The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I asked my friends to name their  top 5 songs  ever, from  South Africa . My South African alter-ego,  Siyabonga Andile Mthimkhulu , also contributed, thanks to all he has learnt around  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, while reminiscing this  list from 2009 . My first time in  South Africa  was in 2011. But prior to that, I had been hearing a lot of South African music (not like circa 2011 though) on Ghanaian TV. I did not meet that many South Africans at  MIT . I got to know much more about South African music when me,  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 song...

I asked my Nigerian  friends to name their  top 5 songs  ever, from  Nigeria . My Nigerian alter-ego,  Ayooluwaato Eze , also contributed, thanks to all he has learnt around  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, while reminiscing this  list from 2009 . My first time in  Nigeria  was in 2011. But prior to that, I had been hearing a lot of Nigerian music (not like circa 2011 though) on Ghanaian TV. I did not even have to learn too much from my  Nigerian friends  at  MIT . I got to know much more about Nigerian music when me,  Edward Mabonga  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 son...

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 asked my Kenyan friends to name their top 5 songs ever, from Kenya . My Kenyan alter-ego, David Ochieng Mwangi , also contributed, thanks to all he has learnt around 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, while reminiscing this list from 2009 . My first time in Kenya was in 2011. But prior to that, since 2002, I had been learning about Kenyan music from my Kenyan friends at MIT . I got to know more about this when me, Edward Mabonga 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 Kenya in the World Cup of #MusicWeDeyFeel . The starting eleven . Drop your opinions, props, suggestions in the comments section . Here we go, in no part...

What at all is this 23.3/233 thing? Well, you have probably seen  #233moments  right? Learn about it here . When people ask me about the number or the hashtag, either individually or in a group, I ask them to guess the significance of these numbers. I do not remember most of the guesses, maybe because I am so focused on the answer. Well, the answer is - 233 is Ghana's country code. Deep sigh or whatever emotion you have right now lol. The number can, should be, has been used to brand Ghana. Dig it? Well, I can tell you one person who has been digging it. Khophi! Khophi started this 23.3 questions interview series and I was one of the first to be interviewed. It is a bit of a long video but let your curiosity get the best of you. Blog posts should not always have so much to read, so let's finish it :-) Check out the following 23.3 questions episodes as well.  Kafui Anson-Yevu who I have worked with on GhanaThink  on Barcamp Accra , etc and...

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...

It's your voice that everyone wants to hear. Have an idea or dream? Get Started, With a Nescafe. @Abocco is from Ghana. He is one of the great talents getting started in Africa. #getstartedafrica pic.twitter.com/C5nuPlGVUP — NESCAFÉ Africa (@NescafeAfrica) April 24, 2015 Here's a video where I talk about my passions,  +Barcamp Ghana  amongst other things. Watch it and be inspired to get your dream started.

Instead of going to Afrikiko to go and sharpen my poor Kizomba dancing skills, I am here at home 'working' and listening a playlist of Kizomba songs. That sounds like something I would do but not Roberto Saudades . When he is in the right environment, he can really get his Kizomba grooves on. Since I am not really Roberto, I have some learning to do. I basically want to be able to move like this on the dance floor. See the video below I became a huge fan of Kizomba music as I continued looking for music from Angola. I discovered musicians like Ary , Ralph Anselmo and Yola Araujo . I knew of Perola and Bruna Tatiana already. In fact, Bruna is my Facebook friend. Grande som ! Bruna had made a name for herself participating in Big Brother Africa and even coming to Ghana. How I wish she would come again, to Ghana? #Coded. Yeah. Perola had a couple of hot songs, disappeared for a bit and then reappeared with this classic - Presta Atencao . And then Ary came out with Vai Da...

Before 2012, a lot of Ghana's digital natives had been discussing the use of social media and technology for Ghana's election in 2012. Some came together and decided that the central message will be "Ghana Decides". Kenyadecides had happened, and Ghana Decides had a great ring to it. Ghana was going to decide a new president, parliament and government. For me, I had hoped that wasn't all we were going to decide but let's save that discussion for another day. A GhanaDecides hashtag was born. But like I said yesterday at TEDxOsu, campaigns succeed even better when there is a team driving it. Enter the GhanaDecides team. The GhanaDecides team was born out of an election project by the Blogging Association of Ghana - Blogging Ghana. They received funding from STAR-Ghana and put the money to great use, alongside the social media, organizational and other type of skills that the team had. They supported various Barcamp Ghana events in 2012 and used the platfor...

I was quite late to the Fashionista GH party. It must be because I am not so much into the fashion space. I do remember that when I asked some of my Global Shaper friends that night in Cape Town about choosing "one word" to describe me, one person called me a Fashionista. Because I always wore African shirt <- Fashion. Well, FashionistaGH is pushing African shirts and dresses and etc, and fashion. And they are leveraging the power of the internet. Last month, Ghana's  Ministry of Trade and Industry  and Google Ghana launched a new initiative called Innovation Ghana. Innovation Ghana is meant "to celebrate our homegrown innovators and discuss what is needed to bring Ghana to the fore of innovation and entrepreneurship." Fashionista GH was  one of Innovation Heros awarded . Let's learn more about FashionistaGH . I've met OB Abenser and Guud Kelly a number of times since that Google+ Hub, a lot of fashion events or events that have brought out th...

I first met Derrydean Dadzie in 2004 while I was in Ghana during my summer vacation. I had come to Ghana with the MIT-AITI team to teach computer programming (Java & JSP) as well as entrepreneurship to a group of people (mostly university students). The 6-week program was held at Legon. One of the participants in the program from the year before,  Mr. Mohamed Abdulai, was working at the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT at the time. He invited me to come to KACE-AITI to talk to their students about ICT or something of that sort (I don't remember what exactly). Yes, I have been vimming people since since :-) One thing that gave me more vim as I left KACE-AITI that day, was the encounter with Derrydean. I had a new-found respect for Ashesi University , because of him. I was already a huge fan of Patrick Awuah then, for tackling a Ghanaian problem head on and being entrepreneurial, innovative and smart about it. Meeting Derrydean helped me understand Ashesi from the p...

I've known Naa Oyoo Quartey for more than a year now. She's phenomenal. I remember one time, we organized a session at her church (ICGC) in Osu on social media use. We pretty much winged it but it was also a lot of fun sharing and learning about how to use social media in more productive ways. We didn't have to look far for case studies. @Ganyobinaa , as she's known on Twitter, had a good chunk of them. Last month, Ghana's  Ministry of Trade and Industry  and Google Ghana launched a new initiative called Innovation Ghana. Innovation Ghana is meant "to celebrate our homegrown innovators and discuss what is needed to bring Ghana to the fore of innovation and entrepreneurship." A number of Ghanaian-made businesses (and their founders) were awarded as Innovation Heroes. Naa's Roots By Naa was an awardee . See this great video that was made to tell her story. Naa is a favorite of Google Ghana. She embraced the "Africa, Get Your Business Online...

I have written one two many times about Eyram Akofa Tawia and  Leti Games   Since the last time I did, Eyram has added a full blown comics section to his business and Leti Comics has been born. His team has worked on an idea of African Superheroes, which will eventually churn a league of legends. The first superhero to be unleashed will be Kweku Ananse, via a game and then a comic series. I personally feel the tech industry in Ghana is crying for people to document content that exists locally and package it for modern use. This Leti Games venture is a prime example. Last month, Ghana's  Ministry of Trade and Industry  and Google Ghana launched a new initiative called Innovation Ghana. Innovation Ghana is meant "to celebrate our homegrown innovators and discuss what is needed to bring Ghana to the fore of innovation and entrepreneurship." A number of Ghanaian-made businesses (and their founders) were awarded as Innovation Heroes. I think it's really awesome that m...

So via looking at one Naija music video on YouTube and checking out recommended videos, I got into a rendezvous of checking out many videos. I ended up viewing this video which features Joselyn Dumas  (a Facebook friend), again.   Such a fine, fine, lady . From Ghana too. After watching the video, I thought of Terry Pheto  (a Twitter follower), who is another fine, fine, lady, but she's from South Africa. And then a YouTube search for her made me discover a "digital love". Cos at the moment, that's really what I have with Terry Pheto . Something like that. When I watched Lynxxx's Fine Lady video (which I originally found via Joselyn's Facebook profile ), I watched it on mute, cos I didn't have head phones and didn't want to disturb the peace. How do you watch a video on mute? You don't exactly pay attention to the song (or sound) or even the video much, just some images. Yeap, this time, it was images of "what is Joselyn Dumas doing in ...

I love Shirley Frimpong-Manso's movies and I think she made the Ghanaian movie industry better during her entry in 2008. She brought the movie-going experience back with her premieres and she's been awarded for her work. Perfect Picture will always be in the conversation for the best Ghanaian movie ever. She just released the trailer for her 7th movie - Adams Apple. Adams Apple makes you think of Eve, doesn't it? Well yeah, there are 4 Eves on adorned on the website of her new movie - . Is this another girl talk movie? We'll see. I was alerted to this movie when I saw a post about it on Miss T-i-i-i-i's blog - http://myafricanmoviereviews.blogspot.com/ . Apparently, Adams Apple is going to be a ten chapter cinema movie series. Yes, I will give Shirley and Sparrow a pass on the many parts. Because we know there will be 10 parts. You can't say the same for other Nollywood and Ghanaian movies. How Sparrow will keep the story and interest going is to be seen. ”Adams...