The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

A friend and I were discussing pick up lines the other day and if they do work, etc. They've been a few that I've wanted to use but I haven't mustered enough courage to try them. I'm still collecting my thoughts for that blog entry on women too. Earlier today, I realised my cousin had tagged me in some note full of pick-up lines and that list was hilarious. I have now run out of excuses to try some pick-up lines. After all, what do I have to lose? Don't I want to actually see what will happen? Won't I have some juicy stories to tell? I would, that's why I will be picking out of these pick-up lines next time I am inna di club or some other appropriate or unappropriate location. So here goes - I can't find my puppy, can you help me find him? I think he went into this cheap motel room. Let's do breakfast tomorrow. Should I call you or nudge you? Yo Baby, you be my Dairy Queen, I'll be your Burger King, you treat me right, and I'll do it yo...

Obrafour is my favorite lyricist ever. Nya Nteteɛ pa is also one of my favorite songs ever. We haven't heard much from the Rap Sɔfoɔ recently, but if you ask me, he's been replaced. The 'new guy' is Okyeame Kwame , also known as the Rap Doctor. In his latest single , he called himself, 'your favorite rapper's favorite rapper'. I won't argue with him, the dude is good. Many people will know Kwame Nsiah Appau from his Akyeame days. He's the best lyricist in Ghana these days and with time, he may overtake Obrafour as Ghana's best ever. Like joke like joke :-) I interviewed Okyeame Kwame for Museke.com sometime last year and I must say I came away impressed. He's not a rapper but he's a student of rap. He attends KNUST (university) and is studying Akan and Sociology. This is what he had to say - "I am studying Akan because I can’t help the poor if I’m not one of them. If I’m part of the academia then I can convince them to look. If ...

The most recent poem I wrote. It's titled 'This time of the week' but am not talking about this time of the week, am talking about THIS time of the week. Enjoy :-) (PS: I must be missing someone :-D) This time of the week does not mourn Monday This time of the week teases the use of Tuesday This time of the week takes the words out of Wednesday This time of the week forgets there’s a Thursday This time of the week can fry the joy of Friday This time of the week satisfies Saturday This time of the week sunbaths Sunday It is a moment etched in time that the days envy This time of the week defaces the wall This time of the week alarms the walls This time of the week colors the calendar This time of the week marks the calendars This time of the week starts the arriving This time of the week completes the waiting This time of the week queries the questioning This time of the week does the answering This time of the week can sing the chorus The chorus which refrained from singin...

BarCamp Diaspora '09 (Investing our talent where it counts) took place on July 25 at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. The event was a success and drew about 80 participants and had many more following proceedings through Twitter , Ustream and Facebook. Shara Karasic, who was one of the attendees, interviewed Ashifi Gogo (the keynote speaker), Henry Barnor (one of the organizers) and Freda Obeng-Ampofo (one of the attendees). Ashifi Gogo is CEO at Sproxil.com, PhD Innovation Fellow at Dartmouth College and Co-founder at mPedigree.org, and a 2009 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. Here he talks about BarCamp Diaspora, mPedigree, and the future of scientific research in Ghana. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtBdk_hvXaw Henry Barnor sums up BarCamp Diaspora, a conference at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington, DC on July 25, 2009. BarCamp Diaspora's purpose was to gather together the African diaspora for conversation about how to apply their talent ...

Last September, I wrote an article on the story of the Ghanaian movie industry which talked about its recent history as well. Since then, there have been many Ghanaian movies that have come out, some of which I've seen and the industry continues to grow. I've been in a number of good discussions about Ghanaian movies, the latest of which transpired at BarCamp Diaspora . The conversations haven't changed much but the ideas for improvements have been refined and I will be touching on a few in this entry. Ghanaian movies are starting to gun for awards. Revele Productions' ' Run Baby Run ' has been the most successful movie to date while Agony of the Christ picked up a bunch of nominations at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAAs). The AMAA's is organized in Nollywood but judging from the recent nominees and winners, they are committed to awarding movies from all over Africa as Nollywood movies haven't been dominating. So aside Ghanaian movies enjoying ...

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...

This blog entry is upon request to list the Top 10 African female vocalists. I am going to consider those who've been singing in the last 2 to 3 years, thus eliminating legends like Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Nayanka Bell, Miriam Makeba, etc. In determining this order, I took into consideration, pure singing, artiste popularity, song popularity, demand for shows/concerts, award recognition, amongst others. It's very subjective. I also took out the groups with more than one member. This is not scientific and this list is adjudged by a committee of one. Let's get into the countdown. 10. Amani (Kenya) - Amani is one of the biggest female stars in Africa and was nominated for a few Channel O awards. She's a little bit more pop than rhythm and blues but I love her work on ' Tonight ' and ' Missing my baby '. You can see her singing prowess when she collaborates with others, on songs like Ninanoki, Usiwe mbali, etc 9. Siphokazi (South Africa) - Siphokazi is not the...