Rebranding Nigeria and Brand Ghana: A Good Idea?

As I was driving home, I came across an interesting program on BBC, Rebranding Nigeria (I'm trying to embed the program above so you can listen). The program was essentially a discussion about the initiative to rethink Nigeria in positive terms. In the journalist Henry Bonsu's own words:

Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image?

Is rebranding Nigeria futile and meaningless? Even possible? Or the light beginning for a country that has just (10 years this year) resurfaced from military rule? The only way forward? You can join a similar discussion on Global Voices Online here.

What to me is the most interesting thing with this debate is that the image of Africa is finally debated, critiqued and possibly recreated - by Africans - in a more representative way. Because really, it doesn't make any sense to say 160 million people are all fraudsters.

But also, after reading about my Nigerian sister Adadze's experiences (I'm thinking of Mama Christina and Police Brutality) in her blog Two Tears in a Bucket the other day, I'm thinking our neighbor Nigeria and its people needs a change.

Of course we are slightly, slightly behind in Ghana, but we are actually also looking into branding ourselves better. Just last month, we had Simon Anhult, (selfproclaimed?) nation branding guru, come talk and then set up our own Brand Ghana office, see this article.

To be continued...

CinemAfrica: African Film in Sweden

Tomorrow, CinemAfrica opens this year's African film festival in Stockholm, Ubuntu! According to the program 14 films will be shown. None of them are unfortunately from Ghana, but one from Senegal (Mother) and one about Liberia's President (Iron Ladies of Liberia). See the trailer on YouTube here.

Tickets for the festival can be bought at BioRio.

Interestingly, the Urban Africa Movement that I blogged about here is showcasing some of its photos during the festival.

Oh, I love all of this. I think I have to arrange a similar event in Tema.

No Ibrahim Prize for Kufuor

It was just announced (see for instance BBC here) that Sudanese business mogul Mo Ibrahim will not be awarding any former African leader his The Ibrahim Prize this year. The prize is the largest monetary prize in the world with its 5 million USD over 10 years and 200 000 annually for the rest of the recipient's life. The idea with the prize is to create debate around governance and provide positive incentives for democratic and transparent leadership in Africa.

Ghana's ex-president John Kufuor was one of the favorites for the prize along with South Africa's ex-leader Thabo Mbeki. Earlier this year, when Kufuor stepped down after eight years of rule, he was much applauded. Currently, he works with the UN-WFP. However, his name has also been mentioned in the questionable deal in which Ghana Telecom was sold, including the cable that connects Ghana to the rest of the world, to Vodafone Netherlands. I have blogged about Kufuor here, here and yesterday here.

The founder of the prize, a business man profiting on the telecom business in Africa, says in an interesting interview - to be found in whole here - about his success:

"I'm the same person. I still drive the same type of car. I live in the same house. Most of the money I made has gone back to Africa, or is going back to Africa. I decided the money will go into something really effective and worthwhile. That's what I hope our foundation will do."

Interestingly, the only way forward for Africa's leaders is suggested to be the opposite: large sums of wealth.

Still, I am sure the desicion to not award the prize ("no specific reason" was given according to BBC) will give cause for debate on good governance in Africa. Which ultimaltely, in my humble opinion, is the most important goal with the prize.

Well done, Mo Ibrahim!

Developing Blogging - Leaving Blogger for Wordpress

Let me share some Sunday thoughts about developing my blog. My ideas so far are:
I want to

• graduate from the idea of only writing positive things about Ghana into telling my personal stories, related to Ghana or not, being uplifting or not.
• be able to express myself better though the design of my blog, so leaving blogger and moving to wordpress.org is an option.
  
• refresh the look of my blog to inspire myself (and possibly others as well).
• show my readers I am serious about blogging.
• add new categories of content.
• change its name and URL into something simpler (I tried on the new name "Urban Africa" some time ago here, but wasn't satisfied with it).
  

...and soon I'll tell you more.

What do you think? Does the name of a blog matter? How it looks? How its posts are categorized? What topics it presents? What URL it has?

Pic: Climbing higher.

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

What is blog action day?

Blog action day or BAD09 as some blog nerds call it is a day for bloggers all around the world to join forces around one important topic. Last year, the topic was poverty and I participated then too. The result of that can be seen here.

What is this year's topic?

It is Climate Change. I guess with the UN Climate Conference coming up in Copenhagen in December, its a fairly current topic. And there is a lot to say. Check out BAD09's inspiration page that has gathered some very interesting information about climate change, for instance.

Speaking of the urgency of the topic....Last time I went to my native Sweden, I was surprised how the word klimatsmart (translates into climate savvy or environmentally concious or something like that) was everywhere: A train journey was maybe not cheap, but klimatsmart. One brand of milk was more klimatsmart than another. My friend had gotten a colorful brochure in the mail asking her if she was klimatsmart (she wondered here how klimatsmart that brochure really was...). My cousin's new blog even had klimatsmart in the title!

What can be said about climate change in Ghana?

Actually, what strikes me is how not current the topic is in Ghana. The website (organization?) tcktcktck.org is counting down to the UN meeting and tellingly has no story from Ghana on their cool Climate Orb application. Really, when was the last time you heard someone discuss climate change around here?

The rest of the world seems worried about climate change/higher temperatures. One of the effects that have been discussed lately is how this can increase the spread of malaria to Western Europe, South America and even Russia.

But in Ghana we don't worry too much about that. Malaria is already one of Ghana's biggest problems to date.


But do we really need to talk about climate change in Ghana? Shouldn't we rather DO something?

A way to globally reduce the carbon dioxide emissions is to make sure we travel with public transport rather than individually in our own cars. Today, many Ghanaians travel in packed trotros, shared taxis or "Kufuor busses" and hence do not emit too much CO2. Can we say the same about the North/West? But as Ghanaians grow richer - our goal is to become a middle income country as soon as possible - more Ghanaians can also afford their own cars.

In my opinion the problem in the discussion about climate change is that while developed countries are struggling to be sustainable, developing countries are already klimatsmarta, but not by choice. Rather the "environmental consciousness" or sustainable living is caused by last year's topic; poverty.

Climate change issues in the end boils down to politics and income distribution. Will my 4 year old relative in the photo above drive her own car when she has grown up? Is it really fair to try to stop her?

What do you think?

Jazz Festival in Accra

Starting today and running until Saturday, Alliance Francaise organizes a Jazz festival in Accra. Every night at 8.30 pm there will be concerts with different jazz musicians. Seeing the program, I do not know what to make of it as all names, thus far, are new to me; Babu Group(Tue), Chico Freeman(Wed), Ka-Tam Trio (Thu), André Jaume (Fri)...

But I'll gamble by letting my schedule decide and go as many nights I can.

Pic from an earlier event at AF in Accra.

How Big Is Africa?

A silly question prompted a fellow blogger, Texas in Africa, to post this pic, developed by Boston University.

Of course Africa is a sizable continent and not a country (there is even merchandise to prove it here), but how often do we really ponder the size of this great continent?

I knew from before the relative size of Sweden and Ghana (Sweden is almost twice as large with less than half the population), but it never hit me that Africa as a whole is so vast that Europe, US (including Alaska) and China could fit inside.

I must say this overlay of maps intrigues me.

What are your thoughts when you see it?

Chimamanda Adichie: The Problem of A Single Story

A storyteller has as a job to tell stories that are engaging and important. Chimamanda Adichie's account of how single stories have inflicted on her life - and on the African countries we love, is both engaging and important. The single (negative) image of "Africa" that I have been trying to complement in 200+ blog posts here on Rain In Africa, she covers in under 20 minutes.

And luckily, it has been recorded as a TED speech that I can recommend to all of you. For you who are temporarily busy, her powerful conclusion can suffice for now - but when you have time, do listen to her in full.

When we reject the single story, we regain paradise.

Chimamanda Adichie most known works are: Half Of A Yellow Sun (I can't believe I haven't blogged about this book - I adored it) and Purple Hibiscus.

New Poetry Blog: Soursweet Ghana

Last week, I got a chance to do to an impromptu presentation on blogging to a room filled with young women. I wrote on it here.

Tonight, I got an email from Lizzy, a woman who was there and inspired by the talk started her own blog!

She has chosen to present her beautiful poetry combined with stylish photos (her own?) to illustrate the feel. I like the the poems because they discuss common literary themes like the village and the rose, but in a way that carefully avoids clichés. Here's a passage that I enjoyed particularly:

The sun was to be married
Her groom was the moon
Though they met often they never got married
For their meeting brought darkness

The name of the blog is also intriguing: "Soursweet Ghana". Find it here.

I'm so happy I could inspire to this!

Pic from the above-mentioned Women and ICT event.

Ghana Recommendations: Tampico Island

I thought I'd recommend some Ghanaian favorites to you, my dear readers, over the next few weekends, starting with a drink.

Have you tried the new Tampico?

Tampico is a super sweet "juice drink" made in Ghana (but part of an American originated multinational company). Most probably it has more color and sugar in it than any fruit, but in this new version with the tantalizing name "Island", Tampico has really reinvented itself and gone from chemical sweetened mix to...Island drink!

The rich flavored yellow drink poured over a glass full of ice cubes - to dilute the sugar somewhat - surely makes a Sunday sweeter.

Pic: They should have let me do the marketing in Ghana...Photo from my backyard.

Sibling Blogs

My siblings Freja and Aron have finally

1. moved abroad and
2. started to blog

What took you so long?

I think your blogs are the funniest around (unfortunately only in Swedish with few additions in German (Freja) and French (Aron)). Could it be because we grew up together?

Or because one of you is a stand-up comedian/culture producer/actor and one a professional juggler/male nanny?

In the pic: Aron and Freja during a happy moment 2007.

Ghana, Women and ICT

Today, I attended an interesting meeting at the AITI-KACE in Accra on Women and ICT in Ghana.

In a country where general access to computers and Internet is low, women tend to be underrepresented in ICT professions (except when it comes to data entry). However in Nigeria, AITI-KACE's Director General Dorothy Gordon informed us, many ICT classes are totally made up of women and many women in our neighboring country have their own IT companies. Some have even set up IT companies in Ghana!

How can Ghanaian women catch up?

The young educated women in the crowd shared with us that they mostly use computers, many had them in their homes, for checking email and social networking, like facebook.

I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to on the spot present Ghanablogging.com, the aggregator - or list - of Ghanaian blogs I started with a friend back in 2008. I also mentioned two Ghanaian blogs that could serve as inspiration for women who were interested in creating content on the web, rather than just consuming it:

Esi's blog Wo Se Ekyir and
Nana Darkoa and Co's blog Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women.

The response was great, people wanted to know more about Ghanablogging.com and how to start their own blog, so now I am invited to AITI-KACE's Inspiration days 7-8 Oct to talk more about blogging.

Anyone out there who wants to join me in spreading the gospel of blogging?

In the pic some of the participants at the meeting and Dorothy Gordon, Director for the AITI-KACE.

Forward Ever, Backwards Never

Exhausted by the Nkrumah celebrations, I return to the blog with some less than monolithic notes about my daily life, hope thats ok...

Thursday and Friday are my days for research (Mon-Wed I teach and prepare for class or grade stuff) but so far very little research has been done since University of Ghana has not yet gotten back to me on my PhD application. I note my own naiveté in this post from 2007, when I thought the application process would be swift. Ha.

Here is the full story (well, minus all the trips I've taken to "check on my application"): I submitted in March. The university then extended the application period with a month. Sigh. Then the Graduate School went on vacation, then they had to check if my application was complete (it was), then it was sent to the department I wish to study at - Institute of African Studies. The semester started. Then their board met to discuss the graduate proposals, I believe that was on the 2nd of September, so now I don't know what they are waiting for.

I intend to go there today to find out and push my fate. Forward ever, backwards never.

Then I'm having lunch with a very interesting friend and maybe a meeting with Gordon of Aedhotep Developments that I wrote on here.

Later in the afternoon, 3-5 PM there is a meeting on Women and ICT at Kofi Annan Center for Excellence (AITI-KACE). Lets see if I make it there, it does sound interesting.

In the pic, me at University of Ghana in March of last year after starting my application by beginning on my proposal...

Kwame Nkrumah: Known by Many Names

This collection of Nkrumah's (positive) nicknames is being showed at Nubuke Foundation, more details on the exhibit here.

The Messiah
The Saviour
Fountain of Honour
Teacher
Redeemer
Leader
The Infallible
The Ideological Mentor
Show Boy (Which Maya Maame blogged on here)
Osagyefo (Redeemer in Twi)
Asomdwehene (King of Peace)
Oyeadieeyie (Repairman, someone who puts things right)
Kasapreko (Someone who speaks her/his mind)

Blogger AntiRhythm adds two historically interesting names to the list. His christian name "Francis" - and the confused misspelled name that FBI used in their file "Ukrumah", read the stories here and here.

Time Magazine, in August 1962, added "Africa's biggest ego" to the list.

Kwame Nkrumah: The City of Tema (Part 2)

Landmarks in concrete.

The Cocoa Silos

The Kwame Nkrumah Motorway

One of these monolithic structures were never used. The other is the backbone of the Greater Accra economy.

I amuse myself with thinking about if the two had been used - and developed - since the 1960s.

What do you think, does it matter?

Kwame Nkrumah: The City of Tema (Part 1)

Over this week, we have a Kwame Nkrumah theme at Ghanablogging.

I thought I'd write about an important aspect of Nkrumah's legacy. The industrial harbor town of Tema. My new hometown. (I know its beside the point, but also there is almost nothing about Tema, GH, online!)

Let's start my exposé on Tema with Nkrumah's own words. We go back to February 10th, 1962 and the Official Opening of the Tema Harbor. Kwame Nkrumah walks up to a podium and gives his speech.

"By taking advantage of the river systems of West Africa, it should be possible - again, by concerted action - to connect the hinterland, far outside the boarders of Ghana, with this great port of Tema. Thus, in this harbour of Tema, we see a unifying force and an essential requirement in the progress towards African Unity"

Hence, Tema was just one part of the grandiose plan of Africa rising. Tema should be a harbor not just for Ghana, but for Africa. Still today, Burkina Faso, Mali and other landlocked countries are highly dependent on the Tema harbor. What whould they be today without this sea port?

Nkrumah continued his speech with comparing the existing Takoradi harbor "designed by the colonialists to facilitate the exportation of the wealth of the country" to this new sea port. He said:

"Tema is the sign post of the future. It represents the purposeful beginning of the industrialisation of Ghana. It is the signal for industrial expansion, a challenge to our industry and intelligence and a hope for the future."

Tema and its connection to a bright Pan-African future will be my starting point for future deliberations on Tema.

Pic: My first view of the Tema harbor, Xmas 2004.

Kwame Nkrumah: Events in Commemoration

There have been complaints about that Ghana has not managed to plan the centennial of Kwame Nkrumah's birth very successfully. See for instance popular journalist Ato Kwamina Dadzie discuss it here.

It might be true, but let me in the interest in what actually has been planned not go into it further, but instead kick off the KWAME NKRUMAH WEEK with the following Nkrumah celebratory events.

1. Sunday 13th September (today!), Nubuke Foundation opens its photo exhibit of Kwmae Nkrumah's life. In addition to the enlarged photos, a document called a "lexicon" will be presented chronicling Nkrumah's life and deeds. Time: 3.30PM. The exhibit can be viewed until 10th of October. (see picture)

2. Monday-Tuesday 14-15th September, The Dubois Center in collaboration with some other groups organize a symposium. Monday it will be situated at University of Ghana, Tuesday at the center in Labone, Accra. Time: 9AM-5 PM both days.

3. Thursday-Sunday 17-20 September, festivities in Nkrumah's hometown Nkroful organized by the Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Planning Committee announced on Peace FM and referred here.

Hope to see you at some of these events!

Next week: Blogs on Kwame Nkrumah

All of next week, a group of Ghanaian bloggers including myself has decided to dedicate to Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah.

The week leads up to Nkrumah's 100th Birthday, celebrated on the 21st of September.

As Kwame Nkrumah had enormous impact on Ghana and all of Africa, I hope you will read some of the other Ghanaian blogs this upcoming week. They can be found on or Ghanablogging aggregator here.

Pic: One of the most used photos of Nkrumah, tinted purple by me. Who was the photographer?

Shirley Frimpong-Manso's New Movie

For you who, like me, LOVED The Perfect Picture (I posted on it here ) - I have some good news.

According to the blogger Ameyaw Debrah, Writer/producer/director Frimpong-Manso's new film will be called A Sting in A Tale and can best be defined as an "adventure comedy". And it's coming in November!

What ever it is, I'll go see it.

Also, I wonder who would know how much her previous film made at the box office in Ghana and around the globe?

Ps. There is no decent picture of this superwoman online, please NKA, do something!

No Rain in Africa? Few Reports on Flooding in West Africa

One might almost think that there is no Rain in Africa, judging from the extremely sparse Ghanaian journalistic reporting about the flooding that has misplaced 600 000 people in Northern Ghana and other West African countries. According to some reports 25 Ghanaians have already died in the floods.

While BBC had this flooding among its top news yesterday, see for instance here, the issue was glaringly absent from the Daily Graphic front page, the most read newspaperin Ghana on the same day.

On popular news site Ghanaweb, I find only this article on the floods, source CNN (!)

Also reliable radio channel Joy FM, do not place any significance on the flooding in the country. The same CNN article (!!) is what they have listed under Africa/International on their webpage here.

One would think since Ghanaians are dying and we live relatively close to the scene, Ghanaian journalists would be the first to report on this horrible situation to the surrounding world. But sadly, the situation has not improved at all since I blogged about the flooding in 2007 here . What I said then was

people write me about the floods in Ghana - note the irony of that I write a comment on it on my blog “Rain in Africa”. Anyways apparently these floods make it to the news in Sweden, Spain and the US.

Is this news not relevant to Ghana? Do we not care?

Map borrowed from BBC.co.uk/Africa