Fellow Ugandans,

As a creative consultant, it is not often that I get to work on a project that both pays me and also contributes to the development and well-being of Uganda. I would like to introduce you to such a project.

I met Pratheepan “Deep” Gulasekaram in DC at the Clinton Global Diaspora Forum. He, along with a crew of determined colleagues put their skills together in the wake of the Asian tsunami and built a fully functioning hospital in Sri Lanka. They successfully negotiated a public-private partnership with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health to complete and ensure the long-term success of the newly constructed Matara Children’s Hospital.

After the completion and hand over of the project that was recognized by Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr., they have set out to build a children’s hospital in Uganda. “Project Heart: Uganda” has already broken ground. The walls and roof are already up and completion is in sight.

After a long talk with Deep last month, I agreed to assist their efforts to connect to members of the East African Diaspora that would bring value to their initiative. Not because they are my clients, but because it is a much needed initiative that will bring value to Uganda’s medical system. Additionally, I wanted to share this project with you as a plea for all of us to help support this initiative to make sure it is successfully launched with as much of our buy-in as possible. After all, it will be our family members that will benefit in the long run. The above video of one such child who was helped by these very same doctors to repair her heart

Here is a project that is reaching out directly for us to be part of its success and the re-invention of Uganda’s medical services & facilities. For once, it is not another aid project that FAILS to request to partner with us. It is a project that we all know could save the life of one of our family members.

On Sept. 24th, “Project Heart: Uganda” is having a fund-raising event in Los Angeles. If you are in California and are interested in meeting Deep and his inspiring colleagues, I am sure they won’t fail to inspire you with the vision that they have for the hospital.

Here are some things you can do to help this project:

I look forward to seeing us all rise to the occasion for this initiative. Even if all you do is  donate $1.00 (though I secretly hope it is more than that, nearly $3 billion in remittances is sent to East Africa annually-let’s put some of it towards a sustainability initiative). If you’d like more information, I’d be happy to put you in touch with Deep and his team. A new web site with more information is in the works that will keep all of you updated on the project.

My new position at World Bank: Lead Social Media Strategist for Connect4Climate

I have been hoarding this news for a few weeks now. Earlier this month I accepted a consultancy at the World Bank to help launch and maintain their soon-to-launch ‘Connect4Climate’ campaign. Connect4Climate will be a campaign, a competition, and an community of individuals and global partners that care about climate change.

As many of you know, I am passionate about photography, a die-hard enthusiast of Africa’s mobile promise and the continent’s youth. That is why I was immediately drawn to the climate change photography and video competition component of this initiative. This position combines all of my passions into one fantastic opportunity. I look forward to hearing to the many emerging youth voices on the continent and in the Diaspora. If those voices are as passionate as our very own Teejay, then you know this is going to be good.

As the Lead Social Media Strategist – Connect4Climate, my job will be to get as many youth voices on the continent to engage in the conversation about climate change at the local and international level through the C4C competition. We all know that climate change affect all of us. That is why I will be reaching out to all of you reading this to engage with us to share your stories, links, data, and interesting anecdotes that will broaden the baseline of this very critical topic of discussion.

So while I am busy working with the team on launching the new site later this month, please make sure to connect with us on our Facebook page. Invite your friends, colleagues, enthusiasts, fans, supporters, (and climate change “doubters” are welcome too). Let’s get the conversation started. You can find me on Twitter @tmsruge. The C4C Twitter account will be open sometime this week. I will update this post with the new account once that goes live.

So let the conversation begin!

Why You Should Vote for Africa, Tech & Women SXSW Panel

I decided to write this blog post as a way to help prospective voters and supporters to understand the thinking and passion behind our Africa, Tech & Women: The New Faces of Development SXSW panel submission.  We believe this panel will help to change the conversation on Africa, about whom most people have a limited negative perception; its women, who are often depicted as helpless, uneducated and unproductive; and dispel the myth that there isn’t much technological development taking place in Africa.

When TMS Ruge and I embarked upon this SXSW journey together, we decided we would create a panel building upon his successful SXSW 2009 presentation, Africa 3.0.  We knew that with the 2012 panel, we wanted to add a new dimension and feature multiple voices.  After a lot of research and brainstorming, we discovered that the African Union declared 2010-2020: The African Woman Decade and decided it would be a source of inspiration for us.  Additionally, we’re both very passionate about gender rights issues, publicizing the greatness of Africa and its Diaspora and are tech enthusiasts — and as such, we decided on the title: Africa, Tech & Women.

The subtitle: The New Faces of Development came about after lots of trial and error.  We finally agreed to it, given that it encompasses the areas we want to cover and from a new perspective: (1) Economic, (2) Technological, (3) Philanthropic, and (4) Community.

We then decided we should showcase the different ways in which a cross-section of African women based in the Diaspora and on the continent are impacting Africa’s development through technology.  We were able to identify three incredible African women who leverage use technology in very significant ways to affect change on the continent and beyond.  They also helped us to flesh out the panel topics, so that the description you read below is representative of what we all want to share, in the limited time available on a panel.  Additionally,

Africa, Tech & Women SXSW Panelists

1. Isis Nyong’o – InMobi (Kenya)

Isis joined InMobi in February 2011 to lead business expansion in Africa. With over nine years of business development, marketing and sales experience, Isis is responsible for the overall growth on the continent.  Isis joins InMobi from Google where she led the company’s business development efforts in Africa. She specialized in mobile partnerships and developed Google’s content strategy to bring more African content online. She brings extensive media and tech experience to InMobi and drove the launch of MTV Networks in Africa where she was responsible for commercial relationships including distribution and sales. She developed the marketing strategy for Kenya’s first online recruitment service, MyJobsEye and holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Business School where she was president of the Africa Business Club. Isis has been named by Forbes as one of The 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa, is one of the ‘Top 40 Women under 40″ in Kenya, and is frequently featured by the Africa media including, Al Jazeera, BBC, Nation Newspaper, NTV, Standard Newspaper and UP Magazine, among others.

2. Ebele Okobi-Harris – Yahoo! (USA)

Ebele Okobi-Harris is Director of Yahoo!’s Business and Human Rights Program, leading Yahoo!’s efforts to promote privacy and free expression on the Internet. Before joining Yahoo!, Ebele was a corporate securities and mergers & acquisitions attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, Paris and London, an attorney fellow at Consumers Union (a consumer rights advocacy non-profit) in San Francisco, a director of Advisory Services at Catalyst (a non-profit with the mission of advancing women in business) in San Jose and Amsterdam and at Nike’s EMEA headquarters as an MDP focused on marketing and business development in Africa.

Ms. Okobi-Harris earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Southern California, a JD from Columbia Law School and an MBA Certificat des Études from Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris.

3. Milly Businge – Kikuube Village Council (Uganda)

Milly Businge is a respected village elder and mother of eight children in the small village of Kikuube. She serves as the Local Chairperson (LC1) of her village, representing a population of nearly 1000 residents. She has been unanimously re-elected to this position by the residents of Kikuube because her work representing them at the government level. She has often wanted to retire and refused to stand for the position during elections, but the villagers always rally and vote for her anyway. That’s the mark of a great leader.  Mrs. Businge was also recently officially ordained as a minister and serves as the pastor of the small but growing community church.

In November 2010, Mrs. Businge delivered the keynote speech during the “Villages in Action” conference that was hosted in Kikuube.  The conference was broadcast live over the internet and proved to be a very successful initiative — giving the poor an opportunity to be heard in the global conversation about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

When she is not managing domestic disputes, land wrangles, and community health awareness campaigns in her community, she spends her time reading. She is also an enthusiastic user of mobile technologies as they help her connect with her constituency and connect globally to her son (TMS Ruge) in America.

4. Liz Ngonzi – New York University Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising (USA)

Born in Uganda and “raised” at the United Nations, Liz Ngonzi is an international educator, speaker and consultant, who has since 2009, been on Adjunct Faculty at New York University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy & Fundraising – for which she has developed and taught courses on online and mobile fundraising, and where she is one of four noted social media experts.

Liz is a recognized authority on ICT for development, the African Diaspora market, hospitality / service management, women in business, and social entrepreneurship.  She’s a frequent conference speaker, including as a panelist during the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration, in the spring of 2007; as a featured international speaker at the May 2011 Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising’s 10th Biennial Convention in South Africa; and as a panelist for New York University’s Philanthropy 3.0 Speaker Series: Mobile in Advocacy The Next Frontier.  In September, she will speak in the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 41^st Annual Legislative Conference and will chair the 2^nd Annual ICT Women Empowerment Africa Summit in South Africa.

A committed volunteer, Liz has held several board positions, including currently serving as a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women (for which she is a Vice Chair of its Communications Committee); the Advisory Board to the Cornell University Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship; and the United Nations International School’s Council for Alumni Affairs.

Media outlets in which Liz has been featured, include: CBS’ The Early Show, Crain’s New York Business, New Jersey Jewish News, Successful Meetings Magazine, The New York Times, The Nonprofit Times and ZambiaBlogTalkRadio.

Liz founded and runs Amazing Taste, LLC., a values-led boutique consulting firm that connects NGOs with philanthropists and corporations, to achieve strategic objectives through fundraising events, marketing campaigns, along with educational activities.   Amazing Taste has worked with or advised domestic and international educational institutions, gender rights organizations, healthcare foundations, political campaigns, and youth development organizations.

Liz spent her 10-year corporate career in marketing, sales and business consulting at Digital Equipment Corporation, MICROS Systems, Inc. and Arthur Andersen, respectively.  She obtained her Master of Management in Hospitality degree from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems degree (with a concentration in Telecommunications Systems) from Syracuse University.  Additionally, she graduated from the United Nations International School.

5. TMS Ruge (moderator and “token male”) – Project Diaspora (USA)

TMS Ruge was born in Masindi, Uganda and grew up in Uganda, Kenya and the United States. Capitalizing on his understanding of different cultures and markets, Ruge has become a successful global social entrepreneur.

In 2007 he co-founded Project Diaspora — to motivate, engage and mobilize the African Diaspora to take an active role in Africa’s development. Following his passion to engage the continent, he has invested his time and money in a number of development initiatives including Uganda Medicinal Plants Grower’s ltd. – an indigenous farmers’ business specializing in the export of value-added medicinal plants, and Women of Kireka – a women’s jewelry making cooperative.

A technology enthusiast, Ruge writes and speaks extensively on Africa’s current renaissance driven by technology, youth and the Diaspora. He is a frequent contributor to several online publications including CNN, PopTech, The Globe and Mail, and The Guardian, and the Project Diaspora blog. He is also the host of The Digital Continent Podcast, a weekly technology podcast for people who believe that Africa is full of innovation and opportunity. Ruge is also a founding board member of Hive Colab – an open, collaborative, community-owned, work environment for young Ugandan tech entrepreneurs to focus on projects..

Ruge also serves as an advisor for ?OpenAction.org – an online platform that allows development organizations to richly engage their online audience.

He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from the University of North Texas.

Description of the Proposed SXSW Africa, Tech Women: The New Faces of Development Panel:

This panel provides a rare glimpse into the multitude of ways African women are applying technology to advance Africa’s development. The panel aims to dispel the myths about African women as breeders and victims — incapable of participating in their own continent’s development, by: (1) showcasing contributions they are making in the technology field – through entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and community leadership; and (2) providing insights into how they are using technology to raise awareness about, mobilize campaigns against and address human rights violations.

The panel will specifically explore how African women are using technology to make an impact through: – Digital advocacy to protect people’s rights – Social media to help grassroots organizations engage new supporters worldwide – Mobile advertising to enable small businesses to access new markets – Internet connectivity to integrate the often unheard community voices into the global conversation on development

Throughout the discussion, panelists will provide anecdotes on how the resulting increased access to information, is altering the role of women in African society.

Questions our panel aims to answer are:

1. What is the role of women in Africa’s fast emerging digital landscape and what types of contributions are they making?
2. How is technology improving the everyday lives of women on the continent?
3. What is the negative impact of increased access to information, on the role of the African woman in her society?
4. What are the opportunities and connections technology is facilitating between women in the Diaspora and on the continent?
5. Given the increased adoption of mobile phones in Africa and the rise of its middle class, what opportunities exist for marketers interested in targeting African women?

Please help us to amplify the voices of African women in the global discussion on development.

Vote for Africa, Tech & Women: The New Faces of Development and tell your friends to do the same.

Thank you

Follow us on Twitter: Liz Ngonzi @LizNgonzi | Isis  Nyongy’o @Inyongyo | TMS Ruge @TMSruge

We got this notice for an exciting new web series that will be shot on the East Coast and in Ghana. If you have acting chops or think you fit the roles, then download the PDF with character breakdown. Prepare your strong monologues now, I have a feeling these are going to be very sought-after roles for African actors and entertainers.

The creators of ‘The Other City’ (a working title) are casting for a pilot for a web series to be shot this fall/winter.  ‘The Other City’ is the African version of ‘Sex and the City,’ based in Accra, Ghana.  We are looking for women from the African Diaspora between the ages of 20 and 35, as well as male models of African descent between the ages of 20 and 40.

Date:  Thursday, August 25
Time:  3pm – 7pm
Address:  420 W. 118th street – 118th and Amsterdam (Columbia University)

Prior to the audition, please email to theothercity233@gmail.com a professional resume, headshot, and video link. Most importantly, please email a time you expect to arrive at the auditions. Shooting will take place in October/November in Washington DC (2 days) as well as next year in Accra, Ghana (2 weeks).

Download the call sheet »

Two years ago, I traveled with a group of about fifteen students from across Europe and North America to a small village in the Dominican Republic. We stayed in the community for two weeks trying to finish up a school building, building a public bathroom and organizing educational programs for the children. The villagers were very happy to see us and thanked us for coming to help them. In turn, they cooked for us for the duration of our stay.  But every day- or other day- when we had meetings and reflections, no villager was present. We talked about communication, respect, the economy, the needs of the community, and a host of other things. However, our reflections were held in exclusion. Sometimes, the village head came to talk to us- but with the help of an interpreter because they spoke Spanish and we spoke English. But besides the dances and games and during the construction process, we never had villagers come to us to share their experiences and teach us about leadership or values. When we were leaving the village, we were very sad.  We thought about the children and how helpless they were. But we were convinced that we had done something commendable and that we were to continue to have hope in the world.

Upon my return to Canada, I became very interested in the study of international development and development practices. As I started reading development blogs and about the complexities of the development industry, I began to learn about the harmful effects of patronizing projects, those save-them-they-are-helpless projects, those I-know-what’s-best-for-them projects and those I’m-a-good-person-helping-humanity projects. As I read and interacted with people in the industry, I learnt that the development approach matters, that good intentions are not enough and that local voices need to be heard.  I have since written about awareness campaigns that rob people of their dignity, development projects that harm stifle local initiative, the harmful effects of going to build schools overseas, the importance of Africa’s youth population and  the notion of “help” and  the importance of Diaspora engagement in African affairs. I tried to promote better practices in NGOs and have facilitated training programs on development practices but only recently have I been able to connect the dots….

How about Diasporans leading typical international development projects but making sure that the projects promote local initiative and build local capacity while protecting people’s dignity and promoting local leadership in development affairs?  Eureka!

It sounds good in principle but upon meeting Thato Makgolane, I found that it also looks good in practice. In 2010, when Thato took some students from the Sauder Business School at the University of British Columbia to his hometown of Phalaborwa, South Africa under the Arc Initiative Project, he made it clear that this was not a “save-Africa” project. “If you’re looking for one of those, look elsewhere”, he said to the team; “[My] people should not be perceived as purely just been poor people…and incapable… we are vibrant and given opportunity, we have some amazing skills and abilities.” The Arc Initiative project was structured in such a way that both UBC students and Phaloborwa students and residents were given a platform to share information about their cultures and practices. At any given time, there were people from both countries giving opinions about a subject. Business and management professionals in the Vancouver area were also brought on the project to share skills and best practices in business alongside local business owners in the area.

The focus of the three-day workshop was on financial management, leadership, strategy and marketing with small business owners and people in the financial sector.  At the end of the workshop, the participants were presented with a case analysis which they had to solve thus ensuring that they had learnt something from the workshop. Some students from UBC were placed to work in local cooperatives and business enterprises as interns for six-weeks thus assuming an apprentice role and contributing to the enterprise when their skills were needed.  The project ended with a business ideas competition and the competing projects were not only reviewed by the students but by the local business people. The winners of the competition were then given funds to launch their sustainable business projects.

The “arc” in the name “Arc Initiative Project” signifies bridge-building across people and nationalities and a two-way-street philosophy. Thato believes that partnerships of this nature should be visible not only in the implementation of projects but also in their design. In other words, as he has done, Africans need to play an active part in birthing ideas that will lead to their growth instead of waiting for Westerners or Easterners to come up with ideas and simply partnering with them to implement those ideas.

Arc Initiative: The CMAs from WardenFilms | Ryan Warden on Vimeo.

And he is right. At the end of the day, one thing is evident: as international development projects continue to remain on the development scene, African Diasporans must step in and lead the way, designing the very plot of these projects, encouraging dialogue among Western and African students and individuals, facilitating knowledge transfer across continents, protecting and promoting local enterprise, destroying stereotypes and proving to the world, that indeed, Africa does not need to be saved.

For more about Thato and the Arc Initiative Project, visit their website

Britain’s Brainiest Family is Black and Has 9-Year-Old High School-Bound Twins — what a catchy title for a compelling story about the British-based offspring of Nigerian immigrants — Chris and Ann Imafidon — blessed with what is seen as extraordinary brains.  I discovered this and another related compelling article, during my routine search for blog post content and was quite inspired, given that the last time I had conducted such a search, I had come across many dis-empowering images of Africa and its people, sparking my piece entitled: Rebranding Africa: Let’s Simply Start by Connecting the Dots for a Kid in Podunk! The basic premise of that piece was that Africans and those in the diaspora need to work towards helping shape a full picture of who we are — beyond images of “primitive” and helpless people — through the sharing of the plethora of existing success stories of those in the diaspora who are making their marks on their respective spheres and who consequently serve as ambassadors for a more inclusive dialogue about the African continent.

Paula & Peter Imafidon (Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2553538/Twins-youngest-to-sit-A-level-maths.html)

One of the compelling articles I cite above, penned by Jack Malvern in The UK Times on March 1, 2010, characterizes the Imafidon children as prodigies, including the main subjects of the piece, Paula and Peter, who at the time of its printing, the author noted as nine-year-old “Wonder Twins” bound for high school.  This family included the oldest sibling, Anne-Marie — at the time 20 — and who at the time held “the world record for being  the youngest girl to pass A-level computing, at 13,” while at the same age, she won a British government scholarship to pursue undergraduate studies at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in the United States; the next sibling, Christiana (who at the time of the article was 17), at the age of 11, became the youngest student to pursue an undergraduate education in any British University; and Samantha (at the time 12), who at the age of six, passed two rigorous high school–level mathematics and statistics exams, and whose feat was further emulated by her “Wonder Twin” siblings, Paula and Peter.

While I sincerely applaud Mr. Malvern and other journalists who  took it upon themselves to spotlight the Imafidon children, the undertones I read are that the family members are a collective anomaly – a notion which their father dispelled in an interview with Black Voices’ blogger, Ruth Manuel-Logan, in which he attributed their success not to any innate super powers, but simply to an Excellence in Education program for disadvantaged inner-city youth, in which they had all participated and as I inferred – active parenting and great genes.  He  stated further that “Every child is a genius…Once you identify the talent of a child and put them in the environment that will nurture that talent, then the sky is the limit,”  citing examples such as Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters, whose talents he believes were also nurtured.

Given the aforementioned and many other examples I have personally witnessed of highly intelligent and accomplished Africans, achieving great success in all spheres around the world (some of whom I included in my earlier cited piece) — I wonder why Africans still accept to be depicted as” (1) people who are seemingly too inept to effectively participate in their own development, (2) have low levels of education attainment, (3) need to be constantly saved by others, and (3) presumably have contributed nothing to this world, beyond breeding too many children who drain the globe’s resources.  The overwhelming majority of images I see in the media about the continent, are those of Africa’s natural resources that are fodder for the picking and its animals and landscape that are the source of enjoyment for tourists.

I was further compelled to write this piece, based on a heart wrenching Twitter message I received in response to my earlier cited piece on the need to re-brand Africa from the nonprofit group Youth Advocacy Network (YAN), which teaches kids in Buea, Cameroon, about video production, social media and computer literacy, as a means to share their stories with the world.   The message was: “Our students researched Africa & the flood of neg stats/media was hard to take in. Esp 4 kids using the web for the 1st time…” – which I interpreted as: their children were negatively affected by the negative images they found in the search results for Africa, most likely because the images failed to reflect the reality they see on a daily basis and the aspirations they each have.  It is for them, and other future leaders of the African continent and other parts of the world, that I plead that we seriously consider changing the image of Africa.  I fear that if we fail to provide an inclusive depiction of Africa, we fail those current and future generations that could potentially benefit fully from all that Africa has to offer.

For a more balanced picture, I refer to my own personal experiences.  In the early 1990’s, I was fortunate to meet a young Cameroonian, Dr. Acha Leke (a native francophone), while he was an undergraduate electrical engineering student at Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States — from which he eventually graduated at the age of 21 as its first black valedictorian — enrolled in a five-year program from which other would have graduated at the age of 23.  He eventually went on to obtain his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University; became a partner at the prestigious management consulting firm, McKinsey and Company; was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum; and in his very valuable spare time, co-founded the inpiring African Leadership Academy – an institution aimed at developing the next generation of ethical and well-trained African leaders.

African Leadership Academy Crest

Dr. Leke is but one of many highly intelligent and committed Africans I have been privileged to meet along my journey.  Other examples include the visionary students with whom I had an opportunity to work during the early 1990’s, as a volunteer publicist for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-based, African Technology Forum (ATF) — a journal chronicling scientific and technological advances within and without Africa — furthering the continent’s development.  Most of these students had at the time, moved from Africa to attain degrees from top universities in the United States, including:

1. Karanja Gakio, ATF co-founder who went on to co-found Africa Online with fellow Kenyan and MIT classmate Ayisi Makatiani (named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum) – the continent’s first Internet Service Provider– which was eventually sold to Prodigy Services Corporation.
2. Mawuli Tse, a Ghanaian national, who at the time was an MIT student and ATF co-founder, who has since become the Director of International Sales for iBasis, a global leader in international voice, mobile data and prepaid services that turns the challenges of international telecommunications into new opportunities.
3. Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang (born to forward-thinking illiterate Ghanaian parents), who conducted his MIT doctoral research on a hybrid engine for a leading American automobile manufacturer.
4. Nigerian-born, Dayo Ogunyemi, at the time an undergraduate MIT student (and fellow UNIS alumnus), who subsequently went on to attain his JD/MBA degrees from Columbia University, and following two decades as an entrepreneur, financier, strategy consultant and attorney is now the CEO of 234 Media — a firm that makes principal investments in the media, entertainment and technology sectors in Africa.
5. Fellow Ugandan, Dr. Khaitsa Wasiyo, who at the time was an undergraduate student at Tufts University — eventually going on to complete her Ed.D at Columbia University’s famed Teachers College, and subsequently founded Elgon Project Management – “a turnkey, one-stop solution for building open source interactive websites for learning, collaboration, and performance.”

So given all of the aforementioned, what’s my point?  The “Wonder Twins” and their siblings are not an anomaly — they are but examples (as stated by their own father) of what dedicated parenting, focus, and enrichment programs aimed at developing youth…can accomplish.

The examples of some of the very intelligent and accomplished Africans I have been blessed to meet along my journey should help to solidify the notion that Africa has highly intelligent people who have made and continue to make contributions worthy of note, on the continent and beyond.  They also are also helping to move the continent toward Africa3.0.

Note: I also recently learned about 15-year-old American teenager, Saheela Ibraheem — born to Nigerian immigrants — admitted into 13 prestigious American universities, from which she has just accepted an offer from Harvard University to pursue studies in neuroscience and neurobiology.

Please feel free to connect with me: About.me || Twitter

I spent this past week in Washington, DC attending Secretary Clinton’s Global Diaspora Forum. The UN foundation invited me to participate on a panel discussion the Global Diaspora’s role in tackling global problems.

The power of the Diaspora as change agents is not something new to us here at Project Diaspora. Since 2007, we’ve been singing that song from the perspective of the African Diaspora’s role in development of Africa. While the continent’s Diaspora was well-represented, I noticed a lack of Sub-Saharan Africa voices on the major planery panels. Semhar Araia, founder and executive director of Diaspora African Women’s Network (DAWN) and a member of Eritrea’s Diaspora, was one of the few voices I noticed.

I can possibly give the State Department a pass as this was the first conference of it’s kind. I am sure subsequent forums will include an equal representation from all regions. There was an underlying current of the need for collaboration among the Diaspora’s.

In his opening remarks, Thomas Debass, Director at the Global Partership Initiative in the Office of the Secretary of State, noted that “the tone of the conference is about partnership and less about pontification.”

The following are notes from the first day’s keynote speeches and plenary sessions. I zeroed in on interesting stats and quotes that I thought most relevant to this audience:

• We [ global diaspora ] are natural ambassodors
• 300 organizations represented
• Diaspora at State is a brand new office set up by Secretary Clinton

Maria Otero
Under-Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs

• Highest ranking Latina in the history of Department of State
• Raised with 8 siblings in La Paz, Bolivia
• Moved to Washington, DC when she was 12
• “Our hearts, our minds and our stomachs always remain in our home countries”
• Her siblings lived somewhere between Bolivian culture and new home in America. All her siblings got jobs that fulfilled that balance
• Has been fortunate to work in careers that have dealt with her home country
• Over 25% of American population is first generation immigrant
• US throughout has used used Diaspora to engage with their home countries
• This event today builds on our ties to our countries of origin. Seeks Diaspora to inform State Department on foreign diplomacy.
• “What State Dept calls diplomacy, we call a phone call to family and friends.”
• We know we are the link between the two and our voice matters
• Diaspora communities are first to respond and last to leave in any time of intervention
• Diplomacy under this pres and Sec of state is no longer limited to a phone call from government office
• From one immigrant to many, I greatly appreciate you being here
• All the issues that I work on I know are important to you

 

Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State of the United States

• Extend greeting to everyone that is visiting via internet
• One of great strengths of the US is its diversity
• More than 60 million Americans are first or second generation diaspora
• What would countries do without remittances from America. Remittances dwarf foreign aid
• Not possible for any government to deal with everything it has to deal with, that’s why we need ‘smart power.’ Building coalitions, people-to-people exchanges is the essence of smart power
• You are our peace corps, our usaid, opic all rolled into one
• In a crisis, first people to respond are those with family or friends where disaster strikes
• Many of you have stepped in where others were unwilling or unable to assist
• Irish Americans were instrumental in peace process in Ireland
• America has an obligation to try and promote peace around the world (with guns?-TMS)
• Particularly interested in women involved as peace makers
• There are some member of some communities who want nothing to do with their respective communities of origin
• GDF will instutionalize as a convener, catalyst, collaborator (work closely with diaspora to maximize impact
• We need to get into the basics of what it means to participate in the process of politics
• We need you to help to us (State dept) on what is best to be done to organize
• Too many people who pledge for democracy believe in one election, one time
• We want you to tell us what we should be doing

 

Partner Commitments to the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance (IDEA)

• IFAD
  • Diaspora investment in ag is end of conflict and beginning of development
  • 250 million leave outside countries of origin worldwide
  • We all have a profound connection to our friends and our families
  • 325 bil in remittances around the world, help in education, health, family
  • Role of diaspora goes beyond short-term relief
  • Investment in ag is best vehicle to development. Social and polical benefits
  • Diaspora willing to invest while foriegn firms run away
  • How can we better leverage Diaspora investments in agricuture
  • Diaspora save $400 bil every year, money is not the problem
  • Diaspora throughout the world will send over $1.3 trillion, goal is to encourage moving some of that money towards investments to foster growth and development
  • “Let us create a world where migration is a matter of choice, not a matter of necessity”

• Inter American Development Bank
  • Latin America will soon reach 100% mobile phone penetration, the highest in the world
  • It is impossible for any one institution to have everything

World Bank

• • African Diaspora is the 6^th region for Africa’s development
  • Africa in the last decade has done better than it has ever done, growing at about 5.7% per anum.
  • Africa’s sound policies rebounded after the global crisis because of sound policies
  • Any attempts to grow the continent needs to employ all economic regions
  • Data on physicians: 1 to 33,500 patients in Liberia
  • No way africa is going to achieve MDGs in childbirth without investment in this areas
  • 2 million in the US and other areas
  • Infrastrucre on the continent.
    • Domestic resources mobilization is almost saturated
    • $48 billion needed annually to build up Africa’s infrastructure

Haiti

• I would ask the remittances laws be changed to allow for more flow and less control at the top by remittance companies controlling remittance flows.

MVIA launches BOOM

• • World’s first global mobile-based bank account
  • Does not charge money transfer fees
  • First two global diaspora will be Mexico & Haiti
  • Will include large towns and cities as well as rural areas
  • Partnership with 25000 owner-operated money-transfer facilities
  • Bank over 1 million over next 5 years
  • Eliminating cash will increase security for many Mexicans who count on remittances
  • 30% of Haiti’s GDP is generated from remittances**
  • Zero transaction fees to Haiti for the 1^st year
  • More information at www.useBoom.com

 

The Hand Foundation

• Different views on various topics get in the way of organizing for development
• Human capital development is really critical in running our home countries

 

Western Union

• • Main business is to serve movement of money for diasporas
  • 10% of GDP for approximately 40 countries
  • 70% is functionally banked using technology
  • 70% of proposals came from USA for Diaspora Marketplace participants
  • Founding member of Diaspora Alliance
  • Announcing renewed partnership with USAID and will launch second DMP later this year
  • Celebrating 160^th birthday

The business card exchanges were fast and furious. Deciding which panel to attend and which to miss was a heart-breaking process, as I found the discussions both deep and engaging. It was unfortunate that so many panels were held concurrently, because it meant missing out on so much content. Here’s to wishing that the next forum provides a better avenue to accessing the panels & discussions that were missed online.

Tukeni with other people from Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Rwanda representing World Youth Allliance Africa at the International Solidarity Forum on Maternal Health in New York

Countries are a lot like persons. As a political science student, you learn to appreciate countries, their histories, their idiosyncrasies, their weakness, their strengths. And your textbooks are replete with personifications: France denounced the UK’s proposal in the European Union; Canada is seeking to be a member of the UN Security Council; Russia invaded Georgia; America prepares to occupy Iraq; China is the sleeping giant that has awoken. Even country leaders are immediately identified with their countries. A typical news headline reads something like: Obama meets with Harper to conclude the trade agreement. Queen Elizabeth of England and Nicholas Sarkozy of France landed in Copenhagen this morning. We all understand this. But when Goodluck Jonathan and Yahya Jammeh meet, a synthesis automatically occurs, they are stripped of their personal and national identities, the African blanket is tossed over them and the headline becomes “African leaders meet to discuss bla bla bla.” Of course, later on, the article will explain that they are from Nigeria and the Gambia but that regional identity has taken centre stage.

I’m not trying to stir up unnecessary controversy and I understand that if Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi are represented at an event, there is no reason one can’t say that it is an African event. But when you invite one speaker from the DRC and one speaker from Nigeria to talk about those countries, is that enough reason to call the event, “Current Issues in Africa”? I mean, where do you draw the line? Will people not show up if it was called “Current Events in Nigeria and the DRC”? Have people become so obsessed with this concept of Africa that they cannot accommodate country identities? Will we ever be content with learning about countries without wanting to draw comparisons to other parts of the region to justify our generalizations and theories?

This is not an exclusive attack against Western institutions. Even so-called Africans are guilty of it too. The young boy telling his friends that “in Africa, we eat Kenke every day” when the only country he’s been to is Ghana sounds just as ridiculous. And the young woman who starts an initiative in Malawi but says on her website that she’s empowering girls in Africa is just as guilty as the young boy in my class who proudly announces that he’s been to England, Argentina and Africa.

Think of it this way: imagine that your name was Chioma but every time you did something, whether you won something or broke something, people would say “Amaka’s daughter did it”, or “one of Amaka’s daughters did it”. Imagine that people always knew you in relation to Amaka and everything you said became an affirmation of Amaka’s qualities or a pointer to how Amaka’s daughters acted, were known to act or were supposed to act. No one knew about your individual struggles or that none of your sisters could sing they way you did, or it wasn’t your mother’s idea to study medicine. No one knew why your father had called you “Chioma”. It was never about you. Imagine that you lived in the diaspora and were called “African girl” by your peers and everything you did was tied to this larger region called Africa, everything you wrote became African literature, everything you asserted became an African point of view, never mind that you knew next to nothing about South Africa or what somebody from Burkina Faso was called.

To be sure, I’m not saying that I don’t subscribe to collective identities at different times and there are no gains to be had from celebrating collective histories or promoting collective efforts. But collective identities need to give people enough reason to subscribe to them. Yes, it makes sense that when I’m in Nigeria, I am Igbo; and when I’m in Ghana, I am Nigerian; and when I’m in Kenya, I am West African; and when I am in America, I am technically African. But notice how an American remains an American when he travels to Kenya. A Canadian doesn’t suddenly become North American in Algeria.

Certain countries have been able, because of the key role they’ve played in world politics, to make a name for themselves. But as others try to ascend, as others struggle, fall, rise, win, lose within the system; as others seek to define and redefine themselves, they keep getting thrown under the group carpet. As my pan-Africanist vision grows, I keep wanting to relate to several parts of the continent, to draw comparisons between their pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence struggles, or economic indicators or popular mobilization strategies. But I also realize that every country has its own idiosyncrasies, and even so, every country is itself a plural society. And I wonder: as far as politics and economics and everyday banter go, why aren’t we content with saying we come from Djibouti or that we went to an Eritrean restaurant. If our concern is that people won’t know where or what we are talking about, isn’t talking about it the best way to create awareness? As Pan-Africanism and globalization and the internet make the world an even smaller village, will we ever be content with learning or talking about one country and appreciating it in its own right or will we continue sweeping beautiful countries under the African carpet?

My last couple of blog posts on Project Diaspora have focused on best practices to improve service delivery on the continent and mobile solutions to potentially improve visitors’ experiences when they travel to Africa.

San Bushman man from Botswana. Photo Credit: Ian Beatty from Amherst, MA, USA

As I contemplated this current blog post, I looked through my notes to find an inspiring idea. I wasn’t inspired by any of them. So I revisited a Wikipedia search for Africa, which I recently conducted.  What I found was seemingly pretty basic: history, geography, politics, etc.  What struck me, however, was that the overall entries about contemporary Africa were quite negative in general, supported by images of a San bushman from Botswana, Beja Bedouins from Northeast Africa, a rural woman from Benin and a street musician from South Africa.

Beja Bedouins from Northeast Africa. Photo Credit: I, Jpereira

While none of these photos are particularly derogatory, they fail to accurately reflect what the continent has to offer, in terms of its educated urban population and its market potential.

As a diasporan born in Uganda and raised in New York, this all stirred up negative emotions within.  I grew up in New York during a time when it wasn’t cool to be African and I struggled with my identity, despite having gone to the United Nations International School – a very inclusive and empowering academic institution — and living in a community of mostly multicultural families.  At the time, it was much easier for me to assimilate as an African American (a group with which I still very heavily identify having grown up in the US) trying to bury my “Africanness”.  It’s only when I got to Syracuse University as an undergrad and took a few Africana studies courses that I began to develop pride for my heritage and to seek out additional sources to reinforce that feeling. So while the title of this post is about the kid in Podunk, I believe that what I’m proposing below is important also for the African kid (a) living in the diaspora, (b) who is fortunate enough to access the internet in Africa and even (c) whose friend and can teach him/her about who he/she can become as a result of hearing about his/her fortunate friend’s discovery online.

I must stress that my issue in post isn’t actually with Wikipedia — “a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.” The question then is “who should bear the responsibility for the inaccurate portrayal of Africa?”  Is it an individual, an organization or African governments?  Who stands to benefits most from a more inclusive and therefore positive branding of Africa?  You may in turn ask “why this is important?”  Well here are my two cents:

Children, the future leaders of the world, are generally quite impressionable.  So what they’re taught as children influences the decisions they make as adults.  Exposure to correct information about Africa would therefore lead them to recognize Africa and Africans are valuable partners in the global economy rather than the current perception of Africa and its people as a lost cause.

Liya Kebede, Ethiopian model, maternal health advocate, clothing designer and actress who has appeared three times on the cover of US Vogue. Photo Credit: Ed Kavishe, Fashion Wire Press

It’s imperative therefore that Africa and Africans amend the Wikipedia pages on Africa and the African Diaspora, to reflect more inclusive images of Africa and the African Diaspora, given the intrinsic value of the latter both to the continent and the countries where they reside.

Below is a very SMALL sample of diasporans of note who could potentially be spotlighted.  I used the following methodology to find them:

1. I searched Wikipedia for diasporans with whom I am familiar and then used links from their profiles to identify others. I was mindful about the need to reflect talent from the whole continent.
2. I excluded people on the continent making their mark, purely as a means to remain focused on Project Diaspora’s mission: to promote African diaspora engagement in sustainable economic activities within Africa.
3. For simplicity sake, I narrowly defined Diasporans as those who currently reside outside of Africa and who were born in or have parents from Africa.
4. I linked to the Diasporans’ existing Wikipedia pages and grouped each sample according to primary industry.
5. Finally, I used photos from diasporans whose Wikipedia pages had rights-free photographs.

African Diasporans of Note

Arts / Entertainment	Akon || Johannes Anyuru || Michael Blackson || Chiwetel Ejiofor || Idris Elba || Safi Faye || Edi Gathegi || Haile Gerima || Namugenyi Kiwanuka || Boris Kodjoe || Sal Masekela || Peter Mensah || Tom Morello || Ntare Mwine || Thandi Newton       Photo: Thandi Newton, English actress born to Zimbabwean mother and British father. Photo Credit: gdcgraphics”
Education	Ilesanmi Adesida || Kwame Anthony Appiah || Patricia McFadden
Fashion	Amsale Aberra || Ozwald Boateng || Iman || Kiara Kabukuru || Liya Kebede
Financial Services	Mo Ibrahim || Dambisa Moyo || Adebayo Ogunlesi
Journalism	Sade Baderinwa || Ron Mwangaguhunga || Hoda Kotb || Dinaw Mengestu || Adaora Udoji
Politics	Peter Bossman || David Soares
Hospitality Management/Travel	Dorinda Hafner || Marcus Samuelsson         Photo: Marcus Samuelsson, Ethiopian-born Swedish chef and co-owner of Aquavit and Red Rooster restaurants in New York City and C-House Restaurant, located in the Affinia Hotel in Chicago. Photo Credit: Tduk Alex Lozupone”
Religion	Rev. Peter Gomes* || Archbishop John Sentamu
Science & Technology	Kwatsi Alubaruho || Cheick Modibo Diarra || Chinedu Echeruo || Gebisa Ejeta || Ave Kludze || Noah Samara || Window Snyder
Sports	John Amaechi || Kelenna Azubuike || Yinka Dare || Obinna Ekezie || James Ihedigbo || Ruth Kasirye || Mathias Kiwanuka || Dikembe Mutombo || Emeka Okafor || Hakeem Olajuwon || Betty Okino       Photo: Dikembe Mutombo, retired Congolese American professional basketball player, who last played for the Houston Rockets of the NBA. Photo Credit: Keith Allison”

In conclusion, while Wikipedia is a great tool for cataloguing a part of Africa’s reality through its Africa and African Diaspora pages, they need to project the other side of the story.  The basis for this is currently available as individual dots on the Wikipedia site.  What’s needed is for these dots to be connected and given a little bit of context to make it easy for a kid anywhere in the world to access a more inclusive picture about Africa.  I am pleased to note that individual Africans including: Mo Ibrahim, G. Kofi Annan, Sophie Bekele, Ida Horner, Mariéme Jamme, Sheila Ochugboju, Emeka Okafor, Alex Okosi and Joshua Wanyama , are some of the many already working towards the rebranding of the continent.

My hope is that this post will inspire others to join this vital effort.  I welcome any feedback or suggestions for other Diasporans or Diaspora-related items to feature.

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*Rev. Peter Gomes passed away on February 28, 2011

We all have those conversations in university that we summon from the recesses of our memory from time to time, like a ruminant, calling them forth, chewing them again and sending them back to the darkness to be re-summoned when the need arises. The one where your friend asks you how many pet lions you have in your home in Africa, and the one where a friend invites you to watch a movie with her and then goes on to ask you if you’ve ever been to a movie theatre before. And as you struggle address the expressions of ignorance your ‘Western’ friends constantly spawn, as you struggle to explain that English is your first language and that you have skyscrapers in your country, a pool and not a pet lion in your backyard, you realize that the ‘truth’ is not as simple as you thought it was. It becomes more complicated when one ‘Western’ friend travels to Ghana to build a school for poor children and another spends a summer in South Africa caring for orphans whose parents had died of AIDS. You realize that amidst the jeeps and society parties, amidst the designer clothes your friends at home are constantly sporting, your country, your continent is struggling. Feeling trapped abroad and somewhat guilty for enjoying the luxuries of a Western education, you, no doubt influenced by Western rhetoric, ask yourself: “What can I do to help?”

Your previous die-hard mission of only a moment ago- your mission of fighting ignorance and racial stereotypes and proving your worth among your peers- becomes forgotten, overtaken by this new quasi-activist mission. For some, this mission is urgent: I’ll join a student group next week and raise money to fight against AIDS. When I go home next Christmas, I’ll ask my parents what I can do to help. Because I need to help. Because I can’t sit back and keep enjoying life while ‘my people’ suffer. For others, this mission is a futuristic one: When I make it in life, I’ll sponsor less-privileged children; I’ll do something good for my country. When I graduate, I’ll go back home because my country needs me. But right now, while this plan is brewing, there isn’t much I can do. I have to focus on my studies. I have to wait. I have to wait.

It doesn’t cross your mind that your very first turn was a wrong turn, that the choice of the word ‘help’ has sent you down a different alley, and that this mission has more to do with guilty and pity than with anything else. You don’t realize that you’ve bought into those stereotypes, fed them, internalized them and have begun to live them, seeing your ‘fellow people’ as missions. It doesn’t cross your mind that your perspective is wrong.

Several years later, during one of those epiphanies we are all bound to have every now and then, it hits you. You realize that the operative word is ‘engagement’, a word that reminds you of the concept of civil society- engaging with governments and institutions, engaging with fellow citizens, engaging with yourself, making sure that the needs of the people are brought to the fore, holding leaders accountable. But you realize that engagement is not a mission; it’s a lifestyle, a learning process. When you learn about that cutting- edge technology that has already gained a foothold in your country, when you listen to that leader who started an agricultural cooperative for the farmers in his village, when you lie on your bed and read a novel written by that popular African writer and find yourself laughing at that stupid character or find that you can relate to all the major themes in the story because you grew up in Kenya or Burkina Faso or Eritrea, you know that it can’t be a mission. When you discuss politics or economics with your friends, listening to the ideas spewing forth, refuting them, learning from them, you realize that it’s a lifestyle. In your petro-engineering class, while your teacher is talking about gas flaring, you find yourself drawing comparisons between your notes and the realities of the oil industry in the Niger Delta. You’re becoming more informed; you’re discovering yourself, and you know you’re on the right path.

Sometimes the engagement leads you to a startup: a magazine, a business venture, a youth group. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it leads you to vote, to sign a petition, to compose a song, to start blogging. Sometimes, it doesn’t. But all the time, it humbles you and it uplifts you; it gets you asking questions, finding answers, renouncing previously-held beliefs, adopting new ones. Sometimes you’re stuck; sometimes you’ve never been more certain. Sometimes, you despair and at other times, there’s that resurgence of hope which restores your faith in everything.

You’re in the Diaspora and the people at home are no longer objects or subjects but agents of their own cause- creating, destroying, fighting, resisting, winning, losing, cheating, being as honest and accountable as they can be. They become as real as you are. There’s no more mission because you realize that every citizen has rights as well as responsibilities and that you are really just a part of a composite whole. You realize that you are no savior but that you can find a niche, or two, or three and thrive. You realize that you can be true to yourself, that you can support initiatives or learn from them.

You have changed: you talk less; you listen more; you’re meeting experts, novices, veterans; you’re showing respect; you’re earning respect. You are engaged. You’ve never felt happier, stronger, more involved. And those feelings of helplessness, those thoughts that left you feeling like a hostage in an unknown territory? They are gone with the wind! Your world is now full of possibilities. Your vision knows no limits. You realize that there’s no cape. It’s a ring. You’re engaged and the wedding bells are ringing.

I received a letter last week from a young African woman (whose identity I’ve omitted, in deference to her privacy), currently a graduate student in a leading hospitality management program in Europe.  What first struck me about her was that she had taken the time to send me a letter, when she could easily have emailed me, given that she referenced she had found me on LinkedIn through a mutual contact and she must have subsequently googled me to find my business address, where she then would most likely could have easily found my email address, as well.  By taking the time to write a letter to me, this young woman already grabbed my attention by demonstrating to me that she understands etiquette — which definitely worked in her favor, given that she wrote to me requesting assistance with a dream she has — to open a hospitality management school in her country of origin, in order to provide less fortunate young people the opportunity to study free in their home country. This would then enable them to qualify for the positions in the country’s major tourism sector — currently occupied mostly by foreigners.

Swimming Pool at Chobe Safari Lodge in Uganda

The letter inspired me to think about service, in general and hospitality in particular, in Africa, beginning with experiences I’ve had in the various places I visited on the continent, including in my country of origin, Uganda.  I’ve always been baffled by the fact that while Africans are generally hospitable people, when it comes to providing professional service to others, there tends to be an inconsistency in how its delivered.  In all fairness, I should mention that there are several establishments I have visited in which I have received consistently great service from accommodating staff and engaged managers.  So I asked myself, what is it that’s lacking in the places to which I have decided I would never return? Based on my own experiences and anecdotes from other customers and even staff, many such places tend to be run by ill-prepared and unmotivated managers, who most likely report to indifferent owners.  These owners often times have not developed the practices and structures necessary to empower managers/employees to deliver consistently great service, be it internally or externally.  The point being, that the leadership sets the tone for the type of service the customer-facing employee will provide.  Once the leader creates a culture that is service-oriented, hires accommodating people, teaches and incentivizes them to provide great service, employees are more than likely to perform better.

One of the Beautiful Cottages at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Uganda

As tourism gains momentum as a major economic driver in Africa, I would like to appeal to proprietors to consider adopting the following six service delivery best practices in order to deliver customer service excellence.  These practices are based on (a) my studies while a graduate student at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration (b) research I’ve conducted on my own as an educator developing and teaching university-level hospitality management courses (c) observations I’ve made about organizations to which I or my firm have consulted and (d) methods I’ve successfully employed in my own business.

1. Development of Standard Operating Procedures: Successful establishments tend to develop procedures to manage the full customer experience.  These procedures are encompassed in the following phases:

• Customer Engagement Phase (e.g., phone greeting, email inquiry response, website information)
• Arrival (e.g., by whom and how customers are greeted)
• Service Delivery Phase (e.g., when and how customer orders are taken and suggestions provided to them)
• Payment Processing Phase (e.g., flexibility of payment options)
• Departure Phase (e.g., how customers are bid farewell and whether there is a request for feedback on service provided)
• Post-Visit Engagement Phase (e.g. thanking customers for their business and providing incentives to encourage future patronage / referral of others)

2. Hiring Practices: One of the key elements to developing a great customer-facing staff is recruiting those people who are inclined toward service, possibly even have experience in working in establishments that deliver consistently and /or people who have demonstrated an interest in service delivery, through their educational pursuits.  Finding such employees is facilitated by the fact that there is such widespread unemployment on the Continent, that employers are able to cherry-pick candidates.

3. Training / Orientation Process: Once appropriate candidates are hired, they should to be taught about the establishment’s service culture and expectations of employees, trained in service delivery procedures and informed about the importance of the service they are providing to customers paying their hard-earned money.  By doing so, the leadership establishes expectations of performance and provides clear reasons that the employees can internalize and refer to in various customer-facing situations.

4. Management Oversight: Managers should practice “management by walking around,” which requires them to monitor operations so as to  to enable them to identify any issues before they escalate, discover employees providing great service and provide an additional touch-point for customers who may have additional questions.

5. Incentives: People are generally motivated in multiple ways, money being one of them.  However, successful leaders recognize that public recognition of performance against clearly defined objectives, the offering of career path options, and support of employees’ extracurricular pursuits are just as, if not more effective means to incentivize performance.

6. Employee Treatment: Leaders of successful establishments understand that the way in which they treat their employees is directly correlated to how those employees then in turn treat internal and external customers.  Employers can do so by treating employees in a hospitable manner, developing practices such as providing them with healthcare, transportation and / or meal allowances to supplement wages, and by taking the time to learn about the employees’ individual challenges and helping to facilitate reasonable solutions.

Giraffes in Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda

Going back to the letter and idea from the young African woman’s vision that inspired this posting (and with whom I have since communicated via email and a skype video call) my professional opinion as a practitioner in the service sector is that she’s on to something great. So I have since communicated further with her and provided her with some of my own insights for how she can potentially realize her dream.  Central to all of this, however, is that as she realizes her dream, she keeps in mind, the importance of developing an institution that not only teaches those interested in working in hospitality, the technical aspects of providing service, but also, the philosophical and human aspects of why and how service is delivered.  Additionally, my hope is that she aims to recruit students (all of whom she envisions would attend on scholarship), who demonstrate a pre-disposition to service delivery, and who therefore, with the right training and opportunities, would help to lift the level of service provided in her country, in particular and the rest of the continent, in general.

Great Eco-Conscious Decor at Boda Boda Restaurant in Kampala, Uganda

Finally, I believe that in the short-term, she should be flexible in how she conceives of her institution.  With the increasing number of applications available to facilitate e-learning, she may want to consider working with educators / industry practitioners to develop a curriculum that can be delivered remotely to students assembled in an existing structure, such as a local school, church or community center.  In such a case, instead of having to wait until she raises the funds for a building, etc., she could literally begin teaching using a laptop, projector and WiFi access — made possible by Africa 3.0.

Unlike my first two postings on Project Diaspora, this young woman and I did not connect via Twitter, 140 characters at a time.  However, some of the insights, which I shared with her, were informed by my frequent activity on Twitter over the last 18+ months.

New Note: I was recently quoted in the book Cornell University School of Hotel Administration on Hospitality: Cutting Edge Thinking and Practice book (page 16)

Here’s how you can connect with me:

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HOPSTOP Logo Superimposed on Google Map of Kampala, Uganda

One of my favorite iPhone apps is HOPSTOP, founded in 2005 by US-based and Nigerian-born entrepreneur, Chinedu Echeruo.  Why I love this app is that it enables me to easily map out my travel route (by foot, rail or bus) when I’m visiting places across the US, with which I’m unfamiliar and provides me with access to services located around my destination, such as a Starbucks, I can visit prior to a meeting to have a warm beverage, check my email or  freshen up.

I was reminded of why I love HOPSTOP so much, during my recent vacation to Uganda.  It was a great trip during which I visited many parts of the country, dined in fantastic places, stayed in great resorts and as a constantly-engaged entrepreneur…even snuck in a few meetings.  One of the only challenges I faced however, was that despite having born in Uganda and traveled there quite often, I needed to have guides with me throughout the trip, because the country — as with others on the African Continent — have limited numbers of street names.  This is not only a challenge for visitors, it’s also an issue for locals who are forced to use landmarks to find destinations.  The aforementioned challenge limited my experience to those places I researched online prior to my visit, those which friends recommended to me and those with which my various guides were familiar.

I wonder,  if had I been able to access a HOPSTOP app to find destinations on my own,  would I have been comfortable trying out new places and possibly venturing out on my own?  Why this is significant is that when I put myself in the shoes of someone visiting a country such as Uganda, for the first time, I can imagine that navigating through the many wonderful places to experiecne might be a challenge, particularly given the aforementioned lack of street names.  To be fair, there are many sources, one of which is The Eye Magazine, which does provide listings of destinations and maps of their corresponding locations.  However, for folks like me who are used to being able to access information easily on a PDA, we definitely need more.

Ideally, I would love to see an app that enables visitors to:

• Map out their routes by various available modes of transportation with cost and risk estimates for each (a trip on a boda boda can be quite a harrowing experience, yet is the most affordable option in East Africa, besides walking)
• Access location-based services that are generated based on the user’s location, personal preferences and purchasing history
• Retrieve a time-limited coupon for access to services, such as those of the Groupon app
• Post reviews of their experience of local services (a la TripAdvisor)
• Monitor traffic updates that enable them to avoid “jam” centers

Having presence on an app such as the one proposed above would be great for owners of small businesses in Uganda (and other African countries),  in that it would potentially provide them access to consumers they might not otherwise have been able to attract, enable them to receive feedback about their services that could help them improve delivery, create more needed jobs and generally stimulate economic growth.  Google has already embarked on a project to map various countries throughout Africa — an endeavor which should help to facilitate the aforementioned.

Mr. Echeruo, I ask you to seriously consider creating the app I’ve proposed above…if you’re not already doing so.  You’re a terrific example of the great minds to which Africa has given birth and from which it should benefit…as it develops.  You have successfully scaled HopStop across North America and it’s now time to take your talents and resources to Africa — a continent that relies heavily on tourism and and increasingly on international commerce, both of which would be more easily facilitated by a disruptive app that ultimately furthers the development of the Continent.   In addition to all of the aforementioned, there is a growing community of trail-blazing tech savvy wiz kids on the Continent (that I learned about 140 characters at a time on Twitter) with whom you could potentially collaborate to work towards Africa 3.0 – an aspiration that a tech visionary such as you, has the wherewithal to achieve.

Here’s how you can connect with me:

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Murchison Falls on the Nile in Uganda

As I write my first blog posting for Project Diaspora, I do so with the backdrop of change being fueled in Northern Africa by various social media, at the core of which are the 140 characters at a time on Twitter that have enabled those affecting and directly affected by the change to mobilize support from many around the globe who otherwise would never have known, cared about, nor even tried to further their plight.   The aforementioned is but one example of the viral nature of information exchange in our ever shrinking global village — enabling individuals to collectively voice their opinions — leading to dramatic change politically, economically, socially and spiritually.

With that background, I begin my sharing of thoughts and analyses with you, as they relate to the change I see happening across the African Continent.   I’ve been online for 20 years, when the Internet as we currently know it, was in its infancy and I was a student in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, learning to email my homework assignments on my first PC and struggling to find information online to complete my final senior paper on the importance of Africa leapfrogging the then-available and cost-prohibitive fixed-line infrastructure, to embrace the emerging telecoms technology at the time…satellite.

Today, I struggle to filter the plethora of information available through my multiple social media networks that I access on mostly on my iPhone.  Fortunately, the increased connectivity has enabled me to keep current on the goings-on around the world and to find those who are geographically dispersed, yet thinking and expressing themselves on topics about which we are mutually passionate – stories about Africans on the Continent and  in the Diaspora, currently working on and looking to participate in the future development of Africa.  The “place” where I have found most of those people is on Twitter – where I met @TMSRuge, visionary founder of Project Diaspora.   While we originate from the same country — Uganda — in the past that would not have been sufficient enough for he and I to connect, in that our families are from opposite parts of the country, we are from different ethnic groups, grew up at different times and in separate places around the world.   The beauty of 140 characters is that despite the aforementioned artificial boundaries, @TMSRuge and I are now connected based on our shared interests and ideals, have subsequently engaged in email exchanges and conversations — all of which have led to my current blog posting and hopefully, future collaborations.

My connection to @TMSRuge, through 140 characters, has paved the way for me to access a vehicle — Project Diaspora — to highlight Africans who are moving back to the Continent and effectively reversing the brain-drain by either working as local representatives for multinational/domestic corporations, international development organizations, joining their respective governments or pursuing their own entrepreneurial dreams.  The 140 characters have also led the way for me to showcase those companies, organizations and individuals who, despite originating from outside of the African continent, are partnering with Africans, to assist in its development.

The themes of my blog postings moving forward, will focus on how Africans in the Diaspora, on the Continent and friends of Africa, are contributing to its development in innovative ways and how their efforts are helping to give birth to Africa 3.0…possibly 140 characters at time!

Here’s how you can connect with me:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Facebook

Amazing Taste Website

Here is an opportunity that I think someone in the UK Diaspora might be interested in. Have a read on the details and apply if you are so qualified. This looks like a great opportunity to learn more about the activities of the Diaspora. Take note of the deadline for submitting applications: February 14, 2010.

Comic Relief is inviting tenders from interested parties to undertake a review of the literature on the African Diaspora based in the UK and their role in international development.

Expressions of interest should be sent to:  Rupal Mistry atr.mistry@comicrelief.com no later than 14 February 2010.

Purpose and Objective

The primary objective of this consultancy is to provide Comic Relief with a detailed picture of the research undertaken and literature published to date on the African Diaspora in the UK and their role in international development in sub-Saharan Africa.

This consultancy will enable Comic Relief to build a picture of the international development activities of the African Diaspora in the UK and will feed into other elements of the Common Ground Initiative, in particular the communications and advocacy and influencing work. It is intended that this work will form the first phase of a longer study and will provide the basis for the commissioning of a series of more focused studies.

Methodology

The work will be desk based. The consultant will review research and latest evidence from academic, political and non-government sectors, synthesise and critique the findings, and highlight areas requiring further investigation. It is also suggested that the consultant hold short interviews with key informants to build up an understanding of the anecdotal evidence within the sector of the role played by the UK based African Diaspora in international development.

Areas to be explored through the literature review:

• The different ways in which the African Diaspora in the UK are organised, grouped, clustered or networked and whether or not there are any similarities in approaches to development based on typology
• The kind of development related activities African Diaspora in the UK are engaged in – thematic areas of implementation, e.g. remittance, business, service delivery (health, education etc), and the different approaches being used
• The scale of this activity – local or community based, district, national,  and specific regions across the continent
• The ways in which they are working with communities in Africa – the types of relationships they build
• The level of engagement that the African Diaspora in the UK groups or individuals have with other stakeholders, communities in the UK and Africa, other NGO’s, governments, policymakers
• Examples of best international practice – in terms of relationships, activities, governance
• The level of interest, engagement and support of politicians and policymakers in relation to the “Diaspora and Development” agenda
• Any specific policy- level changes (both in the UK and in Africa) driven by the African Diaspora based in the UK
• The type of funding that UK based Diaspora entities have accessed

Deliverables

A detailed literature review report (maximum 30 pages, plus executive summary and annexes) structured as:

• Executive summary of key findings and recommendations
• Methodology
• Key Findings –in relation to areas to be explored, what is known, ongoing research  and donor initiatives
• What don’t we know: information and research gaps,  differences of opinion/ current debates
• Implications for Comic Relief and its stakeholders
• Conclusions and recommendations – summary of findings, suggested further actions for donors, practitioners and researchers
• Appendices – List of articles and reports reviewed

The Consultant should submit the final report in both hard copy and electronic versions.

Timeframe

The consultancy will take place between March and May 2011. The draft report should be received by Comic Relief within 30 working days of the commencement of the consultancy with an additional month to receive comments and finalise the report.

Required qualifications and skills

Contractors would need to have:

• Ideally a postgraduate level qualification in relevant discipline
• An understanding of migration and international development
• Experience of working with BME communities in the UK
• Good analytical skills and attention to detail
• Ability to communicate effectively in English, both verbally and in writing

Comic Relief is committed to diversity in all of our contracts and tenders. The successful contractor will be expected to uphold the principles of respect and open engagement throughout their work with us.

As we kick in a new year here at Project Diaspora, we are excited to be continuing our Diaspora at Work series of interviews where we catch up with interesting members of the African Diaspora busy at work changing the continent. This week, we caught up with published, award-winning Ugandan documentary photographer, Andy Kristian. Among other notable mentions, he’s founder of the civic engagement project, Voices of Uganda.

''Do not involve yourselves in acts of violence during this election period.''

Tell us a little about your background… and how you ended up in the Diaspora?
I am a Ugandan/East African Documentary Photographer. I grew up in Mbarara with my extended family of about 14. My mother was single and I am the fourth of 5 children. My mom’s brother, Chris, always lived and still lives in Canada. As a kid, this was kind of cool. My family says they always knew that I would end up living abroad. That is because even as a child, I was always dissatisfied with the status quo in the country. I ended up in the Diaspora not so much because I wanted to leave my country, but because I wanted to learn, to be stimulated and inspired and exposed, and that’s what’s happened to me. As I speak, I am now ready to return to Uganda, and to inspire the change I have always dreamed.

"As bodaboda drivers, we are not able to work when there is electoral violence. We then fail to repay our loan obligations to the banks, which cripples our business."

How did you get into photography?
My boyhood friend, Edgar’s dad was a school teacher who supplemented his income to support his five children and his wife by taking portraits of students, church folk and people in the hood. Both my friend’s dad and mom used to travel a lot, which offered us an opportunity to explore with some of his abandoned cameras and play in his dark room. Edgar was so proficient because he had learned from his dad. In turn, I learned from him and got my first interest in image making, but would not discover myself as a career photographer until about a decade later while working as a consultant on the Juba Peace Process between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Government of Uganda (GoU).

''We need leaders that will ensure better healthcare provision and education for our children.''

How did you retain a close connection with your homeland even though you lived in the Diaspora? What drives your passion to stay engaged with the Pearl of Africa?

First, unlike many who leave Uganda at a very young age and lose their connection to their heritage, I first left when I was about 22. By this time, I was already contributing to my kid brother’s tuition fees, and therefore somewhat responsible. For example, by 19, I already knew I wanted to invest in tree planting both as an economic means and an environment conservation strategy. The tree planting craze has just began in Uganda, and some of us already dreamed of these things even as teenagers. When I was about 16 or 17, I was so discouraged and annoyed by our government’s failure to make a dual carriage network to Entebbe Airport. I had never been overseas, but it made sense to me that the road to Entebbe Airport should have the fastest road in the country, with people rushing to catch planes. Years later, the government failed to seize another opportunity brought by CHOGM to correct the wrong! How does this rhetoric fit into your question? It is this passion, the desire to lead, the love for my country that has kept me plugged in. I read the online versions of the Daily Monitor and the New Vision every single day.

''Select a leader/s who will ensure zero tolerance to corruption.''

What lessons can other members of the Diaspora learn from your engagement that they could use?
The Diaspora has some of the best minds that Uganda has. From Engineers to Doctors to Nurses to Photographers to Servicemen to business men, the best that Uganda has, live abroad. We in the Diaspora need to step out and lead. We need to use our minds to uplift our people. Most of us are discouraged by the way of things in Uganda, but we can’t just do nothing. We have to do something, anything. We need to use our gifts and talents to serve our country, whatever profession or business one is engaged in.

“We need peace and non-violence during election season.”

What led you to start Voices of Uganda? Tell us a little bit about the project. What are you hoping to achieve?
I have an academic background in Peace & Security studies, and that’s how I got involved in the Uganda Peace Process. After having abandoned this career for photography, I am still a peace maker and non violence advocate. But above all, I felt the need to begin walking the talk, instead of talk talk talk. That is when I began conceiving of Voices of Uganda. I felt a responsibility towards my country, and knew that I had a duty to serve our people in whatever small way that I could with my talents. From a peaceful message, the project revolved into a greater civic engagement project, in which I could have real citizens talking to other citizens to get involved in issues based politics; for example, instead of voting for someone because they are of a similar tribe, people should start evaluating the candidates, and voting for them because of their abilities to serve the greater needs of that community. That has been the essence of the project, and I think with my partners in distribution, we have managed to plant seeds of true democracy and social change. Oh, and do not forget so quickly what happened in Kenya, Togo, Zimbabwe and what’s now happening in Ivory Coast and Tunisia.

''Vote for a leader/s who will ensure the development of agriculture.''

Will you eventually consider moving back permanently to the country as a “reaspora” or are you planning on living the duel life-style?
I hinted above that I am already considering moving back to Uganda. I am at the point now where it makes a lot of sense to be based in Uganda than in USA. I came to the USA to learn, and that I have succeeded in doing. Now I need to come back to Uganda to teach what I have learned. As a “social change” documentary photographer, there’s more for me to document in Uganda and East Africa than there is in the USA. I am now working on some neat projects, that I am quite positive will change a lot of lives. My partner and I are looking to raise several thousands of dollars that will benefit pediatric cancer children of Uganda. With the state of our health service delivery, we have to take some matters in our own hands. We are going to organize the Uganda Charity Week, which will become an annual event. Every Ugandan will want to be associated with this. Plans are in the pipelines, and we will welcome anybody who has something to contribute; ideas, money or otherwise.

''Too much taxation cripples small business. Less taxation means more money in the hands of the poor. Let us vote for a leader/s that will advocate for lower taxes.''

What are your hopes for Uganda election season due next month? Any concerns? And what kind of impact has VoU made in the run up to the elections next month?
My hopes for the Uganda election season in Feb 2011 is that first, it would be a peaceful one. Second, that the majority of Ugandans would have the wisdom of voting for leaders that will advocate for meaningful change. Third, that there would be no vote rigging, vote stuffing and every poll dishonesty. Fourth, that the losers would accept the results gracefully or use legal means to challenge results rather than wielding guns, iron bars and stones.

I am quite positive that the Voices of Uganda project has had a lot of impact on the people in respect to the issues I have raised above. It is unfortunate however, that there wasn’t enough funds to have the initiative penetrate even to the remotest of villages, especially where the “issue based voting” is needed. Nevertheless, I have planted a seed, and if someone else can water it, who knows?

We got in touch with Loren Treisman, Trust Executive of the Indigo Trust in London. The Indo Trust is looking to support ICT4D projects on the continent championed by members of the Diaspora. Of course we are giddy as these are two of the biggest ingredients in our daily meal here at PD – the Diaspora and technology. So if you are working on something that matches the description below, then you need to get in contact with Loren, like pronto. We encourage you to spread the word about this fabulous opportunity. If you know anyone or group working in this arena, please do pass along the information.

If you’d like to comment, or have questions that you think would benefit everyone, please do leave them in the comments for Loren and he’ll be more than happy to reply for clarification.

The Indigo Trust is a charitable trust.  We are currently exploring ways of promoting information equality and democratic transparency among disadvantaged people and communities in Africa. We are also interested in supporting innovative ICT4D projects in any field including health and adult literacy. Recent grant recipients include My Society, the democracy and transparency charity.

We are interested in the role that Diaspora communities can play in this process, generally and particularly in countries where people’s safety may be put at risk through engagement in this sort of work.  If you are a member of a Diaspora community and have projects/ideas of how to use ICT in a way that can aid democratic transparency or development, we would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, to find out more about us, check out our blog:, which is currently under construction or follow us on twitter: @indigotrust.  You can also contact me directly:

Dr. Loren Treisman, Trust Executive
The Indigo Trust
The Sainsbury Family of Charitable Trusts

Allington House (First Floor)
150 Victoria Street
London, SW1E 5AE, UK
T: 020 7410 0330
M: 07809702920
F: 020 74100332
E: loren.treisman@sfct.org.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

This week I had the opportunity to have a chat with Dr. Richard Wamai for the latest installment in our Diaspora at Work (DAW) series. Dr. Wamai is a Kenyan Diaspora working in global health policy and health systems with a specific focus on HIV/AIDS and the poverty dimension. After getting his Ph.D. in Finland, Dr. Wamai did a post-doc at Harvard School of Public Health.

In my continuing conversations with members of the Diaspora, I am beginning to be astounded by the human and intellectual capacity the continent has access to within the Diaspora. I am constantly filled with a sense of pride by our contributions to business, academia and development sectors, to name a few. Our stories may not always make the evening news or even make a blip in the international wires, but behind the scenes we are doing great things. In order for us to make bigger strides in strengthening our bond with the continent, we must begin with these conversations. There’s so much to tell, so many stories, so many brilliant minds working inside and outside the continent.

Dr. Wamai, to me, is one such luminary that I’d like to highlight in this new episode of Diaspora at Work (DAW). Thoughts on the reaspora, global health, remittances, MDGs, Kenya’s Diaspora, the state of education in Kenya are among some of the topics we covered in this short episode. I’ll tell you though, it is quite intimidating talking to a highly qualified PhD., but Dr. Wamai weathered my curiosities very well with his cunning insight and vision.

One of the more interesting nuggets in our conversation dealt with Diaspora remittances. Dr. Wamai’s idea for greater Diaspora participation in Africa’s development was to incentivize remittances by providing tax write-offs. I think there’s a wider conversation that should be had on this topic. What would happen, for example, if the United States decided to cut bilateral funding to African states receiving more than $1 billion a year in remittances? Instead, provide tax deductions to members of the Diaspora to increase their participation in the development of their own country. Obviously there are consequences to such a drastic move, but coupled with other shifts in policy, this strategy could work (most importantly: the political will to do so). Are we ready for this level of self-reliance? What impact does this have to our development, governance, and sustainability?

What do you guys think? I am looking forward to your thoughts. Of course, comments on his other thoughts (which are also filled with nuggets of brilliance) are also welcome. Kenya should be proud of this son. Here’s to hoping his continued contributions in the global health arena, in particular HIV/AIDS will lead to major break-throughs.

Last September, I had the privilege of speaking at the Ars Electronica Cloud Intelligence Symposium in Linz, Austria (a super beautiful city!). My topic was the diaspora and the cloud (as in our participation in the digital cloud). I published a text in the Human Nature  catalog that accompanied the festival. I thought I would republish it here for a wider audience. That and because for some reason I was thinking about F.T. Marinetti today.

A MANIFESTO FOR AGES

On February 20^th 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti challenged Italy’s status quo by laying to white paper his generation’s blue print for an awakening. It was a stinging criticism of all that was, a violent cry for what could be but wasn’t, a generation’s trumpet call for all to shake off of a staid past and take on the responsibility of defining a new path. Italy had become too complacent with it’s rich history of accomplishments. The museums, centuries-old architecture, and dusty libraries – Marinetti was intent on destroying them all. He sent out a call for a new future defined by bold ideas, unapologetic disregard for tradition and the status quo, and a fully clenched punch into the gut of old-schoolism. F. T. Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto spawned a Futurist movement that left an indelible mark in every sector of European society from art to transportation to heavy industry. It was a campaign that defined an era. A defiant movement that crossed oceans and embedded itself all the way into mid-century America’s design culture. To Marinetti, Futurism celebrated industrialization, infrastructure, mechanization, militarism and the fiery beauty of machine-gunned speed.

Just a month after the The Futurist Manifesto was published, Theodore Roosevelt boarded a steamboat (a symbol of Marinetti’s mechanical beasts of speed) in New York for a trip across the Atlantic. He was headed to Africa for a safari. Ironically it was an expedition funded by the Smithsonian Institute and National Geographic Society—the very institutions that Marinetti vociferated against. Institutions that were the gatekeepers and archivists of human and global culture—full of “professors, archaeologists, tourist guides and antiquaries”—worshipers of cemeteries full of strangers. Marinetti believed that prolonging these very institutions wasn’t pushing humanity forward, rather, it was holding it back from an overdue, unceremonious, violent, push into the future.

Because of it’s ferocity and indignation however, it’s easy to dismiss The Futurist Manifesto as the work of a disgruntled Italian socialite; a histrionic collision of pen and paper, masterfully orchestrated by the mind of an antisocial Italian. While he was Italian by nationality, Marinetti was actually born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. Marinetti was the most prominent Africa Diasporan of his time; Africa’s earliest social commentator. A mastermind at attracting attention; he wore the swagger and self-confidence of an accomplished gentleman, and commanded respect for fiery manifestos that defined a generation. It’s a pity that none of his manifestos openly denounced imperialistic joie de vivre and colonial umbrage in Africa.

MIGRATION AND THE MODERN AFRICAN DIASPORA

The Africa of 1909 was characterized by suffocating and imperialistic colonial rule. Only natural resources and museum keepsakes as amassed by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, exited African shores. The movement to stop the trans-Atlantic slave trade involving millions of Africans had taken place a century earlier, in 1807. 1909 marked nearly 100 years of cultural separation between the last Africans to be exported on masse off the continent. The cultural divide widened by another 50 years, to the 1950’s and 1960’s, when colonial rule began to disintegrate, and be replaced by independent African rule. Voluntary migration patterns resumed in the subsequent decades after independence. One hundred years removed from Marinetti’s manifesto, the modern-day voluntary African Diaspora population has grown to just over 3 million [PDF] in the United states alone.

THE CONNECTED PALM

A century after Marinetti’s “indefatigable” future, as defined by violent speed; it lives on in the near-instantaneous way we communicate. It is debatable that Marinetti envisioned his “eternal, omnipresent speed” as being applied to the pace of innovation and conversely, ever-expanding modes of connectivity. Gone are the days spent anticipating the arrival of cross-country letters from loved ones. Enter; the always-on, globally-connected network where you are the mailbox and the mailman. Your mailbox is no longer relegated to the sidewalk. It has been uprooted, shrunk, and firmly planted into the palm of your hand. The mailbox is digital and mobile; the mailman relegated to schlepping credit card offers and coupons. No too long ago, it took a month for a letter that I wrote to reach my mother deep in the village of Masindi, Uganda. Today, she’s able to text me minute by minute updates from a family gathering, and I can call her while she swelters over the dinner in her wood-burning stove. We can talk at any time, and in an increasing number of ways. Today’s social construct has evolved from John Doe’s with physical addresses to walking online personas with witty Twitter handles and an insatiable thirst to broadcast wanton social commentary.

Web 2.0 is the term bestowed upon these various blogging, microblogging, social networking, and media sharing technologies defining today’s connected experience–all engineered with a heavy emphasis on interoperability. Simplified, web 2.0 is a “cloud” of multimodal, omnipresent tools that span software and devices; individuals to corporations; civil institutions to presidential elections. Your Facebook network account is connected to your Twitter micro-blog; your Twitter account also feeds content to your blog which is also populated by your photo stream. So, perhaps it’s prophetic that as I write this text, the lexicographers at the English Language Monitor chose ‘web 2.0’ to represent the millionth “neologism” to join the English language. Web 2.0 as a concept–and its encompassing technologies–while less than 10 years old, has revolutionized how the world communicates, collaborates, defines itself, and to Marinetti’s probable chagrin, archives itself. This amorphous cloud is quickly becoming the de facto storage locker of human intelligence; a virtual library of man’s greatest contribution to destructive manifestos and ideas.

Marinetti would be enraptured, not only at the pervasive speed and disruptive nature of this cloud intelligence, but also in the way the modern day African Diaspora has swiftly adopted web 2.0 as a platform to launch its own digital revolutions and manifestos. He would also be proud of platform that has democratized the seat of power; transferring the responsibility of archiving man’s achievement from the “professors and archeologists” of his time to the global populace. Every connected human being adds their contribution to this ever-expanding library.

AFRICA’S DIASPORA CONTRIBUTES TO THE CLOUD

So how are Africa’s far-flung children using the cloud as a platform for change? What role is the cloud playing in preserving Africa’s cultural connections, knowledge transfer, and community building. Is the cloud good for Africa’s development, or is it detrimental to Africa’s progress?

Much as Marinetti was passionate about the Italy’s state of development; today’s Diaspora is keenly vested in the future of their homelands. Africa’s Diaspora is discovering each other in social media networks; exchanging, sharing and broadcasting common bonds and ground-breaking ideas. They are creating virtual communities so far from home, and location is no longer as daunting a barrier to the preservation of traditional cultural ties. The village gathering is no longer summoned by the beat of a distant drum, but by the click of a mouse and pregnant mango trees no longer need to serve as shelter for the gatherers. The cloud is the new town hall, the new mango tree. The collective intelligence of Africa’s Diaspora population can, for the first time, congregate in the cloud.

For the first time, Africa is also adding its rich history and collective voice to the human archive. No longer is Africa’s rich cultural heritage, development and identity championed and hijacked by those from outside and treated as a footnote to human history. Increasingly, Africa’s dispersed Diaspora are amassing a collective intelligence of their own; earning and editing their own Wikipedia entries. Just recently, Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo added her voice to the decades-old aid to Africa debate with the release of her book, Dead Aid. Until now, the 60-year discussion on the effectiveness of providing aid to Africa has been passionately debated ad nauseam in the halls of Western academia by middle-aged, white men. Moyo’s consistently firm stance and passionate argument against government to government aid is laced with a Marinetti-esque rejection of the status quo. Her command of social media tools—Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube in particular—has spread her message to the masses. Love her or hate her, agree or disagree, Moyo’s Dead Aid is Marinetti’s “roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire,” tearing through “cemeteries of wasted effort” in the aid regime. Moyo’s main stream media savvy provides a near daily stream of recorded interviews, debates, and book reviews from around the world, accessible from anywhere at anytime—a virtual pervasive library of an African voice challenging the establishment.

A recent sample survey of the Diaspora’s use of technology conducted by my own organization, Project Diaspora revealed that Africa’s Diaspora is far flung and relying more and more on the cloud to stay connected. 82.35% of respondents said that web 2.0 tools are somewhat or very much responsible for helping them find and connect with other like-minded Diasporans. From a cultural preservation angle, 47% felt web 2.0 very much contributed to their staying integrated with their home cultures. What is surprising though is that, a 26.5% majority spent an average of 5 to 8 hours online. More than 17% of the respondents spent more than 10 hours online.

Additionally, Africa’s internet presence while nascent by Western standards, is also beginning to stay connected. 54.2 million Africans have regular access to the internet. Recent investments in expanding Africa’s access to broadband backhaul infrastructure by Google’s 03B Network, and a consortium of undersea cable initiatives on the East and Western shores of Africa will undoubtedly connect more Africans into the cloud in the next few years. A connected Africa is a working Africa; a working Africa is an Africa that’s one step closer to economic independence. Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, recently wrote an op-ed piece on The Huffington Post in which he states,

Our economy grew by more than 11% last year, even as the world entered a recession. We have chosen high-end segments of the coffee and tea markets in which to compete, and attract the most demanding world travelers to our tourism experiences. This has enabled us to increase wages by over 20% each year over the last eight years — sustained by, among other things, investment in education, health and ICT.

CONCLUSION

There’s a cloud gathering over Africa; a storm of connected thoughts and ideas that are pushing African countries violently forward. The Diaspora is using emerging web technologies in increasing numbers, frequency, and variety to stay connect with Africa, simultaneously charting a new digital course for it’s economic independence on the world stage. The Diaspora is also taking on the mantle of issuing it’s own brand of manifesto for the future of the continent. Africa it seems, is listening. Ten decades removed from Marinetti and Roosevelt’s colonial Africa, The Futurist Manifesto lives on in the cloud; re-interpreted and broadcast to inspire anew. A media savvy Diaspora charts a new course. What will Africa’s collective contribution to the collective human intelligence look like 100 years from now? What role will history say the Diaspora played in Africa’s rise? A hundred year’s from now, will Marinetti’s Futurist celebration of “industrialization, infrastructure, mechanization, and speed” have graced the shores and boarders of African countries? Perhaps the only lens one can use to answer those questions is meditate on this African proverb that has achieved immortality based on its easily retweetable nature: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is now.

DiasporaCamp DC '10

On July 25, 2009, about 80 young Africans and people interested in Africa congregated in Washington, DC for BarCamp Diaspora ’09 to exchange ideas on entrepreneurship, innovation and development under the theme “Investing our talent where it counts. Through a breakout session at the event about healthcare in Ghana, a healthcare-focused NGO called REACH-Ghana was formed. Many attendees also have partnered to work on ongoing projects as a result. On July 24, 2010 at the Kenney Auditorium, School of Advanced International Studies – Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, the conversations continue again, bringing together the African Diaspora to exchange ideas on doing business in Africa.

DiasporaCamp is a BarCamp with a focus on African Diaspora, primarily African affairs and issues. 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. Though discussions will center on financial innovations and access to capital, there will be breakout sessions on various topics as organized by attendees.

DiasporaCamp DC ’10 is a FREE event for anyone who is interested in using their skills, talent, and resources to benefit Africa. African entrepreneurs and people with an active interest in African affairs are encouraged to attend. The focus will be on access to capital to fuel these entrepreneurial ventures, business ideas and projects. Panelists and speakers will include Joseph Obi of USAID, Dr. Philip Auerswald of George Mason University, Nii Simmonds of Nubiah Cheetah and Magogodi Makhene of Zenzele Circle.

DiasporaCamp DC 2010 is sponsored by the GhanaThink Foundation, and African Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies – Johns Hopkins University. It will run from 8am – 6pm at the Kenney Auditorium, School of Advanced International Studies – Johns Hopkins University at 1740 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC.

Register/RSVP today on the DiasporaCamp DC ’10 Eventbrite page or at DiasporaCamp.org. You may also contact us for sponsorship opportunities. You may participate online at the conference website if you are not close to the Washington DC area. If you are interested in organizing a breakout session, let us know, especially if you have special needs.

The New York Times came up with a very interesting info graphic on the occupations of immigrants to the United States. The graph sampled immigrants in various sectors of the US market and provided some really interesting results. And of course we salivated over any data that had to do with Africa’s Diaspora. Broken down below are some interesting demographic breakdowns from the interactive chart for your perusal. Absence of the other African countries could be attributed to the fact that the map only represents countries with more than 500 workers.

As an aside, it is nice to see a demographic breakdown that doesn’t lump all of Africa’s countries into one entity.

20 African countries were represented: Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cape Verde, Senegal, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

The low representation could be attributed to many factors, including tight immigration laws that have limited entry of African immigrants into the country and geographic distance that would further limit illegal immigration. This is a geographic advantage enjoyed by Mexico and other Central American republics. Mexico has the highest number of immigrants working in the United States. This last assumption has a flaw however, as it doesn’t explain why India (which if farther East than Africa) holds the number 2 spot in number of immigrants to the country.

Top five African countries by (estimated) population of migrant workers were:
Nigeria – 92,500
Ethiopia – 57,200
Egypt – 55,600
Ghana – 51,800
South Africa – 42,700

Viewed purely by category of occupation, Africa is lacking a noticeable presence in the engineering and architecture fields, with only Nigeria and South Africa representing in this professional category. No African country represented in the “construction and production supervisor” category.  (This could be quite telling if you look at this from a developmental stance. Most of the  civil engineering, architectural, and construction in Africa is being done by foreign enties – mainly China.)

It also seems like there is a lack of writers and artists, with no African countries cracking the 500 head count minimum for that category. Also very telling considering a total population just over 1 billion people. Even if you were to hypothetically attribute 499 per country, that would only account for 26,447 artists for the whole continent. Way less than 1%.

However, Africans represented fairly well in the “managers & administrators” category with most of the 20 countries showing a presence. Ditto for the “drivers and other transportation workers,” “nursing aides, orderlies and legal professionals” categories.

If you want your hair “did,” chances are your stylist will be Senegalese, the lone Diaspora population represented in this line of work in the country. Likewise, the chance are high you are going to run into a Guinean driver or transportation worker, the country was the lone entrant in this category.

Overall, African immigrants have a very good presence in the “business and technical professions” occupational category. Now, if we can just get them to bring some of that knowledge home.

The Women of 'Diasporique'

OK, so you have to help me out with this one. Diasporique.com has got to be one of the most addictive sites around, at least for me. I’d love to tell you more about it, but there is no mission statement beyond this simple statement:

Diasporique is both haven and hub to art, design, fashion, music, cuisine, language, and culture throughout the richness that is the African diaspora.  Fresh content is posted every weekday.

Just pages and pages of African-inspired fashion and art with a lean towards the female aesthetic. As a photographer, I caught myself clicking through the volumes of images and as an artist, I was pulled in by the style the art and flair of Africa’s Diaspora. The colors are rich and celebratory. The models beautiful and engaging. But I couldn’t help but wonder, what’s all this goodness for? Wanna know the answer? Well, they are newly enjoined to the Twitter; perhaps ask the question yourself.

Nonetheless, it is pleasantly suprising when you find yourself 20 minutes into browsing the site that you haven’t read anything negative.

More information on the Women of Kireka, bead purchases, internship opportunities and quarry visits can be found on Siena Anstis’s website. We’re thinking proxy websites spreading like Western Union across Kampala’s downtown core. Ah, if only we were the Starbucks of East Africa.

The First Drop wants to provoke passionate, informed and accountable discussion among Canada’s next generation of leadership. We plan to do this by supporting a slate of contributors with widely varying views, and pushing them to generate the most enlightening discussion possible. We are now accepting applications for the first round of contributors.

We’re looking for about 20 people who will become the core of the community at The First Drop: our founding contributors, ready to roll as we launch in the next month or so.

Contributors will write 1-3 short articles a month on a topic that matters for Canada’s future. That’s the subject: Canada’s future. In any way you choose. Politics, business, civil society, it’s all good. From what perspective? Legal, artistic, entrepreneurial, military, academic or the snowboard shop. East, West or North (we don’t really have a South, do we?), you’re all welcome. Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Bloc, Green. C’mon in. We don’t care, so long as you can write a good, reasoned, reality-based piece and trigger a great conversation.

Actually, that’s what we really care about – the conversations that emerge from your writing. Have a voice, but no way to get it out there? TFD can be that way. Have a blog or book already? TFD can help you reach a bigger audience and draw in new perspectives. Just want to help us create a community of future Canadian leaders? Great.

Interested? Have a look at our Guidelines to get an idea of what we’re looking for, fire Brendan an email with any thoughts or questions, or just apply and let us know you’re interested.