Haphazard Co-ordination

The African Code King

Raindolf Owusu, a software developer from Ghana, has published this post about some of the challenges a software developer living in African has to cope with. He titles his post, Agonies of an African Programmer, and after reading his piece I realize we share similar sentiments about how the African continent is the new land of opportunity, so long as it’s leaders can get their priorities straight and stop being greedy.

Raindolf outlines seven agonies in his post in which he elaborates on the frustration himself and other developers are faced with. According to Raindolf, technology in Africa is generalized, or thought of as coming in a “box.” Prepackaged, and can be purchased off the shelf. “Let’s all visualize technology as a process and something we are going to build ourselves here in Africa,” he writes. But in order for technology to be visualized there needs to a sustainable infrastructure to enable this realization. The Government and private sector industries must do more to create the backbone where this process can thrive.

Out of all the agonies the African programmer faces, the most poignant, in my opinion, is an unstable source of power. Ghana is still heavily dependent on hydroelectric power, and has been for quite a while—ever since the Akosombo dam was commissioned in 1966. To put things in perspective, that’s 46 years of primarily depending on rain-water to power a country, now of about 25 million people—it’s unsustainable. Ghana is now going through a period known as load-shedding. This is when different electrical grids in the country are rationed with power. So one section of the country may have power from 6am-6pm, and another section from 6pm-6am. I first witnessed this load-shedding back in the 90s, and again in the early 2000s when I lived in Accra, Ghana. It’s unbelievable to learn that it’s still happening after all the talk about the West African Gas Pipeline and how it would provide another source of energy for the country.

Read More

nok-ind:

Africa’s Oldest Known Boat

8000 years ago, in the region now known as Nigeria. ”Africa’s oldest known boat” the Dufuna Canoe was discovered near the region of the River Yobe. The Canoe was discovered by a Fulani herdsman in May 1987, in Dufuna Village while digging a well. The canoe’s “almost black wood”, said to be African mahogany, as “entirely an organic material”. Various Radio-Carbon tests conducted in laboratories of reputable Universities in Europe and America indicate that the Canoe is over 8000 years old, thus making it the oldest in Africa and 3rd oldest in the World. Little is known of the period to which the boat belongs, in archaeological terms it is described as an early phase of the Later Stone Age, which began rather more than 12,000 years ago and ended with the appearance of pottery.

The lab results redefined the pre-history of African water transport, ranking the Dufuna canoe as the world’s third oldest known dugout. Older than it are the dugouts from Pesse, Netherlands, and Noyen-sur-Seine, France. But evidence of an 8,000-year-old tradition of boat building in Africa throws cold water on the assumption that maritime transport developed much later there in comparison with Europe. Peter Breunig of the University of Frankfurt, Germany, an archaeologist involved in the project, says the canoe’s age “forces a reconsideration of Africa’s role in the history of water transport”. It shows, he adds, “that the cultural history of Africa was not determined by Near Eastern and European influences but took its own, in many cases parallel, course”. Breunig, adding that it even outranks in style European finds of similar age. According to him, “The bow and stern are both carefully worked to points, giving the boat a notably more elegant form”, compared to “the dugout made of conifer wood from Pesse in the Netherlands, whose blunt ends and thick sides seem crude”. To go by its stylistic sophistication, he reasons, “It is highly probable that the Dufuna boat does not represent the beginning of a tradition, but had already undergone a long development, and that the origins of water transport in Africa lie even further back in time.”

Egypt’s oldest known boat is 5000 years old.

P. Breunig, The 8000-year-old dugout canoe from Dufuna (NE Nigeria), G. Pwiti and R. Soper (eds.), Aspects of African Archaeology. Papers from the 10th Congress of the PanAfrican Association for Prehistory and related Studies. University of Zimbabwe Publications (Harare 1996) 461-468.

ISBN: 0908307551

Africans were crude people who learnt how to breathe from the white man.

-_____________________________________________________-

b-sama:

“Africa actually enriches Europe; but Africa is made to believe that it needs Europe to rescue it from poverty. Africa’s natural and human resources continue to develop Europe and America, but Africa is made to feel grateful for aid from the same quarters that still sit on the back of the continent. Africa even produces intellectuals who now rationalise this upside-down way of looking at Africa”

- Ngugi wa Thiong’o

(via tyrabanksonabudget)

fumblingtowardshappiness:

dreams-from-my-father:

phantomwise:

Summertime - Angélique Kidjo

I heard this song on the radio today and it might just be the best take on it I’ve heard since Ella Fitzgerald, no joke.

THANK YOU THANK YOU OP

For bringing back Angélique Kidjo on our dashes. Her voice brings back so many childhood memories and this is one of the most amazing things I have ever heard in my life!!

i love this version

Her voice! She and Onyeka Onwenu were my role models for women singing and being absolutely brilliant at it.

(via thisinsatiableshadow)

nok-ind:

They come from the same source more or less.

(Source: nefermaathotep)

beautiful-side-of-africa:

Yassa

My mouth just watered at this sight. My mom needs to cook yassa when next i see her or i need to learn.

(via africaisdonesuffering)

No! This is NOT baby food! this is food for grown folks… food of the gods! who loves me and wants to tell me where I can get this in London to buy? don’t buy it for me, just tell me where to get it and I’ll owe you a cup of coffee or something. For serious…

(via nigerianculture)

tumblemesoftly:

sonofbaldwin:

African Men. Hollywood Stereotypes.

One of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a LONG, LONG time. I absolutely love this. Let more be made.

(via afro-art-chick)

cutfromadiffcloth:

Ozwald Boateng’s “I Love Soweto” Shoot

‘From the beginning I have always wanted to shoot this collection in Africa, and The ‘I Love Soweto’ shoot captured what I was trying to do so beautifully. Spring/Summer 2012 essentially represents a European take on an African aesthetic, and my African heritage coupled with the setting of Soweto really gave the concept it’s authenticity’ – Ozwald Boateng

Website: http://www.ozwaldboateng.co.uk/

From the first day I learnt about Oswald Boateng, I’ve been in love with his eye for detail, the crisp and sleek look that is a signature of his pieces and the fact that he’s Ghanian and very proud of it.

I want that black blazer and the yellow shirt. Actually that harness also.

(via spawnofhumanbeings)

Wodaabe men

(Source: akilivumbi, via 37thstate)

Rosebell Kagumire
My response to KONY2012.
Uganda 7 Mar 2012

Transcribed below cause I loved it that much:

Hello, my name is Rosebell Kagumire and I am a blogger from Uganda. So today, we have been talking about the story of Joseph Kony that has been trending on Twitter. I first saw this story from friends’ links on Facebook and I was like, This is a new issue out on Kony; I need to update myself on what is going on. So the first five minutes of the video I was trying to figure out What is this video about? I could not even have the slightest idea that it would be about Joseph Kony.

So basically my major problem with this video is that it simplifies the story of millions of people in Northern Uganda and makes out a narrative that is often hard about Africa, about how hopeless people are in times of conflict that only people off this continent can help. Yet it’s not entirely true; there are local initiatives. There have been local initiatives to end this war. We know people, famous, like Betty Bigombe — this woman is a great woman who went into the bush and tried to convince Joseph Kony to come out, and she tried because the war was more than just an evil man killing children; the war is much more complex than just one man called Joseph Kony and it was much more in the beginning about resources and about marginalization of people in Northern Uganda. So we have got to the stage where the war is about an indicted leader of a group, but even still, we still have actors in this war that have committed crimes. These are certain issues that need to be told when you’re telling a story of a war and trying to end it.

The other problem was that he [director Jason Russell] plays so much on the idea that this war has been going on because millions of Americans or … in the Western world people have been ignorant about it, yet it is not entirely true, and there have been certain steps made towards ending the war.

Right now, Joseph Kony’s not in Uganda. The situation in the video was five, six years ago. The situation has tremendously improved in Northern Uganda: people sleep at home and people are back home, children are going to school; it’s about post-conflict recovery right now, and we don’t see those issues of now what needs to be done, especially when he puts Uganda at the center of this conflict. We need to see the situation that is currently on the ground, which I don’t see in the video.

And, as many people have raised, this is another video where you see an outsider trying to be a hero rescuing African children. We have seen these stories a lot in Ethiopia, celebrities coming in Somalia … it does not end the problem. I think we need to have kind of sound, intelligent campaigns that are geared towards real policy shifts rather than a very sensationalized story that is out to make just one person cry, and at the end of the day we forget about it.

I think it’s all about trying to make a difference, but how do you tell the story of Africans is much more important [than] what the story is, actually. Because if you’re showing me as voiceless, as hopeless… you have no space telling my story; you shouldn’t be telling my story if you don’t believe that I also have the power to change what is going on, and this video seems to say that the power lies in America and it does not lie with my government, it does not lie with local initiatives on the ground… that aspect is lacking and this is the problem. It is furthering that narrative about Africans: totally unable to help themselves and needing outside help all the time.

And don’t get me wrong, Joseph Kony is a wanted man; he has been indicted and he has committed so many crimes and he should be brought to book, but how do we go about it? We have to see governments of South Sudan, DRC, Uganda, Central African Republic, paying more commitment because ultimately these are the governments that will bring this war to an end, and also pledging much more to greater efforts of reconciling communities — that’s why I said the war is not just about Joseph Kony; the war — solving this war — is about pacifying the region, making sure communities do not go back to rebellion, making sure you stop a rebellion before it starts, and as far as I’m concerned, this video basically tries to bring one man— it’s one bad guy against good guys, and against we, the mighty West, trying to save Africa. So I have a problem with that because this is the same narrative we have seen about Africa for centuries, and in this 21st century, we ought to see something more different. And I don’t doubt his intentions — maybe his intentions are good — but how he goes about it, I will not agree with that.

And I think there are people doing great initiatives on the ground, even before he went there. I covered this while I was in Northern Uganda in 2005. I saw the kind of suffering he is talking about. But yet, we do not think that this story can be told in that simple way: just to say it’s about a good guy and a bad guy. Yes, there are bad guys. Yes, we need to end the war. But how we tell the story of children — trying to give these children a voice; trying to give elders who have contributed to peace in the region a voice also. Voice their concerns, question even the involvement— as far as I know, the involvement of America has been questioned — Why is America in? — and it’s important that these discussions are captured if you’re genuinely trying to end a war and make sure that another rebellion does not begin.

Thank you.

(via brain-food)

amal-leila:

Ejiro by Luke Oyemeda. Medium: Fiber Glass. 2010.

(via orobolicious)

dynamicafrica:

If you’ve ever been in the western part of the continent during the November to March period, you’ll be familiar with the dusty and hazy wind that blows south from the vast Sahara Desert toward the Gulf of Guinea known as the Harmattan season.

During this time, the wind can pick up dust particles between 0.5 and ten micrometers, and temparatures can drop as low as three degrees celsiuis (37 degrees fahrenheit). The harmattan winds are also known to block visibilty and the suns rays for up to days at a time. Apart from obscurring daily life, the harmattan haze also has health and environmental risks for people in the affected regions.

(pictures: 1,2,3)

(Source: , via dyadic-gaze)

africa

dynamicafrica:

Born in the southwestern city of Lagos, Daniel Gbenga Orimoloye is an award-winning Nigerian artist, based in London, who works with several paint mediums including oil, watercolour and acrylic. Through these mediums, Orimoloye uses his artwork and artistic freedom of expression as a means to explore various socio-cultural features throughout the African continent

About his work, Orimoloye says,

“We must look at concepts, ideas and avenues by which we can change our reality. We must create instances with which to empower the society…My artistic mission is to portray and advocate through allegorical representation and through relationships with organisations committed to working for humanity like Freedom Foundation, a lively and “colourful” hope.”

Visit his site to see more of his work and order prints.

(Source: , via orobolicious)

occupyallstreets:

Occupy Nigeria/Nigerian Spring

Anger at President Goodluck Jonathan’s elimination of the fuel subsidy appears to have united Nigerians in a way not seen for many years. There have been popular protests in virtually all of Nigeria’s major cities. According to the Nigerian press, protestors have shut-down economic activity in Lagos, Ibadan, and Kano. In the capital, Abuja, most gas stations are closed. It is likely that road haulage will decline in the face of a tripling of gasoline prices since the end of the fuel subsidy– most Nigerian goods move by road. It remains to be seen when or if civil aviation will be affected.

In Kano, the metropolis of the predominately Muslim North, the protest was accompanied by a reported accord between Christians and Muslims. There are news photos of Christians providing protection while Muslim protestors pray, and Muslims returning the favor—this in a city that has been a byword for religious hatred and Islamic radicalism.

The Kano protestors are demanding restoration of the fuel subsidy and the firing of Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the governor of the central bank (a Muslim from the North), Lamido Sanusi. The powerful Nigeria Bar Association and the National Medical Association are supporting organized labor’s call for a general strike next week.

It remains to be seen whether unions in the oil industry will participate. If they do, they have the capacity to shut-down Nigeria’s oil production. In Lagos, apparently some of the police, who are widely hated, joined the protests.

Is this the long-awaited Nigerian Spring? Protestors in Kano are explicitly invoking the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movement. They refer to their encampment as ‘Occupy Kano’ and its venue as ‘Tahir Square.’

Read More

(via anarcho-queer)