The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

The 2010 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) winners have been announced. I got to know about the winners through the AMAA's Facebook page while discussing it with another friend. How cute? Social networking all the way! Ghanaian movies did quite well but I think the Nigerian movie, Figurine, stole the show. Someone please get me that movie. You know I'll write a good review :-) Ghanaian movies did well. Perfect Picture picked up a bunch of awards as well as I Sing Of a Well (ISOAW) which took home two. " A Sting In a Tale" (ASIAT) also won one. Here is the full list of winners; and in bold is who I predicted would/should win since I haven't seen all the movies. BEST DOCUMENTARY - 3. Bariga Boys(Nigeria) Not sure what this is about but it's a must see. BEST SHORT FILM - 2. The Abbys Boys -(South Africa) I guess this makes up for the few South African nominations. Lekker. BEST ANIMATION - 1. Hanayns Shoe (Egypt) It's nice to see an Egyptian movie win some...

:-) The Mighty African likes to do some things differently every once in a while. So I started leaving a comment on Abena Serwaa's blog and realised my comment was more like a blog post. So here is one. To get the idea behind this post, you have to read this blog post about the Ghana Music Awards by Abena (Chardonas) of Ramblings of a Procrastinator in Accra . So, it's a direct response to Abena but I feel it's great reading for us all. So if anything is confusing, all you need to do is click here . 1. As for the 70% of the audience at the Ghana Music Awards being females in their 20's - your theories are probably true. the tickets cost a lot, and they probably got them for free. On the other hand, attend things like BarCamps or TEDx and you'll see the crowd is mostly men in their 20's. I won't give any analysis for that one. Hmm, so Ghanaian women are spending a lot of money on weave-ons eh? Is that why there's this whole hair debate? Never knew what th...

I've always wanted to attend a Kojo Antwi concert. Every time he had one of those 24th night shows in Accra, I was in Kumasi with my family for Christmas. So when I saw the poster for his 2009 festive season concerts, I wished he'd be in Kumasi as well. My brother pointed out to me that he'll be live at Golden Tulip Kumasi City Hotel on the 26th of December. I was not going to miss out. Yes, I wasn't going to attend the concert with my girlfriend like I always planned but I was going to be there to sing along to all of Kojo Antwi's songs. Kojo Antwi is arguably the biggest Ghanaian musician ever. He's the music maestro, Mr. Music Man. He's awesome, his rasta is evermore and his music is timeless. I had heard from an aunt that Kojo Antwi never showed up early for his concerts. It's not his fault, African musicians never show up on time. It's almost an accepted practice. Have some opening acts clear the way, have your fans wait and anticipate your gra...

Kwaku Sintim-Misa's Thank God It's Friday show is the best show in Ghana. I always try to catch that show everytime I am in Ghana. It's set like a talk show with a few other segments. He sometimes interviews 'interesting', entrepreneurial Ghanaians. Late last year, he interviewed Eyram Akofa Tawia, founder of LETI games, who was profiled on this blog . I've seen interview some other Ghanaians who are doing very innovative things that many people did not know about. He also interviews major Ghanaian celebrities and statesmen. Here he interviews Mordechai Kwaku Nyamekye, the youngest delegate ever at the UN (and best delegate in Ghana). He has a ball with which he explains the Millennium Development Goals, for those of you who didn't know. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7vKckJkA28 Here, former president John Agyekum Kufuor talks about how he won the elections. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1KUVpxo76Y The 3 wise men serve as a think tank for TGIF. Here, the...

Dumela Mma! Rra! Kea leboha! If something's nice, you do it twice. Completed the first season of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. It's highly recommended. Alexander McCall Smith is a great writer, maybe I should break my novel reading duck and get hooked onto his stuff. For real though, I'll rather find out the story on the big screen. Here's hoping for more of Africa's stories to be told through film or television. This story is set in Botswana. For people like me, who've never been to Botswana but heard about the nation, this was a chance to continue learning. At the start of every episode, we saw a map of Africa and then exactly the location of Botswana. And then we've have to sit through 55 minutes plus of life in Botswana. Or not. Or just whatever stories the writer/producer wanted to tell. Or maybe what I have to say today :-) I already talked about the TV series on HBO, BBC, and DSTV in this blog entry . You can find out more info on HBO's...

I have only watched a couple episodes of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency but I am so excited I had to write about it already. This series is adapted for television from a bestselling novel. It features Jill Scott as the major actor and is set in Botswana. It's not exactly produced by Motswana or Africans but it is pretty 'African'. I have only seen two episodes but it didn't mention one thing synonymous with Botswana - HIV-AIDS. We also know Botswana has one of the best performing African economies and is one African country with no record of military rule. The series doesn't broadcast these, but celebrates Africa. You have to watch to understand. I had heard about this series before but while I was populating a list of African-themed films I wanted the Stanford libraries to have, someone suggested this addition. From Wikipedia, we learn about the novels. "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a series of ten novels by British author Alexander McCall...

KSM's Nifty@Fifty concert in December 2007 was superb. I had heard about his exploits dancing to FBS' Oluman Boogie through the internet and TV. So when I was in Ghana, I decided to spend my Christmas Day in Accra (instead of Kumasi) so I could catch his show. It was terrible not spending it with my nuclear family at home but the show was great. I took a bunch of videos so that my family could watch what transpired. Finally, I have some for you to view. If you missed KSM getting jiggy with a girl half her age, you can see those videos here . Oluman Boogie was released in by the Function Boy Squad. The song quickly made an impression and FBS became one of the most wanted performers due to their dancing prowess. The song talked about Sugar Daddies. If you live in Ghana, you'll know that this is common there. In University of Ghana (Legon), we have what we call 'Inte' and 'Exte'. 'Inte' is the Legon male student who's the boyfriend and 'Exte...

Those of you who know me know am all over social media networks. Yes, I am on Twitter too. Follow me @Abocco. Yup, that's me. More on my many web names later. Earlier, I opened a Youtube account too, to share videos. The terrible part is that some dude had already taken the 'MIghTyAfrican' account (which is inactive now) so I had to settle with 'MIghTyAfrican1'. Bummer. I almost made up a new name but I am growing old now, can't keep track of all of my pseudonyms. I uploaded a bunch of videos I recorded from attending KSM's Nifty @ Fifty concert. I love KSM, he's awesome. I interviewed him once and came away with a lot of respect for him. Other than being an entertainer, he is a great personality, statesman and leader. He mentioned that he may want to go into politics. At his show, which coincided with Ghana's Golden Jubilee celebration, he mentioned that Ghana could use a 'funky president'. Who wouldn't want KSM as his president? I was s...