The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I have sang in a choir in my life, the Clerk House choir at Presec . I am not a great singer, I do sing tenor though. I did enough to get into the choir. One of the best all-time choirs - worldwide - is the Soweto Gospel Choir . Don't believe me? Ask the Grammys. Their albums Blessed, African Spirit and Freedom won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album in 2006, 2007 and 2019, respectively. They have even been nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes.  I was first introduced to this choir by some Southern African friends while in MIT . Their music features heavily on my Sundays - including this blessed one.  African Dream - 2005 What is the African Dream ? The conversation has been had in some circles, but not quite discussed, decided and disseminated. Listen to the song, if you get lost in the voices and melodies, listen to it a couple more times.  I have tweeted about this several times, including the text below ( twice as nice ). "Cos in my African d...

Before I begin to share this excellent news, big ups to Kasahorow ! It's a project that came out of the GhanaThink Foundation that is doing big things! Earlier today, I was looking to type something in Twi on my phone so I needed ɛ and ɔ characters so I proceeded to Nyamfowa.com to copy them and use. And then it dawned on me, the Kasahorow folks were working on a keyboard to allow typing these Ghanaian characters on Android. So I emailed Henry and Paa Kwesi and Henry came back with a solution he'd worked on. I went through the instructions and now I am whatsapping away in Twi! Dɛɛdɛw! So, this is how you can enjoy what I am enjoying at the moment! Go to this link and read about the actual project on Github . Do you see Eyedol? Yup, isn't Henry an idol for making this happiness happen? Step 1. You need to install the AnySoftKeyboard app on Google Play as this Ghanaian language pack depends on it to run. It is an extension to the AnySoftKeyboard Android app. Go to...

In line with saying "More vim" all the time, I found it prudent to learn how to say "Let's go" in many languages. #Leggo is a rallying cry for let's get things done and this is a statement that is important for groups of people everywhere. With some help from my African friends, we have a list of 23 to work with. Choose your pick! On y va! Akan: Y ɛ nk ɔ ! What you thought I wouldn't add my mother tongue? Some folks can't say what "thank you" is in their lingua francas. Such a fracas. Don't belittle this at all at all. Ga: Wote ! Many of you who know me well know I like to use the word "Chale". In local Ghanaian parlance, it's a pet name for friends. Or simply "Dude". Chalewote in Ghana also refers to slippers. So yeah, slip the slippers and say, "Chale, let's go" Ewe: Midzo ! Dzolali is also a nice thing to say. The Ketasco inspired word has a response too - "Now or Never!" Dagban...

Courtesy calls that you greet someone when you meet them. African hospitality houses saying "How are you" and longer greetings than "Hello". So, let's learn how to say "How are you" and "I am fine" in a few African languages so we can indulge while we are in various countries hehe. Let me show you what I know;-) Akan: Wo ho t e s ɛn? Me ho y ɛ! If you pay close attention to the translations, you might learn how to say me and you in multiple African languages :-)  Ga: Te oyoo t ɛ ɛ ɛ? Mi yo ojogbann ! I learnt when I was pretty young. I love saying Ojogbannn! Ewe: Efoa? Mefo! I will never forget the day I was addressing Keta Secondary School and shouted "Efoa" into the microphone. If you are addressing multiple people, say "Mefoa!"  Dagbani: Ka di bei wula? Alaafei.  Thanks to Jemila for teaching me this one. Hausa: Sannu? Sannu kade. After loving how D-Flex sang Hausa lines while featuring on K. K. Fosu and Ofori ...

Can't wait till Christmas. Can wait to see the year move a little slower so I achieve a lot more in 2013 though. But when the holiday season does come, here are a number of ways you can send and say holiday greetings :-) Bronya o! Afe hyia pa o! #MerryChristmas in #Akan #Twi . — Mighty African (@mightyafrican) December 25, 2012 Ni ti yum palli! #MerryChristmas in #Dagbani . #Ghana — Mighty African (@mightyafrican) December 25, 2012 Blonya fe dzorgbenyuie na mi! Blonya fedzorgbenui! #MerryChristmas in #Ewe . #Ghana — Mighty African (@mightyafrican) December 25, 2012 Afi o afi! Afi aya ni e ba nina wɔ! #MerryChristmas in #Ga . #Ghana — Mighty African (@mightyafrican) December 25, 2012 "Heri ya Krismasi" "Krismasi Njema!" #MerryChristmas in #Swahili . #Kenya #Tanzania #Uganda — Mighty African (@mightyafrican) December 25, 2012 "Khisimusi Lomuhle". #MerryChristmas in #Zulu and #Siswati . #Mzansi #SouthAfrica #Swa...

I love the folks at Kasahorow. They are working to bring African languages onto the web. You can get involved with this by taking on the fellowship below. 27 September 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION Fellowship Description The kasahorow Fellowship, now open for the first time to students across Africa, provides a US$500 award for the study, promotion and development of indigenous African languages. The Fellowship can be applied to any project which uses written (African language) text. Examples include: writing a children’s book, developing localised software, starting an African language newspaper. Eligibility Any student in a tertiary institution in Africa. Applicants may be citizens of any country. Timeframe Deadline for submissions: 16 January 2011 Announcement of winner: 16 February 2011 Application For full details and to apply online, visit http://www.kasahorow.org/fellowship. Sponsoring Organisation: kasahorow Communication Group of Suuch Solutions The kasahorow Communication G...

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 (...

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.

Recently, a friend asked me how to say Independence in Akan Twi. I didn't know the word so I sought my favorite source for such matters Kasahorow's Akan dictionary on Fienipa.com . Found out the word was 'Ahofadi'. A friend on Facebook mentioned it may have been 'fawohodi' instead. Ahofadi is a noun, fawohodi or 'fa wo ho di' is more like a sentence, as so nicely put by one of the Kasahorow gurus. It's great to know this translation service is around. That's why you should help publicize it. Publish this widget on your homepage or blog that allows people to translate amongst English, Akan, Ewegbe, Hausa, Yoruba, Swahili, and Kinyarwanda. Brought to you by the awesome folks at Fienipa.com and Kasahorow.com You can get the code from here: http://www.gmodules.com/ig/creator?synd=open&url=http%3A//apps.fienipa.com/igoogle.xml&pt=%26context%3Dd%26type%3Dgadgets%26synd%3Dig%26lang%3Den%26.lang%3Den%26country%3Dus%26.country%3Dus%26start%3D0%26n...

Got an email from a friend recently which prompted me to look at the top rated sites on Alexa.com for Ghana. There were a few interesting discoveries so wanted to share. Top sites 1-10 1. Facebook.com : Pretty easy to decipher. Facebook has seen phenomenal growth over the last few years, making hi5 extinct and leaving myspace in its wake. Hey, they have Facebook parites in Ghana now. Facebook was probably the number one for advertising and marketing BarCamp Ghana last year. 2. Yahoo.com : People still use Yahoo regularly? For what? Email? I stopped using yahoo in 2006. I check my yahoo address once every 3 weeks. I probably use the Flickr service more than Yahoo Mail. Did I hear YahooMail has unlimited storage? 3. Google.com.gh : Maybe the only reason Google.com isn't top in Ghana is the fact that it shares 'time' with Google.com.gh. The Ghana google site has only been around maybe 4 years but it's sweet to have a country-specific google site for GH. Does Yahoo or MSN ...

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 ...

I've gotten some questions recently about an online Twi resource. What exactly are people looking for in a Twi resource? An online dictionary? Check. Check Kasahorow.com and words.fienipa.com . You can also check websites like africanlanguages.com and kamusi.org. The folks at Kasahorow have this cool feature which allows you to translate words between Akan, English, Hausa, Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili. While I figure out how to get the embed code to work, you can always go their website or the fienipa site and translate different words. It's very simple: "enter a word in the search box in the language you want to translate from. Then select the language name in the first drop-down menu. In the second drop-down menu, select the language you want to translate to." And if you haven't seen the awesome Ghana keyboard that allows you to type in Twi, Ga, Ewe characters, etc, don't miss out anymore. Get it at this Kasahorow link . Kasahorow foɔ deɛ, wɔn yɛ a...

Recently, my South African friend Keitumetse 'Tumi' Diseko approached me about interviewing me for a website called Jucy, a community blog started by one Nzinga Qunta, who works for Channel O as a presenter on their popular O Boma. I met Tumi through my work at Museke.com and she formerly worked for MTV Base Africa. According to Nzinga's interview with Rage , Jucy is an African celeb news and entertainment site, with a little bit of inspiration to go out there and be fabulous! In her words, "Imagine Afrika and get to know celebs from the African continent who are doing amazing things, and I just thought it would be cool to read about them and not just American or European people." They also take a keen interest in Africans on the continent and in the diaspora doing big things in their respective careers, etc. It's an honour to be interviewed in the 'People You Should Know' category. Below is the story from the Jucy website __________________________ ...