The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I asked my Senegalese friends to name their  top 5 songs  ever, from Senegal . I do not have a Senegalese alter-ego yet, but I have met Gelongal and Youssou Ndour and I led  Museke . I also asked  Google  Gemini (yes, not Meta AI, Chat GPT, Grok, Deepseek, or POE - because, I asked it through Google Sheets). You know it is my friend these days right? I also contributed my top 5. My first time in  Senegal  was in 2016. But prior to that, since 2002, I had been learning about Senegalese music from my  African friends , all around the USA, while at  MIT . I got to know more about this when me,  Edward Mabonga, Phelele Fakudze  and others started  Museke  in 2006. It was great to see some of my friends suggest songs that we were jamming to back in the day. I wanted to do a list of top 5, but there are too many songs. So I have aggregated  11 , to represent Senegal in the World Cup of  #MusicWeDeyFeel ...

I have to start from the day I met Viviane . It was one fine day before the Afrotainment Museke Online Africa Music Awards in September, 2011 in New York . We were organizing the first ever African Music Awards in the United of States of America. We have done some. Museke . It was a rehearsal for the MOAMAS. Big Apple. Big Personality. Big Performance . Big Voice. Big Beauty. Now you know one more thing about the one-time sister-in-law of Youssou Ndour. I bet you knew she is one of the most famous musicians from Senegal. And a one-time winner of female African Musician of the Year, awarded by Museke .  She is very beautiful, after all these years. Someone would say I'm smitten . Probably my buddy Kwadade.  Viviane Chidid/Chedid/Ndour is one of most beautiful women ever.  I wanted to meet her when I went to Dakar, Senegal too in 2016. Beautiful country. Now, let us make you feel her beautiful music . Champion - 2010 Easy right? Award winner. How could I not like a song...

The second part of NESCAFE's Get Started (Africa) Challenge begins. The 4 finalists have been chosen after many dreams were submitted via getstartedafrica.com . This is the second edition. The first winner was Fab Muazu who I met last year in Accra via  #startcon14 . I was with him and other digital influencers in Abidjan this year alongside Ameyaw Debrah who blogged about Muazu . Read the press release below and stay tuned to updates via #getstartedafrica . [ACCRA, Ghana] – Part one of NESCAFÉ’s Get Started Challenge 2015 , which involved a West African truck tour, has just ended. In part two, the best dream projects will compete in a grand finale that will determine the ultimate winner of US$30,000 worth of financial support and mentoring to get them started. NESCAFÉ Get Started is a challenge where young Africans between the ages of 18 and 30 submit their socially-relevant dream projects to NESCAFÉ in order to win the aforementioned support from the coffee brand...

It's a glaring fact that African women are not as much involved in the tech space as much as their male counterparts. In this #VimTechList , I'd like to recognize some African women who are doing a lot to drum up interest in technology locally and elsewhere on the continent. They are developers, content creators, and thought leaders. These are a few I know about. Let me say I am disappointed in myself that there's no one in this list from Lusophone Africa. I need that Angola trip. Anyway, on to the people who must be celebrated. Tech Needs Girls in Africa. And it's just because we want more women at tech events in Africa. We need to embrace & create more technological solutions on the continent. We need influential women across the board. Here are the bubbling  +Ory Okolloh s,  +Estelle Akofio-Sowah s, and  +Nnenna Nwakanma s. Doris Anson-Yevu - Ghana : I've known  +Doris Anson-Yevu  for a long time, I am not sure I remember where and how I met her. Sh...

It's been a long time since I did regular posts on things related to technology. Thanks to a recent Facebook post and some comments from friends, I am expecting to birth a series. We're calling it the "Vim Tech List". Yup, it has a hashtag too #VimTechList . You know what Vim is already from regularly reading this blog or from here. Tech is tech, list is list. For the first instalment, I want to delve into games. I'd list 5 great games you can get from the Google Play Store which are all built by Africans. Say #morevim to that. I've always used an Android phone since December 2010. Once I joined Google, I became more interested in using apps that were African. Thankfully, the Android Developer Challenge  (ADC) was concluding and many great African Android apps had been built. The Android Africa Challenge  (AAC), led by tech community leaders on the continent, also followed. When I got my recent Nexus 4, I wanted to download even more new African Android a...

Happy Easter everyone! Today is Easter Sunday 2013 - March 31, 2013. It's been a relaxing Easter weekend. I am in Kumasi just like I was for the last Easter Sunday which was on April 7, 2012. On that day, I met a lady at an event on the KNUST campus. She sold me some Bissap juice. Ever since that sale, I've been sold. Not to her o! But on Bissap juice. I had attended a Classics 4 Christ show at the Independence Hall JCR. It was night of praise and worship, poetry and various performances. After the show, there was a little stand selling various snacks and drinks. I discovered that Bissap juice was being sold and quickly bought some. Because it is a cool African drink. Because the lady selling the juice was so pleasant and cute. One or all of the two. I found out she was not from Ghana, she was from a Francophone West African country. I took her number and bought some more Bissap . I never called her for a long time until I whatsapped her one day. She remembered who I w...

I've heard a lot of Senegal's DJ Awadi and how he is talked about a lot when it comes to African hip-hop. We've seen a lot of conscious and meaningful hip hop come out of Senegal and Awadi's Positive Black Soul deserves a lot of the credit. Awadi's recent album, Presidents d'Afrique (African presidents) was released in 2010, the same year many African nations celebrated their golden jubilees of independence. Awadi took us back to the 60's and told us those messages of unity, positivity, leadership and revolution still ring true today. So, I had to let you know all about the album :-) African rap legend, Didier Awadi , is one of the most highly respected African musicians. He spent four years of research, reading, collecting and interviews preparing his most recent album, Presidents d'Afrique. He featured many African rappers and musicians on the album, making a transcendent and monumental African rap album. L'Esclave opens the album and feature...

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...