When Bono edited the Africa issue of Vanity Fair, it included an essay written by Kenyan Writer – Binyavanga Wainaina. Through that, they became aware of another piece he’d written for Granta a number of years ago called “How (Not) to Write About Africa.” Director Jesse Dylan and his company FreeForm worked with Binyavanga and the Beninois actor Djimon Hounsou to create this filmed performance of the essay. Thanks to W Hotels for the location and Kenyan musician Ayub Ogada [...]
Categories: Africa, Social Issues
Africa‘s technology community will thrive only by facing up to the continent’s fundamental problems. – By Ory Okolloh Africa is trending, if stories in the international media over the last year are anything to go by. And no story about “rising Africa”—many of us would argue it has “arisen”—is complete without mention of the role technology is playing in this transformation. The rise of the mobile phone, disruptive SMS services like the money-transfer platform M-Pesa, and mobile tools for democracy [...]
Categories: Featured, Innovations, Mobile Technology, Startup
TheNetWeb on M-Pesain Africa and how the heads of Visa, MasterCard and American Express could learn from it. Launched as a pilot project in March 2007 (with help from a Vodafone investment and aid from the Danish government), M-Pesa already has more than 15 million users, 80% of Safaricom’s customers. The company now controls 75% of Kenya’s mobile phone market. “The funds transferred by M-Pesa are equal to 25% of the country’s GNP,” said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, an economist at the [...]
Categories: Featured, Mobile Technology, Technology
The East Africa edition of the All Amber organized mobile technology conferences, Mobile Web East Africa 2012, is set to take place in Nairobi on the 22nd and 23rd of this month. The conference is supported by Kenya’s *iHub and m:lab East Africa. The conference is organized by UK based company All Amber and focuses on facilitating the growth of the mobile ecosystem in the region through interaction and relationship building. Mobile Web East Africa is going to be an action packed, [...]
Categories: Conferences, Mobile Technology, Social Media, Technology
Most people these days think the social networking tool – Twitter is an American or European phenomenon, but you’ll be surprised how heavily it is been used on the African continent based on research findings by Portland Communications and Tweetminster from the last three (October, November & December) months of 2011. Twitter map: how Africa tweets Young people tweeting from mobile devices are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa. This pan-African analysis of Twitter traffic was complemented by a [...]
Categories: Featured, Mobile Technology, Social Media, Technology
Mocality – a business directory start-up by Stefan Magdalinski with a Kenyan-wide coverage accuses search-engine giant; Google of antitrust-style behavior with its Google+ search integration. You should read Mocality’s blog post about the situation in full, but below is a summary: As we all know, there are no Kenyan Yellow pages, so the business directory from Mocality was crowd-sourced; paying over Ksh. 11m (over $100,000) to thousands of Kenyans to help create and validate its database of business & ventures in [...]
Categories: Mobile Technology, Social Media, Startup, Technology
From 28th – 30th Oct, 2011 I shall be working together with Magnus Gameli Adzaho & Jo Webber on the Kuyu Digital Project; a digital literacy program introducing a group of high school students in Keta Secondary School and other surrounding schools in the Anlo District to: Basic Information & Communication Technology Skills (ICT4D) Emailing & Social Networking Engaging in Social Media positively and Video Reporting (Citizen Journalism) The key to successful implementation of digital technology in our society and [...]
Categories: Social Media, Technology
When it comes to promoting African Technology & Innovation (African Ingenuity) focused initiatives in Africa, one organization/group stands out. The Maker Faire Africa crew deserves a standing ovation for the good jobs they started in Accra, Ghana during Maker Faire Africa 2009, MFA ’10 in Nairobi, Kenya and MFA ‘11 which is scheduled in Cairo, Egypt. From August 5 – 7, 2011; the International Development Design Summit (IDDS) is hosting a mini Maker Faire Kumasi event which will bring developers, [...]
Categories: Africa, Events, Technology
Re-blogged via Timbuktu Chronicles 5 spectacular individuals with Africa related connections are part of the recently announced TED Global 2011 Fellows class. They are: Femi Akinde – Founder of SlimTrader(covered earlier) , the first platform in Africa allowing consumers to shop for goods and services via their mobile phones through text. Jodie Wu – Founder of Global Cycle Solutions, an organization developing and selling appropriate tech in the form of bicycle add-ons. Alex Odira Odundo (Maker Faire Africa exhibitor covered earlier) [...]
Categories: Africa, Events, Social Media, Technology
On May 1, 2011; M-net Africa; organizers of this year’s Big Brother Africa Amplified revealed the new 26 young, energetic, talented & adventurous housemates for the season 6 reality show. Among the 26 house-mates; two Ghanaians; Alex & Confidence are presenting Ghana in the competition. The competition running 91 days and 24/7 non-stop with a dream prize of USD200 000. The sixth season of Africa’s biggest reality show, according to organizers, will include more drama, emotions, excitement and suspense. Fourteen of [...]
Categories: Africa, Fashion Africa, Ghana
Somewhere in February, 2011; Zeitgeist & Google announced the commencement of applications for the Young Minds Video Competition 2011 via this website: http://www.zeitgeistyoungminds.com/ which saw young people between the ages of 18 and 24; passionate about making a difference in your community apply. Google has always championed innovation and is proud to help young people showcase their ideas and achievements. Zeitgeist Young Minds is an incredible platform for future world-changers to meet some of the most powerful and inspiring people [...]
The Naspers owned M-Net subscription-funded television channel in South Africa and proud organizers of the Big Brother Africa reality show are happy to announce the opening of applications for the Season 6 of the most watched reality show on the continent of Africa. The search for new housemates from the 14 participating countries including: Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe is on. Do you have what it takes to enter [...]
