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• March 12, 2010
• 7:58

  My predictions for the Ghana Music Awards 2010

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  The a href="http://museke.com/node/4941"nominees/a for the #GhanaMusicAwards 2010 are out and a href="http://museke.com/Sarkodie"Sarkodie/a, a href="http://museke.com/Ayigbe Edem"Ayigbe Edem/a, a href="http://museke.com/Wutah"Wutah/a, a href="http://museke.com/4x4"4x4/a, a href="http://museke.com/Bradez"Bradez/a, a href="http://museke.com/Becca"Becca/a, a href="http://museke.com/Ohemaa Mercy"Ohemaa Mercy/a and a href="http://museke.com/Obrafour"Obrafour/a lead the number of nominations for the awards ceremony slated for April 10. Music fans have asked many questions about them and asked why artistes like a href="http://museke.com/Samini"Samini/a, a href="http://museke.com/OforiAmponsah"Ofori Amponsah/a and a href="http://museke.com/KwabenaKwabena"Kwabena Kwabena/a missed out. CharterHouse, the organizers, released a press statement responding to various criticisms as well. In this post, I'll offer thoughts on who should win or who would win when the winners are announced next month. br /br /You can click the songs and artistes below to learn more about them.br /br /strongArtist of the year/strongbr /This is a very closely contested one. I am not sure of the best way to judge this category. stronga href="http://museke.com/Sarkodie"Sarkodie/a/strong will win because he has the biggest following these days this but I think the winner should be a href="http://museke.com/4x4"4x4/a. They had two surefire hits and featured on other big songs as well. I'll like to see a href="http://museke.com/Bradez"Bradez/a win it too. I was surprised Samini wasn't nominated. Surely, his nationwide tour had to count for something?br /br /strongMost popular song of the year/strongbr /a href="http://museke.com/node/3550"Kotosa/a proved a href="http://museke.com/Wutah"Wutah/a came back really strong after a hiatus. People think it's their best song ever. However, I think the winner here will be and should be stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3805"Simple/a/strong by Bradez. It was huge in Liberia as well and ruled the charts in Ghana as long as some of the other nominees. br /br /strongDiscovery of the year/strongbr /stronga href="http://museke.com/Sarkodie"Sarkodie/a/strong will surely win this one, though the feel-good choice would be a href="http://museke.com/Ayigbe Edem"Ayigbe Edem/a. a href="http://museke.com/MimiDivalish"Mimi/a may end up being the most successful of them all br /br /strongHip hop /hiplife song of the year/strongbr /a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Kasiebo/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/3077"The Game/a both nominated? Who would have thought? This category is probably a popularity contest. I hope Kasiebo wins but I think stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2305"You Dey Craze/a/strong by Ayigbe Edem will win. The synergy and energy on that song is simply super. br /br /strongHip hop/hiplife artist of the year/strongbr /I believe strongSarkodie/strong would and should win this one. Ayigbe Edem did release 3 music videos though. br /br /strongGospel Song of the year/strongbr /It was surprising to see a href="http://museke.com/Ohemaa Mercy"Ohemaa Mercy/a get these many nominations when her album arrived late. I believe strongAseda/strong by Ernest Opoku will and should win this award. br /br /strongGospel Artist of the year/strongbr /Why only three nominees? And none for Ernest Opoku? a href="http://museke.com/Celestine"Celestine Donkor/a had a good year but I don't see her beating strongOhemaa Mercy/strong. br /br /strongHighlife song of the year/strongbr /Never heard King David's Born to Win but if this Ghanaian song's not on Youtube, it probably wasn't that popular. strongKotosa/strong was a huge hit and would/should win this award. br /br /strongHighlife artist of the year/strongbr /How wasn't Kojo Antwi nominated here? Is he now a reggae artist? What about Kwabena Kwabena? I think stronga href="http://museke.com/KofiB"Kofi B/a/strong would win, he had the biggest hits amongst the bunch. br /br /strongAfro-pop Song of the year/strongbr /This is where the awards get weird. a href="http://museke.com/VIP"VIP/a, 4x4 Bradez nominated for Afro-pop song? Isn't a href="http://museke.com/node/2734"Run away/a by Irene Logan an RB song? I suppose they adjudged these songs to be here because it's mostly singing than rapping. I think stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3403"World Trade Center/a/strong by 4x4 should win and probably would win. br /br /strongReggae Song of the year/strongbr /How wasn't Wutah's Burning Desire nominated instead of Jah will be there? a href="http://museke.com/node/4534"Adiepena/a as a reggae song? I'm not sure Kojo Antwi is too happy about that. Funny thing is I'll like to see strongAdiepena/strong win an award and this probably will be it.br /br /strongBest Collaboration of the year/strongbr /This category is tough! strongYou dey Craze by Edem/Sarkodie/Kwaw Kesse/strong would probably win but I think the creativity with Kasiebo should see Obrafour and Guru carry this gong. br /br /strongBest Rapper of the year/strongbr /Like many others, am wondering why this category has been introduced while we have the hiplife artiste of the year. strongSarkodie's/strong seen as the best rapper today and will win. Bradez also have some sick flows.br /br /strongAfrican artiste of the year/strongbr /This may look like a straight contest between a href="http://museke.com/Bracket"Bracket/a and a href="http://museke.com/WandeCoal"Wande Coal/a but I think Midnight Crew should win. Their gospel song, a href="http://museke.com/node/2677"Igwe/a, has been so popular that it's played in the night clubs. Imagine that for a second. Haven't heard of performing in Ghana and that may work against them. I think strongWande Coal/strong will win though.br /br /strongRecord of the year/strongbr /I love this category because it allows a song that wasn't that popular but just really well-done to be honoured. I never heard Love Zone but I really like a href="http://museke.com/node/2908"Nyonorvidade/a by Ayigbe Edem. I hope it wins but I have a feeling strongRun Away by Irene Logan and Asem/strong will win.br /br /strongAlbum of the Year/strongbr /I also love this new category since it honours our musicians for putting in the work to produce albums and sell CDs. strongMakye/strong is already one of the best hiplife albums to date and it would and should win this award. Also loved Ayigbe Edem's Volta Regime. br /br /strongSong writer of the year/strongbr /strongObrafour/strong should win this award for Kasiebo and I believe he will win it. Dark horse will be Asem for writing Run Away. br /br /strongBest Male Vocal performance/strongbr /The kind of year Wutah had should ensure strongPV/strong wins this category though Ernest Opoku could steal it (gospel musicians hardly ever beat out their secular counterparts for awards anyway). br /br /strongBest Female Vocal Performance/strongbr /It's interesting to see how Becca released one song and it carried her to multiple nominations. I'll like to see her win this but I believe strongIrene Logan/strong will win. Speaking of Irene, has anyone seen her lately?br /br /Who do you think should win the awards?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5846132056690700080?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 10, 2010
• 23:19

  A selection of Africa Movie Academy Award nominee trailers

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  We've been having some discussions about some of the tasteless trailers for some Ghanaian movies recently. It's sad that that's the way some movie producers are choosing to sell their movies. It's almost like we have to get it wrong before we can get it right or the industry is just not that mature. Watching trailers for some of the other African movies nominated for the Africa Movie Academy Awards, you can see the best ways to sell movies can be the trailers and they can be done in tasteful ways. See what award winning movie trailers look like. Watch some of these below.br /br /See info about a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture.html"Perfect Picture/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/turning-point-pictures-i-sing-of-well.html"I Sing Of a Well (ISOAW)/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/sparrow-productions-sting-in-tale.html"A Sting In a Tale" (ASIAT)/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/11/much-publicized-ghanaian-movie-heart-of.html"Heart of Men (HOM)/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/02/heroes-productions-sin-of-soul-review.html"Sin of the Soul (SOTS)/a, reviewed on this blog.br /br /Figurine aka Araromire (Nigeria) directed by Kunle Afolayanbr /From IMDB - "The synopsis of Figurine (Araromire) shows that it is a story of two buddies and a girl...all down on their luck have their lives changed when one of them discovers 'Araromire' a mysterious figurine in an abandoned shrine which, according to legend bestows seven years of good luck. But no one told them about the next seven years." a href="http://www.figurinemovie.com/"Movie website/abr /Trailerbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ym2XtmMaCQbr /object width="480" height="385"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6ym2XtmMaCQhl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6ym2XtmMaCQhl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"/embed/objectbr /br /Imani (Uganda) directed by Caroline Kamyabr /"In the course of just one day, we venture into the lives of three characters within the diverse landscape of contemporary Uganda. Imani provides a refreshing look at Uganda post Idi Amin, post LRA (Lords Resistance Army). A fresh new talent, director Caroline Kamya, gives us an intimate portrait of the lives of a child soldier, a maid and a hip hop dancer living in Uganda today." a href="http://www.imanimovie.com"Movie website/abr /Trailerbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOAgCebSrVEbr /object width="426" height="260"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bOAgCebSrVEhl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bOAgCebSrVEhl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="426" height="260"/embed/objectbr /br /Seasons of a Life (Malawi) directed by Shemu Joyahbr /"This is a moving story about sexual abuse; the rights of women; the triumph of hope over despair; and the enduring spirit of motherhood." a href="http://www.firstdawnarts.com/index.html"Movie website/abr /Here's a scene from the moviebr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW6esRJCYU4br /object width="426" height="260"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CW6esRJCYU4hl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CW6esRJCYU4hl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="426" height="260"/embed/objectbr /br /The Tenant (Nigeria) directed by Lucky Ejimbr /"The Tenant is a multi award winning and critically acclaimed film, written and produced by Jude Idada and directed by Lucky Ejim. Shot in Nigeria and Canada, it explores the issues of immigration, socio-political ethos and economic justice."br /a href="http://www.thetenantmovie.com"Movie website/abr /Trailerbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMcz06dZq8sbr /object width="426" height="260"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZMcz06dZq8shl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZMcz06dZq8shl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="426" height="260"/embed/objectbr /br /Togetherness Supreme (Kenya) directed by Nathan Collettbr /"TOGETHERNESS SUPREME is the story of Kamau, an artist, Otieno, a hustler, and their shared love interest for Alice, a preacher’s daughter. All three live in Kibera, east Africa’s largest shantytown, home to a million people in Nairobi, Kenya. All three are from different tribes but are searching for tribal unity. The film follows these three characters in their quest for change in the community they live in, their fights, challenges and victories. After the 2007 Kenya presidential elections, Kibera is torn apart by conflicting tribal loyalties and so are the three characters." a href="http://www.togethernesssupreme.com/"Movie website/abr /Trailerbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ8m7TZts58br /object width="426" height="260"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iJ8m7TZts58hl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iJ8m7TZts58hl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="426" height="260"/embed/objectdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3780328731058532625?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 09, 2010
• 6:19

  My 23 man Black Stars squad for the South Africa 2010 World Cup

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://www.ghanafa.org/photos/gallery/200909/00061661.jpg" width="400" height="300"br /I'm on a roll, I've already published three blog posts today. Let's talk about sports for a bit. Last week, with little publicity, the Black Stars of Ghana faced Bosnia-Herzegovina in a friendly in Sarajevo. The Black Stars lost 2-1. As usual, while some fingers were pointed, some fingers were crossed, some toes were crossed and some toes were giddy. It's about 3 months to the start of this year's World Cup in South Africa and I can't wait. I am fully confident that the Black Stars team will get their act together before the World Cup and make Ghanaians and Africans proud. A few things need to be done and I want to offer a few thoughts and suggestions. br /br /strongGoalkeeping/strongbr /Richard Olele Kingston may be warming the bench at Wigan Athletic in cold England but he's still the undisputed number one Ghanaian goalie. In fact, he's right up there with all African goalkeepers. He's lost some of his agility but a goalkeeper must command respect and he does this best amongst all available options. I'll love to see Daniel Adjei make the final squad alongside George Owu. Owu has been solid everywhere he's been, he's not spectacular but he's also not flawed. br /br /strongCentral defence/strongbr /John Mensah the Rock of Gibraltar has had so many problems staying fit that now he's been simply christened 'Glass'. I hope he stays in shape and is fit for the mundial and leaves his tendencies to set high lines and offside traps at home when he gets to South Africa. Alongside John in central defence has to be Isaac Vorsah. He proved his worth at the Nations Cup but he must also learn to score a few goals from set-pieces. He must make adequate use of his height. We know, unlike me, he's not afraid to head the ball. Lee Addy's name was mentioned so much by commentators at the African Cup that that alone should guarantee him a ticket to South Africa. He's still raw but he'll get smarter hanging around the other professionals. Eric Addo must be retired from Black Star service and Francis Dickoh should take his place ahead of Jonathan Mensah. He's tried and tested at higher levels than both Addy and Jonathan, and would be a great insurance with the fragility of John Mensah looming. br /br /strongWing defence/strongbr /John Paintsil had been the most consistent Black Stars player before he got injured last Christmas but some naysayers will point to his lack of concentration as a defender. He and Samuel Inkoom stand above right-backs in Ghana but the man who once tried to broker a peace deal between Israel and Palestine at a football match should win out. Inkoom's been a winner but Paintsil has the versatility to change a game, as well as the experience. Thank God for Hans Adu Sarpei. The left-back position has been a problem since Isaac Asare's age caught up with him. Hans is not flashy or fast but is a very solid defender and is very technical. David Addy, the World Youth cup winner should be taken as his backup. This is a young lad with so much promise and I think is a joy to watch. These guys must learn to put in decent crosses though and should consult Bukom Banku for diets that will make them Energizer Bunnies. br /br /strongCentral midfield/strongbr /The strength of the Black Stars' team is the midfield as it is blessed with arguably the best defensive midfielder in the game - Michael Essien. The Bison has been injury prone but he should be fit as a fiddle by the time June rolls around. One big debate in Ghanaian football circles is whether Anthony Annan should start for Ghana so he can do the dirty work while Essien ventures up front to help our toothless strikeforce. I believe Essien should play the defensive midfield position with Pokinho Annan relegated to the bench. Essien plays this position excellently for Chelsea and before that, he marvelled with Lyon. He can produce a moment of attacking magic no matter where he plays so he should play at his natural position. Ahead of him in attacking midfield should be Kwadwo Asamoah. Kwadwo is the closest Black Star to Abedi Pele I've seen in the last 10 years. Spelling him on the bench comes down to Prince Buaben, and Emmanuel Agyemang Badu. I've not seen the former play much but I think he should get the nod here for his performances in the Scottish Premier League. In order to win the World Cup, you must have a world-class team. We are not going to the World Cup for our players to be scouted, we are going there to win. br /br /strongWing midfield/strongbr /Sulley Muntari owns the left winger position and proved his worth when he returned from his 'indisciplinary' suspension from the Black Stars to score our only goal in a freezing Sarajevo. He must learn to control his aggressiveness since we can't afford to have him pick silly yellow and red cards. On the right, I am excited about Kevin Prince-Boateng. It's taking an eternity to get his paperwork through but once he's done, Ghanaians will see how good he is and how great he can be. He has skill, technique and a shot. Hey, our strikers don't have all three, do they? On the bench, I'll go for Quincy Owusu-Abeyie and Andre Ayew. Quincy can change a game with his pace and skill, he just can't play 90 minutes. We remember Dede Ayew losing possession often when we see him play but he has a knack for fishing a goal and eye for creating some magic. br /br /strongAttack/strongbr /This is where I wish French Togo had joined Ghana in the 50's. Or Burkina Faso when they were still known as Upper Volta. Or the Ivory Coast when we discovered they could also speak some form of Twi. But when I think of the strikers they have I wish Ghana has, then I am reminding of Eric Bekoe. To me, Eric is our next Tony Yeboah. Eric who? Yes, that's the sad part, you haven't seen him play because for reasons known to Antoa Nyanma, he's not had a solid run playing for the Black Stars. This guy is a goal scorer, period. He was the goal king in Ghana for Kotoko and he's the goal king in Egypt right now. I've seen him play for Kotoko and he's the kind of guy who used to strike fear into his opponents. In Bekoe I trust, and I don't lose sleep over Mario Barwuah Balotelli. I'll like to see Bekoe start our next World Cup match with Asamoah Gyan alongside him. Coach Milovan Rajevac can keep his 4-2-3-1 foromation if he wants, he should just shift Gyan into the midfield and play Bekoe anyway. I can't think of a single flaw for Bekoe but we all know Gyan needs to exercise more composure when he gets a scoring opportunity. Junior Agogo comes with a different dimension as a striker and I am tempted to have him selected. Maybe he'll get a few fickle fans to support us, we all know, the Ghanaian girls are crazy over him. Till I see him play again, I vouch for Matthew Amoah and Dominic Adiyiah as subs.br /br /So there is my tentative 23 man squad for the Black Starsbr /br /strongWinning eleven/strong - Kingston; Paintsil, John Mensah, Vorsah, Sarpei; Kevin Boateng, Essien, Kwadwo Asamoah, Muntari; Bekoe, Asamoah Gyan.br /br /strongTraining eleven/strong - Owu; Inkoom, Dickoh, Lee Addy, David Addy; Quincy, Annan, Buaben, Dede Ayew; Amoah, Adiyiah.br /br /23rd man - Daniel Adjei.br /br /strongOsee, osee, Black Stars ei, forward ever!/strongdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2255142304884551368?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 4:12

  Ghanaian movies earn many 2010 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) nominations

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Two of my favorite movies ever, Shirley Frimpong-Manso's a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture.html"Perfect Picture/a and Leila Djansi's a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/turning-point-pictures-i-sing-of-well.html"I Sing Of a Well (ISOAW)/a have been nominated for multiple categories at the 2010 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). The nominations party was held in Accra, Ghana on March 6th. I have been a huge fan of (great) African movies recently and can't wait to see some of these movies. It's great to see the African movie industry blossoming, with actors and actresses acting in different countries, African cinema spreading to different nations, burgeoning sales in African film and respectable awards ceremonies. br /br /Shirley had two movies nominated, Perfect Picture and "a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/sparrow-productions-sting-in-tale.html"A Sting In a Tale" (ASIAT)/a. Perfect Picture is still one of the best Ghanaian movies ever made iimho/i and deserves to win a couple of awards. It's funny how the three leading ladies in the movie, Jackie, Lydia and Naa all got nominated for Best Actress - together. Who does that? This would surely lower the reputation of the AMAA's. They couldn't adjudge the best actress and had to divide a single nomination amongst three ladies? Adjetey Anang is one of the best actors in Ghana and I don't see how Naa gets a nomination for Best Actress and he gets a nomination for best supporting actor. #FAIL. Doris Sackitey was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in ASIAT. For those of you who taught it was a bad movie, think again! br /br /In spite of all the controversy a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/11/much-publicized-ghanaian-movie-heart-of.html"Heart of Men (HOM)/a generated, I thought it was a great movie when I watched it and it gained some nominations as well. Majid Michel declared it was his best movie, but I think he acted even better in a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/02/heroes-productions-sin-of-soul-review.html"Sin of the Soul (SOTS)/a, and surely he won a best actor nomination for his work in there. John Dumelo (for his role in HOM) and Martha Ankomah (for hers in SOTS) were both nominated for most promising actor (and actress). I surely agree with Martha's nomination but I don't think Dumelo was that awesome in HOM. What about our favorite Ghanaian English movies from Venus Films? A single nomination for "The King is Mine" in the Best Make-Up category. This nomination makes too much sense. :-)br /br /ISOAW is arguably better than The Perfect Picture. Many Africans have not seen the movie but now they will pay attention. Akofa Adjeani-Asiedu and JOT Agyeman earned nominations for Best Actress and Actor respectively and Godwin Kotey earned one for Best Supporting Actor. Thorougly deserved. That movie was directed so well and scored! I can't wait for it to be on strikeVCD/strike DVD so African movie lovers can own it and see the difference. You should read my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/02/interview-leila-djansi-i-sing-of-well.html"interview with the director, Leila, here/a. She's awesome. I guess King Ampaw's No Time to Die was ineligible this year. That movie is one of the best from Ghana in recent years. I've seen it and once I see it again the review will be on this blog. br /br /For the non-Ghanaian movies, I really want to see Figurine from Nigeria and Imani from Uganda. Someone please make it happen. I wonder why a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/reviewing-district-9-south-african-sci.html"District 9/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/10/south-african-movie-white-wedding.html"White Wedding/a from South Africa didn't get any nominations, because they are as good as some of the movies I've watched. Well, guess what, while people were partying in Accra waiting for AMAA nominations, District 9 was busy looking forward to winning Oscars. "Datsramete". "That's right". Maybe next time. br /br /Here is the full list of nominees; and in bold is who I hope would/should win since I haven't seen all the movies. br /br /BEST DOCUMENTARYbr /1. Wanba Ngoma (Tanzania)br /2. Peace Wanted Alive (Kenya)br /3. Bariga Boys(Nigeria)br /4. En quette d'identite (Burkina Faso)br /strong5. Innovating for Africa (Nigeria)/strongbr /br /BEST SHORT FILMbr /strong1. Mahala -(Mozambique)/strongbr /2. The Abbys Boys -(South Africa)br /3. The Painter - (Uganda)br /4. Suara La - (Nigeria)br /5. The Camera -(Nigeria)br /br /BEST ANIMATIONbr /1. Hanayns Shoe (Egypt)br /2. Adventure of Alayo (Nigeria)br /strong3. Zoodo (Burkina Faso)/strongbr /4. Lyrics (Algeria)br /5. One Step of Love (Algeria)br /br /BEST FILM BY AN AFRICAN FILMMAKER IN DIASPORAbr /strong1. Soul Diaspora/strongbr /2. Okra Principlebr /3. China Wahalabr /4. Crunchbr /br /BEST FILM IN AFRICAN LANGUAGEbr /1. Omo Iya Kan (Nigeria)br /2. Aldeweden (Ethiopia)br /3. Togetherness Supreme (Kenya)br /strong4. Imani (Uganda)/strongbr /5. Game of my life (South Africa)br /br /HEART OF AFRICA AWARD FOR BEST FILM FROM NIGERIAbr /1. Nnenda by Izu Ojukwubr /2. Freedom in Chain by Bond Emeruwa and Fred Amatabr /3. The Child by Izu Ojukwubr /strong4. Figurine by Kunle Afolayan/strongbr /5. High Blood Pressure by Teco Bensonbr /br /AMAA ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUNDbr /1. The Tenantbr /2. Season of a lifebr /strong3. Perfect Picture/strongbr /4. I sing of a wellbr /5. Soul Diasporabr /br /AMAA ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITINGbr /1. Season of a lifebr /2. The Childbr /strong3. Perfect Picture/strongbr /4. Heart of Menbr /5. Lilies of the Ghettobr /br /AMAA ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTIONbr /strong1. I sing of a well/strongbr /2. Fulanibr /3. The Childbr /4. Figurinebr /5. Imanibr /br /AMAA ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKE-UPbr /1. Heart of Menbr /2. The Childbr /3. The King is Minebr /strong4. I sing of a well/strongbr /5. Fulanibr /br /AMAA ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUMEbr /1. Perfect Picturebr /2. Prince's bridebr /3. The Childbr /strong4. I sing of a well/strongbr /5. Lilies of the Ghettobr /br /AMAA ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTbr /1. The Childbr /2. Figurinebr /strong3. A sting in a tale/strongbr /4. Fulanibr /5. Heart of Menbr /br /Best ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKbr /1. Seasons of a lifebr /2. Imanibr /strong3. A sting in a tale/strongbr /4. The Childbr /5. Figurinebr /br /BEST PERFORMANCE BY A CHILD ACTORbr /1. Teddy Onyago and Bill Oloo- Togetherness Supremebr /strong2. Tobi Oboli - The Figurine/strongbr /3. Feyisola Ewulomi - Champions of our Timebr /4. Treasure Obasi - Champions of our Timebr /5. Mfanafuthi Magudulela - Game of my lifebr /br /MOST PROMISING ACTRESSbr /1. Martha Kisaka - Togetherness Supremebr /strong2. Chelsea Eze - Silent Scandal/strongbr /3. Martha Ankomah - Sins of the Soulbr /4. Ashionye Michelle Ugboh- Jungle Ridebr /5. Rahema Nanfuka - Imanibr /br /MOST PROMISING ACTORbr /1. Wilson Maina - Togetherness Supreme (Kenya)br /2. Wale Ojo - The Child (Nigeria)br /strong3. John Dumelo - Heart of men (Ghana)/strongbr /4. Pethro Tumba Mbole - A game of my life (South Africa)br /5. Sunny Chikezie - Lilies of the Ghetto (Nigeria)br /br /BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLEbr /1. Godwin Kotey- I sing of a wellbr /2. Francis Duru - Nnendabr /3. Yemi Blaq - High Blood Pressurebr /strong4. Adjetey Anang - The Perfect Picture/strongbr /br /BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLEbr /strong1. Doris Sackitey - A sting in a Tale/strongbr /2. Funlola Aoifeyebi-Raimi - Figurinebr /3. Tapiwa Gwaza - Seasons of a lifebr /4. Yvonne Nelson - Heart of Menbr /br /BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLEbr /1. Bimbo Akintola- Freedom in Chainsbr /2. Jackie Appiah, Lydia Forson and Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku - The Perfect Picturebr /3. Stephanie Okereke- Nnendabr /4. Flora Suya - Season of a lifebr /strong5. Akofa Edjeani Asiedu - I sing of a well/strongbr /br /BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLEbr /1. Lucky Ejim - The Tenantbr /2. Majid Michael - Sin of a soulbr /3. Ramsey Noah - The Figurinebr /4. Odera Ozoka - Soul Diasporabr /strong5. John Osei Tutu Agyeman - I Sing of a well/strongbr /br /BEST SCREENPLAYbr /1. Season of a lifebr /2. The Tenantbr /3. Freedom In chainsbr /4. Guilty Pleasurebr /strong5. I sing of a well/strongbr /br /AMAA ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHYbr /1. The Perfect Picturebr /2. Figurinebr /strong3. I sing of a well/strongbr /4. The Childbr /5. The Tenantbr /br /BEST PICTUREbr /1. Seasons of a life (Malawi)br /2. The tenant (Nigeria)br /strong3. The Perfect Picture (Ghana)/strongbr /4. The Figurine (Nigeria)br /5. I sing of a well (Ghana)br /br /BEST DIRECTORbr /1. Shemu Joyah - Seasons of a lifebr /strong2. Shirley Frimpong-Manso - The Perfect Picture/strongbr /3. Kunle Afolayan - Figurinebr /4. Leila Jewel Djansi - I sing of a welldiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-431824423845428296?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 1:30

  Happy International Women's day!

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I woke up to mentions of Happy Women's Day all over the internet and thought to myself, "What a coincidence?" The first ever woman nominee for Best Director at the Oscars had just won it last night for 'Hurt Locker', a movie which is a masculine as they come. What men can do, women can do better. It really is a woman's world, :-) Happy Women's Day!br /br /International Women's Day (IWD) is not about firsts for women, it's about a celebration of women. From its Wiki page, the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. It's a day for YOU (not just men) to let that those women know how much you adore them and cherish them for all they do for YOU. br /br /The Wiki page also states that this 'day' was started as a Socialist event. I learnt this from a friend of mine when we had texted back and forth about the issue. I called my mother (in Ghana) to wish her 'Happy Women's Day' and thank her for all she'd done for me and she knew nothing of this International Women's Day. Hmm. My friend had figured Ghana probably wasn't celebrating the 'Day'. She mentioned it was originally a Socialist thing and that in her home country (which shares a border with Ghana by the way), it's an official holiday. But how did '233' miss out? We may not be a 'socialist' country but we do have the more socialist party in power now in the form of the NDC. Needless to say, I decided not to call my sisters in Ghana about IWD, and sent them texts instead. br /br /Today was a holiday in Ghana though. Since Ghanaians couldn't get off work on March 6th (a Saturday), Asumasi and Rakia got to sleep in. You could say Ghana's 53rd birthday overshadowed IWD even if some of the news media reported it. IWD came at a time unlike Valentine's Day, it had to compete with Mama Ghana's "a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/03/african-language-translations-gadget.html"Ahofadi"/a celebration. Valentine's Day was competing with National Chocolate Day, big difference there. Apparently, Ghanaians are more excited celebrating 'love' and 'Valentine' than celebrating 'women'. No, they are not the same thing. br /br /IWD is used to call attention to some women's rights issues and some of the major social, political and economic crises affecting women and girls. Ghana has never been known to be an activist country. Though we enjoy our democrazy democracy, we are too much in love with peace to take stringent measures to get different things done. Take hiplife for instance. It's probably the least socially conscious form of African hip-hop. So maybe, we shouldn't be surprised Ghana's not celebrating International Women's Day. How did Flavour's Ashawo become a major hit in Ghana? When was the last time you heard a song about Trokosi?br /br /Naturally, I was thinking of ways to celebrate the day. The popular choice is to buy gifts and presents for different women. I thought that was for Valentine's Day? I know I haven't seen any major media blitz for March 8th but I doubt International Women's Day is another day for 'plenty spending'. I am on a "chiselling,don't spend if you can get it free" spree so this was out of the question. The gifts will go, but later. Another friend suggested offering smiles for all women I saw. Now that's a good one. I don't have any interesting stories to report as a result of doing so so maybe simply saying "Happy Women's Day" to random women would be a more dramatic way of celebrating IWD. br /br /On the real though, we should really begin to take celebrating women more seriously. A wise man called James Kwegyir Aggrey once said, "If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation". People who've studied some sort of developmental economics would tell you that to enrich a nation, the women must be empowered. We must begin to empower more women with education and resources because unlike men, they care much about "us" collectively, our communities and our societies. Men are messes, if you've been to a college guy's room and a college girl's room, it will tell you all you need to know. I say, we begin to allow women to run the 'show' more and see how the world will begin to turn. br /br /In fact, when you think about some of the reasons behind IWD, it's a little tough to go around saying Happy Women's Day. We must start doing our little contributions to stop the injustices that women and girls face all around the world and encourage the celebration of more achievements. But when you think about women do well, and how they make our families tick, our communities build, our societies flourish and our world prosper, we must join in a single voice and chorus, "Happy Women's Day".br /br /"Happy Women's Day".div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2630841283488224963?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 08, 2010
• 23:30

  African language translations gadget for iGoogle

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Recently, a friend asked me how to say Independence in Akan Twi. I didn't know the word so I sought my favorite source for such matters a href="http://words.fienipa.com"Kasahorow's Akan dictionary on Fienipa.com/a. Found out the word was 'Ahofadi'. A friend on Facebook mentioned it may have been 'fawohodi' instead. Ahofadi is a noun, fawohodi or 'fa wo ho di' is more like a sentence, as so nicely put by one of the Kasahorow gurus. It's great to know this translation service is around. That's why you should help publicize it.br /br /Publish this widget on your homepage or blog that allows people to translate amongst English, Akan, Ewegbe, Hausa, Yoruba, Swahili, and Kinyarwanda.br /br /Brought to you by the awesome folks at Fienipa.com and Kasahorow.combr /br /br /script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://apps.fienipa.com/igoogle.xmlamp;synd=openamp;w=320amp;h=200amp;title=fie.nipa+for+iGoogleamp;border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999amp;output=js"/scriptbr /br /You can get the code from here: br /br /http://www.gmodules.com/ig/creator?synd=openurl=http%3A//apps.fienipa.com/igoogle.xmlpt=%26context%3Dd%26type%3Dgadgets%26synd%3Dig%26lang%3Den%26.lang%3Den%26country%3Dus%26.country%3Dus%26start%3D0%26num%3D1%26objs%3Dsn=lang=endiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-9086950465258820667?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• March 01, 2010
• 4:50

  Top websites in Ghana and top Ghanaian websites

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Got an email from a friend recently which prompted me to look at the top rated sites on Alexa.com for Ghana. There were a few interesting discoveries so wanted to share. br /br /Top sites 1-10br /br /1. strongFacebook.com/strong: Pretty easy to decipher. Facebook has seen phenomenal growth over the last few years, making hi5 extinct and leaving myspace in its wake. Hey, they have Facebook parites in Ghana now. Facebook was probably the number one for advertising and marketing a href="http://www.barcampghana.org"BarCamp Ghana/a last year. br /br /2. strongYahoo.com/strong: People still use Yahoo regularly? For what? Email? I stopped using yahoo in 2006. I check my yahoo address once every 3 weeks. I probably use the Flickr service more than Yahoo Mail. Did I hear YahooMail has unlimited storage?br /br /3. strongGoogle.com.gh/strong: Maybe the only reason Google.com isn't top in Ghana is the fact that it shares 'time' with Google.com.gh. The Ghana google site has only been around maybe 4 years but it's sweet to have a country-specific google site for GH. Does Yahoo or MSN have one? In fact, you can use Ghana's Google in Hausa or Akan. Try it today :-)br /br /4. strongGoogle.com/strong: See number 4. Yes, Ghanaians are beginning to replace the word search with Google too. And now with the Google Ghana office starting up, watch out.br /br /5. strongLive.com/strong: Yahoo doesn't get much love from me and MSN never really has. Live? Isn't that a relatively new thing? Do some of you even know about this website? It's br /br /6. strongYoutube.com/strong: The joke in Ghana is, you open a Youtube video page, pause the video, leave the page and go do something else for 30 minutes, come back and watch the video. Can't wait for the day those fibre optic cables will be laid so we can have decent internet connections. Apparently, slow internet hasn't stopped Ghanaians from joining the Youtube revolution.br /br /7. strongMSN.com/strong: My hotmail address has traditionally been used for MSN messenger only. Those good old days! I don't use it anymore but hey, GH folks seem to be using their hotmail addresses like crazy. I suppose they have 'conversation threads' too.br /br /br /8. strongGhanaweb.com/strong: Ha! First Ghanaian site in the Top 10. No surprise here. People still criticize them for their 'terrible' website but Ghanaweb is a name edged into the psyche of Ghanaians. It would only take a huge effort to knock them off their perch.br /br /9. strongWikipedia.com/strong: Kinda nice Wikipedia is in here. Ghanaians use it a whole lot but we don't create a lot of pages. Let's get on that. Check out a href="http://ak.wikipedia.org"Akan Wikipedia/abr /br /10. strongBBC.co.uk/strong: Ghana is a former British colony. Komla Dumor works there. They have "Africa Have Your Say". Enuff said. br /br /Let's dig into the top "Ghanaian sites".br /br /1. strongGhanaweb/strong: See above.br /br /2. strongMyjoyonline.com/strong: JOY FM has really done well with their website. They seem to do much less than Ghanaweb, but have almost the same internet pull. br /br /3. strongPeacefmonline.com/strong: Kind of interesting how a Ghanaian-language radio station can have a super and popular website that is in English. I am looking forward to the day we have a site with major Ghanaian language content ranked this high. br /br /4. strongWeb4Africa.net/strong: I had never heard of this website until they decided to sponsor BarCamp Ghana last December. I was quite surprised to see them up here. They register domains and design websites. Good stuff. br /br /5. strongDarrelconceptsghana.com/strong: Yes, I am also like strongW/strongednesdaystrongT/stronghursdaystrongF/strongriday? I just want to ask the guys behind this website how they do it.br /br /6. strongMadeinAfrika.info/strong: Did these guys go on some marketing or advertising blitz in Ghana? Strange.br /br /7. strongModernGhana.com/strong: I remember when this website came out. It looked a complete copycat of Ghanaweb. Either Ghanaweb was running that site or Ghanaweb had to seriously sue them, because they had the 'same' content. ModernGhana has continued to grow and I rate it more highly now. Should be higher up this list.br /br /8. strongUgEdu.gh/strong: Legon's site is in here? :-D I like to make fun of Legon, TECH aka KNUST is so much better. I have first-hand experience. Can't the hackers coming out of TECH make KNUST enter the top 10 and relegate Legon's site to anonymity? MUAHAHA. *Evil smile*br /br /9. strongWatradehub.com/strong: No, it's not Wa trade hub, it's West Africa Trade Hub. All I wanna is, "How much did they pay?"br /br /10. strongFienipa.com/strong: Now, this placement corrects all the wrongs about the lists. Fienipa is a top 1o site in Ghana. Visit it today! You'll see that you are missing out! It has a lyrics.fienipa section (a mirror site for Museke.com - home of the African music fan), words.fienipa (African language dictionaries), food.fienipa (a mirror site of Nududu.com - African food recipes), greetings.fienipa (African language greeting cards), market.fienipa (an African marketplace), etc. Go on, a href="http://www.fienipa.com"click it/abr /br /Any thoughts about the lists? These lists are subject to change, easily. a href="http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries;0/GH"See the top 100 sites in Ghana here/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-804808603212784307?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 23, 2010
• 4:05

  An unforgettable February weekend!

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  It's been a while since I shared a 'diary' entry. This last weekend presented the perfect opportunity to do so. It wasn't setting up to be that special a weekend. The Harvard African Business Conference was going on, but I did not attend. While I was there last year, I decided to forgo the HBS ABC this year. I was bent on seeing this through and if I had the littlest inkling about changing my mind, my empty-full-of-potholes pocket hammered the final nail in the 'dont-go-to-the-HBS_ABC coffin. So, I was stuck in the Bay but the Bay interestingly had a few good things to offer. It ended up offering an unforgettable weekend. So I missed out on Naeto C? a href="http://museke.com/node/2182"Kini Big Deal/a. Missed out on the biggest, brightest, most reputable face-to-face tete-a-tete networking potential African marriage-partner finding event? "a href="http://museke.com/node/4431"Duro/a", didn't drive me crazy because you should know my P. This weekend's Mighty African adventures were not to be missed. Here's the story.br /br /Friday was the day a href="http://museke.com/VusiMahlasela"Vusi Mahlasela/a was coming to perform at Stanford. Yes, he had been invited by 'Stanford Arts', and not the African Students Association or his niece who's studying Aero-Astro engineering. Just joking about the latter. Vusi's concert was going to cost Stanford students $10 and other adults (over 18+) would pay $35. Gone are the days when I used to hang with 18 year olds who didn't attend my school. My 'adult' friends would not come see Vusi for $35. So if my friend who was visiting had to pay $35 to hang with me for a couple of hours, then I would also not pay $10. I am not a big fan of Vusi's music anyway. Give me some Kwaito, give me some Lira, give me some House. Give me some of a href="http://museke.com/node/4545"this/a. I'd normally support my Africans, no matter what but this was quite a price to pay. So I skipped the concert, entertained my visitor and looked forward to catching Vusi at the reception being thrown for him later.br /br /I went to the reception as planned, though it started later than advertised. Kai, even Stanford can operate at African time sometimes. Feels good, neh? :-D Stanford's favorite accapella group, Talisman, performed some beautiful South African songs at the reception. Even after performing for two hours, Vusi still found the energy to join them in singing "Ahuna Ya Tswanang Le Jesu". They also sang 'Shosholoza' and another I forget right now. Hey, it's about the only thing I forgot from this weekend ;-) Spoke with Vusi eventually and told him about Museke, etc. No, no time for interviews this time. I've decided to listen to his music more. Check out his songs, a href="http://museke.com/en/node/2740"River Jordan/a and a href="http://museke.com/en/node/2800"Jabula/a, good stuff. Local is lekker. Had a lot of interesting conversations with a Berkeley student and her German boyfriend. Ended up being one of the last people to leave the reception venue as a result. This always happens. I don't know why I always manage to stay till the very end. Sigh.br /br /My Saturday 'began' when I saw two missed calls from my Nigerian buddy (5:30 5:45pm). So I decided to call him back (6:30pm). "Chale, the a href="http://museke.com/AngeliqueKidjo"Angelique Kidjo/a concert is at 8pm at Berkeley, we are leaving at 7pm". Yikes! I had a little under 30 minutes to transition into Saturday, shower, get dressed UP and go. Funny thing is, I wasn't prepared for this Kidjo show. My Nigerian buddy hadn't mentioned it when I saw him Friday night and no one had talked about it all week. iNaww, Impossible/i. Possible, Africans @ Stanford weren't that giddy about seeing one of Africa's best performers, especially when it was an hour's drive away. Me, I had just missed Vusi's concert, missed Kidjo when she performed in Boston and was made to endure 'taunts' from my friends who went about how they danced with her on stage and how magnificent she was. Wasn't going to miss this one. Eventually, joined my Nigerian buddy on the journey and after we picked up our Ethiopian 'sister', we were concert-bound (7:30).br /br /8:40pm. We've just paid for parking after circling the concert venue in Berkeley and are looking for directions to ZellerBach Hall. We get there and we are greeted by a white lady who tells us they stopped selling tickets for the show 30 minutes after it started. For those of you keeping score at home, that means we are 10 minutes late. We can't even go buy online tix and come back. #AreYouKiddingMe???!!! We drove all the way to Berkeley to see Kidjo 'shekete' and we can't get tickets? The show is at least 2 hours long and we still have 80 minutes to go. I turn around and shout strong"CAL SUCKS!/strong" Some white dude outside remarked, "the place is probably half-full". And I'm pretty darn sure it was! Seriously, why be so prim and proper? Couldn't they just sell us tickets? What do they lose? I blame Angelique Kidjo. She's so big these days, she's on some 'international record label', we don't have access to her, we have to pay top dollar to see her and there's no flexibility. Imagine if it was some African promoter who had brought 'Samini' to perform at some local spot in Berkeley. Samini would come on stage 2 hours late, so there's no way in 'Sodom and Gomorrah' that we're missing him, tickets would be sold from 'krainkrain' to 'krankran' till the show ends and the price would probably remain the same. I'm done with Angelique Kidjo concerts. br /br /9:15pm. My Ethiopian friend and I are both hungry. She and my Naija paddy want chicken and waffles. I'm like, "We've come all the way to Berkeley, we have to eat at an African restaurant". We've paid for 3 hours of parking so we're not getting the car, we're walking to find this food. Eventually, we realise the African restaurants are not that ubiquitous and we can't spend too much time reaching them. We settle for some 'black' food at 'Louisiana Kitchen'. This is after we've decided to remedy the evening with watching 'Up in the Air' starring George Clooney. Movie shows at 10pm, counting previews, we should be seated by 10:20 at the latest. American restaurants don't operate like chop bars, so we have to wait in line, declare our order, eventually get seated, continue chit-chatting, and wait for the food. This can take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. So, by the time the food arrives, it's maybe 9:55. br /br /So I order some chicken fresh from ze kitchen, my Ethiopian friend orders some crawfish dish, and my Nigerian guy orders some Jambalaya from this black buka. Normally, I'd ask to taste some of what my friends ordered, and share some of mine. Sharing is caring. I couldn't eat the Jambalaya because strongI've given up eating pork and beef for Lent/strong. No lie. So if you thought this was going to be easy, it ain't. I was refusing food (a whole me) because it had some kind of meat. "Asumasi mmɛ hwɛ n'adamfo. Joseph mpo, y'awe!" br /br /We finish eating, get to the cinema to get our 'Up in the Air' tix and the ticket sellers no dey. I look to my Naija friend and we figure we'll just open the doors and go watch the movie anyway. "Syke" The doors are locked. A concessionary seller in the cinema tells us the theater is closed. We see him. We stand there. He sees fit to come toward us and open the doors. He pokes his head out and tells us "the theatre is closed". @#%^E@I We heard you the first time! Luckily enough, there was a theater right down the road. Berkeley is good for a few things. The ticket seller waits for 10 minutes as the three of us debate what movie to see. My Ethiopian friend doesn't want to see Avatar, and I haven't seen it (#FAIL). She's seen Sherlock Holmes and we haven't. The guys don't want see It's complicated. We end up choosing Denzel Washington in 'Book of Eli', and it's just starting. After watching 3 minutes of Book of Eli, we decide the movie is too slow, nothing is happening and it's not worth watching. Upon reaching the room where AVATAR 3D is showing, we realise the boxes for recycling 3D glasses are empty. WTF? People take the 3D glasses to show off to their friends? They keep them so they can bring them back to watch more 3D movies? The ticket seller won't give us 3D glasses unless we buy tickets to AVATAR 3D, too. We end up watching Sherlock Holmes, at least, it was a good movie. br / br /Going home to Stanford wasn't even easy. We drove a while looking for highway signs. We ended up circling one particular block on Telegraph Avenue (in Oakland now) three times. On one side of the block, a police car was parked. I mentioned, "hmmm, this policeman may think we are picking up drugs or doing a drive-by the way we keep on coming around here". I run into a Nigerian friend who was frolicking with her other girlfriends and thanks to her directions, we headed home. br /br /I woke up on Sunday just in time to go play with FC Palo Alto in our first game this year. Manchester United had lost badly to Everton the day before (Thank God I didn't watch the game) and I was in no mood to wake up early to watch football. I get to the field and it's raining. Nice! I end up not starting the game in defence like I usually do. I had sucked a bit in practices so I understood my coach and captain's decisions. Hey, have to support the team no matter what. Allen Iverson, that's for you! We concede a goal in the 3rd minute and after 10 minutes, we're two down. By the time, I get to play, we have taken three unanswered goals and it's still raining. Horrible football weekend. The Stanford Athletics monster comes to close down the field and put my team out of our misery. We agree to play the second-half at a later date and my captain decides our team should go practice for an hour. It's still raining! I saw this as a punishment. "This team sucks so bad, we're not going home, let's go practice even if it's raining". 1, 2, 3, FCPA!!!!br /br /Fast forward to 6:30pm. I am preparing to go a potluck empty-handed. For whatever reason, I felt I didn't need to cook for this one because the email looked like it was being organized by three namesakes. Feel no more. It may just happen to me next time. I cut a phone conversation with one of my favorite people short to go join my Zimbabwean friend to go to this potluck. We have a little trouble finding my Ghanaian host's place, a place that is on campus. Tscheeeww. I request for some Golden Tree Chocolate to finally celebrate strikeValentine's/strike Ghanaian Chocolate Day and have a couple glasses of Sangria. I am trying my best not to get drunk or tipsy on a Sunday. My other Ghanaian friend walks in with Naija roommate and asks, "where's the waakye?". Uh huh, here's a potluck, Mighty African is here and there's no waakye. That means, chale didn't cook. Should not happen again.br /br /Anyway, here's the menu. Chicken dish, strikepeanut/strike groundnut soup, grapes, brownies, rice, chocolate, jollof rice, and a cake with iblueberries/i, strawberries and kiwis. I find out the jollof rice is cooked with beef. Taflastse! Why? I have to forgo this jollof too, I am getting more than I bargained for for this Lent thing. After boxing with my conscience, I take out the beef pieces and eat the jollof. Here's our guestlist, Ghanaian PhD in education, his girlfriend from El Salvador, his Aero-Astro roommate from Germany, Zimbabwean PhD in education, Ghanaian PhD in engineering, Nigerian PhD in engineering, and then two Nigerian and Ghanaian law chool students. We had some really enjoyable conversations, but the highlight of the night was probably the new information I found out about 'dimples'. See me in chambers if you want to know. br /br /So that was the weekend. I hope I was able to tell you about in an exciting way as it happened. Very memorable. And that's even half of it. Of course I can't tell you everything that happened. I have to stop telling and you have to stop reading at some point ;-)div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2991580591964145824?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 22, 2010
• 8:54

  The letters we write to impress girls

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  In fact, sometimes I can't believe how ridiculous I get. Some might say I have a way with words. Actually, I am considering doing stand-up comedy. I have always been writing a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/search/label/poem"poems/a, used to write a lot of short stories (maybe I'll get into those again soon) and most recently, I have been doing spoken word. But at the time I found my love of a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/search/label/writing"writing/a in Presec through short stories, funny articles and poems, I employed 'these styles' in 'letters'. These styles included various figures of speech and what is known to Presec enthusiasts as "Chaa". In my youthful exuberance, I'd write letters to various girls and I don't know why we 'did' this, but we felt our letters had to be special, funny, witty, and 'chaaristic'. br /br /I don't have the letters I wrote in Presec with me but I was browsing through my Facebook messages and realised I never 'lost' my touch. I found a long-lost friend from those jolly old Presec times and felt I start my 'communication' with her the same way I'd do so while in high school. br /I have taken out some parts to protect the identity of the lady. The message is otherwise unedited. The lady, in fact, at this very moment, is 'taken', 'attached', 'wifed', you know. strikeKpayor/strike. Bummer.br /br /Ah well, here goes the message :-)br /br /blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"br /*************, so this is u?br /br /I have searched for you far and wide, from sea to shining sea, from Paga to Cape Three Points, from Ghanaian party to Boomerang, from churches to major state funerals, from Timeout in Legon to Queens hall in Tech back to Legon On da run, from photo album to friend lists, in fact this day is a great day.br /br /Love of my days, I miss you intoto.br /br /Out of touch, out of sight, still in mind.br /br /How I used to feel you paa? I couldn't stop talking about u. When I came to Ghana, I will look out for u, but for all I know, you may have grown different and I wouldn't be able to recognise u again.br /br /Why did you disappear from my life and make my soul go heart searching and my heart go soul searching?br /br /You have to let me know what you've done with your life since that 2001 day when I met you and through the countless letters you didn't reply.br /br /Oh, sorry I was so excited, I didn't even introduce myself. I forgive you already if you don't remember me. I went to Presec and met you on a nice Ghanaian day *********. I was parading as a ********* and you were *********. See, I remember. :-)br /br /We hooked up. Well, we did not, we just met and talked small. The rest they say is history.br /br /So *************, grant me my heart's desire and come back into my life.br /br /Signed,br /Your long lost number one fan.br /br //blockquotebr /br /What were some of the lines you guys used to use? or still use. or will use. cha, get creative ;-)div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8862955504558189208?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 14, 2010
• 8:43

  I would like (poem)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  This is my second post this strikeValentine's/strike National Chocolate Day. I was going to combine both posts but had too much to say in a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/02/happy-chocolate-and-valentines-day.html"the first one/a. I have a poem to share with you all in the spirit of this weekend. It's a very special poem to me, because it is a love poem. Uuh. It's titled 'I would like'. br /br /I have debated well over a year whether to make it public and finally I have decided to let you all enjoy it. Well, I've performed it a couple times (spoken word) so it's not a huge secret and I've shared it with some friends as well. I wanted to keep the poem safe till I released it in my anthology or maybe, used it at a very very very special time. But hey, since I am unable to write poems these days for stupid reasons like "this poem better be better than the last poem", I figure I'll share the poem with y'all so I could be forced to write some new ones. It's easy to see why I chose this day, it's Valentine's Day, love is in the ayer. Also, it's a special day for a very special friend. So, here goes. Hope you enjoy it. "strongI would like/strong"br /br / br /I would like to love youbr /Because you sing my feelingsbr /Because you house my affectionsbr /Because you play out my scriptsbr /Because you solder my connectionsbr /Because you understand my passionsbr /Because you educate my emotionsbr /Because you love my love br /br /I would like to need youbr /You find my searchesbr /You see my dreamsbr /You cook my fantasiesbr /You tidy my ecstasiesbr /You wash my bleedsbr /You befriend my deedsbr /You fulfill my needs br /br /I would like to want youbr /To expand my reachbr /To contract my speechbr /To fulfill my desiresbr /To predict my destinybr /To discipline my inputsbr /To encourage my outputsbr /To have the next generation of me br /br /I would like to have youbr /Beside me, because the trust warms mebr /Behind me, because the faith calms mebr /Before me, because the hope drives mebr /Beyond me, because the space focuses mebr /Above and beneath me, because the beauty floors mebr /Within me, because the emotion makes mebr /Make me want to be me br /br /I would like to be with youbr /You take onlookers' breaths awaybr /You must be a flawless capturebr /You take onlookers' breaths awaybr /I must be lucky to be in the picturebr /You take onlookers' breaths awaybr /As they look, see and experiencebr /I cherish being in the experience br /br /I would like to complete youbr /Because this joint will make and breakbr /And make againbr /Because this road allows for going back and moving forwardbr /And standing stillbr /Because this building experiences tear and repairbr /And needs utmost carebr /The bridge that attaches you to your destiny is me br /br /I would like to be intimate with youbr /Intimacy that unitesbr /Unity that ignitesbr /Ignitions that sparkbr /Sparks that resultbr /Results that birthbr /Births that providebr /Provisions that love br /br /I would like tobr /Show that I would like tobr /Because I am on a causebr /I would like tobr /Have you like to, toobr /Because I keep on saying becausebr /I would like to love, need, want, have, be with, complete, be intimate with youbr /Because you be the causediv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8898521212753023784?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 8:09

  Happy Chocolate and Valentine's Day!

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/44/147605037_41d46fb106_m.jpg" align="left"So it's Valentine's Day all over the world, so let me start by wishing you all Happy Valentine's! Like the Good Book says, Love is the greatest commandment. Love your neighbour as yourself. Pretty golden quote to live by. br /br /Where I'm from, aka Ghana, February 14th is National Chocolate Day. It was adopted by the Kuffour government in 2007 to boost the consumption and sale of cocoa. Ghanaians like to claim the best cocoa (or even chocolate) comes from Ghana. February 14th is a day cast in stone for high consumption of chocolate and cocoa products in Ghana. I know when I was in Ghana for February 14th in 2008, I bought my family a big pack of Golden Tree Chocolate. a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blogs/nwia/2008/02/letta-osagyefo-happy-valentines-and-chocolate-day"I shared my story on GhanaConscious too/a. So yes, we must buy made in Ghana-products all the time, but if you needed any reminders, we have National Chocolate Day. Too bad, I don't have any here to give us gifts. In fact, I am wondering where I could get some. I MUST get some Golden Tree Akuafo Bars today!br /br /I don't know if Valentine's Day is celebrated more in Ghana than the US or vice versa. I don't listen to the radio in the US and hardly watch TV here (unless it's basketball or sports) so I can't make an educated decision. The Valentine's Day movie that just came out looks good, want to see it. In Ghana, Valentine's Day is synonymous with the colour RED. Just like World AIDS day. So now think about that for a second. The two reddest days couldn't be more connected. Remember, it's as easy as ABC. Abstinence, Be faithful to your partner, wear a Condom. If it's not on, it's not in. The whole point of this paragraph was to get this sentence "If it's not on, it's not in" into the blog entry. :-Dbr /br /People claim Valentine's Day has become so commercialized that people have been missing the point. Well, what is the point? Well, that's we love Wikipedia. Wikipedia says "Saint Valentine's Day" (kai, the day is even meant to be holy) is a holiday celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. Ahem, intimate companions. So if people go get busy as a result, let them get busy. Ghanaians shouldn't complain if condoms all of a sudden become in short supply. :-) The Wikipedia entry also says it's a holiday where lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). In the US, the only time when more greeting cards are sent than during Valentine's is during Christmas. br /br /How am I spending my Valentine's day weekend? Well, it's also NBA All-Star weekend, folks. It's a long weekend too, I wish I could have gone somewhere. I know where I would have gone, had some things fallen into place, but that's a secret. No, it's not the All-Star game in Dallas. And it's not Sin City either. So, I will be watching basketball most of the time. I'll call or communicate with a few loved ones too. I already sent one card and a few more will go out today. Oh, did I mention that men spend twice as much as women during Valentine's? Like we didn't know that already. Oya, me, I am doing my part to make sure the ratio decreases. br /br /Since I'm a big African music person, I have to share with you this African love songs playlist on Museke.com. I'm a fan and I'm sure if you listened, you'll become a fan too.br /a href="http://museke.com/en/love_songs_playlist"Listen here/abr /br /Happy Valentine's Day everyone!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4363362061325855868?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 10, 2010
• 23:13

  Kasahorow says Try Firefox in Akan Twi today!

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I have blogged about Kasahorow Fienipa a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/kasahorow-fienipa-creating-home-for.html"creating a home for African languages on the web/a and the former's project for a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/translate-between-some-african.html"translating between some African languages and English/a. Through a recent Gmail conversation that I was privy too, I discovered a few great things my friend at Kasahorow have been up to. A few apps here and there are in the works and I'll broadcast them once they're 'ready for primetime', in the words of Paa Kwesi Imbeah. One recent feature I found very exciting was the opportunity to use my favorite web browser, Mozilla Firefox, in Twi. Yes, the file menus, download windows, everything. In Akan Twi! Isn't that just awesome? I am using it right now and you can too, just read on. br /br / * Download and install language pack for Firefox a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/71426"3.5/a orbr / a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/71881"3.6/abr / * Navigate to about:config from your address bar and promise to be good. :-D Look for the variable called general.useragent.locale. Change the strongen-US/strong value to strongak-GH/strongbr / * Restart Firefox and test away!br / * Send them an a href="http://kasahorow.org/contact"email/a to let them know what you think.br /br /So now I have the following menu - Fael, Sesa, Hwε, Abakɔsεm, Bookmarks, Mfidie, Mboa, etc. I have notified them about 'Bookmarks', hope that gets changed at some point. Any takers for the Twi word for Bookmarks?br /br /Here's a screenshot. br /img src="http://kasahorow.org/system/files/ak_firefox36.png" width="481" height="292"br /br /In fact, even the error messages are in Twi. Are you not curious to try this out? Challenge yourself today! br /br /You should also try the other Firefox "Nkaho" from the stable of Kasahorow.br /a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9978"Akan Nsɛmfuaasekyerɛ - Dictionary/abr /a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14027"Eʋegbe Spelling Dictionary 0.1 /abr /a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13175"Kinyarwanda Spelling Dictionary 0.2 /abr /br /You can always check out a href="http://kasahorow.org/blog"Kasahorow's blog/a for updates. Follow them on a href="http://twitter.com/kasahorow"Twitter @Kasahorow/a.br /br /You can also a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=apps.fienipa.com/igoogle.xml"add this gadget/a - fienipa - to your iGoogle. It will allow you to translate between languages on your iGoogle homepage. br /br /img src="http://apps.fienipa.com/igoogle.png"div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-6321749333082501821?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 09, 2010
• 5:37

  Interview: Leila Djansi (I Sing of A Well director)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs178.snc3/20548_608478332777_39605917_35537394_5607906_n.jpg" width="302" height="260"br /I Sing Of A Well is one of the best Ghanaian movies I've seen and I made that clear in my review a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/turning-point-pictures-i-sing-of-well.html"here/a. After watching "I Sing Of A Well", a few questions lingered in my mind. So I decided to ask Leila Djansi, the director, a few questions about the movie, and herself. She is the founder of the Los Angeles based production house Turning Point Pictures. Her critically acclaimed screenplay for Movie Africa "Subcity" won the best screenplay award at FESPACO in 2007 and WorldFest platinum award winning film "Grass between my Lips". Normally, I would use the answers to make my blog entry but I thought I'll try something new this time. So here goes. br /br /Mighty African: What was the motivation behind doing this movie and choosing this time (circa 12th century, etc)? br /strongLeila:/strong I love period pieces. And doing a movie on slavery has always been my ambition. br /br /Mighty African: What are some of the projects you worked on before you travelled abroad? br /strongLeila:/strong Oh my. I worked for Movie Africa, I was a writer there, and I wrote a whole bunch of his movies; some really successful ones are “2gether Forever,” “The Sisterhood,” “Jezebel,” and the FESPACO Official selection “Subcity.” I also did some work for “GAMA,” notably “Legacy of Love.” br /br /Mighty African: What are some of the projects you worked on since you travelled abroad? br /strongLeila:/strong I am a lover of documentaries. Almost everything I have done since I left have been documentaries for the Travel Channel, Sci-Fi Channel, some private schools and organizations, and my own private documentaries. My narratives, which are not works for hire but my own festival piece works, include “Grass Between My Lips,” “Revelations,” “Love Letters,” and a couple of others. All the others have been crew positions for other production houses. br /br /Mighty African: How was the audition process for ISOAW? br /strongLeila:/strong There was no audition process. We handpicked the cast. br /br /Mighty African: How long it take to write the movie and then shoot it? br /strongLeila:/strong The script I wrote back in school in 2007 as a short animated film. It took about 3 months I think, to get it to a feature, and then we started to develop and prep. Thus the entire production process took about 8 months. br /br /Mighty African: I haven't seen many Ghanaian movies with Ewe lines. Why was Ewe chosen and how did the cast receive it? br /strongLeila:/strong I am Ewe. I don't speak any other Ghanaian language with authority like I do Ewe so I chose a language I could control. The cast liked it. Seventy percent of them spoke Ewe, really. Luckie especially has this interesting Togolese accent. br /br /Mighty African: Slavery is a touchy topic. We hear mentions of it in the movie but no scenes of slavery. How does this time of slavery affect the characters? br /strongLeila:/strong We shot scenes of slavery. I choose not to add them to the cut available because of certain technical concerns at the time we were ready to export the cut. This first part simply sets the tone. The real deal slavery makes its debut in the 2nd and 3rd installments. The characters were denied a certain amount of freedom, you know. Living in unpredictable days. But, each individual also realizes that life must go on regardless and, it did.br /br /Mighty African: You are credited with part of the soundtrack. Do you have training as a singer too? br /strongLeila:/strong I had a type of non-formal training as a singer and as a songwriter. My Aunt, Mary Mc-Palm, is a Doctor of music, and for whatever reason since I was little, she has engaged me in music making. I’ve been told I have a passable voice. I had a band when I was in junior high. We performed at school functions and all. I had so much fun with it. Good old days.br /br /Mighty African: You are one of few Ghanaian film makers based outside, what advantages does that give you over those based on the continent? br /strongLeila:/strong Oh my…advantages. Exposure; proximity to a world of film technology, techniques and theories. But, it depends on what you are doing as a filmmaker outside or inside. With the Internet so accessible right now, even techniques can be learned online, somewhat. You won't be exposed to them here either if you are not involved. I edit on AVID and half the time you get trouble shooting help by logging into the AVID forum. Hollywood isbr /very do it yourself, go get it yourself type of industry. br /br /Mighty African: Are there any disadvantages? br /strongLeila:/strong I miss home. That's my disadvantage. I have been blessed. Someone grabbed my hand from school and got me where I am now doing what I do, so I can't remember disadvantages here. Then again, I am only 3 years in it as a working professional so…. I still have a lot to learn. The disadvantages I have experienced came from working in Ghana. Thus, let's say the whole Hollywood Industry thing is better structured whereas the whole Ghana thing is not. In that regard, in Ghana, there is room for a lot of errors, people taking advantage of you, and getting away with it too. br /br /Mighty African: One Ghanaian movie producer called 'movie premieres' a waste of time, energy and money. How did premieres for ISOAW in Ghana go? br /strongLeila:/strong The premieres for ISOAW could have been better. It’s safe to say it was Safo who made this statement. For him this maybe true, but from my professional point of view there are a lot of variables that decide to do or not to do a movie premiere, such as the script, cast and budget. The decision should be based on single projects, not collectively. br /br /Mighty African: When will the movie, ISOAW, be out on DVD or VCD? br /strongLeila:/strong I have no idea yet. br / br /Mighty African: Thanks for your time. br /strongLeila:/strong I thought you were taking me to dinner for my time? Just kidding. You are welcome Hon.br /br /Mighty African: How about dinner when I visit LA? :-)br /br /Check out more of Leila's work at a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2551744/"IMDB/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4025327339885720071?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 05, 2010
• 8:57

  Heroes Productions' Sin of the Soul - a review

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UhcArvVOQnc/Smar4J3QC8I/AAAAAAAAALY/dFY8_oUwaLE/s400/Sin-of-the-soul.jpg" align="left"One time as I was minding my business at Suuch Solutions' offices at Avenida Hotel, a couple of young boys came by to sell some a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/booming-ghanaian-movie-industry-and-its.html"Ghanaian/a and Nigerian movies (VCDs). They had a bunch, and the only ones I had seen were a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/sparrow-productions-sting-in-tale.html"'A Sting In A Tale'/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture.html"'Perfect Picture'/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/11/much-publicized-ghanaian-movie-heart-of.html"'Heart of Men'/a and 'Silent Scandals'. I wanted to buy a couple new movies to watch but was unsure what to choose. These days, I only watch Ghanaian or Nigerian movies that are recommended. Since I didn't have too much money, I was only going to purchase a Ghanaian film. I settled on 'Sin of the Soul' because the movie looked awfully familiar. I explained to the guy selling the films that was all I will buy though he tried to suggest many other titles. Upon seeing 'Sin of the Soul', I must say it was worth the money I paid for it and it's one of the best performances by Majid Michel and Nadia Buari.br /br /Sin of the Soul (SOTS) is directed by Frank Rajah Arase and produced by Heroes Production, the same house that did 'Heart of Men'. Heart of Men turned out to be an okay movie after that trashy trailer they put together but upon seeing that movie a second time, I didn't like it as much. SOTS is not unlike many other Accra/Takoradi/English movies made in Ghana. What set it apart for me was the story/plot and the acting. The movie had depth and many characters who all stood out in the film. br /br /Majid is one of Ghana's best actors and he executed his character very well. I have not really been a fan of Nadia's acting but she did well in this movie. Kofi Adjorlolo shined as well. Majid and David Osei's characters were friends in this movie, just like in 'Heart of Men' and I think the on-screen chemistry between the two is great. Nadia plays a bunch of characters in different movies but I think she excels at playing sad scenes. br /br /SOTS is set around a murder case involving a powerful politician's son. The deceased is the younger sister of this son's maid and a battle ensues between the two for justice to be done. The cast includes Majid Michel, Nadia Buari, Prince David Osei, Kofi Adjorlolo, Ekow Smith Asante, Kalsoum Sinare, Roger Quartey, Eve Asare, Martha Ankomah, Rose Ntrissah, Helen Ashanti, etc. I almost didn't recognise Kalsoum Sinare in the movie, she's grown big papa. br /br /The movie throws a light on corruption and how people in power can work the justice system to their favour. "Even the Monks in Tibet have a price. Find his". It also shows an uncorruptible lawyer who is prepared to do whatever it takes so that justice prevails and the right things are done. I loved how the police system was used in this movie. The movie also centers around crime, strained relationships, and politics. It's a marked departure from various Ghanaian movies where the main characters are involved in some romantic relationship.br /br /The dialogue was great too, there were a few times when the 'big English' tendencies of Ghanaian English movies came to bear. Cosmic stupidity! That was a nice one. Debased frivolities? "I'm a trained police officer... this is my life, my job and the very essence of my existence." Imagine a Ghanaian police officer saying this. Pretty neat. I really loved the police and lawyer characters, they offered some insight into how that worked in Ghana. A few other selected lines - "A for apple, B for bitch, G for goat!" "I really wish that was the script, but there has been an addendum" "I have no patience for this hunky-punky". The court scenes were done well and had some interesting dialogue as well. Why do lawyers always say "I put it to you"? "You sold your soul for 3000 Ghana cedis". The movie tells us that cheap girls are always cheap and don't seem to have expensive prices. br /br /Like many movies directed by Frank Rajah Arase, the movie has a main song which was composed specially for the film. Why do they play this song throughout the movie, across scenes where different emotions are involved? The same song serves as the soundtrack for sad scenes, etc. br /There were a few club scenes where P-Square songs were played. I know Nigerian music is popular in Ghana and frequently played in clubs there but surely, some Ghanaian songs could have done the job? br /br /In fact, this review was tough to write. There aren't too many memorable scenes except for the exchanges between Majid and Nadia, the court and police scenes. SOTS was a good movie, but only better than the other 'Gollywood' movies I've seen, judging by the plot, acting/casting and . If you are looking for a Ghanaian movie to watch, let this be part of your collection. I must warn you though, the movie ends with "The Saga begins". Judging by the story, the movie had better not ended that way. We'll see what comes next. What do you know? Someone already reviewed the movie a href="http://myafricanmoviereviews.blogspot.com"here/a. You should also check out a href="http://nollywoodforever.com/"Nollywood Forever/a, who also reviews Nigerian and Ghanaian movies. br /br /Photo from Myafricanmoviereviews @Blogspot.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5870988861358971167?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 03, 2010
• 9:24

  Smiles for New Year - feting Ghanaian kids in the festive season

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2704/4327620034_c88707742c_m.jpg" align="left"Here's another one. Just like the other one. I had approached Ronke about doing a similar "Smiles for Christmas (SFC) event in Kumasi. She loved the idea and wanted to support. I couldn't get my act together early enough to get her to publicize it through SFC but the event came off eventually. In the New Year of 2010. Together with some friends, we were able to present some provisions and cash to the King Jesus Charity in Boadi, Kumasi. Smiles for New Year was born in Kumasi to join its sister in Accra called SFC. You see, folks, it's not very difficult. You could also start one in Little London Obo Kwahu, Tuabodom or Tain. br /br /I sought support from Facebook friends who lived in Kumasi to help carry this out. Some people responded and we had a core to work with. It took a while to choose an orphanage or charity and Sandra Agyapong came up with King Jesus Charity. We skirted around the subject (ever since I saw this expression, I've always loved to use it) for days and finally settled on the 3rd of January as our date. We approached the pastor in charge at King Jesus Charity and set the date in stone. The interesting thing is this orphanage happened to be right near Sandra's house and turned out to be in the same suburb I lived in. No wonder, she and myself were the only members of the organizing core who were able to go to KJC that day. br /br /I dragged my siblings to KJC on this Sunday after church and Sandra joined us later. Nana Akosua Darko was on her way to Kumasi from Accra, and Edward Antwi was out of coverage area. They both contributed immensely. Big shout out to my neighbour Aku Ackumey who contributed a lot too. We were welcomed by the pastor who told us the KJC story. He had started out as a child evangelist, preaching the gospel to young kids and winning them for Christ. When he realised some of these had nowhere to lay their heads, he put them in his shelter and as the number grew, built a charity. He's been able to educate a lot of them through basic school he registered and now they attend local Boadi schools. He's also sponsored the kids through their education to the point where some have completed university and since gotten married. He's been doing this since 1995. br /br /img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2765/4326887813_4d32647ddb_m.jpg" align="left"br /When we were at KJC, I had been thinking of how to address the kids there. The plan was to go, present the items to the charity, interact with the kids for a while and leave. The items included Obama biscuits (which I bought on the way from my house to KJC), cartons of Ideal Milk, toilet roll, Milo, other provisions and cash. I borrowed a page from the Pastor's speech to the kids. I shouted "King Jesus Charity" and the kids chorused, "Yeahhhhh Yeah". Cute. I tried to do a little ice-breaker by asking those who were born on the various days of the week to raise their hands. I advised them to work hard, and be well-behaved. I told them if they worked real hard they could become like my siblings who were working or in medical school. When I was buying those Obama biscuits at that kiosk, I thought 'Eureka'. I signed off my message saying, "You know Obama right? If we all work hard, we can be famous like Obama. Yes, we can!" Booyaka! Sandra, who the pastor had affectionately called Okyeame, also spoke so eloquently and brought the event to a close. We took a bunch of group pictures afterwards.br /br /Since we were Smiles for Christmas' sibling, we wanted a name that would mantain Smiles. I came up with Save Our Smiles, which I thought was genius. My medical school sister knew better. She mentioned that Save Our Smiles sounded like the motto for organizations that wanted to fix people with better smiles. :-) I sided with her and we settled on strong"Smiles for New Year"/strong. So every new year, we hope to choose one orphanage or charity in Kumasi for which we can fete the kids and present some gifts to. For 2009, it was "King Jesus Charity! Yeahhh Yeah!". br /br /So this is what happened. And you can do it too. Ghanaians will support good deeds, we just need people to take those action steps. Ghanaians will support good deeds, we just need people to take those action steps. These orphanages are NGOs and many a time don't receive support from the government. Can you imagine the KJC school wasn't eligible for FCUBE etc? We have to support volunteerism in Ghana and be part of the movement ourselves. You can find more info about King Jesus Charity at a href="http://wingsforkids.nl/"this website/a. Anything is Obamable!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2095327086048170065?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 8:39

  Smiles for Christmas - feting Ghanaian kids in the festive seasons -

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs088.snc3/15541_641901578862_193108073_39469155_1442496_n.jpg" align="left"One day in 2006, one young Ghanaian lady had an idea. What if I got my friends to contribute gifts, provisions, money to put a smile on the faces of kids in a Ghanaian orphanage this Christmas? Like every good idea, she got some support and a few people to help her carry out her plan. This gave birth to "Smiles for Christmas", an initiative aimed at providing less fortunate children in Ghana gifts during the festive season of Christmas. Using the power of Facebook and various friend connections, she led a group of young Ghanaians to Orphanage Africa in Dodowa one of those days just before Christmas 2006 to present gifts, toys, provisions and money to the kids there. I was one of them and very proud of that effort. That effort has grown and it's become even bigger and better each year.br /br /As that day in 2006 approached, I didn't have any gifts to present. I really wanted to go to the orphanage. I had never been to any. I debated what might be the best thing to give. Water guns? Barbie dolls? Malt-n-milk biscuits? Kawukudi? Buy some kofi-brokeman on the way to Dodowa? OK soap? Ananse story books? I sought advice from my aunt with whom I was staying with in Adenta. She's a member of a Catholic church in Accra and she's always been involved in charitable causes through the church. She went shopping one day and took care of my problem. In fact, my contribution was so unmemorable, I even forget what it is. Of course, if I had bought 'nkatie burger' for every kid there, I wouldn't have forgotten. My contribution included some provisions and food. br /br /Other people brought toys and gifts. Ronke Ampiah, the founder I talked about earlier, was there. My cousin, Adwoa Darko, who also went to Christ the King school with Ronke, repped. My good friend, Kofi Tandoh, attended too. Ronke and Farida Alabo, her co-founder, had collected some items the day before to be presented at Orphanage Africa. After presenting the items to the caretakers at the orphanage, we spent some time interacting with the kids. I found myself addressing these kids and not knowing what to say. I think I said stuff like, 'learn hard', dash, dash, dash. The caretaker there was a better public speaker, he cracked jokes and kept the kids entertained. I really wish I could learn to do that. All those Basketmouth and Chris Rock clips haven't helped too much. Maybe I need to sit some of my friends down and try. :-) br /br /I don't remember attending the Smiles for Christmas events in 2007. In 2008, there was a little event/fundraiser held at Twist/Headlines in Accra. I remember it being a day after a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/12/barcamp-ghana-08-its-only-beginning.html"BarCamp Ghana/a. The Smiles for Christmas organizers were there collecting gifts, money and other items for the kids. Many young Ghanaians who were living or schooling abroad and were home for the holidays attended. It looked more like a social event than a fundraiser to me. The goal was met and Smiles for Christmas delivered more goodies to another orphanage later that month. br /br /img src="http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs273.ash1/20035_1346403818811_1192768954_31023603_7335035_n.jpg" width="300" height="200"br /br /This past Christmas, the Smiles for Christmas crew bused in the children from Royal Seed Orphanage to the Labadi Beach Hotel on the 22nd December for a fun day of games and laughter. My first experience with 4-Star Labadi Beach Hotel was in the summer of 2004 when "I pEE me ho asEm go biz about one-night stay at the hotel" and was told $125. I had never set foot at their reception again until this Smiles for Christmas (SFC) event. This event had grown from strength to strength that it had the hotel hosting it for free! Kudos to the crew. They also had Koala provide bouncy castles for the kids to play in. There was free food and free drinks. What a pleasant surprise! How many free food events will you find in Ghana? :-) The event run from about 11am past 3pm (which was when I left the venue).br /br /The lucky orphanage was Royal Seed Home/School. It's located at Odupong along the Kasoa-Bawjiase Road in Ghana's Central Region. It has about 80 children, more than half of which were brought to the Labadi beach hotel. They were there with the founder, the pleasant Naomi Esi Amoah. She was all smiles all day, it was so beautiful to watch. I spoke her to about the orphanage and a few challenges they've been facing. It's very tough to run orphanages in Ghana. It's sad the government would make them 'suffer' in spite of the good work they are doing. Granted, some orphanage owners may use this effort to enrich themselves but they must be given the benefit of the doubt concerning how they are run. The kids treated 'us' to some energetic and excellent African dances. Not knowing the names of these dances saddened my heart. Ronke couldn't make it since she was 'stuck' in the UK, but Farida, Felicia Hanson and Frances Gardner, the other members of the SFC team were present. A white dude in attendance acted as Santa Claus for the day. Miss Ghana 2009 showed up at the event. I had never met a Miss Ghana in my life, ever, and this one was even wearing her crown. So, I had to ahush and steal a photo moment with her. Here, you can see her with Naomi.br /br /img src="http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs134.snc3/18154_648324522232_193108073_39799953_467250_n.jpg" width="300" height="200"br /br /Back to SFC, the team has been doing an awesome job! Kudos to Ronke, Farida, Felicia and Frances. You should check the website for a href="http://www.royalseedhome.webs.com"Royal Seed Home/a. We should support the needy and disadvantaged in Ghana in every little way that we can. Like they say at Royal Seed Home, "strongEvery child deserves a future/strong". SFC is a volunteer effort, and we need more of such in Ghana. Ghanaians will support good deeds, we just need people to take those action steps. Join the a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2217753183ref=ts"Smiles for Christmas Facebook group/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8351000358520859513?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 1:34

  The Senior High School in Ghana duration debate - 3 or 4 years?

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I am a very proud Odadee. My alma mater, Presec and its current and old students, have given me reason to. When I was in Ghana earlier in this year, I visited Presec to see what was new. A lot has changed since I left Presec more than 8 years ago. My favorite teacher, Mrs. Akyeampong has retired, there's been a new headmaster, the bursar who refused to give us funds to publish the school magazine embezzled money and got sacked, the buildings have been painted, we've won 4 National Science and Maths quizzes and the name has been changed from Presby Boys' Secondary School to Presby Boys' Senior High School. Presecans were going to stay in 'blue magic' for 4 years. But in the 'politics democrazy' country that is Ghana, anything can happen. Senior High School is now 3 years again and as a result, senior secondary or senior high school students will not write the WASSCE this year. Crazy eh? There's been a big debate about the number of years senior high school should be. Let's study some of the arguments for and against, debate style.br /br /I debated for Presec while I was there and I loved doing so. I learnt a few good tactics and tricks from Mrs. Akyeampong, Mr. Fercundity and my childhood friend, who was debating for Opoku Ware Secondary School from day one. I used to be the main speaker for the senior high school duration debate. I was very disappointed when I heard Mr. Sexy Eyes aka Travelling John aka Gentle Giant's government was going to increase the duration of SSS from 3 to 4 years. Asomdwoe Mills came into power and has since changed it back to 3 years. I agreed with Obenfo Atta Mills but let's take the arguments one by one; debate style ;-)br /br /blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"br /iThe chief gong-gong beater from Kufuor's government would offer the following./i br /Mr. Chairman, our kids are not adequately prepared for university life/education with those three years in senior high school. In fact, if you did the core math, you'll realise they'll stay in Presec only 2.5 years. Presec won't get enough of out the students and the students wouldn't get enough out of Presec. If Presec mpo ni, then what about Odododiodo Senior High (OSH)? Students at OSH will be weaker academically than those at Presec and if you make students from both schools train for 2.5 years to take a major national exam that will define their destinies, that is very unfair. By giving all students an extra year, OSH students could catch up a little more.br /br /iI am stuck defending Mr. Ecomini's Team B government here/i br /Mr. Chairman, we the opposition oppose and debunk this assertion by the proposition. 10 years ago, I remember how difficult paying school fees was for many students, and now parents were going to be burdened with another year? Cost of living in Ghana has only gotten worse. Four batches of Presec students would stretch the inadequate facilities that existed at Presec. Presec's grass was so stubborn, adding another 'labour force' would not solve the weed problem. Not wee, I said weed, as in weeds. iFunny lines like those often won debates./i What we need is more efficient teaching, student discipline and adequate resources to make those 2.5 years worth every pesewa spent.br /br /iNanaa shock with his British accent takes the poduim/i br /You see, this is where the opposition doesn't get it. Cost of living may be worse, but the standard is higher. The minimum wage is higher and Ghanaians can afford more today. Especially in Accra, sales are up. Let the parents who can pay pay, and let those who can't, receive support. Besides, after the kids fail the SSCE, they spend almost that 2.5 year SHS budget on extra or remedial classes. The remedial school business is one of the most profitable businesses in Ghana today. The state is beginning to bear more education cost. Let it stay this way and let's take our time with our students. Some students are really smart and can excel no matter what. We need to give the 'slower' students more time to be trained/educated so they can be better placed to contribute to Ghana's development or seek higher education when they graduate.br /br /iSo I come in again/i br /Madam Chairperson, if it is a matter of time, the opposition will suggest we start early. Catch them young and they shall be yours forever. Why not move some of the SHS curriculum to JHS curriculum? Most of what we studied in JSS is similar to what we were taught in primary school. Start introducing concepts earlier, by the time the kids get to SHS, they know a lot and even if they don't continue, know a good amount to do the things the proposition just mentioned. The remedial classes business is not anymore profitable than the extra classes business. Let them dedicate their efforts to conduct more extra classes for the kids who can afford them and let's save the extra year they'll spend remedying the mistakes they could have prevented.br /br /iProposition comes in to offer their knockout blow/i. br /All work and no play makes Asumasi a 'dolu' boy. We can't afford to have our children studying 12 hours a day. We must be patient with them. Preparing them more in JHS/JSS won't solve the problem. When they get to SHS/SSS, those students who had decided to do Science and are struggling will continue to struggle. It's better for the senior high schools to take the students, test them for a year and judge where the student's strengths are. If they are strong in Physics, they are encouraged to do Science. If they show more interest in the Arts, they are enrolled into that program. This one year will solve a lot of problems. And then, they'll have 3 years of preparation, before they have to face the monster that is the WASSCE. They'll also be equipped with a solid ICT training. With 3 solid years of training, they may not even need extra classes. University lecturers complain every day that their students are inadequately prepared. Increasing SHS to 4 years will ensure adequate preparation of tomorrow's leaders.br /br /iIt's always nice to have the last word/i. br /Madam Chairperson, the new government wanted to be remembered so they organized another education referendum. Take the pulse of Ghanaians today, and you will see that many did not like this change. We've shouted ICT from Afadjato for a long time now but where are the computers to implement this ICT education? If we are going to take on something, we must do proper planning. We increased SHS duration on impulse. We increased the costs of education. Even Obama's country has 12 years of education before university. Why add Item 13? We can change this 4 year thing. Yes, we can.br //blockquotebr /br /I argued for the opposition to SHS being 4 years but after talking with my parents who are university lecturers, Mrs. Akyeampong, the present Presec headmaster (Africanus), I propose that we go back to SHS being 4 years. I know the NDC changed it to 3, but they should do us a favour and switch it back. It's not too late. Sometimes, we Ghanaians point to politics whenever there is a change. But some changes are good. This was one change that I didn't understand before but now I do. The judges called it for the proposition. I lost the debate. I wouldn't go away quietly, how about if we made JSS/JHS 2 years just like middle school in the US? Most people go to the same primary and junior secondary school anyway. But seriously, what are your own thoughts on this debate? Are you for the 3 years or the 4 years duration of Senior High School in Ghana?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1055746593435390258?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 02, 2010
• 4:51

  The music maestro Kojo Antwi in concert (Museke)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs175.snc3/20234_259370526553_185998671553_4421560_1707020_n.jpg" width="300" height="200" align="left"I've always wanted to attend a a href="http://museke.com/KojoAntwi"Kojo Antwi/a concert. Every time he had one of those 24th night shows in Accra, I was in Kumasi with my family for Christmas. So when I saw the poster for his 2009 festive season concerts, I wished he'd be in Kumasi as well. My brother pointed out to me that he'll be live at Golden Tulip Kumasi City Hotel on the 26th of December. I was not going to miss out. Yes, I wasn't going to attend the concert with my girlfriend like I always planned but I was going to be there to sing along to all of Kojo Antwi's songs. Kojo Antwi is arguably the biggest Ghanaian musician ever. He's the music maestro, Mr. Music Man. He's awesome, his rasta is evermore and his music is timeless. br /br /I had heard from an aunt that Kojo Antwi never showed up early for his concerts. It's not his fault, African musicians never show up on time. It's almost an accepted practice. Have some opening acts clear the way, have your fans wait and anticipate your grand entry and then come send them into delirium for a short but frolicking time. I decided I'll arrive at the venue at 10:30 instead of the 8pm advertised. I had heard the ticket cost 30GhC so you can imagine my happiness when I arrived and the ticket master said VIP cost 30 and regular cost 20. I bought 3 20GhC tix for me, my brother and cousin. We paid, entered and sat at places reserved for VIPs anyway. Why? I was going to blog about this awesome event that I had to be given a break. So that was it, saving 30 Ghanaian cedis, approx $21. br /br /At 10:30pm, no one was performing or had performed. The promoters had a projector screen showing some reggae band performance, and these reggae raggamuffins didn't look familiar. The seats were all filled and we waited and waited. One person got up and shouted 'Tsooboi', as if to rally the attendees to force some musicians to come unto stage. Advertised opening acts were a href="http://museke.com/Wutah"Wutah/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/4514"Flavour/a, a href="http://museke.com/OkomfourKwaadee"Okomfo Kwaadee/a, etc. Kwaadee is very popular in Kumasi, Flavour's Ashawo has been one of the most played songs in Ghana recently and Wutah (one of my favorite Ghanaian groups) had returned from obscurity in a big way with the chart-topping Kotosa, which still doesn't have a video. If you are counting/scoring/recording at home, Wutah hasn't made music videos for Goosy Gander, Esikyire (Change your style), Big Dreams or Kotosa. And these are their four biggest hits in their entire career. Wutah came to perform around 11:30 and were the only group to perform before Kwadjo Antwi. The audience was too pissed to give Wutah the support they needed. They gave a good account of themselves and the audience danced and sang along.br /br /By the time Kojo Antwi appeared, the audience had warmed up and warmed up to giving the musicians their support. The maestro started with some old school hits, a href="http://museke.com/node/3933"Akonoba/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/138"Menya ntaban/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/140"Dadie anoma/a, Meto nko, a href="http://museke.com/node/137"Afofanto/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/357"Me dofo pa/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/1511"Tom and Jerry Aware/a, etc. Kojo Antwi is a great singer and performer. He was backed a full band and one of her back-up singers was Dela (one-time Mentor contestant and singer of Fever, Odo and the soundtrack to the Heart of Men movie). The audience sang along, they knew most of the lyrics. We must thank Museke.com for that and Kojo himself for putting lyrics to many of his songs in his CD packets. br /br /I loved it when he had some people in the audience come up stage to sing a href="http://museke.com/node/136"Amirika/a. He was organizing a singing competition in front of people who had paid to come see him sing. No one was complaining. Some people in Kumasi can sing though. But wait, the women! a href="http://museke.com/node/2184"Shiee wow/a. The ladies were dressed to kill and there were some fine fine ladies at the concert. strongGhana mmaa hoɔ fɛ na wɔn ho nso twa ampa!/strong br /br /Sonti Ndebele, a South African singer who featured on Menya Ntaban, performed a tribute to Mama Africa a href="http://museke.com/MiriamMakeba"Miriam Makeba/a. After the concert, I greeted her saying 'Sawubona'. Nana Yaa (Pat Thomas' daughter), who has done a lot of duets with Kojo Antwi on his later albums came on stage too. She's such an awesome singer! I asked her when her solo debut would be out, and she said 'February'. We'll see. Together with Kojo, they sang Amirika, a href="http://museke.com/node/797"Do me wu/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/795"Odo a medo wo/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/135"Densu/a, etc. br /br /Kojo Antwi has a new album out called a href="http://museke.com/node/135"Mwaaah/a. I've bought the CD and it's super, just like all Kojo Antwi albums. He performed some songs from Mwaah, including a href="http://museke.com/node/4294"Happy anniversary/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/4534"Adiepena/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/4336"Sho' naa/a (features a href="http://museke.com/Meiway"Meiway/a), Ice Cold, etc. I can't stop listening to Adiepena, it's magnificent. Happy Anniversary is supposed to a song for married couples to celebrate wedding anniversaries. Kojo may have come late but he performed for more than 2 hours! br /br /Kojo Antwi was recently adjudged Artist of the Decade at the a href="http://museke.com/node/3254"Ghana Music Awards/a. He deserves it and may challenge for the title of Ghana's best musician ever. I managed to get a picture with him even though my camera was indisposed at that time. I had to get a moment with the Maestro. I also met Kojo Antwi's wife, Rocklynn. Yes, he composed a song with her name. How sweet! Kojo Antwi, kudos to you! Keep on making great music and lifting the flag of Ghana high! You're the best. Thanks for a magnificent concert!br /br /Blog originally written on a href="http://museke.com/node/4743"Museke.com/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-949549351029899768?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 3:40

  Discussing Akon's charity single 'Oh Africa'

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs121.snc3/16832_10150184578235001_10150180087240001_10754036_2027497_n.jpg" width="360" height="250"br /When I was notified of Akon's new video, Oh Africa, I was intrigued by the song's name. Oh Africa? What did Africa do again? Is Akon going to lambast us? Shouldn't he be on our side, praising the motherland? Is it a public service announcement? I hope it's a song from his upcoming album. Well, it turns it is a 'charity single' and he does praise Africa in this video. This new video is geared towards the upcoming World Cup in South Africa and he sings "This is our time to shine, our time to fly". It surely is. I don't know why he's hiding the music video he made for Mama Africa. Trust me, I know the video has been shot. I know people who have the video on their computers. I hope the Mama Africa video is finally released this year. Kudos to Akon for 'Oh Africa' and continuing to rep the motherland big!br /br /The video features Akon and Keri Hilson singing 'Oh Africa' with a host of other people. We see a choir dressed in 'some South African apparel', which clearly notes that this video is about South Africa as much as it is about Africa. Later on, we see Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres shooting soccer balls. We surely can't wait for the World Cup, it's going to be a spectacle. We see soccer fans with their faces painted with colours of different nations. The only African countries I remember seeing were Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt (huh! Egypt? angry smile). At the end of the video, we see a painting showing many world soccer stars. The only African amongst them is Didier Drogba. Ivory Coast is tipped as one of the favorites so this makes sense but I wonder if space couldn't be created for Samuel Eto'o and Michael Essien. We shall see :-)br /br /Watch the video herebr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI4sDx6SGwAbr /object width="560" height="340"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YI4sDx6SGwAhl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YI4sDx6SGwAhl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"/embed/objectbr /br /a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pepsi-Oh-Africa/10150180087240001"So the video is a charity single and is recorded for a new Pepsi football TV commercial for the brand's worldwide campaign "Refresh Your World,"/a which is based on enabling youth to make a positive change in the world. 9ice! The song was premiered just before the Grammy's and the proceeds will benefit underprivileged African youth, including Akon’s Konfidence Foundation. It features the Soweto Gospel Choir and 16 young singers from around the world as well. The video is directed by Gil Green, who also directed the 'Mama Africa' video.br /br /My biggest issue with the video/song is - why is Keri Hilson the other singer? I know MissKeriBaby was in South Africa recently and she loved it so she must be 'in love with Africa' now. Still, Akon, this was a chance to showcase Africa and you choose Keri Hilson? Not even say, Estelle, who's also from Senegal? How about Asa, Ayo, Lira, Zamajobe, Becca? They are all from countries going to the World Cup abi? Akon, you no try. Now out of konviction, do a remix, quick. I want the following people in the video - Samini, Lira, Asa, Blick Bassy, Cheb Khaled and Teeyah. In fact, Akon, how about you do an album with a bunch of African artists? Shouldn't be that hard. Just take your collabos with Senegal's Viviane, Nigeria's Shank, Ghana's Sway, do a few more and compile into an EP. br /br /More props to Akon for doing this though. Keep on repping Africa!br /br /Here are the lyrics for Oh Africa by Adel Ali.br /iI know that we have to take it to the goal ’cause everyone is depending on webr /see we ain’t got nowhere to go but, it’s our destinybr /we’re choosing nowhere, we’ll do what it takes to get to the top of the highest mountainbr /we’ll do anything, we got to prove ourselves ’cause we know/ibr /br /iOH AFRICA/ibr /br /isee we’ll never be able to forget this day ’cause it’s the greatest day of our lifebr /see no matter what happens at least we can say “we came, we saw, we tried”br /www.musicloversgroup.combr /we’re choosing nowhere, we’ll do what it takes to get to the top of the highest mountainbr /we’ll do anything, we got to prove ourselves ’cause we know/ibr /br /iOH AFRICA/ibr /br /iThis our time to show, our time to fly, our time to be inside the skybr /our time to so, our time of songbr /the last one in football/idiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-104903259873730495?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• February 01, 2010
• 7:37

  Turning Point Pictures' I sing Of A Well - a review

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs278.snc1/10518_588797163997_39605917_34839120_4556598_n.jpg" width="360" height="240"br /I was really excited after I saw the trailer for a href="http://www.isingofawellmovie.com"'I sing of a well (ISOAW)'/a. It looked like a great movie with some awesome actors. The Ghanaian movie industry had become so exciting that arguably Ghana's best actress of all-time, Akofa Edjeani Asiedu, wanted to make a comeback into the industry. It looked like one of those movies set in the village with English lines, but the movie had a little more oomph. When I was in Ghana during Christmas, I tried to catch a premiere or buy the VCD/DVD. The premieres had already been done and the producers hadn't committed the knee-jerk reaction to selling the VCDs, they were continuing to premiere in other countries and showing the movie in film festivals around the world. Ghanaian movie producers, take note. I believe this movie would do well in film festivals because it's awesome! How do I know? I watched it. I know people who know people who work with people who made the movie. Ghana's too small anyway :-)br /br /The movie begins with a narration by Jimmy Jean-Louis who tells us about the film. Jimmy is the 'fine' Black man who played the main character in Phat Girls and he's from Haiti. Well, the film is set a long time ago, before Don Diego de Azambuja and Yaa Asantewaa. Maybe 12th century. We can't see Jimmy, we only hear his voice and some people making background noises behind a black screen. The movie has a great cast - John Osei Tutu Agyeman, Akofa Edjeani Asiedu, Godwin Kotey, Kofi Mends, Prince David Osei, Doris Sackitey, Luckie Lawson, Stacy Amoateng (host of MUSIC MUSIC, Prince Yawson (Waakye), etc.br /br /The movie is set in Kotengbi, a village in the Mali empire. We know a lot about the Mali Empire from Social Studies classes, but villages like Kotengbi were not that important to be studied. In fact, we don't know much about the how living in the 12th century in West Africa was so we can't even criticize the movie that much for what we see in it. Of course, they didn't speak English then but the characters are speaking English in the movie. Then again, what language was Mansa Musa and his crew speaking in the 12th century? Is that language still alive? So, Leila Djansi (director) and her crew decided that the language used alongside English should be Ewe. Yes, Ayigbe. Have you seen any Ghanaian movie with Ewe lines? I haven't. I was just loving this. I picked out a few Ewe words - Mawu, medekuku, efoa, dzigbordi. A lot of the actors are not Ewe, but they did well speaking it. Every time a Ghanaian language is used in a movie, I am looking for good and detailed sub-titles. ISOAW did a good job with this though I would have loved some subtitles for the Ewe songs that were sung. The 12th century was a little too early for hiplife or Ayigbe Edem songs. Credit Leila and her crew for sticking to their guns :-)br /br /img src="http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs139.snc1/5960_585075851537_39605917_34693487_4812448_n.jpg" width="360" height="240"br /The movie talks about a prince, his desires and his will to save his kingdom from slave raiders. Some people may not want to see movies about slavery, but this one is different. The movie doesn't dwell on slavery, people in chains, etc. It's about love, greed, will, superstition, power, etc. This movie offers us a chance to experience life ages ago. With this done, I am still waiting for a movie on Yaa Asantewaa. br /br /Every great movie must have great dialogue/lines/quotes. strong"I don't want to just see you, I want to touch you"/strong. Now that's a line with which a man could use to propose to a woman. But we live in different times, we don't have too many pre-marital sex fans. strong"The moon would be a fool not to come out and gaze at your beauty"/strong. The movie also made use of some proverbs and idioms. br /br /My favorite character in the movie was the priestess, Alarka. strongI speak what I see, I only speak what I see/strong. She reminded me of Okomfo Anokye, traditional priests in the Ghanaian cultural setting prophesy and know the future. They say wise words and it's left to the inhabitants to decipher the meaning. Alarka was used to great effect in the movie's storyline and that was awesome. br /br /The soundtrack was nice. We saw Akofa's character (Soraya) singing. Traditionally, Ghanaians like to sing when they are working. We saw this too. I like that the two coronations of kings had two different soundtracks, which sang the emotions and feelings of the 'movie' at those points. I think they did well choosing what songs to play at different times. There was a song they played at the end of the movie but I wasn't sure if it was Ghanaian. Sounded like one of those Afro-poppish Afro-beatish songs from Mali or Senegal. Leila Djansi can make some music though, she composed 'Evo' and'Dzigbordi' was by Mary Djansi MC-Palm.br /br /I like how they measured time based on agriculture. I suppose 10 farming seasons signifies 10 years. What meals did they have in those times? The movie tells us, cassava dough. Those times also had a lot of hunters. strong"It is the thrill of the hunt you love, not the animal"/strong. br /br /strong"My brother's daughters are not cheap fowls to be given away on sentiment"/strong. Bride price has been a feature of African marriages for a long time and they must have been taken even more seriously in the time the movie was set. Often times, those who haggle over bride prices and increase them are the uncles and extended families. How unfair! strongMarriage is hard/strong, these other attendant things shouldn't make it any tougher. Talking about marriage and pre-marital sex, I said the movie was about love, right? Right. We see sex scenes. There was some nice background music as well. strong"She sets your loins on fire"/strong. The movie has to be R-rated. We even see someone's butt. I didn't think that was necessary. br /br /When a movie wells emotion in you, it must be doing something. I almost cried. It must have been the soundtrack. I remember when I first cried in a movie, it was when Simba's father died in Lion King. I see people crying in these 'Accra movies' constantly, but I am never driven to cry with them. ISOAW did it well. br /br /img src="http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs139.snc1/5960_586361515057_39605917_34742184_3536023_n.jpg" width="360" height="240"br /br /I like the cast used. Akofa did very well in her role though questions have been raised whether she should have remained a producer and not joined the cast. JOT Agyeman did well too, though his accent sounded a little foreign. Luckie Lawson did great too and Mary Yirenkyi played Alarka very well. I wonder how the cast was chosen but I will find this out from Leila herself. I told you, Ghana is such a small country.br /br /But we are doing big things! Ghanaian movies are back and improving. 'I sing of a well' was spectacular. I just hope I haven't given the movie away, because you must all see it. Just be patient because I am not sure you'll see it on Youtube anytime soon. And that's the way it should be. :-) The movie had a huge crew! A lot of work was put into the movie and it paid off with the film. I hope it pays off financially for Turning Point Pictures and Calabash Images. ISOAW is definitely one of the better Ghanaian movies I've seen. Kudos!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3386924020481049971?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 6:49

  Recapping Ghana's Black Stars CAN 2010

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100110/capt.df2a5ae392a048b5b4dbcb2ad930633c.angola_african_cup_soccer_xdb115.jpg"br /Oh so close! That's what I said when it dawned on me we had lost the game. The lady sitting near me seemed to agree with my assertion. I had been watching it with a couple of friends, two of which were Ghanaian. We watched as the 'boys' battled, stayed aggressive, created chances, foiled their opponents' chances, oohing and aahing through an edgy 90 minutes of football. I had predicted, 'whoever would score first' would win the game and the tournament. After all, we had had 3 consecutive lone goal victories. When that first goal came in the 85th minute and it wasn't for Mother Ghana, it seemed the game had been decided. How cruel! We didn't have enough time to respond. Football is like that. Sometimes it is not dictated by luck, karma, form, reputation, paper, prophecies, superstition or jersey colours. It is dictated by grabbing opportunities and utilizing them. People hardly remember the team that won silver, but even ifewer/i remember the team that won bronze. Congratulations to Egypt for doing that and lifting the African Cup of Nations 2010 in Angola over Ghana. br /br /I was one of many who didn't give the Black Stars much a chance to do well in the COCAN 2010. The team was inexperienced, and young. Some of the players were tested though. 7 members of the FIFA U-20 Youth World Cup winning squad were part of this squad, and they had passed the ultimate test of extra-time and penalties against the footballing nation that is Brazil. We had injuries to countless regulars and some other regulars were out of form or warming benches in Europe. As a lesson to one Black Star and his mother, Sulley Muntari was told, the Black Stars of Ghana still exists without him. "No Sulley Muntari, no Ghana" my foot. Konongo Pele will be proud of the Black Stars today. Stephen Appiah was too unfit to come provide moral support and Michael Essien had not fully recovered to stay in camp and provide the needed 'vim' to spur on the players available. Turns out our team had a whole lot of 'vim'! Black Stars, metu me kyɛ ma mo! br /br /I was loving and hating our group at the COCAN 2010. We were drawn together with our neighbouring countries. The names just looked good together - Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo and Burkina Faso. If history had unfolded a little differently, all 4 countries could have been one. Imagine that for a second. 'Volta' sounds like the most appropriate name for this union. We would have been a strong and great nation. Let's discuss how great we could have been later but imagine the football team. We'll have Emmanuel Adebayor and Didier Drogba in attack. We'd 've had Jonathan Pitroipa on the right wing. A team capable of winning any major tournament. Kai, Burkina Faso and Togo joining Ghana would be enough sef. I'm allowed to fantasize. But fantasies don't play football either. br /br /Because if they did, Greece wouldn't have that Euro Cup in 2004 and done 'kowtow' in the Olympics later that year. News of the Togolese team being ambushed rocked Africa and the footballing world. CAF proved how anal they were by banning them for their government interfering in the national team. If you want to punish the government, do you do it by banning the national team? strongAsamanka/strong! (Kai, I don't remember the last time I used this word, but it feels to use it now). That said, how could the Cabinda rebels commit such a heinous act! Use a footballing tourney to draw attention to your rebel cause? Ambush a foreign nation's pride? strongUn/stronggrande som! The Black Stars were to be the first opponents of the Hawks of Togo and waited a week to kick a ball. The rustiness must have shown because Ivory Coast's Elephants walked over the Stars in a 3-1 win. Ghanaians cried foul! iThe team sucks! They'll disgrace us. Milo doesn't taste good! Mumuvan is a horrible coach./ibr /br /Me, I looked forward to the Burkinabe game. I knew we could win and that win was all the confidence this young, inexperienced but 'tested' team needed. The most recognisable player who fits the bill appropriately wore the crown. Dede Ayew's header sent Ghana through to a date with Angola in the quarter-finals. Somewhere I feared the Angolans would scare 'us' with news of being a bad host. Other than beating up a Ghanaian journalist and initially giving us a goal-postless training pitch, we didn't hear much. We made them pay. We took a chance and Angola's Palancas Negras (Black Antelopes) took none and Asamoah Gyan's shot sent us to the semis. A Black Antelope can only look unto a Black Star. ;-) Thanks Angola for a great tournament though. I still plan to visit the country, see Kuduro live in action and dance to some Kizomba with some linda babes. ;-)br /br /img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/01/28/article-1246836-0810C302000005DC-922_468x368.jpg" width="400" height="314"br /Next up were the Super strikeEagles/strike Chickens of Nigeria. I think Ghana-Nigeria is one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports. We had another chapter to write. To many Ghanaians, beating Nigeria would be enough for the tournament. After all, we didn't expect to challenge for the trophy anyway. Nigeria beat Ghana in CAN 2006, we gained a little revenge in the Brentford Massacre of 2007, We beat Nigeria again in CAN 2008, in front of the teeming Black Star nation at the Ohene Djan sports stadium in Accra. I was very confident we'd beat Nigeria though the game was in Angola and we had an undermanned team of 'boys'. But well, Omo Naija, you learnt what we Ghanaians already knew - "The strongboys/strong are gewd". An Asamoah Gyan header decided the game. Nigeria cried that they had more chances but football sometimes works just like the lottery. Except here, you can dictate your destiny by 'taking your chances'. Besides, Zambia had watched their wasted chances turn into a penalty shoot-out that they lost. br /br /So the final came. Our opponents - The Pharaohs of Egypt. The team that seemed to lord over African football but didn't have the vim, 'capa', drive, *something* to qualify for football's biggest showpiece, the World Cup. I believed we could beat them too. We knew our game plan and so far as we stayed disciplined and took our chances, the cup would be ours. We stayed disciplined and that one moment where we lost concentration led to their goal and we spurned many chances before. Hats off to Egypt. They kept to their game plan. They had 'destroyed' all their opponents, including Nigeria, Cameroun and their bitterest rivals, Algeria. For 85 minutes. they toiled against the Black Stars' discipline and didn't get rattled. Wait, did I just put discipline and Black Stars in the same sentence (favourably)? The future is bright. Egypt's team didn't start taking shots from 30 meters or rushing attacks. It's something we can learn from them. I don't know why coaches of the Black Stars are averse to making substitutions. How many games have we lost that Dramani started? Hmm, superstition. Thank you Egypt for teaching us a couple of things. Now sit at home and enjoy 'agoro-kpalongo-apatampa' soccer and attention-grabbing dances at the South African Mundial in June/July. br /br /The Black Stars' team needs work and we'll address this in a later post. For now, thanks for the memories. Thanks for the highs where you showed us grit, determination, discipline and aggression could silence critics. Thanks for the lows that made sure success didn't get into our heads and we understood that there was more work to be done and that we may have been an unfinished product. We had a lot of revelations in this tournament and the 'boys' definitely grew with these games. The tourney should be successful, though we failed to lift the cup. Milo, I know I have criticized you for being from Serbia, but this year, you serb just one country. It is Ghana. Osee, osee, Black Stars ei, forward ever!br /br /img src="http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/01/fullj.fea56c83528977378b26af9ae71404f5/fea56c83528977378b26af9ae71404f5-getty-fbl-afr2010-gha-training.jpg" width="330" height="244"div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1716406442229450442?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 31, 2010
• 4:00

  Sparrow Productions' A Sting In A Tale' - a review of the soundtrack

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://astinginatale.com/web/images/gallery/cast/01.jpg"br /So I am back with another review of Sparrow Productions' "A Sting In A Tale" (ASIAT). After my first review, many people wondered how I was able to give 'this movie' such a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/sparrow-productions-sting-in-tale.html"a great review/a. I dunno. Maybe I look for different things when watching Ghanaian movies. I am not too impressed by the overdramatized scenes, big English and the other features of 'Gollywood' movies today. I am a big fan of soundtracks. Music in Ghana has come a long way and I think Ghanaian movies should lean on its popularity and versatility to improve. I love how Shirley Frimpong-Manso and her crew have been making use of Ghanaian music in their movies, right from 'a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/08/life-and-living-it-best-ghanaian-movie.html"Life and Living it'/a. I must commend Shirley, Chris Attoh (yes, him) and my Odadee friend, Elom Adablah for a great job on ASIAT's soundtrack.br /br /The first scene with the lorry/bus breaking down had me smiling. I'm not sure what song they were playing for this 'Monsi mpia' scene. 'Monsi mpia' means '(you) get down and push'. The song was a nice highlife tune though, sounded like one that Osibisa would do (Afro-rock). Cars breaking down on Ghanaian roads is a very common occurrence and it was 'nice' to put this in the movie. It sets up the challenges and struggles Nii Ayi and Kuuku were going to face. I believe Paapa Yankson's son, Silas Yankson, once released a song called 'Wonsi mpia'. I'd have loved for that song to be played here. br /br /Another interesting song was the one used during the first bar/spot scene where we got introduced to my favorite character in the movie, Rocker Fella. "Na she be the girl o, when the boys see her, them dey feel am .... she go do sharp sharp". Sounds like it was from VIP (Vision in Progress). It's always interesting when you watch some African movies and you see people dancing in a spot/cub/bar with the 'soundtrack' blazing loudly. In a lot of these scenes, the song we're hearing from the movie is not what is being at the club; because the revellers are not really 'singing along'. Then again, I wonder why this VIP song was chosen, and not Bradez's a href="http://museke.com/node/3805"Simple/a, Echo's a href="http://museke.com/node/2589"Golo golo/a or Okyeame Kwame's a href="http://museke.com/node/1981"Woso/a. br /br /I thought it was interesting when they played that song with the "Northern Ghana language" lyrics when Nii Ayi and Kuuku visited the village in search of help. Did Sparrow mean all the poor places in Ghana are inhabited by people from Northern Ghana? Most of Ghana's slums may feed this notion some truth (Zongos) until you go to places like Jamestown. The song used for this scene was straight from Nima, specifically from Nima's most famous ambassadors, VIP. I'm not sure the name of the song, but it featured VIP and FOI (Fruits of Inspiration). I like how VIP FOI were repping different hoods - Ashaiman, Kumasi, Kano, Kaduna, Madina, Shukura, etc. When I hear Hausa songs, "I'm just loving it" (said in a Don Capo Cheerz voice). Eventually, we hear some Twi lyrics in the song though. Kuu's uncle must also not have known how much it cost to go to America, judging by his contribution. You have to watch the movie to find out what exactly his contribution was. I loved that they were drinking palm wine though. Super!br /br /img src="http://astinginatale.com/web/images/gallery/movie/09.jpg"br /br /There were a few Twi and Ga lines used in the movie. I'm not sure where the movie was set, but I heard a lot of Ga lines. We also hear a Ga folk song sang by Kuuku and Nii Ayi in the "No government, no God, just us against the world scene". What is the best soundtrack for a fight scene? I think some Abodam music from Kwaw Kese should have worked there. Maybe a href="http://museke.com/node/1740"Oye nonsense/a? br /br /I was really loving the movie but when Sarkodie's a href="http://museke.com/node/3998"Borga/a was played, I was going nuts and bolts! What a song to play! What other song was there to play after Kuuku and Nii Ayi's Borga/visa/pink pastures/Yankee move had failed? a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/borga-matters-arising-in-diasporean.html""Borga, borga ɛna ɛyɛɛ dɛn!"/a It seems this was the major track for the movie though it doesn't have any 'ghost' lyrics. Aren't there any popular Sakawa songs? One should have been played when James 'sakawaed' the two friends. This one, a href="http://museke.com/en/node/4699"I dey try Sakawa/a, doesn't fit the bill though. br /br /Song in the background - "Na every day walka walka o". Conversation then starts with "I walk upright and tall in poverty, on the surface of wealth". I'm not making this up. Not sure the song played here either, sounds like some old school highlife. I like the drumming music used for the scene where the guy does the ritual. Purely African, no bull. Also liked the score for the hospital scene. Often times in African movies, those scenes go on forever with the song being played but I like how the score was varied throughout and didn't seem to last forever. The scene were Nii Ayi 'gives' Kuuku a bath was forgettable in my opinion. There is a song sang by a melodious female voice which I can't recognise. Felt like one of the Nollywood songs. I guess there are no sad hiplife songs? :-) br /img src="http://astinginatale.com/web/images/gallery/movie/13.jpg"br /br /We see Nii Ayi thinking about his situation with a soundtrack of "Chale e no be easy, the way we living in the GH" I am surprised I'd never heard this song before or even recognise the voice. The next scene, we have a song most Ghanaians would recognise playing - a href=""World Trade Center/a by 4x4. This song was huge in Ghana last summer right around when the movie was being shot. The song was played during Kuuku's 'house-cooling' party. Sad thing is, we didn't see any big booty girls at the party. ;-). "Ebe like say you no know say your body super; Girl, I go do anything to be your lover, baby". Naughty smile. br /br /a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3836""Lil Shaker on the beat, just breathe!" "When I walk in the club, its all eyes on me."/a They played D-Black and Kwaku-T's Breathe from Kuuku's preparation at home (was he wearing a Polo shirt) to his time at that Citizen Kofi club scene. Kuuku passed by an Ashawo spot (heard a remix of Flavour's a href="http://museke.com/en/node/4233"Ashawo/a as well) on his way to CK. I was really feeling the 'Breathe' track then. Nice choice. Readers, welcome the GH rap (Ghanaian hip-hop) movement. Now you can hear English rap songs played in Ghanaian clubs that are not American. Yes, we can. :-) br /br /I didn't hear too many foreign songs in this movie, which is great. I love how Sparrow's been working hard to find local songs that match the pulse of their movies. I don't know the name of the song played at the end. It was in English but sounded Ghanaian. I asked Chris Attoh for an answer and may just have to ask Elom Adablah too. But I will really like to ask Shirley Frimpong-Manso herself. Tried doing so when I was in Ghana but she and her crew were busy shooting another movie. At Christmas time? Yes. Shirley and her crew must be doing well to be shooting movies close to Christmas. Well done, a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=153667673960"Sparrow productions/a. More 'garis' to your elbow. br /br /Photos from a href="http://astinginatale.com"A Sting In A Tale/a website.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5051556859715262290?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 29, 2010
• 1:40

  The booming Ghanaian movie industry and its challenges

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Ever since my brother sent me that text saying 'a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/sparrow-productions-sting-in-tale.html"A Sting In a Tale/a' was a bomb, I had been waiting to see it myself. On the second day of my latest Ghana trip, I saw the movie being sold on the streets of Accra. I was caught in two minds. iThe movie was premiered in November and VCD copies are already being sold?/i iWell, I really want to see this movie, so it's great that now I could buy a copy/i. A lot of movies were being sold by different hawkers, in fact those selling ASIAT were everywhere. A few other interesting movies were being sold too. If you doubted whether making movies in Ghana was a 'bad' business, doubt no more. It still may be a home video business, but it pays. For some, it pays handsomely. There are a few things that have to be checked to sustain the industry so it doesn't enter the doldrums again in the near future. br /br /Take Agya Koo for instance. He appeared on the scene a few years ago and is one of the biggest movie stars in Ghana. Do a quick search of Agya Koo on Youtube and you'll see how popular he is. Ghanaian movies have proliferated through different websites and have developed strong followings amongst Ghanaian communities abroad. I hear that before Agya Koo signs on to do any movie, he's paid 3000 Ghanaian Cedis (GhC) upfront, which is about $2100. Sounds like a small amount, but he's only on set for about 3-4 days. Yes, $2100 for 4 days of work. In Ogyakrom (or sikakrom). In Ghana. After the movie is done, he pockets another 1000 GhC. Agya Koo (Kofi Adu) probably appears in one or two movies per month, if you follow Ghanaian movies closely enough, you'll know it's true. Do the math. br /br /The other members of the cast get paid too, albeit small amounts compared to what Kofi Adu takes home. Let's make an educated guess and say it costs Miracle Films or Danfo BA Productions about 50000 GhC to make a single movie. If you've seen the movies, the settings, etc won't cost that much. When the movie is done, it normally goes straight to strikeDVD/strike VCD. Each VCD has two disks for a total price of 5 GhC. If you ask around, those who wholesale and retail the movies, as well as the young men and women selling them on the streets and street corners, would tell you over 12000 copies of each movie is sold. That gives us 60000 GhC and a profit of 10000 GhC. For just one movie! Business opportunity, I tell you.br /br /These Kumasi/Twi/Agya Koo/Kyeiwaa movies hardly do any cinema premieres. Is it that their audience cannot afford the GhC 5/10/15/20 to watch the movies at the Accra International Conference Center, Silverbird Cinema or KNUST auditoriums? I don't know. Let's look at the Accra/Takoradi/English movies. A good number of them are doing premieres and charging 5/10/15/20 GhC. In addition to the VCD sales, they pocket some box office sales. I tell you, this movie business is good. Recently, one movie producer, Socrate Sarfo, said movie premiering is a waste of time, energy and money. Abdul Salam of Venus Productions and Shirley Frimpong-Manso of Sparrow Productions have debunked those claims. Shirley said that if she incurred losses on the premieres, she'd have stopped them. br /br /img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4312912504_01daa31a84_m.jpg" br /There are challenges though. The primary challenge is piracy. An aunt argued that ASIAT had to be on VCD soon enough because the pirates may strike first. The pirates do strike. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a hawker brandishing a VCD called 'The 3 Virgins' in front of me as our car was stuck in traffic. The VCD cover had a picture of Jackie Appiah, Lydia Forson and Naa Ashorkor Mensah Doku. Sound familiar? Yes, the a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture.html"Perfect Picture/a VCD cover has a similar picture. Some folks in Nigeria (smh) had repackaged the movie with a new title, new production house, etc to sell the movie. And these were being sold right under our noses in Ghana. The hawker told me it's the Part 2 of Perfect Picture. a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/sparrow-productions-sting-in-tale.html""This is such bullshit"/a. Some other Nigerian production house had done the same for a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/11/much-publicized-ghanaian-movie-heart-of.html"Heart of Men/a, renaming it 'Forbidden Fruit'. This is what they call 419. But wait, with the Sakawa going on in Ghana, I won't be surprised, if some Ghanaians were behind this and hiding behind some Nigerian names, etc. br /br /img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4002/4312912546_342ce26560_m.jpg" br /br /Ghanaian movies have been popularised through various internet channels. Today, many African movie fans know different websites with which to watch African movies. For free. At anytime. These websites feature mostly Nigerian and then Ghanaian movies. Youtube has many movies as well, including some from Ethiopia, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, etc. If you do some proper research, you'll realise the best African movies come from South Africa and the French-speaking countries. These are the ones gunning for international honours, being shown an international festivals and entering DVD collection in foreign stores and school libraries. Enjoying movie popularity is okay but we should want to be part of the conversation when it comes to winning awards and entering international consideration. The VCD format seems to easy to pirate. There are strong concerns whether the movie houses make any money off their movies being shown for free online or sold internationally. br /br /The trailer for Leila Djansi and Akofa Edjeani Asiedu's I Sing Of A Well (ISOAW) made the rounds late last year. It was premiered in Ghana even before ASIAT but I couldn't find the VCDs or DVDs to buy in Ghana. Why? ISOAW is going to different film festivals and is being premiered around the world to different audiences. That's what I am talking about. Maybe Leila has connections, but yes, that's what the film industry needs - more connections. Access to cutting-edge technology, markets, bloggers and journalists who can promote their movies, critics who can rate them properly so they can gauge their progress. I hope to see Leila make more movies in Ghana and Akofa herself contribute to the industry and bring on board some of the dominant but now dormant Ghanaian actors and actresses from the 90's. br /br /KSM knows the movie business is booming and he released his first feature film in Ghana over the Christmas season. Double, a psychological thriller, was premiered at the National Theatre on Christmas Day, 2009. The cast included Anima Misa Amoah (KSM's sister), Charles Bucknor, JOT Agyeman, Nana Kofi Asante, Doris Ansah, Naa Ashorkor Mensah Doku, etc. Anima and Charles were both in Heritage Africa, a famous Ghanaian movie from the 80's, directed by Kwaw Ansah. I wanted to see the movie so bad but I wasn't sure when and where it was going to be shown in Kumasi. It was eventually shown at the Kumasi Polytechnic Hall sometime in late December. My neighbour saw it but didn't like the movie that much. Will have to watch this one to judge for myself. Watch the a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXR_cJJR1Gc"trailer/a. We are making thrillers now eh, sweet. People believe KSM should have made a comedy. Maybe, next time.br /br /I also saw 'Sin of the Soul', a film from the same stable that made 'Heart of Men', Heroes production. It featured Majid Michel, Nadia Buari, Prince David Osei, Ekow Smith Asante, Kalsum Sinare, etc. If you don't believe there is money in acting in Ghana, look at Kalsum Sinare. I couldn't even recognise her, she put on weight papa! The movie was good and I'll review it later. I also saw Silent Scandals, a new Nigerian movie starring Genevieve Nnaji and Majid Erawoc. Yes, his name on the Silverbird Cinema poster was Majid Erawoc. Maybe that's what he's called in Naija. The movie was good too, except the VCD 2 didn't work. And apparently, many people who bought the movie had faulty VCD 2's. Hmmm. The guy selling the movies was kind enough to replace it for us.br /br /These are exciting times for Ghanaian and African movies in general. The movies are popular, the actors are rock stars, there are many showbiz sites peddling rumours and paparazzi news, etc. I just hope we stop called our movie industry Ghallywood. That's a kantenkarous name, for lack of a better word. Long live Ghanaian cinema, long live African cinema, long live Africa.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-6945579354468664473?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 27, 2010
• 4:10

  My favorite television show in Ghana - KSM's TGIF

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/10/political-satire-by-ksm-kwaku-sintim.html"Kwaku Sintim-Misa's/a Thank God It's Friday show is the best show in Ghana. I always try to catch that show everytime I am in Ghana. It's set like a talk show with a few other segments. br /br /He sometimes interviews 'interesting', entrepreneurial Ghanaians. Late last year, he interviewed Eyram Akofa Tawia, founder of LETI games, who was profiled on a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/leti-games-building-computer-games-in.html"this blog/a. I've seen interview some other Ghanaians who are doing very innovative things that many people did not know about. He also interviews major Ghanaian celebrities and statesmen. br /br /Here he interviews Mordechai Kwaku Nyamekye, the youngest delegate ever at the UN (and best delegate in Ghana). He has a ball with which he explains the Millennium Development Goals, for those of you who didn't know.br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7vKckJkA28br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/R7vKckJkA28hl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/R7vKckJkA28hl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Here, former president John Agyekum Kufuor talks about how he won the elections. br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1KUVpxo76Ybr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D1KUVpxo76Yhl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D1KUVpxo76Yhl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /The 3 wise men serve as a think tank for TGIF. Here, they analyze 2008 election day falling on a sunday. Their thoughts, solutions, opinionsbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnTEEsc2-l4br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jnTEEsc2-l4hl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jnTEEsc2-l4hl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Kofi Wayo joins news anchor BK Oduro and Ato Kwamena Dadzie of the NokoFio party to take aim at the politicians. br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKZGZV_Kpmwbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AKZGZV_Kpmwhl=en_USfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AKZGZV_Kpmwhl=en_USfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /He has his this "Not exactly da Nuz" segment hosted by BK Oduro (his alter ego). With this segment, they show interesting pictures taken in Accra and all over Ghana. The show is very entertaining.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4131701138442580131?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• January 26, 2010
• 5:08

  Sparrow Productions' A Sting In A Tale' - a discussion and review

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://astinginatale.com/web/images/banners/banner.jpg" width="400" height="150"br /strong"I don't believe in ghost stories, but I like this one"./strong I could not hide my excitement when I heard that Sparrow Productions had a fourth movie out called 'a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/10/ghanaian-films-sting-in-tale-i-sing-of.html"A Sting In A Tale'/a. Following the success of a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/08/life-and-living-it-best-ghanaian-movie.html"Life and Living it/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/01/scorned-may-be-even-better-ghanaian.html"Scorned/a, and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture.html"The Perfect Picture/a, I was hoping for the best. People had been complaining that Shirley Frimpong-Manso's movies were stories of romantic relationships amongst urban/rich class Ghanaians. So she decided to do something different, and I really appreciated this. The results have been mixed, more people thought "A Sting In A Tale" was the worst of her movies. Some loved the story, others just loved the end, others didn't like how the movie ended, etc, etc. I think this movie was great but not as good as the Perfect Picture. I think the first hour of the movie was superb and fantastic and then the 'quality' dropped off in the last hour. Let's dig deeper into the issues at play. Maybe we'll get the sting :-)br /br /Unlike the first 3 movies, "a href="http://astinginatale.com"A Sting In A Tale (ASIAT)/a" is set mostly in village or small town settings. It talks about the struggle of Ghanaian youth in earning a living. You know that much from the a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfZ9m6c3RkE"trailer/a. What you may not know is that the movie features ghosts. That is a territory people would have thought Shirley wouldn't venture into. We all complain about the superstition and African electronics in various African movies, so for Sparrow to have used such was a little baffling. I think Sparrow didn't develop that part of the story well enough, but maybe, that is the 'sting'. Like KSM said in this interview with Shirley, "the movie doesn't end until it's over". ASIAT also featured more local language lines and local language songs. Hey, we even heard two characters sing a Ga folksong. br /br /The movie features a great cast, all of whom I think did a great job with their roles. I loved Abeiku Acquah's character (Rocker) the most, and I think Adjetey Anang (Kuuku) also did an admirable job. He surely was a 'ticking time-bomb'. I was eager to see how Majid Michel (Nii Ayi) would do in his first Sparrow feature and he excelled too. Other members of the cast included Lydia Forson (Frema), Joycelyn C Dumars (Esi), Doris Sackitey (Auntie Tamara), David Oscar (James) and a cameo from Shirley Frimpong-Manso herself. I'm not sure what category to put the movie in but some sections of it were surely funny, solemn, dramatic, etc. br /br /One thing about great movies is that the scenes are memorable. I loved the 'monsi mpia' scene simply because this is something that happens in Ghana a lot and set up the struggles Nii Ayi and Kuuku were going to go through. strong"This is such bullshit"./strong This was a story line throughout the early struggles, almost a soundtrack if you may. strong"We are looking for some people with some experience." "How are we supposed to get any experience if nobody is prepared to hire us?/strong ... strongOh, don't worry, we are getting on the next bus to Makola. I will be doing an outing for the koko seller, perhaps you will hire me after that"./strong The movie still features some romantic relationships, but they are deeply affected by the struggles that Nii Ayi and Kuuku face.br /br /img src="http://astinginatale.com/web/images/gallery/movie/04.jpg" align="left" width="240" height="135"I love the way they alternated between the scene where Frema was visited by her mother and the one where Nii Ayi and Kuuku met James. strong"How much?" -- "You're joking right?" -- "I'm not"./strong Then after the guys were sharing the laugh, they moved to the next scene where Frema said "this is not funny". That scene ended with 'no', and the next scene with Nii Ayi, Kuuku and James started with 'yes'. See how James used two phones at the same time? I guess they were MTN and Zain lines. "You bring the greens, I get you the dreams". David Oscar is a one-time winner of best comedian at the Stars of the Future contest. strong"Have faith". "Faith? Isn't that the name of your landlady?" "We don't even have money to buy birthday presents for our girlfriends and you are going to look for 2500 dollars to buy a visa"./strong Yankee! :-)br /br /Like I said before, I loved Abeiku Acquah's character, Rocker. I guess he's who you may call a 'sakawa' man. Or maybe he's just entrepreneurial. strong"Stop working for the system, let the system work for you". "Remember what I tell you, I walk upright and proud in poverty, on the surface of wealth"./strong You can't hate on him for trying to be entrepreneurial and taking the bull by the horns while Kuuku and Nii Ayi fruitlessly sought jobs. It showed the different avenues Ghanaian youth are taking in the bid to make it. Kuuku and Nii Ayi try to get green cards and the move fails, because they are 419ed. You can't make these things up, they happen. To put them in a movie is excellent as well. br /br /strong"What if I told you guys I can make you drink beer at half-price? And still make money doing it". "Same shit, different day". "Believe me guys, this shit smells real good". "Some of us are eating!"/strong :-) Nii Ayi and Kuuku wanted to 'borga', also seek greener pastures. strong"This is just great" - "This is just terrible". "Have you tried his number?" "Who? James? Numbers!"./strong How did we greet the news of the visa move bouncing? Yet another brilliant idea from Rocker. strong"And boom, we are making money, only literally"/strong.... strong"Lucky for you, I am in the mood for some pessimists like you". "Lucky for you, Rocafella, I am in the mood for killing some scammers today"./strong And then the ticking time-bomb starts a fight. I think the fight was a bit overdone though. See how they were cheering the guy though, too freakin real. Lol. img src="http://astinginatale.com/web/images/gallery/movie/15.jpg" align="right" width="240" height="135"br /br /I was just so excited to hear a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2010/01/borga-matters-arising-in-diasporean.html"Sarkodie's Borga/a get played. At the time of shooting, the song was fresh and popular. When the visa move failed, what was the best signal for our twosome to move on and try other moves? What a perfect song to play! Now there was no use for the winter coat. Except for two poor young Ghanaian guys to use it as payment for a service. Mɔbɔ. How can I even forget the Michael Essien scene? Superb. There are too many young crooks in Ghana. If you needed any evidence the movie was Ghanaian (and not from some other country), this was the scene. I think it was a nice way to celebrate one of Ghana's most visible Black stars. I also love how they were speaking Pidgin and not English with the artist. "Bɔga, bɔga ɛna ɛyɛɛ dɛn!" When did Ghanaians start to say "Yes o!" Well, maybe since a couple of years ago, the Nigerian influence is here to stay. I liked how they switched between using Pidgin, Ghanaian language, and English lines. br /br /I like how the strong"Looks like God came back into town"/strong line tied in to the end of the 'struggle'. Reminded us of the initial conversation Kuuku and Nii Ayi had. strong"Is it that God is too busy or that He has found more exciting problems?" "No government, no God, just us against the world on some ship"/strong. Doesn't that feel like something a young unemployed Ghanaian would say? Everyone gets his first suit from the 'foes' line right? For those of you who don't know what 'foes' or 'broni waawu' clothes are, they refer to second-hand items imported into the country. strong"So that means that the coffee replaces the hausa koko"/strong. I won't hate on Hausa koko though, I will pay top-notch dollar for some right now. Pre-paid heart? Sounds good to me, till the next re-charge.br /br /I loved the Citizen Kofi scene as well. Citizen Kofi is a relatively new hot spot in Accra and to feature it in the movie shows that we'll remember ASIAT for introducing us to it. I had been hearing about Citizen Kofi all of 2009 before I went to Ghana for the Christmas and when I saw the Citizen Kofi scene, it solidified the 'hype' about the place. I visited Citizen Kofi as well and will be blogging about it too. Ghana boys, y'all dey pass by some Ashawo joint before going to a club? Things that make you go hmmm. Too many Ghanaian movies are featuring club scenes these days, but at least the video and sound quality of those scenes are improving. br /br /You'll realise most of my commentary centers around the first part of the movie. Like I said earlier, the first part of the movie was super. The movie went a little downhill with the introduction of the ghost. It looked like right timing given what was happening in the scene and what had just happened before, but I think it arrived too late in the movie. strong"Mini fio bo?"/strong So why did one person make it and the other didn't? Are some of us just luckier than others? Some may not think so. Hard work pays. But a little luck cannot be underestimated. Or maybe karma actually works. Watch the movie and decide for yourself. :-) img src="http://astinginatale.com/web/images/gallery/movie/16.jpg" align="right" width="240" height="135"br /br /strong"Why do you always have to be so mean?" "Why do you always have to be so broke?"/strong I think Frema's mother played a very interesting role in the movie. She seemed well off, and her daughter was in bed with a young man who wasn't making it. The movie's story was almost a battle between her unwillingess to be patient and Kuu's struggles. Life is about options, taking advantage of opportunities, utilizing help that comes your way, etc. We see the various characters in the movie get presented with different options and choices, and then their decisions and the consequences of their actions.br /br /A lot of movies use flashbacks. The first few scenes were finally continued at the end. The shocks may have been too much for viewers. I heard one of my favorite Presec words too: gbele. strong"Life, it's one unpredictable son of a bitch."/strong And then the twists started coming fast and furious. Must have been the most packed 10 minutes of a Ghanaian movie ever. :-) Well, maybe not, but that's for you to see the movie and judge for yourself. Concerning the ghosts, the only people who could see the ghosts were those who were also ghosts or humans who could help them. Maybe this piece of information can help explain the last few scenes and ultimately, the sting in the tale. br /br /strong"So, how does it end?"/strong. strong"I was thinking maybe you'd like to end it, add your own sting to the tale"/strongI have said a bunch of times that you should watch the movie and judge for yourself. Some of you have seen the movie and described it as horrible, not as good as Sparrow's other productions, etc. I hope this review will throw another light on the movie and you can watch it (again). a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTwTJiWzdMc"Watched some selected scenes/a. The feedback is great though, I am sure Shirley and her crew will listen and improve upon it for their next productions. I just think they are doing a fine job and like KSM said, "Ghanaian movies are back". It's quality we are looking for, championing excellence. br /img src="http://astinginatale.com/web/images/gallery/cast/01.jpg"br /br /Photos from a href="http://astinginatale.com"A Sting In A Tale/a website.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-731068892124984605?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 3:39

  Borga - matters arising in Diasporean living and returning home

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://www.discovery.org/blogs/discoveryblog/Ghana-Picture.png" align="left" width="272" height="182"Yes, I'm back. Like they'll say in Ghana, wɔabɔga bio. Well, I've been back to Yankee for more than two weeks but this is my first post of the new decade. Had too much fun chillaxing and chilluping in Ghana to blog, so I saved most of my thoughts as texts on my Nokia phone. In fact, na Borga nso ayɛ loose to afford the costs of slow Ghanaian internet. It's not always easy for us Borgas. Even when we have 'returned' to Ghana on holidays to visit families and do other things, we find the costs of living not much different from 'Aburokyire'. Ghana's fastest and hottest rapper at the moment, a href="http://museke.com/en/node/2407"Sarkodie/a knows this too. He composed a song about Ghanaians in the Diaspora and it is quickly becoming a cult classic. In fact, in the years to come, we shall all remember Sarkodie's a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3998"Borga/a as one of the legendary hiplife songs. Let me tell you why.br /br /Michael Owusu, known to many fans as a href="http://museke.com/en/node/2407"Sarkodie/a, is a hiplife artist. He had spent the last few years freestyling and engaging in rap battles in Tema. Rumour has it that he never lost one. If you've watched Eminem's 8 Mile, Sarkodie has a similar story. He recorded various underground mixtapes and then eventually became widely known after featuring on Ayigbe Edem's Bougez (Ke va) song. His first music video, a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3243"Babe (baby)/a, featuring Mugeez of R2Bees catapulted him into the national spotlight. He's still been churning mixtapes, his 'Politics' track surfaced around the 2008 elections and quickly went viral. Today, he has been signed to Konvict SA, Akon's record label in Africa. Hiplife legend, a href="http://museke.com/en/node/5"Obrafour/a, featured him on one of his latest singles, Hiplife, as if to say, Sarkodie was to bear the torch for the genre in these times and beyond. With songs like Lay Away (ft Sway), Edey be (ft Paedae), Altar, and a monumental song like Borga, the sky is the limit for Sarkodie.br /br /Borga is a name given to Ghanaians who are abroad or who've returned on holidays or for a short time. Since these people are usually held in high esteem, it's a nice title to have. Many families in Ghana look forward to Borgas' remittances. In fact, so far as you are a Borga, you are expected to release cash every now and then to folks back home. It matters not how or when or if you get the cash. Like the chorus of the song says, Borgas try to survive with the pay or salaries they get, working extra hours to make it some day. For some Borgas, the day never comes. They end up staying at one job for a lifetime and never return home as planned. Money is power, it can cloud your judgment and revise your dreams. br /br /Because Borgas are held in high esteem, they sometimes seem to lord their esteem over Ghanaians back home, whether they are in Ghana or still at their bases. When proper research is done, one will find that many Borgas are indeed 'suffering' at thier bases. They are clutching at straws to maintain 'flashy' lifestyles or be the breadwinners for their families. Here's where Sarkodie's song takes root. He asks, a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3998""Bɔga, bɔga ɛna ɛyɛɛ dɛn!"/a This is loosely translated as "You are a Borga, and so what?" The following part of the chorus describes a little conversation between Borgas. a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3998""Masa, na wobaa year bɛn; Me, mebaayɛ nkyɛɛyɛ, afei na mabɛdu nti obi nsoa me o na me kɔn mu rebu"/a - iMaster, which year did you come? Me, I haven't been here long, I just got here so someone should help me with this burden because it is too heavy"/i. br /br /Sarkodie describes different situations some Borgas are in. He states that someone may be in Canada and has to beg for what he eats. He goes on say, "You live and work in Ghana, at the very least, you have somewhere to sleep. You've collected money to get a visa, you want to travel to America just to suffer". And it's true. Go to the American embassy to see. It's called the African dream. The African dream is to seek greener (or pink) pastures abroad. It's not just in this common case of people using all they have just to get a taste of America, but you can also see it in the 'brain drain', seeking medical help abroad and other cases. "Aburokyire tumi ma ɔsɔfo nom jot; Ɔpɛ sɛ ɔtwitwa n'adwendwen so short" - iLiving abroad can make a pastor take up smoking; wanting to cut short his worries"/i. br /br /"Dɛn na ɛyɛ fɛ sɛ makɔdi holidays; na maba fie na mente obiaa case" A lot of Ghanaian students travel to the US, UK and other places during vacations. Many have the same goal, find a job, make some money, come back home and spend it. Or spend the money there, come back and let everyone know there have been changes in one's lifestyle. There is always a difference between the student who has 'borgaed' and the one who hasn't. The Borgas have this air around them. As for Sarkodie, he is not enthralled by the features of 'Aburokyire'. He rates fried rice over 'superghetti'. br /br /Sarkodie's song has sparked various responses, mostly from Ghanaian artists based abroad who seem to argue that they are better off than Sarkodie, who is living in Ghana. One response from Fada San is a direct remix to Sarkodie's Borga, pretty much calling his song, "boila" or rubbish. They state that they don't like the Ghana Cedi, but they like the dollar. "when you reach Miami, you will see that Accra is a village". They diss an Honourable Minister for becoming a photographer upon seeing Obama. They argue that toothpicks are not even made in Ghana. This line has been used for a long time, someone should please tell me why someone in Ghana is making toothpicks in Ghana today. Fada San chorus, "If you don't have money, shut up. We haven't been around for too long, but we see our riches and possessions, you will be shocked." Except these things are probably on credit and there are outstanding bills to pay. Hey, fada San have an admirable remix, but I'm sticking with Sarko on this one. :-)br /br /Doing menial jobs abroad are ends to a means. Some people use the opportunity of traveling to set themselves up for better jobs and better standards of living for them and their families. You can't exactly walk into a well-paying and lucrative job in someone else's land. Even in Ghana, things are changing. Many Borgas are returning to Ghana for good. This is partly because of the economic crisis in the developed countries and the many lucrative and comfortable job opportunities being created in Ghana. Look around for the most successful, entrepreneurial and popular Ghanaians today, most of them live in Ghana. Granted, some of them may have lived abroad at some point, but many of them are really making their names by their exploits back home. br /br /Sarkodie ends the song with a word of advice. a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3998""Nya ntoboaseɛ ma wo nnwom na ɛbɛben"/a - iHave patience with your music and it shall be well/i. It's not all rosy abroad. We can all make it Ghana or wherever in Africa we find ourselves. We don't have to give up the little luxuries we enjoy to suffer in someone else's land before we 'can make it'. Sarkodie doesn't argue against travelling, he supports it. I agree with him. It's my wish many of us get the chance to travel and experience other cultures and places, it opens our eyes to different possibilities, ideas, attitudes and mannerisms. Being second-class citizens is not one of the wishes. br /br /I was at a href="http://barcampghana.org"BarCamp Ghana/a last December and one of the breakout sessions was about travel and development. I wasn't able to attend the whole session but I believe the conversation centered around how traveling abroad can change people's outlook and how a lot of Ghana's leaders of today seem to have the 'outside' experience. I fall into the category of Borgas, but I am in love with this song. In fact, I knew about the song before I went to Ghana last Christmas, but hearing it there made me love it more. When the song was played in Shirley Frimpong-Manso's "A Sting In A Tale", I was sold. Of course, Sarkodie's song is just one take on the whole Diasporean/Borga issue. The conversation must continue. We must make the most out of our travels, "African dream pursuits", etc.br /br /Photo from www.discovery.orgdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7472636588409155423?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 31, 2009
• 11:23

  Happy birthday to me and closing Kasiebo

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Yee, onwunu adwo, my people, yɛrebɔ dawuro, nti monyaa aso (2x); Yɛkyiakyia mo nyinaa, yɛde nkaseɛbɔ brɛbrɛ mo nyinaa (2x); La la la la la, mmiɛnsa, mmienu, baako, hwii dum; La la la la la, sɛ wɔapie, sɛ asa, afei, ka w'ano to mu; /abr /br /This is the chorus of Obrafour’s a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Kasiebo/a hit single. Kasiebo means ‘news’. This is not exactly the nuz, but it’s just a little write-up of things that have been on my mind lately. Full blog posts will follow sometime in the New Year when I ‘boga’ again to my address in America. If you can't read Twi, ask a friend or a href="http://kasahorow.com"learn some at Kasahorow.com/a.br /br /a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampghana09"BarCamp Ghana 2009/a went well. We had more than 300 attendees and great breakout sessions and panels. Patrick Awuah’s keynote speech was awesome too. The notes and feedback are rolling in. Look out for a comprehensive report soon. You can always google to find out what people are saying as well. Or hit up the a href="http://twitter.com/search?q=%23bcghana09"#bcghana09/a hashtag on Twitter. Shout out to our sponsors – GhanaThink Foundation, MEST, Google, Web4Africa, Ushahidi, CITI 97.3FM, Ashesi University, Fienipa, SKYY Digital and Studio 8. br /br /I’ve been on radio twice, both times on CITI 97.3FM’s breakfast show with Bernard Avle. The Dec 18th discussion/interview had me, Patrick Awuah (of course I was dying in there), Paa Kwesi Imbeah (my role model) and Estelle Sowah (CEO of Google Ghana). I handled the stage fright well and the discussion on leadership, youth and the motives behind BarCamp Ghana 09 served for a nice interview. The post-BarCamp interview on the 23rd with myself, Eyram Tawia and Henry Addo (and George Minta-Jacobs) about youth entrepreneurship in Ghana went well too. Both audios shall be made available, as well video footage already broadcasted on Skyy TV’s Democracy channel.br /br /Shirley Frimpong-Manso’s A sting in a Tale is a great movie. Some people believe it’s her best. It seems Shirley’s making her subsequent movies more local and more realistic for the average Ghanaian. The movie features more Twi and Pidgin lines. A full review will follow soon. br /br /This movie featured my favorite Ghanaian song at the moment. Sarkodie’s Boga. Boga, boga, ɛna ɛyɛɛ dɛn. Super track. Obidi must make a video for this one. br /br /Ghanaians must learn to be more honest and speak the truth. We dey lie too much. Sometimes we do it without even thinking about it. If you are at the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange in traffic, let me know. Don’t tell me you are at Madina Zongo Junction. br /br /Mmaa no wɔ he? They still didn’t come to BarCamp Ghana 2009. I understand they are more interested in going to social functions. For real? Tell me, ɛnyɛ nokware. a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"False propaganda/a. br /br /I can tell you one place they are at. The Accra Mall. It’s still the new hang-out, meeting spot. I visited the SilverBird Lifestyle shop and was pleasantly surprised with what I found there. Children’s books written by Ghanaians, a whole aisle of books about Barack Obama, South African CDs (including Gang of Instrumentals, Lira and Malaika), my friend’s book Harmattan Rain, a book called ‘Bu me bE’ amongst others. br /br /Shiee wow! The girl ebody body chaw. I don’t know why I never really realized this. br /br /a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Na EhyEm!/a. Am writing in Naija movie, but before it's done, am gonna live it to make sure it will make a great story. It's gonna be the best Nigerian movie ever. It's called a tale of two sisters. br /br /The new cool term is ‘Chill up’. If you haven’t heard about Capo Cheerz, you are missing out. Megyina me nan so br /br /The new mantra for Ghanaian politicians is “it’s in the pipeline”. Why isn’t this road done? “It’s in the pipeline”. a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Oh Ghana!/abr /br /I attended Smiles for Christmas 2009 at the Labadi Beach Hotel. Mad props to the ladies who’ve been organizing this. Smiles for New Year in Kumasi is on this 3rd January (2pm prompt) at King Jesus Charity at Boadi. If you are near Oseikrom, join us. br /br /Have you heard about Citizen Kofi? You have. Have you been there? You haven’t. Not to worry. Find your way there, it’s the hottest ticket in town. If you are part of Ghana’s elite, you may not even need one. More on this in the New Year.br /br /Sra bi hwɛ herbal clinic. I also saw a signboard for African Institute of Technology, somewhere on the Kumasi-Obuasi road. How many AITs are there in Africa? br /br /Speaking of Obuasi, I was there recently to watch Accra Hearts of Oak and AshGold. It was my first time watching a Ghanaian premier league match. It was the most entertaining goalless drawn game I’ve seen. Is Glo the only sponsor? They haven’t entered the telecom market in Ghana but they have no competition at the nation’s sports stadia.br /br /Speaking of telecoms, they have taken over Ghana. Everywhere is painted Yello, Vodafone Red, or Zain multicolor. Quite impressive. br /br /I have a checklist of food items and drinks I am trying before I leave Ghana again. I had one Chairman (Kyea me) the other day, and became the tipsiest I’ve ever been. Let’s just say I followed it with an Alvaro, which is the ‘truth’. br /br /a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Anaa yɛse moakye/a no awe Auntie Muni waakye. I finally went to Auntie Muni to discover what her waakye was all about. Good stuff. Was there at the Facebook Waakye Party. I couldn’t find too many people I knew, which made me wonder which folks were attending this thing. br /br /a href="http://museke.com/node/3856"Fresh boy Chup Chop kɛ fresh girl Lollipop/a. So I hear Chupa-Chop is actually a toffee. Interesting. br /br /For the first time, my parents and others have been hinting I should get married. Hmmm. my Mrs., I’m coming for you. I am going to SMS love to 1948. I hear they have 100,000 singles. br /br /Happy birthday to me. I’m strikeforever 21/strike 26. a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Afei na merebɛyɛ no gidigidi/a. :-) While I am afraid of aging, my brother wishes he was retired. People keep on telling me I look more matured than my age, la la la la la. I don’t know why I don’t think that is not a good thing. Either way, there are mixed emotions about what I’ve done with my life so far and that warrants another entry. a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Da foforɔ, ma me mmerɛ na menkyerɛ m'adwen/a. So till then, thanks for all the lovely messages, calls, texts. I really appreciate it.br /br /Thank you. Medaase. Oyiwaladonn. Akpe. Na gode. Ese. Imela. Asante. Tatenda. Ngiyabonga. Nkosi. Weebale nyo. Merci. Spasibo. Spasiba. Gracias. Obrigada. Arigato. Xixie. Shukria.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3531948558157289747?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 11, 2009
• 23:23

  BarCamp Ghana 2009 - Leadership for our times - cultivating change makers (Press release)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I am very excited about this event. If you have a story of youth making/creating change and leading in Ghana, please come and share it here. Or get in touch.br /br /a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampghana09" title="BarCampGhana 2009 - Leadership for our times - cultivating change makers. December 21st, Accra, Ghana"img src="http://www.barcampghana.org/system/files/bcghana_09_500x60.png" style="width:400px; height:48px; border:0;" title="BarCampGhana 2009 - Leadership for our times - cultivating change makers. December 21st, Accra, Ghana"//a br /br /On December 22, 2008, over a hundred young Ghanaians met in Accra for a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampghana08"BarCamp Ghana '08/a to exchange ideas on entrepreneurship, innovation and development for a rising Ghana. This summer, the conversations moved to Washington, DC on July 25, 2009 where a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora '09/a brought together the African Diaspora to exchange ideas on doing business in Africa. br /br /This December 21st in Accra, the BarCamp Ghana team, made up of passionate young Ghanaians, presents a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampghana09"BarCamp Ghana '09/a, under the theme "Leadership for our times - cultivating change makers". The event will take place on December 21, 2009 from 8am - 6pm at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) campus at 20 Aluguntuguntu Street in East Legon, Accra. br /!--break--br /A BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering where attendees meet for discussions, demos and networking. Unlike a typical conference, at a BarCamp everyone is both a speaker and a participant. The content is provided by all attendees based on their interests, unified under the theme. This year, the focus is youth in leadership and how the youth can create and make change in various ways in various disciplines for the betterment of Ghana. The event would highlight different success stories involving change-making youth. Change makers and youth leaders are strongly encouraged to attend. br /br /BarCamp Ghana ’09 is a FREE event for anyone who is interested in using their skills, talent, and resources to benefit Africa. BarCamp Diaspora gave birth to a Ghana-focused healthcare NGO, a href="http://www.reachghana.org"REACH-Ghana/a, which will be presenting its story since its inception in July. BarCamps all over the world have brought together individuals and organizations to collaborate on various projects and businesses. br /br /Panelists and speakers will include Patrick Awuah of Ashesi University, Estelle Sowah of Google Ghana, George Minta of Empretec, Hajo Birthelmer of Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), amongst others. There will be sessions organized by Google representatives and as well as other breakout sessions on various topics and interests as put forth by the attendees. If you are creating or making change in your own small way in your community, consider sending the team a note about your project or business to a href="mailto:info@barcampghana.org"info at barcampghana dot org/a. Some of these stories will be mentioned at the BarCamp and all the information will be on the BarCamp Ghana website. br /br /a href="http://www.barcampghana09.eventbrite.com/"Register/RSVP/a today at the a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampghana09/register"BarCamp Ghana website/a. Help spread the word about BarCamp Ghana '09 by a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampghana09/spread-word-about-barcamp-ghana-09"grabbing badges/a and support by a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampghana09/spread-word-about-barcamp-ghana-09"donating/a to help cover costs. You may also a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/contact"contact/a the BarCamp Ghana team through its website for sponsorship opportunities. If you are interested in a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09/organizing-breakout"organizing a breakout session/a, let us know, especially if you have special needs. br /br /br /BarCamp Ghana 2009 is sponsored by the a href="http://www.ghanathink.org"GhanaThink Foundation/a, a href="http://meltwater.org/"Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST)/a, a href="http://ushahidi.com"Ushahidi/a, a href="http://web4africa.net"Web4Africa/a, etc. Our media partner is a href="http://www.citifmonline.com"CITI 97.3 FM/a. br /br /See you there!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7457751592742010021?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• December 02, 2009
• 5:36

  Introducing REACH-Ghana on the occasion of World AIDS day

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs008.snc3/11539_187522879860_185681809860_2776483_4791344_n.jpg" width="302" height="88"I was notified about the a href="http://reachghana.org"website/a for REACH-Ghana today and I must say I am impressed with how far this organization has come in the last 4 months following a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora/a at JHU-SAIS in Washington, DC. A few young passionate Ghanaians with interest in the health sector came together after a healthcare breakout session during July's BarCamp Diaspora and started investigating how they could contribute to Ghana's health sector. Their enthusiasm has given birth to Representatives for Equal Access to Community Health-care (Ghana). br /br /I love the use of the Adinkra symbol in the REACH logo. After my previous experience with Kasahorow, Museke GhanaThink, I am a big fan of incorporating Ghanaian symbols in every way. REACH's logo uses the Adinkra symbol "Boa Me Na Menboa Wo" (Help me to help you), which represents cooperation, interdependence and community. You can see the tenets of REACH's vision in this symbol and the name itself. The symbol embodies the organization's belief that local community involvement isbr /integral to the achievement of equal access to quality health-care. The organization believes that local community involvement is integral to its mission. br /br /December 1 was World AIDS day and REACH-Ghana already has an AIDS themed project called the REACH HIV Intervention program. This project is scheduled to take place in summer 2010. Read more about REACH's goals and projects on their a href="http://reachghana.org/"website/a. The REACH-Ghana team is made up of various Ghanaian students and professionals in the health sector. The team includes Maame Sampah, Aida Manu, Kofi Buaku-Atsina, Seyram Avle, Edo Bedzra, Aya Ghunney, Emmanuel Lamptey, Jonathan Hutchful and Bennie Osafo-Darko as coordinator of the HIV project. I know some of these people personally and strongly believe in their capability to make REACH-Ghana a meaningful contributor to addressing some of Ghana's health issues and concerns.br /br /Become a a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/REACH-Ghana/185681809860"Facebook Fan today/a. Follow REACH-Ghana on Twitter a href="http://twitter.com/reachghana"@REACHGhana/a. You can also become a member of REACH-Ghana and get opportunities to volunteer on REACH-Ghana projects, attend conferences, expand your network and get free access to REACH newsletters and publications. Also a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flowSESSION=tlHiDYFAw-RwCHtPZyoh6nPoDDyRqIf2U8KsVLqRo6rk1JgDMhfJOxnxsU4dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1ffc45dc241d84e953d0e88f8d71535079b246201019c8adab"donate/a to help REACH-Ghana, an NGO, which is on track to gain 501c status.br /br /You can also attend a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampghana09"BarCamp Ghana 09/a later this year on the 21st of December in Accra to hear more about REACH-Ghana. Here's to the birth of more forward-thinking organizations out of more BarCamps and roundtable discussions amongst young Ghanaians and Africans in the future. Yes, we can.br /br /Tsooboi!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8708997341274035414?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 18, 2009
• 5:06

  The MIghTy African's real identity and his other online names

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  It's always interesting when I get questions like - Are you Chale of a href="http://museke.com"museke.com/a, or Abocco, or this, or that. Yes, I am those and more. Ever since I got introduced to the world of the internet, I have tried to conceal my identity behind countless pseudonyms and names. In fact, hand in hand with this 'decision', I don't like to see my real name on-line in certain instances. This year, I have been fished out, because I've had to reveal myself in different ways because of some little publicity I got here and there. Why would I want to conceal my identity? Why would I use all these names and where do they even come from? It's time to answer some of these questions and bring y'all up to speed on these names. So just in case, you happen to find these names somewhere, you know who is really behind those. br /br /The fascination with pseudonyms began in high school - Presec. I had joined the the school's media outlet, Editorial Board. We were in charge of publishing the school magazine and maintaining the school's Filla Board. The Filla Board was a notice board at a heavy-human traffic location which featured articles talking about school life, announcements, amongst other things. Each writer chose a pseudonym. Mine was Aristocrates. I had a friend called Aristotle, and came up with Aristocrates as a result. If I wrote an article lambasting somebody, especially someone in a high position, I had the comfort of no one really knowing it was me. It was fun. It was also exciting to listen on conversations of friends praising a certain article I wrote, but they wouldn't know it was me. Eventually, some people figured out who Aristocrates was but the mystery was kinda cool. If you don't believe me, ask some Presecans.br /br /When I came to the US in 2001 and eventually became a major poster on the a href="http://odadee.org"Odadee/a (old Presec students) forum, I chose a username - Clue. I could have used my yahoo email username which would easily give me away, but why do that? I followed the Presec-thing. Clue was a nickname I got from junior secondary school (middle school) because I'd organize all these general knowledge quizzes amongst friends and give them clues in case they couldn't answer questions. Most Presecans/Odadees didn't know I was called Clue, because I was never called that as Presec so many people on the Odadee forum didn't know 'Clue' was me. I loved that. The Odadee forum is extinct now but you can find Clue as the pseudonym for my abocco gmail blogger account a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/16976409695813522460"here/a. br /br /So what's this Abocco word anyway? Well, I first heard it in middle school (KNUST JSS). It was supposed to mean 'something good or great or super'. For the Ghanaians, it's a synonym to 'JƐ'. I liked the name and used it as 'mine'. So, when I joined the a href="http://www.ghanathink.org"GhanaThink/a forums in 2003, I used Abocco as my username. It's what I still use today, on the a href="http://www.ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org"GhanaConscious/a forums. I'm also @Abocco on a href="http://twitter.com/Abocco"Twitter/a. A lot of people ave their real names in addition to their Twitter name, but not me. Every now and then, I google Abocco to see where it's landing and going and I'm pleasantly surprised with results. a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blogs/abocco"Abocco's blog/a is my blog on GhanaConscious (here's a link). br /br /Ever come across Maximus Ojah? That will be me too. I am a big fan of the movie, Gladiator and Ojah, well, it means 'fire' in Twi (correct spelling is Ogya). I made up this name when I started to write articles on a href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/columnist.php?S=Ojah,%20Maximus"Ghanaweb/a and places other than GhanaThink.org. I used this moniker to write the 'Letters to Osagyefo'. Some of you may know that Osagyefo refers to Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president and one of my idols. One letter I wrote to Osagyefo about hiplife called the "a href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/artikel.php?ID=82474"Hiplife Story/a" became really famous. Hiplife's page on Facebook has the story at its a href="http://www.facebook.com/Hiplifer?v=info"Hiplife info/a section. A comment on GhanaMusic.com said "it was the best hiplife article I've ever read'. Who wrote that? Maximus Ojah. Who the heck is Maximus Ojah? Where can we find him? You can't. I actually had a username Abocco on GhanaMusic too, but the site owners never really put 2 2 together to realise Abocco and Maximus Ojah were the same person. I had written a lot of Osagyefo letters and one April day in 2007, I decided to revive the letters after a long hiatus, only this time, I'd publish them on a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blogs/nwia"GhanaConscious/a. This is where I came up with 'Nwia', which is Kwame Nkrumah's middle name. I still signed off with Maximus Ojah and when I sent the articles to be published by other websites, I sent it as the MIghTy African from my MIghTy African gmail address.br /br /Oh, MIghTy African is the guy who writes a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/"this blog/a right? Right. As you can see, MIghTy features MIT and yup, I call myself the MIghTy African. How selfish of me! I am not the only African who's attended MIT and even if I helped coin the name MIghTy Africans for a href="http://africans.mit.edu/"Africans@MIT/a, what right do I have to name myself the MIghTy African? Twiaaa! Well, guess what. Someone actually called me that and that's why I took the name. I shouldn't make any apologies, if you think I should, chastise me. Yeah, so when I sent articles I'd written on this blog or somewhere else to different websites for publication, I sent it as the MIghTy African. Some of you may have seen the MIghTy African Music Video program clips on Youtube, where I was interviewed by my friend, Melanie Reynard. When she posted the video, she said my real name, where I went to school and the website museke.com. Big crime! She gave my identity away. Now, I am not only trying to battle with my name being out there, but people could see what I actually look like. And find out I am the guy behind museke.com. br /br /This brings us to a href="http://museke.com"Museke.com/a. Having people not know I am the one being behind this website which is being called the "African music bible" is my best magic trick yet. A while ago, a friend said she felt I only just loved to promote the site. Of course! Isn't it spectacular? Y'all should be doing the same. :-) My name on Museke is a href="http://museke.com/en/user/120"Chale/a, which is pretty easy to figure out if you know and you know I am part of the Museke crew. How did I come up with Chale? I said Chale a zillion times at my time at MIT, that people ended up calling me by the name. Chale became a filler word for me. iWhere are you going, chale? What you did wasn't cool, chale./i Exasperation was replaced with "chale, chale, chale". If you've hanged around Ghanaians a lot, you'll know what Chale/Chalay/Charlie/Chaley/Charley means. It's basically a name to address a friend with. Comes from the coolest language on earth - Pidgin. I know the Mexicans are stealing my shine because they have some chale word like that, but next time you see something wrote by Chale or a Chale reference on or to Museke.com, remember that yours truly is behind it. Once, someone mentioned my real name on the site, and it got to me so much. br /br /Talking about my real name, I am not really happy to see people address me as such on this blog. My blogger profile doesn't have my name and I haven't (really) mentioned my name yet, have I? Well, people, I am strongAto Ulzen-Appiah/strong. There, whew, that was difficult. I may not have mentioned my name but I do I feed my blog entries into my Facebook notes and everyone who reads those knows I am the one writing them. But if someone happened to end up on my blog and read my entries, would they know it is 'me' writing these? Maybe. Maybe not. Truthfully, I don't really want people to know this is me, I don't want to be popular like that. I'll take more pride in people loving some Maximus Ojah guy's articles than associating those pieces with 'me' and having my name all over the place. Obviously, it is kind of contradictory with the kind of things I've been up to over the years and the number of Facebook friends I have. I am not telling you the number, go find out. That's fodder for another blog entry too. br /br /Every now and then, I google myself to see where I am appearing. I also google my 'names'. I can't control people getting know I am this or that any longer. I am beginning to accept I cannot hide for too long. I will continue to use these pseudonyms and leave the figuring out to everyone. I think it may be good for me to use my real name because it helps build my profile and may open up some opportunities. That said, the thrill of people looking for Museke's Chale and then realising it's me is pretty cool. I am all for cool, I don't like to do things the traditional way. It makes my day for someone to say - "Oh, so you are Abocco? I kind of thought it was you. I liked that article you wrote. Good stuff". Lekker. Abocco. JƐ. Ebe so! Super. Now that's what's up :-Ddiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2617854891015268781?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 17, 2009
• 11:01

  "Kasiebo" and the issues surrounding Obrafour's "Asem beba dabi" return "in hip-life"

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Culled from a href="http://museke.com/en/node/4416"Chale's blog on Museke.com/abr /br /img src="http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs256.snc1/10317_144953702578_144949447578_2623900_2240120_n.jpg" align="left"I was so excited when I heard a href="http://museke.com/node/5"Obrafour/a was releasing some new singles after his Heavy album in 2006. Obrafour is my favorite rapper and through the years, he's faced a lot of criticism, but I don't think he has hardly put a foot wrong. Obrafour is a wise man, like we see from his lyrics and he knew he was re-entering the music industry at an interesting time that called for some creativity and hard work. He delivered his singles and he has quickly become the talk of the town. I am really looking forward to getting his "a href="http://museke.com/node/4344"Asem beba dabi/a" album and I hope it does really well and Obrafour becomes an international superstar. It's about time. His singles have caused some controversy and I'll like to discuss the issues arising.br /br /Obrafuor's first single is a href="http://museke.com/node/4278"Kasiebo (Nkasiabo)/a. Kasiebo in Twi means news. In the song, an Execution FM radio presenter called Guru (who's a new hiplife artist) talks about "hiplife news". Like most radio presenters, Guru calls the subject of the news item, Obrafour, to seek his opinion on matters. They discuss how the hiplife game has changed and Obrafour offers advice amongst other things. The song gets controversial when Guru mentions a Kumasi-based rapper called OK raping a young girl. He also mentions how those behind the "a href="http://museke.com/node/3077"Killing the game/a" song could try to resurrect hiplife with a song like a href="http://museke.com/node/3891"Atopa Jenjen/a. He also queries how someone who has less than 5 solo albums can call himself the best rapper alive. i"Obi agye abɔso 'Best Rapper Alive', nanso yɛhwehwɛɛ mu, ne albums mpo nduruu five"/i. These lines have been seen as direct attacks on a href="http://museke.com/node/1975"Okyeame Kwame/a (who calls himself best rapper alive) and a href="http://museke.com/node/21"Obour/a (singer of Atopa Jenjen), who both released the "Killing the game" song with a href="http://museke.com/node/1571"Richie/a, Ghana's most prolific beatmaker at the moment. br /br /The song is very creative with the radio call-in conversation, the beat is excellent, the hook and choruses are on point and Obrafour's lyrics are timeless as usual. In response to the controversy, Obrafour has said OK doesn't necessarily refer to Okyeame Kwame like people believe. He has an issue with the Rap Doctor's assertion that he is the best rapper alive. DJ Black, one of Ghana's best deejays tried to get Obrafour and Okyeame Kwame in the same studio to do battle and settle their differences. Only the latter showed up, and Obrafour has called on him to do a reply song. We've not heard much from Obour but Reggie Rockstone has also said Okyeame Kwame should do a reply song. Okyeame sees no reason in doing so, not wanting to stoop that level. It seems most Ghanaian music fans side with Obrafour though, he commands a lot of respect amongst hiplife fans.br /br /This is not the first time Obrafour has seemed to stoke fires with other artists. He has well-chronicled 'battles' with Lord Kenya. a href="http://museke.com/node/205"Lord Kenya/a had lines in 'Aka esi ani', Obrafour had lines in 'Oye Ohene remix'. Obrafour even called out the legendary a href="http://museke.com/node/243"Reggie Rockstone/a in 'a href="http://museke.com/node/8"Bra be hwe/a' saying i"Yɛanwo obiara a, microphone da n'ano; Insha Allahu, w'anka no yie a, mɛte wo to"/i. Can't think of any response from Rockstone though. Kontihene got involved with a href="http://museke.com/node/395"Kwaw Kese/a concerning Migizigi and when Obrafour returned from a short hiatus with 'Ako', he went at a href="http://museke.com/node/238"Kontihene/a. You may criticize him for stirring up beef, but the way he does it is genius. Personally, I think, it's good for hiplife, so far as it doesn't generate any violence or useless banter. These musicians are still friends, they just battle with their words in music. You won't see them on radio insulting each other, that's not what we want.br /br /People may feel Obrafour's taking advantage of the popularity and goodwill that Okyeame Kwame has now and I'll agree with that. He also made passes at him in his single, a href="http://museke.com/node/4344"Asem beba dabi/a, talking about i"wodi mmaa yi mu sɛ woyɛ Opabeni"/i. Obrafour featured Okyeame Kwame as one of the established hiplife artists in his Execution Diary compilation in 2004, so why is he going at him so much now? Inquiring minds want to know. I've met and a href="http://museke.com/node/1783"interviewed Okyeame Kwame/a and he is really a great guy. In fact, he and Obrafour are my two favorite Ghanaian rappers now. I really hope they come together to make a track soon. br /br /Back to Kasiebo and The Game controversy, do you guys know Shatta Rako, a Kumasi-based musician has recored a song called "Da shame of the game" which is an answer to "the Game". a href="http://museke.com/node/1828"Shatta Rako/a worked on Okyeame Kwame's award-winning "a href="http://museke.com/node/1897"M'awensem/a" album so for him to criticize him is very interesting. He actually makes reference to a paedophile, referring to a rapper with no style and telling One Mic to "cry your own cry". Read the a href="http://museke.com/node/4004"lyrics here/a. I am yet to hear from Shatta or Okyeame Kwame (both good friends of mine) about these issues. I think Okyeame, Obour and Richie's song was great and needed when it was released. A remix has been released and you can listen to it a href="http://museke.com/node/3077"here/a. Will report back later. br /br /I believe Obrafour's newest album would be legendary. His single, a href="http://museke.com/node/4333""In hiplife (In this life)"/a, featuring Sarkodie, is a marvelous track. Here, he gives a href="http://museke.com/node/2407"Sarkodie/a (who's seen as the most promising hiplife artiste today), advice on a long-lasting career and seems to pass the hiplife mantle onto him. It's nicely done. He also has a track called "My praises", which is a gospel one and he promises to release a video for it. He talked about how radio never really pushed his gospel-related tracks. If you've followed his a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Obrafour/144949447578"Facebook page/a, Obrafour has a new-found religious attitude and vigour and plans to praise God for all He's done for him, especially in the last few year when Ghanaians didn't hear much about Obrafour. He has other tracks with a href="http://museke.com/node/167"Samini/a (How will I know) and some other upcoming musicians. And yes, he's working with Hammer of the Last 2 as well, though none of the three released singles feature him, but JMJ and Kaywah. br /br /It's great to have Obrafour back. Hiplife is alive!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1306571438156583662?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 13, 2009
• 8:55

  I ask for more Patrick Awuahs and more Ashesis in this life

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://www.ashesi.org/HOME/SPEECHES/patrick_awuah_feb_2006.gif" align="left"Earlier tonight, I met Patrick Awuah. Again. Up close. This is the second time I am dedicating a a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/patrick-awuah-founder-of-ashesi.html"blog entry/a to him. Why not? He's awesome. He gives me goosebumps when I meet him. Yes. Sounds weird. I told my roommates I had a crush on him. Oui. Of course, I am straight and straight up drumming home the point that we need more Patrick Awuahs in this world. If you didn't know already. But the focus of this entry is really about what he talked about tonight. What brought him to this area so I could be in the same room as him is not important. His words, actions, character are. Let's dig into what he said.br /br /As some of you may know, Patrick and a href="http://ashesi.edu.gh"Ashesi University/a just won the Aspen Institute's a href="http://www.mcnultyprize.org/winner2009.shtml"McNulty/a Prize for 2009. Doesn't matter to me how relevant or prestiguous the prize is, but the fact that Patrick has yet another honour. Judges choosing the McNulty Prize included Madeleine Albright, Bill Gates, and Olara Otunnu; go figure. He won $100,000, a nice sum of money that will go a long way. It felt quite good to congratulate him in person, just a week after I had heard of his award from an Ashesi mailing list. The prize was in the conscience of most of the 30 or so students who gathered earlier tonight to have an evening with Patrick and Patrick started the night off with a short film prepared about Ashesi University which won him the prize. The film told a few stories Patrick had mentioned when I met him earlier this year and this is a time to share.br /br /Araba Amuasi was one of the brightest students (computer science) graduating from Ashesi in 2007. Judging by the kinds of job offers her colleagues got, she could have landed a very lucrative job and a great career. Her community service project through Ashesi University was heavy on her heart and she knew she could positively impact many lives in a different way. She chose to go into management; become Operations Officer at an orphanage. She plans to use her computer science skills to completely overhaul the orphanage curriculum and to one day lead a transformation of primary education in Ghana. Ghana doesn't have a culture of community service, but here, you have a lady in her mid-twenties, spurning conventional Ghanaian wisdom to face some of Ghana's problems head on. No wonder Patrick speaks so highly of her. Patrick didn't mention his alumni who work at the McKinsey's, DataBanks and other reputable firms, he mentioned the societal change makers. You can tell this man is very different in a very good way. He cares deeply about our society and celebrates those who do the same. br /br /Patrick's goal with Ashesi is to build ethical leaders, people who will change the status quo in Ghana and Africa. He identifies leadership failures as the biggest problem Ghana faces and that is what he's tackling. He's doing it in the most challenging way possible, in education. BarCamps, workshops and conferences may do the same thing, but educating a generation is much more powerful. Like Patrick mentions, at Ashesi, community service is not an extra-curricular activity. It is part of the curriculum. Think about that for a second. He understands what we need to do as a people and all those things are littered over an education that we will begin to cherish and revere in the years to come. To him, Ghanaian universities should be competing on whose students are the most ethical. Call us crazy, but isn't that one way to solve corruption? We have to start from somewhere. Patrick and Ashesi have started it. br /br /It gave me extra thrills to see a couple of people I had met in the Ashesi McNulty Prize video. I have mad love for Ashesi and all the people associated with it. All these people are awesome and Ashesi students are top-notch, and have most of the traits you'll want in a young African that will make our continent a better place. Patrick told a story about his interactions with a beggar when he was young that made a difference in his life. The takeaway was to talk more with people. If I have been doing a lot of talking, "social animalism", networking, etc, I am about to take it to a whole new level, especially with people who may be of a lower class. We have to care deeply about our society. I don't know if our political leaders get it, but I know Patrick does. Recently, Ghana's ministers decided to use the public transport to experience it. I heard this from a fellow blogger. To me, this was a big deal. Did the media pick it up? Maybe. We have to care more about our environs. Like Patrick argued, aid may not be that bad, but it has to be aid with compassion. Our leaders don't get it, but Araba Amuasi does. Thank Ashesi. br /br /Patrick also talked about his worries about the future. Other institutions in Ghana have been started with strong driving visions, great support and enthusiasm. Their founders may not like the state in which their 'babies' are today. Patrick worries about his handiwork, will it really pay off in the end? Will we have a better future and Ghana and Africa? Would his honor code experiment yield spectacular results? I choose to be optimistic and like Patrick, I have faith too. We can make a difference. It only takes a few committed citizens to make a change. And they don't have to be politicians. They can be computer scientists who choose to ensure a better education for kids who wouldn't have gotten it. They can be sportsmen who dedicate their free time to teach their neighbours about keeping in shape. They can be bankers who spearhead market clean-up campaigns because they believe the market women must work in better conditions. That's the vision.br /br /Here are a few must-watch videos.br /http://www.mcnultyprize.org/awuah.htmlbr /http://www.mcnultyprize.org/winner2009video.htmlbr /br /PS: Just remembered a soundbite by Patrick that I want to sharebr /strongAshesi can be the most expensive university in Ghana and the least expensive university in Ghana/strong. This was in reference to Ashesi's higher costs of attendance and the financial aid options they had for studentsdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1262255080255232442?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 1:39

  The much publicized Ghanaian movie, "The Heart of Men": A review

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Majid Michel said "The Heart of Men" was his best movie ever. I agree. I watched the movie just recently and I was impressed. At some point, I was saying, "haha, this movie is freakin awesome!" Frank Rajah Arase's latest movie was introduced to us with a a href="http://www.heartofmenmovie.com/"movie website/a and a trailer that became to the talk of African cinema. I was one of those who lambasted the trailer which looked 'soft-porn' ish and how the production team was just buying publicity so people would watch their 'poor' movie. Well, the publicity stunt worked. I only watched the movie because a few other friends satisfied their curiousity and gave it good reviews. Kudos to Heroes Productions for a great film but shame on them for that trailer.br /br /Frank Rajah Arase is synonymous with what I call the 'Accra movies'. These are the Ghanaian movies set in English, shot mainly in Accra and Takoradi; the Beyonce President's Daughter, Passion of the Soul, Crime to Christ, Pretty Queen, etc films. I've always argued they've been outdone by movies from the stable of Sparrow Productions, the latter whose movies I've spent time to review and publicize on this blog. Personally, Sparrow's movies are better quality, better made and deserved my money. Heroes Productions, I believe "Heart of Men" is their first movie, probably will join my good books if they build on this.br /br /People will criticize me for watching "Heart of men" for the soft-porn scenes. Well, you'll be disappointed, because I had to wait 32 minutes (and countless movie drama) to see anything of that sort. In fact, the trailer just picked scenes that would get Ghanaians (and Africans) boiling, because it doesn't communicate what happens in the movie at all. I think Heroes' did a spectacular job concealing the movie's story. It's an amateur and shameless way to do it, but it worked. That doesn't mean I am applauding the way they did it, they can definitely do better. br /br /I don't rate these Accra movies highly. Especially when you have the usual crew of Majid Michel, Nadia Buari, Jackie Appiah, Yvonne Nelson, John Dumelo, etc, in the same movie, I don't expect much for those films. I'm sorry, but I am talking about their body of work. The whole Beyonce movie euphoria is so yesterday. I must admit that Majid Michel is one of the best actors we have in Ghana now and I am very happy he had a role in Shrley Frimpong-Manso's latest movie, "A Sting in a Tale". br /br /One big plus I give to this movie is the different locations used. They shot scenes in Northern Ghana and Kumasi. If you've followed Ghanaian movies recently, you know if a movie got shot in Kumasi, it's a Twi movie with various Agya Koo related antics. Way to unite Ghana in this movie. Just when you thought they had reconciled the Accra-Kumasi crews, you have this: strong"Accra is fun you know, each time I come from Kumasi, I just never want to go to Kumasi"/strong. Sigh. John Dumelo even spoke some Twi lines, isn't that just super? It was interesting that the language of choice in the Northern Ghana scenes was Twi, I would have wished it was Dagbani or Hausa for a change. Can't blame them though, Twi is spoken all over the country, and arguably it's more widely spoken than English. Talking about English, is it okay for people to be speaking grammatically incorrect English in a Ghanaian English movie? Were they just telling us that it happens or they couldn't bother to edit it?br /br /The sex and romantic scenes were a little bit tacky. Was Jackie Appiah crying or moaning in her scene? Looked like she was trying too hard to carry across an obvious point. Compare that to the famous scene in "the Perfect Picture". I thought we were not supposed to be touching black women's hair. Are we not in the "Good hair" discussion days? br /br /Let's talk about a few things I loved. I loved the work they did with the soundtrack. They had me singing along when Samini's a href="http://museke.com/node/793"African lady/a was played in the club scene. i"I like the way the girl a praka praka; From West Africa, she blacka blacka; Check the way the girl a rocka; Pull up the truck, she dance like shaka shaka;/i. The Heart of Men soundtrack by Dela was nice too and they went through the effort to make a music video as well. I thought it was interesting when the ladies were singing "Scrubs". That wasn't a truer statement uttered in the whole movie :-)br /br /I thought some of the quotes were marvelous! strongMan: "You want to tell me no one has been going in there from time to time?" Young lady: "Going where uncle/strong. strongMan: "Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. Come here/strong Lmao. strong"My mum of blessed memory has taught me to wake up for 3am prayers; I've not been able to grow out of it; Do you pray?"/strong. Classic. strong"Is it a phone call or your pants down?"/strong. Pants down? not so fast, you'll want to watch this movie.br /br /Concerning the movie's production itself, the video and sound quality was still reminiscent of movies in this stable. Jackie Appiah played two separate character, who happened to be in the same room. Showing off huh? Nice. A few times I couldn't hear the dialogue, I think they were churning the lines a bit too fast and they weren't that audible. There were some really nice twists in the movie, the suspense was there and they passed the major test for new Ghanaian movies, it must be unpredictable. A few times, I was confused about which places the scenes were set - Accra versus Kumasi, etc. The scene at the end of Part 1 was excellent. Just when we thought we had found a great Ghanaian detective, he shows his worst side at the climax. Yes, the movie is in two parts, this is nothing new. Movie automatically falls behind Sparrow's work with a prequel and sequel concurrent release. br /br /We see the worst things that men can do, but I wonder if 'men' hears refers to human beings in general. Because, kai, like the movie showed, some women can get up to some pretty bad things. A few other things caught my attention. Does Ghana have that many policemen who smoke? Ghanaian movies do a great job hiding traffic problems in Accra. The movie covered a whole lot of issues in this movie, which would probably require another blog entry. That's what makes the movie great. Trashy trailer aside, the movie breeds a lot of talking points, features great acting performances, a variety of locations and sounds, and a great story. Kudos Heroes Productions and Frank Rajah Arase. I expect better from y'all from now on.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1270658546715613690?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• November 06, 2009
• 10:41

  Now, about that campaign for president...

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  It's been very difficult for me to write this particular blog entry. It's about the Facebook presidency campaign. Some of you might have cross it searching for me on Facebook, invited by a friend (not me), or seen it in Google results about me. On the one hand, I don't really want to be a president and thought writing about this group will only fuel rumours that I am actively looking to stage a run in the future. Some of you have seen me battle with leadership through a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/search/label/leading"these entries/a anyway. On the other hand, talking about this campaign could be taken as a publicity move to get more people to join my self-serving Facebook campaign for President. That will ultimately cast me as selfish, full of pride, boastful, etc. I can't win here. But it won't stop me from talking about the subject. So here goes the blog entry. br /br /Like I wrote earlier, people likened me to Kwame Nkrumah when I was in elementary school because I had a similar forehead. I didn't get the whole 'you can be president' talk till I entered college and found myself acting/pretending to be/representing Ghana and Africa all day everyday. The other day, a classmate told me I was really patriotic because I was always wearing some African shirt or some African-themed shirt. The secret is, most of what I wear was given to me by my mother or relatives as presents or I got them for free. So I wear them because I strikecan't afford to buy new shirts/strike really love to wear them and represent Africa all day everyday. Obviously, if you care so much about something, you'll be the most likely to give your all for it. That may be true, but being a leader is an entirely different ballgame. Discuss. br /br /"But you koraa, no one has called on you to be a leader or president or whatever the F!" Yes and no. If you were in my ear, you'll know I ain't lying, but standing on the truth. People joke around all the time, and we can't always take them seriously. For the 244 strong group, maybe some people joined the group because like myself when dealing with Facebook friend requests, am/we are too nice. Heck, I marvel at Yaa Pono's freestyles and though, I am not his Facebook friend, he has joined "the group". He's not the only one in the group who doesn't "know" me. I could argue many of my friends don't even know me that well but that's a story for another day. I frankly don't know what I've even done to win votes already. br /br /It's only last year that Obour went around Ghana talking about the need to allow Ghanaian youth to run for President. There is some buzz about having African youth taking charge now. I know African youth are eager to create and effect change, but we have to wait our turn. At least politically. But maybe not, maybe with some united front, we could have a voice to push whatever agenda we believe is awesome for Africa. It is possible to be patriotic without being political right? It's been argued that all the NGO, goodwill, volunteer stuff that we are doing is politics anyway, even if if it's not in the name of some political party. Ghana eats, drinks and breathes politics, but inherently, a lot of Ghanaians also hate politics. How do we reconcile that?br /br /There is even talk of a "youth political party". I was very surprised when my uncle called me Obama, Obama last Christmas. But why should I be? I am the member of the family who lives in America and is holidaying in Ghana (a country still high on Obama fever). Nothing doing. Around this same period, I addressed these presidency/political issues with my advisor, my father. His message was simple. Make your money/success/name before you take on such a venture. We've seen some Africans make their money/success/name by entering politics and becoming millionaires but y'all understand my father's point. It's true. My father is never wrong. He went on to use Paa Kwesi Nduom as an example, how we made his money and success and was now seeking office at the time. Like we realized in Ghana's December elections, "Yeresesamu Nduom" didn't quite have the popularity and Ghana wasn't ready for him either. br /br /I didn't start the Facebook group and I can't end it. I didn't start the presidential talk and I can't end it either. I've heard all your requests to be made ambassador of this, minister of that, awardee of contracts, etc but time will surely tell. "Beh you, why you dey take this seriously?" If I take this seriously, it's because we need to be serious about Ghana/Africa. If I rep Africa as hard as I do, I do it because most Africans don't bother. I felt some folks didn't care about being proud from where they were from so I made it my job to show them that they could care and be about being proud. I wear my culture, origins and home on my sleeve. It was never meant to make a political statement but in the eyes of many friends and loved ones, it seemed to make one - the boy wants to be president or will make a fine one. If we all followed this lead, that assumption could be thrown out of the window. This is the price to pay for being different. And I'll keep on being different. The talk won't go away but like I said before, time will tell.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2179341490470265795?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 28, 2009
• 6:43

  South African movie, White Wedding: A review

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I just watched the South African movie, a href="http://www.whiteweddingmovie.co.za/"White Wedding/a again. After going through Tsotsi, Yesterday, Catch a Fire, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-african-movie-jerusalema-review.html"Jerusalema/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/reviewing-district-9-south-african-sci.html"District 9/a, it was nice to watch an Mzansi movie that didn't deal with crime, AIDS or apartheid. Not that all super South Africans are about those subjects but you get my point. Local is indeed lekker and am loving South African cinema. I've been looking forward to see White Wedding ever since my friend told me about it and I had to have a friend who was in South Africa over the summer get me a copy. I've not been disappointed. The movie is great, maybe not spectacular like I thought, but great. And as usual, I got a whole lot to say about it, which is an even greater thing. Sharp, sharp!br /br /strong"Marriage is one of the things God got right"/strong. White wedding is a movie about Ayanda and Elvis' wedding, though it doesn't happen the same way as originally planned. The movie takes us through what goes wrong leading up to the wedding day, amidst laughs, worries, twists and turns. The movie is well-made, and shows different places in South Africa. It also touches on different issues which I'll discuss, and features many languages - Xhosa, English, Afrikaans, French, etc. And then you have the soundtrack, :-). I was so excited when they played 'a href="http://museke.com/en/node/2078"Thatis'gbuhu/a'. The two friends parked their car in the middle of the road, got out and danced. Now, isn't that just awesome? I am so enamored with South African music and culture. The wedding party was singing and dancing in the streets was particularly intriguing. Woza 2010!br /br /strong"You hate your wife!" "That doesn't mean that I don't love her"/strong. The movie delves into different relationships. We have Tumi the player, who never gets out of character. His cunning smiles; his whole body language spits game half of the time. Awesome. The issue of trust and truth in relationships is central to the plot, with different characters having different takes on it. No matter what it is, if two people learn to trust each other, nothing really can come between them. It wins in the end. So stronglove is not a load of bullocks/strong. You can love someone to the point where strong"You can just enjoy long silences"/strong. br /br /strong"I've been planning your wedding since you were born"/strong. The times have changed the way weddings and marriages are done. These days, we have the court wedding, the church wedding, the house wedding, the engagement and wedding weekend, amongst others. The way our forefathers used to marry is not the same way our generation seems to do it. But that does it matter? In Africa, weddings are not just about two people, they are also about families. Families want to be involved in which partner gets chosen and how the wedding goes down. Sometimes, following family fanfare can lead to bad choices but those choices must resonate well with relatives because in the Africa that surrounds us, family will not go anywhere. strong"You're a man with a nice car, no problem, women will throw themselves at you"/strong. Maybe, maybe not.br /br /strong"Darkies don't use maps. Well, darkies get lost"/strong. Black South Africans call themselves darkies? Why do I think that may be a derogatory word? It's probably not the same as nigga but that caught my attention. I guess African directions are the same everywhere. strong"Then you come to 3 big threes"/strong. There was even mention of some woman you'd meet on the way. Black people don't use maps and we probably never will, now that we have GPS and smart phones. Who gives a goat a name? White people :-). If you give a goat a name, you'll definitely be a vegetarian, that's why you have to stay away from such. South Africans love meat! strong"Why hasn't the animal been slaughtered? Take it away, we need more meat"/strong. Now that's what's up!br /br /strong"This is Tumi, if you want to talk, talk"/strong. (now, that's a fantastic voicemail prompt message). Even the word Kaffir got a mention. If this movie is anything to go by, racism hasn't disappeared from the South African landscape. I like how Elvis resisted blatant racism by forcing the white guy to have a drink with him. That's what I'll do. It will take a while before we see out the inherent fears different races have for each other. The reaction of the white guys at the pub to their black visitors was appalling. Elvis singing the Boer song (Delarey, delarey) was sweet though. Then again, he was drunk and alcohol can make you do some wonders. There is a bit of ignorance too when it comes to racial issues. Is it ignorance or confidence when a white lady jumps into a black stranger's car to hitch a ride without his knowing? And yeah, white people don't have rhythm like black people do. See movie for exhibit A. br /br /Wait, there's Greyhound in South Africa? That was a surprise. That's what you call franchising. Kai, I hope they perform better there. After the way Nigerians have been portrayed in recent South African films, I was looking out for mentions of foreigners. We had one, a Congolese guy, who wasn't a drug dealer, but a party planner and car dealer. He knew how to get the party started. Now that's a favorable portrayal, because we know the Congolese are Africa's party starters - soukous, rumba, lingala music, etc. And then the gay wedding planner? The movie had to have a gay man pleading a major role? Why? Mxm.br /br /"a href="http://museke.com/en/node/1067"Vul'indlela we mamgobhozi; Vul'indlela yekela umona/a". It's always great to see your loved ones get married. What an appropriate song to round off the movie! You could see how excited Ayanda's mother was for her. Side note: South African women are fine (ayayai). I recommend 'White wedding'. The movie features one of my favorite South African actors, Kenneth Nkosi, as well as Rapulana Seiphemo, Zandile Msutwana, Jodie Whitaker, Lulu Nxosi, Marcel Van Heerden, Sandy Mzolo and Sylvia Mngxekeza. Kenneth and Rapulana were two of the writers behind the movie and they did a great job. The movie features black and white South Africa in a happy ending. strong"It will only be a mess if we make it one, let's choose something different, like a happy ending"/strong.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1295099647864472129?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 23, 2009
• 22:05

  Political satire by KSM (Kwaku Sintim-Misa)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I was at KSM's Nifty @ Fifty concert held in Accra in December 2006. I recorded a bunch of videos and the ones I am posting on the blog today are about politics. KSM is arguably Ghana's best stand-up comedian and if you haven't seen him perform live, you are missing out. Well, not exactly, because with friends like Youtube, we can all revel in KSM's talent and artistry. :-)br /br /First, he prays for a funky president. Can you imagine Ghana having a leader making a speech and everyone is bumping their heads because they are enjoying the speech so much? I know I want a funky president for Ghana. No more old heads taking up these positions because they need something else to do after retiring. Let's get some youth in here.br /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx9JsFZpPXYbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gx9JsFZpPXYhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gx9JsFZpPXYhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /I think we had a funky president once, by the name of Jerry John Rawlings. KSM proves this by describing the scenes of a taxi driver overtaking the former president's motorcade. br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHrLZOWJMGcbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RHrLZOWJMGchl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RHrLZOWJMGchl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Next, he makes fun of former President John Agyekum Kufuor and his lax-lackadaisical ways. He's not funky at all, though Mr. Sexy Eyes has got some charm for the ladies. Remember the Gizelle Yajzi story? "JAK, you lie bad!"br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bReb2Tak84br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7bReb2Tak84hl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7bReb2Tak84hl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /If you've lived in Ghana for awhile, you'll quickly learn almost everything is about politics. "We sleep politics, we eat politics, we drink politics"br /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY2Sa9jEXVQbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wY2Sa9jEXVQhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wY2Sa9jEXVQhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /As usual, I am the one laughing hysterically in the background.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2724774749776567518?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 21, 2009
• 21:12

  Ghana's Black Satellites - FIFA U-20 World Champions

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/St8sB2xhT_I/AAAAAAAACXA/7RfocRksRMo/s400/Samsung-ekb-0320.jpg" width="240" height="180" align="left"Last Friday, the Black Satellites put in a finale to cap an impressive outing in the FIFA U-20 World Cup by beating mighty Brazil on penalties to emerge champions. I had watched every single Ghanaian game in the tournament, following the strikeboys'/strike men's progress. It was such an awesome feeling to finally win another World championship after the Black Starlets ruled the world at the U-17 level in 1991 and 1995. Congratulations to the whole squad, the technical team, and the fans who supported the Satellites with their prayers, and encouragement. This world triumph has not been without talking points and I'll seek to address some in this post. Being world champions at youth level is not the end, we have to build on this and become a world-class footballing nation at every level. The name Ghana should be on the lips of football fanatics all year round, forever.br /br /This class has been magnificent from the get-go. Two years ago, they lit the FIFA U-17 World Cup and just fell short at the semi-final stage to Bojan Krkic's Spain. Fortunately, Nigeria's team emerged as world champions, interestingly, on penalties as well. The Flying Eagles were not able to repeat their run in this year's U-20 tourney in Egypt, bowing out disappointingly early on. The Black Satellites featured a good chunk of the Starlets' team from 2007, with the addition of some stellar youngsters. Consistency is key. Michael Essien and his Satellites mates made the final of the U-20 tourney in 2001 and now mostly make up the Black Stars. There is talk of drafting some of the present Satellites stars into the senior national team and eventually, they should make up the core of Ghana's shining golden stars.br /br /I have a lot of admiration for Andre Ayew. He's had the pressure of being Abedi Pele's son on his shoulders, and was a magnificent captain for the Black Satellites. I believe he's gonna be world class as well if he keeps on working hard. He disappointed Ghanaians with his senior performances, especially at the African Cup of Nations last year held in Ghana, but we have a renewed faith in him. Samuel Inkoom has been capped by Ghana and he really helped his case with a fine tournament. David Nii Addy was also stellar and as a natural left-back, he has the chance to lock up that position in the Black Stars for years to come. Emmanuel Agyemang Badu had also gotten the chance to play for the national team and he's a gem too. He's a great defensive midfielder and eventually, would be in the reckoning for Ghana's midfield. Opoku Agyemang has played for the Black Stars but he was the one disappointment in the Egpyt tourney and has to show some more to challenge for a Black Stars' spot.br /br /Dominic Adiyiah was the revelation of the competition, winning both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot. We've been here before, with Ishmael Addo, Owusu 'Bayie' Afriyie, and the countless Black Starlets strikers who lit the youth tourneys and didn't become world class. We have to do what we can to make sure Adiyiah and Ransford Osei (who I rate very highly) make the right decisions and improve so we can have some new Tony Yeboahs. They will get chances to play with the Black Stars. Ishmael Yartey and Saadik Adams were absent at this tournament but are very good as well. Together with Abeiku Quansah, Kelvin Bossman, the future attacking line looks bright,etc. br /br /Daniel Agyei was the hero of the final, keeping us in the game and saving twice in the penalty shoot-out. He'll get a chance with the national team too and I believe he will be great. The centre-half duo, Daniel Addo and Jonathan Mensah are stalwarts too. Jonathan is already being dubbed the 'Junior Rock of Gibraltar' and I personally think he's ready to start for Ghana. Daniel Addo was the unlucky victim of a terrible refereeing decision in the final, with his red card making Ghana play a man down from the 37th minute till the end of extra-time. You have to admire the Satellites' resilience as they didn't get broken. A Brazilian friend complained Ghana played defence all game, but you don't have much of a choice when you are a man down and we still created some chances.br /br /Sellas Tetteh did a great job coaching, though he was suspect at times. A Ghanaian coach has brought Ghana yet another honor and the case for a local coach for the Black Stars will only get stronger. I will argue Sellas had a great bunch of lads and he shouldn't get all the credit. Our Ghanaian coaches are not as technically gifted as some of their European counterparts and they need to get better there. We have to stop the favouritism in player selection, do more scouting of opponents and learn to use the squads better. I am all for a local coach but I am more a proponent of excellent coaching and team management. Sellas should be drafted onto the Black Stars bench to help Milovan Rajevac. We should nestle more Milo bicycle kicks in conjunction with some Borbor dances. It's a great recipe for success.br /br /Many people have argued that the U-20 tourney has lost some of its glory. Surely, as many European teams don't really feature their star youngsters. England, Italy, Germany, Spain and even Brazil had some youth world-class players unavailable because they were warming benches for world-class teams. That shouldn't take the shine of the tournament, because those excuses cannot be made once the tournament starts rolling. Many Ghanaians would also argue and joke many of the Satellites players are 'older than 20'. This notion has bedevilled FIFA youth tourneys since time immemorial. I must admit Ghana has been doing a better job with controlling age-cheating with more stringent measures taken and the use of the Academicals system. The age-cheaters have seen their age catch up to them later in their careers, as their careers are cut short or the trajectory is unlike what its promise was. This problem starts at the colts level and with better Ghanaian institutions, we can get rid of this problem.br /br /Ghana's triumph has been attributed in many circles to a Nigerian pastor called T.B. Joshua. Prophet Joshua apparently told Sellas 'what to do' and backed the Satellites with prayers, like Ghana's many fans around the world. We thank God for His favour but Prophet Joshua shouldn't be owning all adulation for a valiant effort by the Satellites team. We have to put ourselves in positions to succeed and as the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves. The attitude of waiting for God to do it isn't the way forward, we have to work hard also. This is the precedent we have to set. I am sure President Atta Mills understands this and would be able to use the example of the Black Satellites to spur on Ghanaians everywhere. br /br /I also want to shout-out Egypt for organizing a successful tournament and especially getting behind the Ghanaian team after they were eliminated. Africa, this triumph is for you. This was the first African championship squad at the World Junior championships. This is a really good omen as the African game improves. The World Cup in South Africa is less than a year away and we have to believe an African team can win it. Ghana, remember the name. It was the most-searched item on the internet during the 2006 World Cup, still holding such a record and Ghana was a trending topic after the world-beating job was done in Egypt. We're not done. Go, Ghana, go. God bless our homeland Ghana ei, nkunimdie yɛ yɛn deɛ a!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5731156532180550666?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 20, 2009
• 23:08

  Leti Games unveils iWarrior (iPhone App) Kijiji (J2Me)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_s23ZjJyWfx0/StTVsRMjWxI/AAAAAAAAAOE/wx1aghwPgb0/s1600/7031_174185816755_524486755_3801003_5609352_n.jpg" width="190" height="300" align="left" Earlier this year, I a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/leti-games-building-computer-games-in.html"blogged/a about my friend, Eyram Tawia's work on a href="http://letigames.com"Leti Games/a. Together with Wesley Kirinya, from Kenya, they've launched a couple of games produced in Africa. The major one is iWarrior which is receiving a lot of buzz and is an iPhone app (game). So if you have an iPhone, pick up the app today from the Apple appstore and support African-made. I haven't been able to play the game yet but from what I hear, it's a lot of fun. What else do you want in a game? And it's an African-made too :-)br /br /I've already blogged about Eyram Tawia and his work on Leti Games. I am excited for both these guys. We had tried working on a computer game for the African Cup of Nations in Ghana in 2008. Through my working experience with them, I knew they would go on to do bigger and better things and are quite capable of competing worldwide. Eyram had already proven his mettle by winning a href="http://ghanathink.org"GhanaThink's/a a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/node/331"Programming Contest/a while a final-year student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). br /br /a href="http://www.233tech.com/2009/10/news/leti-games-iwarrior-now-in-app-store/"233Tech.com/a, primed to be Ghana's tech hub, also had an article about iWarrior. 233Tech.com's Nana Kwabena Owusu asked Eyram a couple of questions about it too. (Kwabena, Eyram and myself all grew up in the same neighbourhood). Gameli announced the entrance of Leti Games into the global games market in his a href="http://gamelmag.blogspot.com/2009/10/leti-games-leads-africa-into-global.html"blog post/a about Leti Games' iWarrior. The WhiteAfrican also shared some thoughts on his a href="http://whiteafrican.com/2009/10/12/iwarrior-an-african-iphone-game/"website/a. Read a full review of iWarrior from the a href="http://appshopper.com/games/iwarrior"AppStore/a.br /br /What's special about iWarrior? Other than the cool name, the game is set in Africa. How many games can you say the same about? Your mission is to protect your village, farm, inhabitants, etc from marauding animals. Fun. It's a wholly African-made production with African art and sounds. Leti means star or moon in Ewe, a Ghanaian language, and Eyram and Wesley are quite Africa-conscious in their work.br /br /Download the game from a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=333224219mt=8"iTunes/abr /br /KIJIJI is a port of iWarrior for most j2me midp2.0 devices. It is code named the BIG FIVE. These big five beasts of the safari include the Rhino, Leopard, Buffalo, Lion and Elephant. The game is made up of five stages in which the bushman protects his village from these beasts. Kijiji means village/town in Kiswahili. Learn more about Kijiji from the a href="http://letigames.com/letigames/pages/games/iwarrior/pages/kijiji_version.php"Leti Games' website/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1435095521549901026?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 15, 2009
• 3:22

  The Africa they never show you - African cities

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I've seen a couple of friends post this video on Facebook and I finally decided to watch it this week. I was impressed. I knew some African cities had some nice 'buildings' and all but this video was a little eye-opening. This is because it didn't show just Johannesburg, Nairobi and Abuja. It's the Africa they never show you in the media. It's the Africa Africans themselves never really see on their televisions as well. It's the Africa we don't talk enough about. It's not the real Africa, but it's a part of Africa. br /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13MFN0PqP3Ebr /br /object width="400" height="243"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/13MFN0PqP3Ehl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/13MFN0PqP3Ehl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="243"/embed/objectbr /br /When I first came to the USA in 2001, the big things were the big things that impressed me. The big buildings, large roads, highways, interchanges, etc. There are many differences between the US and Ghana, but I must say the skyscrapers and infrastructure takes the cake. I had thought of doing some form of engineering for undergrad, but the awe of the infrastructure wowed me and I settled on the first type of engineering known to mankind - building. When I was in Ghana for the first time after being in the US, the first things that struck me were dust, dirt and 'development'. You probably won't see too much of that in this video above. We can strive for more of that.br /br /Obviously, we'll want more of the video's images for our Africa, but we have to be careful. With more industrialization comes more pollution. We have to check for matching rising costs of living with adequate standards of living. We have to plan for the attendant traffic. We can't leave the infrastructure development in private hands when public policy doesn't put in place measures to make it sustainable and effective. The most fun class I am taking now is one about infrastructure. This stuff is exciting. We may be a 'developing' continent, but we must know that the so-called developed places have not stopped and will not stop developing. Our shoulders shouldn't drop though, because the video shows we are capable too.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7067655097008939178?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 14, 2009
• 0:28

  No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency: Issues, reviews and Botswana

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Dumela Mma! Rra! Kea leboha! If something's nice, you do it twice. Completed the first season of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. It's highly recommended. Alexander McCall Smith is a great writer, maybe I should break my novel reading duck and get hooked onto his stuff. For real though, I'll rather find out the story on the big screen. Here's hoping for more of Africa's stories to be told through film or television. This story is set in Botswana. For people like me, who've never been to Botswana but heard about the nation, this was a chance to continue learning. At the start of every episode, we saw a map of Africa and then exactly the location of Botswana. And then we've have to sit through 55 minutes plus of life in Botswana. Or not. Or just whatever stories the writer/producer wanted to tell. Or maybe what I have to say today :-)br /br /I already talked about the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_No._1_Ladies'_Detective_Agency_(TV_series)"TV series/a on HBO, BBC, and DSTV in this a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/10/no-1-ladies-detective-agency-selling.html"blog entry/a. You can find out more info on a href="http://www.hbo.com/no1ladiesdetectiveagency/"HBO's website/a. We complain about the images of Africa shown in Western Media. No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency falls into the category of images we should want to see and broadcast. Sure, it's just Botswana, which only is a small African country with no record of civil war or military rule. Yes, it's possible in Africa. They speak Setswana, just like in South Africa. They listen to Kwaito as well. Why they are not part of South Africa is something for the history majors to tell us. br /br /I had been wondering where most of the actors were from. I had believed most of them were Motswana but once I saw my favorite South African actor, Kenneth Nkosi, in one of the episodes, I began to doubt. Sure enough, most of the cast were South Africans. I began to recognise some of them from South African movies and series. I began to research the cast's background and gave up finding out who was Motswana. There are some excellent actors in Botswana, nnyaa? Ee. A friend of mine is not impressed with the fake African accents. I understand Jill Scott and other American actors getting parts, it' an American (foreign) production anyway. They didn't exactly do the wrong thing. For a second, I thought the scenes were set in South Africa too, but no, the production company has constructed Kgalewood to bring us the life of Kgale Hill on this series. Investment always pays. They did a great job.br /br /Great drama always comes with great dialogue. I caught myself beginning to note some quotes here and there. "I am as single as Jesus Christ". "I will not be judging books by covers, I will read every chapter". "I know how men react to low marks and high hem lines". "I am despite superficial appearances, working extremely hard". LOL. I was a little disappointed with the lack of subtitles, but they spoke enough English to render the Setswana and other native lingua soundbites not confusing for the viewer. I learnt some more Setswana anyway and will probably never forget the little I had been taught by my Motswana friends before. br /br /I think Jill Scott (Mma Ramotswe) did a good job but like many others, I loved Mma Makutsi's character played by Anika Noni Rose. Lucian Msamati (Ra Matekoni) did well too. I questioned the character of BK in my previous entry, but as I watched more episodes, I liked his presence too. We saw several characters - the gangster (played by female favorite Idris Elba), the womanizer who had a million pick-up lines (now that's someone interesting lol), the corrupt policemen, etc. We were even introduced to charismatic apostolic Africans. That was a scene. I didn't know what to think about the various animals shown - the 'intelligent' monkeys, the missing dog, the giraffes, the uninvited chickens, etc. I'd have loved to see a chicken being slaughtered though. If Americans can watch donkeys and chickens in close proximity to Africans in Africa, they can witness how we prepare dinner too. Yebo! Ee. br /br /It's interesting how the American guy who was the subject of one of the mysteries had attended Stanford. Whoop whoop! Stanford people doing it big! Going around the world doing great charity work and wooing the ladies. Now that's what's up! Xenophobia wasn't shown only in our Nigerian dentist's case, a Zimbabwean doctor who was the natural person to blame when there were 'supernatural' deaths at the hospital. It's sad how Africans treat other Africans who are immigrants in their country sometimes. I hope we can get past these xenophobic tendencies and welcome more co-operation, trade and community. We practice this when we find ourselves in foreign lands with little numbers as minorities. We can do the same back home. I thought it was interesting how the Indian salesman had a huge house compared to the other characters in the movie. Are there not that many white people in Botswana? Don't remember seeing any white characters in the series. br /br /Okay, so, I vividly recollect someone using a GPS in Gaborone, but do I remember someone using a cell phone? No. What was up with that? Isn't this set in pretty much present day Botswana? That did not make sense to me. So did the typewriter. i"Is this the 21st century or did I sleep without realising into a time warp?" "At secretarial college in history class, we were told of a former time before computers, when typing was done on machines and our country was called Batswanaland and dinosaurs roamed the earth!"/i We didn't see much of the 'developed' parts of Botswana but the little I saw was good. For the most part, Botswana wasn't too different from Ghana. Life on the university campus seemed the same, and had its own 'bad' lecturers. People gave pulas (money) freely when they had favors done for them. Contrary to what you may hear, Africa rewards good deeds. br /br /I love the way Mma Ramotswe solved cases and what came out of them. The African heart is forgiving. I like that. The point of the investigation was not exactly to imprison the perpetrators but to reconcile and make the parties involved 'happy'. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency DVD cover mentions "Never underestimate a woman's intuition. We learn women can tell and see things men gloss over and don't see. It may very well be true. Hey, when Mma Ramotswe finds competition in her line of work, it's a man, who in the end, never really proves to be better. It's really about how we go about unravelling the mysteries that surround us and solving the problems that burden us. A little more talking, listening, investigating will go a long way to breaking down our social vices and menaces and as a result correct the wrongs that are being done. We don't always have a take a hard line like the series shows. It's the African heart at work. Anyway, I have to go return the DVD. Oyee Botswana!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8208743148000990580?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 13, 2009
• 3:49

  No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency: selling Africa through feel-good television

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I have only watched a couple episodes of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency but I am so excited I had to write about it already. This series is adapted for television from a bestselling novel. It features Jill Scott as the major actor and is set in Botswana. It's not exactly produced by Motswana or Africans but it is pretty 'African'. I have only seen two episodes but it didn't mention one thing synonymous with Botswana - HIV-AIDS. We also know Botswana has one of the best performing African economies and is one African country with no record of military rule. The series doesn't broadcast these, but celebrates Africa. You have to watch to understand. I had heard about this series before but while I was populating a list of African-themed films I wanted the Stanford libraries to have, someone suggested this addition. br /br /From Wikipedia, we learn about the novels. "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a series of ten novels by British author Alexander McCall Smith. The agency is located in Gaborone, capital of Botswana. It's founder is a Motswana woman, Mma Precious Ramotswe, who features as the stories' protagonist and main detective. The episodic novels are as much about the adventures and foibles of different characters as they are about solving mysteries. Each book in the series follows on from the previous book. They have been adapted for radio and television." br /br /The first episode, Pilot, is a film by Anthony Minghella, and presumably longer than all the other episodes. Minghella looked like a Tswana name when I saw it, but dude's from Britain. Yeah, there's a huge British influence on this series. I didn't know Botswana drove on the left like the Brits (and South Africans) do until I watched this. Alexander McCall Smith is a white Zimbabwean-born professor based in Scotland. Too bad he probably would not be contributing to a similar spectacular production out of Zimbabwe thanks to Uncle Bob. This episode was great, witty conversation, a nice soundtrack, great picture and video quality (something you'll expect from a BBC-HBO production) and some good acting. br /br /Here's a promobr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdee9507YVMbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vdee9507YVMhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vdee9507YVMhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Like their neighbours in South Africa, Botswana must be a nation that loves to sing. Jill Scott was clicking away leading the chorus in the first episode. We know Jill Scott is a professional singer, but it's another thing to be battling with x's, q's and clicks in Southern African languages. That was a beautiful scene. We heard some Kwaito too, though I am not too well-versed in Kwaito to tell if it was from South Africa or Botswana. I hope it was from the latter. br /br /Most of the series is set in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. I expected to see some skyscrapers, great infrastructure and flashy cars. Don't quiz me, haven't you heard about Botswana? I like how Mma Ramotswe decided to settle on an office in a place that wasn't downtown Gaborone or a place that looked really nice. She probably wanted to work near the people whose problems she'd end up solving hanged out. And it worked. Some have complained about having AMerican actors, etc. We must understand this series has the backing of an American company so we can't fault that. The cast includes Anika Noni Rose and the ladies' favorite, Idris Elba. I love how it features many Southern African actors too. Didn't take the time to find out if they were all from Botswana, or South Africa, or not. Botswana and Africa is winning here. br /br /One interesting thing about this series is the BK character, the male hairdresser. Now, I don't know how much homophobia there is in Botswana but was there a need for this character? I couldn't help thinking, "oh, let's do some groundbreaking theater, let's put in a 'gay' acts like a woman-man character in this series". It's happening all over, in many productions these days. It's almost like, you can't validate a new movie or television series these days until you have a gay character in there. Is this necessary? Is this idea being driven by diversity or the gay producers/directors/actors out there? I don't think the way to get people to understand/appreciate/not kill/not chastise gay people is putting them on the big screen. Maybe it's just me thinking this way.br /br /In the second episode, we get introduced to our first foreigner/immigrant in Botswana. Take a good educated guess. Of course, he's Nigerian. Only this time, he's a dentist. That was pretty exciting, considering the Nigerians we saw in South African movies were portrayed very badly. Maybe Nigerians in Botswana are a little different? Maybe, the American influences on the drama caused the Nigerian to be something other than a societal menace? Not so fast though, our Nigerian dentist was a player in one investigative case. So even those seen to be doing good deeds could not be exempt from crime. But this whole scenario begs the question, if there is a foreigner who is a bad nut in some African drama, does he/she have to be Nigerian? Why is it so easy to pick on Nigerians? Can't we stop this already? Anyway, turns out this Nigerian dentist is a bad man. Won't tell his crime, that's something you'll have to find out. In the context of the episode, it made for good television but in the big picture, I am disappointed another screen production had to demonise Naija. Let's stop this already.br /br /I still have a few episodes to watch. I am loving this series very much and think it's a must-watch for people everywhere, especially Africans. We can't miss the little things. I'll speak the truth. For many Africans and lovers of Africa, we love African films that bring back nice memories. That is how movies of bad quality and bad acting can do well anyway. Seeing kids play soccer with bare feet and wooden goal posts, dirt roads, singing at funerals of people who lived full lives (108 years), seeing car mechanics dance to Kwaito instead of working, seeing that people appreciated full-bodied thick women, the smile of an African queen, can sell. It's these little things that make us smile and appreciate what we are watching. It's really not that difficult to sell Africa. Go find this series and watch it. Oyee Botswana!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-775665400667646099?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 12, 2009
• 5:50

  Leading into leadership – the MIT years

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I've been meaning to write this entry for about a month. After the facebook campaign for presidency got its 233rd member, I decided it was time. If you didn't know, 233 is Ghana's country code (phone). It's of major significance to me. I've been honoured to see people speak highly of my leadership skills, etc and it's been making me wonder if I am up for such things. This is the 4th in my leading to leadership series, if you missed earlier entries, here they are: a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/09/leading-into-leadership-early-years.html"Tech/KNUST Primary JSS/a (pre-high school), a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/09/leading-into-leadership-presec-years.html"Presec/a (high school), and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/01/leading-into-leadership-syracuse-year.html"Syracuse/a (pre-college). In this entry, I will talk about the MIghTy years. A dream to attend the best engineering school had come alive. A prayer to be in a world-class institution had been answered. How did I deal with leading? Let's find out.br /br /Before we get into the stories surrounding 77 Massachusetts Avenue, we must understand how we got there. One joyous day in March 2002, I received a phone call. It was from MIT. I had been admitted. I told the dude on the other line to hold on, left the phone, jumped and shouted for 10 seconds to the bewilderment of my father and his visitor as I celebrated maybe the best thing that could have happened to me yet. Such memories serve as personal encouragement in times when I am struggling. That's why I decided to tell y'all anyway. I knew of Arthur Musah at MIT, and surely I was going to get to know the other Ghanaian students there as well. I attended Campus Preview Weekend where I made some friends with whom I am in touch till today. I quickly discovered I would want to stay in a dorm with no dining halls but with kitchens, since the 'chiselled' miser in me was not gonna spend plenty to buy food and would rather eat the rice and stew he'd been fed all his life. I also discovered my friends would be those who most identified with me culturally - strikeGhanaians/strike Africans.br /br /As a freshman in college, you have more chances to lead than being a 'nino'/1st year student in a Ghanaian secondary school. You could start your own organization sef. Not exactly the 'Jollof lovers' group types on Facebook, but something like 'Bridging the Digital Divide by sending unwanted MIT lab computers to primary schools in Ghana'. I was in a liberal school, but I don't do PC. I do Linux. Yes, our clusters had computers with Linux installed, not strikeWindows/strike, Doors DOS or Macs. Geeky eh? I would have none of that. So, I had to learn the ropes, joined a couple of organizations; the campus newspaper - Tech, EASE, AITI, the African Students Association, NSBE, and a campus ministry. I didn't survive two weeks at the newspaper (I give up sometimes). Sure, I had wanted to continue my Presec editorial board exploits but the work I had to do to write one story made me think twice. I give up sometimes. Maybe leaders do. Maybe not.br /br /For one reason or the other, my 'shyness' shed itself when I was in Boston and I became a 'social animal'. I wanted to go to every African-themed event. Far or wide. Party or presentation. Ghanaian or 'can't you see you are the only Ghanaian over here, what brought you here'. I can't even tell you why I was doing this. Maybe making up for lost time perhaps. Quickly, I was the one who knew plenty people and the default assemblyman. :-) Hence, the favorite position for me to take was Recruiting co-ordinator. Go use your charm, friendship links, influence, juju, tallness, %#!@%$%# to get us some members. Some of these may be elements of leadership actually. But then again, it's a position someone other than the leader holds. I can't confirm I performed my duties excellently but it became my default position in EASE and I never really took any steps up. I tried to start sister EASE organizations in other US colleges. Yes, there's still only one, that dream whispered and got shut up eventually. I tried but couldn't use my networks to do jack. At least not as much as I jacked up the aspirations to be.br /br /I had also joined AITI, which ended up giving me one of the best times of my life - sending me with a group of MIT students to Ghana to teach university students JAVA programming and entrepreneurship. I ended up spending the whole 2004 summer in Ghana, on AITI business, planting seeds for what is today Museke.com, working on GhanaThink (more on this in another entry), amongst other things. Being the only Ghanaian in the group, I was handed some leadership responsibility - logistics. I did good, related well to our students and forged a bond that still exists between our MIT group and our students. Teaching was so empowering, made me feel I was contributing to my country. That period also made me very confident in the ability of Ghanaian youth and students, part of which drives me till today. It was during a time, many Ghanaians were not too giddy about Ghana's future, but experiencing the ingenuity and talent of the Ghanaian youth I communed with for weeks gave a great outlook. It made me believe we can do it, long before Barack Obama delivered 'tough love' to Africans in Ghana earlier this July. After that Ghana trip, I hanged around AITI for a while, but never took up any serious positions. Is that what Obama would have done? Of course, I supported it in many ways, especially the one-way I know best - recruiting and marketing. Dawuro bɔ. You have an awesome project with an African slice? Count on the MIghTy African. Promoting African excellence everywhere. br /br /The African Students Association was the ish though if you asked me. Our semi-formal was grand and the party that followed was unmatched in terms of African spirit. Right from the get-go, I was getting involved, acting, performing poems, helping out, etc. There were times, we'd have the semi-formal and I'd be the sole performer from our group. Of course, that's not leadership, it's called hogging the spotlight. Just kidding, it's called, wanting to share talents. Mxm. The president of the association was normally a junior. When I was a junior, I was nominated to run for the highest office in the strikeland/strike ASA but I backed out. By this time, I had decided, I was at my best following and not leading. In fact, I never had a single position in the ASA in my 4 years. The one-time I run for anything, it was for sports chair and I lost. Pɔtɔɔɔ. You think I didn't advise myself? I chickened out but to be truthful, I just didn't think I was cut for such. I enjoyed being a common floor member who contributed wherever and whenever he could and put his all into fulfilling the goals of the organization. And that I did. br /br /I was a common-floor member on the religious scene in Presec but at 'don't mention God' MIT, I was the spirito/pastor/chrife/ person. And here, I was, a million times less religious than I was in Presec, but in MIT, I was at the forefront of a campus ministry. When I somehow became president because I was a senior, I was the face. Victory Campus Ministries. Impact. Tall task. I could recruit some new members, but not much. I just don't remember doing a great job in that position. That's the way the cookie crumbled. Being in VCM was great because the church I attended was very diverse and youthful. I met a good number of my good non-African friends through this ministry. God is good. When it comes to matters of Christ, differences are submerged in our diversity. I know this, because the same things didn't work too well for me in my classes when I had to join teams to do projects. I was almost never a group leader and just didn't seem to be a great member otherwise. Maybe they didn't know how to use me or understand me, but would we blame them? No. I plead the Akonth here. br /br /br /So as we can see, I didn't improve my leadership skills in four defining years of my life. Sure, there are things we can point to; the community service through EASE AITI, the impression I made on the people I met, the initiative I took to do various things, the announcing of excellence that defined me, the I-love-all-things-Ghana stand I took, the lets-support-Africa-to-be-better campaign I waged, amongst others. Someone will call these elements of leadership which offers some juice to the subject. These memoirs are for me to judge and for you to learn. It may look like I'm putting my business out there, but I believe it serves as a case-study for us all. I was focused on a bunch of non-MIT initiatives while I was there so I couldn't have taken too much responsibility on campus. You don't want to know what all these initiatives are, but I could have leveraged MIT resources for them. I didn't do much there. I didn't form any groups either though I had a few ideas. Didn't send any computers to a village school in Ghana either. Tscheeew. Disappearing into some hole somewhere.br /br /But on our turns backward, we must face forward with even greater focus. The tree branches into various ideas, we can hop onto another one if one is getting cut. I talked about the facebook presidency campaign eh? That's a whole other blog entry. Subconsciously, my MIT experience shaped my capability to lead and offered lessons and decision-making. I did improve my time management skills, maybe not my priorities though I found out what was important to me - doing the little things to support my cultural home, and great multi-tasking. There were the decisions I didn't make, and those that I made to not be the decision-maker. I managed to not lead into leadership as much as I could, but still got the odd leadership thrust and blessing. Do we understand leadership like we should? Or is it just me? We'll see in the next entry.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5561863520961492650?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• October 09, 2009
• 18:55

  Ghanaian films - A Sting in a tale, I sing of a well, Heart of men

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  My current favorite movie house, Sparrow Productions, is back with another movie called 'A Sting in a Tale'. A few other new Ghanaian movies are making the rounds. Haven't seen any of these films but wanted to keep y'all posted. We still haven't settled on a name for the Ghanaian film industry, don't give me any Gollywood (already taken by Johannesburg anyway), or Ghallywood, etc.br /br /A Sting in a Tale is Shirley Frimpong-Manso's fourth film after Life Living It, Scorned the Perfect Picture. I have been crying for her to feature Agya Koo in a movie but this time she chose Majid Michel. Most Ghanaian movie enthusiasts would tell you Majid's a better actor than the big celebrities like Van Vicker, Nadia Buari and Jackie Appiah. I agree. We'll see how he does in this production. The movie also features probably the best female actor in Ghana now - Lydia Forson, arguably Ghana's best in Adjetey Annan (Pusher), as well as Doris Sackitey, who we haven't seen on the big screen in a while. There are a few new faces, which is always good for the 'industry'. The Grand Premiere is on Friday, Nov 6 @ The Conference Center, Accra, Ghana. Watch the Trailer belowbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q05AolXrAJwbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q05AolXrAJwhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q05AolXrAJwhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Synopsis - A twisted tale of two unemployed graduates who embark on a journey to make it in a world where you need more than what you have to get what you want. Kuuku is overwhelmed with the urgency to succeed and frantically searches for a reward to his several years of school. Frustrated and constantly reminded of his failure by the presence of his girlfriend, (Frema) ; Kuuku will do anything to make the odds work in his favor. Nii Aryee, Kuukus abstemious looking friend is more positive about the future until the rejection letters begin to mount and his landlord comes to town. Driven by the fear of poverty, these two friends go in search of a destiny that takes them to the most obscure places. In a tale where the unexpected is always lurking in the shadows, from the natural to the supernatural, among all ploys, grief and struggles, nothing prepares you for the sting, in a rather bizarre ending.br /br /Majid Michel recently stated that his best movie ever was "Heart of men". This movie has become a real talking point because of its trailer. The trailer is said to be advertising a soft porn Ghanaian movie. Yeah, I just went there. It features Majid, Jackie Appiah, Nadia Buari, Yvonne Nelson, John Dumelo - serious star power. I am not expecting much from the movie, though we've been advised not to judge the movie based on the trailer. And if what Majid said is anything to go by, it probably is a must-watch movie. This movie is from Heroes Productions. br /Trailer belowbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBh6b_Olb6Qbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HBh6b_Olb6Qhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HBh6b_Olb6Qhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Last but not the least, is my friend Leila Djansi's work, I sing of a Well. Now this movie looks quite promising and is a little different from what we've seen lately. It's about slavery though, a touchy topic. The movie welcomes back Akofa Edjeani Asiedu, who doubles as the producer. The cast includes JOT Agyeman, Godwin Kotey, Mary Yirenkyi, Kofi Middleton Mends and Luckie Lawson as Oleka. The movie is tipped to be Ghana's best ever and was shot on a $100,000 budget. It's on a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1501297/"IMDB/a. Watch the trailer herebr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67eVQijlbx4br /object width="560" height="340"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/67eVQijlbx4hl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/67eVQijlbx4hl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"/embed/objectbr /br /That's all folks. More on African movies coming soon. Watching a few that I would blog about laterdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4426317921727555547?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 6:31

  William Kamkwamba (The Boy who harnessed the wind) on the Daily Show

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  This is a quickie. William Kamkwamba is a Malawian who at age 14, built a windmill to provide power/electricity for his household in his Malawian village. Since then, he's built a couple more and gained a lot of publicity for his courage and ingenuity. He was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart yesterday and I wanted to post the video of that segment. This is one of Africa's shining stars and it's nice to see him go places.br /br /table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'tbodytr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart/a/tdtd style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c/td/trtr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-7-2009/william-kamkwamba'William Kamkwamba/a/td/trtr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'www.thedailyshow.com/a/td/trtr valign='middle'td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:251740' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'/embed/td/trtr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'tr valign='middle'td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes'Daily Showbr/ Full Episodes/a/tdtd style='padding:3px; width:33%;'a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'Political Humor/a/tdtd style='padding:3px; width:33%;'a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/2009/09/23/ron-paul-on-the-daily-show-tuesday-sept-29/'Ron Paul Interview/a/td/tr/table/td/tr/tbody/tablebr /br /He's also spoken at a couple of TED conferences. At TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, he told his story. A couple of my friends who attended the conference in Tanzania met him too. I was actually put in touch with him so he could help provide and get Malawian content for Museke.com. The move never materialized though. Here are a couple of his TED talks.br /br /He's now at the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg. The ALA was founded by Fred Swaniker, who I finally met last weekend at TANCON USA 2009, held right here at Stanford. Fred Swaniker is an inspiration and his work on ALA must receive more press. He's a Ghanaian as well and a Stanford MBA graduate. ALA seeks to educate the next generation of leaders for Africa and they have students from all over the continent. Two of my friends are teaching fellows there as well. Back to William, he's in his final year at ALA (two year program) and is writing his SATs, hoping to get into an American university. The library through which he learnt to build the windmill, was funded by the US government. br /br /Here are the TEDtalksbr /http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_windmill.htmlbr /object width="334" height="326"param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /param name="wmode" value="transparent"/paramparam name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"/param param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/WilliamKamkwamba_2007G-medium.flvsu=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/WilliamKamkwamba-2007G.embed_thumbnail.jpgvw=320vh=240ap=0ti=153introDuration=16500adDuration=4000postAdDuration=2000adKeys=talk=william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_windmill;year=2007;theme=speaking_at_tedglobal2009;theme=tales_of_invention;theme=design_like_you_give_a_damn;theme=africa_the_next_chapter;theme=ted_under_30;event=TEDGlobal+2007;preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;" /embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgColor="#ffffff" width="334" height="326" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/WilliamKamkwamba_2007G-medium.flvsu=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/WilliamKamkwamba-2007G.embed_thumbnail.jpgvw=320vh=240ap=0ti=153introDuration=16500adDuration=4000postAdDuration=2000adKeys=talk=william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_windmill;year=2007;theme=speaking_at_tedglobal2009;theme=tales_of_invention;theme=design_like_you_give_a_damn;theme=africa_the_next_chapter;theme=ted_under_30;event=TEDGlobal+2007;"/embed/objectbr /br /http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind.htmlbr /object width="446" height="326"param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /param name="wmode" value="transparent"/paramparam name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"/param param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/WilliamKamkwamba_2009G-medium.flvsu=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/WilliamKamkwamba-2009G.embed_thumbnail.jpgvw=432vh=240ap=0ti=642introDuration=16500adDuration=4000postAdDuration=2000adKeys=talk=william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind;year=2009;theme=africa_the_next_chapter;theme=ted_under_30;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=tales_of_invention;event=TEDGlobal+2009;preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;" /embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgColor="#ffffff" width="446" height="326" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/WilliamKamkwamba_2009G-medium.flvsu=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/WilliamKamkwamba-2009G.embed_thumbnail.jpgvw=432vh=240ap=0ti=642introDuration=16500adDuration=4000postAdDuration=2000adKeys=talk=william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind;year=2009;theme=africa_the_next_chapter;theme=ted_under_30;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=tales_of_invention;event=TEDGlobal+2009;"/embed/objectbr /br /He's also co-written a book - The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind - which is also doing well. Like Jon Stewart said, if all goes according to plan, he'll be part of the first result for a Google Search about windmills soon. Go William, go!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5377289796616940331?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 30, 2009
• 8:59

  Letta to Osagyefo: Being the right man at the right place at the wrong or right time

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Maximus Ojah writes ---- br /br /Hello Osagyefo, br /br /It's been a week since we celebrated your 100th birthday. It's been ages since I last wrote to you. Coincidentally, my a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blogs/nwia/2009/03/letta-osagyefo-founder%E2%80%99s-day-debate-what-date-and-what-name"last letter/a was about your birthday and the debate about the Founder's Day celebration and holiday. No one listened to my suggestion and you were celebrated (alone) on your centenary with good measure. Everyone was talking about you, including the folks at a href="http://ghanablogging.com"Ghanablogging.com/a. How did you spend the day? Reflect on your regrets and achievements. Kwame, I find myself regretting way too much in my life these days. If it will make me grow old quicker than I want, please warn me. I am already worried about my age, but let's leave that for another day. What I want to know is, were you a little lucky to be born in 1909? In essence, were you a little lucky to be Ghana's first president instead of its 4th? Is there a little luck involved in creating and leaving a legacy? I will like to argue so.br /br /I am really enjoying my infrastructure development class this term. I haven't enjoyed a class this much in a while. We are talking about and discussing issues and things that I care about. Earlier today, we talked about Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama. They are all American presidents who led America in times of distress, recession, depression and turmoil. Seriously, it feels like they are fondly remembered because they were faced with bad situations and came out successfully out of them. If they had enjoyed easy going presidencies, no one may have revered them in history. Lincoln was an awesome leader but he had the backdrop of the civil war. FDR faced huge challenges and didn't succumb and is seen favorably. Barack Obama is mostly believed to be the beneficiary of the mess Dubya Bush created. If Barack had run for president in 1996, he may not have won. In a sense, he was lucky. True talk no?br /br /And you Kwame, 1909 was a time to be born, wasn't it? By 1957, you were 48, had been in your political prime with years of independence struggle and experienced enough to lead the nation. If you were born 20 years later, you would have just been another member of the Committee for Youth Organisation (CYO). To be fair, other people had fought the same fight you had been fighting and it never really materialized till you were at the forefront but who said it was all you anyway? If those mosquitoes hadn't declared a war the British couldn't win in the 1950's, we'll still be yet to celebrate a golden jubilee. Not to mention the conspiracy theories that really made the British cease control of our dear Gold Coast. br /br /People claim we give you too much credit for what you did. Well, obviously, not many people rate Ghana's subsequent leaders after you because they didn't have to start from zero or gain independence for a colonized people. You were a tough act to follow, Busia couldn't possibly come in and build another Akosombo Kanea, and a couple of universities. Our recent leaders have not been able to match those efforts but that's because they've had a little to work with. Look at Obenfo Asomdwoehene Atta Mills who is unfortunately being remembered for his gbaas (gaffes). How will he remembered? It's been almost 9 months at the helm of Ghana's ship. Why do we celebrate Africa's freedom fighters? It's because they were involved in some serious business that is nostalgic to us. Our presidents may be facing challenges today but nothing like what the first half of the 20th century presented. History shall not be kind to them. Look at JFK, what do we remember him for? The civil rights' times. Hstorical figures ensured that leaders in those times had their names etched in stone, whether for better or worse. If nothing exciting happens in your time, you quickly become forgotten.br /br /Kwame, I am not wishing any bad fortune on Ghana or any nation so they can produce great leaders. I just think it's interesting how times of adversity produce men of character and stature. I hope we can find such candidates in the good and jolly times as well. Pray with us. I salute you though, lucky or not, you shall always be fondly remembered for the work you did for Mother Ghana. On this positive note, I'll go think of my own achievements and little glories to spur me on.br /br /Yours truly,br /Maximus.br /Culled from a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blogs/nwia/2009/09/letta-osagyefo-being-right-man-right-place-wrong-or-right-tim"Nwia's Letta to Osagyefo/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1031563956322451636?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 26, 2009
• 11:12

  10 Hiplife songs you should know about

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I watched a documentary called "Living the Hiplife" recently and hearing them play Reggie Rockstone's Visa made me feel nostalgic. I was at a Stanford Library borrowing movies and had searched for "the Godfather". This documentary came up in my search because the summary included the Godfather of Hiplife (aka Hiplife Grandpapa aka Ɔboɔba Reggie Rock aka Oseikrom President aka Reggie Rockstone). Anyway, listening to Visa and a couple other songs have made to write this blog post. I'll be sharing 10 hiplife songs I think you should definitely know about. They were either groundbreaking, popular, interesting or inspirational. br /br /Before that, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-top-10-ghanaian-songs-of-2009.html"10 favorite Ghanaian songs of 2009/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/10-songs-dedicated-to-african-women.html"10 songs dedicated to African women/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-10-favorite-ghanaian-songs.html" favorite Ghanaian songs/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-10-favorite-kenyan-songs.html"10 favorite songs from Kenya/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a I hope you feel the songs are worth the trouble. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /Will expand on these songs later but they are.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/251"Visa/a - Reggie Rockstone/strongbr /Rockstone had wowed us with tracks like Sweetie Sweetie, Nightlife in Accra and Keep your eyes on the road, but Visa was the track that made people wake up and realise hiplife was here to stay. Reggie talked about getting visas to travel abroad, an issue dear to the hearts of many Ghanaians. Writing the song like a letter was pure genius. "Akwantuo yɛ ya, yɛbounce wo visa a, ne ya; USA, I gots to go, yɛbounce wo visa a, ne ya; Akwantuo yɛ ka, yɛbounce wo visa a, ne ya". That Meka album is one of the best ever. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/859"Maba/a - Ex-doe/strong br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/860"Wobeko/a - Chicago/strongbr /Hiplife's history would be incomplete without these two songs. These songs represented the first major beef in hiplife. Ex-Doe Chicago had collaborated on the classic a href="http://museke.com/node/2110"Daavi medekuku/a, an Ewe Twi hit song. They disbanded and the next thing we heard was Ex-Doe dissing Chicago, as well as Reggie Rockstone! It was a crime to diss Rockstone who was highly revered then. Ex-Doe rapped "Wofrɛ wo ho President; Wosɔre a, wonte wo residence". And then I like how he went on to shout-out a whole bunch of deejays. Chicago came back with a strong reply and both songs were major hits. I remember my friend using to sing Maba chorus as "Hey maba, ho maba, ɛnti montwa me quarter ɛ!" br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/242"Aketesea/a - Kontihene/strongbr /I picked this song over a href="http://museke.com/node/241"Asesa/a simply because it was hugely popular and had the jama chorus. Aketesea was groundbreaking, it incorporated a jama song in its chorus and had a strong Ghanaian ring to it. He started the song with an idiom unheard of "Suban, ɛtɛ sɛ nyinsɛn, wontumi mfa nsie; br /Wotwe wo mu tan a, ɛbɛpue". He wasn't the first hiplife artiste to emerge the big winner at the Ghana Music Awards, Lord Kenya had beaten him to that the previous year (2001). He made a strong statement with a super debut album.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2117"Makola kwakwe/a - Tinny/strongbr /Makola Kwakwe is probably still the biggest hit Ga hiplife song to date. Tinny's debut single signalled the emergence of Ga hiplife. I don't even know what he was saying in the song. Tinny was dubbed the Ga Obrafour which is saying a lot. The guy behind the beats was Hammer of the Last 2. Hammer was also behind the signature debuts of Obrafour and Deeba, who like Tinny, both won best new artiste when they emerged. Does Kwakwe last stop even exist?br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/183"Fefe n'efe/a - Tic Tac/strongbr /This song was significant because of Tic Tac's collaboration with Nigeria's Tony Tetuila. This song opened the floodgates of Naija-Ghana collabos and music from both countries becoming popular in each other's clubs. The song sampled an old Fela Kuti hit (which is massive in itself) and has some of the most talked about hiplife lyrics ever - "Fɛfɛ n'ɛfɛ, na ɔbaa tu amirika a, amirika; Fɛfɛ n'ɛfɛ, na ɔsɔ ne nofo mu o, ɔbu adeɛ; Fɛfɛ n'ɛfɛ, sɛ ɛnsɛ ɛbɛte atɔ ntia, ɛbɛte atɔ ntia". Translated to English - it's because it is beautiful stylish that when a woman runs, she holds unto her breasts but it's not because they are going to fall off. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/981"Agyaesa (Hiplife review)/a - Bradez/strongbr /This track was on Bradez's debut album and provided a recent history of hiplife. They talked about Tic Tac taking hiplife international, compilations by Obrafour and others, the passing away of Terry Bonchaka, the Tuabodom controversy. They also talked the KK Fosu Batman beef, Reggie Rockstone 'retiring', to the controversy that Sidney's Obiaa nye obiaa created. It's also a great song. Bradez have become one of the popular hiplife groups, and are very popular these days. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1115"Letter to parliament/a - A-Plus/strongbr /This song makes the list because of the euphoria/controversy/popularity that followed it. A-Plus criticized Ghanaian MPs for not delivering on promises. It is rumoured that A-Plus received death threat and MPs wanted to take him to task. As usual, A-Plus criticized various political events of the recent past, especially criticizing the amount of money spent on Ghana's 50th anniversary of independence. The song's chorus used the chorus of Kaakyire's popular 24th song. Some lyrics - "Wontuaa wo ba school fees nwieyɛ; Nso ne birthday, watɔ nantwie ama no". He also teased the infamous transportation minister with this - "Na ɛmom, baako no; Yede wo akɔ aburokyire, kɔ ka AIDS asɛm; Wɔakɔhyɛ tokuro mu". Even President J. A. Kufuor was not spared.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/783"Ako/a - Obrafour/strongbr /This song was a throwback to Obrafour's beginnings. He reunited with Hammer (Last 2) on a track that bore resemblance to the famed singles from his 'Pae mu ka' album. The video was also highly rated. The song is believed to be a direct reply to beef between Obrafour's Last 2 Camp (including Hammer Kwaw Kese) and Kontihene. Obrafour sang - "Wotwi ahenfie kaa a, na ɛnkyerɛ sɛ woyɛ ɔdehyeɛ ei; Ɛsono ɔbarima na ɛsono ɔbarima, ɛna ɛsono ɔkatakyie". He seemed to be addressing some of his hiplife competitors and separating himself from the pack. If Obrafour was engaged in a rap battle, he'd have floored somebody. The song's lyrics are simply super.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2305"Keva (Bougez)/a - Ayigbe Edem/strongbr /Daavi medekuku was a hit when it surfaced in the late 90's but we never had an Ewe artiste emerge till Ayigbe Edem. This song also introduced Sarkodie to many hiplife lovers which helped launch his own career. Ayigbe Edem's song was on a Hammer beat which also brought the beatmaker back into the spotlight after other producers had hogged the scene. Ayigbe Edem made Ewe rap cool and has since become a mainstream artiste. He is to Ewe rap what Tinny is to Ga rap. He's got mad swagger and he's not done. Announcing his entry into the hiplife scene backed by the king of the streets, Kwaw Kese, and the king of hiplife at the moment, Sarkodie, makes this song one to remember.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3077"The Game/a - Obour Okyeame Kwame Richie/strongbr /This song did the things Bradez's Agyaesa failed to do. It had a music video, it criticized all that was wrong with the hiplife industry; from the artists, to producers, to djs, to promoters, to distributors, etc. Interesting, Richie, who's been the top beat maker recently and through his beats is redefining what hiplife is, blessed this track with an instrumental. Okyeame Kwame rapped - "Ɛyɛɛ dɛn na; Yɛ nyinaa wɔ Ghana; Yɛte ha retwɛn manna; Nti obroni bi na ɔmbɛyɛ ne yie ansa; Kyerɛ sɛ yɛnnim nyansa; Obiara pɛ sɛ ɔkɔ international, ɛno ne answer?" Obour followed with "Kwame, yɛfiri one ansaana y'akɔ two; Wonni ntaban Ghana, ɛnso wopɛ sɛ wotu; Ɛbɛyɛ dɛn na wonmbutu"br /br /iHonourable mentions/ibr /Yaanom by Obrafourbr /Kwame Nkrumah by Obrafourbr /Nya ntetee pa by Obrafourbr /P1 by Okomfour Kwaadeebr /Tuabodom by Nkaseibr /Ahomka womu by VIPbr /Mobile phone by Reggie Rockstonebr /Manenko by VIPbr /Klu brofo by Buk Bakbr /Obia nye obiaa by Sidney (Barima)br /Scent no by Sidney (Barima)br /You may kiss the bride by Bolliebr /Odiem by Kwaw Kesebr /br /Long live Hiplife.br /Long live Ghanaian music.br /Long live Ghana.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3123251976010249488?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 22, 2009
• 3:22

  September 21, 2009 - Kwame Nkrumah's hundfred birthday - blog roundup

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://www.teachersparadise.com/ency/en/media/7/7f/ac_nkrumah.jpg" align="left" width="150" height="168"Today is the 100th birthday of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He's being honoured in Ghana with September 21 instituted as Founder's Day, a national holiday. Many people travelled to Ghana to celebrate his centenary. I wanted to take this opportunity to honour Ghana's founding father and remember him once again. I don't really have much to say about Nkrumah today, but I will talk about him later on. So I'll use this blog to recap a bunch of recent Nkrumah related blog posts. br /br /Concerning the Founder's Day debate, I blogged about it here through one of my pseudonyms, Maximus Ojah. a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blogs/nwia/2009/03/letta-osagyefo-founder%E2%80%99s-day-debate-what-date-and-what-name"Read about it here/a. In fact, if you've heard of the Lettas to Osagyefo, I am the one who writes them. Yes. You can see the whole bunch a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blogs/nwia"here/a.br /br /GhanaBlogging.com has an Nkrumah theme so a lot of Ghanaians have been talking about Osagyefo. My friend, Edward Tagoe has been blogging a bit about Nkrumah recently. He mentions moving Nkrumah's remains from the a href="http://tagoeblogger.blogspot.com/2009/09/nkrumah-should-go-back-to-nkroful.html"Mausoleum to Nkroful/a. It will cost the nation some money but I think it's a good idea. Moving any form of attention from Accra and opening up some other place in Ghana is always a great idea if you ask me.br /br /Jemila of a href="http://www.circumspecte.com/"Circumspect/a talked about Kwame Nkrumah's vision on the a href="http://ghanaunite.blogspot.com/2009/09/taking-page-from-nkrumahs-book-on.html"Ghana Unite/a blog. To quote her: "I don't idolize him, but I definitely do admire and applaud him. I strongly believe that the true mark of an individual's success is in how (much) he or she is able to positively impact others. Nkrumah definitely did that. Heck, he is STILL doing it."br /br /Mac-Jordan of AccraConscious Forever offered some a href="http://accraconsciousforever.blogspot.com/2009/09/quotes-by-dr-kwame-nkrumah.html"quotes/a by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. One favourite Nkrumah soundbite is "We face neither East nor West; we face forward" but this one's great too - "We have the blessing of the wealth of our vast resources, the power of our talents and the potentialities of our people. Let us grasp now the opportunities before us and meet the challenge to our survival." There's a controversial quote in there that I will revisit later.br /br /Nana Fredua Agyeman reviews David Rooney's book called "Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy" on a href="http://freduagyeman.blogspot.com/2009/09/kwame-nkrumah-visions-and-tragedy-by.html"his blog/a. He mentions "Most of us born way after the Nkrumah era (1950 to say 1970) know little of this son of Africa who has being both deified and demonised in one breath, whilst being labelled as a "great African and not a great Ghanaian" by academicians such as Professor Ali Mazrui."br /br /Abena of "Chardonas - Ramblings of a Procrastinator in Accra" unleashed a 'new' old photo of Dr. Nkrumah online. She also makes a pledge to find out a lot about this historic man. We must all learn about our history. Read her post a href="http://chardonas.blogspot.com/2009/09/photograph-of-kwame-nkrumah-in-album.html"here/a. br /br /One Ghana, One Voice offers a a href="http://oneghanaonevoice.com/2009/09/100th-anniversary-poem-child-of.html"100th Anniversary Poem/a - A Child of Saturday by Rob Taylor. Last but not the least, Nana Yaw Asiedu offers a side to Nkrumah we may not have known: a href="http://antirhythm.blogspot.com/2009/09/kwame-nkrumah-he-laughed.html"He laughed/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-28832050626920449?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 19, 2009
• 23:00

  Our Black Stars - nicknames, rumours, etc

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  After my last blog post on Ghana's Black Stars, the issue of nicknames for our national team players came up. With the help of Ghanaweb Soccer forum's Mamamia, we have a bunch of nicknames. We can always make up new ones though. Was thinking I'd add a few more details about the various players. Let's learn a little more about our squad. br /br /Michael Essien - Essien is known as the Bison. I believe this is from his time at Lyon (France) where he was known for his tireless running and work-rate. Essien is one of the best midfielders in the world and it's great to have in our team. Did you know he's dating Nadia Buari, one of Ghana's most premier actresses? She's the lady who played the Beyonce character in Beyonce, the President's Daughter, which is arguably the most popular African movie of all time. That's one celebrity couple. br /br /Richard Kingston - Olele. I am not sure why he is called Olele. Is that a Ga name? Anyone know what that means.br /br /Matthew Amoah - Klinsmann. Okay, Matthew is a goal poacher but does he even play like Klinsmann. Mamamia tells me he adores him. br /br /Prince Tagoe - Prince of Goals. Prince Tagoe has had a good goal rate everywhere he's gone and we all hope he can do the same while he is at Hoffenheim in Germany. Did you know he's the producer behind Praye's Angelina song? Yes, he's started this GOALS Multimedia record label in Ghana and also produced Castro Destroyer's recent single, Fakye. He's scoring goals in entertainment too. I think we need to call him Milo or Nestle or Okada or Cycle though giving his penchant for bicycle/scissor kicks. br /br /Laryea Kingston- Bra Laryea. This would make sense if he had a cameo in Mzbel's 16 years video. Then again, most people identify the name Bra Laryea with the Mzbel's song. We need to find him something better. He can cross the ball well and is a good free-kick taker so maybe some kind of a Beckham reference? br /br /Appiah - Tornado. Not sure why he's named after this natural disaster but it sounds good to me. We all love his hand-turning goal celebrations. The last time, a friend asked me to do the same when I scored a goal in a pickup game (this friend is Turkish, Appiah is highly revered there for his days at Fenerbache). br /br /Samuel Inkoom - Eboue. Samuel is a new kid on the block, playing at FC Basel. He's gonna be great. He is able to play right back and right winger, I guess that's why he's called Eboue. Don't like this nickname. What will he do if he has to play against Eboue? With time, he could even become a better player.br /br /Asamoah Gyan - Baby Jet. Is Gyan known for his pace or his wayward shooting? I like the nickname though. br /br /Anthony Annan - Pablo Aimar/Pokinho. I love the Pokinho bit, I think it stems from his poking Mikel Obi in the eye once? Either way, he's a very pesky player so something to do with peskiness works.br /br /Manuel 'Junior' Agogo - Agogoal. What can we say about this rockstar? During the 2008 African Nations Cup' in Ghana, he was the talk of the town. Grandfathers were giving up their granddaughters to him in marriage. He's also been called Super Agogo. He'll see if he can ride his rockstar status all the way to South Africa.br /br /John Mensah - Rock of Gibraltar. Now, here's a rock in defense. We can't afford to not have him in our defensive set-up, he's a key part to our success. He's always wearing some religious T-shirts too, so he is a spiritual rock too. br /br /Ahmed Barusso - Okpo dade. But how about Tiabs? Have you seen this guy's calves? They are wondrous. If he had a little more skill, he would never ever lose the ball. br /br /Sulley Muntari - Konongo Pele. It's believed he's from that area hence the name Konongo Pele. We can do better though, someone find a nickname for this guy. How about the time he vowed to not play for the Black Stars because someone had assaulted his girlfriend, Menaye Donkor? Do you remember Menaye, she is a former Miss Ghana or Miss Universe Ghana and is now a model? She fine pass. Muntari dey enjoy better. br /br /John Paintsil - ..... how doesn't he have one? I mean, this is the guy who celebrated with an Israeli flag after Ghana scored a World Cup goal and almost strained ties between Ghana and the Arab nations? We've seen do some strange goal celebrations as well. Help us out here, he needs a nickname. br /br /There are more to come. We need to find some for Haminu Dramani, Kwadwo Asamoah, Opoku Agyemang, Harrison Afful, Derek Boateng, Kevin Prince Boateng, etc.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5710571637781717747?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 16, 2009
• 5:56

  My top 10 African songs of 2009 (so far)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Last time, I took you through my top 10 Ghanaian songs of 2009. Well, I listen to a whole bunch of stuff from across the continent and want to share my African top 10. These are the songs that should be gunning for the awards and ruling the dancefloors. What do I know huh? :-) I know these jams are lekker and am pretty crazy about them. One song I am not adding to this list but is poised to join the list by the end of this year is P-Square's newest single called Danger. Yes, Do me Ifunanya are officially old now. The Okoye brothers say wahala dey. These P-Square jams just grow on you. Ladies and gentlemen, a href="http://museke.com/node/4070"I dey see danger; You go see danger; Omo, see danger; We dey see danger; Omo wahala dey!/abr /br /Before that, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-top-10-ghanaian-songs-of-2009.html"10 favorite Ghanaian songs of 2009/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/10-songs-dedicated-to-african-women.html"10 songs dedicated to African women/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-10-favorite-ghanaian-songs.html" favorite Ghanaian songs/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-10-favorite-kenyan-songs.html"10 favorite songs from Kenya/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a I hope to hear some of these at your next party. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2717"Go down there/a - 2Face (Nigeria)/strongbr /It's only right that I start off with my man 2Baba. Many people have said his Unstoppable album is crap but I don't agree. You have to give 2Face's music listening time and then you see how he shines. This track features Ghana the UK's Sway. The lyrics are awesome and that sold the song for me. "For making me able to see the light from the darkness, But now the light has been blinded by all these madness I see everywhere; See, I can't believe this is all happening in my own time, someone should have told me in time." No, you don't wanna go down there. Deep. The song is political. Enuff said. Way to go, 2Baba! I also love his Appreciate it, a href="http://museke.com/node/1985"Enter the place/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/2669"Feeling you/a songs. But 2Baba, is that song a href="http://museke.com/node/1852"TFlex with R.Kelly fake/a?br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3335"Leo (+ remixes)/a - A-Y (Tanzania)/strongbr /This dude is one of the best African rappers and should be in the running for 2009's best. You should hear his tracks, a href="http://museke.com/node/2509"Freeze with P-Square/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/3750"the Leo remix with Kenya's Avril/a. He collaborated with Africa's best and came out with some of its top songs. Leo has a great chorus and A-Y's flow is super too. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3495"Presta Atencao/a - Perola (Angola)/strongbr /Aish, Angola! I fell in love with Perola years ago with her a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/node/2336"Break it/a song. I waited impatiently for her to release new music and she didn't disappoint. Presta is one of my most played songs this year and I love watching the video. Perola is beautiful! Aish, Angola! I don't even understand the song. It has that thing about Zouk Kizomba songs, it just wows you. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3262"Where you are/a - Blu3 (Uganda)/strongbr /Blu3 has been rated the best girl group in Africa but I think this song is their best so far. The rest of Africa agrees as its video has been a mainstay on MTVBase Africa this year. The song was enriched with the presence of Uganda's top group nowadays, Mowzey Radio Weasel. The vocals on this jam are amazing. "Nakuwaza, nakuwaza, girl, I am looking for you; Natamani (natamani); Unaenda wapi". They are not missing Cindy much but Cinderella Sanyu is doing very very well for herself as a solo artist too. More on her later.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2937"Breadwinners/a - Proverb (South Africa)/strongbr /This one features two South African rap heavyweights. In their own words, this song is for the good fathers out there. HHP is one of Africa's best and he blessed this Proverb single. This should be a Father's day anthem. ia href="http://museke.com/node/4095"not this song/a/i. "A lil something for the Fathers; That know how to be a man and work harder; To give something to the Fam; And would rather make sure the kids are fed dinner; I'm talking to the real bread winners/ yeah you.."br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3236"Yori yori/a - Bracket (Nigeria)/strongbr /This is another song I can't get enough off. It's arguably the top Nigerian song this year. When non-Nigerians are asking you about it, you know it's legit. Bracket is being called the new P-Square but with a few more songs like Yori Yori, they can get out of their shadow for good. "Ma lovey lovey, with you everything is welli welli; Your love dey make my heart do yori yori; Nobody can love you the way I do;br /Am with you ma lovey lovey". Sing it again. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2906"Meme pas fatigue/a - Khaled (Algeria) Magic System (Cote d'Ivoire)/strongbr /No group in the whole of Africa knows how to throw the party like Magic System. If you don't agree, just know that they are the folks that brought us Africa's party anthem - Premier Gaou. Just to give them more props, they are also behind tracks like a href="http://museke.com/node/154"Un gaou a oran/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/1462"C'est chaud, ca brule/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/1461"Ki dit mie/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/155"Bouger Bouger/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/2375"Zouglou Dance/aetc. This song's video features Frank Ribery. Yes, France's best soccer player. That's how big the group is in France and Europe. Oh, and it features Algerian music legend, Khaled, who sang the famous a href="http://museke.com/node/590"Aicha, Aicha/a song.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3602"Safe/a - M.I. (Nigeria)/strongbr /We can't talk about 2009 without mentioning M.I. aka Mister Incredible. He's widely regarded as Naija's best rapper. His freestyles and rhymes are sick. "This is Armageddon dog, hear the sirens; And no, I am not retiring; No, I’m never tiring, these lyrics that I’m firing; But don’t be dismayed, ‘cos Zenith Bank is hiring; For instance, there’s no resistance; The flow persistent and so consistent; Other rappers distant, they should have listened; Because I’m the engine room and the gear and the piston; There’s no rest see, at best you’re assisting; I’m what they’re missing, I’m why they listen; I’m the heart police dawg, I’m cardiac-arresting; The best thing and you’re just microphone-testing". Chineke me! This guy na oga! Chei! No wonder, Djinee asks if we're safe right here.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3375"Voodoo/a - Lizha James (Mozambique)/strongbr /The Mozambican pandza South African kwaito collabo is too much. Mandoza is revered highly amongst Kwaito enthusiasts and Lizha picked the right guy. This jam is for the clubs and I really wish I knew what they were saying, especially since it's called Voodoo. I love the video too. Lizha James is blowing up, once she gets some collabos in with East West African artistes, she may ascend the throne officially as Africa's Beyonce. Yup, I am calling it.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2697"Tonight/a - Amani (Kenya)/strongbr /Last but definitely not the least. Ogopa Deejays' first lady came back with this fiery single which has her gunning for a bunch of awards. It's a great song too. br /"Tonight, I am letting go oh oh; I say tonight, I am letting go oh oh; Na leo, ni leo oh oh oh; I will give him all of me" Mmhh hmm. br /br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. The song that just failed to make the cut was Fally Ipupa's a href="http://museke.com/node/3749"Chaise Electrique/a (DR Congo) featuring the one and only Olivia. You remember her? She was the first lady of G-Unit. Yes, African musicians are doing it big. I love that song. The other African king of party music, DR Congo's Awilo Longomba has a track for y'all too, this time featuring Awa Imani on a href="http://museke.com/node/3741"C'est pas complique/a. Other songs are a href="http://museke.com/node/3266"Tentacao/a by Gama (Cape Verde), a href="http://museke.com/node/2570"Wa mpaleha/a by Lira (South Africa), a href="http://museke.com/node/3163"Bread Butter/a by Mowzey Radio Weasel (Uganda), a href="http://museke.com/node/3475"Pii pii/a by Marlaw (Tanzania), and a href="http://museke.com/node/3026"Koni koni love/a by Klever Jay (Nigeria).br /br /I don't like these songs that much but they've made huge impressions this year. From South Africa, Winnie Khumalo for a href="http://museke.com/node/3582"Live my life/a, and Nutty Nys for a href="http://museke.com/node/3908"Nka mo dira/a. Redsan has had a good one with a href="http://museke.com/node/3255"Yule Pale/a. There's also Wande Coal with a href="http://museke.com/node/2655"Bumper to bumper/a. You could also pick Ralph Anselmo's a href="http://museke.com/node/3126"Assumir Barulho/a or Big Nelo's a href="http://museke.com/node/3325"Karga/a if you are talking about Angola. br /br /There's love for Senegal in the form of Adiouza with a href="http://museke.com/node/3138"Maadou/a and Titi with a href="http://museke.com/node/3532"Music/a. Uganda's Cindy (formerly of Blu3) is having a thrilling start to her solo career and her a href="http://museke.com/node/3596"Ayokyayokya/a hit is burning up boomboxes. I am also feeling a href="http://museke.com/node/3239"Yenze/a by Toniks (Uganda). Hey, how can we forget Burkina Faso? Yeleen's a href="http://museke.com/node/3059"Ca ne connait pas/a song with Magic System is great too. Kenya's Wyre got conscious with a href="http://museke.com/node/3809"Uprising/a. Brenda may not be new to Kenyans but that beat for her a href="http://museke.com/node/3770"Good for nothing/a single will endear her to many Africans. My man Mokobe (Mali) has been busy too, he's on (Algeria) Rim-K's a href="http://museke.com/node/3934"Celebration/a off his Maghreb United compilation and then DJ Kitoko's a href="http://museke.com/node/3247"Phenomenal/a (Cote d'Ivoire). br /br /Long live African music.br /Long live Africa.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1044295597916658359?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 15, 2009
• 6:37

  Jama reunites people! A case of two videos

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I know the Old Schools Reunion happened a while ago in Accra recently but it's never late to blog about it. I like the idea of bringing old students of many schools together in one place. There is the nostalgia felt like the old times of Interco n Superzo, reuniting with friends and the sheer entertainment provided as well. I attended the 2004 edition at the Aviation Social Center and it was so much fun. I met a number of friends from Presec and KNUST JSS I hadn't seen in ages. I heard the event was extended to Kumasi a few years' back and that is great too. I had so much fun at the sole event I went to and I was singing jama songs all day, In fact I recorded a video.br /br /I recorded a video of Presec colleagues singing 'All my sins shall be taken away'. I had a few other videos that I lost. Bummer. We never said 'Bummer' in Presec. Neither did we say the 'F' word. I say the 'F' word so many times these days, I don't even know how that happened. In fact, I am looking for a way to stop so everytime I have to say it, I will say 'Jollof'. I was gonna use Waakye but that's a bit of a mouthful. Or like a friend suggested, I could just pay someone a gentleman's buck everytime I used this ungentlemanly word. :-) Nah, not gonna use that. If I tried that, in a week, I'll be effed. I mean jollofed. !@₵#@#!%₵#!br /br /Here is the video I was talking about. Jama is so much fun. It makes the cheerleading we see in the US colleges and schools look like ballet compared with break-dancing. Or something similar. br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiKsoLnPmfAbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GiKsoLnPmfAhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GiKsoLnPmfAhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /I've also attended the Ghanaian New York Picnic, which is normally the first Saturday in August. I went for the first time in 2005, and it was a lot of fun. Not as much fun as the Joy 99.7FM Old Skuuls Reunion, but it offered the same things - reuniting with friends, some entertainment, making new friends, meeting Facebook Hi5 friends for the first time, and some small jama. Some Augusco boys wanted to show they were present so they shiied some jama, which I recorded herebr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbIA_kl1JEMbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fbIA_kl1JEMhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fbIA_kl1JEMhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /These Augusco boys could draw more Augusco students to their midst. It's like if you are from Augusco, come meet some more Augusco boys. Different schools had their particular jama songs though some jams are the same across the board. br /br /I miss shiing jama. In high school, the specious/respectful/disciplined/neat students didn't want to get involved with singing at the top of their voices. Granted, some of the songs were pretty profane so it was understandable for some people to desist from joining the chorus. The spirit of jama goes all the way to the national level where the Black Stars are urged on by the supporters' unions. Jama must not die. The songs are being passed on from class to class and some have entered the private domain of commercial music. Kontihene used one for his hit a href="http://www.museke.com/en/node/242"Aketesea/a song. I hear Nkasei's a href="http://www.museke.com/en/node/158"Yefri Tuabodom/a is from a Jama song as well. Many Ghanaian parties have this a href="http://www.museke.com/en/node/345"Jama/a song by 4x4 on their playlist as well. br /br /Long live Jama!br /Long live reunions!br /Long live school spirit!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5720049288464904047?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 11, 2009
• 22:47

  Do you remember wins or losses the most? Congrats MJ

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  As I am typing this entry, I am watching the induction of Michael Jordan into the Basketball Hall of Fame. MJ is the greatest basketball player ever and also one of its biggest winners. MJ was a fierce competitor and cared about winning so much. He didn't mind his individual stats much, he always wanted his team to win. I was thinking about winning and losing yesterday and how much I hated to lose. Then I thought to myself, I think I forget my wins and that my losses are more memorable. Is this common? Are our losses more memorable than our wins? We have seen countless highlights of MJ, draining buzzer-beaters, the flu game, the Dream Team, the Shot, etc. MJ didn't lose much in his career but does he vividly remember when he failed? br /br /Michael Jordan never used to win when he first joined the NBA in 1985. He won his first title in 1991, he had endured years of losing. When he un-retired in 1995, he played and then lost again. This is a quote from a recent ESPN article concerning MJ's competitive nature. i"Everyone heard of our famous card games," said former Bulls guard B.J. Armstrong. "Why did they last forever? Because Michael never loses. Whatever he's doing, he's going to win because he's going to keep on playing."/i br /br /For the last few years, I've been playing a lot of soccer/football. When I play, there's only one thing on my mind. To win. Or do whatever it takes to win. It could be claimed that I'm not a great footballer, and all bad footballers play defence. Last time I checked, unless you were Brazil, defence wins championships in soccer too. Everyone wants to score goals anyway, so why not allow them to do that and pay attention to not conceeding goals? That's dedication to a cause. br /br /When I lose a game, it sticks around for awhile. You want to win the next one so you keep on thinking about the last loss. It doesn't matter if the loss was your fault, you just don't want it to happen again. When you lose, you begin to take little glories. "I scored a goal". "I saved many goals". "We scored the last goal". But at the back of everyone's mind, the result is there. It may be pick-up, it may be a friendly, but it's a loss. br /br /In high school, I seemed to win everything. I never lost a debate in which I represented Presec. The one-time I didn't represent Presec, we lost. No, I didn't curse our team due to my absence on it. I don't even remember why I was off the team. Rumour has it that 'authorities' called for me to be axed off the team because I may have jeopardized our chances. Losing that inter-regional debate in Koforidua hurt so much, even though I wasn't on the team. We cried foul. I also competed for Presec in some 'What Do You Know' quizzes and won both times. I still remember my failure to make the school's Brillant National Science Maths quiz. It had been my goal when I enrolled in Presec after the disappointment in how my Kiddie Quiz participation with USTJSS ended. Now that was a memorable loss. br /br /Since high school, I've struggled to win much. We'd always fall short in our intramural game competitions. I didn't partake in any academic competitions at MIT, which is a story for another day. When I came to Stanford, I participated in some Trivia Afriques and only won after my third run. Whew! I felt I had lifted a monkey off my back. And then we finally won a soccer tournament (SASA world cup)!. Double whew! It got to a point I thought I was 'bad luck'. The few Kotobabi Soccer Stars games I missed, we won. Call it superstition, but I'll rather we won even if I wasn't a contributor.br /br /Back to MJ. We all know him as a winner. I'll argue that if you win most of your life, especially on the big stage, you remember your losses better. Losing is uncommon to you so they become more memorable. If you are not winning all the time, your wins become more memorable. Think about relationships with women. If you have your way with picking up women, getting phone numbers, etc, you will remember quite vividly the times you failed. If you don't have that much luck, charm, whatchumacallit, then you'll probably remember the times you were successful. I remember all the great times I had with women (and people in general) but I can't seem to forget the regrets. br /br /I am off to watch some more Michael Jordan moments while I prepare to go play soccer again. You should watch some too. MJ is phenomenal. Many basketball players all over the world wear #23 in his honour. 23's fame has transcended other sports. When David Beckham realised #7 was taken by Raul when he arrived at Real Madrid, he chose #23. When I bought my first Manchester United jersey, I chose the number #23 as well. What was I going to choose? #10? I am no Abedi Pele. My favorite number is #3 but I am not left-back. I am unhappy with the way numbers don't mean much when it comes to football positions these days but when I could choose a number, I had to choose a winning one. And that is #23. Given the impressions losses make on my psyche, I had to go with a number like that.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3441873228512258632?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 10, 2009
• 23:42

  Kenya's Malooned and other African movies

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Good morning my neighbours! There was a time when Africa's representation in movies was synonymous with 'Coming to America'. The film was shown on tv in Ghana countless times when I was young and yesterday I had the chance to see it again. As I am older now, I watched the movie with more of a critical eye than back then and saw the stereotypes, etc. I am not about to get worked up about Africa's portrayal because I also watched Kenya's Malooned movie which I believe is one of the better African movies I've ever seen. African cinema is coming off age, especially local movies. There are a lot of African films outside the Nollywood circuit and we should begin to watch them. I'll try to share a few of them with you. br /br /Malooned is a film by Kenya's Cinematic Studios, produced and directed by Bob Nyanja. I first heard about it through my Kenyan buddy here. I borrowed the DVD from Stanford's library and watched it a second time. For those crying for African films to have interesting and different plots, how about this one - Malooned is a movie about a man and a woman stuck in a toilet over a holiday weekend. Genius! You don't need too many characters, don't need too many sets, don't have to worry about how to show special effects with respect to blood. You know how it's done in many African movies? They use knockouts and dye. Sad. Anyway, Malooned was a low-budget film but very very well done in my opinion. br /br /The movie featured Charles Bukeko, who is famous outside Kenya for his role in a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCtjnfrZaEM"this Brrr Coca Cola advert/a. Godffrey Odhiambo plays a Luo man who is malooned in the loo together with Gabriella Mutia plays a Kikuyu woman. I like how their discussions involve Kenyan politics, their different relationships, etc. Turns out Godffrey's character, Luther Vandross Odhiambo, attended Stanford University. Cool huh? It's not too cool when you think of some of the ridiculous ideas he tries out to get the twosome out of the loo. I watched the making of the movie and was impressed with how they went about the production. The movie was done in 10 days (whittled down from 21). 10? Sounds like Nollywood to me. Movie-making is not easy and seeing how the movie was shot was eye-opening for me. You should see Malooned if you get a chance, I highly recommend it.br /br /Here are a few other Eastern African movies of note. Kenya's From a Whisper commemorated the 10th anniversary of August 7th terrorist bombing in Kenya in 1998. It was directed by Wanuri Kahiu. a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBCmX8ZCWtM"Trailer here/a. I am hoping to see this movie soon. It features Godffrey Odhiambo as well as Corrine Onyango. The movie won a bunch of awards at the last African Movie Awards. Wanuri's Dada Productions also came out with a href="http://www.dadaproductions.net/ras_star/index.htm"Ras Star/a, a short film about a teenage rapper, Amani, who's from a staunch Muslim family. The film is loosely based on Necessary Noize's Nazizi. Watch it a href="http://imaginingourselves.imow.org/pb/Story.aspx?C=0G=1id=1570lang=1"here/a. Another Kenyan movie/documentary of note is "Coming of Age" by Judy Kibinge talking about three political ages - Kenyatta to Arap Moi to Kibaki. Learn about it a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I0-vbOgHR0"here/a.br /br /I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of South Africa's a href="http://www.whiteweddingmovie.co.za/"White Wedding movie/a in my lap. After the success of serious-minded movies like a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419279/"Yesterday/a, a href="http://www.tsotsi.com/english/index.php"Tsotsi/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-african-movie-jerusalema-review.html"Jerusalema/a a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/reviewing-district-9-south-african-sci.html"District 9/a, it would be nice to watch a South African comedy. Kenneth Nkosi and Rapulana Seiphemo are two of my favorite actors now. I also watched 'Catch a fire' recently which I loved. Terry Pheto makes me happy. Why isn't she acting anymore? She's h0t! I'll also like to see a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1432936/"Gugu Andile/a and a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1364226/"Izulu Lami/a, which has been dubbed South Africa's Slumdog Millionaire. br /br /Here's a Nigerian movie from outside the Nollywood circuit that looks great. a href="http://www.clammag.com/clamfilms//relentless/html/casting_call.html"Relentless/a. a href="http://vimeo.com/4471734"Watch the trailer here/a. The movie featured Jimmy Jean Louis (who was the hotshot in Phat Girlz) and Nneka, the Nigerian-German singer who's been nominated for Channel O MTV Africa Music Awards this year. It is set in Lagos. Another Naija movie to check out will be Arugba. a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSOlIHjw7Cc"Watch the trailer here/a. It seems to be your typical traditional West African movie (in Yoruba this time) but much better. We'll see.br /br /We all know about Hotel Rwanda but what about another movie about the Rwandan genocide? Featuring some Rwandans. a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235848/"Rwanda, Le Jour Où Dieu est Parti en Voyage/a (Rwanda, the Day God Went on a Trip) was produced by Artemis and Mugho Productions in 2008 and features Rwanda's RB/Zouk singer, Shanel. It's in French. br /br /If you are looking for a few more Africans to see, you can start with the a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/03/africa-movie-academy-awards-2009-agony.html"AMAA 2009 nominees/a. I am also looking for suggestions of great African movies that came out recently. So please do tell. Thanks.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-9185665197663886460?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 6:28

  Ghana qualifies for South Africa 2010 - the tasks ahead

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Last weekend, Ghana became the first African country to qualify for the World Cup other than the host country, South Africa. It's always nice to set the pace and finish the job with two games to spare. We made our first mundial (Germany 2006) and came away as the best placed African country and doing better than many people thought we would. In fact, at one point during the World Cup, Ghana was the most searched item on Google. If Twitter was as big as it is now, Ghana would be a trending topic too. We'll love to be trendy, but we should want to be winners. We won't sneak up on anyone next time and there's no reason we can't go all the way. We just need to do our homework, prepare adequately and give it our best. Go, Ghana, go!br /br /Some critics would say we had an easy qualifying group. We earned whatever favors we got by being one of Africa's 5 best teams. We executed the job well, with four games played, we won all our games and didn't concede any goals. Mali has some world-class players, it's not easy to play in Sudan and Benin would tell you there are no minnows in soccer these days. Africa is too passionate about the sport to expect to walk into someone's home and emerge triumphant. We had some scares in the first round of qualifying, we barely won our group which featured Gabon, Lesotho, and Libya. Our strikers found their scoring boots and or defence was unforgiving. Now that's the hallmark of a great team. Midfields are absolutely key in today's game and it can be argued that we have the best midfield in Africa.br /br /I didn't watch any of Ghana's qualifying games which is sad since I am normally on top of these things. I did get to see our friendly yesterday against Japan where we performed the biggest Black Star choke job, conceding 4 goals in 45 minutes to lose to Japan, a team we had dominated in the first half. I was concerned with our team, we have some stalwarts like Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari, but to be a world-class team, we need world-class players. If our strikers have bad first touches, we can't expect too many goals. If our players can't tackle cleanly, we will be in danger too many times. African teams in general need better discipline, if there's one thing these 'foreign' coaches have added to our game, it's the team discipline and you can argue the same for better tactics.br /br /Our winning eleven can get better but I feel this is the best formation we have as at now - 4:4:2. Richard Kingston in goal; John Paintsil Harrison Afful as right left-back, Eric Addo John Mensah in the heart of defence; Kwadwo Asamoah Sulley Muntari on the wings, Anthony Annan holding with Michael Essien ahead of him; then we have Asamoah Gyan and Matthew Amoah in attack. The debate of playing 4:5:1 or 4:4:2 in Ghanaian circles is a recent one, 4:4:2 is what we've done for a long time and it still works. Especially when we don't have any standout strikers, with stalwart eye-for-goal midfielders and a possession game. Gyan and Amoah drop deep to play some football, so it's okay to start them both. Even if we miraculously get Super Mario Balotelli (Barwuah), we should stick to this formation. We are watching you Milo. Nestle our ambitions with better tactics, selections and substitutions. :-)br /br /In goal, Richard Kingston is very reliable. Olele is a gem and he's not losing his agility with age. After him, there's a drop-off. William Amamoo showed he was not ready for the big stage. George Owu is #2, and I hope we get Adam Kwarasey to join us too. In defence, John Paintsil may disappoint every now and then but I think he's our best option. His playing at Fulham game-in game-out is no fluke. I don't know Emmanuel Boakye is faring and we all hoped Real Madrid's Daniel Opare would be ready by now, but he's not. Our biggest problem is at left-back which Harrison Afful is staking claim too. Maybe Kevin Boateng can bring his brother Jerome along from Germany and solve that for us? There are no obvious folks there, someone help me out. Isaac Vorsah got a chance to play in defence against Japan, and from what I saw, he disappointed. He committed too many fouls, that's suicidal on the big stage. I like Francis Dickoh better and that Jonathan Quartey kid too will do. Eric Addo may be old and slow but he's a very smart player. The Rock of Gibraltar's pace can suffice for Eric's flaws. John Mensah is our rock, and he has to stay fit for our sake.br /br /Don't we just love our midfield! Anthony Annan should get a better club, he's fantastic! He has many nicknames but can we call him Makelele? Pokinho must start for the Stars. We are not sacrifing attack to play him but we are strengthening our defence. Unless you are Brazil, defence does win championships in football too. Stephen Appiah must find a club. At this rate, we can't afford to play him more than 15 minutes in any of our games unless he does and is fit as a fiddle. I say we take him to South Africa for his leadership abilities to inspire the boys. Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari Kwadwo Asamoah should complete our midfield. Quincy Owusu Abeyie would have been awesome for us, and he still has time to make the squad. Dede Ayew hasn't improved so he may lose out. I hope Kevin Boateng shines at Portsmouth to make our squad, as well as Moussa Narry. Haminu Dramani, Derek Boateng, Opoku Agyemang, should be counted as well.br /br /I'll keep on praying that we get Mario Balotelli (Muntari, do something). I saw Mario when he came to Palo Alto but I didn't speak Italian. I mean, he doesn't speak Twi, does he? Otherwise, we have Asamoah Gyan Matthew Amoah to rely on, with Prince Tagoe waiting. We should definitely take Ransford Osei with us, I am pretty sure if we need to call on him, he can deliver. BabyJet has to take shooting lessons, Klinsmann Amoah has to work on his touch and Prince Tagoe needs to develop a go-to move other than the bicycle kick. br /br /Osee, osee, Black Stars ei, forward ever! We are going for gold. Let's sharpen our tools and success shall follow us. Tsooboi!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7101007414848287175?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• September 01, 2009
• 4:22

  Know where to sow (a poem)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  This poem was inspired by the Parable of the Sower - Matthew 13:18-23. Poem's called Know where to sow. Enjoy.br /br /Sown and grown on the waysidebr /Well, it fell on rocksbr /Thrown and grown along pathsbr /Trodden under by impactbr /Shown and grown in good soilbr /To reap the harvest of toilbr /Rooted in filth and guiltbr /Stemming from temptationbr /Leaving the margin of rightbr /Nothing good for the receptaclebr /The rains were mad last timebr /This time, they made one sadbr /Good fruit was borne however br /Through the nurturing of culturebr /Fruit from good seeds grewbr /Into yet another flicker of hopebr /Favourable grounds helped to copebr /Into hearers and doersbr /If oaks from little acorns should growbr /Then know where to sowdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-6010098539785352737?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• August 30, 2009
• 22:27

  KSM dances to Oluman Boogie at Nifty @Fifty show

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  KSM's Nifty@Fifty concert in December 2007 was superb. I had heard about his exploits dancing to FBS' Oluman Boogie through the internet and TV. So when I was in Ghana, I decided to spend my Christmas Day in Accra (instead of Kumasi) so I could catch his show. It was terrible not spending it with my nuclear family at home but the show was great. I took a bunch of videos so that my family could watch what transpired. Finally, I have some for you to view. If you missed KSM getting jiggy with a girl half her age, you can see a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/ksm-dances-with-random-girl-at-nifty.html"those videos here/a. br /br /a href="http://museke.com/en/node/434"Oluman Boogie/a was released in by the Function Boy Squad. The song quickly made an impression and FBS became one of the most wanted performers due to their dancing prowess. The song talked about Sugar Daddies. If you live in Ghana, you'll know that this is common there. In University of Ghana (Legon), we have what we call 'Inte' and 'Exte'. 'Inte' is the Legon male student who's the boyfriend and 'Exte' is the non Legon male (normally quite old) who splashes kawukudi/luuchi/cash/dough on the Legon girl. So imagine you are an 'Inte', and you are dating this Legon girl, and you have to 'compete' with this 'Exte' bankroller, it's not easy. It's worse when this old man is not old and weak, but is a strong man. If you fought with him, you would lose. That's the Oluman Boogie.br /br /KSM clocked 50 and wanted to prove to the world he was no ordinary old man, but an Oluman Boogie. What better way to prove that than to do a bunch of dances? As you can see from this Youtube video - [www.youtube.com] - it's not easy. So he invited FBS to this show to perform the song alongside them. These videos show what happened.br /br /Before they get to the dancing, KSM has to adequately dress up. Hilariousbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpfA2LEndNwbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YpfA2LEndNwhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YpfA2LEndNwhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /The actual performancebr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvjAi3ZHPPobr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RvjAi3ZHPPohl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RvjAi3ZHPPohl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Enjoy these videos for now. I have some more coming.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5831203492516740303?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 6:24

  My Top 10 Ghanaian songs of 2009 (so far)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Here's another one. Just like the other one. Ghanaian music is at a crisis. People feel we are sounding too much like Western artistes. Okyeame Kwame and Obour recorded a song 'a href="http://museke.com/node/3077"The Game/a' which addressed this. Me, am loving all of this. It's good we are talking about this. In fact, hiplife GH Rap are taking over. We can still get down to the old jams, and appreciate the new. So in case VIP's Ahomka womu is still the Gh song you jam to or you stopped paying attention after Obrafour's last album or you are just waiting to hear Kojo Antwi's latest album, you should get up-to-date with the jams of today. I know 2009 hasn't ended yet, but here are 10 of my favorite Ghanaian songs this year. I'll tell you which song didn't make it unfortunately. Kwabena Kwabena's a href="http://museke.com/node/1914"Do ne bi/a is an all-time favorite, but for me, it made its rounds in 2008.br /br /Before that, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/10-songs-dedicated-to-african-women.html"10 songs dedicated to African women/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-10-favorite-ghanaian-songs.html" favorite Ghanaian songs/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-10-favorite-kenyan-songs.html"10 favorite songs from Kenya/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a I hope to hear some of these at your next party. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3805"Simple/a - Bradez/strongbr /This is my brother's favorite GH song now and I share his sentiments. Those Prempeh boys can rap! They've had hits before but it seems this is their best yet. This line is just brilliant if you ask me "I dash WI Double L dash WE D dash WI NIFRED full stop. Stone, who is the heck is Winifred? Day gee o! I love the chorus, and Okyeame Kwame's brothers killed it with their rap too. Big ups to Richie on the beat, this guy's the best now. "Babe you dey be me too much; Smile make I see your dimple; Pretty girl I’m loving your touch; Bad girls me I no dey mingle; I’ll never ever say u bye bye; Never ever leave you single; Anytime I dey by your side; You make me feel so simple"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3243"Baby (my wife)/a - Sarkodie/strongbr /Sarkodie's the new king of hiplife. People believe he is the true torchbearer taking over from Obrafour. Obrafour should come and take his crown before Sarkodie makes everyone forget he existed. Sarkodie has been freestyling for ages in Tema and releasing mixtapes that went viral. When he combined with Mugeez (of R2Bees) for this track, he had his first radio hit. He deserves it. This guy dey show 'Kasahare level'. You should hear his tracks a href="http://museke.com/node/3998"Boga/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/3027"Politics/a. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2959"Where my baby dey/a - Samini/strongbr /I was so excited to hear this song. Samini may be my favorite Ghanaian musician these days and I wish him a lot of success. Hope he wins a MAMA this year for best performer too. Go a href="http://mama.mtvbase.com"vote/a for him. How can you not shout at the top of your voice when singing this song? "Where my baby dey; As I am wailing everyday; Hoping say she still go come my way"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2947"Daa ke daa/a - Becca/strongbr /I first heard this song while watching Sparrow Productions' Scorned. I fell in love with it there and then. I knew it was Becca singing too. The song made me very happy. A song made for a Ghanaian movie that is super, will become a hit and will have a music video. Isn't this good? You know what they say about Ga and their women, Becca makes Ga sound so 'sexy'. Yes, I said it.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2734"Runaway/a - Irene/strongbr /It was inevitable that Irene and Jane would split. Irene hooked up with fellow Akora Richie, and they worked on her solo career. Her first single has been mad successful. It became the most searched Ghanaian song on Google. Asem laid the rap lines well and Irene shone with her singing. We are waiting for the music video. This song should go international. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3707"Anaa (remix)/a - Okyeame Kwame/strongbr /This is another song I can't get enough of. Okyeame Kwame's my favorite rapper now and like he said, he's also your favorite rapper's favorite rapper. The original Anaa song featured Wutah but though I am a huge fan of Wutah, the remix is much better. Morris did well too. I had a a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/obrafour-may-be-quiet-but-okyeame-kwame.html"whole blog post/a about this song, that's how much I love it.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3550"Kotosa/a - Wutah/strongbr /I was thoroughly excited to hear this song played in Sparrow Productions' Perfect Picture. Wutah has been struggling to be in the limelight after the successes of Goosy Gander, Big Dreams and Esikyire. They found the groove with this one. So "Love goes where Love is; I can't deny this; if you feeling this; Come and join us, sing this song"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3403"World Trade Center/a - 4x4/strongbr /This song is my present guilty pleasure. I don't know why I love listening to this song. It's everything I don't want in a hit song but still. I mean look at this... "Go, go, go, big booty girl". "Cos the way you dey make I dey wonder, If your booty was given by your mama". "Never underestimate my lover; She have the World Trade Center; The twin towers to match in body, body, in body". Have you seen the video? Worse than Dr. Poh's a href="http://museke.com/node/428"Na who/a, the booty can cause traffic. God help me. And then they turn around and sing a href="http://museke.com/node/3856"Shaka Zulu/a. "The boy them need a girl with a sexy face; The girl them want a guy with a pretty face; They want a fresh face; She no want a man with a face like Shaka Zulu". Ouch.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3807"A moment's notice/a - Jane/strongbr /Can we just crown 'The Perfect Picture' the best Ghanaian movie ever? There's too much to say about the movie. Including this song by Jane. After Irene made it big with Runaway, everyone is watching to see what Jane would do. The girl would be fine if she gets a good manager. She's great. This particular song is hot. When Jane posted it on her Facebook fan page, I listened to it continuously. And then, it was the soundtrack for the 'Perfect Picture's "best scene", imagine the excitation. Chei! "We talking about the things we do when we're in love; Midnight calls, lunch in the park, head way up in the sky". Kai!br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2908"Nyornuviade/a - Ayigbe Edem/strongbr /God bless Ayigbe Edem. We have a legitimate Ewe rapper in Ghana now, to add to Tinny's success as the king of Ga rap. Do y'all realise they are both from Hammer of the Last 2's camp? We must celebrate Hammer, he's a gem. Of course, I don't understand Ewe, but this song is the bomb. And I think Kwabena Kwabena does the singing on this one, so that's a great bonus. Someone please translate the song for us. br /br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. The song that just failed to make the cut was Daddy Lumba's a href="http://museke.com/node/2683"Aye Huhuuhu/a. Other songs are a href="http://museke.com/node/2789"Samson Delilah/a by Ofori Amponsah, a href="http://museke.com/node/3705"Zoji zoji /a by Echo, a href="http://museke.com/node/3253"Ringtone/a by Tinny, a href="http://museke.com/node/2732"Wodin/a by 5Five, and a href="http://museke.com/node/2732"Broken/a by Soulja's Inn. br /br /More props to Mframa for their a href="http://museke.com/node/3190"Disco/a track. A big shoutout to D-Black Kwaku T for a href="http://museke.com/node/2492"Move/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/3836"Breathe/a. Vote for them and Okyeame Kwame for a href="http://www.channelo.tv"Channel O awards/a. Check out Shatta Rako's response to Okyeame Kwame and Obour's The Game with his own song, a href="http://museke.com/node/4004"Da Shame of the game/a. Sonni Bali's back from exile with a href="http://museke.com/node/3573"When you're gone/a aka 'hole in my natty'. Asem too does not want to be forgotten, and if you listen to a href="http://museke.com/node/3421"Suuliya/a with Sway, you'll know he's here to stay. br /br /Long live songs about Ghanaian music.br /Long live African music.br /Long live Ghana.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2657760885991290443?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 6:09

  KSM dances with random girl at Nifty @Fifty show

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Those of you who know me know am all over social media networks. Yes, I am on Twitter too. Follow me @Abocco. Yup, that's me. More on my many web names later. Earlier, I opened a Youtube account too, to share videos. The terrible part is that some dude had already taken the 'MIghTyAfrican' account (which is inactive now) so I had to settle with 'MIghTyAfrican1'. Bummer. I almost made up a new name but I am growing old now, can't keep track of all of my pseudonyms.br /br /I uploaded a bunch of videos I recorded from attending KSM's Nifty @ Fifty concert. I love KSM, he's awesome. I interviewed him once and came away with a lot of respect for him. Other than being an entertainer, he is a great personality, statesman and leader. He mentioned that he may want to go into politics. At his show, which coincided with Ghana's Golden Jubilee celebration, he mentioned that Ghana could use a 'funky president'. Who wouldn't want KSM as his president? I was sold after that show, it was one of the best shows I had attended ever. I've never laughed so much in my life, as you'll discover from the videos. I am the one laughing hysterically all the time. Sorry, it spoils the fun for you.br /br /KSM talked about how 50 year olds had fun at parties and the clubs, etc. He was 50 then, circa December 2007, and wanted to show the audience how he gots down. So he invited a girl from the audience (some claim that it was all planned) to come and dance with him. On stage. They danced to Naa Agyeman's Kwahu Bepo. Watch how it all transpired.br /br /Girl comes in stage and he tells her, 'I can born you'.br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTXvlU3t-n0br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RTXvlU3t-n0hl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RTXvlU3t-n0hl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Then they gets downbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB37SoJHm0obr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yB37SoJHm0ohl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yB37SoJHm0ohl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Enjoy these videos for now. I have some more coming.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5766886070133972711?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 29, 2009
• 4:29

  Two women (a poem)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I remember writing this poem at a bus station somewhere in Upstate New York. I was thinking about a couple of girls and I decided to express those thoughts on paper. So it became a poem. I decided to try my hand at some Twi poetry as well though it didn't turn out too good. I just translated the English lines to Twi so if some of the translations are off, forgive and then correct me. I had titled this poem 'Who is me' but it really should be something like two women. So there, I present to y'all 'two women'. Enjoy.br /br /She is mebr /She mirrors mebr /But she is a miragebr /And she is just an image of mebr /br /She is not mebr /She shadows mebr /But she is a windowbr /And her mirror doesn’t know mebr /br /I follow the mirrorbr /My shadow follows mebr /The mirror tells me I am fairbr /My shadow tells me I am darkbr /My mirror lets out my secretsbr /My shadow is my best kept secretbr /My mirror overshadows mebr /My shadow mirrors my shadebr /br /Sankofa sees my shadowbr /Nkoso notices my mirrorbr /Do I want mebr /Or do I want my shadowbr /Do I want comfortbr /Or do I want changebr /Do I do what is due tobr /Or do I do what is dutybr /Do I want to see myself in the mirrorbr /Or am I just happy with my shadowbr /br /Ɔyɛ mebr /Mehu me ho wɔ n’ahwehwɛ mubr /Nanso menhu nobr /Woayɛ te sɛ me nfonibr /br /Ɔnyɛ mebr /Ɔnam m’akyi nti menhu nobr /Nanso ɔyɛ mpoma ma mebr /N’ahwehwɛ no nnim mebr /br /Mepɛ me hobr /Anaa sɛ mepɛ nea menhubr /Mepɛ ahotobr /Anaa sɛ mepɛ nsesaɛ?br /Menyɛ deɛ ɛfiri sɛbr /Anaa menyɛ deɛ ɛwo sɛ meyɛ?br /br /:-)br /br /Soundtrack for this poem could be that 'a href="http://www.museke.com/en/node/110"Adwoa yɛ me yere, Yaa yɛ me mpena/a' song by Okomfo Kwaadee. Or Lord Kenya's 'Menkɔ Adwoa anaa menkɔ Ataa'?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-429467298332230864?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 27, 2009
• 22:32

  10 songs dedicated to African women

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Happy Women's Month! I promised myself to talk more about women this August and sadly, it's ending already. I only managed to talk about a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/official-pick-up-lines-to-try-out-for.html"pick-up lines/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/not-your-average-saturday-picking-up.html"their use/a. It's all going to be remedied with this post (I hope). We all love African Queen and how it became a phenomenon in the Diaspora. There are many more songs like that and I'll like to share some with y'all. br /iBecause If I could glow like an African beauty; br /I would show the make up of an African beauty; br /And not make up make up to show African beauty; br /Because before make up, there was African beauty./i br /This is from a poem I wrote, which I could consider my best to date. br /br /Before that, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-10-favorite-ghanaian-songs.html" favorite Ghanaian songs/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-10-favorite-kenyan-songs.html"10 favorite songs from Kenya/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a So these songs are for all the African women out there and for all who love them. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/32"African Queen/a - 2Face Idibia (Nigeria)/strongbr /What else can be said about this song? It's the reason there are that many songs praising African women these days anyway. Tuface has been going around leaving his mark all over the place when it comes to African women but this song shall remain timeless. "And you are my African Queen, the girl of my dreams; You take me where I've never been; You make my heart go ting-a-ling-a-ling, oh ahh; You are my African Queen, the girl of my dreams; And you remind me of a thing; And that is the African beauty yeah" Ooh, aah. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1112"African woman/a - Kokovelli (Ghana) /strongbr /This was one of the African women related songs that came out shortly after African Queen's success. Kokovelli's jam did well to the extent that some Sierra Leonians stole the beat and tune and made their own version. "African woman, your love don stain my body o; Sweet Ghanaian beauty, I want make you my baby o". What comes after that is for y'all to see. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1006"African girls/a - 5Five (Ghana)/strongbr /This jam is also one of my favorite songs period. 5Five gave shoutouts to women from various countries, from Algeria all the way to Botswana with a special mention for half-Fante girls. :-) "Afrikan Gurlz look good like summertime; I'm talking shapes or whatever, they so fine; They all lovable, talks on the low got respect though!; Plus some got their hair cut low!" The remix to this song is even hotter. DoubleFive really did well with this song, it's sad it didn't become a continental anthem.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1532"Nigerian girls/a - Modenine (Nigeria)/strongbr /This song has a pretty nice video. Modenine talks about the differences in Nigerian girls, by tribe. It's hilarious. It may not celebrate Nigerian (or African) women but it does talk about the diversity (for lack of a better word). But no matter where you from, no matter who you be, you gotta love Nigerian Girls. Some lyrics - "My Lagos chick said; You are dry, you don't mingle; You don't go clubbing; And you don't buy me pringles". "No cash, no Abuja chicks; Plenty cash; And they'll be on your ha"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1672"Nigerian girl/a - Obiwon (Nigeria)/strongbr /The late Michael Jackson had a famous Liberian girl song. Nigeria's Seven sampled it for his Nigerian girl song. But it doesn't beat Obiwon's track. Obiwon is an underrated singer from Naija, y'all should check him out, he's really good. He quit a banking job to do music too. He tells us - "It’s the way you walk, the sound of your voice; Your loving leaves me no choice; My Nigerian girl; Sweetest girl in the world".br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2141"Strong woman/a - Blu3 (Uganda)/strongbr /All these songs don't have to be from the guys. The ladies have their own anthems too. Africa's Destiny Child composed their own African 'Independent women' jam. It's sad Cindy left the group but she's doing well and Blu3's doing great too. You don't need me to tell you African women are strong, bold and wise women. But in case, you need reminding, you can listen to this song. "My beauty is deep inside of me; Nine months, I carried all humanity; But I am still fighting for my basic pride; I am grateful even when I am hurting; I am grateful for those who came before me"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2979"Sweetest Girls/a - Samini (Ghana) Nameless (Kenya)/strongbr /It's commonplace for African musicians to make songs about African women these days. Everyone is trying to do something unique to market those songs. Samini collaborated with another of my fave musicians, Nameless, for a song dedicated to African women everywhere. This song is crying for a video! They sing - "She make a grown man cry; She make a preacher man lie; She make a rude bwoy shy; She make no superman fly; ... Well, I've been to Joburg where the girls dance to Kwaito; I've been to Lagos where the kokolets them tight o; I've been to the East Africa where them girl them fine so; Samini make the girls move to the left and right o; I've been to Congo, Libya and Morocco; Liberia, Madagascar and Zimbabwe"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3466"South African girl/a - Steel (Nigeria)/strongbr /Developments and storylines in a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/south-african-movie-jerusalema-issues.html"Jerusalema/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/reviewing-district-9-south-african-sci.html"District 9/a have left a little bad blood between South Africa and Nigeria. Those things are out the window when it comes to music. Many Nigerian artistes are shooting excellent videos in South Africa and we all know MTN's favorite customers are in Nigeria. So Steel made a song for South African girls to celebrate this particular development. "South African girl, will you be my wifey?; The way you smile, I like it; Wai lai ta lai, I like it" ... "My love for you is strong; That's why I write this song; Baby come along; Let me praise you in tongues"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2903"Black queen/a - Bebe Cool (Uganda)/strongbr /The reggae musicians have their grooves too. Bebe Cool decided to sing for black queens everywhere, we all know reggae music is probably the most universal black music out there. The ladies in this video are not as fine as Bebe's Sexy Thing model, but we love the song nonetheless. "Black queen, you are my queen; I love you before; And I'll love you forever"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2029"Liberian girl/a - Jodi (Liberia)/strongbr /Now this is my jam. Jodi is probably the least known of all these musicians but the dude can 'sang'. I always have to listen to this song more than once. Ask the Lib4lyfe Liberians about this song. "I've been thinkin 'bout you; So I wrote this song to let you know; You're my Liberian queen; I've been thinkin 'bout you; So I wrote this song for you my Liberian girl"br /br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. br /br /a href="http://museke.com/node/18"Lady/a by Ofori Amponsahbr /a href="http://museke.com/node/117"Lady/a by Fela Kutibr /a href="http://museke.com/node/376"Ghana ladies/a by the late Terry Bonchakabr /a href="http://museke.com/node/793"African lady/a by Saminibr /Ugandan woman - Mega Deebr /Ghana mmaa - VIPbr /Nigerian girl - Sevenbr /African queen remix - Rukusbr /br /I can't write songs but I can write some poems. Watch out for mine. br /br /Long live songs about African women.br /Long live African women.br /Long live African beauty.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4678958309029050947?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 13:47

  Homicide (a poem)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Wanted to blog today but I don't have time so I will do what do when this happens. Put up an old poem. This poem is called Homicide. Wrote it a while ago. You can try and decipher what it means, that's the beauty of the language abi? Enjoybr /br /br /Like a masked murdererbr /Radiant with lovebr /Knifing the apron stringsbr /That bound us to custombr /Like a patient poacherbr /Endangering a lifebr /Leaving an ancestral stumpbr /After draining the sapbr /Like a settling seedbr /Seeking to rule the nativesbr /To improve its diversitybr /Killing softly the inbred societybr /Like a caring cutthroatbr /To say a soothing prayerbr /With a temporary temeritybr /Enslaving the richbr /Like a pestering preacherbr /To liberate the naïve yetbr /Who came and taught nothingbr /And burgled society’s educationdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-141493668305572120?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 24, 2009
• 21:46

  The race for the 19th EPL title - Manchester United

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  It's nice to have ESPN show English Premier League games in the US these days. Just saw Aston Villa pull off an industrious away win and break Liverpool's impenetrable fortress with a 3-1 win. They aren't the only Big 4 team to lose; my own Manchester United lost by a lone goal to the promoted Burnley. It's not going to same MAN U without CR7 and Tevez but there's no reason why we can't be successful. A lot has happened since we lifted our 18th league title to knock Liverpool off their perch, and we can get that 19th to do them one better. Chelsea may prevent that from happening because to me, they are favorites. It's gonna be one long and exciting EPL season.br /br /I was resigned to seeing Cristiano Ronaldo leave. He was our matchwinner but his heart was somewhere else. I was obviously delighted to see him go for 80 million pounds. When Beckham and Van Nistelrooy left, it was because Sir Alex Ferguson wanted them to go. I believe he wanted to hold on to CR7 but that kind of money and the player's attitude was too good to pass up. I wanted Tevez to stay because he was useful and was dedicated to the MAN U cause. We treated him badly with not giving him enough playing time though. Gerard Pique came back to bite us in the Champions League' final and I hope the same doesn't happen with Tevez. Given his recent pronouncements, he'll love to do so. Losing to Burnley hurt and it looks like we may need a creative midfielder, but I think we should stick with this squad. They are capable of winning trophies though we have very few matchwinners. br /br /Ronaldo's absence meant we needed a winger and we made a good buy with Antonio Valencia. He's not going to score as many goals but he'll create chances. So far, so good. I didn't want any expensive buys because I believed the youngsters should be given some more run. Let's 'sacrifice' this year, play the youth (Arsenal style) and grow their confidence for future seasons. Getting Michael Owen was a shrewd buy and I believe he will contribute to the cause. 10 goals is a good target. Rooney has started well and he should definitely get more than 25 goals this year. I don't like Berbatov at all but we are stuck with him so I wish him all the success. Fergie has to be tactical in how he uses him to get the best out of him. Kiko Macheda will get his playing time and along with Welbeck, should prove that they cut it at the highest levels. br /br /We have many good midfielders but we don't have any standouts. We don't have any creative midfielders or guys who can shoot the heck out of the ball. Gibson can, but he won't get the playing time. Why do we have a Brazilian who can't score goals in our team? Anderson frustrates me. I hope this is the last season for Giggs and Scholes, they should give it their best and get into coaching. I love the industry of Fletcher and I pray Hargreaves gets healed, he's our best midfielder on many counts. Carrick should also develop a shot and Fergie must use Park's energy well. If he does a whole lot of useless running with little results, he must be benched. We are all hoping Nani comes good this season and yes, he does have some good shooting prowess. I'd like to see him take on defenders more, shoot if he has space or win freekicks. Seems he can convert them too, so that's good. I'll like to see Gibson play some more. When will Tosic be ready? That kid could be really good.br /br /Our defence is the number one reason we'll challenge for trophies and it's what carried us last season. We may have lost to Burnley but check the pre-season and other stats and see the number of goals we've conceded. Few. We need a full-time right back though the Neville-O'Shea-Silva nucleus is good. It's great to have Vidic and Wes Brown back. They can hold the fort with Evans while Ferdinand is out. Patrice Evra is a great player and I'll like to see him get awarded with some goals this year on his forward runs. As always, we have to defend by committee. It sucks to have Van Der Sar out for so long, but so far, Foster has looked good. br /br /Chelsea didn't lose any major players and to me, are the favorites. They have so many matchwinners. Sometimes, I wonder how they lose games. Arsenal will be in it right to the end if Fabregas and Van Persie stay healthy all year. Liverpool will suffer from Xabi Alonso's loss but they'll also do well. We shouldn't write off Man City. Their coach may be Mark Hughes but their squad is experienced, determined and deep. I can liken them to Chelsea, if Avram Grant could lead them to the Champs League final, Mark Hughes can win a lot of games with this squad. And they just got Lescott too. Citeh is for real. Tottenham always look promising and so far, are top of the league with some impressive results. Aston Villa's form tapered off after mid-season and that may be the same fate that Tottenham has, or maybe not. This season will be tough, the big 4 could drop points against more teams. br /br /I was worried about Manchester United's start but everyone knows our best form is in the second part of the season. It was great to score 5 against Wigan, we must find our scoring boots. As Fergie works out the kinks in the squad, finds the right formations and tactics, VDS and Hargeaves join the fold, we'll be much better come January. There's a lot of load on Rooney's shoulders though because with the parity that exists in today's game, we need stars to win matches. That's where Rooney comes in. We'll see how it goes.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-743936138881671967?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 4:52

  My 10 favorite Ghanaian gospel songs

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Today, I went to church. For the first time in a long time. In fact, I went to a Catholic service in the US for the first time in the longest time. I feel good, still do. I have my favorite African gospel songs iTunes playlist playing. Right now. I already talked about the power of gospel music and you can see my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-favorite-10-african-gospel-songs.html"10 favorite African gospel songs/a list here. Church services in the US are more mellow and boring compared to those back home and the difference is really in the singing, dancing and 'Kofi Ama' collections. Ghana is a religious country, the names of various small businesses would confirm that. Our whole religious culture is somewhat superficial but that's for another entry. For now, let's appreciate the beauty of gospel music.br /br /Before that, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-10-favorite-ghanaian-songs.html" favorite Ghanaian songs/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-10-favorite-kenyan-songs.html"10 favorite songs from Kenya/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a Hope you discover your next favorite morning song or find a new jam for your church's next "Kofi and Ama" collection. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/41"Nea yehu hi/a - Daughters of Glorious Jesus (DOGJ) /strongbr /This song came out in 2000. I know this for shizzle because when it was released, I was in Form 2 in Presec and on the editorial board. It sounded like a perfect soundtrack for Presec juniors - "Nea yɛhu yi, nea yɛhu yi a, ɛntumi mmu y'abɛn mu da o" - which means 'what we are seeing, it can't break our spirit, ever!'. Now that is a rallying cry every oppressed and bullied person should have. The song was a major hit and DOGJ is like the gospel version of Kojo Antwi, they always churn out hits. This song made such an impression on me, it inspired on my many Filla Board posts. Song talks about having a God who will fight for us so nothing can deter us from what we want to do or break our spirits. What is your problem? With God's backing, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Amenbr /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1490"Mapem/a - Anita Obeng/strongbr /A friend posted the lyrics to this song on Museke and that's how I heard about this one. It has a powerful message. "Mede m’ahoɔden nyina ara ayɛ, anyɛ yie oo" - I have used all my strength to do it, it didn't work. "Anokwa m’ahoɔden nyina ara nso adi me hwambɔ o" - I have used my strength but it didn't work out for me. "Afei deɛ mapem, menhunu deɛ menfa o" - As at now, I have hit a , I don't know what to do". Song talks about how we need guidance and strength from other sources, which you all know already so I don't need to expantiate. Abi? I love the message. Anita Obeng's not one of the heavweights, but this song is heavy, heavy.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/865"Aman mma/a - Noble Nketsia/strongbr /This is probably my fave GH gospel song, worship at least. Noble Nketsia is a great singer and he shines on this track. It's actually a slower version of his more popular 'a href="http://museke.com/node/866"Mommɛtie/a' song. "Aman mma, mommera mmɛtie anwanwasɛm bi" - Citizens (children of the gov't), come and hear something wonderful. "Makɔ akɔhyia barima anwanwafo bi e" - I have gone to meet a wonderful man. "Barima na yɛfrɛ no Yesu no" - The man who is called Jesus. "Wɔayi m'adesoa nyinaa ara ama me, ama me" - He has removed all my burdens. Just listen to pure bliss. Emotional. Sensational. Fantabulous.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1748"Fefeefe/a - Ohemaa Mercy/strongbr /This is actually the calling tone on my sister's phone. I love calling her just to hear it. Ohemaa Mercy has been around the top of the gospel summit ever since she emerged, she's done well. "Fa wo ho to ne so, na ɔbɛyɛ o" - Put yourself on Him and He will do it. "Ɔbɛyɛ ama no ayɛ fɛfɛɛfɛ, fɛfɛɛfɛ" - He will do it so that it is nice. She talks about the people who we put trust in and ultimately fail us and that God will never forsake or fail us. In fact, they sometimes take our money and run. In today's Ghana, such stories are commonplace. A right song for the right times. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/774"Kakra nkakra/a - Moses OK/strongbr /Moses OK is one of the most underrated Ghanaian gospel artistes. He always makes great music. "Kakra nkakra, ɛbɛyɛ yie, Ɛnti mɛkɔ so akɔ m'anim" - Little by little, it will be well, so I will keep on going forward. "Mede gyidie ani ahunu sɛ, Me daakye no yɛ kɛsɛ" - I have faith to see that, my future will be big. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean. Have faith as you pursue your dreams my people, because God will fight for you. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1741"Awurade Asem/a - Cee/strongbr /Ms. Powerful voice emerged on the gospel scene and took over. She didn't do too well on TV3 Mentor but once she released her gospel music videos, she had stardom written all over her. "Neɛ wode w’ano aka nyinaa ara aba mu" - All you have said has come true. - "W’asɛm yɛ me han ɛne me kanea" - Your words are my lamp and light. "Awurade, w’anum asɛm yɛ me dɛ (Dɛdɛɛdɛ 3x)" - God, your words are sweet to me. It's another song that warmed its way into my heart through my twin sisters. Cee's good and songs like hers are encouraging very danceable gospel music. Besides, gospel songs are routinely played at Ghanaian parties and events back home (but maybe not abroad). br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2261"Moko be/a - Nii Okai/strongbr /If you have this album, my jam on there is really the worship medley but it can't count as a song here. The foundation of that medley is Moko be. I can't translate the Ga lyrics for you fully but the song loosely means 'a href="http://museke.com/node/1709"none compares/a' "Na nyomo, tse ofee, na mantse..." Nii Okai is a great singer, one of the very best. The worship medley is one of my favorites for quiet time (when I do do it). br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/181"Nipa/a - Esther Smith/strongbr /Esther Smith was in the news for sins she committed against her husband but she sure does make some fantastic gospel music. This song is all about the lyrics. I remember one time, I was in a trotro in Accra, going towards Adenta from downtown Accra and right around the 37 roundabout, this song was played on the radio and this little girl sang along 'word for word'. Verbatim. Memorable. "Dawu nyɛ awieyɛ, Nipa, dawu nyɛ awieyɛ e" - Death is not the end, human being, death is not the end. "Hwehwɛ Jesus akwan, Ɔsandɛ ne mu na nkwantene wɔ" - Look for Jesus' way, because it is in Him that there is long life. "Ɔtanfo Abonsam kɔ, Ɔtanfo Abonsam, firi me do e" - Enemy Satan go, Enemy Satan get off off me. "Mma ha mmɛgyegye me, Ɔsandɛ m'afa Jesus abɔ me do o" - Don't come here and worry me, because I have taken Jesus for myself. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2725"Akokofunu/a - Great Ampong/strongbr /Some people call this song Heaven and it brings tears to my eyes. The storytelling is buriful. He uses the madman's story to sing his song where the madman who goes around looking for food, when he finds some, he doesn't get a plate and when he gets plate, he doesn't have food. "Saa na wiase teɛ, wiase asetena nyɛ nika ei" - That's how the world is, living in this world is not cool. "Saa na wiase teɛ, ɛnnɛ anigyeɛ na ɔkyena awerɛhoɔ o" - That's how the world is, today, it's happiness, tomorrow, it's sadness. "Mereprepre ara, akɔ heaven" - I am itching to go to heaven. "Sɛ meduru heaven a, m'amanehunu nyinaa to bɛtwa" - When I reach heaven, all my troubles will end. "Sɛ meduru heaven a, m'abrɛbrɛsɛ yi, menkae hunu bio" - When I reach heaven, all my troubles, I won't see them again. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1609"N'asem/a - Shepherds/strongbr /Now who remembers this song? This one is old! It's an accapella track. "Agya Nyame n’asɛm yɛ adze a ɔma asomdwoe" - Father God's word is something that gives peace. "Agya Nyame n’asɛm no ma me ho faahodzi" - Father God's word gives me victory. Loose translation. At one of our GhanaThink retreats, one of my friends played it for me, this guy has some old hits. This accapella version is great because I can get a couple of friends and reproduce it in my backyard. br /br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. br /br /Secular Ghanaian musicians do gospel tracks too and Obrafour is famous for a couple, 'Enye Nyame a' and a href="http://museke.com/node/1642"Hwan na ene/a. Two of my faves feature Praye, a href="http://museke.com/node/2280"Tinny's Passion of the Christ/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/3093"Tete botan with Lady Prempeh/a. I met Philippa Baafi once and I love her a href="http://museke.com/node/972"Meyi m'akyea (I go dance o)/a as well as a href="http://museke.com/node/2098"Go high/a. I also like DOGJ's Tumi womu, Asomdwoe hene and a href="http://museke.com/node/39"Wo ntaban/a. I also like Christiana Love's a href="http://museke.com/node/2700"Mesu afre me Nyame with Kwaku Gyasi /a, and a href="http://museke.com/node/1194"Adent nti na woresu/a. A less popular song is Pastor Bezaleel's Jesus. Noble Nketsia's a href="http://museke.com/node/868"Into your hands/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/813"Mete ase yi/a are great too.br /br /The dancing prophet's a href="http://museke.com/node/2080"Mehuri so/a is good too, I always picture my aunt's singing that song. "Afe yi yɛ m'afe" - This year is my year. Francis Agyei has a great Mawu Agbo melody that I love too. We can't forget Tagoe Sisters, a href="http://museke.com/node/210"Watua Maka/a, Yeadi nkunim and Eto betwa. Cindy Thompson made a big splash with a href="http://museke.com/node/817"Awurade Kasa/a which is believed to have helped the NPP win the 200 election and a href="http://museke.com/node/818"Awanwan do/a, another hit. a href="http://museke.com/node/775"Osoro taa w'akyi/a by Moses Ok is another fave. We have the secular guys doing gospel but how about Pastor Josh Laryea going all Kirk Franklin on us? You gotta watch the a href="http://museke.com/node/2176"Praise da Lord/a video. Last but not the least, you have a href="http://museke.com/node/485"Mekae a/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/484"M'agyenkwa/a by Pastor Joe Beecham.br /br /If there are some Ghanaian songs you think should have made my list, let me know too. br /br /Long live Ghanaian gospel music.br /Long live Gospel music.br /Long live the Gospel.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7850217224752176911?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 21, 2009
• 23:44

  Reviewing District 9 - South African sci-fi flick

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  The first time I saw an African-made img src="http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v262/113/55/701822/n701822_31573146_8377.jpg" movie production in American theatres, it was Tsotsi. It was at a random cinema in Cambridge that showed mostly 'indie' movies. Yesterday, I saw my second, but this time in a more popular theatre (Century Cinema) and the movie was District 9. It's African-made alright but it has the influence of American Peter Jackson, so maybe that's why it made it to the giant Hollywood theatre circuit? a href="http://www.d-9.com/"District 9/a has been the most talked about movie all week, and it's been a trending topic on Twitter for a week now. I was excited to see it and after seeing it, I agree it was a good movie. Don't listen to me though, listen to IMDB, they list it as the a href="http://www.imdb.com/chart/top"31st best movie of all-time/a and clearly this year's best. br /br /I sent an email to the Stanford Africans encouraging people to go see this African production. Before we could get to rallying the troops, someone had sent an email to Black Diaspora list calling District 9 the 'most abominable racist propaganda in years'. You could read about the movie and easily agree with her, but I think sometimes we take some things too seriously. Or is it just me? Particular mention was made of how Nigerians were portrayed in the movie. I decided to stop reading the many emails sent on the subject lest it spoiled the movie for me. After the way Nigerians were treated in a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/south-african-movie-jerusalema-issues.html"Jerusalema/a, the last thing I needed was for them to bear the brunt of discrimination in another African-related movie, especially one that would be shown in theatres across the world.br /br /So, :-) District 9 tells the story of some aliens who happen to land their spaceship/alien craft in the skies of Johannesburg which prompts humans to wonder what to do about them. Of all places, why would they land in an African country? Ao, mɔbɔ. Sad. A multi-national agency is formed to handle these visitors (or illegal immigrants if you may) and they enter the spaceship and settle them in Jozi's District 9. I think it's interesting how the aliens have similar features to the homo sapiens species. Now who programmed those 'aliens aka big prawns'? We have really come far with graphics and movie technology, it really blows my mind. These aliens are so like humans, it is mentioned that there was inter-species sex, I mean how? Who would have sex with an alien? Watch the movie to find out. Like I said before, this was an African production, and with the graphics and etc, who's to say Africa has not arrived? br /br /One interesting thing about the movie was how the aliens communicated with the humans. I couldn't figure out what language they were speaking. It surely wasn't English and if it was Hollywood's favorite African language, Swahili, I would have known too. Was it Afrikaans? Nyanja? Xhosa? It took these aliens just two decades to be able to speak a language with humans and even do business with them. Crazy innit? The aliens were given names like Christopher Johnson. Of course I have to ask why they weren't named Dladla Hlophe Nqongwane. Yeah, figured strikeVikus/strike Wikus wouldn't be able to pronounce that. I was impressed as to how the local authorities gave them addresses, names, etc. We can't even seem to do that properly in Accra. Sigh. What was the deal with the Nigerians speaking strikeKiswahili/strike Nyanja, etc? IMDB says the movie is in English and Nyanja. Is Nyanja the popular language in District 9? Was Nyanja chosen because it's the closest Southern African language to Swahili? What is this crush movie-makers have on Swahili? I doubt Nigerians would go all the way to South Africa and use Nyanja as their preferred lingua franca. br /br /You can't talk about District 9 without talking about the portrayal of Nigerians. I thought South Africa and Nigeria were cool now? In the movie, Nigerians run a cat food 419 scam in the slums of District 9. As if internet fraud was not enough, they were being portrayed as people who would also deceive aliens. We know about ABC 20/20's special on Nigerian 419, but you got to give it to these guys, they are hustlers and have the entrepreneurial spirit. What I didn't enjoy was the portrayal of the Nigerians as slumlords, criminals and drug dealers. Now, from prior knowledge, Nigerians may be running drug cartels and prostitution rings in South Africa, but in the slums? Why would they travel all the way to Nigeria and live in the slums? Besides, the South African anti-apartheid fighters have a whole bunch of weapons, which is partly the reason for the high incidence of crime in Mzansi, so how could the Nigerians be portrayed as the criminals? I suppose Neill Blomkamp couldn't portray South Africans that way and the easiest targets were the Nigerians. This must stop! I demand someone make a movie that portrays Nigerians in South Africa in a good light. Because such people do exist in real life. br /br /I didn't like the way the movie ended. In fact, I don't like the way most movies end these days. Hollywood is taking a page out of Nollywood's book (Yay!) by planning for sequels while the first movie is being done. I don't get any extra joy when I am left hanging at the end wondering what next. Hollywood makes a lot of money from sequels but they should sign off properly on their movies. It's been done too often, we've begun to just accept it instead of question the morale. At this rate, you'll have to love Nollywood movies, because when one part 1 is done, part 2 is not too far away. We probably have to wait a couple of years for the continuation of strikeDistrict 9/strike District 10.br /br /African movies are on the up. This was a great sci-fi flick. It featured alien weaponry, ground-breaking science and technology, awesome acting, and an interesting story. Talking about technology, some of those aliens were really smart. The aliens used some hi-tech stuff in their shacks, so did the local South African labs, but what about our Nigerians in the slums? African electronics. Now that's not cool. Hey, maybe it works, what do I know? We'll be talking about District 9 because it was controversial but also because it is ground-breaking for African theater as well. I may just buy this movie when it comes on DVD. The movie is highly recommended, even for Nigerians. :-) br /br /PS: I am still looking to see the White Wedding and will blog about Tsotsi at some point. Local is lekker.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-9185355858642977187?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 7:57

  Some related MakerFaire Africa videos

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I really wish I could have gone to be a part of MakerFaire Africa. MakerFaire Africa brought together African inventors, makers and other people for a three-day fair last weekend at the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence for ICT in Accra. It featured the showcasing of different products, services, projects and technologies as well as some panels and speakers. It showed the ingenuity of Africans, especially when it came to using local materials to solve local problems.br /br /A couple of friends, Nii Simmonds of a href="http://nubiancheetah.blogspot.com/"Nubian Cheetah/a, Emeka Okafor of a href="timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com"Timbuktu Chronicles/a and Henry Barnor of the a href="http://www.ghanathink.org"GhanaThink Foundation/a and the a href="http://www.barcampghana.org"BarCamp Ghana/a team were amongst the organizer. Much props to them for organizing such a spectacular fair. br /br /Ameyaw Debrah of the Jaded Renegade also attended MakerFaire Africa. He's a great citizen journalist who reports about different events and happenings in Ghana. You can check out his a href="www.youtube.com/ameyaw"Youtube channel/a for a wide variety of interviews, and videos, especially about Ghanaian entertainment. Below is a video he has from MakerFaire Africa.br /br /Johannes Thomas Arthur finds an innovative way to put waste plastic bottles to use. He has constructed a set of living room furniture using containers used for bottling water. He recently exhibited his collection at the first ever Maker Faire Africa.br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVHfKrbimgwbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WVHfKrbimgwhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WVHfKrbimgwhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /a href="http://www.davidajao.com"Oluniyi David Ajao/a also posted a video about assembled electronics. We know about the Suame Magazine and the great work they are doing there, but there is a lot more going on in various homes across the continent. I have long complained of Africa being a place where things are repaired, I hope we can get more into creating and making more. Here's the videobr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2a2jYjYNQobr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b2a2jYjYNQohl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b2a2jYjYNQohl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /The three friends I mentioned above are also involved in a href="http://www.afrobotics.com"Afrobotics/a. They organized a robot making workshop with Lego's Mindstorms. An MIT team I was part of once organized a six-week course in my alma-mater Presec (secondary school level) about robots and MindStorms in 2004 and it was fun. Afrobotics will organize a competition to fuel engineering, science, innovation, and entrepreneurship on the African continent, utilizing robotics.br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v1kN7npXfQbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8v1kN7npXfQhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8v1kN7npXfQhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /The next MakerFaire Africa will be in Nairobi, maybe I can make that. :-)br /Stop talking, start making. Tsooboi!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4493869311293281762?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 19, 2009
• 1:15

  Translate between some African languagaes English (Kasahorow)

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I've gotten some questions recently about an online Twi resource. What exactly are people looking for in a Twi resource? An online dictionary? Check. Check a href="http://www.kasahorow.com"Kasahorow.com/a and a href="http://www.words.fienipa.com"words.fienipa.com/a. You can also check websites like africanlanguages.com and kamusi.org. The folks at Kasahorow have this cool feature which allows you to translate words between Akan, English, Hausa, Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili. br / br / br /While I figure out how to get the embed code to work, you can always go a href="http://www.kasahorow.com"their website/a or a href="http://words.fienipa.com/en/all"the fienipa site/a and translate different words. br /It's very simple: "enter a word in the search box in the language you want to translate from. Then select the language name in the first drop-down menu. In the second drop-down menu, select the language you want to translate to." br / br /script type="text/javascript"function swap(){var db = document.getElementsByName("link")[0].selectedIndex;var link = document.getElementsByName("db")[0].selectedIndex;document.getElementsByName("db")[0].selectedIndex = db;document.getElementsByName("link")[0].selectedIndex = link;return false;}function gup(n){n = n.replace(/[[]/,"\[").replace(/[]]/,"\]");var r = "[?]"+n+"=([^#]*)";var x = new RegExp(r);var s = x.exec( window.location.href );if( s == null )return "";else return unescape(s[1].replace(/+/g, " "));}function ss(n,v){o=document.getElementsByName(n)[0];for(i=0;io.length;i++){if(o[i].value==v)o.selectedIndex=i;}} br /document.write("div id='kclientform'form method='get'"+"input type='text' name='kcq' value='"+gup('kcq')+"'/div style='display:inline' in select name='db'option value='ak'Akan/optionoption value='en'English/optionoption value='ha'Hausa/optionoption value='rw'Kinyarwanda/optionoption value='sw'Swahili/option/selectbr/ to select name='link'option value='ak'Akan/optionoption value='en'English/optionoption value='ha'Hausa/optionoption value='rw'Kinyarwanda/optionoption value='sw'Swahili/option/select/divinput type='submit' value='Translate'/ a href='#' onclick='swap();'swap/a | a href='http://mboa.fienipa.com/help/searching-dictionary' title='how to use this' target='_blank'help/a/form/div");ss('db', gup('db'));ss('link', gup('link')); br //script br / br /script type="text/javascript"function swap(){var db = document.getElementsByName("link")[0].selectedIndex;var link = document.getElementsByName("db")[0].selectedIndex;document.getElementsByName("db")[0].selectedIndex = db;document.getElementsByName("link")[0].selectedIndex = link;return false;}function gup(n){n = n.replace(/[[]/,"\[").replace(/[]]/,"\]");var r = "[?]"+n+"=([^#]*)";var x = new RegExp(r);var s = x.exec( window.location.href );if( s == null )return "";else return unescape(s[1].replace(/+/g, " "));}function ss(n,v){o=document.getElementsByName(n)[0];for(i=0;io.length;i++){if(o[i].value==v)o.selectedIndex=i;}} br /document.write(""+"div id='kclientform'"+"form method='get'"+""+"input type='text' name='kcq' value='"+gup('kcq')+"'/"+"div style='display:inline' in "+"select name='db'option value='ak'Akan/optionoption value='en'English/optionoption value='ha'Hausa/optionoption value='rw'Kinyarwanda/optionoption value='sw'Swahili/option/selectbr/ to select name='link'option value='ak'Akan/optionoption value='en'English/optionoption value='ha'Hausa/optionoption value='rw'Kinyarwanda/optionoption value='sw'Swahili/option/select/divinput type='submit' value='Translate'/ a href='#' onclick='swap();'swap/a | a href='http://mboa.fienipa.com/help/searching-dictionary' title='how to use this' target='_blank'help/a/form/div");ss('db', gup('db'));ss('link', gup('link')); br //script br / br /script type="text/javascript" br /kclient_key = "ato"; br /kclient_lim = 5; br /kclient_db = gup("db"); br /kclient_link = gup("link"); br /kclient_dom = "http://words.fienipa.com/"; br /kclient_query = gup("kcq"); br /kclient_width = 300; br /kclient_height = 400; br //script br /script type="text/javascript" src="http://words.fienipa.com/get_links.js"/script br / br /And if you haven't seen the awesome Ghana keyboard that allows you to type in Twi, Ga, Ewe characters, etc, don't miss out anymore. br /Get it at a href="http://kasahorow.com/content/windows-keyboard-ghana-updated"this Kasahorow link/a. br / br /Kasahorow foɔ deɛ, wɔn yɛ ade paa! br /They even made a crossword puzzle in Twi. Wobɛtumi ataake? See it a href="http://akan.fienipa.com/node/141"here/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2040983853579083342?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 17, 2009
• 7:04

  Before we call it Gollywood, Ghallywood, Sinikrom, etc - let's get our house in order

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I can't wait for Shirley Frimpong-Manso's next movie. It's been almost 5 months since a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/03/sparrow-productions-back-with-perfect.html"Perfect Picture/a came out. She's not the only one making Ghanaian movies though, some of the other movie houses churn out movies as frequently as once a month. I'll like to touch on a few issues in Ghanaian movies and offer some thoughts and advice. See my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/celebrating-emergence-of-ghanaian.html"previous post/a about the emergence of Ghanaian movies and some thoughts on working towards more excellence. I know some people don't like the idea of calling Ghana's movie industry Ghallywood or Gollywood and they have a point. Let's do something different. How about we call it Sinikrom? Oh wait, Phamous People has the 'a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/CineKrom/142490789664"Cinekrom/a' show. I am a huge fan of Phamous People, will love to see them get involved in the movie industry.br / br /I call the 'Nadia Buari-Van Vicker-Jackie Appiah-Majid Michel' movies the Accra movies. They feature English lines and are set in strikeAccra/strike Takoradi. Owners of magnificent homes in Accra are afraid to release them for shooting of these movies because they feel they'll become susceptible to armed robbers. Who knew there were magnificent houses in Takoradi like that? I hear the house in which Nadia lived in for 'Beyonce' is her own. No, she didn't earn that house through her countless roles in Ghanaian movies, her father is Sidiku Buari, a famous Ghanaian musician. Doing arts and entertainment in Ghana does pay, my people. These 'Accra/Takoradi movies' have used the Nollywood distribution channels to make stars out of their actors. They are enjoying the name recognition that the Nollywood stars have. br /br /I have a bunch of issues with these 'Accra movies'. They are making the same Nollywood mistakes, average sound and video quality, concentrating on making as many movies as possible instead of improving the quality of the production, etc. Do you pay attention to the dialogue in these films? Ridiculous. I made my brother buy 'The Perfect Picture' for me when he came to visit the US, and he also bought 'The King Is Mine'. The differences between the two movies were clear. 'The King Is Mine' tried too hard. These AA (Accra movies) use these big English words that definitely are not used in normal Ghanaian life and the dialogue is fake, to say the least. They sound better in Twi, because we use a lot of idioms there but when you do the same thing in English, it doesn't look real. You don't need to have your viewer sitting by dictionaries to impress them. You need profound lines, good witty conversation and superb acting to make a great movie. These proverbs and big English will make more sense if the lines were in the local languages because that's synonymous with our mother tongues.br /br /If you are making two movies a month, you are not spending enough time on each production. Besides, by using the same actors and actresses all the time, you have the situation where the actors' bargaining power increases and they can command huge sums to be in a movie. It worked for Nollywood around 2003, when Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola, Ramsey Nouah and Nkem Owoh were banned from appearing in movies due to hefty compensation packages and this allowed for new actors to get major roles. We should spend a little more time on the movies, re-take the scenes till they are excellent and edit them properly to get rid of times where the mic is showing on the top of the screen.br /br /I call the 'Agya Koo/Kyeiwaa movies with mostly Twi lines' Kumasi movies. Agya Koo is a gem. He has to receive a national medal soon. As Bradez sang, he helped stop the dominance of Nigerian films in Ghana. He seems to shine in almost any role he's put it in in a Ghanaian movie so far. Agya Koo is one of the most searched names on Youtube and Google and I know that because an unrelated Praye song called a href="http://www.museke.com/node/956"Agya Koo on Museke/a is popular. Recently, he stated that he didn't need script to act in movies. If you talk as much as Agya Koo does in movies, you probably don't want to be memorizing scripts. Many Ghanaians love his movies, etc, but it's about time we found a way to market him internationally so that non-Twi speakers will appreciate his talent. br /br /One of my biggest issues with these Twi movies is the subtitles. It may be tough to subtitle everything the actors are saying but we can be intentional about how we go about it. I feel the dialogue is rich and getting people to appreciate that should be one of the major goals. If we are going to do the subtitling, we must do it right - with zero grammatical errors et al. br /br /I watched a movie called 'Ashanti' the other day. I couldn't finish but it seemed to narrate some Asante history. I liked the idea a lot, the dialogue was super, the acting was great too and the settings were good. There were no subtitles though. I can't say it looked like Akan drama or Concert Party because the latter shows don't tell stories like this movie did. We always caught likening our movies to things like Efie Wura, but it's not our fault, it's what we are used to. I'll like to see more movies talking about our history. It's good for us Ghanaians to learn about it and I think it will have some more international appeal. We need to do this before someone else does and sells back to us anyway. br /br /Where are all the major actors who were around before the movie industry took a nosedive around 2004? Akofa Adjeani-Asiedu, Pascaline Edwards, Brew Riverson, etc? Can someone cast Oscar Provencal in some Inspector Bediako role in a movie? No one mentions NAFTI anymore, is it dead? The idea of doing auditions at hotels for movies is not the way to go. The fact that someone can come and play the part of a lotto doctor brilliantly for 2 minutes doesn't mean he'll play different roles that well in other movies. If we can't afford to teach our actors, let's spend a little more time on our productions. I already discussed the monetizing options, putting out as many movies in a short time is not the only way to make money. br /br /I can only sit here and yob bunch about what I feel must be done. I hope someone somewhere who knows someone who knows someone who is directly involved in the industry would pay heed and get to work. M'ano asi.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2069215015316252639?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 14, 2009
• 3:33

  My 10 favorite Ghanaian songs

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  For one reason or the other, I have become a deejay. I have amassed an impressive collection of African music, especially Ghanaian over the last 7 years. It's been a long while since I attended a Ghanaian party, seen myself at Kenyan, Nigerian, and Senegalese parties this year. Maybe I should organize one? Create an afrodisiac boomerang atmosphere right in the thick of aburokyire. It can be done, I gots the music to back it up. Today, I am going to share my favorite 10 Ghanaian songs which will be first in Ghanaian song series. I'll leave out gospel songs here, will dedicate a post to that. br / br /Before that, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-favorite-10-african-gospel-songs.html"10 favorite African gospel songs/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-10-favorite-kenyan-songs.html"10 favorite songs from Kenya/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a Hope you discover your next favorite morning song or find a new jam for your church's next "Kofi and Ama" collection. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1"Nteteɛ Pa/a - Obrafour/strong br /Obrafour is my favorite artiste of all time. When I heard he was launching an anti-indiscipline campaign in 2003, he earned even more respect in my book. He was Ghana's best rapper and it's most conscious musician. I am a sucker for socially conscious music and Nya nteteɛ pa (which means 'be disciplined' in Twi) was the flagship song. It spoke to people of all walks of life, even the parliamentarians. Obrafour gained a lot of fans from this song. "Be at the right place, the right time, c'mon man, do the right thing". And he sings, let's do everything we can to help our nation. That's my anthem right there. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/327"Esikyire/a - Wutah/strong br /I remember vividly where and when I heard this song for the first time. I was in a bus going to Accra from Kumasi and fell in love with the song from the very first lines. I am a huge fan of Wutah and though the song never had a video, it was hugely popular. Strangely enough, it's not on Youtube, but it's on Museke. My favorite love song of all time, it's comforting. It was a joy seeing them perform in person in December 2006. Esikyire means sugar in Twi and in the song they sing, "she has put some sugar in my mouth". Sweet! br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/783"Ako/a - Obrafour/strong br /By early 2004, people were complaining that Obrafour had become a highlife artiste who was enamored with singing. On this 2006 hit, he revisited his Last 2 hiplife roots, and delivered another instant rap classic. The lyrics are sick and they are like lines from rap battle verses. Hammer delivered another great beat and we were reminded how good of a rapper Obrafour was. The song has the deep lyrics we are used to from Obraour, the word play, rhyming, etc. It's believed the song 'dissed' Kontihene, and there's an element of truth in there. Ako means "fight or war" in Twi. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1914"Do ne bi/a - Kwabena Kwabena/strong br /Kwabena is my favorite Ghanaian singer of the moment. This song was the follow-up single to his hugely successful debut album (with Aso). Do ne bi ended up being the soundtrack for maybe the best Ghanaian movie of all-time, the Perfect Picture. The song says "If someone loves you, love him/her too, because in this world, love goes where love is". The song is easy to listen to, easy to sing along to and easy to dance to. Like the way the song's tempo is upped as it progresses. It's the most played song on my iTunes now. Song's so good you don't even realise it is ending :-) You should look for Kwabena's unplugged videos. I want this guy to sing at my wedding. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1006"African girls/a - 5Five/strong br /I saw the video on GTV once and thought, here's another group trying to make it big with some song about African women after Tuface's success with African Queen. After I heard the song in an Accra club, it had left African Queen's shadow and was bound to be a massive club jam. Hearing it on the Life N Living It soundtrack also gave it more cred (for me). Killy sounds like Akon on the track but do you think I care? The song signalled the rise of Ghanaian English hit songs. Definitely one of my favorite party jams. "She's pretty like she's half Fante". The remix featuring Iwan, Gyino, 4x4 and Kwaw Kese is fantastic. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/16"Otoolege/a - Ofori Amponsah/strong br /Otoolege is one of the best and most popular Ghanaian songs ever. When the 21st century rolled in, hiplife ruled the Ghanaian music scene, it won all the major awards and had the most airplay. Otoolege changed that. All4Real featured Kofi Nti, K.K.Fosu and Barosky (a raglife musician). I believe his willingness to feature a hiplife artiste gave him that success to upstage the hiplife acts. The song's sang so well and so beautifully written. Otoolege means a stupid person. Song talks about this guy loves this girl so much and he does everything he can to please her but she doesn't appreciate it. So she sees him or makes him feel like a stupid person. This is the one song that deserved every accolade it's won over the years. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/357"Me dofo pa/a - Kojo Antwi/strong br /This is my favorite Kojo Antwi song. I love the video, I think it features some Miss Ghana contestants. Kojo Antwi, aka Mr Music Man, is maybe Ghana's most popular musician. He doesn't need to promote his music, people buy it because it's from him. Is Kojo Antwi a Reggae, RB, Soul or Highlife musician? He's a step above the rest. Another person I'll like to see perform live. I've never been to his 24th concert before. Sad. Me dofo pa means "my good love" in Twi. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/442"Suudwe remix/a - K.K. Fosu/strong br /When I went to Ghana in the summer of 2004, my relatives told me about a new dance called 'Suudwe'. The hiplife trinity had been born and Batman, K.K.Fosu and Kokovelli ruled the music scene. This song was a party anthem and the collaboration was awesome. Batman (who is now Samini) had a Midas touch, if you featured him on your song, it was going to be a hit. No one really knows what Suudwe is but it has to do with sex (I think). "Edzɔ bɔdɔɔ, payanku, payanku" "Edzɔ bɔdɔɔ, kokroku, kokroku" br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2095"Tsi Obenke mi/a - King David/strong br /This is a song in Ga, a language I don't even understand. I think it means 'come near me' as in 'twe bɛn me'. Can someone transcribe the lyrics and do the translations for me? This is a spectacular jama/highlife/traditional song. If you thought Ga was a 'loud' language, think again. br / br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/384"Heavy/a - Obrafour/strong br /Obrafour never really shined at love songs. His strengths were conscious tracks, good head-bumping jams and songs that made you listen over and over. When he combined with Kofi B on 'Heavy', he had scored a real radio hit. Obrafour calls the girl he likes/loves 'Heavy'. Obviously, big women are not the epitome of beauty in the present day, but someone who's 'heavy' is. Obrafour is a great singer, if he wants to sing highlife, leave him be. br / br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. I'll do a list of my Ghanaian songs for 2009. br / br /I love Praye a lot too - a href="http://museke.com/node/955"Jacket Remix/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/192"Shordy/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/194"Efie ne fie/a. We know him for a href="http://museke.com/node/242"Aketesea/a but I think Kontihene shined on a href="http://museke.com/node/1552"Kro hin kro/a. Some other great Ofori Amponsah songs are a href="http://museke.com/node/20"Cinderella/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/999"Puduo/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/18"Lady/a, and a href="http://museke.com/node/1543"Odwo/a. Buk Bak's a href="http://museke.com/node/2080"Klu Brofo/a was my jam in 2002. I really like Daddy Lumba's a href="http://museke.com/node/199"Ahenfo Kyinie/a. Okyeame Kwame has been my fave for a while now and you should listen to a href="http://museke.com/node/3870"Opabeni/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/1981"Woso (remix)/a. br / br /I also like a href="http://museke.com/node/469"Atia Donko/a by Nana Quame, a href="http://museke.com/node/96"Ahomka womu/a by VIP, a href="http://museke.com/node/966"Siesie obaa no/a by Akatakyie, a href="http://museke.com/node/1323"You lied to me/a by Becca, a href="http://museke.com/node/1263"Akua Ataa/a by Kofi B, a href="http://museke.com/node/340"Mesan aba/a by Akyeame/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/204"Odo nnwom/a by Kofi Nti, etc. I also like more stuff from Obrafour, Wutah and Kojo Antwi, there are too many songs to list here. br / br /If there are some Ghanaian songs you think should have made my list, let me know too. br / br /Long live Ghanaian music. br /Long live African music. br /Long live Africa.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-765423330024025578?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 12, 2009
• 22:42

  My BarCamp Diaspora '09 interview with Shara Karasic

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora '09/a (Investing our talent where it counts) took place on July 25 at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. The event was a success and drew about 80 participants and had many more following proceedings through a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23bcdiaspora"Twitter/a, a href="http://ustream.tv/barcampghana"Ustream/a and Facebook. br /br /After the event, Shara Karasic (one of the organizers of the awesome a href="http://barcampafrica.com"BarCampAfrica/a at Google in October 2008) asked me a few questions about the BarCamp and how it had gone. This is what I had to saybr /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3LrVRB_-OUbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/h3LrVRB_-OUhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/h3LrVRB_-OUhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /I already reviewed the event on my blog at a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/barcamp-diaspora-09-more-work-to-follow.html"this link/a. Initiatives are coming out of the BarCamp already and as they became more structured, we'll let you know. It's taking awhile to consolidate the action items but once that is done, more initiatives shall follow. The initiatives that existed before BarCamp are only going to get stronger with new partnerships and support. br /br /It's not easy organizing events at all and once you do it, you have more respect for those who do it and do it well. I had second thoughts about future barcamps while I was helping put this one together and I was leaning towards brushing my hands off it. You know, maybe this kind of thing is not for me, not my calling. Like I even know what my calling is (tsew). Turns out, I am passionate about what I have chosen to do and the shortcomings of this BarCamp only make me want to plan better ones. We need more events like BarCamp Diaspora, especially for Ghanaians. I haven't seen or heard of any similar events in all my time in the US, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Other countries have been doing it and doing it even bigger. I hope we'll get more support for future BarCamps now that we've built some more momentum and are working towards more traction.br /br /With all the goodwill Ghana is enjoying these days, we have to milk this to the max. But the big question always is, who will take the initiative? Someone said he thought I was some old Odadee from the 70's organizing this thing. There's no reason why we should wait till we are 40. Many people have taken various initiatives in their youth and I can name a whole bunch of them who are my age and even younger. Like my friend's favorite signature says - The destiny of any nation is shaped by the opinions of its young men and women. Obama already called on young Africans to take charge, there are no more excuses to wait. br /br /PS: If you are interested in helping out in future events or helping the GhanaThink Foundation implement more ideas, get in touch with me. Tsooboi! It's time to move, less talk, more action.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-9054628392017758096?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 11:02

  More BarCamp Diaspora '09 interviews

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora '09/a (Investing our talent where it counts) took place on July 25 at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. The event was a success and drew about 80 participants and had many more following proceedings through a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23bcdiaspora"Twitter/a, a href="http://ustream.tv/barcampghana"Ustream/a and Facebook. br /br /Shara Karasic, who was one of the attendees, interviewed Akua Akyaa Nkrumah (an attendant who organized the scientifc research breakout session), Melanie Dickson (another attendee) and Ato Ulzen-Appiah (one of the organizers) - will feature that interview in a longer post. She also took two videos of the CreditSms (Mobile banking Microfinance) session with Benjamin Lyon.br /br /Akua Nkrumah tells us how BarCamp Diaspora inspires her to contribute to the future of Africa. BarCamp Diaspora took place on July 25, 2009 at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington, DC and was organized by GhanaThink.org. br /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsiav7BuLbEbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xsiav7BuLbEhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xsiav7BuLbEhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Law student Melanie Dickson talks about how she will get involved in Africa's development. At BarCamp Diaspora, Johns Hopkins SAIS, Washington, DC, July 25, 2009. Organized by GhanaThink.org. br /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNJ7xDAusU0br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NNJ7xDAusU0hl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NNJ7xDAusU0hl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /CreditSms breakout session interviewsbr /Benjamin Lyon explains Credit SMS, a tool that mashes up mPESA and Frontline SMS and helps facilitate microfinance through managing SMS communication, at BarCamp Diaspora at Johns Hopkins SAIS on July 25, 2009. br /Part I. br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDj60-UTjOsbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wDj60-UTjOshl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wDj60-UTjOshl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Part II.br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwODIXUXBBQbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cwODIXUXBBQhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cwODIXUXBBQhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8234895767053109770?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 11, 2009
• 20:37

  I'm on TV! MIghTy African Music Video Program - Featuring VIP TuFace's 'My love'

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Most of you loved the first episode of the MIghTy African Music Video Program (MAMVP). Well guess what, thanks to Melanie Reynard, we have a second episode. This time we talked about a Ghana-Nigeria collabo between VIP and TuFace Idibia called 'a href="http://museke.com/node/96"My love/a'. This feature is for a TV program on KMTP TV (a non-profit public TV station in Palo Alto) The MAMVP will feature me talking about various African music videos, the artistes behind them, discussing the song and music, etc. All these videos are by Phamous People. The very first feature was on VIP's a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/mighty-african-music-video-program.html"Manenko/a. You can see the video for this second webisode/episode belowbr /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pP4IStiBZgbr /br /object width="560" height="340"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9pP4IStiBZghl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9pP4IStiBZghl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"/embed/objectbr /br /The opening music was by Jonathan Ford and the video was edited by Melanie Reynard. I think this video is funnier than the last one though it's shorter. Melanie advises that people's attention spans are too short to do longer videos. So if you are reading this and you want to sponsor an awesome promotion of African music, contact the good folks at KMTP.TV through (info at kmtp dot tv) and let's get some more face time. Because you know Melanie and I 'do the best'. As you can see, I was wearing the same shirt as the one I wore for the Manenko episode. It's only because I love the shirt very much, but also because both episodes were short in one day. I am not trying to get all Nollywood up in here, but it didn't take long to film these. After getting these two in, the upcoming shoots should be easier. I am prepping for my Hollywood debut with my 'camera comfortability'. br /br /I love the 'My love' song a bit more than Manenko because it's a great song and it features one of my fave singers, 2Face Idibia. I talked about the Promzy rap verse where he remixed Ghana's national pledge as a pledge to her lover. "I promise on my honour to be faithful and loyal; To my baby girl, the best in the whole world; I pledge myself to her service; With all my heart, and strength and soul (oh oh); I promise to hold in my high esteem; The love she has for me through all this hustling and jostling; And I promise to defend the good girl my wifey wifey; So help me God". How cute is that? I couldn't recite the pledge when I thought of it. I just tried to use Promzy's verse to recite it, and I still couldn't do it. Shame.br /br /The other interesting part about the video was the Pidgin portion. Hearing Melanie say 'I dey go' was madd cute and hilarious. It became her favorite expression afterwards when we were going home. Pidgin English is awesome. The deal with it is to communicate in 'English' but in fewer words. Most people know Pidgin English as a Nigerian thing, but it has its forms in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cameroun, etc. And we spoke Pidgin in high school not because we couldn't speak proper English but because we used it as a buddy (coded) language. More and more Ghanaian musicians are singing in Pidgin now too.br /br /I also talked about the collaboration between Nigerian and Ghanaian musicians, the emergence of 2Face Idibia, etc. The 'My Love' video was shot in Ghana by Phamous People, who so kindly provided a high quality video for this program. If you have access to your favorite African music video producer and you want to publicize their work, leave a comment or get in touch. The MAMVP serves to promote African music and educate viewers about the songs, videos, music, artistes, culture, etc. After taking on the pronunciation of "Twi" and teaching Pidgin, one may ask, what's next? I don't know either and that's why you should watch out for the next episode and find out. "I dey go"div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7128979820058106881?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 09, 2009
• 23:03

  Not your average Saturday - Picking up and pick-up lines

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  The more interesting part of my Saturday was bound to come from my experiment with pick-up lines. Yes, I like to have some fun every now and then. I've always wanted to try some lines to see if they work, how they work and who they work on. When my cousin wrote a Facebook note called "official...Pick Up Lines....to all ya brothas without game...", he tagged me first. He tagged me first. Sadness eh? The lines were hilarious and I had decided to entrust my Saturday evening enjoyment in these sentences. What did I have to lose o? Kowtow. So, here we go. This is what happened o!br /br /a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/not-your-average-saturday-watching-fc.html"You already know I went to see FC Barcelona play in San Francisco/a. After I left the stadium with my friends, they dropped me off around the block where the venue for the picking-up testing would take place. I was starving so I walked around looking for chicken fried rice. Okay, am talking about chicken fried rice, not Asian girls. Besides, I decided not to test out the lines before I went to the club, because if the gods winked, smiled on and blessed me, I would probably have to end up at the End-UP with an uninvited guest who'll make all my costs double. I don't have luuchi (cash) for that. Also, I could only afford chicken fried rice at that time (11pm), though it was pretty late for any nice restaurants. Why would I insist on this type of food? After African food, Asian food comes next. It's just something about the fortune cookies I guess.br /br /After unsuccessfully finding an Asian food place, I resorted to asking random people on the street for places. Many of these people were beggars and homeless. The others were waiting to enter clubs or go to clubs. One girl I asked said she didn't have a phone. What does that have to do with anything? Mmaa paa deɛ, ɛyɛ a, mokyerɛ wanwa o. The guy who offered to help me was some beggar guy who started to lead me toward a hungry man's paradise. I probably shouldn't have chosen or followed him, he's the kind of guy you'll think may be dangerous. I could care less. He asked me where I was from and my favorite answer to that these days is to say, "Guess". He figured I was African and started, "Zimbabwe? Nairobi?" "Nairobi is a city in Kenya, but it's not that country". He mentioned Nigeria too and after two minutes of no or wrong guesses, I finally told him. We still hadn't found an Asian restaurant that was open. This is when I told I'll go eat some Mexicano food. He finally said the one thing we'd been wanting to say, "Can I get some money?" I had 6 $20 bills in my wallet and some change. I said no. He wasn't too happy and started saying some %$#^% and this is when I walked in as far away as possible with one eye on my back. I finally settled on one Mexican restaurant after I paid my water bill. I love how they had Mexican drinks there, unlike our Ghanaian restaurants who now don't seem to sell Muscatella, Palm wine or Malta Guinness/Vita Malt anymore. A beggar came in and asked for a quarter, which I gave him. He wanted to pay the waiter for some water but this guy refused to give him some. I should have asked them if they were Chivas or Club America supporters. br /br /Around 11:30, I had ended up at the End-Up. I decided to remain around the block till my friend arrived at the club. I still don't know why I thought this was a good idea. I sat at the bus stop, waiting for no bus. Buses came by as well as some shordies going to the same club. I thought, if these ladies see sitting at this bus stop, they'll think am broke or something and when they see me later, they won't want to have anything to do with me. Ridiculous thinking? I think not. More time passed, and more ladies passed. Eventually, I decided to enter the club, sticking to the original plan and holding my pick-up lines till I was inside. 'Reggae gold', the best night club day in town, cost $20 to get in. Pretty regular, and tonight, I will be entertained by various facial experiences and reactions. Good bargain.br /br /Once I was in, I started looking around for my first victim. I was going to use this line first (the tall line) - "I'm not actually this tall. I'm sitting/standing on my wallet.". I had eyed a couple of girls but I figured if I tried that line, they'll say "we saw you when you came in, this is your bloodyforkin height". So, I chose this line, which we shall call the bet line - "My boys over there bet that I wouldn't be able to start a conversation with the most beautiful girl in the room. Want to buy some drinks with their money?". This girl was pretty hot but she was with this other girlfriend of hers. She'd seen me too. I asked this Jamaican dude standing next to me to act like he was my friend for a couple of minutes as I go chat up Miss-I'm-wearing-a-RemyMartin-shirt. I went up to her and said, "Hello, hi... and then the line". The shordy smiled at me (yay) and said she was working for Remy Martin at the club this night. Bummer. She then said she has some coupons to get Remy Martin drinks at discounted prices. Hmm, what was I supposed to do? Buy her some Remy Martin drinks for cheap? Buy her some other drink? Hire some other girl to work in her place? My cheap behind would do none of that with no moneyback/kindback guarantee. I said "okay, nice meeting you" and then after I had almost turned to go back, asked for her name. "Victoria". I said nice to meet you and then I mentioned my name. Bizzounce.br /br /I had decided not to dance with anybody till I had used pick-up lines at least three times. I even avoided some girls I knew because I wanted to stay focused. Genius abi? I was hanging by the dance floor minding my business when some dude asked me to be a wing man as he'd seen some two girls. Since this girl hadn't noticed me, I walked up to her and used the 'tall line'. - "I'm not actually this tall. I'm sitting/standing on my wallet." She smiled/giggled and in the next few moments, we were dancing already. We danced for a while (you wanna know how long?) and then she had to go (use the rest room/get some air/send a text/use lip gloss/ or some other excuse like that). It happens all the time. Or? I called the move a success and sought my next victim. Let's just say that was the last time I said a word to her. I didn't get her name.br /br /For the third installment in this experiment, I chose the 'angel line' - "I must be in heaven cause I've seen an angel". I was going to use it on some particular ladies but I felt they'd seen me already and must have been wondering "why didn't you come talk to me already". So I spotted a bevy of 4 ladies and chose the fairest (ahem, finest) amongst them. One of my friends (upon telling him earlier which pick-up lines I'd be using later) had told me to use this crazy line - "HI" Too common but it could be used in tandem with another. So I walked up to the girl, and after I said hi, I dropped the line and got the same reaction as always. I asked for her name and it was some unusual name which I had trouble making out. Melanie? Melomie? Miyomi? Naomi? Before I could find out if she was Ethiopian (Habesha) to add 'tadias', her friends were moving location and she was tallying along. We shall call it an incomplete experiment. Except I never tried to talk to her again so we shall call it a botched one.br /br /I had spent the first 45 minutes of my club time testing out pick-up lines and decided that was enough and had to get my groove on. Went the old-fashioned common way and had mixed results. Finally, said hi to the friends I knew and more friends came through. I had a jolly good time, the music at Reggae Gold is always good so even if I am not dancing with some fly honey somewhere, "m'akoma tɔ me ya mu", I'm fine. Later on, I decided to use the one line I was advised not to try because I am rebellious like that. I was curious. Here's the sight line, "Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?". I picked on my first white shordy victim and after walking by, dropped the line. She wasn't too amused. I forget what we said afterwards but the move flopped. Bizzie biz. I had said it, goodenuff. br /br /The rest of my time at 'Reggae Gold' was regular; did some dancing, some nodding, some standing, some walking, some drinking water, and some talking. I didn't take any new phone numbers, which in hindsight probably should have. If I meet some new girl at ze club, and get a number, I feel like it validates my clubbing lol. But this night, I had completed a task I always wanted to do and I have stories to tell. Truth is, I didn't really want to get with any shordy, the plan was just to see how it'll go. That's not to say I won't use one on some girl I really wanted to get to know. Victoria was hot though, but I kinda lost track of her eventually. I've not decided if I'll use pick-up lines from now on but make no mistake about this - these experiments are not over. I ended up leaving the End-UP around 3am, which is the earliest I've left there because the club closes at 6am. Quite a rarity in these Bay Area parts. I called the day a success and went home with some Habeshas.br /br /PS: This is the song I listened to most on my way to the clubbr /Soundtrack - "a href="http://museke.com/node/1006"She's pretty, like she's half Fante, br /African girl with a body like yeah!br /She shot a glance at mebr /Got me pulling over quick right there!br /She looking cute and sexybr /Cat-walking like she just don't care!br /Girl if u really wanna party!br /Come sip Henney with ur king in the club tonight!br /Tonight is ur night pretty woman!br /We'll be chilling at the VIP, aight!/a" - lyrics from a href="http://museke.com/node/1013"5Five's/a African Girls.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-5235052080082077601?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 16:52

  Not your average Saturday - Watching FC Barcelona

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I have had a bunch of interesting Saturdays recently but this last one, I knew it was going to be interesting. It's been a while since I filed in a diary entry. What was special about this Saturday? FC Barcelona was in town to play Chivas, a Mexican team. This was going to follow an MLS game involving the San Jose Earthquakes and Columbus Crew. As it was the second Saturday of the month, all roads would end up at the End Up for Reggae Gold which I wasn't going to miss for nothing. True to form, it was a memorable day and though it doesn't make a juicy entry like "a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/10/eye-candy-free-candy-and-candy-i-dont.html"Eye candy, free candy, and candy I don't have/a". I have so much to say I have to do it in two entries. br /br /I've been having a sore throat recently so I woke up Saturday not feeling too well. Too bad the Ovaltine I have is solid block and I don't have the patience to figure out how to make it presentable for consumption. The only food I owned was some dish of spaghetti, corned beef and a little shito with some sauce to spice it up. I also owned a 'Jack in the Box' burger from the day before. I spent about $50 on food this week, which is unbecoming. Sometime during the week, I realised that the microwave in my apartment had disappeared. My roommate owns it, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't stolen but I haven't bothered to ask him. Why? Dude doesn't like me too much because it took me about 5 days to learn and remember his Eastern European name and I don't hang out with him. He's like 40 and a post-doc/assistant professor. From the very first day, I knew this match was not good. br /br /Anyway, back to the food, I took this refrigerated burger out on a journey, looking for a microwave. I went to my some of my Katarific friends' place to use theirs. Katafiric refers to Black American. They were surprised to see me. Of course, they asked me what happened to 'my microwave' and I told them nothing but the truth. Judging by their reactions, they couldn't handle. 5 minutes later, I had my first meal of the day together with the rest of the coke I didn't have yesterday. As in Coca-Cola, as seen on TV about 15 years ago. br /br /I had purchased group tickets to see two games - Columbus Crew San Jose Earthquakes (MLS) and then FC Barcelona (Spain) Chivas (Mexico). Tix were discounted from $70 to $60, and that made me feel good. None of these teams feature a Ghanaian player. For all the Ghanaians in Columbus, no one could try out for the Crew and make the team? I know there are players there according to this hilarious a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ctYFIKrcqw"Youtube video/a. Why? MLS no fun to play? No soccer to do it? The Earthquakes have been having tryouts and I don't know why I haven't gone yet. They can use me in defence (because I do the best), they suck brutal. I'd already seen them play the LA Galaxy live and they were atrocious. David Beckham was easily the best player on the field that day (Landon Donovan was absent). I was extremely excited to see Barca - Messi, Henry, Dani Alves, Xavi, Toure - play. Too bad, Eto'o was no more at the Nou Camp and his replacement Ibrahimovic was nursing a injury. Had seen him play at Stanford last month so that was cool.br /br /I set out with my friends from Stanford at the beginning of the MLS game hoping to catch the second half. I was wearing my customized MAN U jersey with my name at the back. You know, great conversation starter abi? Traffic parking problems did not permit this and by the time I had my tickets, the MLS game was done. By the way, I handed off two Ghanaian movies to friends in traffic, cool huh? No need to meet up anyway, just do it on the road. The Earthquakes lost 3-0. Finally entered the stadium and sat in the lower stands where I could get a better view for the Barca game. I didn't sit where I was supposed to sit, I had to wagadree my way for a better experience. I only had to dodge a couple of security guys, no problemo. I couldn't believe the stadium wasn't packed. This is FC Barcelona for goodness sake! They should fill up a soccer stadium in the US. There's no reason why this shouldn't happen. There aren't enough internationals in the Bay Area? I know the Mexican massive is here though. Chivas is a huge team in Mexico so they probably had more support than the Blaugrana. Rafa Marquez didn't play but Mexico's Jonathan dos Santos played for Barca. br /br /The game was the best soccer game I'd seen in the US, the atmosphere was great. There were chants of Chivas-Barca-Chivas-Barca. I was sitting by two other MIT Africans who were both Barca supporters. Barcelona is the truth. It ended 1-1 though and their first team couldn't register a goal though they played the first half in Chivas' half. Barcelona played some delightful football, you must wonder how they do it. They are almost always never outplayed. Lionel Messi never seemed to lose the ball, it was pretty ridiculous. Thierry Henry played like he was 40, everytime he went to the ground, it took him a while to get back up. Salif Keita and Yahya Toure started the game and they both gave great accounts of themselves. Too bad Eto wasn't here. Actually, he was. Some fans outside the stadium seemed to shout his name everytime I walked on by. :-) I like Gerard Pique a lot, I feel like he plays like me. I love how he charges upfront hoping to make things happen. br /br /Barca played the second half with a new-look team, maintaining Victor Valdes and Dani Alves. Dani Alves is the best right back in the world and has been for the last 3 years. The guy na baller! Barcelona seemed to run everything through him in the second half. Chivas drew first blood with a nicely worked goal, they played much much better in the second half. Barca equalized through Bojan Krkic on a cross from Dani Alves. Both teams came close to getting the winner but to no avail. So Barca were a David Beckham freekick away from winning 2-zip the LA Galaxy, they whitewashed the Seattle Sounders by 4 and couldn't beat the Mexican team. The MLS just isn't there yet, no matter what people like Alexi Lalas want to say. I mean, do you take what people who have 'Lalases' say seriously? For y'all who don't know, a Lalas in Ghanaian lingo is a beard like what a href="http://www.interestment.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/lalas-380x380.jpg"Lalas had back in the day/a.br /br /My MIT African friends had taken a bus to get to the stadium so it was nice to catch a bus out of the stadium due to the crazy traffic. I had no gentleman's bills to pay for the bus. I wasn't going to let the lady driver kick me off the bus, too much embarrassment in front of 50 Mexican mamacitas. Either way, I showed my street smarts and while she was navigating the commotion of people trying to get into the bus, your-slicker-than-average-MIghTy-African slicked through the crowd into the bus. Free bus ride! Super! At least something free for the day to file this entry under free stuff. Will get to the latter parts of the day in a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/08/not-your-average-saturday-picking-up.html"the next entry/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-6724308834628842627?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 08, 2009
• 1:12

  Official Pick-up lines to try out for fun

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  A friend and I were discussing pick up lines the other day and if they do work, etc. They've been a few that I've wanted to use but I haven't mustered enough courage to try them. I'm still collecting my thoughts for that blog entry on women too. Earlier today, I realised my cousin had tagged me in some note full of pick-up lines and that list was hilarious. I have now run out of excuses to try some pick-up lines. After all, what do I have to lose? Don't I want to actually see what will happen? Won't I have some juicy stories to tell? I would, that's why I will be picking out of these pick-up lines next time I am inna di club or some other appropriate or unappropriate location. So here goes - br /br /I can't find my puppy, can you help me find him? I think he went into this cheap motel room.br /br /Let's do breakfast tomorrow. Should I call you or nudge you?br /br /Yo Baby, you be my Dairy Queen, I'll be your Burger King, you treat me right, and I'll do it your way.br /br /You with those curves, and me with no brakes ...br /br /Aw, girl, I'm gonna have to put you on my "To Do" List!br /br /Save a horse -- ride a cowboy.br /br /I lost my teddy bear will you sleep whith me ?br /br /I'm new in town, could I have directions to your house.br /br /Can I borrow your phone number, I seem to have lost mine.br /br /Was your father a thief? 'Cause someone stole the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes.br /br /Be unique and different, say yes.br /br /Are your pants from outer space? 'cause your butt is out of this world.br /br /Did the sun come out or did you just smile at me?br /br /I must be in heaven cause I've seen an angelbr /br /You're like milk, I want to make you a part of my complete breakfast.br /br /I'm not actually this tall. I'm sitting on my wallet.br /br /I know milk does a body good, but damn girl, how much have you been drinking?br /br /Excuse me, I just noticed you noticing me and I just wanted to give you notice that I noticed you too.br /br /Let's go to my place and do the things I'll tell everyone we did anyway.br /br /Can I have your picture so I can show Santa what I want for Christmas?br /br /If you're going to regret this in the morning, we can sleep until the afternoon.br /br /What do you say we go back to my crib and do some math: Add a bed, subtract our clothes, divide your legs, and multiplybr /br /Your place or mine? Tell you what? I'll flip a coin. Head at my place, tail at yoursbr /br /Love is a sensation, caused by a temptation, to feel penetration. a guy sticks his location in a girl's destination, to increase the population for the next generation, did you get my explanation, or do you need a demonstration?br /br /My boys over there bet that I wouldn't be able to start a conversation with the most beautiful girl in the room. Want to buy some drinks with their money?br /br /There must be something wrong with my eyes, I can't take them off you.br /br /Do you have a map? I just keep on getting lost in your eyes.br /br /That's a nice shirt. Can I talk you out of it?br /br /Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?br /br /If I could rewrite the alphabet, I would put U and I together.br /br /If you were a new hamburger at McDonald's, you would be McGorgeous.br /br /Are you a parking ticket? 'cause you got fine-fine-fine written all over ya.br /br /Baby, you must be a broom, cause you just swept me off my feet.br /br /If I said you had a great body, would you hold it against me?br /br /Girl, you must be tired 'cause you've been running through my mind all day!br /br /You ain't the HOTTEST guy here tonight, but beauty is only a light-switch away!br /br /So ya wanta put your pickle in my juicy jar!!!br /br /Is your dad a terrorist? Cuz you da bomb!br /br /Lets play Pearl Harber, I lay down and you blow me to heavenbr /br /Is that dress felt ? Would you like it to be.br /br /What's a big girl like you doing in a small town like this.br /Man: we better get you out of those wet clothesbr /Women: what?br /Man: [licks his finger an wipes it on her dress]br /Man: those wet clothesbr /br /Is your dad a police officer, if so i'll be visiting you a lotbr /br /Hey babe lets make a bunk bed you be on bottom I be on topbr /br /I'm no weather man but the forecast is calling for several inches tonight !br /br /The only time I'd kick you outta bed would be to fuck you on the floor!br /br /MAN: There's a party tonight!br /WOMAN: Where?br /MAN: In your mouth and im cummin!br /br /Hi, my name's ______. You better remember it cause you'll be screaming it later!!br /br /I just shit my pants. Can I get into yours?br /br /Do you have a mirror in your pocket, cuz i can see myself in your pantsbr /br /Wanna ride? i got a truck and a box of condoms.br /br /Okay, so I came over here to ask you to dance, but I'm kind of concerned. I mean, we could hit it off really well, end up having a few drinks, next thing you know you're giving me your number because I'm too shy to ask for it, I finally get up the nerve to call and we take in a movie, have some dinner, I relax, you relax, we go out a few more times, get to know each other's friends, spend a lot of time together, then finally have get past this sexual tension and really develop this intense sex life that is truly incredible, decide our relationship is solid and stable, so we move in together for a while, then a few months later get married, I get a promotion, you get a promotion, we buy a bigger house. You really want kids, but I really want freedom, but we have a kid anyway, only to find that I am resentful, the sparks start to fade and to rekindle them we have two more lovely kids, but now I work too much to keep up with the bills, have no time for you, you're stressed and stop taking really good care of yourself, so to get past our slow sex life and my declining self-confidence I turn to an outside affair for sexual gratification. You find out because I'm careless and a lousy liar, you throw me out (justifiably so) and we have to explain to the kids why mommy and daddy are splitting up. That's just too sad. Think about the children! For God's sake, if you dance with me and we hit it off, let's just keep it sexual, because we both know where it's going.br /Lets play house, you be the screandoor and i'll bang you all night long.br /br /Sure its a needle but it moves like a sewing machinebr /br /You wanna come over to my house and play battleship. I can show you my destroyerdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8121408537385214783?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 06, 2009
• 9:40

  Obrafour may be quiet but Okyeame Kwame is the best Ghanaian lyricist today

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  a href="http://museke.com/en/node/5"Obrafour/a is my favorite lyricist ever. a href="http://museke.com/en/node/1"Nya Nteteɛ pa/a is also one of my favorite songs ever. We haven't heard much from the Rap Sɔfoɔ recently, but if you ask me, he's been replaced. The 'new guy' is a href="http://museke.com/en/node/1975"Okyeame Kwame/a, also known as the Rap Doctor. In his a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3707"latest single/a, he called himself, 'your favorite rapper's favorite rapper'. I won't argue with him, the dude is good. Many people will know Kwame Nsiah Appau from his a href="http://museke.com/en/node/339"Akyeame/a days. He's the best lyricist in Ghana these days and with time, he may overtake Obrafour as Ghana's best ever. Like joke like joke :-)br /br /I a href="http://museke.com/en/node/1783"interviewed/a Okyeame Kwame for Museke.com sometime last year and I must say I came away impressed. He's not a rapper but he's a student of rap. He attends KNUST (university) and is studying Akan and Sociology. a href="http://museke.com/en/node/1786"This is what he had to say/a - "I am studying Akan because I can’t help the poor if I’m not one of them. If I’m part of the academia then I can convince them to look. If the lecturers decide to organize seminars for hip-life, they can find lyricists. I want to get a certificate for what I’m doing. Studying sociology bcuz as a musician you are a social commentator." What business does this sage have rapping and sharing stages with entertainers in Ghana? He sees the bigger picture.br /br /Have you heard his track called a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3870"Opabeni/a that he did on Obrafour's Execution Diary compilation in 2004? That signalled the beginning of his solo career and am sure Obrafour would have been impressed. I want to dwell on his song, Anaa (remix) featuring Morris Babyface. The lyrics are so sick, I have to share some of this medication. The song talks about all the stuff a guy would do for a girl and still not earn his love. However, the music video shows how a guy can do so much for a girl but still shirk the responsibilities of caring for or loving the girl. Nsɛm pii. It's a massive song. I am so happy Okyeame Kwame won two nominations for the a href="http://museke.com/en/node/1786"Channel O Music Video awards/a. He deserves the commendation and I pray he wins. a href="http://beta.mnet.co.za/fanclub/?clubId=1194"Go vote for him today!/a br /br /His lyrics are in Twi so I am going to do some translations so we can all appreciate his talent. "Mede sika ma wo a, wobɛdi ama no asa" - If I give money, you will spend all of it for it to finish?" "Metɔ ntoma ma wo a, wobɛfira ama no apa" - If I buy clothes for you, you will wear it for it to fade?br /br /"Mendane wo mogya, ɛnfa w'adwen mu, Ntena wo tiri mu na mentena wo deɛ mu" - Should I turn into your blood and run through your mind, live in your mind and within you? br /br /"Mendane wo mmɔwrɛ, wayɛ me so manicure na wode me akyerɛkyerɛ, na sɛ w'akyi yɛ wo hene a, wode me awerɛwerɛ" - Should I turn into your fingernails, so you can manicure me and show me off, and when your back itches, you can scratch it with me?br /br /"Na sɛ asɛm boro wo so, na wotwee, ansi so, wode me ahyɛ w'anum na wakeka me awe" - And if you have some matter that you can't do much about, you'll put me in your mouth and chew (fingernails)?br /br /This is my favorite part - "Anaa, mendane wo mframa, na sɛ wo dɔ fɔ a, woatumi ahata, na sɛ wo home rete a, madwedwe w'akoma" - Or, should I turn into your wind, so that when your love is wet, you can dry it, and when you are restless, I will calm your heart"br /br /"Mendum me phone no, na ɔbaa biara anfrɛ anyɛ dede" - Should I put off my phone, so that no girl would call and disturb?br /br /"Mengyae me nnwom to, na obiara antie anfiili me" - Should I stop singing so that no one would feel (like) me?br /br /"Mendane me ho Kufour, na woayi sika adi, anaa" - Should I turn into Kufuor, so that you will get money to spend? (Erm, since when was this something to say?)br /br /"Rap no nkɔ ntɛmtɛm, na menyi nsɛm no bɛmbɛm, nfa nyi sika mpempem, na wondi nyɛ hyɛmhyɛm, na nkrɔfoɔ nka nsɛmsɛm ndi m'atɛm, sɛ wo dɔ no agu sɛ kyɛmkyɛm" - The rap should go fast, so I can release the words quickly, to get millions (money), so you can spend it and become polished, so people can say stuff and insult me, that your love has got me entangled." (Okay, you have to hear this part for yourself). br /br /"Okyeame Kwame to rap a ɛwɔ ne tiri mu nyinaa ma wo a, (Wobɛbie aso bɛtie bɛwie na nnwom no dɛ nyinaa asa)" - If Okyeame Kwame does all the rap in the world for you, you will open your ears, finish listening to it and all the music would finish)br /br /Twi is such a beautiful language and our musicians, more often than not, use it in such a way that we can celebrate. I hope this will help you appreciate how good Okyeame Kwame actually is. He called his latest album, M'anwensɛm, which in Twi means my poetry. His goal was to make all his rap verses like poetry stanzas, how innovative is that? Who else in Africa has tried this? He is the reigning Ghanaian musician of the year and he's going for bigger glories. He is the best rapper alive.br /br /PS: If you are wondering how I got these beautiful Twi characters, you can get them through a href="http://kasahorow.com/content/windows-keyboard-ghana-updated"Kasahorow.com/a - the most awesome website out there when it comes to African languages. And of course, you can always see these characters in action through the Ghanaian music lyrics on Museke.com :-Dbr /br /PPS: Thanks to Afua for helping translate some of Twi words, it's not easy koraa. If you are like me and have to live with speaking Twinglish, you'll understand. Not everyone can be Obrafour or Okyeame Kwame.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4101263788693601722?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• August 01, 2009
• 4:05

  This time of the week

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  The most recent poem I wrote. It's titled 'This time of the week' but am not talking about this time of the week, am talking about THIS time of the week.br /Enjoy :-)br /br /(PS: I must be missing someone :-D)br /br /This time of the week does not mourn Mondaybr /This time of the week teases the use of Tuesdaybr /This time of the week takes the words out of Wednesdaybr /This time of the week forgets there’s a Thursdaybr /This time of the week can fry the joy of Fridaybr /This time of the week satisfies Saturdaybr /This time of the week sunbaths Sundaybr /It is a moment etched in time that the days envybr /br /This time of the week defaces the wallbr /This time of the week alarms the wallsbr /This time of the week colors the calendarbr /This time of the week marks the calendarsbr /This time of the week starts the arrivingbr /This time of the week completes the waitingbr /This time of the week queries the questioningbr /This time of the week does the answeringbr /br /This time of the week can sing the chorusbr /The chorus which refrained from singing the songbr /The chorus which accapellaed solo without the harmoniesbr /The chorus which hooked and held up the melodiesbr /The chorus which bridged the unspoken versesbr /The chorus which ad libbed its way through the weekbr /The chorus which faded out with sounds which were weakbr /Till you showed up with the tunebr /br /This time of the week is why the sun shinesbr /This time of the week is where the river flowsbr /This time of the week is how the plant growsbr /This time of the week is how much the tree shadesbr /This time of the week is which orange is pickedbr /This time of the week is what the birds singbr /This time of the week is who the birds sing forbr /This time of the week is when I am with youdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3709395450897509390?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 31, 2009
• 6:42

  BarCamp Diaspora '09 interviews

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora '09/a (Investing our talent where it counts) took place on July 25 at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. The event was a success and drew about 80 participants and had many more following proceedings through a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23bcdiaspora"Twitter/a, a href="http://ustream.tv/barcampghana"Ustream/a and Facebook. br /br /Shara Karasic, who was one of the attendees, interviewed Ashifi Gogo (the keynote speaker), Henry Barnor (one of the organizers) and Freda Obeng-Ampofo (one of the attendees). br /br /Ashifi Gogo is CEO at Sproxil.com, PhD Innovation Fellow at Dartmouth College and Co-founder at mPedigree.org, and a 2009 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. Here he talks about BarCamp Diaspora, mPedigree, and the future of scientific research in Ghana.br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtBdk_hvXawbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OtBdk_hvXawhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OtBdk_hvXawhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Henry Barnor sums up BarCamp Diaspora, a conference at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington, DC on July 25, 2009. BarCamp Diaspora's purpose was to gather together the African diaspora for conversation about how to apply their talent toward Africa.br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4yLvnpIH6cbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y4yLvnpIH6chl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y4yLvnpIH6chl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /Frieda Obeng-Ampofo talks about her experience at BarCamp Diaspora '09, held at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington, DC on July 25, and how the African diaspora can use their talent for Africa.br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Yies6CTmcbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K4Yies6CTmchl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K4Yies6CTmchl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-21912436196579889?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 0:09

  Celebrating the emergence of Ghanaian movies and working towards more excellence

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Last September, I wrote an article on the a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/09/story-of-ghanaian-movie-industry.html"story of the Ghanaian movie industry/a which talked about its recent history as well. Since then, there have been many Ghanaian movies that have come out, some of which I've seen and the industry continues to grow. I've been in a number of good discussions about Ghanaian movies, the latest of which transpired at a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/barcamp-diaspora-09-more-work-to-follow.html"BarCamp Diaspora/a. The conversations haven't changed much but the ideas for improvements have been refined and I will be touching on a few in this entry. br /br /Ghanaian movies are starting to gun for awards. Revele Productions' 'a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/02/run-baby-run-and-kwame-win-pan-african.html"Run Baby Run/a' has been the most successful movie to date while a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/03/africa-movie-academy-awards-2009-agony.html"Agony of the Christ/a picked up a bunch of nominations at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAAs). The AMAA's is organized in Nollywood but judging from the recent nominees and winners, they are committed to a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/04/winners-of-2009-africa-movie-academy.html"awarding movies/a from all over Africa as Nollywood movies haven't been dominating. So aside Ghanaian movies enjoying massive popularity following the fame that carried Beyonce - The President's Daughter into many homes around the world, they are winning awards as well. Some people argue Sparrow Productions' Perfect Picture is the best Ghanaian movie ever (at least since this century), while others will claim Sparrow Productions' very first movie, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/08/life-and-living-it-best-ghanaian-movie.html"Life N Living It/a is better than that. It's clear Ghanaian movies are improving in quality, visibility, and significance.br /br /Shirley Frimpong-Manso's Sparrow Productions is carrying the torch and setting the bar for quality production. You can see they obviously invest a lot of money into their productions and judging by viewer feedback and appreciation, they should be recouping on their investment. They premiered their movies at the National Theatre when their competitors (Nollywood inclusive) were sending their movies straight to VCD. If Ghanaians see quality, they will pay for it, it didn't matter if they had to pay $20 to see a Ghanaian movie once. Ghanaians don't like mediocrity like we sometimes believe, but we also tend to accept it. Other movie houses have latched onto the movie-theatre idea and we've seen AA Productions do the same for theirs. When Ghanaians go to the Silverbird theater to watch movies, they can choose to watch Ghanaian-made movies. That's a big plus! Ask the South Africans if it's any better there.br /br /If you've been following ads on Ghanaian TV and music videos, it's no surprise we can do movies with quality sound and video. Sparrow's a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/01/scorned-may-be-even-better-ghanaian.html"Scorned/a showed how Ghanaian music and movies could shine together, with Becca recording 'Daa ke daa' as the movie's soundtrack. 'Daa ke daa' has been a huge hit and Scorned has been a success as well. The Perfect Picture soundtrack featured more Ghanaian acts, making use of popular tracks like Asem's Pigaro and introducing us to newer songs/acts like Miss Jane and Souljas Inn. The Perfect Picture was so good I had to blog about it twice - a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture.html"review/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture_30.html"soundtrack/a. The same way Kwaito became even more popular with the success of Tsotsi, Ghanaian music can become bigger if used well with our local movies. br /br /I loved the fact that Jackie Appiah had a role in the Perfect Picture. I was used to seeing her in lower quality Ghanaian movies and it was tough judging her without bias. She stated herself that that production was the best she'd been part of. The next challenge for Sparrow Productions is to draft Agya Koo (Kofi Adu) into a role. They showed they are moving towards incorporating Ghanaian languages with the Amakye Dede soundtrack and a few lines here and there. I doubt Agya Koo would have a major role in a Sparrow movie, maybe he could play a gardener, taxi driver, etc? Maybe an Ashanti Burger who just returned from Germany and owns all the big hotels in town? Sparrow's movies have been criticized as elitist and they should find a way to make a movie which resonates more with Ghanaians. br /br /What happened to Revele Productions? They've been quiet since 'Run Baby Run' though they have been continuing with their TV series like 'Home Sweet Home'. I hope they produce another movie soon, we need more of their stuff. There was also 'No Time to Die' which was good. 'Ananse must die' is the only animated Ghanaian movie I've seen and that was a great effort, and there's no reason we can't see more of those. Are you also wondering what happened to NAFTI? A lot of major Ghanaian actors who were on our screens in the early 2000's are nowhere to be found. These are trained actors, not the audition stars of today who make up the bulk of Ghanaian productions. We must encourage our arts people to be trained and encourage them to be better. Sparrow Productions introduced KSM in a Ghanaian movie and brought back 'Pusher' Adjetey Annan. Adjetey Annan is one of Ghana's best actors and he proved it in his roles. br /br /A lot of top movies these days are based off true stories. This can happen in Ghana too. We ask again? Why hasn't anyone done a movie on the story of Yaa Asantewaa? I hope we are not waiting for international producers to make movies out of popular Ghanaian novels like 'Our Sister Killjoy', etc. We have great storytellers and writers in Ghana and they should partner with our film people to make movies. We need more depth in our scripts. Let's see that Ghanaian science fiction novel come through and its subsequent debut on the big screen. I also want to see movies with stories of strength and triumph and not the same old relationships, two girls fighting over one guy gibberish. br /br /I am also a little concerned about how Ghanaian movie houses can make money. Though one may want to make quality, the product must be affordable. $20 is a little too much to pay to watch a Ghanaian movie. I think Ghanaian movie houses should focus on using the cinemas (revive Rex and Roxy) or use big spaces like the National Theatre, Tech's Great Hall, etc. Those who don't attend the premieres will buy the movie eventually. There is a huge market for Ghanaian movies amongst various communities abroad so we can organize premieres in places in like Maryland, Columbus (Ohio), Alexandria (Virginia), New York, Amsterdam, London, Hamburg, etc. It may cost a little to organize but think of the money they're losing from people watching these movies online for free with no money entering the pockets of the movie producers. The government must step and help fund quality and work to enforce copyright laws. br /br /It's about time we had a movie standards board in Ghana or a way to rate and review movies. If we are able to separate the 5-star movies from the average ones, we'll force our movie producers to do better. It works in Hollywood. Even if some fantastic movies don't score big at the box office for one reason or the other, they manage to get into film festivals and receive other forms of commendation. Ghanaians can sieve through the chaff. When I realised Ghanaian movies were not improving and were feeding me the same stuff, I stopped purchasing them. These days, I only watch movies that are recommended to me. I own all of Sparrow's movies, and will buy quality Ghanaian productions any day.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2201708636594147880?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 30, 2009
• 6:55

  MIghTy African Music Video Program - Featuring VIP 'Manenko'

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I have always imagined myself being on some television show talking about Africa, or African music, African development, engineering, etc. After the recent interview with a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-interview-with-jucy-about-museke.html"Tracy Pell about BarCamp Diaspora/a, it seemed I was making headway. On Monday night, KMTP TV (a non-profit public TV station in Palo Alto) aired the first feature of the MIghTy African Music Video Program (MAMVP) thanks to Melanie Reynard, a producer there. The MAMVP will feature me talking about various African music videos, the artistes behind them, discussing the song and music, etc. All these videos are by Phamous People. The first video in the series is Manenko by VIP. You can see the video belowbr /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS8jWZdbtI4br /object width="560" height="340"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eS8jWZdbtI4hl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eS8jWZdbtI4hl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"/embed/objectbr /br /The opening music was by Jonathan Ford and the video was edited by Melanie Reynard. I love this video so much that I have been watching it over and over again. I like how she combined the conversation we had with the video. I loved this interview, it took a while to shoot it, and I had to figure out the intricacies involved with being on camera. Melanie was concerned about the background we used for the video and hopefully we can get better backgrounds next time. I made sure to wear this particular shirt which has the "Mate, masie" (What I hear I keep) adinkra symbol. This symbol is part of the Museke.com logo. We shot it once with me doing all the talking but obviously, the interview style worked much better. I spoke a little slowly but still couldn't get by without using 'like like' and 'yea yea'. At least, I didn't gbaa. I felt like I was talking like Obama :-) Next time, I'll do it better. Compared to that BarCamp Diaspora video, this one is much clearer and it has that same 'fantastic' voice lol. br /br /We needed high quality videos for this music video series and I own a number of music videos sent to me by Phamous People themselves. The videos are a little old, they were done in 2007 and so are not current. In this Manenko segment, I talked a little bit about VIP (Vision in Progress), the message in the song, the history of hip-life, the use of Twi and English, and the music video itself. All the music videos slotted for use were directed by Phamous People; and mostly from Ghana. If I get in touch with some other African music video producers, we'll have more videos from outside Ghana featured.br /br /I'll be doing more episodes of the MIghTy African Music Video program on KMTP TV and segments will be accessible on YouTube as well. After working on Museke, this is a next step and we don't really know what is next. It's a little interesting seeing my face on television/youtube, since I like the anonymity of pseudonyms, etc. The last time I was on TV, I was on Ghana's NET2 news segment for 30 seconds talking the Ghana election. Before that, I was on GTV losing on National TV in the Kiddie Quiz. Sad. So let me enjoy this positive experience of the MAMVP and best believe, there's more to come.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-6263471762830348095?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 0:53

  Top 10 African female singers vocalists

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  This blog entry is upon request to list the Top 10 African female vocalists. I am going to consider those who've been singing in the last 2 to 3 years, thus eliminating legends like Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Nayanka Bell, Miriam Makeba, etc. In determining this order, I took into consideration, pure singing, artiste popularity, song popularity, demand for shows/concerts, award recognition, amongst others. It's very subjective. I also took out the groups with more than one member. This is not scientific and this list is adjudged by a committee of one. Let's get into the countdown.br /br /10. a href="http://museke.com/node/2068"Amani/a (Kenya) - Amani is one of the biggest female stars in Africa and was nominated for a few Channel O awards. She's a little bit more pop than rhythm and blues but I love her work on 'a href="http://museke.com/node/2697"Tonight/a' and 'a href="http://museke.com/node/2020"Missing my baby/a'. You can see her singing prowess when she collaborates with others, on songs like Ninanoki, Usiwe mbali, etcbr /br /9. a href="http://museke.com/node/2397"Siphokazi/a (South Africa) - Siphokazi is not the most popular Mzansi singer but it may argued that she's the best. She shined on Black Coffee's a href="http://museke.com/node/3237"Lo mhlaba/a and her own a href="http://museke.com/node/2244"Amacala/a. br /br /8. a href="http://museke.com/node/2156"Suzanna Lubrano/a (Cape Verde) - This is one musician Zouk and Cabo-love lovers would know. a href="http://museke.com/node/2229"Tudo pa bo/a is fantastic and she showed she could do RB well on her Saida album. br /br /7. a href="http://museke.com/node/2068"Ary/a (Angola) - This is one of my favorite African singers now. a href="http://museke.com/node/2605"Teu grande amor/a is one of the best songs I've heard in a while and it's amongst the top played on my iPod. Everytime, I hear it, it makes me want to dance. Songs like this and voices like that of Ary's make up the number two reason I want to go to Angola :-). br /br /6. a href="http://museke.com/node/2068"Zamajobe/a (South Africa) - This soulful jazzy singer made a name for herself singing into the hearts of Southern Africans. a href="http://museke.com/node/1029"Ndawo yami/a is great, but have you heard a href="http://museke.com/node/1998"Magic/a? The song speaks for itself - magic. Her newest album (with a href="http://museke.com/node/2875"Nokuthula/a) hasn't gotten the same popularity of her debut but it's still great. br /br /5. a href="http://museke.com/node/2068"Wahu/a (Kenya) - Of all the ladies in this list, Wahu was the one who I heard sing first. She's come a long way since her pop days to her present reign as MTV Africa's best female musician. You've heard a href="http://museke.com/node/2030"Sweet love/a but a href="http://museke.com/node/3224"Running low/a shows her singing ability to the fullest. br /br /4. a href="http://museke.com/node/1787"Lira/a (South Africa) - Lira is having an awesome 2009 as she picked up 4 South African Music Awards. She's been nominated for a bunch of Channel O awards too. Her 'a href="http://museke.com/node/1650"Feel Good/a' track won her fans all over the world and she's done even better with her most recent album, with 'a href="http://museke.com/node/2570"Wa Mpaleha/a' leading the way. Her brithday song sang for Nelson Mandela is probably the best I've heard, it's lekker! br /br /3. a href="http://museke.com/node/1330"Becca/a (Ghana) - I've heard Becca sing in person offstage and I was blown away. To think, I knew her before she became famous also blows my mind :-) She started out in a singing competition like many of these singers but she didn't need it. When 'a href="http://museke.com/node/1323"U lied to me/a' came out, Ghanaians knew RB had arrived on their music scene. You should also hear 'a href="http://museke.com/node/2164"I love you/a', and a href="http://museke.com/node/2947"Daa ke daa/abr /br /2. a href="http://museke.com/node/1794"Asa/a (Nigeria) - You were wondering where the Nigerians wear? Here is Naija's finest - Asha. I can listen to this lady all day, she's definitely my favorite African singer. She can make sad songs sound joyful. I saw her perform live and if you think her mellow, soulful style drove us to bed, think again, and it had us singing along and clapping. Check out a href="http://museke.com/node/3706"The Place to be/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/1886"Bi'banke/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/1726"Jailer/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/1723"Eiye Adaba/a. br /br /1. a href="http://museke.com/node/1189"Juliana/a (Uganda) - Who could upstage Asa here? It's Africa's Whitney Houston. I am not even a big fan of Juliana Kanyomozi (like some of these other singers) but I think she's Africa's best singer today. We know South Africans can sing, but Uganda's singers are doing it big too and they match the Mzansis boot for boot. Just listen to a href="http://museke.com/node/2066"Kanyimbe/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/2101"Usiende mbali/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/1184"Nabikoowa/a. br /br /Before y'all jump out to get me, I tried my best and I am no singing teacher, neither have been the main soloist in any choir. Just send your reactions through comments below or do your own post. br /br /Here are some of the musicians who just missed the cut are a href="http://museke.com/node/3549"Perola (Angola)/a (who sang my current favorite a href="http://museke.com/node/3495"Presta Atencao/a), a href="http://museke.com/node/2070"Lizha James (Mozambique)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/3100"Cindy (Uganda)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/1001"Ray C (Tanzania)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/318"Lady Jaydee (Tanzania)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/2103"Yola Araujo/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/2208"Mampi (Zambia) /a, a href="http://museke.com/node/2603"Mayra Andrade (Cape Verde)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/3807"Jane (Ghana)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/2734"Irene (Ghana)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/2000"Nikki (Kenya)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/977"Teeyah (Cote d'ivoire)/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/3649"Barbara Kanam/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-9024293577660113464?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 29, 2009
• 20:09

  My favorite 10 African gospel songs

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Aside the praise and worship that comes from gospel music, this genre uplifts spirits and encourages people to do better. I have not been a regular to church and having music like this keeps me renewed and thoughtful of what is expected of me as a Christian. It helps make sure I don't do the religious thing on Sunday only. When I say I am too blessed to be stressed, these are the kind of songs that provide the soundtrack. Which other genre should come first as I switch from regions to genres in my ongoing lists of African music? In this African gospel song list, I will leave out Ghanaian songs, will list my favorite gospel songs from Ghana later. br /br /Before that, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-10-favorite-kenyan-songs.html"10 favorite songs from Kenya/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a Hope you discover your next favorite morning song or find a new jam for your church's next "Kofi and Ama" collection. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2684"Life Death/a - Lulu Dikana/strongbr /Lulu's sister Zonke is a more popular South African singer but Lulu may out-do her this year with this beautiful song. The song has a contemporary feel and you may not even realise it has a gospel message. It's been doing well in various charts in South Africa too. "Oh what kind of love is this; It's so unusual to me; That a friend can give his own life; For another...and another...and another...; It is by far the greatest sacrifice known to man". It's one of the most played songs on my iPod.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2677"Igwe/a - Midnight Crew/strongbr /You've seen how people get down on Sunday at church? This is a perfect song to aid those dances. This is by far the best African gospel party song I've heard in awhile. I've been caught singing it aloud while listening to my iPod countless times. The song is in Igbo and English and with the proliferation of Igbo words into the Ghanaian scene through Nollywood, it's easy to grasp and sing along. "Kosobabire;br /Kosi Baba bire; Ko ma s'olorun bire; (Igwe)"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2546"Nishikilie/a - Kambua/strongbr /This is another song I have to play two/three times before I move on to another. My Kiswahili is okay but it's not enough to understand the whole song. Kambua is a student of music, studying at Berklee, amongst others. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2200"Never felt this way before/a - Nikki Laoye/strongbr /When I first heard this song, it sounded like gospel from the US. Nikki is a great singer and she was nominated for a Kora award. In fact, she may be the best Nigerian female vocalist I've heard recently. This is the only single I've heard from her and I can't wait to hear something new. Loved the video too. "Playing like my favorite song; I wanna hear you all day long; My number one; You are second to none". br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1243"Ezali mawa/a - Makoma/strongbr /I used to see Makoma come up in Google searches when I was searching for m'akoma (my heart n Twi). A lot of related searches led to Museke.com too. Makoma is probably the best African gospel group ever. They are versatile and entertaining. They are based in Holland and have been able to promote themselves all over Africa and Europe. Their ring-leader, Nathalie, participated in Dutch Idol and did really well. This Ezali mawa song is my favorite. Who knew Congolese people excelled at gospel music too? I don't understand jack in Lingala so it's helpful when one of the Makomas sings "I’m gonna sing about life; Life is so beautiful; To live and to believe". br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3639"Je lève les yeux/a - Constance Aman/strongbr /I only heard about this Ivorien singer this year and I must say, I'd been missing out. Listening to this song, I have to sum it up in two words - belle chanson! How I wish I had paid more attention in French class! Well, I did and I topped my French class, it's just that it was 11 years ago. At least I understand this part - "Il est mon Dieu" (He is my God)br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1521"Only praise/a - Infinity/strongbr /a href="http://museke.com/node/1178"Olori oko/a impressed when it came out but my favorite song from this Nigerian male gospel group is Only praise. Love the lyrics, especially that 'Jabulani Africa' part. "This music is more than the melody; It's more than the rhymes; It's an expression of a sound from heaven; Did I hear you say, a sound from heaven". When non-Christian are appreciating this song, you know that you've scored. You should check out more stuff from this group, they are awesome. "Only praise can take you higher". Praise can lift you out of times when you are down even if it sounds contradictory.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3264"God dey/a - Ebenezer/strongbr /Singing in Pidgin English is one of the major reasons Nigerian music is where it is today. Ebenezer is making use of the language to make a name for himself on the gospel scene. Love this song to bits. "Tell them say God dey; Tell them say Baba dey; Tell them say God dey; And He no dey sleep o". God is not sleeping ampa and He shall hear your prayers. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/961"Kuna dawa/a - Esther Wahome/strongbr /This is another tune that will get you off your feet. Church jam all the way from Kenya. I forget how and when I heard this song for the first time but I do remember using it as a song when we staged (Uncle) Wole Soyinka Jero's Metamorphosis at MIT (African Students' Association). The song talks about 'there is medicine' (yay for my Swahili), as in there is a cure or medicine for whatever your problem or sickness is. "Kuna dawaaaaaa" br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2315"Hlohonolofatsa/a - Soweto Gospel Choir/strongbr /It's no secret South African singers are the best in Africa, when you take numbers into consideration. You shuld expect their choirs to reign too. SGC doesn't sing a whole lot of lines in this 'Hlohonolofatsa' song from their African Spirit album but it's more than enough. Seeing them do the song in person was fantastic. br /br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. My favorite African gospel song presently is Rooftop MC's a href="http://museke.com/node/3728"For my life/a. Nigeria's Toyin Bello is famous for her a href="http://museke.com/node/1683"Green land/a track but my favorite is this Kora-nominated song called a href="http://museke.com/node/2346"Freedom/a.br /Jeremiah Gyang's a href="http://museke.com/node/2555"Sweet love/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/1814"It won't end/a (Nigeria). Rebecca Malope is probably Africa's biggest gospel superstar and I love her track a href="http://museke.com/node/1527"Uyingcwele/a track (South Africa). br /br /I am a fan of Jonathan Butler's stuff (South Africa) and how could I forget the famous Pastor Benjamin Dube with songs like a href="http://museke.com/node/2030"I feel like going on/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/2030"Bless the Lord/a. Noelie from Togo is another great musician, love a href="http://museke.com/node/2846"Be my Lord/a. Also check out Jahdiel's a href="http://museke.com/node/2329"Eloheeka/a, and a href="http://museke.com/node/2256"Heritage/a from Nigeria. There's also Resonance with songs like a href="http://museke.com/node/1069"Chinwe Ike/a and then a href="http://museke.com/node/2626"Umeniweza/a by Eunice Njeri. And there are the countless songs I love from South Africa's Joyous Celebration and then Soweto Gospel Choir. I also love Astar (Kenya) for his gospel rap music as well as Rose Muhando from Tanzania.br /br /If you have some African gospel songs I should know and check out, let me know too. br /We are to praise and worship God in many tongues and languages, hope this gets you going. br /br /Long live African gospel music.br /Long live African music.br /Long live Africa.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3481253788893982458?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 28, 2009
• 23:45

  BarCamp Diaspora '09 - More work to follow, it's time to move

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09" title="BarCampDiaspora 2009 - Investing our talent where it counts. July 25th, Washington D.C, U.S.A."img src="http://www.barcampghana.org/system/files/bcdiaspora_200x100.jpg" style="width:200px; height:100px; border:0;" title="BarCampDiaspora 2009 - Investing our talent where it counts. July 25th, Washington D.C, U.S.A." //abr /br /After the success of a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampghana08"BarCamp Ghana '08/a, I dreamt of a similar event in the US. It took a while to bring the planning and organization together and last weekend, the dream came true in the form of a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora '09/a. The event, themed 'Investing our talent where it counts', took place at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins' University in Washington, DC on July 25. BarCamp Diaspora was a free event that brought together people interested in using their skills, talent, and resources to benefit Africa. The event went on smoothly and judging from the feedback of the attendees, I can call it a success as well. br /br /BarCamp Diaspora was a free event which had about 100 registered attendees and about 70 people showed up to the event. It was 'tweeted' through Twitter, you can search a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23bcdiaspora"#bcdiaspora/a for related tweets. The event was also streamed live online through a href="http://www.ustream.tv/channel/testing-barcamp-gh-connection"ustream/a which had viewers in Ghana, Burkina Faso, the UK and the US, amongst others. These were put in place to allow people outside the venue to participate in the event which worked. Questions and comments were submitted through these media which were communicated to the BarCampers present. One attendee volunteered to record video for the whole event and many attendees took digital photos. Since, we couldn't get the funds to support a longer event, BarCamp Diaspora took place between 12 and 6pm (as advertised) with a short snack break (plantain chips, donuts - bofrot, atsomo, water and soft drinks). br /br /The keynote speaker for the BarCamp was Ashifi Gogo, CEO of Sproxil.com and co-founder of MPedigree.org and a 2009 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. He spoke about various ventures he had been a part of (including Odadee.org) and his present project which is fighting counterfeit drugs. Ashifi is a PhD Innovation Fellow at Dartmouth College and the service is taking off in Nigeria and Ghana. He also talked about the challenges and intricacies involved with doing business in Africa and mentioned mobile communication, microfinance and big agriculture as what's hot in Africa at the moment. Ashifi mentioned that there were many opportunities back home and advised those who wanted to return to Africa to pursue enterprises or businesses ('do something') to have 5 year work plans and save before returning. He also talked about having friends there and keeping in touch in classmates. He stated how his colleague from his alma mater Presec had now become the deputy minister of information. I loved Ashifi's presentation, it was educational, funny, and told his story really well. br /br /In order to foster the BarCamp spirit, we had zero panels; only breakout sessions. A lot of sessions were suggested and we ended up with 9 sessions over 3 time-slots, hence 3 ongoing sessions at each time. They were Microfinance Mobile technology (Derek Koranteng Benjamin Lyon), Healthcare in Ghana (Maame Sampah), Innovative technologies for rural communities Mobile apps (Molly Mattessich Jackie Adhiambo), Creativity the Arts (Seyram Avle), NGO's (Aida Manu), Gender, education and technology (Henry Barnor), Scientific research in Africa (Akua Akyaa Nkrumah), Using technology to connect communities (Raquel Wilson), Blogging Social media (Jemila Abdulai). Most of the sessions were round-table style and ensured participation from as many as attendees as possible. These sessions were tweeted as well and notes were taken, which will be provided for the public soon. The brainstorming and discussions in these sessions were great and gave birth to many ideas and promoted projects/businesses that were working on those ideas. Attendees learnt about blogging, and many organizations and projects which are fostering African development. br /br /The organizing team took care of the opening and closing remarks, as well as the agenda building session which helped decide the breakout sessions. The opening session talked about the idea behind BarCamp Diaspora - bringing together intellectual and enterprising minds to dialogue and discuss African development in whatever sector or discipline they were interested in. The agenda building session allowed attendees to share what issues were most important to them and which discussions would dominate the business of the day. The closing remarks summed up the day's agenda, the ideas generated and the need to consolidate the thoughts, ideas and solutions for future use. The plan is to draft some policy papers around some of the discussions to be presented to various organizations who can push for their implementation. One attendee, Kofi Ntim, had a lot of helpful information about receiving funding for start-ups and enterprises and he gave a short presentation at the end of the BarCamp. br /br /Most of the attendees were Ghanaians, especially those who lived in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. This was a result of the network that the organizing team had available. Unlike BarCamp Ghana, the ratio of women to men was much better and ladies represented in full force. There was a good mix of students (both in undergrad and grad programs) and professionals. It obviously showcased a youth movement, since more than 75% of the attendees were under 30. Barack Obama called on young Africans to take charge and some of them were at BarCamp Diaspora. I don't remember anyone mentioning Barack Obama at the event even though we were right in his backyard (DC) and he had just been to Ghana. Like one attendee said, the attendees were busy talking about what they could do for Ghana/Africa and not thinking of what Obama or the West needed to do. br /br /Many thanks to the organizing team for the putting this together. The GhanaThink Foundation was the main sponsor and provided funds for event material and food and drinks. This allowed us to make the event free. JHU-SAIS' African Studies program sponsored by enabling us to use the Kenney Auditorium, four classrooms and other spaces for free. Judging by the amounts we were quoted while looking for a venue at the start of planning the BarCamp, JHU-SAIS did us a huge favour. In the future, we'll like to enlist more forward-thinking organizations like GhanaThink as organizers sponsors so as to keep the BarCamp event free, increase the network from which the attendees come and provide more for the attendees. There is still a lot of room for improvement, with note-taking, better live-streaming, documenting and promoting ideas, etc. br /br /When you are having trouble getting people into different sessions to stay with the schedule, it may not a bad thing. It may be because attendees are busy networking and discussing future plans, which takes a little longer than short breaks. We hope to see many ventures and initiatives started out of this event. One lady who needed help with a business plan sat Kofi Ntim down to get as much information as she could, that makes for fulfilling and valuable time spent. If your attendees are fulfilled, then your work is fulfilling. Thanks to all our organizers, sponsors, our volunteers, our attendees and our broadcasters. Tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend. It's time to move. Less talk, more action. Let's begin to invest our talents where they count.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-9104489107113312477?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 23, 2009
• 3:58

  Ashifi Gogo - investing his talent where it counts through technology

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I've known Ashifi Gogo for a long time. He was two years my senior in middle school (KNUST JSS) and was one of the top students. I followed him to Presec and there too, he was making a name for himself. Every junior student needed a guide for academics or school father to protect from bullies, Gogo was one of those to me. (not the bully, silly!) After Presec, he went to Whitman where he balanced an excellent academic record with working on the online home for Odadees (old Presecans) - a href="http://www.odadee.org"odadee.org/a. His work on this site ignited my passion to help my old school and reverse the pronouncement I made at the end of my three years there 'never to help Presec in any way'. Recently, Gogo has been busier with his start-up a href="http://sproxil.com/"Sproxil/a ( a href="http://www.mpedigree.org/home/"Mpedigree/a), which is a service that fights counterfeit drugs. For his work, he is winning awards and going into high places. This weekend, he'll be a featured speaker at a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora/a. I am truly honoured to present Ashifi Gogo as one of the young African movers and shakers.br /br /When Ashifi told me he was going to Ghana to start his own business, I was impressed. He was still in school, and had gained admission to a PhD program at Dartmouth. He was going where most of us could only talk about - make some things happen. Before I knew it, Gogo was spending more time in Ghana and then Nigeria, and I had no idea when I could reach him on his US phone. When I attended the Presec 70th anniversary launch in Ghana, Gogo was there. Ebe some Odadee move? Gogo go go. He had been in Ghana working on MPedigree (together with another Odadee Bright Simmons), and had been preparing a documentary to present to ministries and other stake holders in the industry in which he was targeting. Effective busyness making serious business. br /br /When he was asked by the a href="http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/Page.aspx?pid=3638"Clinton Global Initiative/a "why fake drugs", he said, "iI commit to craft technologies specifically for the developing world. My current realization of this lifelong goal is to provide an easy service for any developing world consumer to check their medication against counterfeits using any cell phone. Just like a lottery ticket, consumers scratch off a label on their medication, revealing a number that they could then text and receive instant verification of their drugs at the pharmacy or open air market. This will help prevent disasters such as the death of 84 infants in Nigeria last year due to teething syrup laced with antifreeze./i" Ashifi is socially conscious first and has found a niche where he can make an impact. He's naturally began pushing the service in West Africa but he's thinking bigger and soon enough, the Ghanaian-made service would use global technology to solve problems that are localized in many places around the world. br /br /Working with him on Odadee.org, we faced various challenges, which is surely nothing compared to what he's faced working on Sproxil and MPedigree. "iIt’s been tough trying to raise funds for a long term venture based in West Africa, especially in these economic times. The appetite for risk seems long gone. Fortunately, leading foundations and business plan competitions are still supporting great ideas. By participating in a number of national and global business plan competitions, I’ve been able to raise funds for a proof of concept and I’ve seen great interest from reputable Angel investors. While planning for a large scale technology trial later this year, I realized I would need a decent amount of computing power. Thebr /logistics of maintaining a server farm in West Africa, with challenging electrical power supply, was a bit daunting. I solved this problem by switching to cloud computing, only paying for the amount of computational power I need, while benefiting from network security and uptime only large firms could afford back in the day./i" We all realise the infrastructural and financial challenges we face building enterprises in Ghana, or Africa in general. Ashifi Gogo gives us hope that even today, while we wait for significant improvements, we can succeed. That's how all the entrepreneurs did it, challenges shall always exist, no matter how small. He navigated the challenges he faced and used available technology and information to solve them. Sounds like engineering but anyone can do this with by doing some homework, together with dedication and hard work.br /br /Ashifi has been shuffling between the US and West Africa as he builds this project. Last December, he found the time to help make BarCamp Ghana a success, latching onto the team late in its planning and taking ownership of enusring that everything run smoothly. He coordinated the photo and video documentation and helped get internet connection at KACE-AITI for the BarCamp. He must have a ton of experience on how things work in Ghana and he firmly has a foot there. On the Diaspora/path to return to Africa, he stated, "iAs an undergraduate, I majored in mathematics and physics, and co-authored a paper in quantum optics that was subsequently published in a reputable journal. I quickly realized that while my work was intellectually stimulating, it would have been challenging to make a substantial impact on pressing needs in my home country, Ghana. I subsequently switched to engineering in graduate school. Now, as a PhD Innovation Fellow at Dartmouth College, I’ve got exactly what I was after – practical skills in science and business that can transform ideas into high-impact ventures. To make an even larger impact with the mobile authentication concept, I’m working with socially oriented investors to raise an Angel round of funding. This will help us prove the concept on a large scale with a number of local drug manufacturers in West Africa, before signing on multinational firms in a few years. I am also actively working with leading industry trade groups in pharma and telecom to raise awareness on the need for a cross-boundary “911 for fake drugs” number for checking drugs with cell phones./i"br /br /Since late last year, Ashifi's work has been recognised by the World Summit Awards, World Economic Forum Tech Pioneers, etc and he's given presentations at top institutions. When I made a grand entry into Boston earlier this year to attend the Harvard African Business Conference, Ashifi was in town too, but to speak at Harvard. Level. He's still very humble and accessible and is there to guide me when I need him. I couldn't be more appreciative of this guy and it's really great to know him. When Odadee.org went through tough phases, he strategized and re-tooled the project for sustainability purposes. He didn't ask for a dime. When he was in Ghana, he'll go by Presec and take pictures for the Odadee website. Ashifi almost always had an answer to some technical problem. He was the webmaster for Odadee.org while studying Math and Physics. br /br /All of this, and he's under 30. Obama called on young Africans to take charge. Ashifi has been doing that for awhile now so if you need an example, here's one. Even the non-Ghanaians know, including my Ugandan buddy from MIT who met him at a Global Health Conference. In Ashifi's own words, Sproxil is doing the real heavy lifting (not MPedigree), and focuses on providing software and systems that capture market intelligence in emerging markets using cell phones. Obviously, fighting counterfeit drugs is only a start. This Ashifi entry follows the a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/leti-games-building-computer-games-in.html"one I did about Eyram Akofa Tawia of Letigames/a and there are more entries like this to come. Let's begin to celebrate the young upstarts and acknowledge their work. More over, it will give us more inspiration to start investing our talents where they count. Tsooboi!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3960899649144810844?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 22, 2009
• 8:07

  Top 10 Hiplife artistes today

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  This blog entry is upon request to list the Top 10 a href="http://museke.com/taxonomy/term/1"Hiplife/a artistes currently eliminating those who haven't done anything in a year and half. In determining this order, I took into consideration, artiste popularity, song popularity, demand for shows/concerts, award recognition, number of features with other artistes, amongst others. I also took out the groups with more than one member, and artistes who are more Afro pop or hip-hop. This is not scientific and this list is adjudged by a committee of one. Let's get into the countdown.br /br /10. a href="http://museke.com/node/162"Barima (Sidney)/a - This former Nananom member has been in the hiplife game for over 10 years and is still going strong. He's stayed pretty consistent with his style and he may have earned some more fans with his last album 'Barima bi ba', which did really well. Africa Money was a huge hit outside Ghana's borders, as its French lyrics endeared it to Francophone Africans as well. br /br /9. a href="http://museke.com/node/21"Obour/a - His last album was around 2007 but he has released a couple of singles since which have garnered major airplay. His social campaign songs, President Obour and Ghana Reads, did well. His hit collabo with Okyeame Kwame called 'The Game' also was huge, and sparked a lot of debates about the state of the Hiplife genre. Though he's busy with various entrepreneurial ventures, he's finding time to churn out great music and maintain visibility on the Ghanaian music scene.br /br /8. a href="http://museke.com/node/182"Tic Tac/a - Tic Tac is respected a lot in Hiplife for helping send the genre international. His latest single, Bosoe, is doing well in Ghana and it features a Nigerian group, Key Note. He's been a constant show-stopper in many Ghanaian events in the UK and maintains a steady presence in Ghana.br /br /7. a href="http://museke.com/node/3305"Ayigbe Edem/a - The Ewe rapper is scoring a lot of fans with his flow and his putting Ewe firmly on the Ghana hiplife map. He's probably not higher on this list due to the lack of familiarity Ghanaians have with the Ewe language. His album launch was great and coming from the Last 2 (Hammer) stable, he's here to stay.br /br /6. a href="http://museke.com/node/580"Wanlov/a - Kuborlor may not want to be classified as a hiplife artiste but hiplife is the closest category to his Kuborlor music. He came to Ghana in late 2007 to make a name for himself and succeeded. He is probably the most unique artiste in Ghana at the moment and being on the Culture Caravan showed how far he had come. He's been releasing many singles and continues to use his online presence and travel experience to secure many shows abroad.br /br /5. a href="http://museke.com/node/147"Tinny/a - Aletse Kankpe may not be enjoying the same airplay as some of these artistes but he has major visibility. He was recently nominated for African Artiste of the Year at Nigeria's Hip Hop Awards. Not much has been heard about his international album called Attention though many singles have surfaced. He's also featuring in many shows and is the undisputed premier non-Twi rapper in Ghana.br /br /4. a href="http://museke.com/node/1800"Asem/a - His 'Gimme Blow' and 'Pigaro' tracks may have started the GH RAP movement, together with his partnership with Richie. He consistently outshines people when he features on their songs. He's been unlucky not to pick more awards than he has at the moment. Doing some quick Facebook checks, Asem's fan page had the most fans, followed by Wanlov.br /br /3. a href="http://museke.com/node/2407"Sarkodie/a - He is probably the most popular rapper in Ghana now. The tongue-twisting star has been underground for a while and his debut album may be the biggest seller this year. His Babe track with Mugeez (R2Bees) is arguably this year's most popular track from Ghana. He's also been featuring on other tracks. br /br /2. a href="http://museke.com/node/395"Kwaw Kese/a - Abodam Kwaw Kese is still the king of the streets. When Wyclef was in Ghana recently, he did a track called 'War' with Kwaw Kese as well as 'Glad' with Reggie Rockstone Kwaw himself. That just proves how hot Kwaw is now and how mad people are still going over him. He was also the beneficiary of MTV BASE's Shell Initiative music video shoot. br /br /1. a href="http://museke.com/node/1975"Okyeame Kwame/a - The reigning Ghanaian artiste of the year takes the cake here. He also just won a href="http://museke.com/node/3780"three nominations/a for this year's Channel O Africa Music Video Awards. Wish him luck as he guns for a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/node/3796"awards/a. His album, M'awensem, is one of the best ever and the work he put into it paid off. He's also one of the hottest names to feature on a song, something he really enjoys doing.br /br /So there is my list, what's yours? Let me know what you think by adding comments below.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3372511350304254265?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 20, 2009
• 21:28

  I watched Inter Milan play at Stanford

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Yesterday, I went to see Inter Milan play Mexico's Club America with my brother and some other friends. It's absolutely awesome they played the game right down the road from me on Stanford's campus. Which other universities host international soccer games? Stanford even hosted a game in the USA 94 World Cup. This game was not attended well compared to the time Chelsea came here, but the game was enjoyable with the Mexican drumming and Vuvuzelas blowing. Both teams scored from corners and settled for a 1-1 draw and Inter lost on penalties. I had gone to see Muntari, Balotelli and Ibrahimovic play. Sulley got injured early in the game but I did get to shout his name and have him wave at me when he was exiting the stadium. br /br /I was surprised when I saw the Mexicanos selling these trumpets/Vuvuzelas. I've not been a big fan of those things but I am beginning to accept that it's a part of the game. That thing is not easy to blow, much respect to the South Africans who provided the soundtrack to the recent Confederations Cup. Kai, Mexicans are hustlers. The area around the Stanford Stadium looked like Accra with all the Mexican/Spanish hawkers. And they were marketing their goods in Spanish? "Cinco, cinco ahora". Hawkers in Accra don't shout in English, do they? Nowhere cool. There were some Black men also selling tickets by the stadium. I didn't ask for the prices, but I wonder if they managed to sell it for profit like the Nima boys did during CAN 2008.br /br /I was a little worried Zlatan Ibrahimovic would be absent at the game since it looks really likely he's going to Barcelona. He'd been with Inter on the America trip for awhile so I suppose he was going to be at Stanford. Mourinho, who did not want to lose the match, brought him on in the second half and he gave a little 'show'. 'Keche' be what? As my brother said, he has great ball control and ball sense. When he came into the game, Inter looked more dangerous, though they didn't get any goals because Diego Milito messed some up and their wingers had forgotten how to dribble. Inter's defence sucked though, Materazzi was pretty useless and they probably only won a couple of headers all game. Maicon Figo were absent. Cambiasso is a baller. Quaresma is a wastepipe, he needs to go back to Portugal. For Ibra, he joining Barca would make them a killer team! Those El Classicos this season would be fantabulous! The wizardry of Messi, Zlatan, Henry, Iniesta Xavi versus the artistry of Kaka, Ronaldo, Benzema, Raul Higuain. Barcelona is coming to town next month and will try to see them as well.br /br /Balotelli played well too but that guy plays kinda rough (buga-buga) and needs to be better disciplined. Wanted to see him after the game to say, "Come play for Ghana, son". This boy is good and would add a lot to the Black Stars. He can shoot, even play on the wing a bit, hustles back and can take set-pieces. Discovered the Nigerian guy called Joel Chukwuma Obi who played for Inter. Why is it that most of the African stars in top European teams are holding midfielders? What happened to the Abedi Peles and Jay Jay Okochas? Or the Osei-Kuffours and Radebes? Obi acquitted himself well but he had a straight red card at the end, which was quite harsh. I wondered where Obinna Nsofor was, he's a great player. It was sad Muntari couldn't play the whole game. Lower back problems? "Atopa no dɔɔ so, Menaye, ɛyɛ a, susu" :-D br /br /I kept wondering what at all is this Club America team? You have Chelsea, Inter Milan, AC Milan playing in this Football Challenge, and then Club America? They ain't even from 'America'. I googled and found out that they are the richest team outside of Europe and one of Mexico's most successful. Most of their top players were playing for Mexico over the weekend so they faced Inter with a second-string side and still drew. Club America had more supporters than Inter at the game, serious business. How is it possible that I've seen Club America play two more times than Man U, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Arsenal, New York Red Bull (just kidding) combined. Shyous right? Try this one, I've seen them play two more than I've seen games involving Accra Hearts of Oak or Kumasi Asante Kotoko. Now that is something I need to change really fast, it's atrocious.br /br /So there was a lady who 'streaked' unto the field at the end of the game to hug the players. Nah, she wasn't naked but that was hilarious. Maybe, soccer lovers in the US have to start regular American sports terms to get Americans to love the game. This American dude next to me was getting on my nerves. One time, he said that guy had a 'booty fall'. He and his lady partner were using terms like steal, turnover, overtime, etc. Come on! They kept on referring to Inter as the Italians and Club America as the Mexicans. Club America had some black defender dude (another position Africa is exporting pretty well). He did help tell some Mexicano in front of me to sit down when I needed him to so that was nice. Get your mind right buddy, it's football not soccer.br /br /It was a nice game, as well as the half-time soccer match involving Special Olympians from Northern California and folks from EA Sports. Next time, I wish I'll be watching Manchester United or the Phobia boys. There are few more games in the World Football Challenge left across the US, try and catch one. And who is organizing this thing anyway? How does Club America have 3 points and Inter have 2 points after this game? WednesdayThursdayFriday? Read their a href="http://www.worldfootballchallenge.com/"yawa tournament rules/a. Enjoy the games and get ready for more Vuvuzela action, especially at next year's World Cup in South Africa. "Local is lekker".div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1295427717598660786?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 17, 2009
• 3:51

  Dissecting Barack Obama's speeches in Ghana

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  On July 11, around 12:40pm GMT, I was rounding off a night of partying in Las Vegas. To me, life was good. What was I missing? Barack Obama's address to the Ghanaian Parliament in Accra. Obama is building a legacy of great speeches and this was also bound to be a historic one. Hussein did not disappoint. He was speaking the capacity as the 'leader of the free world' and president of the great US of A. As I read the speech more carefully today, I felt America's first Black president seemed to be speaking for Africans and Africa, even more than for America. He did show a lot of tough love to Africa in there but his tone was one of - this is what Africa needs and desires, this is the way 'we can do it', and this is the way the rest of the world (America, etc) should help. Obama has some Africa in him and for those of us Africans who wondered how much help he'll be to us, I believe we should sleep well at night because he does mean business.br /br /I wish I could post the whole speech for y'all to read here but I'll have to a href="http://www.africannewsworld.com/2009/07/president-obamas-speech-in-africa.html"redirect you here/a. I admired Obama and his speech writers doing their homework. Who told him about Anas Ameyaw, and Patience Quaye? What else does Obama know about Ghanaians making impact? Obama's speeches are just too good. Did Bush have speeches this good? If so, why didn't anyone talk about them? Great speeches are defined by telling stories, and this is an art that has been nurtured in Africa since time immemorial. The way he presented the stories about his father and grandfather was just 'lekker'. br /br /I was able to catch Obama's departure ceremony from Accra live. While listening to President Atta Mills, a lot of Ghanaians will tell you they were just hoping for zero gaffes. He gave a short speech, showing remarkable adoration for Obama. Really? I haven't seen him that excited in a while. Whose fault was that? Ghanaians as a whole or Obama? There was nothing memorable about Asomdwoe hene speaking other than what I just discussed. It's a good idea he spoke before Barack, because his speech would have been a let-down. I don't know for how long Obama spoke then but his speech was much much better. Is public speaking something that African-Americans just excel at? Kwame Nkrumah was a good speaker and am looking for a few more Ghanaians cast in his mold. Obama mentioned that "Africa's future is up to Africans". I feel it's a little hard to speak this statement into the lives of people in the West, especially those who really have Africa's best interests at heart, imagine this statement being proclaimed by the 'leader of the West'. br /br /I'd like to pick a few lines from his speeches. br /br /i"And I have come here, to Ghana, for a simple reason: the 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but by what happens in Accra as well."/i - Pretty deep, I'll offer another meaning, this is to say, Africans don't need to be in foreign lands to shape the 21st century, but on the continent as well. br /br /i"Only this time, we have learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa's future. Instead, it will be you — the men and women in Ghana's Parliament, and the people you represent. Above all, it will be the young people — brimming with talent and energy and hope — who can claim the future that so many in my father's generation never found."/i - It feels good to be a young African, I know Barack Obama has my back. He calls for Africa's youth to take charge of the future, I am not sure if we understand what this means. It's as simple as volunteering. America has peace corps in Ghana, what does Ghana have in Ghana?br /br /i"As I said in Cairo, each nation gives life to democracy in its own way, and in line with its own traditions. But history offers a clear verdict: governments that respect the will of their own people are more prosperous, more stable and more successful than governments that do not."/i - I feel talk about democracy is a little overrated, we must begin to move past celebrating good democracy and focus on laying the platforms for our citizens to create wealth and succeed. Having relatively better democracy than so so and so African country shouldn't be our goal, but creating the environment and infrastructure for the players in our development to play. Obama said some more in the few lines after this one that must be regarded highly. br /br /i"Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions." "From South Korea to Singapore, history shows that countries thrive when they invest in their people and infrastructure; when they promote multiple export industries, develop a skilled work force and create space for small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs."/i - Do we understand what investing in our people means? Are we as citizens, and not just the government prepared to do this? br /br /i"Across Africa, there is bountiful wind and solar power; geothermal energy and bio-fuels."/i - We must sit up and work on this. We must become self-sufficient energy producing countries. Africans need to take the lead on something and this can be it. Like Obama said, "Africa's boundless natural gifts can generate its own power, while exporting profitable, clean energy abroad."br /br /i"Yet because of incentives — often provided by donor nations — many African doctors and nurses understandably go overseas, or work for programs that focus on a single disease. This creates gaps in primary care and basic prevention. Meanwhile, individual Africans also have to make responsible choices that prevent the spread of disease, while promoting public health in their communities and countries."/i - I fear health professionals in Ghana may be getting enamored with sexier incentives and wage demands as well as more celebrity diseases while losing sight of the basic health problems we collectively face as a people. We must be leading the research on problems that primarily affect us and take steps to ensure healthier living and prevent these diseases. If health costs are huge, 'let's do prevention is better than cure'. br /br /i"Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division. We are all God's children."/i - Colonialism divided us but as our countries have grown, we've grown to appreciate our similarities and the differences. As we integrate our nations and differentiate our continent, it should unify us and make us the best consultants for each other and not people who are not as culturally similar to us. We are all God's children, when the dust settles, we are here to co-exist in love. While at the Cape Coast Castle, Obama said, i"One of the most striking things that I heard was that right above the dungeons in which male captives were kept was a church, and that reminds us that sometimes we can tolerate and stand by great evil even as we think that we're doing good."/i Did he just make that latter part up on the fly?br /br /i"With strong institutions and a strong will, I know that Africans can live their dreams in Nairobi and Lagos; in Kigali and Kinshasa; in Harare and right here in Accra."/i - If you've read some of what I've written since I found spaces to share my thoughts, I've asked about an African dream over and over again. So I ask, What is the African dream? Either way, Obama knows his father went to America to seek greener pastures and did well but he believes that must not be the story that defines Africans. I am confident there are stories of success built on the continent, it's time to fish them out and broadcast them.br /br /I'll end this blog post with the last few paragraphs of Obama's speech because he speaks the truths I would have spoken anyway. Kinda ;-)br /br /i"Now that triumph must be won once more, and it must be won by you. And I am particularly speaking to the young people all across Africa and right here in Ghana. In places like Ghana, young people make up over half of the population."/ibr /i"And here is what you must know: The world will be what you make of it. You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people. You can serve in your communities, and harness your energy and education to create new wealth and build new connections to the world. You can conquer disease, and end conflicts, and make change from the bottom up. You can do that. Yes you can, because in this moment, history is on the move."/ibr /i"But these things can only be done if all of you take responsibility for your future. And it won't be easy. It will take time and effort. There will be suffering and setbacks. But I can promise you this: America will be with you every step of the way -- as a partner, as a friend. Opportunity won't come from any other place, though. It must come from the decisions that all of you make, the things that you do, the hope that you hold in your heart."/ibr /i"Ghana, freedom is your inheritance. Now, it is your responsibility to build upon freedom's foundation. And if you do, we will look back years from now to places like Accra and say this was the time when the promise was realized; this was the moment when prosperity was forged, when pain was overcome, and a new era of progress began. This can be the time when we witness the triumph of justice once more. Yes we can. Thank you very much. God bless you. Thank you."/idiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8726748369336461164?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 16, 2009
• 11:02

  My interview with Jucy about Museke, Kasahorow, GhanaThink

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Recently, my South African friend a href="http://jucy.co.za"Keitumetse 'Tumi' Diseko/a approached me about interviewing me for a website called Jucy, a community blog started by one Nzinga Qunta, who works for Channel O as a presenter on their popular O Boma. I met Tumi through my work at Museke.com and she formerly worked for MTV Base Africa. According to Nzinga's interview with a href="http://www.rage.co.za/readmore.php?id=1582curCat=presscurCity="Rage/a, Jucy is an African celeb news and entertainment site, with a little bit of inspiration to go out there and be fabulous! In her words, "Imagine Afrika and get to know celebs from the African continent who are doing amazing things, and I just thought it would be cool to read about them and not just American or European people." They also take a keen interest in Africans on the continent and in the diaspora doing big things in their respective careers, etc. It's an honour to be interviewed in the 'People You Should Know' category.br /br /Below is the story from the a href="http://www.jucy.co.za/2009/07/people-you-should-know-ato-ulzen-appiah.html"Jucy website/a br /__________________________br /If you’re a big fan of African music, you have probably come across or heard of museke.com, the impressive online database of lyrics, news, content, videos, translations and anything else to do with African artists. Ato Ulzen-Appiah is one of the people behind the website, as well as other forward thinking projects in his home country of Ghana. Although he is modest about his accomplishments and his plans for the future, we definitely think Ato is a continent-wide mover and shaker that you should definitely start getting familiar with! br /br /strongWhere do you go to school and what are you studying?/strongbr /I am presently a graduate student at Stanford University (California) pursuing a Masters’ degree in Construction Engineering Management.br /br /strongHow did museke.com come about?
/strongbr /Museke.com was born out of a GhanaThink Tsooboi project. GhanaThink is an NGO whose goal is to raise awareness about Ghanaian issues, provide platforms to discuss them and generate ideas for development. One idea that came up was starting and maintaining a database of Ghanaian music lyrics to encourage dialogue about the messages in Ghanaian music and encourage the use of Ghanaian languages on the web. After the lyrics project was incubated in GhanaThink for about two years, the project was graduated and the focus was expanding to cover all of African music. This gave birth to Museke.com. Since then, Museke has grown from a lyrics database to a full-fledged African music website with lyrics, audio, video, playlists, blogs, interviews, artiste info, forums, etc. It’s been great seeing it grow.br /br /strongI know it hasn’t been easy building Museke.com but one can honestly say that it is becoming the African music bible. What have the obstacles been so far?
/strongbr /African music bible? That’s a major compliment. Thank you. The biggest obstacle so far has been making Museke a fully user-based site where many different people post content. We’ve been hoping people would log-in and post their favorite songs or even ask questions about African music. It’s been happening but not as much as we’d like. Getting content was a very tedious task before. Presently, we have a lot of support from African musicians so content generation is easier now. Some other obstacles in the beginning were having better user interfaces and structures to support the project. It’s also tough to get lyrics in different African languages, but we have been able to get these lyrics from various members and sources, something we’re proud of.br /br /strongWhat are your long term aspirations for Museke?
/strongbr /We want Museke to become an African music hub, the home of all African music fans. A website with elements of youtube and myspace but African-music focused.br /br /strongIn addition to Museke, you have various online projects- another exciting one is the vernacular dictionary (kasahorow). Why did you and your associates feel you needed to have such a project?
/strongbr /Kasahorow.com is another project that came out of GhanaThink. It was born out of a conversation community members had about the use of Twi (a Ghanaian language) in modern Ghana and how it was disappearing and not being documented. The project set out to provide tools to type in Twi, Akan keyboards, spell checkers, etc. Some of these tools have proved useful for Museke.com (all our Ghanaian lyrics are written in their ‘right’ characters. Kasahorow also established various African language dictionaries to aid students and also help document the language for longevity. Another cool feature was the production of online greeting cards in different African languages. Kasahorow’s goal is to enable African languages on the web.br /How has it worked? How far are you with the project? 
Kasahorow has worked well. It’s popular amongst language enthusiasts and it has collaborated with many organizations interested in localization and language issues. It has received funding through Suuch Solutions, a company one of my GhanaThink buddies started and Yale.br /br /strongYou are very passionate about everything African-music; film; food; I.T, do you plan on coming back to the continent after school?/strongbr /The popular answer to this question is to say ‘eventually’. With the present recession, I probably should say am coming back right after school but I am still committed to the initial goal of working in the United States for a bit before I return home. I feel to get the full experience, I must work for some time. The work ethic and style in the US will be great for Africa’s development so I want to have felt and experienced that. 

I am passionate about Africa but I am mostly after celebrating African excellence. We complain about the press Africa receives worldwide. But what are we Africans doing about it? Most Africans in the Diaspora follow the same news sources who report what we complain about. It’s our duty to report the ‘good news’, the news that will make us feel good to be Africans and balance the negative publicity. I am all for broadcasting African excellence – in engineering, entertainment, entrepreneurship, etc. I don’t know about excellence in food, I just love to eat so anything goes, really.br /br /strongWhat career would you like to pursue after school?/strongbr /
I know I want to be an entrepreneur, and in some cases, I am already that. I br /will like to build different businesses and eventually build a business empire. I am studying civil engineering so will like to work in that industry but because of my varied interests, I will like to work in many industries as well, wherever I find opportunity and feel my skills and talents can be invested there appropriately.br /br /strongWhen the odds aren’t in your favour, how do you keep going?/strongbr /
I continue with the can-do attitude. I keep on believing. I am pretty focused on finishing whatever I start, I don’t like to give up. I am not sure how to answer how I keep going, I just retool, revisit issues, return to the plan and keep it going. I believe Jozi has a song like that, I haven’t heard it, do they talk about this?br /br /strongWhen/How did your love affair with music from outside of Ghana begin?
/strongbr /I won’t call it a love affair, I still love Ghanaian music. Anyway, it began when I went to college at MIT and made lots of African friends. The vibe was the same and my friends truly enjoyed the music. I wanted to be a part of that.br /br /strongYour most memorable moment in the African urban scene in the last three years? Why?/strongbr /
This is a tough one but I’ll have to choose the emergence of 2face Idibia’s African Queen. The way the song became an African anthem has pushed for more African unity in showbiz and entertainment. I believe it’s allowed Nollywood to prosper as well as Nigerian artistes to do well internationally. Similarly, it has also encouraged Africans to appreciate content from other Africans more.br /br /strongYou are a HUGE soccer fan- will you be coming to S.A for the World Cup?/strongbr /
Mos def. I plan to. It will be awesome to experience such a grand tournament in Africa. I was at the African Cup of Nations in Ghana in 2008 and the atmosphere was super. Local is lekker so I expect the Mzansi Mundial to be fantastic. I must admit, I don’t follow African soccer as much as I should, I am a huge Manchester United fan and watch many EPL and UEFA Champions league games.br /br /strong2010 will be…
…/strongbr /The year I visit another African country other than Ghana. It is one of my biggest regrets so far.br /br /strongTop 5 favourite current urban African tracks?
/strongbr /a href="http://museke.com/node/3243"Babe (baby)/a by Sarkodie – Ghana
br /a href="http://museke.com/node/3495"Presta atencao/a by Perola – Angola
br /a href="http://museke.com/node/3750"Leo remix/a by A-Y Avril – Kenya Tanzaniabr /a href="http://museke.com/node/2959"
Where my baby dey/a by Samini – Ghana
br /a href="http://museke.com/node/2669"Swallow your pride/a by 2Face Idibia – Nigeriabr /br /Get familiar with African artists, music, lyrics and videos by registering and contributing to museke today!br /__________________________div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-522996839051943670?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 15, 2009
• 9:15

  My interview with Project Diaspora about BarCamp Diaspora

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I recently talked to Tracy Pell of Project Diaspora about my work with BarCamp Diaspora and BarCamp Ghana. I thoroughly enjoyed the chat and appreciated the opportunity to do it. It was my very first video skype chat and I must say I'd love to do more :-D. If you haven't heard of a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora/a, it's an 'unconference' bringing together people interested in Africa to discuss and dialogue about Africa, doing business back home, doing business targeted at Africans and Diasporeans in the US and sharing ideas about Africa's development. It is also ad-hoc and informal whereby the business of the day is determined by those present. Power to the people. If you can gain easy access to Washington DC on July 25, come to a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora/a. Find out who's coming, the agenda amongst other info a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"here/a. It's free and it will be worth your while.br /br /Here's the interviewbr /object width="400" height="300"param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5602349amp;server=vimeo.comamp;show_title=1amp;show_byline=1amp;show_portrait=0amp;color=amp;fullscreen=1" /embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5602349amp;server=vimeo.comamp;show_title=1amp;show_byline=1amp;show_portrait=0amp;color=amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"/embed/objectpa href="http://vimeo.com/5602349"Ato Ulzen-Appiah On BarCamps Ghana and Diaspora/a from a href="http://vimeo.com/user1488675"Project Diaspora/a on a href="http://vimeo.com"Vimeo/a./pbr /br /You can read up a story about the chat and the barcamps at a href="http://projectdiaspora.org/2009/07/14/ato-ulzen-appiah-on-barcamp-diaspora/"this link/abr /br /I first met Tracy at BarCamp Africa which was held at Google's campus in Mountain View, California last October. This event is one of the best 'conferences' I've been to. Shara Kasic, Elia Varela Serra and Ellen Petry Leanse did a spectacular job putting it together. They were able to reach a wide range of African entrepreneurs, some of which are very popular and making impact on the continent. The energy and synergy of the participants there was super. I joked with Tracy that I would love to hire them to do the next BarCamp Diaspora. Together with the BarCamp Ghana team, we tried to create that same vibe at the a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampghana08"December 22 event/a and succeeded. There's room for improvement and that's what we hope BarCamp Diaspora and subsequent BarCamps can provide.br /br /I already blogged about a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/12/barcamp-ghana-08-its-only-beginning.html"BarCamp Ghana here/a and you can read a whole lot of other comments and thoughts on the event through a href="http://barcampghana.org/blog/2009/01/18/tweets-pictures-and-blog-entries-about-barcamp-ghana"this link/a. Like I said during the interview, when your attendees find fulfillment in what you are putting together, you find fulfillment too. A few shortcomings were communicated and best believe, we'll be working at making future events better. For a start, we want to do a better job of documenting discussions and ideas, so that we can easily refer back and see the progress made. An idea bank can be proposed where people can hatch onto different ideas and pursue them in the spirit of African development. br /br /It's very difficult to organize things, especially events like these. Sometimes, the planning involved is underestimated. It's not easy raising funds and new things are always tough sells, no matter how intriguing or awesome they are. We've had to make BarCamp Diaspora 'free bonto' and with good reason, because I believe all that follow should be free as well. Nevertheless, we are hoping for a successful BarCamp Diaspora which will dissect issues and take care of the shortcomings that befell BarCamp Ghana. There are many more BarCamps in store. Dorothy Gordon, the CEO of the Kofi Annan ICT Center of Excellence (AITI) in Accra, encouraged us to organize more barcamps in all of Ghana's regional capitals. It can be done. AITI believed in the concept and the work enough to provide their facility to us for free. Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies is also doing the same. br /br /I like to think of these BarCamps as physical forums, continuing the work of forums like a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/"GhanaConscious/a and the countless conversations I am sure we have in our homes and apartments when we feel the need to. Collectively, we can bring the major stakeholders who are pushing African excellence together to share their stories and ideas and make them viral. We need your support, we are doing this for you. Together, we can all make sure we invest our talents where they count.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4120856685168785456?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 4:43

  Writing African stories, young African writers and the Baobab prize

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Deborah Ahenkorah sent some info about a href="http://baobabprize.googlepages.com/home"Baobab Prize 2009/a out recently and it has inspired me to write about African writers and African stories. Growing up, my favorite novels to read were the JAWS (Junior African Writers Series) books as well as those from AWS (African Writers Series). I used to be really intrigued by them and this followed into my love for books like Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe), Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) and Our Sister Killjoy (Ama Ata Aidoo). Many of the famous African novelists are still writing but a whole new generation of writers are starting to join the gang and the Baobab Prize is encouraging that. Maybe, I'll also write a novel soon, who knows.br /br /According to the website, "The Baobab Prize is an annual award designed to encourage the writing of African literature for young readers. It has been birthed from a recognition of the dearth of fictional African literature that focuses on the youth and encourages them to explore and develop an interest and pride in the African continent." Winners for the inaugural edition included these stories for different age-groups: Lorato and her Wire Car by Lauri Kubuitsile, Botswana; Mr. Goop by Ivor W. Hartman, Zimbabwe; Strange Visitors that took her life away by Aisha Kibwana, Kenya; and Tortoise and the Thief by Michael Anim, Ghana. This effort was started by Deborah Ahenkorah and Ramatoulaye Shagaya, with support from Bryn Mawr college, where they both went to college. It's great to see African students using available resources at their schools to augment African development in this case - African literature. The 2009 edition is due for a launch soon. Stay tuned.br /br /Ivor Hartman is part of a group, Story Time Africa, which is also focusing on promoting African literature. They highlight different novels by different writers on their a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/StoryTime/94868470607?ref=s"Facebook page/a. It's great to see Africans taking charge of promoting African arts, especially through social media. At this age, where everyone is writing a book, it's good to know African fiction writers are also stepping up their game and using all the tools available to stay alive. br /br /Another friend, Ayesha Haruna Attah is busily promoting her first novel, a href="http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~ahattah/hrpage.html"Harmattan Rain/a, in Ghana at the moment. It's awesome to see her take on this project and it will inspire many more young Africans to try book publications. I know other young Africans are working on different novels and I will sahre info about them in the future. I haven't read the book yet but I plan to get a copy soon. Maybe I can do a review? Eventually, we'll have to make a movie from the novel, it holds true for many Hollywood movies these days. Where are the upcoming Ghanaian playwrights who will take over from Kwaku Sintim-Misa and Uncle Ebo Whyte? br /br /Adjetey Osekre has also published an anthology called a href="http://www.versesforthemasses.com/"Verses for the Masses/a. Adjetey is an inspiration, he led me into doing more spoken word and performance poetry, an art that he championed while in Ghana after his secondary school days in Presec. Kwadwo Juantuah made a name for himself when he published an anthology of 100 poems under Mrs. Charlotte Akyeampong's guidance while at Presec and he re-published it recently in the US. The anthology is called 'a href="http://juantuah.com/default.aspx"Morning of Gold/a'. Kudos to these guys. I am yet to write even 21 good a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/search/label/poem"poems/a that are worthy of publication. I was reminiscing the other day about a couple of a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/02/dangerous-highway-short-story.html"short stories/a I wrote for the Odadee Magazine. Maybe I could write a novel too :-)br /br /Many young Ghanaians and Africans are doing big things and I salute them all. I have said I will try to promote them as much as I can at various opportunities and we shall all endeavour to do the same. Writing and telling African stories, especially with the cultural metamorphosis we are going through is one way to document our culture and pass on the present times of our nations unto future generations. A lot of our history has been documented in books, whether fact or fiction. Like we used to say in Presec Editorial board, "the pen is mightier than the sword". A lot of people are taking to blogging, heck, someone published a best-seller of blog entries. Now, that is something I can work on. Let's continue to encourage our writers to write about Africa, the issues affecting us, the topics of the day and document the stories that will define us in the old-school literature forms that will be adorn libraries all over the world in the future.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7167391899997705371?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 14, 2009
• 7:43

  My 10 favorite American songs

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  While Barack Obama was visiting a sub-Saharan country for the first time, I was also visiting Vegas for the first time for college reunion. Pi reunion, in fact. I don't know what his expectations were, but Ghana sure did pull out the red carpet for him. I wasn't going to command that welcome in 'Sin City' but Vegas did not live up to expectations. I have few stories to tell and not many interesting things happened. The parties were on point though. I didn't get a single phone number :-) One girl told me Vegas was no place to meet someone. For real? It's not like I'll go to USC and track her down. And that tipsy Indian Australian girl probably gave me a wrong name because I can't find her on Facebook. Bummer. Too many people on the Strip looked like the white Ciara I met on Friday. One of the most interesting things about the weekend was the 'very little African music' I listened to all weekend. This must be the longest stretch of time without a healthy dose of Museke. The long road trip gave me the chance to listen a few American songs closely and reminisce over a few jams I loved back in the day. br /br /Before I get into a selection of 10 American songs, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-10-favorite-kenyan-songs.html"favorite Kenyan songs/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a I still haven't run into Beyonce on the street but am holding out hope. Enuff respect for MJ. Here are the 10 songs in no particular order.br /br /strongWhere is the love - Black Eyed Peas/strongbr /Quite easy to understand why I love this song. "Father Father Father help us; Send some guidance from above; Cause people got me got me questioning; Where is the love?". I also have mad love for this group because of their name, do you know that I make waakye from black eyed peas? That's what's up. BEP continues to churn hit party jam after party jam, but this song is how they got introduced into my life. Will.I.Am also led the Youtube music efforts for Barack Obama. That's what up too. We only got one world.br /br /strongLose yourself - Eminem/strongbr /8 Mile is one of my favorite movies. Eminem's lyrics are so sick, I love listening to him. This song oozes emotion and has a pretty good message. "You better lose yourself in the music, the moment; You own it, you better never let it go; You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow; This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo". br /br /strongHey ma - Camron/strongbr /Now this is my jam right here. "Hey ma, whatsup?" I love saying it to a special girl. Whatever happened to Camron anyway? He kinda feels a little out of place on this list. But what's really really good? This song. "She looked at me laughin', like boy your game is tight; I'm laughin' back like shordy you right" Hehe. And the song is set in Washington DC. Bonne! br /br /strongWith you - Chris Brown/strongbr /I first heard this song when I was in Ghana during Christmas 2007. My friend King Como loved the song so much, I got into it. I always went crazy everytime I heard it on radio that I had to get the song eventually. Chris Breezy did beat Rihanna and all so it's a lil interesting having to sings 'I need you boo' these days. The lyrics to this song are so good, they make me cry. Breezy, why?br /br /strongFallin' - Alicia Keys/strongbr /This was a battle between 'Fallin' and 'If I ain't got you'. Alicia is the bomb when it comes to music, she's super. She's a good humanitarian too to boot. She's another person I'll love to meet. br /br /strongOrdinary people - John Legend/strongbr /I have the whole 'Get Lifted' album; it's a rarity for me to own a secular American album. This jam got me sold. "This ain't a movie no; No fairy tale conclusion ya'llbr /It gets more confusing everyday; Sometimes it's heaven sent; Then we head back to hell again; We kiss then we make up on the way"br /br /strongBuy you a drank - T-Pain/strongbr /Do you know T-Pain is right up there with Michael Jackson and the Beatles when it comes to number one singles? First it was Sean Paul and Reggaeton, then the Crunk music from down south, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake and now we are in the auto-tune era with T-Pain. This guy is something else. He's even on the 'I'm on a boat song'. This is one of my favorite songs to sing along to. "Walk It Out; (Now Walk It Out Bang Yo Body, Aaahhh Snap)"br /br /strongJesus Walks - Kanye West/strongbr /I absolutely loved the emergence of this song. I was surprised with the lack of major gospel songs on American radio and this song tilted the scales a little bit. It was a bold move by Kanye and I'm glad he was successful. I'll let Kanye do the talking - "So here go my single dog radio needs this; They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus; That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes; But if I talk about God my record won't get played Huh?; Well let this take away from my spins; Which will probably take away from my ends; Then I hope this take away from my sinsbr /And bring the day that I'm dreaming about; Next time I'm in the club everybody screaming out; (Jesus Walks)"br /br /strongPimpin all over the world - Ludacris/strongbr /This song makes an entry here simply because the video was shot in South Africa and has the line, "the best women all reside in Africa and that's real.(Whoo...Oh yeah)". Now that's what I am talking about. Big up to Chris Bridges and Bobby V, whose jam 'Slow Down' is another fave.br /br /strongWe belong together - Mariah Carey/strongbr /The last but not the least is this number one hit by the Glitter lady. She came back strong with this one. "Who else am I gonna lean on; When times get rough?; Who's gonna talk to me on the phone; Till the sun comes up?". Who else loves 'Anadwo yɛ dɛ?' phone conversations.br /br /Presently, I am feeling 'girl, you know I I I' by Jeremiah, I gotta feelin by BEP and Knock you down by Keri Hilson. More from Alicia - If I ain't got you and No one. Nas' I can is another song I had to get eventually. I am a big fan of Usher, got his Confessions album and love Yeah, You remind me and You got it bad. One of my favoritest club songs is Low by Flo-rida. Also love Kanye's Good Life and Gold Digger. Others are Wyclef's 911 and Two wrongs, all of Michael Jackson's hits, Lupe Fiasco's Superstar, TI's Live your life, Mary J Blige's Be without you, etc. Akon represents with Mama Africa, Lonely, and Don't matter and his countless sweet collabos with African musicians. This is all I remember now, will update as I remember some more. br /br /Long live good music.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-3326785212638851947?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 0:51

  Obama in Ghana - A round-up of blog posts by Ghanaian bloggers

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  This past weekend marked the visit of Barack Obama to Ghana. A lot has been said about the significance of this visit, this being the first trip to a sub-Saharan African nation by the first Black American president. I missed most of the speeches and festivities since I had 'gotten away' for the weekend and have been reading up on some blogs written by various Ghanaians on the Obama trip. I will like to share some thoughts from these awesome people.br /br /GhanaConscious' own a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/users/omanba"Omanba/a a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blogs/omanba/2009/07/here-looking-africa-critique-barack-obamas-speech"critiqued/a Barack's speech. She broke it down into four major parts - democracy, health care, conflict resolution and doing it yourself. I personally think too much mention is made of democracy but Omanba spells it out nicely - "An era of tyranny, gagging, misuse of power and governing with impunity sprinkled with a dash of Elections every so often, does not constitute democracy. Africa must take note!" She stresses the fight against HIV-AIDS and Malaria and also mentions drug counterfeiting which leads to a shameless plug about the fantastic work of Mpedigree. br /br /About conflict resolution, Omanba says, "However another school of thought like the one I belong to would rather we didn’t start these conflicts in the first place. The West never asks for our troops or our money when they have Internal problems. They don’t pick up arms and sticks and machetes and go brandishing them on their kith and kin. They use their own security and civic interventions and they respect the powers of these organs of governance and their powers thereof. People take each other to task under the constitution and there are checks and balances in society." Like someone mentioned somewhere, what Barack said this weekend has been mentioned over the years by people like Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta. Omanba queries - "Barack Obama has spoken. Is Africa ready to listen or is this visit going to be taken for just the honour of him signing the VISITOR TO AFRICA guest book and file it in the archives to gather dust." We must act.br /br /a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/users/jabdulai"Jemila Abdulai/a of a href="http://www.circumspecte.blogspot.com/"Circumspect/a blogs on a href="http://ghanaunite.blogspot.com/2009/07/obamas-message-to-africa-reiterating.html"GhanaUnite/a mentions that most of Obama's message to Africans reiterated what we already know. He basically said nothing new. Jemila also encourages African countries to take a lead on cleaner energy and becoming self-sufficient in meeting energy needs. There's no reason why we can't export solar energy for instance. She also talks about how Accra and various places in Ghana were cleaned and prepared for Barack Obama's arrival. Apparently, we are very happy to splash money to tidy our house in anticipation of a high-profile visitor but see little reason to expend the same effort to maintain a clean environment though we are some of most Godly people on earth. This kind of Ghanaian hospitality must be re-evaluated. Jemila signs off saying, "the solutions are all around us, all we have to do is look". The issue here is look where? I am not sure we know where to look or where to find the solutions. Forums like these are a start :-)br /br /One of the biggest proponents of the African Union, E. K. Bensah shares a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2009/07/obamas-visit-trenchant-view-from-ghana.html"his view from Ghana/a on Obama's visit. He marvels at the airtime Barack Obama has gotten over the last few years and his status as a superstar president. With Barack ringleading the "Yes, we can" theme, expectations are much higher for black people now and coincidentally all Africans everywhere. Obama did ask Africans to take charge of Africa. With many young Africans inspired and listening to Obama, this message means that there will be no welfare from outside sources in the pursuit of African excellence. br /br /My buddy, Kobby Owusu blogs about a href="http://techghana.blogspot.com/2009/07/jumpstarting-brand-ghana-obamamania.html"Jumpstarting Brand Ghana: Obamamania + Social Media/a He starts with some facts: iGhana is at the center of debates on Africa because of Obama's visit strongAND/strong Ghana was the number one trending topic on Twitter during Barack Obama's speech to Africa/i. It beat out the Iran election, Michael Jackson, etc. I don't know how the campaign to get #obamaghana trending panned out since I could not get on Twitter (@Abocco) but with Obama-mania intersecting with Ghana's goodwill, Ghana must have received quite the buzz this past weekend. All the major media houses covered the events. Kobby was part of the social media panel for a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampghana08/panels"BarCamp Ghana/a and in his blog post encourages more activity on branding Ghana through social media. The Obama campaign's use of social media like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter was key in his election victory. He touches on the great job the 'My South Africa' campaign is doing, I also saw some activity at this year's Harvard African Business Conference through Brand South Africa. Kobby also mentioned the Ministry of Tourism launching a three (3) year tourism strategy (Budget:GHC 15 million).br /br /Gameli Adzaho, who was also at BarCamp Ghana, a href="http://gamelmag.blogspot.com/2009/07/obama-in-ghana-retracing-steps-of.html"blogged/a about the fanfare surrounding Obama's visit. Gameli mentions that "the occasion gave him the opportunity to spell out America’s new policy direction for the African continent." He also touches on the four-prong approach discussed by Omanba in her post. Gameli is convinced Barack Obama has been watching Africa's progress and after his speech to Ghana's parliament which is sure to be discussed at length, he'll be looking to see how Africans take charge. He seems to be looking out for interests and is taking the 'tough love' approach. There is too much about Barack to admire. Gameli also referred to the debate between Ghana being a "beacon of hope and shining star of Africa or the reward for being a good boy and an ardent follower the democratic creed as per America". br /br /Sarpong Obed titles his post "a href="http://sarpongobed.blogspot.com/2009/07/obama-is-energy-for-youth.html"Obama is an Energy for the Youth"/a. He expresses frustration with the traffic problems caused by Obama's visit. People obviously loved Obama's presence in the country though some may have complained about the redness of the carpet laid out for him and attendant unnecessary road blocks. Sarpong continues with a quote from Barack's speech which also tickled my fancy - "Above all, it will be the young people — brimming with talent and energy and hope — who can claim the future that so many in my father's generation never found." Sarpong asks about the whereabouts of the Ghanaian youth policy. He signs off with "Until then, my thanks to this man who speaks and we listen." br /br /MacJordan, another attendee at BarCamp Ghana, blogs about a href="http://accraconsciousforever.blogspot.com/2009/07/obama-in-ghana-view-from-accra.html"his view from Accra/a. He has an interesting start, "he long awaited day has finally come. The Black and Bright Star of Africa now blossoms in the sky. From the moment, the Air Force 1 landed on the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport, I knew and believed that, the black man is now free after several years of bondage." He also added, "God has already anointed Africa (GHANA) was the acronym I got from a Liberian refugee last week at the mall in the hopes of getting some small coins for tro-tro… Ghana is truly the gateway to Africa…!!" He sampled views from colleagues about what questions they'd have for Barack Obama. Here's my favorite one - "What lessons in his life will he want to the Blacks (Africans) to pick as most youth look at him as their mentor?"br /br /a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/users/woarabae"Esi Cleland/a posts a href="http://maameous.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-africans-think-about-obamas-speech.html"Barack's speech/a delivered on Saturday. She asks, "So as Ghanaians, as young people , as Africans, what are your reactions? What do you think? And what's the way forward?" br /br /Edward Tagoe a href="http://tagoeblogger.blogspot.com/2009/07/obama-comes-to-ghana-accra-gets-cleaned.html"blogged/a about Obama's visit shortly before he arrived in Ghana. He talked about the home-keeping and clean-up exercise Ghana embarked for their august visitor. "All in the bid to impress the incoming messiah. My question is “Do we always have to wait for the BIG names to come before we clean up?”You should read Frederick's comment on this blog entry.br /br /I will update this post if I find another interesting blog posts. br /br /What are your reactions to the Obama visit?br /br /Originally posted in a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/node/699/"GhanaThink's online community/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-9036102036062138609?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 08, 2009
• 7:28

  BarCamp Diaspora '09- Investing our talent where it counts

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09" title="BarCampDiaspora 2009 - Investing our talent where it counts. July 25th, Washington D.C, U.S.A"img src="http://www.barcampghana.org/system/files/bcdiaspora_500x60.jpg" style="width:400px; height:48px; border:0;" title="BarCampDiaspora 2009 - Investing our talent where it counts. July 25th, Washington D.C, U.S.A." //abr /br /BarCamp Diaspora is an event that seeks to bring together people in the Diaspora to talk about doing business in Africa, share ideas on Africa's development, partner to do awesome things and learn about other opportunities, projects, businesses that are already in place. The theme "Investing our talent where it counts" basically talks about using our resources, skills, networks and relationships to build a better Africa and African community for all. Think of it as a physical discussion forum. A lot of times, we go to conferences to be 'talked at', but we go to BarCamp to 'talk'. br /br /Some of you may have heard about this event already. BarCamp Diaspora is inspired by the spirit of BarCampAfrica (which was held in Google last October) and BarCamp Ghana (held at KACE-AITI last December). I was part of the organizing team for BarCamp Ghana and it was a success which has inspired us to organize one for people who live in the US. I already blogged about that experience at a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/12/barcamp-ghana-08-its-only-beginning.html"this link/a. br /br /a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09/register"Register/RSVP today/a and share your interests. We are hoping to have an event that would be a valuable experience for everyone. If you have an idea that you've been brainstorming and planning, this is an event where you can get more help. If you have an awesome African-related business or one that you want Africans to know about, this is the event for you. Support us by spreading the word, especially to those around the DC, Maryland and Virginia area. br /br /Here is a draft that you could email to friends to help publicize this event. br /br /a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09" title="BarCampDiaspora 2009 - Investing our talent where it counts. July 25th, Washington D.C, U.S.A"img src="http://www.barcampghana.org/system/files/bcdiaspora_500x60.jpg" style="width:400px; height:48px; border:0;" title="BarCampDiaspora 2009 - Investing our talent where it counts. July 25th, Washington D.C, U.S.A." //abr /br /On December 22, 2008, over a hundred young Ghanaians met in Accra for a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampghana08"BarCamp Ghana '08/a to exchanged ideas on entrepreneurship, innovation and development for a rising Ghana. This summer, the conversations move to Washington, DC to bring together the African Diaspora to exchange ideas on doing business in Africa.br / br /Join us at a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora '09/a, under the theme "Investing our talent where it counts".br /br /When: July 25, 2009 from 12pm - 6pmbr /Where: Kenney Auditorium, School of Advanced International Studies - Johns Hopkinsbr /University br /1740 Massachusetts Ave., NWbr / Washington, DCbr /br /You may participate online at the a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"conference website/a if you are not close to the Washington DC area.br / br /A BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering where attendees meet for discussions, demos and networking. Unlike a typical conference, at a BarCamp everyone is both a speaker and a participant. The content is provided by all attendees based on their interests, unified under the theme.br / br /BarCamp Diaspora ’09 is a FREE event for anyone who is interested in using their skills, talent, and resources to benefit Africa. It will provide a great opportunity for the African Diaspora to network and collaborate on projects.br / br /a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09/register"Register/RSVP today/a at the BarCamp Diaspora websitebr /http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09/registerbr /br /Help spread the word about BarCamp Diaspora '09 by a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09/spread-word-about-barcamp-diaspora-09"grabbing badges/a and a href="http://barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09/spread-word-about-barcamp-diaspora-09"support us by donating/a to keep the participation costs low. You may also contact us for sponsorship opportunities.br / br /See you there!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-6581750791740659698?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 06, 2009
• 8:37

  My 10 favorite Kenyan songs

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I normally spend my July 4th weekends going to a bunch of Ghanaian events. Because of the present recession, I couldn't make the trip to DC unfortunately (and it was gonna be double the price with my brother around), so I settled with being in the Bay Area. My July 4th party agenda? Hit up the young Kenyan ladies association signature party of the year. Hey, Barack Obama is Kenyan if you forgot. I ended up attending a West African (Senegalese) party that rocked and crashed the Kenyan gig at its end. My favorite Ladybug was stuck in Boston anyway. Talking about Boston, it is the city where I was introduced to Kenyan music. And this whole LadyBug stuff is bugging me to represent Kenya in my ongoing 10 song list. So here we go. Twende.br /br /Before that, you have to check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-south-african-songs.html"10 favorite songs from South Africa/a, my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a If you can find a Tusker joint near you, have a drink on me. I will e-pesa you some chapaa later. You may discover your next favorite song. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/882"Sinzia/a - Nameless (RB)/strongbr /This is one of the more popular songs from East Africa in the last few years. I first heard about Nameless' music when I was at MIT through my Kenyan friends. He was also the first African musician whose concert I attended in the US. Loved his music and when Sinzia came out in 2006, I was excited because I'd been waiting for something new. He didn't disappoint. The lyrics of Sinzia became the water-cooler talk and the I think the lady in the video is mrembo. :-) "I wish I could be your shoe; I would have such a beautiful view; And if I was the slit on your dress; My goal in life would be to aim for the highest; If only I could be your body lotion; br /I would walk with undivided devotion". Wicked vibes. Which kind of artiste calls himself Nameless? He is such a fine individual though. Sinzia means daydreaming, he must have been thinking about his wife, Wahu (a major Kenyan musician) with whom he has a child. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2005"Liar/a - Wahu (RB)/strongbr /Wahu was at that concert too and she had us singing along to this song at the top of our voices. "He is a liar, a liar; He is a liar, oooh!" "Oh oh oh mama, what am I gonna do?" And the song features a few lines from her hubby, Nameless. An interesting exchange actually given the time the song came out. Wahu recently won MTV Africa's best female artiste which is a very big deal. After this Liar track in early 21st century, she resurfaced with Sweet Love in 2008 which was a massive success. "If you see him before I do, just tell him he's a liar"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2354"Dreamer/a - STL (Hip-hop)/strongbr /I heard about Stella Mwangi just last year. She's been based in Norway for a while now and has been one of the best female emcees there. Her 'Dreamer' track is just the kind of song I enjoy. All I need to hear is this "What are stars for if not to be aimed at?; What are we here for if not to believe that?" Inspirational. She's a great rapper and I admire how she's doing her best to market herself back home. "Don’t wanna drawn in life I wanna elevate; I’m baking a bigger cake, so need a bigger plate; but when you aim high, they call you a dreamer; They called Oprah the same, but now have you seen her" br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2065"Karibia/a - Nameless (Afro-pop/RB)/strongbr /More Nameless, this time he does a duet with Burundian superstar, Kidumu. I just love the way they sing 'reke muekere'. And 'Mahanjam, mahanjam, zinapanda'. And then it gets louder and even louder. Nameless combines Swahili and English so beautifully. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2647"Queen/a - Longombas (RB)/strongbr /Longombas is a duo of Christian and Lovy who are Awilo Longomba's nephews. They grew up in Kenya so are normally referred to as Kenyan musicians and they sing a lot of in Kiswahili. They are famous for many party tracks (following their famous uncle) but my most popular number from them is this lovely RnB track. And they sing in English, it's just so different from what we are used to hearing from them, and they absolutely score. I thought this song would become big like African Queen, but so far, nada. You can start selling it with lyrics like "Every day is a brand new day; br /Everytime that I see your face; You are my everything and anything that I will ever need in this world"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1965"Kwaheri/a - Jua Cali (Hip-hop)/strongbr /I won't even lie, but this song is really about the singing that Sanaa does. Sanaipei is a great singer and Jua Cali got some great flow and awesome lyrics. Thought Sanaa was hot in the video too and the chorus is fantastic. I was rather disappointed when JuaCali came to perform in the Bay Area and came without Sanaipei Tande. Bummer. Kwaheri means 'bye' in Swahili. Sanaa is from the group Sema, which disbanded. Loved their Mwewe album, one of my all-time favorites. It was given to me by a fine Kenyan msichana who I've lost contact with. Not cool.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1414"Mpenzi (Hakuna Matata)/a - Swahili Nation (RB)/strongbr /I know this is a personal favorite of many, including some non-East African friends. I love the singing on this one and how the English and Swahili lines are combined. Mpenzi means 'love' in Swahili. Do you remember Hakuna matata from Lion King? "Mpenzi, hakuna matata; Kila kitu kitawa sawa sawa; My lover, you don't have to worry; Everything will be alright". This part always gets me - "Something needs to be D O N E". br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1470"Bless my room/a - Necessary Noize (Reggae)/strongbr /My 'out-of-coverage-area' Kenyan friend also gave me Necessary Noize's CD which had this brilliant track. It's one of my favorite songs to listen to. "Bless ma room when I wake up early in the morning; Say a prayer and I feel okay". Wyre and Nazizi have gone on to do solo albums, and I've loved both efforts. Also enjoyed that Fire anthem with Uganda's Bebe Cool. They should reunite some more boomshaka tracks like this one.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1986"Niwe wako/a - Nikki (RB)/strongbr /This song is sung so much more emotion and makes for great listening. "I'll die a thousand deaths for you; Bring you the earth, the sun and the moon". Serious business. Nikki's a good singer, and this track is my favorite from Kenya's RB ladies. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1903"Twende twende/a - Eric Wainaina(RB)/strongbr /"There’s more to Mama Africa; Than poverty and war; I wish we had a fighting chance; br /To show off who we are" Here, Eric Wainaina features Zimbabwean great, Oliver Mtukudzi. Twende means 'let's go'. You should check the lyrics and see the translations to the Kiswahili parts, it has a marvelous message. Eric needs to release his music videos though. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/3187"Sunshine/a - Nameless(RB)/strongbr /I am going to end this list with another Nameless song which will push out a bunch of other artistes but they'll get a mention later. I still haven't seen an album with the Sinzia song but Nameless is the master of hit singles. His latest is a duet with Habida and I heard the track the very first time, I knew it was going to be a hit. "When I look in your eyes; I see, I see the sun shining bright; When I see your smile; I feel the sunshine; You are my sunshine". Lovely.br /br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. Wahu's a href="http://museke.com/node/2030"Sweet love/a was arguably the biggest Kenyan hit of 2008. I love Gidigidi Majimaji's a href="http://museke.com/node/2391"Ting Badi Malo/a. Boomba Clan's a href="http://museke.com/node/1096"Chonga viazi/a has to be one of the funniest songs I've heard to date. I am always wondering what the Kenyan party jams are, but one of them is a href="http://museke.com/node/2513"Ogopa Anthem/a by Colonel Mustafa. Look up Ogopa Deejays. Also check out Nameless' a href="http://museke.com/node/104"Ninanoki/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/1486"Wailai/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/3353"Deadley/a. Real lyrics from Wailai - "Oh, why are you playing with my psychology; Oh, When am liking your biology". I also love Sema's tracks - Ngoma, Heaven, Fire in your kiss, etc.br /br /I also love Longombas' a href="http://museke.com/node/3758"Piga Makofi/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/2262"Vuta Pumz/a (a party track but about AIDS. Other favourites are a href="http://museke.com/node/1668"Homesick/a (Wawesh), a href="http://museke.com/node/884"Leo ni leo/a (E-Sir), a href="http://museke.com/node/2484"What would you do/a (Wiwy), a href="http://museke.com/node/2332"Swing swing/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/2607"Psycho/a a href="http://museke.com/node/2610"Magnetic/a (Kleptomaniacs), a href="http://museke.com/node/3032"Feels good/a (Didge), a href="http://museke.com/node/2292"Besame mucho/a by Valerie Kimani, etc. br /br /Next time you hear that Kenyans are jamming, don't be left out, these songs should give you a headstart. br /br /Long live Kenyan music.br /Long live African music.br /Long live Africa.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7090244461957678710?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 03, 2009
• 19:56

  Obama talks to AllAfrica.com about visit to Ghana, etc

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I haven't followed Barack Obama much since he became the US president but ever since news broke of his impending visit to Ghana July 10-11, I've become a little more attentive. I hear he will be giving a speech at the Independence Square for which Ghanaians from all walks of lie could go see him speak. Obama is noted for great speeches and I believe we have another one coming up, after his stirring speech at the American University of Cairo earlier this year.br /br /Recently, he sat down with journalists from AllAfrica.com to talk about his visit to Ghana. Ghana is seen as one of the shining stars on the continent and it's easy to see why it would be chosen. It is also a leader in the Pan-African movement, with events like Panafest. President Kuffour also built great ties with Bush's America and the ties will continue with Obama-Mills. Barack Obama is believed to be visiting the Central Region during his short stay in Ghana, probably touring the slave castles there and learning about some more Black history. br /br /There's been a lot of controversy over Obama's visit to Ghana, being his first to a Sub-Saharan country. Kenya feels it should have been them, since Barack's father was Kenyan and Nigeria feels it should have gotten the nod over Ghana. Wole Soyinka mentioned that Nigeria must put its house in order before it gets paid a visit by Obama and his statement sparked a lot in Naija with some criticizing him of 'treason'. Obama mentions his reason for visiting Ghana in the first part of this interviewbr /br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu0AECMc5iEbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xu0AECMc5iEhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xu0AECMc5iEhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /When asked about why he chose to go to Ghana, he said Ghana had undergone a couple of successful elections and President Mills has shown himself committed to a rule of law. He mentions that there is a direct correlation between governance and prosperity and he wants to highlight that - an effective model as an example for the rest of Africa. Barack Obama has been a big proponent of technological tools. Africans can SMS questions to Obama to be answered on his visit using these codes: Ghana (1731), Nigeria (32969), Kenya (5683) and South Africa (31958). He also talked about the importance of cheap and efficient agricultural technologies for Africa. Some low-tech technologies are also needed to improve food production.br /br /People are mentioning Ghana's oil find as one of the major reasons for Obama's visit. Production has been slated for this year and though the quantities won't be near what is produced in Nigeria or Libya, it will be large enough to have a significant bearing on the nation's financial assets. Some also claim Ghana is going to agree to host an African Command (a US military base) something Nigeria and South Africa don't want to do, and the reason why these countries were bypassed for Ghana. They sound like conspiracy theories. br /br /The second part of the Obama interviewbr /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt2MucAPeHwbr /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Lt2MucAPeHwhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Lt2MucAPeHwhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /He harped on stability a lot in his interview; following models that work for a period of time as well as preaching stability. Concerning his legacy for Africa, he would like to see the United States as an effective partner for African countries and built political, civil and economic institutions that allowed for improved living conditions and greater security. I loved when he mentioned that Africans could stay in their countries and succeed. If you're following trends these days, it is becoming increasingly easy to succeed in Ghana and Africa. br /br /It's exciting to see Obama choose to visit Ghana, but how will we measure the success of his visit? Cape Coast is seeing a facelift for his arrival, but will it see the kind of development it deserves afterwards? Would this visit increase investment in Ghanaian enterprises back home? There are many questions to answer and it sounds like a topic for a breakout session at a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09"BarCamp Diaspora/a. br /br /In the spirit of Obama's visit to Ghana, if you will be around DC July 25th, you should try and attend a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/barcampdiaspora09/register"BarCamp Diaspora/a. It will be a day's event of dialogue, discussions and demos about a rising Ghana, organized at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. If you have any interest in Ghana or Africa for that matter, and want to share ideas, network, learn about opportunities in Ghana or some of the businesses and projects out there, this is an a href="http://www.barcampghana.org/blog/2009/06/26/barcamp-diaspora-investing-our-talent-where-it-counts"event/a for you.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1620955831108430796?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• July 01, 2009
• 0:44

  Sparrow Productions' The Perfect Picture - The soundtrack

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  After the a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture.html"Perfect Picture review/a, comes the blog entry about the soundtrack. if you know me well, you know I love music, especially African music. Sparrow Productions has been doing a great job concerning soundtracks, with the other movies like a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/08/life-and-living-it-best-ghanaian-movie.html"Life and Living it/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/01/scorned-may-be-even-better-ghanaian.html"Scorned/a. When the a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/03/sparrow-productions-back-with-perfect.html"The Perfect Picture/a was being premiered, I knew a little about the soundtrack. After going through the movie, I'll like to talk about the songs featured, including the main soundtrack which brought to us Kwabena Kwabena's first music video, a href="http://museke.com/node/1914"'Do ne bi'/a.br /br /I couldn't help but smile when I heard Asem's a href="http://museke.com/node/2184"Pigaro/a played. That song has been a huge hit but to play it in that scene was interesting. I wanted the song to be played in some club scene so we could introduce the Pigaro dance to movie viewers. The movie began and ended with hiplife songs, way to go Sparrow. Shiee, wow! The song used here was a remix and I loved the machine gun shots. "Pigaro 1, pigaro 2, pigaro 3, pigaro 4, pigaro 5, pigaro 6! Do the pigaro, baby do it like this!" I love how they ended the song in the movie. Haha.br /br /There were three Kwabena Kwabena songs on the soundtrack, chief amongst which is 'Obi dɔ wo, dɔ no bi (Do ne bi)'. I loved seeing Kwabena squared perform in the movie, I am a big fan of live music and Kwabena is a fine singer. That voice drives the ladies crazy. The club/bar scene was cool and quite reminiscent of scenes I've seen in Ghana. It seems that scene was shot in Boomerang Nite Club. You could see they were feeling the song. Kwabena has a lot of mellow songs and 'Do ne bi' is one of the few up-tempo jams. 'a href="http://museke.com/en/node/3740"Me ne woa/a' was played during a Larry-Aseye scene which begged for two lovers to try and understand each other and just do a little talking, I guess that was appropriate. a href="http://museke.com/node/734"'Meye'/a, which I believe is the best Ghanaian wedding song I've heard, was played during the wedding weekend. Shirley knows what's up!br /br /Amakye Dede's music brought people from two worlds together. This is one of the underrated things about the movie. Akese and Fela's scenes became synonymous with Amakye Dede's songs and yes, they were appropriate. Abrantie Amakye Dede sings about a whole lot of things. My favorite Amakye track is not 'Ɔdɔ da baabi' but a href="http://museke.com/node/367"'Ɔdɔ ho akyere no a'/a. 'Mefrɛ wo', 'Kanea mayɛ kyerɛ me', 'Ɔdɔ da baabi' and 'Mma ɛndi awerehoɔ' were not out of place and added a nice local tone to the movie. Twi soundtrack with English lines, that's quite interesting. Makes me wonder though, is Amakye Dede's music for the poorer class and blue-collar workers? I mean, Taylor couldn't believe his executive lady of a girlfriend could be listening to Amakye Dede. Taylor is your busy business executive who doesn't have time for his girl, but has money for expensive gifts. Serious props to the Sparrow crew for their choice of Amakye Dede and the particular songs.br /br /I don't know too much about the non-Ghanaian songs but I did recognise that 'My girl' song by The temptations and 'What a wonderful world' by Louis Armstrong. Those timeless classics are popular in Ghana and worked well with the movie. They also had T-Pain's Church; let me guess, they had to have some autotune in there huh? We all know T-Pain is the hit-maker of today. Shirley knows the times well. I had never heard Beyonce's 'New Shoes' song before. With new beginnings and after 'months later', people get new shoes abi? Yes, and at the mall too. The soundtrack also featured Shontelle's T-shirt. Excellent choice of Robin Beck's 'First time' as well. Doris Day's 'que sera, sera' and Fish Go Deep's 'The cure and the cause' also featured. Ghanaians are big reggae lovers and Muta Baruka is a favorite. They used 'I am black and proud'. br /br /My brother introduced me to Souljas' Inn's music a while ago. Nabil and his crew are good but I never took them seriously till I watched the 'Perfect Picture'. 'a href=""Broken/a' is a great song as well as 'One day'. "One day, you'll find out I love you so; And you'll be wondering why you wanted me to go, go, go". The songs were chosen really well, I mean who did the fact-finding? Searched the whole of Ghana to find the most appropriate songs. Great work. "Look at the state of me; br /Left me broken; You said you'll never leave; Look what you've done to me; Left me broken". Ghanaian music don dey catch far paa. br /br /Is it just me or do Jane Awindor and Irene Logan sound alike? I'd have loved for them to stay together but they are both quite versatile and would both enjoy solid solo careers. MissJane had two songs on the soundtrack. 'Nothing' was played when we were introduced to happier times for Larry and Aseye. Excellent. I am really feeling that 'Nothing' song, I see Jane is using her Nigerian friends to good use, using a couple of Yoruba lines. Everyone will be talking about that last but one scene and is there a more appropriate song than Jane's 'A Moment's Notice'? Ever since I heard the song, I knew it was excellent and tailored for a scene like that. Kudos Jane, you'll go places. If Shirley had a record label too, she'd sign you.br /br /Wutah's one of favourite groups and it warmed my heart to hear their a href="http://museke.com/node/3550"'Koto sa'/a track at the end of the movie. However, here is the scene where the culture confusion occurs. Were they really doing the 'electric slide' to a hiplife song? Are there no hiplife dances? Wutah has been on the down-low for way too long after the success of Anamontuo and songs like a href="http://museke.com/node/327"'Esikyire (Change your style)/a, a href="http://museke.com/node/85"Goosy gander/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/86"Big dreams/a. Kotosa will be a hit - "love goes where love is, I can't deny this."br /br /I love how Shirley Frimpong-Manso has been able to bring together great and varied songs on one good soundtrack. I believe Chris Attoh had a hand in it too. I am sure they got authorization from the musicians to use their songs though getting through to Beyonce may be much of an ask. One wonders how much the musicians are paid to feature their songs, or is the reward in the airplay the song gets in the movie? It won't be too long and the movies will feature only local productions with the way Ghanaian music is growing and changing. Kudos to all who worked on the soundtrack for the movie. Now, make a CD and sell it together with the Perfect Picture DVD.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4848169158478282913?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• June 30, 2009
• 18:11

  Sparrow Productions' The Perfect Picture - A review

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Following the success of a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2008/08/life-and-living-it-best-ghanaian-movie.html"Life and Living it/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/01/scorned-may-be-even-better-ghanaian.html"Scorned/a, I was excited to hear about the premiere of Sparrow Productions' a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/03/sparrow-productions-back-with-perfect.html"The Perfect Picture/a. I talked about the excitement of Shirley Frimpong-Manso drafting Jackie Appiah and Kwaku Sintim-Misa into the movie. I got the VCD recently and have watched it twice. The first time, I didn't know what to make of the movie, it's not your average Ghanaian or African movie for that matter. Watching it a second time, I appreciated the movie more, and I am in love with it. Sparrow Productions, I salute you! Keep it up. Looking for Agya Koo in the next feature film though, so let's make it happen. Here's a review. br /br /The settings in the movie were great. It's clear the movie shows characters in a Ghanaian middle class; young affluent people navigating their love lives. The houses used were a little glamorous, is that how young executives in Ghana live these days? Which begs the question? Where are the young returnees and young workers in Accra living? Hostels? Trasaco valley? Company housing? Government housing? With all the real estate activity booming in Ghana, there should be some apartment complexes springing up for the youth who are moving out of their parents' cares into their own places. I like how the scene after the 'months later' portion was set in the Accra Mall. It was almost a progression in the movie and made great use of one of Accra's most recent developments. You could see the scenes of the bustling Accra as Sparrow tried to promote everyday Accra scenes. I liked those. I also noticed the different hairstyles the ladies spotted which I thought that was cool. br /br /Different people have had issues with the movie's story. The story differentiates the movie from other Ghanaian ones. It's a bold script and the big challenge with Ghanaian movies these days is to make the end unpredictable. I believe the movie scored well there. The issues in the movie are not talked about in Ghanaian circles much and great movies are supposed to raise issues which is what the 'Perfect Picture' does. If we can be debating about the story and issues and not some technical glitches or bad lines then we know we have a great production. 3 different stories are told of 3 different women, somewhat independent but then related. The script was good in my opinion.br /br /Like I talked about in a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-african-movie-jerusalema-review.html"Jerusalema/a, a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-african-movie-jerusalema.html"dialogue/a can 'make' a movie. Watching this one a second time made me appreciate the dialogue and lines more. I am not going to dedicate a whole post to the lines because they weren't as many. The talk of fairytales, the few profound lines, the 'exchanges', they were all good. "It says fairytales; (but) you and I, we live in the real world". The real world is not fairytales 'ampa'. "My mother said if something was good to be true, then yes, it was too good to be true. But think about it, wouldn't life be bothering without believing in a little lie?" I feel the Beyonce and Princess Tyra type productions try too hard to use big English which frankly doesn't happen all that often in Ghana. But when you have profound statements and simple witty conversations, it's more believable and interesting. I thought Sparrow missed a couple of chances to feature some more local language lines and appropriate subtitles. Hope to see more use of local lingua next time. The Ghanaian middle class does speak a lot of Pidgin and use a lot of lingo, it wouldn't hurt to use those routes more.br /br /I appreciated the modernity of the movie. Since when did Ghanaians start doing this or that? Ghana has changed. Different things should not surprise us anymore. Including Ghanaian dating sites and whether they actually work or not. And yes, that lady should browse more. How about Dr. Andreson's suggestion? Are Ghanaians into that? Is it beyond us? No. Let's stop pretending. We may be a religious church-going people but that may not necessarily reflect what happens behind closed doors. Shirley knows it and was throwing light on some of these things. If the sex talk was overdone, note that the movie was rated 18 and up. A few references may have been unnecessary though. How many Ghanaians would have used the 'f' word in Dede's situation in the aftermath of her 'mistake'? br /br /One of the most important parts of any African movie to me is the music. It's so important that I will have a a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/sparrow-productions-perfect-picture_30.html"separate post about the soundtrack/a. It's interesting how Sparrow's movies feature these dance scenes. I find myself timing them all the time. When it goes on for more than 3 minutes, it gets irritating. I know we do like to have a good time but Ghanaian movies are not avenues for music videos. The score was great, especially that Casino Royale bit when Akese saw Fela's car. Hilarious.br /br /The movie has a story about different Ghanaian classes. How can a working middle-class Ghanaian woman like to listen to Amakye Dede? Maybe Kojo Antwi, but Amakye Dede? It's easy to see how a random air-conditioner repairer or mechanic would live off Amakye Dede tunes but a young rich Accra resident? If it teaches anything, it means that when it comes to do it, no matter how globalized or westernized we become, our culture always unites us. Another interesting thing about the movie was how all the rich guys had English first names and the 'poor' guy had a local name. Decolonization of the mind; Shirley, was this intentional? The ladies had local names though, something I can't wrap my mind around. Haha, the fella was called Fela. And the lawyer? br /br /Also, why was Kwaku Sintim-Misa in only one scene? I wanted more KSM. Hope he returns in another production. He did play his role well though as did most of the other actors and actresses. I couldn't help but be more critical about Jackie Appiah in the movie. I'm used to seeing her in many movies which I don't rate highly and it was tough to look at her independently in this role. She didn't look much different, she seemed to have the same demeanor all the time. I love the way Chris Attoh says 'I love you'. Lydia Forson is great, she's gonna go places. I think she shined in her role, and showed the different emotions well. I am beginning to like Mensah-Doku as well, other than her hysterical laughing. Adjetey Annan is one of the best actors we have in Ghana today, Pusher can shine in any role. Kudos to him. Nana Kwame Osei Sarpong had a bigger role in this role after his one-scene-act in Scorned and I think he did good too. You can see the production crew took time to make sure the roles were played well and right. This was no one-month-let's-get-done-quickly-so-we-can-shoot-another-movie production. br /br /In fact, 'The Perfect Picture' was well-written in my opinion. It caught me off guard the first time with all the 'bedmatics' but another viewing had me at ease and appreciative. I still rate 'Life and Living It' higher, maybe because it was the first from Sparrow. You know how it is difficult to outdo something that's already good. We'll see if it goes on to win any awards. The first two from Sparrow's stable did not sweep the accolades but maybe things will change with this one. The set, sound, and video quality was excellent as always and Ghanaians should be proud of this production. Excellence is not an act, it's a habit, as one wise man put it.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2099926850262389924?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• June 29, 2009
• 23:34

  My 10 favorite South African songs

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  If you ask me where the capital of music is, I'll have to tell you Johannesburg or in a more general case, South Africa. The number of music genres in South Africa is huge, from kwaito to rock, house to mbaqanga, and afro-pop to fusion. South Africa is surprisingly more diverse than people think it is, so I won't be surprised if there are South African bhangra or asian pop artistes. They do have a 14 year-old Chinese violinist prodigy. The Confederations Cup just ended in South Africa and the Bafana Bafana were third. It's sad the 'vuvuzelas' drowned out the melodious singing of other Mzansi folk :-) Before I get into a run down of my 10 favorite songs from South Africa, check out my a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-10-favorite-nigerian-songs.html"10 favorite Nigerian songs/a and a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"10 African songs I think you should know about./a Go South Africa! Local is lekker! You may discover your next favorite song. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/889"Black President /a - Brenda Fassie (Afro-pop)/strongbr /This song resurfaced a little when Barack Obama was elected America's president. It was originally composed for Nelson Madiba Mandela. I love MaBrrr's storytelling. Nelson Mandela is an inspiration to many around the world and is probably one of the few respected leaders ever. Brenda is one of the famous African musicians of all-time and though she died under some bad circumstances, her music will remain timeless, especially this song. "But the spirit was never broken". "Let us sing for our president, let us pray for our president". "I will sing for my president, I will stand and say, Viva, viva, viva!"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2078"Thathis'gubhu/a - Bongo Maffin (Afro-pop)/strongbr /I have no idea what this song is about but it made an impression on me the very first time I heard it. I heard it at Mount Holyoke's AC Day (MHACASA's African-Carribean day). The ladies did a great kwaito dance to it and it had me moving to a new sound with a new groove for a new dance in my seat. I have sung along to the song a bunch of times I think I can sing it without help except a couple 'la-la-las'. I do enjoy Bonfo Maffin's stuff over Thandiswa's solo stuff though. You should check out Thandiswa's new song, Ingoma, it's doing quite well.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2008"My number one (Kudala ngizula)/a - Gang of Instrumentals (Rock/alternative)/strongbr /This is my favorite Mzansi song to listen to recently. I don't know if it's the rock beat but there's just something about that song. Maybe the drums at the beginning/ And some non-South African friends have agreed. Gang of Instrumentals is a group of 3 (2 of which are an item). There is ragga, rap, pop, reggae, rnb, their albums are complete packages. This is some of my fave lyrics ever "You are my love; My sun; My reason to wake in the morning; The reason I smile all day; You are my one"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2008"African dream/a - Vicky Sampson/Soweto Gospel Choir (Gospel)/strongbr /Most people have an idea what the American dream is but have you ever heard of an African dream? Is there one? Is it different from country to country? I don't know. I do know that this song is one of the best I've ever heard. Telling lyrics, smooth instrumental and the part where they start singing in Zulu is just so heavenly. "Bawetu we Afrikaaaa". "Cos in my African Dream; There's a new tomorrow; My African dream; Is a dream that we can follow" That's great four lines of spirit uplifting. I don't know much about Vicky but I did see the Soweto Gospel Choir (SGC) perform live. They were 'heavenly'. :-D Choirs like SGC just prove the vocal talent that South Africans are spoilt with. All those RB crooners and fake autotune people should move aside for the real singers.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2099"Crazy party/a - In-Cha, Danny K, HHP (Violin hip-hop track with no strings attached)/strongbr /In-cha is a teenage violinist supremo from South Africa who is Chinese. And she's not an immigrant. Danny K is a white singer from Mzansi as well, performs mostly RB and Pop. HHP is one of the most popular rappers in Africa at the moment. Diversity scores on this track. Clap clap clap, come join this crazy party. Great music.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1065"Dubula, dubula, dubula/a - Kabelo (Kwaito)/strongbr /I already mentioned 'High I go' in my 10 African songs entry and Kabelo makes another entry here. This time, it's his 2006 megahit dubbed Dubula cubed. "Cuz you can't keep a good man down". Kabelo is one-third of the famous South African kwaito group called TKZee who brought us Shibobo. He's now busy marketing Reebok, living a born-again life and making more great music (Booga Luv). "I'm not gonna shoot anybody; I'm just having fun with my lyrical prowess". This line should end all rap battles. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1836"Never change my mind/a - Malaika (Afro-pop)/strongbr /Malaika is my favorite South African group of all time. Never change my mind is the major hit from their latest album, Sekunjalo. It's the only song I own on that record but it's enough. It's sad Jabulani passed away not too long ago, the video for this song was a fitting tribute to him. The video was kinda hilarious and well-done too. Those melodious voices on this song are catchy and do grab you. More on Malaika later. "Ngithanda wena; Ngizikhethele wena; Sthandwa sami siyofa silahlane; Bazokhuluma bakhulume bampempethe bakhathale; Ngikuthanda ngoba ngiyak’ncanywa" Buriful.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/980"Muntuza (2bob)/a - Malaika (Afro-pop)/strongbr /Here's my favorite group again, this time with the song Two bobo. Malaika makes some really great party music but they have some mellow and slow tracks too. I shall say no more because Swazibella offers a translation - "2 bob literally means 20 cents, and figuratively, a fine woman (like myself neh)...I dont know why they would compare a fine woman to (only) 20 cents, but it's a huge compliment in South Africa." The song basically says "who is that fine woman next to you" to different people (including Thabo Mbeki!). Ha ke sa chechela morago is Setswana for "I'm not turning back", to mean, I'm not turning back now that I've found this fine woman!" br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2690"Muthaland/a - Jozi (Hip-hop)/strongbr /This was between Tuks' 525600 minutes and Jozi's Muthaland. Picked Muthaland because the song references Africa. I love the way the song starts, everytime I listen to this track, I have to rewind the first minute. In the motherland, we gets down. Africa is one big party. I love hearing loud radios on the streets and chop-bars parties in the evenings. You bet they do it better dancing and singing in South Africa though. South Africa 2010, I must go to this world cup and visit South Africa. I have to experience the music, the vibrancy, the culture, the spirit, the sounds, the scenes, the whole shebang. "All my peeps across the land; Stamp your feet and clap your hands; If you feel it, raise your hand; This one's from the motherland".br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2570"Wa mpaleha/a - Lira (Jazz)/strongbr /The most played song on my iTunes and iPod now is Wa mpaleha by Lira. Lira's my favorite singer from South Africa now, because she's a friend (hehe). Wa mpaleha is a nice jazzy, slow jammy track that is very easy to listen to. Lira hasn't sent me the lyrics or translations yet so we'll have to make do with the music video and music for now. You'll have to increase the volume and enjoy Lira's talent. It will make you feel good. You should hear her tribute to Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday, one of the best birthday songs ever composed. br /br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. Tuks' a href="http://museke.com/node/2048"525600 minutes/a borrows the chorus from the Rent soundtrack. I am also a big fan of Zola's music, the guy who takes credit for most of the Tsotsi soundtrack. Check out a href="http://museke.com/node/1250"Phezulu/a. Also check out Lira's a href="http://museke.com/node/2385"Ixesha/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/1650"Feel good/a. I also love SGC's a href="http://museke.com/node/2276"I'll remember you/a and a href="http://museke.com/node/2315"Hlohonolofatsa/a. I recently heard a href="http://museke.com/node/2684"Life Death/a by Lulu Dikana and a href="http://museke.com/node/2471"Ngeke Ndiphinde/a by Jaziel Brothers. I also like this a href="http://museke.com/node/1247"Ngumunt'onjani lo/a track by Ntando and Nhlanhla of Mafikizolo fame. Other favourites are a href="http://museke.com/node/1254"Fiasco/a (TKzee), a href="http://museke.com/node/1255"Emlanjeni/a (Mafikizolo), a href="http://museke.com/node/824"Umqombothi/a (Yvonne Chaka Chaka), a href="http://museke.com/node/1068"Motherland (Mamaland)/a (Yvonne Chaka Chaka), a href="http://museke.com/node/1249"Remember when it rained/a (DJ Sbu), a href="http://museke.com/node/1998"Magic/a a href="http://museke.com/node/1029"Ndawo Yami/a (Zamajobe), a href="http://museke.com/node/2032"Moni fere/a (KB Motsilanyane), a href="http://museke.com/node/2791"Eyakho/a a href="http://museke.com/node/1248"Sondela/a (Ringo Madlingozi), a href="http://museke.com/node/870"Doo be doo/a by Freshlyground etc. Last but not the least, I want to shout out my boy Tumi for his lovely a href="http://museke.com/node/1559"Give me you/atrack which was actually partly recorded in Ghana. br /br /I know the World Cup in South Africa is coming up next year, if you need one more reason, let it be the music.br /br /Long live South African music.br /Long live African music.br /Long live Africa.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-8369754739818468311?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• 17:17

  What is change? Change is....

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  Frankly, I forget why I began writing about change. I don't know if this counts as a poem, it's basically a sequence of lines about change. But even changes have an end so I had to find a way to end a bunch of change lines. You can tell me whether I did a good job.br /br /Here goes, change is.......br /br /Change is what I wear every daybr /Change is a constant kbr /Change is a constant c, u cbr /Change is seeing a different customer every daybr /Change is having your peace disturbedbr /Change is having your piece reducedbr /Change is having your faith renewedbr /Change is having your new dirtiedbr /Change is having your dirt publicizedbr /Change is having your Sundaybr /Change is what you get after you get your sundaebr /Change is what the seasons dobr /Change is what the beggars press forbr /Change is what the oppressed beg forbr /Change is what we get when we travelbr /Change is what we catch in our handsbr /Change is what we grab with our heartsbr /Change is what we stand for when others sitbr /Change is why we are sitting when others standbr /Change is missing someonebr /Change is when someone goes missingbr /Change is what I eat every daybr /Change is a false diagnosisbr /Change is this being the last linebr /Change is finding a new linebr /Change is urban migrationbr /Change is a trip to the villagebr /Change is beginning a new chapterbr /Change is every different word I saybr /Change is finally putting a full stop.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-2249785877440214442?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• June 27, 2009
• 0:29

  President Obour - Having the youth lead now, case study Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  img src="http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs085.snc1/4594_185458195022_782595022_7015555_7468457_n.jpg" width="210" height="302" align="left"Sometime last year, news broke of Obour, a Ghanaian rap artiste, wanting to run for president. It turned out he wasn’t serious about it, but he wondered why ‘young people’ couldn’t run for the highest office in the land. He wanted the minimum age for seeking for the presidency to be reduced from 40. He started a Youth for Presidency campaign saying the constitution was not fair to the youth. Kufuor was more than 60 when he became president and Atta Mills is 64 at the moment. Is the presidency of Ghana for retirees? Maybe it is. We are seeing a youth movement in the present NDC government though, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, an Odadee, is the present deputy minister of information and he is under 30. His age mate, Obour tells us what he would do if he were president in his ‘a href=� [museke.com] Obour/a’ song. How will the youth handle such responsibility? Do we need more young leaders like Samuel? If we have to pay our dues before we get that type of responsibily, what are those dues?br /br /Bice Osei Kuffour, popularly known as a href=� [museke.com] is one of Ghana’s foremost musicians. He emerged onto the scene with interesting lyrics in his ‘Atenteben’ hit and has continued to remain one of Ghana’s top rappers. He is one of the few hiplife artistes who has a university degree, from the University of Ghana no less. He started his own sports’ bar in the heart of Accra and has other enterprises. He organized one of the best tours ever seen in Ghana, taking his Project Obour.com/Atumpan concert tour to over 35 towns in Ghana. He is also known for his various public campaigns; Road Safety campaign (a href=� [museke.com] a href=� [www.modernghana.com] in Ghana/a campaign (For Election 2008) and the a href=� [www.youtube.com] Ghana Reads/a campaign. He understands the influence he has as a celebrity and entertainer and is using his fame for socio-economic development and for socially conscious programs.br /!--break--br /Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is one of the shining stars of Ghanaian politics. I knew him when he was at Presec, he was only two years my senior. He was one of the SRC executives. The juniors (especially Form 1 boys) liked to call the SRC exec ‘the opposition party’. The prefects handed us the discipline and punishments, while the SRC exec fought for our rights. It was common to see the SRC and thePrefectorial council clash. Samuel Ablakwa saw his fair share of clashes in Presec. There was also the editorial board, which acted as the media. Every major player in the Ghanaian political atmosphere was represented in Presec during those days. Wetin we no see before? The SRC also made sure the students had better terms of service and living, battling the school authorities for better conditions. They represented the ‘oppressed’ and ‘weak’. Great preparation for Samuel, if you ask me. br / br /I could tell Samuel Ablakwa was going to be a leader or politician in the future. He was passionate about his work in the Students Representative Council. He was also a debater. Debating in Ghanaian high schools is no joke. You take countless verbal blows and have to come back strong. It may be worse than rap battles. After Presec, Samuel went to Legon where he was the President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS). There was some controversy surrounding him and Lord Hama (another Odadee) while he was there. In the midst of all of that, I am sure he did a remarkable job in his position, following the job he did while in Presec. Later on, I realized he was part of the Committee of Joint Action, a group I wrote off as a pro-NDC noisemaking pressure group. Before we could keep wrap our mind around his CJA exploits, he was on local television shows representing the NDC. He contributed to the NDC’s election victory. I pointed out to my father that Samuel was my senior in Presec when we watched him on a Metro TV election coverage show and my father told me how much he liked the ‘boy’. The ‘boy’ Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa routinely outshone political opponents and analysts on TV. The Presecans are going to take over  br /br /I normally dwell a lot on the song I choose for these entries but Samuel Okudzeto is a minister and Obour isn’t really going to run for political office. Samuel can learn a few things from Obour though since the latter has many great and feasible ideas for Ghana’s development. Read Obour’s address at the time (from the music video) – “Fellow youth of Ghana, I am happy to address you what will go down in history; As the greatest youth revolution in our dear country; My brothers and sisters, the time has come for youth to aspire; To the highest office of the land, the Presidency!” A youth revolution always sounds good, I will like to see more youth or younger politicians given the reins of power if they show promise and show they are hungry to institute change. br /br /Obour calls for a better performing Akosombo Dam, and free health insurance. He will also institute a Ghana day which will be Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday which doesn’t have to be a holiday. On that day, we’ll only eat Ghanaian food and speak Ghanaian languages. Does that sound like a good proposition to you? Recently, there was a lot of talk about making Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday in September a Founder’s Day Holiday. I don’t know what happened to the debate but I agree with a href=� [ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org] this guy had to say/a. Obour promises to bring cocaine dealers to book as well as corrupt officials. He also announces a better system for urban planning and making sure the country’s infrastructure works appropriately. It’s the little things that count as well as his plans to make youth employment his agenda. Our politicians have said similar things but have we seen significant changes? No. As a youth, you best believe Obour or someone as young as him would push for better youth employment. br /br /One of my biggest problems with Ghanaian governments is the lack of communication and information. Samuel is a deputy minister in one of these industries and I hope he can work to improve this. If the government fails to inform the people about its work, and the strides it is making in moving Ghana forward, the populace would busy themselves talking about a href=� [mightyafrican.blogspot.com] ringtones/a. Samuel is not new since he’s been involved in the body politic for awhile but he is the most likely candidate to inject novelty into Ghanaian politics and statesmanship. Thankfully, I have access to Samuel, though he may be extremely busy in his new role but I believe he will listen just like he listened to me when I was being treated unfairly as a ‘nino-greeno-knows-no first-year student at Presec”. br /br /The youth of Ghana must demonstrate leadership and great leadership while we are at it. There are some who are making waves in their various chosen fields and they need to be praised and their works and laurels shouted from the mountain-top. We need more community leaders taking charge to solve problems and implement ideas for which we have capacity. The powers-that-be will take notice and increase the youth’s mandate. While we continue to search for role models, we can be role models for our mates. Samuel used his NUGS position to great effect and there are many other ways Ghanaian youth can pay their dues. Barack Obama was a community organizer and following in his footsteps is a start. We can organize people in our communities for clean-up exercises, information gathering, empowerment through business and providing services, amongst other things. Dialogue is another easy thing we can do, brainstorming, sharing ideas, educating each other on our community’s and country’s needs and taking steps to do whatever little we can to help. That’s also leadership. Ketewa biara nsua.br /br /“What other people couldn’t do, Obour came and did it”, sings Obour. What our leaders have failed to do, the youngsters can come and do. The youth may be too young to lead and govern, but the youth is not too young to offer opinions and push for better conditions of living and systems for them to succeed. There must be better co-operation between young and old for Ghana’s development. There have been countless calls for a national youth policy. Who is going to formulate one and who will make the right stakeholders are involved? Obour brought old and new (young) together through his ‘Best of the Lifes’ project with A. B. Crentsil. Can the Fiifi Kweteys, Omane Boamahs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwas, Zita Okaikois, Agyenim Boatengs, Elvis Afriyie Ankrahs, and Haruna Iddrissus do the same for our country’s development? The youth will be watching. br /br /Photo from Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa's Facebookdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-1003557171494675479?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• June 23, 2009
• 8:14

  My 10 favorite Nigerian songs

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I already a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-african-songs-i-think-you-should.html"blogged about 10 African songs/a I absolutely love and wanted to share. Nigerian music is doing very well these days and their artistes are among the most popular around the continent. I will look at 10 Nigerian songs that mostly have lyrics in English. I understand the message of these songs and it is a major reason I love them. I have always been a big fan of conscious music, they end up being the most played on my iTunes or iPod. I hope you will check them out and listen to them. You may discover your next favorite song. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/986"Ebe like say/a - 2Face Idibia (Reggae/RB)/strongbr /This song is probably my favorite English song from an African artiste and one of the songs I sing most in the shower. 2Face Idibia is my favorite non-Ghanaian musician as well. The song talks about the relationship the voter has with politicians. It was released on Tuface's second album (Grass to Grace), just in time for Nigeria's 2007 election. The song talks about how politicians come with stories to tell the voting populace only to go back on their words. It implores our politicians and leaders to do better. Favorite lines - "But the power is nothing, If your people cannot get quality education; The power is nothing, If your people keep on dying of disease and starvation; The power is nothing, If your people have no peace; The power is nothing, If your people cannot live in unity" Buriful. More about my boy 2Baba later.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/925"I go yarn/a - Eldee (Hip-hop)/strongbr /This was one of the very Nigerian songs that I heard and loved. It's easy to understand why because of the lyrics. It spoke to me then and it still speaks to me now. Many Nigerians who live abroad can relate to this song, as Eldee was at the time, as well as Nigerians back home. "Me, I go yarn; Me, I go speak my mind; Me, I go yarn; Them think say we blind; Make we yarn; Why are my people so poor; We can't take this no more". Have you ever felt this way too? - "As I reach Yankee; I see say to solve our problem; Eno hard, common sense"br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2442"Celebrate/a - D'Banj (Pop/RB)/strongbr /The Koko master is known for his funny lyrics and up-tempo songs but my favorite D'Banj track is this one called Celebrate. It's an uplifting, happy, positive song that calls for time to celebrate. As the reigning best male artiste at the MTV Africa Music Awards, and different businesses in his Koko empire, he has a lot to celebrate. The track features his favorite sidekick, Wande Coal. "I go dance o; Them no fit trouble my mind o; Leave all my worries behind o; It's time to celebrate". br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/2049"I no dey shame/a - Djinee (RB)/strongbr /Djinee is one of my favorite singers and the lyrics in this song are just heavenly. He sings in Pidgin English and he makes it sound so good. This song has been underrated since it came out and I can't understand why. "I no dey shame for you, for you anything I go do". Lovely. Check out Djinee's Ego as well. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1886"Bi'banke/a - Asa (Soul)/strongbr /I don't know where to start with Asa. Her music and lyrics are just so marvelous. Bi'banke is my favourite because of the great fusion of Yoruba and English lines and the emotion the song oozes. Bukola Elemide's voice is super, I love it and 2Face's as well. I'll listen to her songs just to hear her sing. "When I'm crying; When I'm dying, just leave me alone; I could cry you a river; Or a waterfall; Just leave me alone". Could a song about crying be this good?br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/989"If love is a crime/a - 2Face Idibia (RB)/strongbr /This song was hailed as the second coming of a href="http://museke.com/node/2049"African queen/a though it never became as popular. The video was shot in Ghana and featured 2Face wearing a Ghana T-Shirt which caused a little uproar in Nigerian circles. 2Face shines at singing love and relationship songs and his songs have lasting effects. "If love is a crime, then I want to be wanted?" "If love is a crime, then I am willing to be hunted?" "If love is a crime, then I'd like to dey go jail?" Call it cheesy, but I love the track to bits. Another of my favorite songs to sing in the shower.br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1902"No one like you/a - P-Square (RB)/strongbr /Here comes the hottest African wedding song. I know for a fact that it will be played at mine. The video is spectacular. P-Square is probably the biggest African act these days and tracks like this prove their standing. Their use of Pidgin English and regular English is great and the lyrics to this song is great too. The song starts off really well in my opinion, "Hello how you doing; My angel, my one and only the only one that am missing". Aww. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1989"With this woman/a - Darey (RB)/strongbr /This is another Naija song that I feel hasn't gotten enough props. It's another great wedding song. Erm, hmm, sign? Anyway, the lyrics are excellent in this one too and Darey is a very good singer. He's probably the king of African RB when it comes to singing in English proper. "Even if her time is over and she has to leave; I'll be happy that I had the chance to be; With this woman, who takes care of me". Song's so good, I gotta give y'all bonus lyrics - "Have you ever had a girl who would make you cry (cry like a baby); You'll become so lucky you'll be asking why" :-Dbr /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/1820"Street credibility/a - 9ice (RB)/strongbr /This is one my favorite collabos of all-time featuring two heavyweights. I'm a huge 2Face fan, and I like 9ice as well. My favorite part is where they sing lyrics from gongo aso, african queen and ebe like say. Who doesn't want street credibility? It's all about the fans and the support. Because at the end of the day, 9ice and Tuface are guaranteed to always 'nice up' your party. br /br /stronga href="http://museke.com/node/32"African Queen/a - 2Face Idibia (RB)/strongbr /It's impossible to complete this blog post without mentioning the biggest African song of the 21st century. When you have little kids from Guam singing an African song, you must know how popular it is. 2Baba, I salute you. His groundbreaking 'African Queen' hit set the pace for Nigerian songs to break into the African scene and for different African musicians to find markets in different African countries. African Queen became the favorite song of many African women and restored self-esteem across a continent. Who cares about what beauty is defined in today's Western world? The only important thing is that you are an African queen. And that you are loved. And that you love this song. :-)br /br /These are the first 10 songs that came to mind. If I remember one injustice that I missed, I will comment about it. Just like last time, I want to list a few honorable mentions. Sound Sultan's a href="http://museke.com/node/1085"Area (acoustic)/a sings about home so beautifully. I am a big fan of Sasha P's newest single called a href="http://museke.com/node/3676"Gidi Babe/a. I adore Asa's Fire on the mountain as well as her collabo with Jeremiah Gyang called a href="http://museke.com/node/2183"Comforter/a. Other favourites are a href="http://museke.com/node/1644"Gongo Aso/a (9ice), a href="http://museke.com/node/1404"Kpo kpo di kpo/a (Faze), a href="http://museke.com/node/2059"Africa/a (Modenine), a href="http://museke.com/node/2648"Omo too sexy/a (Justine), a href="http://museke.com/node/358"Oruka/a (Sunny Nneji), a href="http://museke.com/node/1244"See me so/a a href="http://museke.com/node/879"For Instance/a (2Face Idibia), a href="http://museke.com/node/2232"Roll it/a (P-Square), a href="http://museke.com/node/2132"Obi mu o/a a href="http://museke.com/node/1584"Onyinye/a (Obiwon), a href="http://museke.com/node/2575"Ololufe/a by Wande Coal etc.br /br /Long live Nigerian music.br /Long live African music.br /Long live Africadiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-7350770964947383558?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div
• June 07, 2009
• 5:21

  South African movie Jerusalema - The review

   » ‎ Why so serious? Blogs of a MIghTy African
  I have already written two blog posts about Jerusalema, about the a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/05/south-african-movie-jerusalema-issues.html"issues/a and the a href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-african-movie-jerusalema.html"quotes/a. Why would I spend so much time on this movie? It's not from Ghana. I don't know any of the actors personally. It's from South Africa but it doesn't even have Terry Pheto or Leleti Khumalo. Especially Terry. But hey, I loved Jerusalema. It's lekker. And I feel like writing. So there. Why did I love it? Chao (many) reasons. What didn't I like about it? Some as well. Here are a few thoughts and observations.br /br /Let's start with the soundtrack. Music is a very important part of movies, nota bell to African movie producers. The movie featured Brenda Fassie's a href="http://museke.com/en/node/1253"Nomakanjani/a, a href="http://museke.com/en/node/1067"Vul'indlela/a, and a href="http://museke.com/en/node/889"Black president/a. These are all massive songs especially Vul'indlela which is highly recognisable all over Africa. The songs had nothing to do with the scenes when they were played but this is the "Madonna of the Townships" singing, her music is synonymous with Soweto and Johanessburg. Black President is one of my favorite songs, I get excited when it is played. How couldn't you?br /br /I am not sure what the Jerusalema song was about. I had never heard about Alan Lazar and Sipho Nxumalo. You think singing at the subway station is interesting, try singing in the train! They sang Jerusalema all over the place. Is there a nation in this world that is more in love with music than South Africa is? I mean, even the prisoners in the movie were singing in jail. And it's not two-by-four singing. I like how they played the a href="http://museke.com/en/node/2905"Parlotones/a' Nowhere to hide', when the movie moved to the white neighbourhoods. The club scene with Lucky Kunene and Leah featured some house music which I suppose is a constant feature of Mzansi clubs. And who can forget the a href="http://museke.com/en/taxonomy/term/340"Kwaito/a? Mandoza is the truth. br /br /The action/violence scenes in the movie were brutal and sometimes hard to watch. The scenes of the 'Nigerians' being thrown off buildings were particularly disturbing. Did anyone notice the soundtrack for the 'last show' where Lucky was tracking down Tony Ngu? African action music is 'drumming'. Lekker. One of my favorite scenes was the car screeching part. In high school (Presec), we called it 'atwetwe'. I loved that scene and you could see how the audience was thoroughly entertained. It's a dangerous activity but these people lived in Soweto, danger is part of the life somewhat. br /br /I thought the acting was great, especially on the part of Lucky Kunene and Nazareth. I admire Kenneth Nkosi and I think he can progress to take on Hollywood. I didn't see any flawed scenes or talking points. I see countless hitches in Ghanaian and Nigerian movies so bear with me. I can't think of any scenes that didn't make sense. Remind me if you did. br /br /I thought the storyline was super too. I loved the way the story was told and I think more movies should follow that. Many African movies use flashbacks, but Jerusalema used it really well. The transition between scenes was great too and the scenes were shot in many places. I feel a lot of African movies don't go into much depth, end up featuring a couple of main roles and very few settings. It does cost more money to make a quality movie with many settings and actors, but quality sells at the end of the day and gets you blog posts that open more doors in the future.br /br /Why do Africans always react funnily when there are love scenes in an African movie? It's not unnatural you know. There were some nude scenes shown at the club too which would also turn some heads. But were those nude scenes necessary? The female characters in the movie didn't have major roles and were not represented too well. The one character who maybe was good was the white lady, Lea. There were no 'angels' in the movie though, even Lucky Kunene was a slumlord. br /br /Jerusalema was well-done and everyone associated with the movie should be proud of it. The challenge is build upon the success. I'll love to see some South African movies that don't deal with the subjects of violence, AIDS, crime, etc. White Wedding is a start and I know with the growth of the industry, we'll have more movies like that. Kudos!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4957153574047966177-4551504926907440767?l=mightyafrican.blogspot.com'//div