The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Human trafficking is a big problem in Africa that doesn't get the publicity it deserves. Yvonne Yonas and Free Generation International are embarking on a Red Card Campaign to shed light on this issue. The symbol of the campaign, a “red card” represents cards shown to soccer players who severely violate the rules of the game, and are disqualified. By using this symbol, we are sending a simple message:“human trafficking has no place at SA 2010. Free Generation International is an abolitionist organization committed to addressing capacity gaps in the field of human trafficking and its linkages with gender-based violence. We seek to eradicate trafficking through the development of innovative and diverse prevention, protection, prosecution and victim aftercare strategies that are culturally-tailored, relevant and responsive. Recognizing that trafficking manifests in different contexts all over the world, FGI works to understand and respond to the unique and particularized trafficking p...

When the VentureBeat reporter started getting the hang of iWarrior while playing it and pouring all his efforts into the game, I knew this was a great moment. A Wuzu moment. Eyram Akofa Tawia's game was on the iPhone and a Stanford-educated tech journalist was getting addicted to a computer game Eyram had made. I looked on smiling and thinking, this is the beginning of great things to come. And this was just March 24th. Eyram Akofa Tawia had come very far from the day he fell in love with playing computer games, he now owned his own computer game company, LetiGames, which was going to be the Star of Africa. He was being interviewed by VentureBeat, a blog whose mission is to provide news about innovation for forward-thinking executives. Earlier that week, Eyram had been interviewed by the San Jose Mercury for a feature. He had been spending the better part of March attending the Game Developers' Conference and having business meetings at Google amongst other places in the Silico...

We are only about 73 days to the World Cup in South Africa. Like many other soccer fans, I can't wait. A friend of mine claims to be listening to K'Naan's Waving Flag (the official Mundial song ) everyday. Recently, I heard some news about Shakira composing a song for the upcoming World Cup. Of course, many international (non-African) artistes are recording songs for the World Cup, to support their teams, amongst others. Shakira's Colombia won't be at the Mzansi Mundial but I could make an educated guess that she'll be supporting Cameroun. Why? Because, her World Cup song has Camerounian roots. Now, isn't that cool? Shakira, The Black Eyed Peas, and Alicia Keys will all be performing at a Soweto concert on the eve of the World Cup in South Africa. Shakira's 'Saminamina' samples Zangelewa, an army/marching song popular from the 80's in Cameroon. The song's lyrics are in the Fang language . Listen to Shakira's Saminamina here http://ww...

Late last year as we were planning BarCamp Ghana 2009 , the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) agreed to host our event for free. I was so excited! I was already a big fan of MEST but this made me love them even more. I knew about MEST when it started operating in Ghana through a good friend, Eyram Akofa Tawia. He had been taken as a Teaching Fellow in 2008. MEST is a training program owned by the Meltwater group founded in Norway in 2001 (a firm that provides Software as a Service solutions to over 15,000 clients worldwide. MEST was their social corporate part which they run as a non-profit. I have learnt about MEST throughout the last few months and wanted to show some appreciation for their helping the BarCamp on my blog. I once asked one of the main MEST gurus why they chose Ghana as the location for their training program. They said they looked at the globe and Ghana looked like it was in the middle of the world. Simply put. Basically MEST is a two-year training...

Have I become a movie critic? Maybe. I am just spreading the good news about some great Ghanaian movies you should see. One of those is King Ampaw's "No Time To Die" (NTTD). It has a star-studded cast and it is an African romantic comedy. I had been seeking to watch this movie since 2007 and finally early this year, I got the chance to watch it. I loved it and those I watched it with loved it too. I talk about that experience in this previous post . Also known as L'ultime hommage (Ghanaian-German production), NTTD is a great Ghanaian movie. It was partly founded by Germans but the whole movie is set in Ghana with a star-studded Ghanaian movie cast. Let's delve a little bit more into NTTD. "No Time To Die" is a two-hour full length feature film which portrays love and comedy, directed by Ampaw, a renowned Ghanaian film maker. It was produced by Wolfgang Panzer, a German. It is supported financially by the European Union, the French government and Afro Mov...

Sometime in 2007, I heard about a Ghanaian movie called 'No Time to die' (NTTD). It had been directed by one King Ampaw (the same man behind Road to Kukurantumi) and starred David Dontoh. Now, the Agoro w'aso twann man is one of Ghana's foremost actors and hadn't been in a movie in awhile. For him to be cast in a leading role had to be a big deal. Big deal it was, because 'No Time to Die' won international awards. The movie went under the radar, was not unable on Youtube or the many websites to watch Ghanaian movies for free. I sought an opportunity to see it. Sometime at the end of January, I saw the movie. It was a surprise. The movie was awesome. So awesome that my other African friends ended up talking about it like I had never heard them talk about another Ghanaian movie. Kudos, King Ampaw! Sometime last summer, I was appalled at the number of African movies available to be borrowed from the Stanford Libraries' movie collection. I decided to right t...

The Dusty Foot Philosopher and Troubadour man, @iamknaan, is the singer behind the official anthem for the Mzansi Mundial in June this year. Waving Flag , probably K'Naan's most popular song to date, is undoubtedly an African song and calls on us to "release our African rhythm all over the world". The Somalian rapper, K'Naan Warsame, is based in Toronto, Canada and Los Angeles, USA. The video is directed by Nabil Elderkin and produced by Sol Guy. There is a cameo by Damian Marley. The original lyrics for Waving Flag can be found here . Here are the lyrics for the remix. Ooooooh Wooooooh, Ooooooh Wooooooh Give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher See the champions, take the field now, you define us, make us feel proud In the streets our heads are lifting, as we lose our inhibition, Celebration, its around us, every nations, all around us Singing forever young, singing songs underneath that sun Lets rejoice in the beautiful game, And together at...