The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

As you know, American President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting with Young African Leaders from over 50 countries about the future of Africa in an interconnected world and the role of the United States as a partner with African nations. I had wondered how old these young leaders were but from the video, it seems these leaders are as young as 30 and even below. Sweet. I loved how they were repping in their cultural attires too. Here are some soundbites I found particularly interesting. THE PRESIDENT: Welcome to the White House, and welcome to the United States of America. And that includes even our friends from Ghana, who beat us in the World Cup. (Laughter.) Where are you? Over there? That's all right. It was close. We’ll see you in 2014. (Laughter.) HAHAHAHA We need young Africans who are standing up and making things happen not only in their own countries but around the world. Diaspora Africa’s future belongs to entrepreneurs Can't stop saying this line right here So it...

I was in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area in late July for an event and took the opportunity to see Kojo Antwi in concert again, which was organized by Special Kay Entertainment. I had already seen him at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Kumasi during the 2009 Christmas period. I was excited to see him in concert again but his music is great and evergreen. The show was scheduled to run from 10pm to 4am, because Kojo loves to leave it late. Late he did, he was on stage at 1am and performed for 3 hours. Till 4am! Even some of the concert goers got tired and went home and Mr. Music Man kept on going like an energizer bunny. He's truly the maestro. Before Kojo was on stage, a couple of Ghanaian music acts preceded him. Koby Maxwell performed his popular tunes like Abiba and I'm aware while Papa Shee performed Koyon so, Ate pa, Atadwe amongst others. While introducing Kojo Antwi, the emcee said, "One of the most famous musicians from Ghana" in reference to Kwadwo. I thought th...

I happened to catch the Okoye brothers , arguably Africa's best musicians, performing for the first time earlier this month in Oakland. The concert was organized by Eugene Entertainment at Historic Sweets Ballroom and the resident dj was my boy, Deejay Slim. I knew P-Square were one of the best performing African music acts and they lived up to the billing. They performed for two hours, gave out free t-shirts, cds and posters and even some of the things they were wearing. The girls were going crazy, and the guys were enjoying themselves. Definitely one of the best African music concerts I've been to. As they sang in their song, Danger - "If them dey talk our agenda (agenda), Make them go check our calendar (calendar), Na different countries we dey enter (enter), From January to December, Omo, wahala dey". P-Square was on an American tour which had seen them already go to Los Angeles. I had heard the LA show flopped because they were only on stage for less than a hour...

From August 3-5, American President Barack Obama will engage with 115 young leaders from 47 nations of sub-Saharan Africa at his Forum with Young African Leaders. The Forum is an opportunity for the participants to engage with each other, their American counterparts, and U.S. government officials on key themes of youth empowerment, good governance, and economic opportunity. North Africa will not be represented, which is cause for another debate that my friend MBA has already started here . Major props to the Obama administration for putting this together. Learn more about the breakout/forum/summit/camp here . I'll be following through Twitter #youngafrica . Yay, for Obama and his folks using Twitter. Isn't that why we love Hussein anyway? Yes, we can. What I really wanted to share with you was the list of young African leaders? First off, I was so surprised I didn't know about this till last week. A whole me! :-) A friend, Mac-Jordan, even asked on Twitter if we knew of any...

"How long will you endure abuse?" Last year, I Sing Of A Well , took the African movie scene by storm and this year, it received a massive 11 nominations at the Africa Movie Academy Awards . Its director, Leila Jewel Djansi flew to Ghana earlier this year to continue working on her next movie project, Sinking Sands. Recently, Leila sent me the trailer for the movie. “Sinking Sands” is about a couple, Jimah (Jimmy Jean-Louis from Haiti) and Pabi (Ama K. Abebrese from Ghana) in a loving marriage which turns into one of violence and abuse when Jimah becomes disfigured in a domestic accident. The movie also features Chris Attoh, Akosua Agyepong, Yemi Blaq, Doris Sackitey, Grace Nortey, Eddie Coffie, Julia Djansi, Amanda Jissie, Afi Dzakpasu, amongst others. It looks very promising. Watch the Trailer for the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lig5yc2yt-0 Jimmy Jean-Louis, the 'Heroes' star and also the main man in 'Phat Girlz', is the leading actor in this movie...

I returned from a weekend trip to Washington, DC today. DC is definitely my favorite city or metropolis in Yankee . I love how 'international' it is, with the embassies based there, you find a great diversity of people, cultures and backgrounds. With Maryland and Virginia adding to make the DMV, there are also a lot of Ghanaians and Africans in the area. DC also has a lot of universities, and in essence, students and young professionals. Though DC traffic is among the worst in the nation, the public transport system is on point. It's definitely a place I'll want to live at. I had been in DC mostly for DiasporaCamp DC 2010 and also to check on some job opportunities. It turned out to be a little more than that. Supremo! I arrived at Dulles Airport Thursday evening and my cousin, Adwoa, picked me up. I hadn't seen her in 6 years, the last time we saw each other, we were both in Ghana. I went with her to Falls Church where she lives, and after settling down, we went t...

South Africa's Nelson Mandela is one of the greatest statesmen to ever live. One of the highlights of the recent Mzansi Mundial, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, was when Nelson Mandela was ridden in a golf cart around Soccer City in Johannesburg, before the final. Nelson Mandela is 92 today. In this tribute, Lira and Soweto Spiritual Singers sing "(Something Inside) So Strong". "(Something Inside) So Strong" is one of Nelson Mandela's favorite songs. The song was written by British poet, songwriter and singer, Labi Siffre. It was a 1985 anti-apartheid anthem. Lira and the singers were performing at Sony’s 3D experience pavilion “3D world Created by Sony” at Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg, on 4th July two weeks ahead of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s birthday on July 18th. Watch the performances here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKrG60WobYc Lira performed a special happy birthday song for Nelson Mandela two years ago at the occasion of his 90t...