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Learnt how to say "Thank You" in 23 African languages

March 26, 2013, 5:57 pm
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Today, I learnt how to say "Thank You" in yet another African language. So let me take a stab at seeing if I can say "Merci" in 23 African languages. And let's share some small attendant info. :-)
  1. Akan: Medaase. What you thought I wouldn't add my mother tongue? Some folks can't say what "thank you" is in their lingua francas. Such a fracas. Don't belittle this at all at all.
  2. Ga: Oyiwaladonn. I don't remember when I learnt this but I do know I learnt to say "Nnuu Ga" (I can't speak Ga) during the time I came to Accra to represent KNUST JSS in Kiddie Quiz and me and my Kumasi-living mates were testing our Ga knowledge.
  3. Ewe: Akpe. I love saying "Akpe kakaa" and I am not sure why.
  4. Dagbani: Ti pagi da. Yeap, Jemila Abdulai taught me this one. Thrice.
  5. Hausa: Na gode. I should have known this a long time ago but thanks to Manre Chirtau, I will not forget this one. Ever. Alafia lo!
  6. Swahili: Asante. Yeap, thank you in the most popular language is the same as its most famous kingdom. Or if you spell it Ahsante, then you can forget what I just wrote before.
  7. Zulu (& Siswati): Ngiyabonga. This is one of my favourite words to say. Swazibella aka Phelele Fakudze taught me this and many more. She's the best. Though from Swaziland, she speaks like 11 languages, including many from South Africa.
  8. Yoruba: E se. That's such a short way to say Thank You given how loud Nigerians are. Or are Yoruba people quiet? If you realise they are from the same place as the Gas, you will debunk the last previous statement.
  9. Igbo: Dalu. Or Imela. The words have stuck with me since I got some song from Samsong called on repeat - Bianule.Great gospel from Naija.
  10. Luganda: Weebale. Imagine me going to Uganda and saying this word all over Kampala. They accepted me as their own and Richard Nshuti Mayanja was alive.
  11. Kinyarwanda: Urakoze. Matilda Mutanguha probably deserves a huge chunk of credit for my Swahili prowess, amongst a few other language things. I will love to say this word to Rwanda's Kagame one day.
  12. San: Foo Barka. I learnt this from a Burkinable friend and I just love saying to her "Foo Barka Burkinababe.
  13. Sissala: Nlolo. I learnt this on Valentine's Day in 2013. Try making me forget that. Ronke taught us that and more. See tweet.
  14. Frafra: Mpuyiha. I could have learnt this from King Ayisoba but he keeps on saying "Kai kai kai". I learnt this via a mix of Ali Maiga's guidance and traveling to Tamale for Barcamp Tamale.
  15. Xhosa: Nkosi. I learnt this from watching Mzansi movies and it was reinforced in me by Phelele.
  16. Setswana: Kea leboga. O kae is a bonus for "how are you?". Okai, one of my best Stanford buddies wouldn't make me forget this. And also that No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series set in Botswana. My buddy from Botswana Tebatso also helped.
  17. Amharic: Amesegnalehu. I used to write this as Amesegnaleho until I discovered 3G for Ethiopia and 3G - Girma Goitom Gemechu for me in Addis Ababa.
  18. Nyanja: Zikhomo. I learnt this after a Zambian artist got a song of the name onto Museke. Too bad, I haven't had the chance to use the word in person in Lusaka though.
  19. Lingala: Melesi. I learnt this Congolese word after having a steady dose of Makoma's gospel music in my playlist. Matilda and Afroziky are to thank for this.
  20. Wolof: Djerdjef. I never made any proper Senegalese friends until I joined Google. Thanks for the likes of Tidjane Deme and Oumoul Sow (who I still haven't met) reinforcing its use in me.
  21. Shona: Tatenda (or Ndatenda). I have Zimbabwean friends called Tatenda and even Tendai (which can also mean thanks). No forgetting this one.
  22. Dioula/Jula: I ni che. I learnt this from some Ivorian ladies I met earlier this year. Turns out the language is popular in Burkina Faso too.It's also the same thing in Bambara which is popular in Mali.
  23. Fang: Abora. I just learnt this tonight from this Gabonese chic I befriended just this year. Funny enough, she couldn't say "How are you" in her own language but she could say "Thank you". Well, abora :-)
This is a series am starting. I have a feeling "Let's go" would be next. Or maybe "I love you". Share how to say "Thank You" in other African languages via the comments. I could have said a few more in other languages, but we had to stop at 23. I don't need to tell you why. And if you think it's because Michael Jordan wore the jersey number 23, you lose your way for the wholewideworld inside. But welcome to the MIghTy African blog anyway. :-)
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Kweku Ananse comes to life with a Chest of Stories

March 28, 2013, 4:16 pm
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Earlier tonight, I was at the Goethe Institut in Accra for the first time in more than 10 years. The last time I was there, I had attended a literary event as a student of Presec. That night, my love for poetry was born. But let's talk about that in another blog post. Tonight, I was there for the premiere of "Kweku Ananse And The Chest of Stories", directed by Johannes Preuß from Germany. I don't remember the last time I watched anything Kweku Ananse related and either I am too old to watch "By the fireside", I don't have a TV or they just don't make "By the fireside" anymore. I love Anansesem though and I wrote this blog post a long time ago on GhanaThink's GhanaConscious Blogs. I do have this animated movie though - "Ananse Must Die". I was excited to see this film and I booked it on my calendar. And on this one too.

The premiere started with a documentary which I missed. But we can all watch it at the end of this blog post. Then Johannes gave some insight into the movie and the choice of the main character Kweku Ananse. We can't belittle the fact that we need to document Kweku Ananse stories in cinema  as the art of storytelling by the fireside is dying and the art of storytelling in the living room is being relegated to not important by Ghanaian parents. Yes, I went there. Anyway, per Johannes' little spiel, I tweeted ...
The movie started out with an everyday scene in a small village which moved into a boy finding a spider and playing with it. Some dadabee kids run away from spiders but not this hard-knock village boy. An elderly man who was sitting nearby told the kid that he was playing with one of the most 'dangerous' animals in the world, called Kweku Ananse. And then our storytelling episode was born. But quickly, there was a telling revelation.

Yup, God is in the story was a 'she'. Not a woman, but a young girl. I asked after the movie why this was so and the explanation was that Johannes and crew wanted to turn the tables a bit. Besides, in traditional customary Ghana, we don't exactly agree that God is a man. The Ga people call God "Naa Nyonmo" where Naa is a title for a woman. It's not the same, but the Akan people also have "Asaase Yaa" (mother of the earth). Johannes said he didn't think God would want to represent himself as an old Santa Claus type person with a beard. Instead, God would choose the most beautiful being it could be - a small beautiful girl.

If you know the folk tale of how stories became named after Ananse, then you know what happens in the movie. Except, the movie is adapted from the story. Kweku did go into the sky. According to the movie, God's habitat is as village like as where Kweku Ananse lives. But what did you expect? :-)
The movie was completely awesome! The twist at the end was really clever as well. I will watch it again and again. The shots and imagery were top-notch, the story flowed, the subtitles were good, and there was even a nice fight scene. We had the various "spirit" effects you see in Ghanaian movies but with a nicer touch. The movie was in Twi but the sound quality was not as irritating as in many local language movies either.

Like many short films, budgets are always a challenge. Johannes found a great way to cut budget which would really be a lesson for many people. He used free music from Creative Commons, worked with actors and actresses who are not 'famous' and still played their roles well, and he shot it with a small Canon camera (but a good one though). The cast were not necessarily experienced but they did quite well. The man who played Kweku Ananse had very little acting experience but plenty of storytelling episodes. The one who played Ntikuma wants to be an actor who is still looking for his big break. The whole movie was shot in about 2 months. You think that's shot? Go to Ashtown in Kumasi and sit on a set of a Miracle films movie. Even shorter.

The movie will be coming to a film festival or screening near you. Stay tuned to this to find it. Or you'd find it elsewhere too. There are more Kweku Ananse movies coming. I met Anthoni Jordi-Owusu who had a little input into this movie and he's working on one, he tweeted this after the movie premiere. There's also the Focus Features backed film called Kweku Ananse by Akosua Adoma Owusu who I blogged about once on her short film "Me Broni Ba".
Watch the full documentary on Youtube that Johannes and crew created around Kweku Ananse earlier.

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Learnt how to say "Thank You" in 16 non-African languages

March 31, 2013, 8:05 am
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After taking a stab at seeing if I could say "Thank You" in 23 African languages, I decided to try this with non-African languages. Wasn't easy koraa. And let's share some small attendant info. :-)
  1. French: Merci. I learnt this way before Class 4. Pourquoi? I can't add French? Parce que? Let me count it. Je parle Francais en peut. 
  2. German: Danke. I learnt this correctly when I found myself in Amsterdam while traveling to Ghana from America. 
  3. Dutch: Danke je wel. We had just bought some stuff at an Amsterdam bar and we thought it well to say "Thank You". No, I didn't have some of the stuff. Just some tea. We didn't go to the Red Light District but let's just say Amsterdam is quite the liberal city.
  4. (Mexican) Spanish: Gracias. I was forced to learn this when I went to the Dominican Republic for spring break in March 2006 with 5 other African guys. My Spanish was non-existent but I was able to have a 30 minute conversation with a hot mamacita in Spanglish by the 6th day.
    4.5 - (Espana) Spanish: I befriended one gorgeous Spanish lady in Palo Alto once and she told me that this word is different in real Spanish compared to the Hispanic version popularized in the US. In Spain, it is Gratias. Si. 
  5. Portuguese: Obrigado. My Angolan friend, Isabel Correia, hasn't taught me enough Portuguese. I think I learnt this one from listening to and loving Kizomba music. 
  6. Chinese: Xie xie. I learnt this from a Chinese-American friend, Danielle Wen, while I was part of a trip with her visiting Ghana from MIT. D-Lab things. 
  7. Japanese: Arigato. Maybe if I paid more attention during "Oshin", I would have learnt this. But I learnt sometime when I was at MIT. Don't remember details.
  8. Tagalog: Kumusta. I had a Philipino housemate at MIT who taught me this. Nah, she was not Blazian. Do you know how hot half-black, half-Philipino girls are? Mamamia. 
  9. Italian: Grazie. The chances that I learnt this from Mario Balotelli are as slim as Bill Gates coming to Ghana and donating 2.33 billion cedis to forward-thinking initiatives. But I know if anyway. Partly thanks to Farida Alabo.
  10. Russian: Spasibo. Learnt this from a dear friend of mine and partly thanks to an afternoon I spent with a cousin who is half-Russian too in Virginia, USA.
  11. Ukranian: Dyakooyu. Had to follow this one after learning it in Russian. I have a couple of friends who are half-Ukranian though.
  12. Serbian: Hvala. I can't remember if I learnt this to impress a friend who was half-Serbian or I learnt this from herself - Uche Monu. I'm pretty sure I didn't learn it from the countless Black Stars' coaches.  
  13. Arabic: Shukran. Would you remember who taught you this? Too many people speak Arabic. From Ghana to Egypt to Tanzania.
  14. Hindi: Shukran. I learnt this from my Stanford housemate Sunasir Dutta. He thought me a whole lot more which I can't remember now.
  15. Greek: Efkaristo. I struck a long conversation with a taxi driver who was from Greece one time in the Bay Area. And he thought me how to say this. 
  16. Turkish: Sagolun. There were always so many Turkish guys playing soccer on the fields of MIT and Stanford. Have you watched Turkish football games? They have some passionate fans. I can remember clearly my MIT Turkish friend telling me "Sagolun" for the great work Stephen Appiah aka Tornado gave to Fenerbahce!
Let's see how far we can get this series. But dayum, Africa has way too many languages. I could struggle to get 50 non-African langauges to tell you. I couldn't have said a few more in other languages, so let's stop at 16. Yup, one starting soccer eleven and its reserves. I hope to travel to as many of these countries and speak it to the local folks. :-)
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Bissap juice is whatsapp! Obolo joy for Sobolo!

March 31, 2013, 8:57 am
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Happy Easter everyone! Today is Easter Sunday 2013 - March 31, 2013. It's been a relaxing Easter weekend. I am in Kumasi just like I was for the last Easter Sunday which was on April 7, 2012. On that day, I met a lady at an event on the KNUST campus. She sold me some Bissap juice. Ever since that sale, I've been sold. Not to her o! But on Bissap juice.

I had attended a Classics 4 Christ show at the Independence Hall JCR. It was night of praise and worship, poetry and various performances. After the show, there was a little stand selling various snacks and drinks. I discovered that Bissap juice was being sold and quickly bought some. Because it is a cool African drink. Because the lady selling the juice was so pleasant and cute. One or all of the two. I found out she was not from Ghana, she was from a Francophone West African country. I took her number and bought some more Bissap.

I never called her for a long time until I whatsapped her one day. She remembered who I was, especially because I had taken her number. We became good friends, I visited her a couple of times when I was back in Kumasi too. She made me some more Bissap later in the year of which I took some home. My mother saw it and she enjoyed having it.

Every other time I had the chance to drink Bissap, I bought that. I bought it 2 different times when I had Auntie Muni Waakye. Ganyobinaa also made some for me once. That violet looking juice had become a favorite. Bissap is a well known drink in Africa, especially in West Africa. From Senegal to Guinea, Bissap is sold on every busy street. It is basically the juice of the hibiscus flower chilled or frozen into a slush.....with lots of sugar. Slushy but yummy :-)

My mother had loved the Bissap juice so much that she investigated how to make some. Today, she gave me some home-made bissap. She had been inspired from the time I brought some home. She had found the ingredients to make it. "With about 6 cedis worth of ingredients, we have more than 4 Coke bottles worth of Bissap juice and more". "And it's healthier than Coke". There.

This made me tweet -
Bissap is popularly known as Sobolo in Ghana. I got sooo obolo joy for Sobolo now. I am going to look for a friend or someone to make me plenty Bissap juice that I will stock my fridge with. Bissap all the way! Here is a good recipe to learn how to make Bissap. Off to go have some 2.33 cups of Sobolo (Bissap).
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Learnt how to say "I Love You" in 23 African languages

March 31, 2013, 11:22 am
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If you listen to songs a lot, you will pick out how to say "I love you" quite quickly. Since I have grown to listen to music from all over the continent and used that to build Museke.com, I am well-versed in saying that "1-4-3" line in many mother tongues. Let me show you ;-)
  1. Akan: Medɔ wo! What you thought I wouldn't add my mother tongue? Some folks can't say what "thank you" is in their lingua francas. Such a fracas. Don't belittle this at all at all.
  2. Ga: Mi sumo bo! I learnt this through songs. Especially, Amandzeba's Dede. That's such a classic highlife track.
  3. Ewe: Mi lɔnwɔ! Would you forgive me if I said I (pretty much) learnt this from a Daddy Lumba song? I don't remember which but the Ghanaian Michael Jackson taught me. 
  4. Hausa: Ina sonki. After loving how D-Flex sang Hausa lines while featuring on K. K. Fosu and Ofori Amponsah songs, I had to learn to this one. From who? I don't remember.
  5. Swahili: Nakupenda! That famous Malaika song should take the credit for this one. And then all my East African friends I befriended during my MIT times.
  6. Zulu: Ngiyakuthanda. Phelele Fakudze taught me this one. 
  7. Siswati: Ngiyakutsandza. Phelele taught me this 1 2. :-).
  8. Xhosa: Ndiyakuthanda. All you have to do is remove one letter from the Zulu phrase. If my name was really Siyabonga Mandela, maybe I too would be able to speak and understand 10 languages. 
  9. Yoruba: Mo ni ife re! Funny enough, I learnt this from a song sang by a South African, KB. And this was around the times South Africa and Nigeria were at a pop culture war with things movies like Jerusalema and District 9 seemed to say.
  10. Igbo: A fum gi nanya. After Ifunanya gave P-Square extra time in the limelight and many million hits on YouTube, I wondered what the word meant. And then I learnt this in Igbo too.
  11. Luganda: Nkwagala! I learnt this and other ways to say "I Love You" via this popular song by Tanzania's Lady Jaydee called "Distance". 
  12. Kinyarwanda: Ndagukunda! Another one from the Distance song. I was sure to get confirmation from my Rwandan bestie Matilda. 
  13. Lingala: Nalingiyo. I learnt this Congolese word from the "Distance" song as well. And then it was reinforced by listening to a healthy dose of Barbara Kanam songs.
  14. Dagbani: Mbora nyorami. Barcamp Tamale things o! Thanks to Ali Bukari Maiga for the reminder too.
  15. Amharic: Afekrishalehou! After hearing say what "beautiful" in Amharic was, I had to learn this one next.
  16. Nyanja: Ni kukonda. Yes, you guessed right. I learnt this from hearing it in Zed music and then I confirmed from some Zambians.
  17. Wolof: Damala nob! I want to be able to say this to Viviane Ndour one day. Thanks to Amen Edem for teaching me this. 
  18. Shona: Ndinokuda. I learnt from my Zimbabwean friends. Never got to learn this via the music.  
  19. Changana: Naku randza. I've made friends with many Mozambicans via Museke. Lizha James also once sang this song. Kanimambo to Hamilton Chambela for teaching me this one.
  20. Setswana: Ke a go rata. Learnt it around the time when I was watching that No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series set in Botswana religiously.
  21. Fang: Ma nzing wa. I learnt this recently from a Gabonese chic I befriended just this year. She had to do her homework after I asked her and texted me later.
  22. Dioula: M'bi fe. I learnt this from a couple of Ivorian ladies just this year. This is after I discovered where I could hear Coupe Decale in a club regularly in Accra :-)
  23. Moore: Maam nonga fom. After getting used to a song called "Fo noga Burkina Faso" and finding its meaning, I learnt this one as well from a Burkinababe.
This follows the "Thank You" post in this series. I have a feeling "Let's go" would be next. Share how to say "I Love You" in other African languages via the comments. I could have said a few more in other languages, but we had to stop at 23. I don't need to tell you why. And if you think it's because Michael Jordan wore the jersey number 23, you lose your way for the wholewideworld inside. But welcome to the MIghTy African blog anyway. :-)
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Xoxo, which of the X's and O's be hugs and kisses?

April 8, 2013, 6:01 pm
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I don't exactly remember the first time someone told me "xoxo". I do know who has used it in conversation with me the most though, one of my best friends. She's Francophone and from what I have come to know about Francophone women, things that some of us think are a bit 'romantic' like kissing on cheeks, they see as more 'platonic'. If you've not seen it in action, you are obviously missing out. Anyway, for a long time, I knew 'xoxo' stood for hugs and kisses. But what are the X's and O's?

Sorry, as much as I would have enjoyed that too, we are not really talking about x's and o's, that of the basketball court. We are not talking tactics to winning games here, but don't you be thinking these 'hugs and kisses' are tactics towards winning some lady's heart. It's a rather harmless greeting that is rather endearing. So you can use it as such. "Talk to you later. Xoxo, Ato". But does 'X' stand for hugs or is it 'O' rather? I could have googled it but what's the fun in that? So I decided to ask.
On Facebook, Jemila mentioned "o = hugs. think of arms around u. x = kisses..... I guess we can think of x representing pursed lips."  So we set out to find out what pursed lips were, and Jemila was backed by Essie, and we had this photo to show. See how the baby has pursed her lips? See the 'x' in there. Yeap, that shows x signifies "kisses". While Samuel was trying to cause mischief (hehe), I really thought "Haha.. But the arms cross each other o.. So that is x too, And the os can be kisses... See how the lips come out n an o happens in the middle lol" But as Jemila rightly pointed out, we wrap our arms around people when we hug them, and we don't cross the arms and leave the hands unattached to the body. Unless, you do some of those half-hugs aka church hugs. (Wait, I have them mixed up?) This statement pretty much settled the debate. "the pic denotes PURSED LIPS. Which is what a kiss is born from. - your lips drawing together = x = pursed lips."
Kwasi came to report the answer on Twitter.  But then Mimi disagreed. By then, I had been sold on the other answer so I convinced her otherwise.

Now that you know, you don't have free reign to go use "xoxo" as a sign-off to an email or conversation o. If you create any weird moments, don't come and credit me. But then again, what do you really have to lose? Try it :-) It's like using the Facebook Poke feature, as innocent as it is risque. :-) But for real, the use of 'xoxo' is for people who are special to you. You can all come for the O's but the X's are reserved. Except for the cheeky ones we'd pull off courtesy our Francophone friends ;-)

But really, if 'xoxo' is hugs and kisses, and the 'x' is for kiss and the 'o' is for hug, why don't people say kisses and hugs. Let's end the confusion, let's all write or speak "xoxo" to say "kisses and hugs". :-)

PS: those of you causing confusion with your 'x', 'xx', 'xxx' usage, unless you are Francophone, watch the way you use it o. Mimi has already alerted us
PPS:  What was the point of this blog post? Okay, I added too much info but if you don't know the point of this blog post, you miss road.
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My nududu (food + drink) delight in Lagos, Nigeria

April 11, 2013, 6:02 pm
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I was in Lagos, Nigeria for the fourth time this week. In fact, the trip was so short, I am not sure I got the chance to introduce myself as Ayooluwaato Eze to anyone. Now, that dey make me kolo. Because I have so much to say, this is not the blog post in Pidgin. That thing no go be easy. But I go do. I baby jetted into to Lagos Tuesday evening and commotted for there Thursday morning. Let's take that again. I don land for Lagos Toosday evening jor wey I reton to Accra Torsday morning. Let me tease Ayooluwaato Eze's people a bit. Friendly banter between Ghana and Nigeria. Anyway, on to the stories.

Actually, some immigration or customs guy at the Murtala Mohammed airport thought I was Nigerian so didn't ask me to show my vaccination card while he asked a friend and "my Oga at the top". I was not in a mood to pull the Ayooluwaato card cos I was in a hurry to catch what was left of the Champions League games and my jovial nature doesn't rub off Naija aggression well some times. It's surprising how inefficient we Africans sometimes get things done. In fact, I know we need jobs for people but do we really need "jobs for the people" at the expense of efficiency, lean "mean machine" development and . The ride to the hotel in Victoria Island from the airport made me wonder "where is all the "lights-off" we hear about Naija? Lagos doesn't have load shedding but many generators so it's tough to really see what irrational power supply looks like in many sections of Lagos.
Because I am such a foodian, I love to eat. But especially, I like to indulge in local food. So my friend Eki welcomed me properly to Las Gidi with some suya at Glover Court (which had been recommended by my friend Shirley on Facebook). I had beef, kidney meat, gizzard and pork (tozo). The guest house we settled on didn't have Chapman, a local favorite, which was disappointing. But it was understandable cos when we entered the restaurant, the employees were sleeping (literally!) though they said they were open for business. Sounds like Africa's story too in many cases o! Africa, we for learn (coincidentally, am listening to this song sang by Rocky Dawuni).

I had an interesting lunch on Wednesday. Yea, sadly, I didn't get pounded yam, eba, gala, kilishi or some proper Nigerian food. Neither did I get what I would have really wanted - waakye. What? I couldn't get waakye in Lagos? Why, Ghanaians don't live here? I wanted to have a #WaakyeWednesday in Las Gidi. Gidigidi. I 'settled' for rice and chicken wings. The rice was that popular big-grain Uncle Ben type rice that is synonymous with Nigerians. This sparked debates with the following Q and A. "why do Nigerians eat this kind of rice while Ghanaians eat this other kind?" Nigerians like this kind and it is more "filling'. "Which one is more popular around the world?" From perspective, whichever rice you have grown up eating more. But apparently, Uncle Ben type rice is more popular worldwide than Jasmine type rice. "Do we grow different types of rice?" Maybe, but we couldn't really tell. Why? "Do we both import unhealthy amounts of rice and choose differently?" Because, we don't know what we grow because there is so much imported rice on the market, some of which carry local names. And yes, we choose differently.
I went to Bottles in Ikoyi to meet with a friend's sister and also watch the Barcelona game. Because Bottles is such a great name for a bar which serves bottles and their margaritas are to die for and their chicken wings would make you fly like Super Eagles, the whole damn place was reserved. We couldn't find a place for the 3 of us to sit. "You can make reservations for tomorrow", the waitress said. "Sorry, I don't know when I am coming back to Lagos, you've lost me for now". If you got to a restaurant and 80% of tables were empty but were told you can't get a table because they are all reserved for a certain time that was 20 minutes away, would you consider coming back the next day? Okay.

We ended up at Terra Kulture in Ikoyi where I asked the waiter this question "Please recommend a wholly Nigerian drink for me that is not Chapman". As a MIghTy African, at African places at home or abroad, I almost always order a drink that is "African", or has an African name unless none exist. Supporting our own. I do the same with food most of the time too. I ended up getting palm wine and a mix of fruit juices called Ololufe. Yeap, African named drink on the menu. It was as sweet as that Wande Coal song too. If someone asked me if I loved the drink, I will be singing "I do, I do". I then run into 2 friends from Boston who were now living in Lagos. Yes o! The MIghTy African knows many many people.

Later that night, I got some more suya. This time, I had beef, kidney meat, gizzard, pork, saki (pronounced shaki) which is cow stomach and a little bit of masa (rice pudding). I asked the Glover Court Oga to give me some masa to taste cos I wanted to test it before deciding to buy some. I wasn't sure then why it was so difficult for him to cut a little piece for me to try. But yeah, I can't do that at a Thai restaurant but because the masa was right in front of me, I thought I get it from a night suya stand. The things we take for granted. He only gave me some to taste after my friend Loveth had convinced him in Hausa (or some other language) and I offered to pay 50 Naira for a small piece of rice pudding (that's like 23.4 cents thereabout). But then again, like my friend Onche said, could you go to into a Burger King and ask to sample a burger because you've not had that burger before? See, what we try to get away with as Africans? Hehe.
Loveth asked me about why we didn't have Suya in Ghana. "Because we have khebabs?" Suya's wikipedia page says in Ghana, suya is called "chichinga". Not quite, but it's a better answer than I would have given. It would be nice to have a Ghanaian version of Chapman and have many more Ghanaian restaurants serve palm wine. Nigeria's aggression has ensured they sell 'palm wine' more than we do. The Francophone Africans have also given us 'Bissap' which has been packaged as an expensive drink in restaurants when its Ghanaian cousin 'sobolo' is sold much more cheaply on the streets. We can do the same with ..... erm .... asana? We've done it with coconut water. We can do more. Let's create some nududu delight which pays even more. In layman's terms, let's package local drinks and food for (domestic) tourism purposes. Let's not wait for my Oga at the top

PS: Nududu is food in Ewe, Nududu Delight is an online project bringing you the best of Ghanaian and African food and drinks, etc. See Twitter, and Facebook.
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Getting my @TerryPheto crush on again via @Joselyn_Dumas + videos

April 11, 2013, 7:32 pm
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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 a music video?" that was informing this situation. She was playing Lynxxx's love interest, getting married in a grand Ghana-Naija wedding and all. Like many top Nigerian music videos these days, there are some Azonto dances, except they are not by Joselyn. Madam Dumas, you need to show us your azonto moves o! Abeg. Because your friendEfya did it in a cameo in the video.

Watching the video caused me to tweet a bunch.

(This is one blog post). So enter Terry Pheto into my life again. Both Joselyn and Terry are 'boldly beautiful'. Maybe Joselyn would feature on the Bold & Beautiful one day like Terry. I searched for blog posts mentioning her that I had written and spent some time on this Hopeville one and this Tsotsi one. Just another reminder that I need to own that award-winning Hopeville DVD. So then I did a Youtube search for Terry to see what she had been up to in the world of video, and found this Robot video.

This is a good time to confirm that indeed Idris Elba is half-Ghanaian. And half Sierra-Leonian. Nigerians, especially should back off him. You can celebrate him like you celebrate Azonto, but it will never be owned by you. Okay? Okay. Lol, back to the blog post. Idris Elba is a smart dude for featuring Terry Pheto in a Youtube video. It has too many few views though so hopefully I can help a Ghanaian brother. Yup, as much bravado as he has. Lynxxx's video with Joselyn is past 1 million views but that is a heavily promoted music video. C'mon Idris, you can do this. Put some money behind this video and we'll do some viral marketing :-)

The video is creative and I (and many others) can stare at a Terry Pheto robot for daze (days). Did Terry really say "Where have you been? Someone was gonna fuck me in here/I had some crazy motherfucker in here, he was cute. Now, let's go?" Ayayai! Ayobaness! But seriously, it takes more than teddy bears, attention-grabbing dances, soccer, mad skills, nice dinners and digital things to grab the attention of an African woman like Terry Pheto. Yup, you need an African man like Idris Elba. Hehe.

I am one o! ;-) The day I meet Terry Pheto, I will be sure to blog about it. Let me start planning it :-) She follows me on Twitter already. :-d I've already met Joselyn Dumas a couple of times. If I am to narrate those stories, we will have another juicy blog post on our hands. So let's leave that for another day. Unless, y'all force me to do it soon lol. I was going to leave you all with a bonus Terry Pheto video but after watching it, it dawned on me that I am a hopeless romantic like Terry Pheto. OMG! Terry, marry me (thando lwam) :-) Or marry Siyabonga Mandela. Who? More on him later. The video has Lira's Phakade in the background. Okay, am done. This is just too much (lekker).


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Attending Ghanaian movie "House of Gold" premiere, and a review

April 13, 2013, 4:00 pm
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I received an email earlier this week about the House of Gold movie premiere from Optimum Media. I had seen the billboards in Accra and I was interested in watching the movie. The Pascal Amanfo Imagination (aka movie directed by Pascal Amanfo) and Yvonne Nelson production featured an all-star cast with an intriguing movie title - House of Gold. I hadn't reviewed a Ghanaian movie in awhile so I saw this as a fine opportunity to jumpstart that for 2013.

After trying to but unsuccessfully getting a media tag for the premiere on Friday, April 12, I arrived at the National Theatre at 8:15pm ready to watch the second screening at 8:30pm. Interestingly, there was another event happening at National T - Face of Wisconsin. As in Wisconsin University in Ghana, don't get it twisted. The premiere was organized by Media GH, a media arm of Dream Holdings, of which Yvonne Nelson is an owner. Many Ghanaian entertainers are using their earnings and benefits of being celebrities to create more revenue generating channels, creating companies and investing. It is great to see Yvonne tread this path too. Interestingly, Dream Holdings is also relaunching Vibe FM as Live FM and this movie premiere was a great avenue to market that.

Turns out I was 2 hours early to the second screening as the 8:30pm showing happened at 10:15 pm. Clearly, the 6pm showing started more than 90 minutes late. Ghanaians are traditionally fashionably late but really, the movie premieres should have started on time. Many of the ladies attending the movie premiere needed time to get dressed, as in "dressed to kill" but that should have had no bearing on the movie start times. Media GH and other entertainment event organizers in Ghana have to keep to time. If you don't, then find ways to reward those who come early when you are on time. But agya momma yɛnka na Accra mmaa bɔ life paa o! Accra ladies dress UP when they are attending entertainment events. The local fashion industry must be booming.
The movie synopis is as follows. It's the story of Dab Ansah Williams, a high flying entrepreneur/business mogul, polygamist and socialite, who is battling with cancer and has 6 weeks left to live according to medical practitioners. With the help of his long time associate and legal representative, he embarks on a mission to call all his children back home – most of whom were born out of wedlock and various illicit affairs. The re-union proves a little more than everyone bargained for as each child returns with an agenda, setting the stage for the most hilarious and bizarre 7 days of their lives. At the end, they realize that there is just too much for too many.
After spending some time deciding to show the "Behind the Scenes" footage of House of Gold, it was shown and we were on to the main event at last. House of Gold featured a cast of Majid Michel, Eddie Watson, Yvonne Nelson, Luckie Lawson, Umar Krupp, etc and Nigerian musicians Omawumi Megbele, Mercy Chinwo and Ice Prince Zamani. This was the first time I had seen Omawumi and Ice Prince in a movie. I am wondering if this was their debut or they had already featured in some Nollywood movies. Omawumi acted her role pretty well and though the Oleku singer was not as convincing, he didn't fare too badly. His song Aboki was also part of the soundtrack and was played at an appropriate time.

The movie had a lot of funny scenes which would make me declare that it was a comedy. Aside a few strong scenes, what many will remember about seeing the movie are the funny moments. Because the script was well thought-out, many will also remember some quotes. I must reveal that the movie had a lot of French lines, ably delivered by the twosome of Marlon Mave and one Emefa lady who tag-teamed in great private scenes and others which involved other cast members. 

The scene in which Mercy Chinwo (playing a maid) sang Omawumi's "Serious Love Nwantiti" with Majid Michel (first son of the house owner) was one of my favorites. I kept thinking this girl can sang! Turns out she is a Nigerial Idol season winner. Given that Omawumi had a very "unserious love" in the movie, having Mercy's character sing a song she has composed was quite ironic and a genius move. Two of my favorite quotes in the movie were generated out of the Majid-Mercy chemistry which bore "If wishes were horses, beggars will play polo" leading to Mercy's character asking another maid "If wishes were horses, will you ride?".

The John Bosco character was consistent and Francis Odega shined in this role. His Pidgin soundbites (though verbose) made you pay attention lest you missed some hilarious lines. After taking some insults in Queen's language English from another worker in the "House of Gold", he said "I swear I no understand anything. Use the language wey I go understamd so I go reply you!" Talking about verbose, one character had viewers expectant the very moment we got to learn that he speaks "big grammar". But once that happens 1 2 many times, we get lines like Majid's character saying "for the duration of this flight, can you please shut up?"

The movie was set as such but in what is becoming a hallmark of multiple Ghanaian movies in English, the settings showed upper class Ghanaian families. Akesesɛm. Viewers were shown the Jaguar sign on the car twice as if to say there is a Jaguar in this car. Roar! It's hard to fathom why we feel we must show grandiose fashion, property and lifestyles in Ghanaian movies to show that we are producing great Ghanaian movies. It's one thing to make people aspire to such lavish lifestyles, it's another thing to paint pictures that are not reality. Besides, we can produce movies that show normal and unassuming Ghanaian settings and the films will shine in the quality of the scripting, setting, acting and use of things like music.

I wouldn't be giddy to watch this movie again and again. It's a good movie to enjoy with friends and in public but it's not a collectible in my opinion. The long speech at the end was a bit out of place though that scene brought the movie's story lines together. The memorable quotes give the movie a plus and there was enough comedy scripted in to make it thoroughly enjoyable. If you are looking a good night out, catch "House of Gold" when it is showing at a cinema near you.
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A story of picking up "Dressed to Kill" women in Accra

April 14, 2013, 12:34 pm
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After watching House of Gold with my sister on Friday at its premiere in the National Theatre amidst many“dressed to kill” women, I set out to meet and party amongst some of them in Accra. My friend Nii had told me about a house party in Labone but I couldn’t go there right after the movie premiere because my sister wanted some food. When I had dropped off my sister at her place, I received word that the house party was ending and so we had to change location. What happened after is a diary entry. Here it is.

I met Nii and Seyram and we headed to BellaRoma. True to form, the bouncer said we had to pay 20 GhC before entering. I have set a “no paying cover for as much as possible for clubs” in general so I wasn’t buying that. After seeing a couple of people enter for free, I asked the bouncer why I had to pay. Of course, he had no answers for me. Because if he was in my shoes, he wouldn’t want to hear whichever nonsense he would have been spewing out. Nii had already been at BellaRoma and he left with me and Seyram for another club. Before leaving, I told the bouncer “you just lost a customer”. He may not care but his Oga at the Top would.

Duplex was charging 10 GhC which included a drink selection. Duplex plays too much techno music for my liking but enough songs to make PartyCrewGh take over. Nii left early though and when his “I’m leaving” text came in, I was wondering whether he was leaving to conquer some banku and tilapia. Seyram and I spotted two ladies beside us who were really not having a good time. “Are you going to be a Good Samaritan and make them enjoy being here?” Ultimately, the answer was no. But for real, there’s less “asabone” in clubs and parties these days o. Is it because we’ve grown older? Likely. Cos the last party I attended graced by several university (and younger) students had a huge share of up, close and personal dancing. Seyram left earlier than me as well. I danced with a duplexcouple of girls and once the latter one (and her sister) started doing “buy me tequila”, it was the sign to go home. I told them I was going to get money from my car and after ensuring they were not following me to it, I bid Duplex goodbye. This is not quite the antenna those chics do me, but it was satisfying.

I walked past a couple of girls who were bargaining a taxi fare to go home. I poked my nose in their business and asked “Where are you going?” “East Legon.” “Oh, I am going to East Legon too, I can drop you off, if you want. It’s up to you”. I made my point clear and walked away, checking back twice to see if they would follow. 2.33 seconds later, they had left a disappointed taxi driver in their wake and were gallantly gallivanting in my direction. “Are you alone?” Lmao, they taught I was some dangerous guy. I replied in the affirmative and began to tell them how I am on a mission to give free rides to different people who need them and are generally going to same routes I will be trespassing. “Do you always pick up ladies?” “No, I pick up anyone. Except one time, I stopped to pick up folks at 37 and the way some boys approached my car, I immediately doused all ‘free ride’ ideas till they had gone away”. “My family members have been cautioning me around giving free rides lest I do a favor for a dangerous person, so I have been careful”. The I Made Ghana Better Today campaign is on. #IMGBT


I had outdone myself this time. I was picking up girls from clubs and giving them free rides home. Not free rides home, but free rides to their homes. “Were you at Duplex?” “Yes, I was”. Funny thing is I didn’t see these two ladies at Duplex. I moved around a bit so I was surprised I hadn’t noticed them either. One girl lived near VIASAT so we first dropped her off. We happened to pass by Twist which was popping as usual, I even saw and chatted with a married couple I knew driving by. By the time ‘Pina had entered her house, I had possibly gained a new fan for Barcamp Ghana. Erm yeah, I am using my #IMGBT campaign to get the word out on things like Barcamp Ghana that make Ghana better anyway. ‘Pinawas quite chatty and inquisitive. Whenever I pick up folks, I normally drive the conversations. Must be that ‘docile nature’ Ghanaians tend to have.

Wanita moved into the passenger seat as we left Labone for East Legon. After singing along to one of my current favorite songs playing out of car’s CD compartment, I asked her what she does. Turns out she’s a Valley View University (VVU) student in HR who’s been spending a number of weekends in East Legon. That's because there isn’t much to do in Oyibi and Valley View doesn’t quite have the campus culture to keep its students entertained. I told her about the two times I was at VVU to talk to some computer science and internet lovers. Wanita was going to Adjiringanor, which is further away from home so I took her all the way there. Not there o! There, to her home.

I would have thought her name would be Juanita but the Wanita relevation summoned the common question – “Where are you from?” “I’m a Northerner”. “Oh, what tribe?” “Mamprusi”. “Oh cool,  l learnt some small Mamprusi when I was in Tamale for Barcamp Tamale. Mpuyiha”. “I can’t speak Mampruli”. “Oh, why?” Because Y has a long tail. No, she rather said “Because I wasn’t thought and I’ve never been to my hometown”. If you are an adult Ghanaian who lives in Ghana and you have never been to your  hometown, H A P P Y Shaaaaaame! I didn’t tell her that, but she and all like her have to rectify that pronto. At some point while taking her (I mean taking her home - wait, taking her in my car home), I thought of using a “pick-up line” but never used it. I did try to pick up some ladies once upon a time. I had picked her up to East Legon anyway hehe. I took her number, bid her goodnight and returned home. Ekyena nso so tomorrow. Do you know how much a taxi ride from Osu to Adjiringanor would have cost past 2:33am in Accra? I Made Ghana Better ThatNight hehe

PS: My friend Nana always likened me to one of the most interesting men alive. Wouldn't you agree with him after this blog post? And this one? And that one? Well, the Dos Equis man is mad interesting too, so I chose this picture. The ladies didn't fall but I made them need me. ;-)
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Hanging with Naija babes in Accra

April 14, 2013, 12:55 pm
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I have decided to party less in 2013. So after partying on Friday night, I was sure to spend Saturday night at home. Especially, if I would have light at home. But after being visited by Nii, Obinna, Stephen and Ali, I entertained second thoughts. While writing one blog post, I received a call around 9:30pm from a friend, Brian, inviting me to a house party. After missing the few hours of last night’s house party, I was keen on this one. A couple of friends were not responsive and some others wanted to stay in, but I decided to honour Brian’s invitation. Because the last time I attended one of his parties, I ended up drinking Vimto and meeting Francophone women who would make you say “Oh la la”.

When I arrived at the AU Village, the ‘gateman’ directed me to Brian’s. "You will see a place with many cars packed". Fair enough. I had seen a Asian-looking lady walking down the road and asked her “Are you going to Brian’s place?” “Sorry, I don’t know Brian”. Like tonight, we go party plus Asian women, but too bad, she wasn’t heading my way. I finally found Brian’s residence and though the numbers were fewer than expected, I took a bold step and went into the house. I was greeted by 3 guys and 6 babes. If you are scoring at home, that is 1:2. If there was one less guy, that would be three threesomes. Sɔɔɔɔɔɔme! Awesome! The ladies were chillaxing, this was a sit-down party. I got some berry good juice punched by some absolut vodka and found a seat in between three girls, one of which was sleeping.

I started talking to the less prettier chic who we shall call Joyce and it turned out she was a Nigerian who was studying at the Joyce Ababio House of Fashion. I talked about some friends of mine who had been there and we entered a conversation about the local fashion industry in Ghana, focusing on young fashion designers in Ghana and Nigeria. The only Naija fashion name I recognized in the list she talked about was Deola Sagoe. Thank you, Bella Naija. I eventually learnt that the prettier chic was visiting from Lagos (where she works with a family member in an engineering company and who we shall call Lulu) while the third one was a student at Central University who we shall call Tonia. There was one Ghanaian lady and two other Naija babes.

I didn’t get the chance to talk about Ayooluwaato Eze (my Naija alter-ego) in Lagos, but I did talk to these Naija girls about him. They were having a ball with my stories, or maybe they were really thinking “this bros na complete joker jor!” Around this time, Nii had arrived with 2 white guys, a white lady and a Ghanaian lady to up the ‘chillaxed party’ numbers. I told the ladies my father was Igbo and my mother was Yoruba from Anambra and Kwara state respectively. When they asked me about a hometown, I realized I had not formed a good section of the story. Turns out they were all Igbo ladies so I asked the fashion lady to mention a few towns in Anambra state so I could choose one as a hometown. They were all from Akwa but I chose Onitsha since I knew about it prior. Turns out that many Nigerian tribes, including Igbo, are patrilineal, so I hail from my father’s side. Onitsha, am coming to see you one of the fine days.

This was Lulu’s second time in Accra and we started sharing experiences; me in Lagos, she in Accra. I spoke about how the Lagos party goodness was still hype and no substance for me and she gave the same old answer “it depends on who you are hanging with”. After 4 trips, I beg to differ. She shared some info about Rodizzio after which we agreed that the Lagos mainland is a better all-weather party destination than the islands. We had a good conversation. She had wanted to go home with her sisters and friends but us guys were not buying that. “We’re going to Shaka Zulu!” “Oh, do you know the Zulu people? Their king is called Shaka?” Funny enough, I was spotting a Google Lacoste shirt cos I was prepared for the Shaka Zulu dress code. My buddy Obinna was not and he had to borrow a shirt from Brian. The ladies were going to ride solo and leave me and Obinna to the #vimride. “Not my portion (with the hand movement)!” We made sure there was gender-balance in the cars and rode off. Not like ride off, but ride off to a location. I mean a physical building where clubbing happens lol. Doing the gender balance thing made sure the ladies didn’t take the other turn at 37 and head home.

Shaka Zulu was mad fun! I like the club and I think I will be visiting it more often. Erm, I am not saying it was fun because I was with plenty babes but they did make it more fun. Shaka Zulu might just shaka zulu on em! They played a great selection of Ghanaian and Nigerian while we were there. So it’s good to get to Shaka Zulu (in Dzorwulu) past 1:30am. Lulu taught me small alanta o! Tonia was breaking down the #azonto moves while Joyce was getting it. I danced with their friend Portia too small. I also saw my Presec mate Pierre who was leaving as we were arriving. Once the ladies wanted to go home, the partying had ended for me, especially because they lived near me in East Legon. Yup, yet another sets of rides home. ;-)

Obinna and I dropped them off to their house and went on to look for some munchies. We had a couple of conversations around women and here are your takeaways.

PS: All my ladies! Nse nse decale (oya decale)! Iye iye iye iye! Kukere!
There's a Naija movie called 'All My Ladies' o! ---> Watch on YouTube!
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Why defence (defenders) is more imporant than attack (attackers) in a game

April 15, 2013, 4:31 pm
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After watching yet another fine game of football, my buddy Francis and I got into a conversation around what was more important - defenders or attackers? Since, this is sports-related, this debate is a little more relevant to guys. The debate topic (also asked on Twitter) was/is "What is more important to the success of a team in a sporting or physical activity? A good defence or a good attack?" Francis and I agreed that 'defence' is more important and critical. Here are some points that illustrate our point; series of tweets coming up :-)












Francis defended the point and pretty much won the debate with this statement and tweet.
Are you convinced? ;-)

PS: #discos is some hashtag supposed to be for a debate and discussion. Might choose another appropriate hash tag later.
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A Burkinabe Day - Première

April 18, 2013, 6:59 pm
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When I was heading home today, I needed to send some whatsapp messages so I needed to park the car and do so. The only choice on this route was going to be the Burkinabe embassy. The first time I had I stopped there, it was February 6th. I was so saddened by the Black Stars' loss to the Stallions of Burkina Faso that I just had to stop by the embassy and 'pay my respects'. I had told the security guy "look at how your country has made all of Accra sad". I was rooting for the Burkinabe team in addition to our darling Black Stars but if I knew they were going to end Ghana's interest in the Orange African Cup of Nations, I would have refrained from that. Ghanaians were taunting Burkinabes saying "we are going to drink burkina" but after that penalty-shoot out loss, Ghanaian were caught saying "we are going to stop providing electricity for Burkina Faso". Given the current load shedding exercises in Ghana, I am surprised we haven't gone ahead with those threats. Anyway, back to the story of today.

While sending whatsapp messages in front of the Burkinabe Embassy, the security guy came to say whatsup. "Do you remember me?"
"Oui, you were here the day we beat you".
"Yes, allow me to park here small. What's your name?"
"Alhassan Traore".
"Oh, two very common names. Is Traore a Mossi name?"
"No, it is Diula".
"Oh yeah, that's why there are Traores in Ivory Coast too". "Oh, I know what 'I ni che' is"Find out here. Alhassan continued, "I am from Bobo-Dioulasso". That's when I learnt that Bobo Dioulasso is home to the Dioula people in Burkina Faso and that Ouagadougou is home to Mossi people. Mossi is the biggest tribe, followed by Dioula and Fufude (Fulanis). I have some good friends who are San. I said 'barka' and showed off some Mossi I knew. I also said "Maam nonga Burkina Faso" which means "I love Burkina Faso".

I told Alhassan I knew one Burkinabe guy who works at Busy Internet and a lady who studies at OUWA. For some reason, I asked Alhassan what Bobo Dioulasso meant. This is where I wished I knew more French and I wished he knew more English. I unsuccessfully spent over 10 minutes getting him to tel me what Bobo Dioulasso meant in Diula. I even called upon Google Translate to make me speak French but we still didn't make headway. He eventually wrote the word "Sia" on a piece of paper. No, he didn't mean 'kwasia'. His Twi is not even elementary, it's nursery. And it was then that I thought to check out Bobo-Dioulasso on Wikipedia as it might have the meaning of the word. "Sia!" It was there. It meant "home of the Bobo-Dioula". Bobo and Diula are ethnic groups that both speak Diula.

I would have stayed with Alhassan to learn more Diula but I had to rush home to have a meeting. But the freakin #vimride would not spark! I had it parked a little too long so it continued to park and wouldn't generate a spark. There was no one to excuse my French so I yelled many obscenities that would make El Hadj Diouf proud. Alhassan came to see whatsup again but he couldn't help me. A neighbor also came by and after failing to spark the car, stopped the next taxi driver. He tried many things and I unsuccessfully sparked many times. I said a prayer and the car didn't answer. Because I am ridiculous like that, my next prayer was a bunch of jibberish and "Mon Dieu". Vroom vroom vroom! Car sparked! I gave the taxi driver 5 GhC for his time. The neighbour was called Glibert Gilbert and he was a Kasem from Paga. "Where the crocodiles are?" "Yes, very close to Burkina Faso".

I set off for East Legon via Kawukudi junction like I normally do. When I got to Jack And Jill, I thought to myself - "I was just at the Burkinabe embassy, let's go visit the Burkinabe ambassador too". Since his residence was near, I changed my route and went to park at his gate. I parked there so that if he was coming home soon, he will be forced to talk to me. After 2:26 minutes, I blew my car horn. Expectedly, the security man came outside and wondered whatsup. I told him I loved Burkina Faso and I just wanted to come say hi to the ambassador if he was there. No, the security man didn't say "Il est ici", he said "he is here" because he is actually from Ghana. His name was Ismail, from the Busanga tribe and hails from Bawku.

I told him that if I came to meet the ambassador, we'd have to exchange pleasantries, talk about what I know about Burkina Faso, what he thinks of Ghana, etc and that I would be delayed in going to my meeting. I even told him I was a Burkinabe after all and my name was "....." Let me desist from announcing that name before you all start calling me by it. My proper Burkinabe name will come later. I promised to come by again. "I will come with some Burkinabe friends of mine". When I was leaving the area, I saw the Chinese embassy and wondered. why is the Burkinabe's ambassador residence so close to the Chinese embassy? Mere coincidence. I think I already said that Aristide Bancé should go and play in China like Didier Drogba and Seydou Keita did. He will be such a huge star and he shall pound his opposition. Not literally. Figuratively.

Oui, we have part deux. Click ici.
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A Burkinabe Day - Deuxième

April 18, 2013, 6:59 pm
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La premiere ici. I set out to go home, started singing the song that had been repeating in the car - Lira's Ngiyazifela. "I can't help loving you". Can you tell I am in love?

Instead of going home, I thought to myself. "Let's make this a Burkinabe day!" I would call up Stephanie, the lady who organized the Francophone Film Festival in Accra and collect that Burkinabe movie. I would also go to see Tatiana, my OUWA friend, and collect the souvenir she got me from Burkina. Stephanie wasn't picking my calls and Tatiana wasn't replying my whatsapp messages. When I called Tatiana, the phone didn't even ring and I had a voice playback in French. Turns out I was calling a +226 Burkinabe number. I stopped at the 37 Shell (didn't buy fuel) and bought Airtel credit. Except I didn't leave the car cos I was afraid the car wouldn't spark after a park and one of the workers went to buy me the credit. I scratched the card, went through instructions and the USSD message said the voucher was wrong. I had been brought some Vodafone credit instead. After getting the correct Airtel credit, I called and talked to Stephanie. She was traveling the next day and couldn't give me the original copy of Notre étrangère movie to watch. Her friend who had the copy she could give me was in Kumasi. I had to wait 2 weeks for her to come back from vacation so I could watch it. I was going to wait impatiently but I could not wait to get that souvenir.

Tatiana finally replied my whatsapp message as I was about to leave the Shell Station near 37. My last but one Whatsapp message was "Coucou" :-) Apparently, she had Whatsapp on her PC. Yes, you can get that. After she had confirmed that she had the souvenir she had brought me from Ouagadougou with her, I was headed to OUWA. OUWA stands for Open University of West Africa. Yeap, they have many students from West Africa. On my way to OUWA, I passed by 37 through to the front of GIS, Akuffo-Addo circle and down into Osu. I remembered the day I walked from Oxford Street to 37 with a Burkinababe. I will never forget that day. January 26th 2008. That day and around that time, there were no damsels parading themselves whistling at bypassing cars at Akuffo Adoo circle. How times change. Tonight, some policeman stopped me on my way because the vimride didn't have one headlight working. He told me to park and take a look at it but I just kept on going. I had seen the 'light'.

OUWA & SliceBiz had launched HubAccra earlier last week so I thought maybe they may have moved to a new location. While there, Tatiana had confirmed that OUWA was in its older Osu location so I went there. There, I met my namesake Ato who we shall call Cecil, William of the award-winning SliceBiz and Gbenga of AgriPro fame. I was very curious to see what Tatiana had brought me from the former Upper Volta. She handed me a black polythene bag and I felt the item in it and recognised it. "Is this what I think it is?" Tatiana wasn't following. I knew what the item was. It was a wallet. Of course, it wasn't the wallet I lost. Because Tatiana would not be buying a wallet I had lost in Accra that Nima boys had transported to Ouaga.

I took the wallet out. I showed it to William and said, "Take this, all of it, and take from it. This is my blaahh... (did I get you! lol)". I actually said, "What is this?" He responded, "A wallet". "Do I have one?" "I don't know". I did the same with Gbenga who gave a similar answer. Then I showed it to Cecil. "What is this?" He responded, "A wallet". "Do I have one?" "No". Yes! I didn't have a wallet. In fact, I hadn't bought a wallet since it was stolen on March 6th. How coincidental that Tatiana got a gift for me from Ouagadougou and it was the very thing I needed but hadn't bothered to get. Awesome eh? She had bought it at Le Village Artisanal in Ouagadougou where artisans sell a lot of their products - everything being traditional and locally made. Funny thing is, the wallet doesn't have credit card or ID card compartments. Is it because Burkina Faso is a cash and carry society?And Burkinabes don't use cards? Hehe, maybe. The artisan obviously made this wallet for himself and not his potential customers. :-)

So now I can carry some Burkinabe with me everywhere I go. Just lovely. But the story hasn't ended. Continue. A suivre.
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A Burkinabe Day - Troisième

April 18, 2013, 7:00 pm
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Wow, so now I have a new wallet! Did I have money to put into the wallet? Yes. What to use the money for? "Let's go buy some bissap or sobolo to make this day fully Burkinabe!". Tatiana didn't have any in store, so I had to go on a hunt in Osu. I was also getting hungry. La Creperie Terrasse would have been closed by the time I passed by on my way home so that wasn't an option. I thought of a French restaurant near Honeysuckle and headed there. You know how much I love bissap already. The thrill of searching and finding bissap in Osu after 23:33pm was enthralling.

While navigating Danquah Circle, it struck me. Bissap is cool, but Burkina is cooler. There is a drink sold in Ghana that is called Burkina. It would be 226 times more appropriate to have that than Bissap, on this day. I met a number of women speaking French at Grand Ecuyer but the restaurant had no bissap or Burkina. So I cut my losses and headed for Oxford Street, not sure where to pass. That's when I remembered that I had bought some nicely packaged Burkina drink (a yoghurt) at Freshers in East Legon on Sunday. Smoothies didn't have it, and Container didn't contain it. I ended up buying indomie from a nearby seller who told me to check around Danquah Circle. Anyemo! Ole seke ni woye!

I parked by Danquah Circle and picked the most probable seller of Burkina or Bissap. The lady told me all the sellers had closed and gone home, including one of her close friends. To Nima. Should I call up Dominique Werner? Maybe not. Should I call up that hot Gabonese chic who lives in Nima? Non. Should I drive to Nima and look for bissap or Burkina? Better idea but that's a little too far for right now. I decided to throng the shops at the petrol stations and buy the yoghurt - which we shall call "Burkina With Swag". The lady asked, "Are you sure you want to only buy sobolo or burkina?" "Yes, I am". I would not be swayed by what she was selling no matter how hard she tried because I am treading these parts for very specific reasons.

The Osu Total shop had a yoghurt made from millet. While waiting for Tatiana to verify it as Burkina, I googled "burkina drink millet". The Burkinabé cuisine Wikipedia had Bissap as the first "common beverage" with no mention of "Burkina". "I have to get Bissap then?" "Focus, focus". I went to pick up my Indomie and while heading towards to Shell on Oxford Street to get "Brukina With Swag", another policeman stopped me about my light. This time, he didn't let me scot free after I had bought the "Creamy Yoghurt Meal" but couldn't get the petrol I needed to shell into my #vimride. I found the nearest Shell station and bought the fuel. Fueled by my excitement, Tatiana also wanted some Burkina and sadly this other Shell station didn't have it though, though it had Yomi. Yummy but not correct.

After getting the second "Creamy Yoghurt Meal", I bypassed all police checkpoints till I arrived at OUWA again. That's when Tatiana informed me that the drink Burkina is really called "Degue". Yea, it's on this Wikipedia page, I just edited it 2:26 minutes ago. I gave the drink to Cecil and William to taste and enjoyed that with my Indomie. As you might know, Indomie is the prize that Ghana won at the African Cup of Nations after Nigeria won gold, Burkina Faso won silver and Mali won bronze. That's when I wondered, "Is there Indomie in Burkina Faso too?" Because if it is so, then I would have had a 'Burkinabe meal' too. Sadly, it doesn't exist in that market yet. I had met one gentlemen at OUWA called Tambi. I tried to guess his country, but while I guessed Benin, he was from Burkina Faso. Of course, the gods have aligned to make this day as Burkinabe as possible. Tambi wasn't a big fan of Indomie, he probably felt the same way I felt about McDonalds coming to Ghana. Except Indomie is a localized product that is not very different from the 'spaghetti-shito-corned beef' dish we'd have at Presec.

I spent the time typing up this 3-part series listening to Burkinabe songs and chatting with Tatiana, Tambi, William and co. After paying homage to Jonathan Pitriopa using this and that, we listened to a selection of Burkinabe songs from Yeleen, Sissao, Alif Naaba, Smockey, and Pamika. The next thing I would do is choose the name for my Burkinabe alter-ego. Watch this space. A bientot!
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Barcamp Ghana - It's a #morevim movement!

April 20, 2013, 4:27 pm
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Every time I tell people "We've done 19 Barcamps" since December 2008, they are surprised and impressed. Interestingly, I am not. Dorothy Gordon, the Director-General of the KACE-AITI, generously gave the venue for free when she understood what we wanted to do with the Barcamps. After the first Barcamp in Ghana happened, she charged us to have the events in every single region. 2009 saw 1 event, 2010 saw 4, 2011 saw 5, and 2012 saw 8. 2013 will hopefully see 10 Barcamps in Ghana, but not in every single region. It might very well happen.

What is a Barcamp? A Barcamp is a ad-hoc informal gathering of people. It is not peculiar to just 'us', it happens around the world. Google "Barcamp" and you would see. Check out barcamp.org and learn more. Like one of the Barcamp Ghana teammates said, "We have Barcamps personal". Barcamps in Ghana are a evolution of what regular Barcamps are and a revolution around which certain goals are being met. Barcamps in Ghana have become "networking forums". Events where serious discussions happen in an informal and open environment. So yes, it's liking camping in a bar without the loud music and the alcohol. The aim is to bring people together to learn from each other, share with each other and network. Attendees must leave the Barcamps highly motivated, inspired and entreprising. It's that "can-do" attitude.

The Barcamp Ghana project is a GhanaThink Foundation initiative. Some of you might have chanced upon GhanaConscious before. Or seen the projects that have emerged from GhanaThink's Tsooboi arm - like Museke and Kasahorow. GhanaThink used to be a wholly online and was dominated by the Ghanaian Diaspora, the switch has been flipped and it is wholly footed in Ghana with a heavy online presence and a growing offline movement. GhanaThink's mission is to mobilize and organize talent towards the service of Ghana. After online forums were dying out and Facebook was taking over, we increasingly looked to moving discussions to physical events and bringing people together.

Barcamps in Ghana have mostly attracted the youth, especially the aspirational types. When we organized the first Barcamp Ghana event, we intentionally had panelists who were 'young'. 4 of the 8 panelists were around 25 years old. How many panels have you been to anywhere that have panelists who are under 30? If we were going to drive Ghana's youth to be empowered, motivated and make them take charge, we were going to have ourselves and everybody else that there are youth who were already doing so. This has continued, Barcamps in Ghana don't seek out the 'big names who people want to see', it seeks out the younger changemakers, doers and entrepreneurs that people need to know and understand what they do.

What are Barcamps for? Quite simply, we are building a movement of Ghanaian changemakers, doers and entrepreneurs who all know each other. We are fueling the fire of "it's not who you know, but who knows what you know". Through the events and its attendant relationships that are built, we are helping people find business ideas, partners and skills. Projects that have come out of Barcamps haven't been encapsulated and captured adequately but they exist and happen. Through the various breakout sessions, Barcamps have given birth to ideas that were implemented, groups that were finally formed, partnerships that were ironed. Check out 5 things somebody learnt after one event.

Barcamps in Ghana are a "labor of love". The events are free, with free food and drinks all day. They are for everybody, because we need all Ghanaians to buy into the ideals of making (positive) change, doing and entrepreneurship. It's not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. And while you are at it, you must realize value in terms of money, resources, network, reputation, etc. Barcamps have become a spectacle of patriotism, a place where politics is not invited. Ghanaians need to be assembled, to share and build with each other. It is the satisfaction that there is support for what I am doing or what I really want to do. Because others are doing just that.

"More vim" has become a defacto statement at Barcamps in Ghana and around the people who have had access to them. "More vim" in Ghanaian parlance today is used in many ways - to congratulate, encourage, celebrate, etc. It can be the difference between not doing and doing. Barcamp Ghana events - in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale, Cape Coast, Ho, Sunyani, Tema - have built a "morevim movement", a number of people who are interested in Ghana's development as well as their own and won't leave that in the hands of the government or others. The movement is moving across the length and breadth of Ghana and multiplying outside of its borders and catching up to the next of kin in the Diaspora. Kasoa is the next location and the Barcamp Ghana would dig deeper into Ghana's landscape till it reaches Tain, Tumu and Tuabodom.
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Indulge in the emergence of an entreprising Kasoa

April 20, 2013, 5:05 pm
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The first time I was in Kasoa, I had actually gone to Buduburam to visit some family members. From what I know about Kasoa today, it might be the real melting pot in Ghana. It is home to many cultures, people from many countries, many businesses and many hopes and aspirations. My buddy Elorm claims that "almost every tribe in Ghana can be found in Kasoa". Given the tertiary institutions and the presence of Buduburam, it might be home to many more West African tribes too. If some pronouncements are to be believed, Kasoa is seeing more than 40 families move in every week. It is one of the fastest growing towns (if not cities) in West Africa. Given some of the news around it, it is also going to become very relevant in the sub-region very soon.

By the end of 2011, the Barcamp Ghana movement had seen events in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi, Cape Coast, and Ho. While at Blogcamp Ghana (a Barcamp type event with a focus on blogging and social media), two separate people approached me about organizing a Barcamp at Kasoa. A third group approached me about organizing a Barcamp at their school - Methodist University College. Because we need to synergise energies, we came up with this not-so-brilliant idea of organizing a Barcamp Kasoa at MUC. That didn't work out so well. Kasoa is actually in the Central Region while MUC is in Dansoman, in Accra. Thankfully, though it's been more than 8 months in the making, Barcamp Kasoa will happen this month. In Kasoa. In the town also known as Oduponkpehe (which I learnt from Krystabel).

What else do we know about Kasoa? Traffic. Kasoa is famous in Ghana for traffic jams and go-slows. Travelers who ply the western route of Accra always dread passing through Kasoa traffic. Kasoa is seeing a lot of migration into it as it is attractive for new home owners. The Kasoa toll booth is not very attractive to these people but the money raised for its fees are important to maintain the transport infrastructure there. That hasn't stopped the occurrence of accidents though. It also begs the question, "how much money is raised for the Kasoa toll booths each day?" My buddy Edmund will like to go to Kasoa as much as possible, but the traffic can deter that.

According to my friend Emelia, Kasoa is also known to have many block factories. My friend Ali joked that because of the block factory presence, that's why RLG is moving to build Hope City near Kasoa, in the hope of getting cheap building material. :-) I am yet to find out why a technology city that will house 50,000 people with the presence of 6 skyscrapers is being built near Kasoa. As far as I know Roland Agambire doesn't live or hail from there. That's not all, the West Hills Mall project, which would douse the hype the Accra Mall enjoys, is also being built close to Kasoa. These, among other building projects, will make Kasoa a destination and even more importantly, a self-supporting city. Kasoa is growing so fast and seeing so many changes that it has undergone many administrative changes, something my buddy Mawuli will know a lot about.

Kasoa is also a Hausa word that means "market". It is bustling with activity. The presence of the market so close to the main road is a major culprit for the Kasoa traffic. The culture of too many small businesses in Ghana needs to change, as we need to scale what we do and get bigger and more efficient institutions and bigger profitable businesses. In essence, Kasoa is an emerging market with many entreprising people and it is expanding in an environment that needs proper maintenance and guidance. Hence the Barcamp Kasoa theme being "Making an entreprising environment for an emerging market".

There's more to learn about Kasoa. So join us at Barcamp Kasoa to learn this and more. Come and see how you can leverage Kasoa's growth and profile to make things happen for you. The event is happening at a church - an ICGC branch. Yeap, this will be the first time a Barcamp in Ghana will happen at a church. Kasoa is home to many Moslems too and from what I hear and what we've seen in Ghana, Christians and Moslems get along very well. Barcamp Kasoa is on April 27 at the ICGC Transformation Temple on the Bawjiase road in Kasoa. Come one, come all. It will be a very fulfilling experience. You would be anxious for the next one after attending this one so don't miss this one. If you have a friend or family member in Kasoa, don't allow them to miss this event. Did I say it's free? :-) Register here!
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Barring any challenges, let's come camp at Kasoa on April 27

April 20, 2013, 5:13 pm
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3 reasons why you should come to Barcamp Kasoa - It will assemble many aspirational, inspirational and conversational people - It will be an eye-opener into what Kasoa really is about - It will be a fun, informal networking event Register here. Or read the press release and do so after :-) Barcamp Kasoa aims to assemble Kasoa stakeholders to network, build a supportive entreprising community and give birth to lasting professional partnerships. We would discuss the present state of Kasoa, its emerging growth and how it will be affected by many projects happening around it - Hope

BarCamp Kasoa 2013 is a free networking event to bring people together for a day of discussion, demos and dialogue about Kasoa, Ghana and beyond. The event will happen at the ICGC Transformation Temple in Kasoa on April 27, 2013. The theme is 'Making an entreprising environment for an emerging market'. Barcamp Kasoa is organized primarily by the GhanaThink Foundation, an NGO based both in Ghana and the USA, which has successfully organized 19 BarCamps in Ghana.

Barcamp Kasoa aims to assemble Kasoa stakeholders to network, build a supportive entreprising community and give birth to lasting professional partnerships. We would discuss the present state of Kasoa, its emerging growth and how it will be affected by many projects happening around it - Hope City, West Hills Mall, Millenium City, etc. We would also discuss how Kasoa and its surrounding areas can be positively affected by youth.Some winners of the Ghana National Youth Achievers Awardswill join other young achievers to participate in our speed mentoring session. Confirmed speed mentors include Bernard Akoi Jackson, Jerry Smith, Sam Paul, Akua Akyaa Nkrumah, Kate Nkansah-Dwamena, Gideon Commey, etc. We shall have a special panel discussing Kasoa. This shall include the insight of local Kasoa stakeholders. Confirmed panelists include Nuhu Nuhu Adams, Lawrencia Owusu, etc. It will also feature multiple user-generated breakout sessions on topics relevant to Kasoa and beyond. Major topics to focus on will include keeping Kasoa clean, urban planning and traffic as well as growing small and medium-sized business.
Register at http://barcampkasoa13.eventbrite.com/. You can also register by sending “Barcamp Kasoa, Your Name, Your Email Address” to 1945 on all mobile networks. See you there!You may contact the BarCamp Kasoa organising team throughthis website for sponsorship opportunities. If you are interested in organizing a breakout session, let us know, especially if you have special needs.BarCamp Kasoa 2013 is sponsored by the GhanaThink Foundation, Google Ghana, Fiesta Condoms, and Nandimobile. Get additional info at: http://barcampghana.org/contact or email, barcamp at ghanathink.org
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I am a Toofan fan too: Got to go to Togo!

April 28, 2013, 5:13 pm
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This wasn't quite a Togolese weekend, but then again Togo's independence day was April 27. While browsing my Gabonese friend's Facebook page, I discovered that one of Africa's top music groups, Toofan, were going to be performing in Accra at a concert. Cool Catch eh? We were going to have a dose of Togolese music in Accra. Blog post material be that. But first, I said

After getting to the concert, it struck me. I was going to hear a lot of French (that I didn't understand). Was a good opportunity to learn a few more French phrases et al. There were so many Francophone Africans at Alliance Francaise, all assembled to see Toofan and other groups perform. Joining Toofan were Sir Okoss (Gabon), Abou Mala (Congo), S. K Blinkz of Aha ye de fame as well. I absolutely love Aha ye de and how S K Blinz has brought a serving of Coupe Decale to the Ghanaian music scene. My mate from Presec, EL, was probably the only Ghanaian to perform there. After his performance, I told him I liked how he was being smart and using this opportunity to expand his fanbase into Francophone Africa. Smart guy! Odadee for real :-)





After a night of various performances (some of which were not that great), there was a pretty fun dance-off. An endowed lady showed off some great Azonto moves on stage while another gentleman showcased what cool catchéwas about. Toofan finally appeared on stage and because I had renewed my fandom too and been fed other Toofan videos by my friends Francis, Sarah and Tatiana, I was prepared to sing and dance along to all their songs. 




Toofan started out miming a lot but quickly moved into "performance" mode. They danced. They performed. For more than an hour. I was having too much fun to realise midnight was approaching. That was appropriate because midnight signalled the arrival of April 27, which coincidentally was the day of Togo's independence. Toofan led the Togolese present to sing the Togolese national anthem. C'est bon!


I almost went to Togo last year for Barcamp Lome. Looking to attend a similar event there this year. I also need to get a Togolese name. Any suggestions? :-)
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23 versions of Merry Christmas in African languages

April 28, 2013, 5:59 pm
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Can't wait till Christmas. Can wait to see the year move a little slower so I achieve a lot more in 2013 though. But when the holiday season does come, here are a number of ways you can send and say holiday greetings :-)
So there you have it. Now you can say your holiday greetings in Akan (Twi, Akuapem and Fante), Dagbani, Ga (& Adangbe), Ewe and Dagaati which are all languages spoken in Ghana. You can also say it in Hausa which is spoken in multiple West African countries. You can also say it in Igbo or Yoruba and show your Naija dexterity like Ayooluwaato Eze does in Nigeria. You can also bring a smile out of a Burkinabe by saying a holiday greeting in Moore in Burkina Faso.

No, Africa is not a country that speaks Swahili and is ruled by Nelson Mandela. But you can still show off some small Swahili at Christmas time with a holiday greeting. That will make Kenya's David Ochieng Mwangi and Tanzania's Hamis Ambwene Massawe proud. Whether you are in Ethiopia during their 13th month or not, you could show off your Amharic with the greeting above. Tell them Girma Goitom Gemechu taught you. You can learn to say it in Luganda while in the Pearl of Africa, and best believe Uganda's Richard Nshuti Mayanja will be giving you moral support.

Nshuti will also shoot praises your way when you give a Kinyarwanda holiday greeting in Rwanda. Yeah, we know the Lingala holiday greeting now too for the times you are in the Congo. Many of you might not have heard of the Beti language in Cameroun, but when you are in Cameroon, you can find the Beti people and let them know you are ready to visit again during Xmas time.

When you're in Zambia, you can say it in Nyanja and Bemba too. If you are in South Africa, you can show the locals you are lekker by saying it in Xhosa, Pedi, or Zulu and even crossing the small border into Swaziland and stealing the hearts of one of Mswati's wives at Christmas by saying it in Siswati.

I miss those greeting cards by Kasahorow. Hope to see them come back soon :-)





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