The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Tigo's Shelter for Education initiative seeks to improve on infrastructure for basic education in rural Ghana. As part of this project, 6 Ghanaian communities have been beneficiaries of fully furnished six unit classroom blocks with Headmaster’s office and Teacher’s Common room. The pupils each received two school uniforms, exercise books and Tigo branded souvenirs as well. The project has also been documented as a television series. Shot as video documentaries, they are currently showing in Ghana They are also on YouTube. You can learn more about the  #Shelter4Education  initiative in this other blog post . The television series airs every Sunday on TV3 at 4pm, and at 6:30pm on both Metro TV & ETV . A repeat shows on UTV at 7pm. Viasat1 shows Tigo Shelter For Education every Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. You have only two weekends to catch this so make it a point to watch the show this coming weekend. The St Joseph School in Obuasi, Ashanti Region was renovat...

A lot has been said about the quality of education in Ghana, especially in public schools. It's very important to create a nice environment for learning as bad conditions greatly affect the performance of students. "Schools under trees" is a popular topic when public school education is discussed in Ghana. These points lend more credence to the importance of Tigo's Shelter for Education initiative in Ghana which seeks to improve on infrastructure for basic education in rural Ghana. Tigo is the reigning Ghana Telecom Awards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Company of the Year . This is quite a big deal, given the constant competition amongst telecommunication companies in Ghana. Tigo launched its new CSR programme, Shelter 4 Education recently. Tigo has put up 6 six unit classroom blocks with Headmaster’s office, Staff common room and a KVIP for some selected schools in makeshift structures or in need of renovation across the country. The initiative wa...

People normally say that there are not a lot of positive or educational programs on television and radio in Ghana. We clamor for more of such programs and shows to change mindsets in Ghana for the better and equip people with information and skills to do more and better. Well, there are a few of these programs and they are gaining in stature. The  +GhanaThink Foundation  seeks to ensure that people are aware of all these programs, no matter where in Ghana they can be accessed. I'd like to single out a few programs. The  +Mpwr  show on +Y1079FM  run by  +Emmanuel A. Gamor  &  +Amma Aboagye  is a signature show so far as this calendar is concerned. The show highlights many young Ghanaians who are doing great things in Ghana and is building a collective audience that is inspired and motivated. I've been on the show a couple of times to promote  +Barcamp Tema  &  +Barcamp Accra . Many other things I am involved in, ...

Since I had to turn my off phone during today's What Do You Know quiz or have it in airplane mode because I am so fly, I couldn't tweet or post updates. Trust my tweeps to do so though. So here's their collective account :-) RT @Abocco : Blood donation what do you know quiz compt'n live on GTV yet to start. Prod giving tips. #wbdd #giveblood cc @nbsghana #ghhealth — Ghana Health Nest (@ghHealth) June 16, 2013 The producer of the show Alfred Hughes gave many tips to the audience on audible clapping, etc. I had thought the quiz would start at 1, we started at 1:30. So whichever minutes of watching the Black Stars take on and beat Lesotho's national football team in a World Cup qualifier were gone. So what do u know is on with @Abocco on GTV. He will be repping @BloggingGhana on World Blood Donor Day festivities — ragyare (@ragyare) June 16, 2013 I repped Blogging Ghana - the association of Ghana bloggers in this quiz. I showed up at the quiz venue...

Earlier this month, I was nominated by my buddy +Edward Amartey-Tagoe  to represent Blogging Ghana in a special What Do You Know Quiz to celebrate World Blood Donor Day . I donated blood for the first time in my life but biology has always been my least favorite subject since Presec , I don't follow current affairs even a 233rd of what I used to do in KNUST JSS and I knew very little about blood in general. I clutched at straws looking for what material to focus on in this quiz and looked for motivation via prizes available. In fact, it became too late for me to but I would have likely backed out. I had won 2 What Do You Know quizzes while in Presec but this was different. I stayed the course, but still didn't study anything until the wee hours of the night before for like 23.3 minutes. Today, I participated in the quiz and emerged victorious. #Winning! When I was in KNUST JSS , I represented the school at Kiddie Quiz where we lost in the semi-finals. I got my nickname...

One of Museke's proudest moments! DR Congo crooner Fally Ipupa , Senegal’s Viviane Ndour and Didier Awadi were the top winners at the 2011 Afrotainment Museke Online African Music Awards that took place on September 24 in New York City. The ceremony happened amidst cheers and proud celebrations from fans of African music and African musicians alike. Afrotainment’s studios were given a makeover in preparation for the event that will certainly have left a great impression on all involved. Benin’s very own Angelique Kidjo , gave an impromptu acapella performance following her acceptance of her award. Kidjo was recipient of the Afrotainment MOAMA 2011’s Lifetime Achievement Award - her first ever, which she said she was glad that it was an award bestowed upon her by fellow Africans. The show was hosted by Afrotainment presenters, Zimbabwe’s Farai Gundan - who was dressed by Nigerian haute couture designer Alphadi - and Zambia’s Tivo Shikapwashya . The red carpet ceremony was h...

I found some exciting news from @TerryPheto's twitter yesterday. She tweeted on October 6th - Great News... HOPEVILLE has been nominated for an EMMY AWARD. Best TV Movie/Mini-Series. I had already blogged about the HOPEVILLE movie , which was released in South African theatres September 3rd. I am waiting patiently for it to be on DVD, which will take a while. The movie's trailer speaks volumes and am personally not surprised that the television show has been nominated for an International Emmy in the TV Movie/Mini-Series category. I have never heard of any African television show being nominated for an International Emmy. This is big! Local is lekker! Hopeville has already won an international award, it won for best drama and mini-series at the Rose d’Or Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland on 22 September, where it beat 85 other TV dramas. In the International Emmy competition Hopeville is competing against three other nominees: Germany’s The Author of Himself, the UK’s Small Isl...

On Sunday evening, a number of Facebook friends asked their friends to turn to CBS and watch the second episode of Amazing Race (TAR17) taking place in Ghana. I thought it was cool but I didn't really bother watching the show. I don't own a television or watch TV anyway. A couple of friends who watched the episode seemed proud of Ghana and even homesick by the images. So today, when I was doing my 'once in awhile check-up on Ghanaweb news' and found video links to the Amazing Race Ghana episode, I had to watch. And I am really glad I did . After waking up to a bright sunny day in Eastnor Castle in the UK, our amazing racers are told their next stop will be Accra, Ghana. Yay! They leave London with about $137. Some of the racers are quite excited to go to Ghana. No one mentions that Ghana is a great footballing nation though. I was saddened by that but anyway, #VIM! One guy mentions "Accra is in Africa, so pretty sweet". One lady says "We're going to...

:-) 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...

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...

Most of you loved the first episode of the MIghTy African Music Video Program (MAMVP). Well guess what, thanks to Melanie Reynard, we have a second episode. This time we talked about a Ghana-Nigeria collabo between VIP and TuFace Idibia called ' My love '. This feature is for a TV program on KMTP TV (a non-profit public TV station in Palo Alto) The MAMVP will feature me talking about various African music videos, the artistes behind them, discussing the song and music, etc. All these videos are by Phamous People. The very first feature was on VIP's Manenko . You can see the video for this second webisode/episode below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pP4IStiBZg The opening music was by Jonathan Ford and the video was edited by Melanie Reynard. I think this video is funnier than the last one though it's shorter. Melanie advises that people's attention spans are too short to do longer videos. So if you are reading this and you want to sponsor an awesome promotion of Af...

I have always imagined myself being on some television show talking about Africa, or African music, African development, engineering, etc. After the recent interview with Tracy Pell about BarCamp Diaspora , it seemed I was making headway. On Monday night, KMTP TV (a non-profit public TV station in Palo Alto) aired the first feature of the MIghTy African Music Video Program (MAMVP) thanks to Melanie Reynard, a producer there. The MAMVP will feature me talking about various African music videos, the artistes behind them, discussing the song and music, etc. All these videos are by Phamous People. The first video in the series is Manenko by VIP. You can see the video below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS8jWZdbtI4 The opening music was by Jonathan Ford and the video was edited by Melanie Reynard. I love this video so much that I have been watching it over and over again. I like how she combined the conversation we had with the video. I loved this interview, it took a while to shoot it, an...

I watch a lot of basketball. In fact, it's about the only thing I've watched on American TV in the last 6 years. I even watch games on atdhe.net, myp2p.eu, channelsurfing.net when some mouth-watering games are not on TV. There is the added bonus of catching Golden State Warriors games, the team might not be that good but every single I seem to watch of theirs is a good one. I'll like to discuss what I think are the biggest rivalries in the NBA today, circa my time of sustained basketball interest. It's easy to identify some rivalries but to rank them was definitely not easy. Here we go. 1. Los Angeles Lakers - San Antonio Spurs These two teams have the most dominant in the NBA this millenium with 3 and 4 championships respectively. The Spurs lost to the Lakers in the 2001 and 2002 playoffs and the latter went on to win the title both years. In 2003, in David Robinson's last season and Manu Ginobli's first season, the Spurs broke their duck against the Lakers and...