lira's Captured Tour CD along with my father on the way to work. And then the song started --- "I have a dream, a dream that lives in me. A gift that is given to the uniqueness of me. There is a path, a path made just for me and I walk it faithfully, though not certain where it leads...

After a recent discussion with @MacJordan and Henry of @disterics , I started thinking about Africa's shining stars and the young African change makers and real leaders . I have featured some on my blog and in due time, more shall be blogged about. I can say a whole lot in this blog post but I'll allow Nigeria's Ty Bello to sing my thoughts to you. Listen to 'The Future' by Ty Bello. Props to CPAfrica.com and Museke.com for the info. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUtSmvldkZ4 Lyrics below We are the Future, we are the dream We are the nation, we are part of this Yes we are so amazing, that’s the least we shall be At the heart of the nation changing history How can they say that we are finished, we have just begun When we have nowhere else to run to, when we have nowhere else to go So get out of the way, out of the way of the land of our dreams We are the nation, we are part of this We are the nation, we are part of this (Chorus) Carry the song, carry the sound ...

I first heard about Farida Bedwei when Edward Tagoe emailed our Barcamp team asking for her contacts and encouraging us to bring her to Barcamp Ghana 2010 at Ashesi. This is the news story he read . It was about the inspiring story of Farida Bedwei , overcoming the challenges of having cerebral palsy to become one of the top software engineers in Ghana and writing her own book ' Definition of a Miracle '. Cerebral palsy refers to a family of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affect body movement, posture and muscle coordination. Speaking on Joy FM’s religious programme A Walk with Jesus , Farida said she has never allowed her disability to limit her ability. “All my life I’ve been told by my mom to remove the word ‘I can’t’ from my vocabulary and replace it with ‘I’ll try’ and so whatever I’ve done my entire life, I’ve tried and by the grace of God everything that I’ve tried, I’ve been successful at,” she said. Farida entered ...

I once shared a story of Morris Mbetsa - an 18 year old African self-taught electronics genius . Well, another Kenyan makes an appearance here. I saw my friend Henry @disterics share this info - "Kenyan builds plane in front yard" on Google Buzz and I didn't waste any time in killing my curiosity. Mwananchi is a Swahili word meaning the common man . A Kenyan man has used the internet and some books on engineering to build his own aircraft. Gabriel Nderitu has dreamt of flying since he was a child and has spent a huge amount of money building the plane in his front yard. But his dream may be grounded as the authorities say it is not airworthy. Click the link to watch the video I think it is really sad I could not embed the video from the BBC link to this blogpost. I already am not a fan of the BBC Africa site and not allowing folks to embed such a great vimacious video is sad. So I went to Youtube to see if I'd have any luck. And I found these videos. http://www.yout...

When we were looking for keynote speakers for the very first Barcamp in Ghana , we thought George Ayittey was a perfect fit. He is a distinguished Economist in Residence at American University in Washington, DC. From his TED.com profile His influential book Africa Unchained has helped unleash a new wave of activism and optimism -- especially in the African blogosphere, where his notion of cheetahs-versus-hippos has become a standard shorthand. The "Cheetah Generation," he says, is a "new breed of Africans," taking their futures into their own hands, instead of waiting for politicians to empower them. (He compares them to the previous "Hippo Generation," who are lazily stuck complaining about colonialism, yet doing nothing to change the status quo.) Since I am on a TED Talks roll, let's watch his TED talk titled "Cheetahs vs. Hippos" Follow him on Twitter @ayittey Watch the video

This video is old. I haven't listened to the full thing yet. I haven't met Ory Okolloh before. But she's one of my role models. Watch the video below and it will give you every reason why. Ory Okolloh tells the story of her life and her family -- and how she came to do her heroic work reporting on the doings of Kenya's parliament. Kwame Som-Pimpong @kwsompimpong shared this on Twitter just some minutes ago and now I am sharing with you. Major props to TED. What an easy blog post. I should do more like these. Follow Ory on Twitter @kenyanpundit . She is also the founder of Ushahidi and has just recently left her CEO post there to become the new policy manager in Africa for Google. Read about it here on her website .

I have blogged about Kasahorow & Fienipa creating a home for African languages on the web and the former's project for translating between some African languages and English . Through a recent Gmail conversation that I was privy too, I discovered a few great things my friend at Kasahorow have been up to. A few apps here and there are in the works and I'll broadcast them once they're 'ready for primetime', in the words of Paa Kwesi Imbeah. One recent feature I found very exciting was the opportunity to use my favorite web browser, Mozilla Firefox, in Twi. Yes, the file menus, download windows, everything. In Akan Twi! Isn't that just awesome? I am using it right now and you can too, just read on. * Download and install language pack for Firefox 3.5 or 3.6 * Navigate to about:config from your address bar and promise to be good. :-D Look for the variable called general.useragent.locale. Change the en-US value to ak-GH * Restart Firefox and ...

This is a quickie. William Kamkwamba is a Malawian who at age 14, built a windmill to provide power/electricity for his household in his Malawian village. Since then, he's built a couple more and gained a lot of publicity for his courage and ingenuity. He was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart yesterday and I wanted to post the video of that segment. This is one of Africa's shining stars and it's nice to see him go places. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c William Kamkwamba www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview He's also spoken at a couple of TED conferences. At TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, he told his story. A couple of my friends who attended the conference in Tanzania met him too. I was actually put in touch with him so he could help provide and get Malawian content for Museke.com. The move never materialized though. Here are a couple of his TED talks. He's now at the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in...

I am on a poetry posting spree. I wrote this poem when I was in Presec in 2000. As a matter of fact, I performed it during the Mr. Presec competition in which I was 3rd. The poetry recital was excellent but I terribly flunked the traditional highlife dancing segment, which I believe cost me the grand prize. I believe, I am adept at dancing to highlife music now, if you don't believe me, catch me at your next Ghanaian party. Up till now, I haven't received my Woodin shirt(s) prizes for grabbing bronze. They must have lied to me. But I still have the poem that confirmed to me that I had a career in spoken word and poetry performance. I still remember some of my Presec mates teasing me with "Ato, are you dreaming, are you dreaming" after the contest. Well, the poem, here it goes. Building castles in the air Cement your imaginations Build your rocky emotions Yet, don't throw your hands in the air Out of tranquility, an outburst To build a city in days the worst Make k...

I wrote this poem around 2004 when I was in MIT. I saw a friend's signature and it went something like "A day without rain, A day without sun, A day without faith, A day without you". I thought it would be good fodder for a poem and so I started writing. The final product is a poem entitled 'A day without you'. A day without rain Spells the boredom of dryness The grass folds its arms Hungers for the greenness of love The dam goes a damn The river has a shiver The farm blows an alarm That all is not well A day without sun Spells the dangers of darkness The moon curses its stars Hungers for light for reflection The party ends sooner The slumber ends later A boom comes from a stark dark room That all is not well A day without faith Spells the comfort of comfort The hungry crosses his legs Awaits the next coin on his table The don never closes his eyes The pupil gives up on good sight The pastor’s wife sees in this life That all is not well A day without you Spells th...