The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I love the folks at Kasahorow. They are working to bring African languages onto the web. You can get involved with this by taking on the fellowship below. 27 September 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION Fellowship Description The kasahorow Fellowship, now open for the first time to students across Africa, provides a US$500 award for the study, promotion and development of indigenous African languages. The Fellowship can be applied to any project which uses written (African language) text. Examples include: writing a children’s book, developing localised software, starting an African language newspaper. Eligibility Any student in a tertiary institution in Africa. Applicants may be citizens of any country. Timeframe Deadline for submissions: 16 January 2011 Announcement of winner: 16 February 2011 Application For full details and to apply online, visit http://www.kasahorow.org/fellowship. Sponsoring Organisation: kasahorow Communication Group of Suuch Solutions The kasahorow Communication G...

It's a glaring fact that African women are not as much involved in the tech space as much as their male counterparts. In this #VimTechList , I'd like to recognize some African women who are doing a lot to drum up interest in technology locally and elsewhere on the continent. They are developers, content creators, and thought leaders. These are a few I know about. Let me say I am disappointed in myself that there's no one in this list from Lusophone Africa. I need that Angola trip. Anyway, on to the people who must be celebrated. Tech Needs Girls in Africa. And it's just because we want more women at tech events in Africa. We need to embrace & create more technological solutions on the continent. We need influential women across the board. Here are the bubbling  +Ory Okolloh s,  +Estelle Akofio-Sowah s, and  +Nnenna Nwakanma s. Doris Anson-Yevu - Ghana : I've known  +Doris Anson-Yevu  for a long time, I am not sure I remember where and how I met her. Sh...

When I first heard about BarCamp from my GhanaThink buddy, I was apprehensive. What is this BarCamp that I have never heard of before? I still don’t know why it’s called BarCamp, even after helping organize BarCamp Ghana. What I do know is is that the concept of a BarCamp is excellent. It has almost everything I want in a gathering of minds, hands and people. BarCamp Ghana 08 came off yesterday, December 22nd at the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence for ICT – AITI. Ever since I arrived in Ghana on Tuesday the 16th, I’ve had many ideas of a blog and subject matters to write about, but the excitement that is BarCamp generated for me trumps all. My first real experience with BarCamps was BarCamp Africa. It was organized by a group of people, mostly non-African who were passionate about or had some interests in Africa. Google sponsored the BarCamp, giving us a whole building for free – an auditorium, a kitchen/bar with free food all day (yay!) and more than 10 rooms all with internet, power,...

I know Valentine's day has already passed but this is never late. Besides, everyday should be valentine's don't you think? It is pretty commercialized now. It's even National Chocolate Day in Ghana. I didn't get the chance to munch on some Golden Tree on Saturday but I did get some on Sunday. That right there is fulfillment for the weekend. A friend and I happened to be checking out commercials and it reminded me about some African commercials I had found and was going to share with y'all. Well, here they are. I picked up some that revolve around the Valentine Day themes. Please don't tell me I have to tell you what those themes are. First up, we have an ad from MTN Nigeria. I fell in love with this advert when I first saw it. For all the long-distance lovers, this is for you. You need to be in Africa and have MTN though - so that even when you're apart, you're still together. In fact, the Nigerians force on this one. More props. They should have cho...

One time as I was minding my business at Suuch Solutions' offices at Avenida Hotel, a couple of young boys came by to sell some Ghanaian and Nigerian movies (VCDs). They had a bunch, and the only ones I had seen were 'A Sting In A Tale' , 'Perfect Picture' , 'Heart of Men' and 'Silent Scandals'. I wanted to buy a couple new movies to watch but was unsure what to choose. These days, I only watch Ghanaian or Nigerian movies that are recommended. Since I didn't have too much money, I was only going to purchase a Ghanaian film. I settled on 'Sin of the Soul' because the movie looked awfully familiar. I explained to the guy selling the films that was all I will buy though he tried to suggest many other titles. Upon seeing 'Sin of the Soul', I must say it was worth the money I paid for it and it's one of the best performances by Majid Michel and Nadia Buari. Sin of the Soul (SOTS) is directed by Frank Rajah Arase and produced by H...

One major question we ask in the intro format at Konnect meetups focused on #Volunteeringh is: " When did you last volunteer to help others and how? " My answer is normally: " Yesterday, or today, I gave someone a free ride ". Basically, I stop the #vimride at a stop, asked folks where they were going, and if they were going my direction, I politely asked to give them a free ride, and if they accepted, I did the needful. " Are you not afraid? " No . I do this as carefully as I can. If you are afraid for me, pray for me. Thank You . As I do each year, I spent National Volunteer Day giving free rides.  National Volunteer Day ( NVDay ) is a GhanaThink Foundation initiative, launched on September 21, 2013 , to promote volunteerism in Ghana and connect volunteers with opportunities. It is linked to Ghana's Founders' Day holiday and aims to encourage citizens to volunteer for community service and skill development. The day is part of GhanaThink...

Got this email today from Jojoo Imbeah of Kasahorow & Suuch Solutions about G-Ghana, a Google-organized event in Accra from June 3-4, 2010. Though am really excited about this, I wouldn't be able to attend the event. You're Invited to G-Ghana! Google is very excited to meet with software developers, technology entrepreneurs and marketing professionals in Ghana. G-Ghana will be a two day event to engage with local software developers and tech entrepeneurs and marketers. Please review the details below and register today ! We would like to thank the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) for hosting our Google team's specialized training days in Accra. Day 1: For Software Developers June 3rd A day focused on pushing the boundaries of web applications using Google developer technologies. Google engineers and web development leaders will lead you through one full day of in-depth sessions on the latest Google technologies and hands-on codelabs. * Mu...

Recently, my South African friend Keitumetse 'Tumi' Diseko approached me about interviewing me for a website called Jucy, a community blog started by one Nzinga Qunta, who works for Channel O as a presenter on their popular O Boma. I met Tumi through my work at Museke.com and she formerly worked for MTV Base Africa. According to Nzinga's interview with Rage , Jucy is an African celeb news and entertainment site, with a little bit of inspiration to go out there and be fabulous! In her words, "Imagine Afrika and get to know celebs from the African continent who are doing amazing things, and I just thought it would be cool to read about them and not just American or European people." They also take a keen interest in Africans on the continent and in the diaspora doing big things in their respective careers, etc. It's an honour to be interviewed in the 'People You Should Know' category. Below is the story from the Jucy website __________________________ ...

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...