Imagine Africa

So I decided to step out of my box (aka my little Dutch village) and be spontaneous. About midday yesterday I saw on Africa’s a Country, an announcement for the launch of ZAM Magazine’s international edition in Amsterdam. I closed early from work and got on the train for an almost three hour ride to A’dam. It was definitely worth attending!

ZAM Magazine is an international publication celebrating African creativity and new thinking. Since its launch in 1997, ZAM’s approach to journalism has been just the right balance of art and activism; using its network of journalists, writers, artists, photographers and other creative types across the world to sometimes question social and cultural norms, other times introduce new ideas, but always informing about Africa’s artistic highlights.

So far, it had been published in Dutch. However, with the launch of the international English version, ZAM Magazine has taken a bold step to share to an even wider audience, a true picture of Africa, drawn by Africans- something most prefer to ignore. The idea is to show the diversity, creative talent and passion which is driving innovation in every corner of the continent.

Imagine Africa!
A continent no longer harassed by platitudes and prejudice,
and attitudes marinated in woefulness and dependency.
No romantics masking realities. A continent on top.
No more judgements biased by narrow sightedness and a need to fortify.
No limits. No longing. Its happening.
The ZAM Team

Technology and Business, and no I’m not referring to Yahooze

Scarcity breeds innovation, right? But it takes resourcefulness and an entrepreneurial mind to recognize a gap in society and come up with a solution. This definitely seems to be the case with Nigeria’s young tech savvy entrepreneurs.

The narrative about Africa is changing every single day, driven with the opportunity in a continent of more than 300 million middle class Africans. The promise here is that the entrepreneurial drive we see in young technologists will translate to more African solutions to African problems, and thereby African prosperity.
Juliana Rotich

Drawing from the African heritage: Anthony Abuah

Never mind your own preconceptions of what you’re capable of,
because you will learn, we learn everyday.
Anthony Abuah

Barely two weeks ago, Tambay Amadi Obenson, creator of Shadow and Act– a blog that discusses film and film makers of the African Diaspora, asked people- creative artists, film enthusiasts, and anyone in between, to share their stories of triumph, tragedy, lessons learned, and regrets.

Sharing one’s personal and/ or professional experience is not an easy feat. As Tambay rightly says on his blog, ‘it takes a certain amount of courage to be able to be vulnerable and share one’s plight’. But its also an opportunity to learn from internal reflection, as well as teach others something valuable and inspire them to be strong through their own struggles.

One of such stories shared with Tambay is from Anthony Abuah.

Anthony Abuah was born in Kenya to a Rwandan mother and Nigerian father. Having lived in more than seven countries worldwide, he learned to adapt to different people and lose himself in his own imagination. His early passions included art, football and then story telling. Anthony soon realized his passion to be a writer and began writing and developing scripts for both the theatre and film. He wrote his first play ‘Another Biafra’, which was critically acclaimed and won him an Ogeyinka Merit Award in 2010. He also  launched Tales From The Motherland Productions in 2010, to highlight his passion for the continent of Africa and is devoted to telling stories about the continent that would otherwise be ignored.

But before getting to this successful point, his story is one of a clear vision and perseverance.

Although its a bit long, there’s a lot to learn from Anthony.

Here is his story, verbatim, as shared with Tambay.

International Women’s Day: Moky Mokura

It is with silent strength that a woman succeeds
Caught in the confines of tradition, we evolve
Confronted by adversity, we strategize
We defend, we persevere, we sustain
It is with silent strength that a woman survives
Moky Mokura

As women around the world commemorates the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day, The Africa Channel celebrates Nigerian actress and TV presenter Moky Mokura.

Eliminating fuel subsidies: Learning from the Ghanaians

It is now old news that Nigerians had a rude awakening on January 1st 2012 . The first day of a new year is often seen as a fresh start. Most people soberly reflect on the previous year, make resolutions they hope to keep, and are basically excited about the prospects and promises the new year holds.

But as we all know, 2012 started with a big bang. The fuel subsidy was removed and Nigerians woke up to the realization that what they had always perceived as their prerogative, was no longer an exclusive right. Instead of excitement, there was anxiety and uncertainty.

Positivize

Positivize. An intriguing word, I think.

Its not quite the same as ‘positivism’ or ‘positive’, but it is an interesting twist to these words. Some of the references I have come across indicate that to positivize is to make positive what normally has a negative interpretation. It could also be seen as the act of constructing knowledge, not by inventing new principles, but by finding what already exists.

My take is that:

to positivize is to actively search for the positive,
and when found,
reinforce this knowledge of positivity till it replaces the negative and becomes reality.

This is the premise on which I start this blog.