The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Ever since we started organizing our +Barcamp Ghana  events, I've wanted the numbers of women attending these events to increase. We started with a huge tech focus, the theme for the first event was "The Business and Tech Renaissance". We had only 2 female resource personnel - +Estelle Akofio-Sowah  who was with Busy Internet at the time and  +Esi Cleland-Yankson  of Afrochic. I believe tech and forward-thinking events held with a focus on women are really important in increasing the network and net work of both interlocking communities. Enter the  First Pan-African Women in Tech Meetup .  It's happening on Wednesday August 2. Some of my friends are involved as organizers or speakers - all awesome young women - +Ethel Cofie   +Enyo Kumahor   +Ella Ethel Mbewe   +Chisenga Muyoya  and  +Barbara Birungi  who I am still yet to meet. Check out this VimTechList post on  #VimTechList: 11 young female African technology leader...

It's still Women's Day here in Yankee in the Eastern Time Zone. So, I can say a few things about the woman who was keeping me up last night. Let's say that one of my goals to finding a wife this year is on course. God forbid anything that derails that lol. Sometimes, a woman comes along who inspires change. She makes you want to be a better you because you can't stand to disappoint her or yourself in the grand scheme of things. When they say behind every successful man, there is a woman, the man sometimes becomes more successful because of the things the woman makes the man do. People have told me countless times, you need to find a woman. I understand that more now. So sometime last year, I tweeted. "I only had time mostly for my passions and family. Now, there's you. Let's grow something beautiful. I love you". — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) September 4, 2013 I meant it. She's the woman I sang about in the infamous Amanone video take...

It's in the early hours of International Women's Day. A woman is keeping me up. :-) But I figured I should write this blog post before it's 2:33am and then I will finally go to bed. I want to honour some great young women I know on the occasion of women's day. Before I get to women I know who lead, I'd like to give a special mention to my first girlfriend  +Phelele Fakudze . She leads too, don't get me wrong. She was and still pretty much is a female version of me. We connected on so many levels and shared many passions. I've not seen her since she moved to Swaziland after 2008, and she's continued to inspire many young women. I will never forget this  blog post  she wrote. She has some of the best advice any woman can give women, and really, men as well. Last weekend at the African Business Conference at Harvard Business School , I attended the women in leadership panel. One of the panelists wrongly attributed this following quote to Kofi Annan or ...

"Girl, your behind is a killer" . No, I am not talking about Victoria Hammah . Her behind only killed for herself and eventually she was left behind for not having much more than it. Vicky is cool though, I think she should launch a talk show with some reality TV angles and name it Victoria's Hammer . She can use her interest in politics and the interest in her to hammer societal issues. Think about it. Yeah, it would work. You can launch the show on Twitter and add the hashtag #vickyleaks. Just don't make this Gobe song your soundtrack because I am not talking about you. Just yesterday, I was watching 1 Night in Vegas again in preparation to finally write my review about the movie. That Sarodj Bertin chic is fine. But this particular chic is fly. And she's from Ghana. 1 night ago, " he was with some fine chic ". " Tonight he was with you ". I don't know if it's an affair, I don't really follow the news or the gossip so I co...

I love my mother . She's so caring. In fact, she takes caring to a whole new other level. But I guess that's what mothers do. Caring might just be the most important thing when it comes to being a mother. But is it the most important thing when it comes to being a wife? Yeah, are you asking me why I didn't write - " But is it the most important thing when it comes to being a husband? "? Well, I am not looking for a husband. It's a wife I am looking for. A life partner . I was pretty sure my mum would know a thing or two about who would make a good wife. So I asked her . I didn't just get up and ask her. We had one of those ' how is your girlfriend - are you guys fine - when are you getting married ' type conversations. My answer to her is not as important as the next few things you are going to read. If you are a guy and you are married already, good for you. Maybe this would help. If you are  a guy and you are yet to marry, I pray this is ...

I should post more press releases on my blog as I am aiming towards this 233 blog posts target. :-) So here's one! The very first TEDx event for woman in Ghana is here. It's happening in Spintex too. I know  +kofi yeboah  is in full support of this! And folks like  +Doris Anson-Yevu   +Florence Abena Toffa   +Ela Asare   +regina agyare   +Achere Buxton  too. This year has seen a lot of female-focused forward thinking event activity. Mouthful yeah. We've seen The Savvy Madam , Next Wave Africa , +GDG Women Ghana  and the returning Woman 2.1 summit . I'd love to see more Ghanaian women at events like Barcamps and I do hope that these women-dominant events (who told you men won't come?) increase in number and add more Ghanaian women to the network we are enjoying now and more to the #morevim movement. It's been a great year for TEDx events too. I spoke at TEDxOsu , and was part of the team for  +TedxCapeCoastED Ghana . TEDxKNUST also ha...

I have decided to party less in 2013. So after partying on Friday night , I was sure to spend Saturday night at home. Especially, if I would have light at home. But after being visited by Nii, Obinna, Stephen and Ali , I entertained second thoughts. While writing one blog post , I received a call around 9:30pm from a friend, Brian , inviting me to a house party. After missing the few hours of last night’s house party, I was keen on this one. A couple of friends were not responsive and some others wanted to stay in, but I decided to honour Brian’s invitation. Because the last time I attended one of his parties, I ended up drinking Vimto and meeting Francophone women who would make you say “ Oh la la ”. When I arrived at the AU Village, the ‘gateman’ directed me to Brian’s. " You will see a place with many cars packed ". Fair enough. I had seen a Asian-looking lady walking down the road and asked her “ Are you going to Brian’s place? ” “ Sorry, I don’t know Brian ”. Like to...

After watching House of Gold with my sister on Friday at its premiere in the National Theatre amidst many “dressed to kill” women, I set out to meet and party amongst some of them in Accra. My friend Nii had told me about a house party in Labone but I couldn’t go there right after the movie premiere because my sister wanted some food. When I had dropped off my sister at her place, I received word that the house party was ending and so we had to change location. What happened after is a diary entry . Here it is. I met Nii and Seyram and we headed to BellaRoma. True to form, the bouncer said we had to pay 20 GhC before entering. I have set a “ no paying cover for as much as possible for clubs ” in general so I wasn’t buying that. After seeing a couple of people enter for free, I asked the bouncer why I had to pay. Of course, he had no answers for me. Because if he was in my shoes, he wouldn’t want to hear whichever nonsense he would have been spewing out. Nii had already been at ...