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#MusicMonday makes my Monday mood more motivated- #Morevim!

April 28, 2013, 6:50 pm
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It's yet another Monday.
You might be thinking this .... ----> "Oh NOOOO, It's Monday Again!




But you can have a different outlook.
Listen to music you love.
Make it a #MusicMonday.

I love to listen to this YouTube playlist.



Enjoy!
Morevim!
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Googbye - closing stages and stepping into others

May 1, 2013, 11:39 am
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Happy May Day everyone! Or Happy Labour Day :-) I didn't exactly have a holiday today. But then again, Everyday, I work. I never dread Mondays. If work is fun and fulfilling, you shouldn't have to worry about 'Monday'. I have many things I work on so there is no free day unless I really choose so. Today, I had to go to work. It wasn't to go work for Google. I left my job at Google late last year. Why didn't I come and tell you? I wanted to, but the blog post material kept on changing. Remember, the big blog post announcing my move to Ghana (returning to the source of my vim) and my joining Google. Yup, the latter was done last year and is being dusted. There comes a time. That time has come for many people, including Patrick Awuah.

I had a few goals for being at Google. I wanted to work for the best company in the world, which was in the technology space and be in Ghana. I had said to myself, I definitely have to work for Google at some point in my life, because it's the best company to work for and it doesn't have such a stringent corporate environment (I wouldn't like that). I got more. I learnt new skills - program management, and became better at using online tools. I expanded my network even bigger and became more comfortable working with people from all over and remotely too. I saw how the company was being managed and learnt a few things to implement in organizations I am involved in now - GhanaThink Foundation, Museke, etc and in the future.

I also got the chance to travel around the continent, giving confirmation to Ayooluwaato Eze and giving birth to Richard Nshuti Mayanja, David Ochieng Mwangi, Hamis Ambwene Massawe, Girma Goitom Gemechu and "Siyabonga Mandela". I didn't get the chance to confirm Roberto Saudades as I wasn't allowed to go to an event in Angola because my Portuguese wasn't good or to events in Senegal and Ivory Coast because I wasn't as fluent in French. Yeap, it 'got' me. Either way, I expanded my network greatly and gained even more insight into our continent, especially in the tech space. My Museke suffered but other aspects of the MIghTy African grew. When I first got to Uganda, I only really knew musicians and people I had e-met via Museke and Twitter, but after leaving Kampala and Entebbe, I knew people from different industries. Thank you, Google :-)
I was looking around me and seeing multiple business opportunities. When you see opportunity, it gets you thinking. Museke was dormant as well. I wanted to do something about it. Very early on in my time at Google, a conflict of interest flag was raised because I had Museke and Google had Google Music. Yeah, I was shockprised too. Today, Museke.com as you know is dormant, but the business is growing. I am working on various revenue models. Africa has many challenges and we don't have the available solutions, especially from the West. We have to leverage ourselves and what we know, to solve them. There is a lot to be done and I want to do it on my own, with my partners, who are all homegrown.

I remember when we were organizing DiasporaCamp 2009 (to be held in Washington DC), the organizing team was looking for different panelists and speakers. Most of the resource personnel that looked attractive were based in Africa, not in American cities. The heavy lifting was happening back home and by people charting new paths, success stories and showing the mettle of the African mind and hand. I want(ed) that. I took a path at Google to support what was homegrown. Deep down inside, I just care deeply about my people. Creating impact for them and making them successful is what drives me. I took a plunge to support what is mine, or ours. You could say I was inspired by entrepreneurs around me and thought "I could do this too". It didn't surprise many to hear this.
The thoughts in this blog post are all over the place. I am all over the place too. Because I can't say everything here. This blog post has taken different forms but the vim to write it made it happen today. I never planned this blog post but it was coming. I never planned leaving Google but it was coming. May Day is here, my last day at Google came too. What's the point of it all? Follow your passion. Be bold. Follow what you enjoy doing. Be happy. Follow what will get you to where you want to be. Be calculating and strategic. 

At the heart of everything, I want to be an entrepreneur (and not just social). Every skill or resource I am gathering is directly tied in to that. What am I really doing now? I am working. This blog post is work. I am not doing 233 blog posts this year for fun alone. Let me share where I am working now (or what I am working on) in another blog post. I think you have read enough in this one :-) I need to go watch Champions league hehe.
#Morevim to me and to you!


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What does MVA stand for?

May 4, 2013, 4:53 pm
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I don't know how this all happened but for reason my friend Jason and I were wondering what MVA meant. So I took to twitter and Facebook & Whataspp and asked. What does MVA stand for? Who can come up with the best meaning for an MVA acronym? Suggestions welcome. :-) Here are the responses I got with a little story to boot.


MVA looks like MVP. I'm sure Nana Kwasi was thinking so when he got us going. Lolan, who is an Pan-African as they come, chipped in with one that will stick with me for a long time. Enock proved he was an Innovative African Mind by releasing these - In the words of another friend, he trusted Paakoti would say things like this. PaaKoti claims he doesn't know that many words that start with V. :-) PaaKoti didn't give only 'kotibortor' meanings, he also gave these. I would never want to throw vim away but I would sure love to be a Meat-eating Vegetarian :-) Kobby found my tweet somewhere and gave us an MVA meaning for the ages - "Magnanimously Verbose Assimilations" Here are a couple of good ones from facebook. Paa Kofi said "Most Valuable Akonfem". David and Jemila said "More Vim Aguan". From Whatsapp, we got "Most Valuable Ass", "My Vim Ass", "Most Vim Animal". While waiting for Jason to get his food at Starbites, I asked the waiters for an MVA meaning. Results below - What is your favorite MVA meaning? I like "More Vim Aguan", "Monday-morning Very Annoying" and "Magnanimously Verbose Assimilations" in that order. Post a comment with other meanings. :-)
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Patrick Awuah is building a great story full of positive African Voices

May 4, 2013, 5:05 pm
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Recently, I saw a clip of Patrick Awuah being on CNN's African Voices. I am not a fan of CNN at all because of the way Western media treats Africa. I do like African Voices though.Enjoy learning about Patrick Awuah and the story of Ashesi University, which continues to shine brightly. It's the start of something big! How long will it be till Ashesi students are featured on African Voices like Patrick? Not long. Ashesi has some superstar alumni.

Ex-Microsoft boss builds African school: As the founder of Ghana's Ashesi University, Patrick Awuah wants to find and develop Africa's next problem solvers. Awuah: Making education affordable: Ashesi University founder Patrick Awuah talks about making education more accessible in Ghana. I don't have much to say on this blog post. Just watch the videos. I consider Patrick Awuah to be my role model. I sat down with him once and I will never forget that day. I seek for him to mentor me, heaven knows I need it. Have to organize another sit-down with him soon.
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How to say "How are you" & "I'm fine" in 23 African languaguages

May 5, 2013, 8:36 am
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Courtesy calls that you greet someone when you meet them. African hospitality houses saying "How are you" and longer greetings than "Hello". So, let's learn how to say "How are you" and "I am fine" in a few African languages so we can indulge while we are in various countries hehe. Let me show you what I know;-)
  1. Akan: Wo ho te sɛn? Me ho yɛ! If you pay close attention to the translations, you might learn how to say me and you in multiple African languages :-) 
  2. Ga: Te oyoo tɛɛɛ? Mi yo ojogbann! I learnt when I was pretty young. I love saying Ojogbannn!
  3. Ewe: Efoa? Mefo! I will never forget the day I was addressing Keta Secondary School and shouted "Efoa" into the microphone. If you are addressing multiple people, say "Mefoa!" 
  4. Dagbani: Ka di bei wula? Thanks to Jemila for teaching me this one.
  5. Hausa: Sannu? Sannu kade. 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.
  6. Swahili: Habari yako? Nzuri! You can also respond Sijambo to Hujambo. Or in Kenya, you can say "Sema", which is slang (Sheng).
  7. Zulu (& Siswati): Unjani? Ngiyaphila. Phelele Fakudze taught me this one. I can just hear it ringing in my mind right now. 
  8. Yoruba: Bawoni? Mo wapa. Countless Yoruba friends have taught me this because I always seem to forget. Not anymore.
  9. Igbo: Kedu? Odinma. P-Square never taught me via their music. I never seemed to learn this or remember it until my friend Chioma taught me. 
  10. Luganda: Oli otya? Bulungi. Buluuuungi is more like it. I learnt this during my first trip to Kampala. Came in handy while partying in many places hehe. 
  11. Kinyarwanda: Amakuru? Nimeza cyane. I learnt this from my Rwandan bestie Matilda and I remember quite clearly, the facial expressions my Stanford friends from Rwanda gave me when I first greeted them as such. 
  12. Amharic: Tadias? Selam. Learnt this from some MIT friends who had returned from an AITI trip in Ethiopia. Had many opportunities to use it since as well.
  13. Wolof: Na nga def? Na nga fi. I learnt this from some Senegalese friends via Google work. It's sad I've still not had the chance to go to Senegal. 
  14. Setswana: Dumela/Le kae/Okae? Ke Teng. When I was learning this from my Motswana friend at Stanford, my friend Okai was right there. Isn't that cool? :-).
  15. Fang: We ne voro? Me ne voro. After Leila couldn't tell me, I took to Twitter and Kevin did.
  16. Myene: We re vovo? Aye me vovo. Kevin taught me this as well via Twitter. I met Kevin via Google work, he's planning to organize Barcamp Libreville/Gabon.
  17. Moore: Laafi beme? Laafi bala. Next time you are in Ouagadougou, you know what to say. 
  18. San: N te kaka? Ma kaka. You can also say "N te siini?" and the response is "Ma siini". 2 ways to say it in Burkina Faso, aren't you cool? :-) Thanks Tatiana :-) 
  19. Shona: Wakadini zvako? Ndiripo. I learnt from my Zimbabwean friends. Never got to learn this via the music.  
  20. Xhosa: Unjani? Ndiphilie. Quite similar to what it is in Zulu too.
  21. Lingala: Ozali malamu? Ee, nazali malamu. I met a Congolese guy at a house party in Oakland once and I just had to ask him.
  22. Nyanja: Muli bwanji? Ndili bwino. I really want to visit Zambia and see places like Bongo Hive, etc. One of these days! 
  23. Idoma: Abayole? Obobi no. Abayole sounds like a statement everytime I say it. Learnt this from my friend Faith. 2Face Idibia is Idoma too :-)
This follows the "Thank You" And "I Love You" posts in this series. Share how to say "these" 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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Learnt how to say "Let's go" in 23 African languages

May 5, 2013, 10:03 am
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In line with saying "More vim" all the time, I found it prudent to learn how to say "Let's go" in many languages. #Leggo is a rallying cry for let's get things done and this is a statement that is important for groups of people everywhere. With some help from my African friends, we have a list of 23 to work with. Choose your pick! On y vas!
  1. Akan: Yɛnkɔ! 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: Wote! Many of you who know me well know I like to use the word "Chale". In local Ghanaian parlance, it's a pet name for friends. Or simply "Dude". Chalewote in Ghana also refers to slippers. So yeah, slip the slippers and say, "Chale, let's go"
  3. Ewe: Midzo! Dzolali is also a nice thing to say. The Ketasco inspired word has a response too - "Now or Never!"
  4. Dagbani: Ti chema! Yeap, Jemila Abdulai taught me this one. Thrice.
  5. Hausa: Mu je! As much as I wish "Yaayi" meant "let's go!". Thanks to my Naija sister Aisha who taught me this one.
  6. Swahili: Twende! There's a popular song called "Twende Twende" by Eirc Wainaina (Kenya) and Oliver Mtukudzi(Zimbabwe). Lovely song!
  7. Zulu: Masihambe! Let's go and shaka zulu on em! 
  8. Xhosa: Ma'sambe! Quite similar to the Zulu one. I could imagine the kids in the Soweto Uprising shouting it in 1976.
  9. Yoruba: Jekalo! I learnt this from a couple of real Naija Googlers. 
  10. Igbo: Ka anyi ga! Just learnt this from my friend Chioma. She followed it up with an example - Let's go to the mall. Hehe.
  11. Luganda: Tugende! Sounds similar to the Kiswahili version right. Yup, these languages are neighbours in some sense. But the one after, is even closer.
  12. Kinyarwanda: Tuyende! Paul Kagame must have loved saying this one too. Merci to Matilda for teaching me this one. Richard Nshuti Mayanja is half-Rwandan. :-).
  13. Moore: Ti d log! Could you imagine Thomas Sankara saying this over and over again?I bet he said it more than 226 times in his lifetime. Thanks to my friend Tatiana for teaching me this one.
  14. San: Won taan! San is a Burkinabe language. Won taan Burkina Faso to get some of that secret stamina sauce that carries the Stallions to the final of the African Cup of Nations this year. Another lesson from Tatiana.
  15. Sissala: Laamu. I learnt this on Valentine's Day in 2013. Try making me forget that. Ronke taught us that and more. See tweet.
  16. Shona: Handei. My Zimbabwean friend from MIT, Tawanda, taught me this one! I can see myself shouting Handei!
  17. Amharic: Enguaz! I learnt this after I first went to Ethiopia and heard my name mentioned all over. Let's go again so we hear it anew.
  18. Wolof: Niew dem! Niew dem to Senegal. I hear it is such a lovely country. And I have to go see a wrestling match seated next to Viviane Ndour and my Senegalese friends.
  19. Diula/Jula: An ga ta. I learnt this from my kpakpatoya champion, Cyriac Gbogou. Can't believe I still haven't met him
  20. Miene: Okani. I learnt this recently from a Gabonese chic I befriended just this year. It was cool to tell her "Okani" after we had had dinner. Hehe.
  21. Bemba : Tuleya. Thanks to Sam Mbale for teaching me this via Google+.
  22. Nyanja : Tuyende. Thanks to Sam Mbale for teaching me this via Google+.  
  23. Lingala: Melesi. I learnt this Congolese word after having a steady dose of Makoma's gospel music in my playlist.
This follows the "Thank You" And "I Love You" posts in this series. Also learn how to say How are You and I'm Fine. Share how to say "Let's go " 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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Great content at Barcamp Kasoa 2013 to birth great projects

May 5, 2013, 10:45 am
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After a long period of uncertainty, looking for a venue and having to change the date, Barcamp Kasoa finally came off at the ICGC Transformation Temple in Kasoa on April 27, 2013. The theme was "Making an entreprising environment for an emerging market". It was intentionally chosen as Kasoa is home to many small entreprises and businesses, has a very popular market and is emerging as a city with a fast growing population. Barcamp Kasoa was going to be the first Barcamp in Ghana this year. The Africa Works crew were there to do live streaming and will be prepared a short video about the event. There were some media reps (one from Graphic) and a media crew from Multi-TV.

The event started at 10am after attendees had registered and signed-in. The numbers were not very encouraging. It couldn't be down to traffic at Kasoa since it was a Saturday morning. Most of the attendees were based in Kasoa which is great, since I personally didn't want the event to be dominated by Accra residents. Emelia Agblevor welcomed the attendees and shared some info on Kasoa while I continued by telling the Barcamp Ghana story. The morevim movement. Interestingly, we didn't say as many "more vims" during this event. Breakfast was served as spring rolls and chips together with "asana" (maize beer). Attendees were surprised to see the local drink being served. Asana is a popular drink in the Oduponkpehe area.

The first part of Barcamp Kasoa was the speed mentoring session where we had some selected attendees act as mentors within different industries. They 'mentored' mentees for 15 minutes at a time since there weren't as many people. The mentors included Akua Akyaa Nkrumah (Green Ghanaian), Emmanuel Okyere (Hutspace), Gideon Commey (Ghana Youth Environmental Movement), Kate Nkansa-Dwamena (Social Entrepreneur), Kafui Anson-Yevu (Kafuiday Photography), Sam Paul (Business Tech Lecturer), Jerry Smith (Accountant), Stephen Bedzro (Medical Student), Jeremiah Buabeng (Motivational Speaker), Priscilla Cudjoe (Human Resource Professional). After the session, a few people shared what they had learnt with the audience. It was great to see @EfuaIsEnuf dust her public speaking shyness and share her learnings.

The next major item was a panel on the Barcamp Kasoa theme. The panel was moderated by Mawuli Tsikata and it dwelled on what the present state of Kasoa was and what was expected out of Kasoa in a couple of years. With expected projects like Hope City and West Hills Mall coming close to the area and a growing population, Kasoa is bound to be much more important on the West African scene. The Metropolitan Chief Executive, Nuhu Adams (of the Awutu-Senya area) was a panelist, alongside Naa Sunkwa Mills, Jerry Smith and Lawrencia Ofori. The panel was very insightful. Via the conversations happening there and on Twitter, one outcome was to build a Blood Bank for Kasoa.

Since the event was running a bit late, we decided to combine a few agenda items. Lunch was served - a choice of jollof, plain rice or waakye with assorted meat together with soft drinks. During lunch, we had a number of presentations. Daniel Arthur-Baidoo started us off by presenting his creations. He uses water sachet waste to create works of art. He showed an art work which shows a picture of Kwame Nkrumah made using folded sets of water sachet bags. He also showed us a glass table which is supported by the same material. See his work at Waste Has Worth. I had learnt about him via Twitter through a conversation he had with the Green Ghanaian. Bernard Akoi Jackson, who won at the Arts award at the National Youth Achievers Awards last year, also presented. The Odadee showed some of his art via a PowerPoint presentation and told us stories of where his art had taken him and shared many insights. Lawrencia Ofori took the attendees through a very fun session which taught "survival of the fittest" skills for the world of business. The exercise encouraged a lot of interaction as Barcampers had to go around trying to gain 3 of every kind. Getting the "Choco Milo" type was quite hard.

The last part of Barcamp Kasoa featured the breakout sessions. Sandister Tei led a session on getting information about Kasoa online, via the Planning Wikimedia Ghana group. Google Student Ambassadors Manuel Djaba and John Awotwi led a session on using Google tools to add value to businesses. Daniel Arthur-Baidoo led a session on recycling. Mr. Essien run a session on mobile banking (susu) and was looking to hire people. Afua Ankomah also run a session on Open Data (getting public info online) which also featured the MCE (yes, he was still around). The MCE was impressed with the content of the event and even asked that we organize another Barcamp Kasoa this year.

The content of the event was great, and the attendees were very satisfied with that. I wasn't happy with the attendance as the members of the church where the event was held largely were absent. A few lessons have been learnt to guide the organization of a next event. Read this story compiled by GhanaThink to see what happened that day. Let me leave you with one great soundbite, the kind that gives us more vim to organize more Barcamps and continue building this network of Ghanaian changemakers, doers and entrepreneurs. See more pictures from Barcamp Kasoa 2013.

PS: Kudos to the Barcamp Kasoa team - Elorm Billy-Awittor, Krystabel Vorsah, Mawuli Tsikata, Emelia Agblevor and Edmund Laryea. As well as the various GhanaThink team members who played great roles to make the event successful.

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The Global Shapers

May 6, 2013, 4:28 pm
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Last July, I was welcomed into the Global Shapers Hub of Accra. Interestingly, I had only heard about it a month earlier when the Accra folks were looking for additional shapers in Ghana. I wasn't too clear on what the Global Shapers were but the way I just explained it to friends of mine recently are that Global Shapers are the young people shaping their communities who are connected to the World Economic Forum. Let's pick something from the official website. "The Global Shapers Community is a network of Hubs developed and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievement and their drive to make a contribution to their communities"



Since I've been part of the Global Shapers Hub of Accra, I've gotten to share and learn from some very awesome individuals based in Accra. The curator of the hub is Nadia Zeine who runs Brand Effect (seen their signboards in Ayawaso West Wuogon?) and Other Stakeholders, amongst other things. I first met her in person at her office in East Legon. After a great long conversation, she offered me to join the Global Shapers hub. I didn't see that coming, at all. I left the building thinking, this chis is way too awesome. Fred Deegbe Jr, proud Ashesi alumni and founder of Heel The World (H.T.W) shoes is another member. I first met Fred at TEDxDzorwulu. Deborah Ahenkorah, who I know from her time in the US when she started the Baobab Prize at Bryn Mawr College - whereby that has morphed into a social entreprise called the Golden Baobab - is another member. I don't remember where I first met Debbie sef.

Gary Al-Smith, Twitter guru and sports journalist extraordinaire, who is also an Odadee (Presec Alumni) also dey inside some. The first time Gary 'struck' me in person was at Barcamp Takoradi after he had asked Nana Kobina Nketsia V a question. Yawa Hansen-Quao, who I first met at Barcamp Ghana 2009 at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology and another alumni of Ashesi is another member. She runs the Leading Ladies Network. One-time top blogger in Ghana, Esi Woarabae Cleland (now Yankson), is another member. I first met the Wesley Girls' alumni at Smith College and she was also a panelist at the very first Barcamp Ghana event in December 2008. She is a co-founder of Afrochic. John Roberts, the founder of the Open University of West Africa is the latest member. The day OUWA & SliceBiz launched HubAccra - Accra's first tech co-working space, I remember John on CITI FM showing off his Twi and thinking, I like what this guy is doing. Next time I am on an English-speaking radio or television station in Ghana, I am speaking some small Twi or Pidgin English by force :-)

I am in Cape Town this week. I applied and got invited to join the World Economic Forum on Africa event this week. Before that starts on Wednesday, I am attending SHAPE Africa, which is the first gathering of Global Shapers from around the African continent. Turns out that many hubs in Africa routinely have 15, 20, 25 members. At 8, the Accra hub is pretty small. We need to expand it soon. And leverage those numbers to make more happen in Ghana and for Ghana. And the Kumasi hub must happen soonest too. I don't like how too many things happen in Accra to the neglect of the rest of Ghana. The Accra hub would be expanding this year and am looking forward to welcoming new members and hopefully more around Ghana.

At Barcamp Accra 2012, I invited all the shapers to become speed mentors at the event. Gary and John couldn't make it. It was a great time and that story was captured here. The first project the Accra Global Shapers Hub is doing is called "Watchudoin". "What are you doing?" to impact your community or shape (your corner of) the globe? Whatchudoin? Okay, now, let's watch you doing. Watchudoin!? It hasn't gotten the effort, traction and vim needed to make it more successful but I think it is really needed. The project is to document the stories of awesome young Ghanaians on video. See the videos we've shot so far involving Nandimobile's Edward Tagoe, Anne Amuzu and Adwoa Safoa Gyimah of Sa4a designs. More dey come. Watch this space.

Excited about being a Global Shaper, especially today. Gotto make this count even more. More vim!
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Social Innovation driving the process to #shapeafrica

May 6, 2013, 4:28 pm
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Social innovation will be very important in shaping Africa. I think we all agree we need critical thinking, creative working and entrepreneurial acting in driving progress on the continent. That must be social though, it must be done together, in groups, in organizations, in systems, in partnerships and collaboration.

I am in Cape Town this week. I applied and got invited to join the World Economic Forum on Africa event this week. Before that starts on Wednesday, I am attending SHAPE Africa, which is the first gathering of Global Shapers from around the African continent. I've been in the midst of multiple awesome Africans but never have I been a group like this, on the continent itself. Interestingly, I know very few of the people attending SHAPE Africa so far. I know the Director of the Global Shapers Community, Yemi Babbington-Ashaye, from our time at MIT and also half-knew Nancy Sumari, and I later realized her husband, Luca Neghesti (of KINU) who I knew was there. Yeap. I had mostly never heard of the rest before. Wow. I am here with Yawa Hansen-Quao, another of the Accra Global Shapers.

I am extremely excited to be here, meeting, greeting, learning, sharing, networking, vimming :-) Some of that has happened already. Let's recap what has happened so far today. The theme of the SHAPE Africa event is "social innovation" so I will share some tweets on the subject.












This is just a part of Day 1. I should be going to bed to prepare for an early Day 2. But I will lose sleep to get this blog post in. I wanted to do this so bad. When it comes to Africa, I just want it so bad. Let's shape the Africa we want. No one should tell us we cannot do it. Because we can. Let it be us.
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Best practices for teams, especially in social entreprises

May 7, 2013, 8:23 am
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Learning so much at the SHAPE Africa event happening at African Pride in Cape Town now. So I had to share some with you :-)







Now, that was an easy blog post. You're welcome :-)
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Leadership lessons from Coke #shapeafrica

May 8, 2013, 4:16 pm
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Earlier, I attended a leadership panel run by Coca-Cola in conjunction with the Global Shapers Community in Cape Town. Today is also the 127th birthday of Coke! I have had maybe 3 coke cans to celebrate this. I also re-posted a blog post I wrote about Coke a number of years ago.

The panel featured 3 panelists from Coca-Cola, one of which was William Egbe. There were a lot of great learnings and insights shared. I was live-tweeting some of them. And now we have a blog post :-)








Coke is probably the most popular brand in the world. This week, I have grown to learn more about how it has built a brand that remains relevant and keeps on making it marketable, fresh and wanted. It's become a part of people's lives and livelihoods. It's not just about sales and pleasing shareholders, it's sharing value with stakeholders - suppliers, vendors, distributors and sellers. Down to the seller who sells Coke in an ice chest, moves on to kiosk, a shop and then a supermarket.

Open happiness :-)
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Lessons from a successful African entrepreneur, Wale Tinubu #shapeafrica

May 8, 2013, 4:24 pm
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Earlier today, I was part of "A Meet-The-Leader" session with the "Oga At The Top" of OANDO, Mr. Wale Tinubu. This happened as part of events organized for Global Shapers attending SHAPE Africa and the World Economic Forum this week. Learn more about OANDO on Wikipedia. Here is a great write-up about him. Below are a few tweets I wrote while we were all picking his brain on various issues and learning and sharing.
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WEF founder, Prof Schwab, breaks down good traits of a leader using Nelson Mandela

May 8, 2013, 4:37 pm
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Earlier today, many Global Shapers in Africa had the pleasure of sitting down with Professor Klaus Martin Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum. He himself has really championed this Global Shapers community, a community of young people with demonstrated potential and excellence who are committed to changing and shaping the state of the world. I wanted to share a few soundbites from the session. For me, the biggest was his 'raving' about Nelson Mandela.

I asked him a question about "how he would compare the youth of today to the youth of decades past" since the World Economic Forum has been existence more than 40 years. In answering the question, he went into stories of how WEF was involved in the birth of a new South Africa. He mentioned how he invited Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and De Klerk to Geneva when Madiba was released from prison and forged conversations and relationships around trust, and reconciliation. He ended up saying that no leader has impressed him as much as Nelson Mandela. I would really love to meet Madiba in person. He's quite frail now but he keeps on going. Easily the greatest leader we have known.

Prof Schwab did answer my question, partly though. More importantly, he shared about youth of today are more sophisticated, with a wide range of knowledge. Credit that to technology and internet. Here's what else we learnt today

Prof Schwab then talked about the 4 traits of good leaders, something that he said Madiba has demonstrated very well.
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While watching & listening to Ilizwi, I appreciated Mzansi's musical voice(s)

May 18, 2013, 10:31 am
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After a successful couple of days of the SHAPE Africa conference, various Global Shapers attended a jazz musical concert at the Nedbank Auditorium in Cape Town. I was hoping to see a famous South African musician perform. Yvonne Chaka Chaka was there. No, she didn't perform, she was in the audience like us. She's also a member of the World Economic Forum. We were all attending Ilizwi, a musical. South Africans are such great singers and I always said that I wanted to find myself singing in the streets of Soweto with people one day. I'd be dancing the gumboot dance in addition.

Ilizwi is a musical production by the Casterbridge Music Development Academy. It's directed by Vuyo Jack and Ingrid Wylde. Learn more about Ilizwi here. Ilizwi means "voice" in Xhosa. The musical told a great story and found a way to incorporate many popular South African classic (songs). Here are a few tweets I posted to capture what was happening













I met Yvonne Chaka Chaka briefly and had some conversations with her. I met her later at the World Economic Forum and we had a great conversation. I have a special blog post dedicated to her coming. There was a young girl who played a character of an older woman and her musical range was phenomenal. When most of us in the audience discovered she was under 18, we couldn't believe it. Many of the singers will be like Yvonne Chaka Chaka one day. South African just seems to churn them out all the time.

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The Day I Met Lira - arguably the best African songstress

May 18, 2013, 11:43 am
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I don't remember who first introduced me to Lira's music. Maybe, I introduced myself to it while getting content for Museke.com. I do know that I've been a fan of her and her music from day one. I also remember my bestie Phelele used to talk about how beautiful Lira was. Real African music connoisseurs would say the same about her music. Through dealing with various artistes as part of Museke, I got to know Lira better and even interviewed her. It was a Q&A (online) one, I didn't meet her in person. Last week, I did meet her in person for the first time. How that happened is a story I wish to tell. :-)

Two of the 4 CDs I normally play in the #vimride are Lira CDs. The Return to Love album and the Celebration Concert album. My favorite Lira song used to be "Wa Mpaleha" but after a steady dose of listening to her music, it's been replaced by "Ngiyazifela". I sometimes put the song on repeat 27 times straight. (I used 27 because South Africa's country code is +27 :-D) I especially love the Concert album, it's a live recording of a concert Lira had, so you can enjoy her melodies, the band's music and the crowd's manifestations. I wondered when I would finally get the chance to see Lira perform and meet her.

Before I traveled to South Africa to attend the World Economic Forum amongst other things, I emailed my friends and network in South Africa to gauge when and if we could meet as I was going to be there a whole week. I emailed Lira as well. I wanted to meet her in person, for lunch, dinner, something and talk about her music career, etc. She finally responded saying she wasn't going to be in Johannesburg the days I would be there and that she would be there at the South African Music Awards. I hadn't thought of going to the SAMAs but once I realized that was the only chance for me to meet Lira, I started looking for tickets. I talked to various people I knew in the South African music industry but unfortunately the tickets were sold out. I was prepared to go to Sun City (in Rustenburg), 2.5 hours drive from Joburg to attend this and stay there overnight with my friend Eyram. I eventually got the promise of a ticket from Alex of MTVBase (yeap) but I decided not to attend the SAMAs because of hotel room availability and a renewed wish to spend as much time in Joburg.

So I would have to meet Lira some other day. I had told Lira I would be attending the World Economic Forum event on Africa in Cape Town. I knew Yvonne Chaka Chaka would be there. Lira did tell me she'd be there but would be in and out. I only read the email properly a couple days ago and missed seeing that before I was in South Africa. I was enjoying #WEFAfrica very much, meeting famous Africans, including Yvonne Chaka Chaka herself, and having a long conversation with her on Thursday, May 9th. Later that day, there was a cultural soiree hosted by the South African government for the #WEFAfrica attendees. I attended it late because I was meeting a cousin of mine for the first time and one I didn't even know until this month. When I arrived at the soiree and was doing a walk of honour greeting the attendees, one of my fellow African Global Shapers was trying to tell me what I had missed. "Alicia Keys, Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Justin Bieber have already perfomed", Elvis said. I could believe the Princess of African Music bit. Justin Bieber was in Cape Town that day but since I missed seeing 2727 screaming female beliebers outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre, there was no way I was gonna be a believer of Justin Bieber performing for these African dignitaries and more. Justin Bieber was cause for more traffic in the Mother City than the heads of state of the Mother Continent. Alicia Keys? Brother please! No way on table mountain was she in town.

I finally found a table to join and some food to eat. While having a serious conversation with Bousso from Dakar, the emcee for the soiree was welcoming Lira to the stage. Thinking about that again makes me well up right now. I couldn't believe my ears. What was she doing in Cape Town? Is this really happening? Am I going to meet Lira tonight? Am I going to meet Siyabonga's crush?Ayobanesss! Lekker neh? Lira (Lerato) Kohl (nee Molapo) was on stage performing all the tracks. Eventually, I hit the dance floor and before I could show my dance moves, I was taking pictures of the star that was shining so brightly. Can you believe she started doing some 2-by-7 azonto? I broke into my own azonto moves, validating my Ghanaianness and stole the dance floor for a few minutes.

After her performance, I introduced myself and she remembered me. I wouldn't say I was surprised by that, Lira and I go way back lol. I took some photos with her and bought a DVD and a CD - The Captured Tour. 150 Rand ( +$16) worth. She signed the DVD for me and we took many pictures together. When some of my fellow African Global Shapers said they didn't believe I knew Lira (most of them didn't know she was unfortunately), I asked Lira to tell them what my name was. "Oh, this is Ato!". Verification. :-) Let's also say that after meeting Lira that night, I killed off all ideas of attending the SAMAs :-)

I don't know why I didn't know what her name Lerato meant, but I found out that night because one of the Global Shapers was called Lorato. Turns out Lerato means "love" in Sesotho while Lorato means "love" in Setswana. Lovely! You can tell am captivated by Lira's music and love it very much. I was captured in 2008. This weekend, I started listening to the Captured Tour CD. You should go grab a copy, it's a heavenly celebration of music. Like I kept and keep telling all who would hear, Lira is the new and present Miriam Makeba. She rocks!
The following Sunday, I was at Eyram's house watching the SAMAs as once planned. It looked like a great show but I wasn't disappointed I wasn't attending. After all, I had seen Lira perform earlier. And here she was performing again at the SAMAs like she said she would. Causing me to tweet this ;-)

PS: You should check out Phakade (lyrics translations), Believer and Feel Good. I also love her rendition of 'Something Inside So Strong' sung by Nelson Mandela as well as her special birthday song for Madiba.
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Tweeting the #WEFAfrica Opening Plenary on BRICS

May 19, 2013, 12:37 pm
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The World Economic Forum event on Africa for 2013 took place at the Cape Town International Conference Centre. The theme was “Delivering on Africa’s Promise”. I attended it and joined the opening plenary which kick-started event though there had been panels and sessions earlier that day (May 9th) and the day before. I was a panelist in one session earlier that morning about Forward Leadership.

The opening plenary session was dubbed "Building with BRICS: How will collaboration with the BRICS empower Africa to deliver on its promise?". It featured WEF chair Klaus Schwab as moderator, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, IMF first deputy managing director David Lipton, African Union chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Jindal Steel and Power chair Naveen Jindal, and AfDB president Donald Kaberuka as panelists. Below are some tweets I captured ---



















tweeting dey be keke!
The major takeaway from this session in my opinion was the need for African integration. Many of the other messages, we've heard already. South Africa, as a member of  BRICS, is obviously a leader on the African continent. It needs to do more to support infrastructure on the continent and becoming a market for other African countries. You can watch the whole plenary here -
#leggo

PS: So Siyabonga saw his president in person for the first time at the World Economic Forum. Who's Siyabonga? Stay tuned.

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Tweeting the #WEFAfrica Made In Africa session

May 19, 2013, 12:51 pm
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I am a big proponent of Made in Ghana and Made in Africa products. So when I saw the "Made in Africa" panel session at the World Economic Forum event on Africa, I was interested in attending it. Seeing Anant Singh on the panel had me sold. Joining Singh in the session were Xavier-Luc Duval (Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mauritius), Jubril Adewale Tinubu (GCEO, Oando Plc), Rich Lesser (global CE and president, The Boston Consulting Group) and Tabitha M. Karanja (CE, Keroche Breweries Ltd). It was moderated by Robyn Curnow (CNN Africa correspondent) and the session was broadcast on CNN. I had been in a session with Wale Tinubu earlier that week where I learnt a lot. See the blog post here.

One thing I always do when I am in South Africa is look to buy the latest local movies that are great. Anant Singh has been directing and producing a bunch of them. Amongst his work include Sarafina, Cry, The Beloved Country, Yesterday, Jozi, Shooting Bokkie and the upcoming Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom. Funny thing is, everytime I saw Anant Singh's name while watching a movie, I thought of him as an Indian. Seeing him speak on this panel about the local (Mzansi) movie industry made me realize he's really South African. And then again, via Trevor Noah, I had learnt that Durban has the most number of Indians outside in India. I am not going to believe that till I visit Durban and see it myself and dance to the house hits under an Afrotainment haven.

Either way, here are some tweets from myself and others that captured the session




















You can watch the full session here



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Tweeting "Africa 2063: From Fragility to Stability" at #WEFAfrica

May 19, 2013, 1:02 pm
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After having South African president Jacob Zuma on the opening plenary on 9th May, Kenya's new president Uhuru Kenyatta joined the morning plenary on 10th May. The session discussed how African economies can transform over the next 50 years and how political and geopolitical tensions in the region will be managed. In essence -> Africa 2063: From Fragility to Stability. President Uhuru Kenyatta was joined on the panel by Bineta Diop the Chair of the Executive Board, Femmes Africa Solidarité, Switzerland, Frannie Léautier who is Executive Secretary, The African Capacity Building Foundation, Zimbabwe, Arif M. Naqvi the Founder and Group Chief Executive, The Abraaj Group, United Arab Emirates and Abdelkader Bensalah the President, Council of the Nation, Algeria. The session was chaired by Børge Brende Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board, World Economic Forum.

As usual, I was tweeting away. Here are some tweets I sent in, together with some others I saved.











Here's an article on the World Economic Forum website about the panel. You can watch the whole session here.



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Tweeting the Africa's Value Context session at #WEFAfrica

May 19, 2013, 1:18 pm
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I am having too much fun tweetifying stories as you can see from my few past blog posts. Storify is such a good idea too I tell you. :-) Change is constant, positive change is good. When I saw Hannah Tetteh's name on one of the panels at the World Economic Forum on Africa, I saw this as an opportunity to meet her for the first time. Yes o, I had never met her. It took me coming to Cape Town to meet her. That said, I also met former president John Kufuor and current Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur for the first time. The long chat I had with Hannah and short interactions I had with J.A.K and Uncle Kwesi were interesting to say the least. I might blog about it in the future.

The session Hannah was in also featured a friend (a fellow African Global Shaper) I had made while in Cape Town. Some other African Global Shapers had told me earlier they'd met Ghana's current Minister of Foreign Affairs (and Regional Integration of Ghana) and that she was a lady. I had no idea who she was. I don't pay much attention to politics in Ghana, which really is the news on radio and TV that is. She was on a panel with the King of Swaziland, His Majesty King Mswati III, Cardinal and Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria’s John Onalyekan, Executive Chairman and CEO of Basetsana Woman Investment Holdings in South Africa, Basetsana Khumalo and Creative Director of Amateur Heads Media in Nigeria, Ishaya Bako. It was moderated by the founder and Executive Chair of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS) Nkosana D. Moyo. I had met Mr. Moyo before when he attended the Stanford Africa (Business) Forum once. The subject was "Africa’s Values Context, which looked into the relevance of tradition with modernity".

I captured a few tweets there too.










I also asked a question during the session about how we could implement values, ethics and integrity in our public institutions. I pointed out that Ashesi University had been able to do so and was a great case from the private sector. I don't remember getting a great answer other than it's harder to do this via public institutions.
The session itself would be remembered mostly for comments about how Swazi people do not want 'change' and arguably like the monarchy that exists in Swaziland. The press picked that up. 
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Tweeting the Facing Africa's Future plenary at #WEFAfrica

May 19, 2013, 1:37 pm
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In delivering on Africa's Promise, Africa needs an aspirational and inspirational set of youth. The closing plenary for the World Economic Forum event on Africa focused on young people. There were a lot of younger attendees at the event, many of which were like me, Global Shapers. There were also the relatively older set of attendees, many of whom were Young Global Leaders. It was befitting that the closing plenary for the event featured younger panelists, 3 of which were Global Shapers. It was dubbed "Facing Africa's Future Significant challenges to Africa's resilience".

The panelists were Martyn Davies, Chief Executive Officer, Frontier Advisory, South Africa; Young Global Leader; Global Agenda Council on ChinaAnne Githuku-Shongwe, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Afroes Transformational Games, South Africa; as well as Global Shapers Aminata Niang, Manager, Marketing and Sales, Tambaroua Business Farming, Mali; Rapelang Rabana, Founder, ReKindle Learning, South Africa and Younes Slaoui, Consultant, Strategy and Development, Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco. The session was moderated and chaired by Eric Kacou, Co-Founder, Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESPartners), USA; Young Global Leader; Global Agenda Council on Fostering Entrepreneurship.

Here are some tweets I saved from the plenary














Watch it all here -


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