One of the most powerful videos in the afrosphere I have seen is the girl like me video shown above. The whole issues of identity for people in the diaspora is one that is discussed in the halls of academia, on radio and TV, tables at homes and community groups for black Africans.

A precursor to my next post about identity in the Diaspora

Patrick spoke at the TED Africa conference in 2007 about his vision on critical thinking and liberal arts. He is part of a generation of young Africans who after being blessed with education at home or abroad are looking to change the political landscape of the continent through clear thinking and rational. Even though some may see this as a simplified approach which does not take into account a lot of the externalities affecting African countries this is a start. Watch the video and catch the vision.

At the recent 90th birthday party for Nelson Mandela’s there was a performance by rising Sudanese hiphop artist and writer Emmanuel Jal. In fact to many Emmanuel is no new kid on the block but an artist who has been developing his craft since 2005.

Emmanuel was born in Sudan. At a very young age he was taken from his family to fight in the civil war as part of the rebel army. For five years he fought as a child soldier. A documentary on his life chronicles the horrors that he and other child soldiers had to endure in the Sudanese civil wars. Fortunately for him he was rescued by an aid worker Emma McCune and adopted as her own.

In 2005 Emmanuel released his first album, Gua and has followed it up with WarChild (Sonic360). The albums are strong on word play with a very African influenced flavour of hip hop. Strong emphasis has gone into the packaging and promotion of the websites and programmes that flow out of his music, writing and the documentary of his experiences. Jal is is definitely an artist to watch out for the future and I look forward to reviewing his album in the not too distant future.

Tags: AfroPop, Sudan, Africa, War Child, Emmanuel Jal

Going through my RSS feeds today I noticed that AllTop had added Africa to its latest list of top links. Alltop is a site (definition for the non technical crowd) that aggregates or should I say brings together a number of the top blogs on a certain topic from around the web.

It made for quite an interesting read to see where the top stories are coming from. Far out in front was the BBC News Africa pages and then the New York Times (interesting) section on Africa. Some of the favourites of mine including African Loft, African Path, AfricaNews, My Heart’s In Accra, White African and Timbuktu Chronicles

Whilst I was reading this post I happened upon Hash’s post about the evolution of the listing and it is such a great thing to see that this has pride of place. One of the passions we have had here at SIMPHANI is the constant promotion of news both from the traditional sources as well as from bloggers and this just adds to the redesign of the ways news and views comes out of Africa. Granted there are many huge issues to deal with with misgovernance, poverty and disease but Alltop now adds to the burgeoning list of web loudspeakers bringing the noise about innovation, technology, education, enterprise and community building on the continent.

Tags: Alltop, WhiteAfrican, Africa, Technology, Aggregates

A few weeks ago I received a barrage of emails from my friends in the afrosphere. Black women from the Caribbean, UK, Africa and North America were distributing emails encouraging people of black African descent to go out and buy this issue. Social networks like myspace, facebook, black planet. Digg, twitter and other social media promoted this idea of getting people to buy this copy. Many people in the afrosphere including myself treated this with much skepticism and saw it as nothing more than gimmick.

Eighteen models were photographed for the issue they included Naomi Campbell, Iman, Tyra Banks, Liya Kebede, Jourdan Dunn, Alek Wek and Pat Cleveland. The Guardian reported that the Fashion World is stunned by Vogue for black. Crediting the concept of the issue to editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani and the reputable photographer Steven Meisel. The elusive photographer was previously quoted in the Telegraph

“I thought, it’s ridiculous, this discrimination. It’s so crazy to live in such a narrow, narrow place. Age, weight, sexuality, race - every kind of prejudice. I have asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no.”

The irony about this is that models like Naomi Campbell have been talking about this for years. Many black models have been treated as exotic and the few that are there are used over and over again.It is beautiful to see the likes of Naomi and Tyra and every now and then Alek Wek on the cover of beauty magazines but that’s it.

One of the most celebrated models in the UK is Noemie Lenoir the current face of Marks and Spencer underwear, as well as Gap, Next and Victoria’s secret. Again however she is a huge exception to the rule, however one has to temper this with the fact that people of African descent, be they Afro Caribbean, Mixed or African only make up about 5% of the general populace.

The model pictured at the top of the article is 18 year old Jourdan Dunn. Jourdan who was discovered in West London, one place where the magazines sold out, was very outspoken about the lack of representation of people of colour. The article in the guardian covered the reactions she got to her statement about London Fashion week being too white. Will this issue really change things?

It has taken two of the leading lights in fashion to buck a trend, even it is a minor blip. Even though the likes of Tyra Banks, by far one of the hardest working black models out there, Naomi and now Jourdan have bucked the trend, one can’t help but wonder what difference this magazine will make. Conde Nast will have made a heck of a lot of money but imagine that in a country like the US there are no plans for a similar version. Granted they have a lot more periodicals which focus on black beauty than here in Europe it still shows an underlying issue. Black beauty may not be understood or appreciated by many in the fashion world. This issue may be a minor victory but I won’t be holding my breath for any change. In the meantime there is always AfroSugar.

Regardless of what happens next this is a powerful image.

Was looking at Rocketboom the other day and came across this video.

Enjoy African Innovation.

Source: KillerStartups.com

ZebraJobs is a joint venture between Ethiopia-based Info Mind Solutions and US-based Danya International Inc. The aim behind ZebraJobs is to make searching for a good job in Africa as easy and relevant as possible and thereby help to enhance the capacity of Africa’s most important asset, its people.

ZebraJobs is a search engine that scours the internet looking for current availabilities in all of Africa’s countries and then makes them searchable by keyword or by country. The goal of the site is to have more than 1 million job seekers registered by next year which is to include Africans in the Diaspora who wish to return to their home country thru the finding of a good job. Apart from allowing you to search for jobs, ZebraJobs also allows users to post a CV online and also to make an online profile that allows you to better manage your job opportunities.

Am sure the likes of Monster would be looking at a model like this but sometimes being first to market can make the difference. This site could be a great opportunity for both enterprise and non profits to make their presence felt on the continent. Maybe even governmental but I don’t hold out much hope for this. My only concern is that Africa as a continent is so vast how effective can this be, but hey it is a start isn’t it?

Africa Beyond is the place to find out about African arts and culture in the UK and beyond. The website, launched in March 2007, incorporates the BBC’s existing site Africa on your Street, already a favourite destination for lovers of African music. The Africa Beyond website highlights African film, theatre, dance, literature, and visual arts; while Africa on your Street will bring you gig listings, CD reviews, interviews and music news, from Afrobeat to Hiplife to Mbalax.

Whilst this is quite UK centric the site does look at the whole spectrum of African media. Highly recommended.

Investing in Africa is a great site focusing on profitable opportunities in African stock markets.
The site promises that you can

• Dicsover Investing in Africa
• Track African Stock Markets
• Browse Annual Reports

There is a great quote on the front page by the editor that both inspired me and also challenged me.

“I suspect the majority of investors would find the words ‘profitable’ and ‘African’ oxymoronic. And who can blame them? The news media is saturated with images of famine, war, and disease on the continent.

But there is another side of Africa that gets a lot less press. It is a place full of hopeful and enterprising people who are confident of a better future. This is the Africa that I believe is home to some of the most attractive potential investments in the world today.”

Love it. Check it out, there are some true gems in here.