Thanks to Felix Mind for the story. And to the people that are the Movement that is DawaTheFilm.co.ke Follow us at http://twitter.com/DawaTheFilm & Facebook too – http://facebook.com/DawaTheFilm
Much love to the family and everyone around me.
Questions, Comments, Criticism welcome.
The blogging silence…Yeesh, don’t get me started on the catching up I’m left to do.
Meanwhile, I’ve retreated to a middle ground in between “Real blogging” and microblogging. All thanks to Posterous. So you’ll catch a lot of my travels there or better yet, you can keep up with the Lifestream (My del.icio.us bookmarks, tweets AND Posterous posts)
Anyway, don’t you mind there’s a plan to quell the silence. I’ve been in South Africa the past couple of weeks giving some guest-lectures thanks to Dave Duarte at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business for their Nomadic Marketing Class then doing some work with King James & Plus One in Cape Town and now in freezing cold Johannesburg soaking up perspective with Thunk! Lab and picking up tips from the Presentation Rock Gods at Missing Link (sign up for the newsletter by the way. Absolutely amazing)
Also did some cool stuff with Chris Rawlinson and Dido Wines for their Mzansi Wine Tour (coming soon) on Foursquare. (In other Foursquare news, Marvin from SocialightMedia’s got a cool post about Foursquare which I inadvertently starred in)
Back to what this post is about, then! I met Jon Gosier of Appfrica over at the iHub a while back and we had a chat on GotIssuez, a startup I’m part of and I gave him my perspective on startups in East Africa, what innovation labs like the iHub and incubation labs like the NaiLab mean to a startup like us and what some challenges are as well as a couple of my thoughts on the future for startups in Nairobi.
Here’s the little excerpt:
Appfricast 20 – The Consumerist
Mark Kaigwa is the co-founder of a startup that crowdsources consumer complaints to encourage engagement and action from the companies and brands they’re about. You might call it the GetSatisfaction of Kenya. He and I had a chat at the iHub launch in Kenya about entrepreneurship, the importance of co-founders, and following your vision. Download the Podcast | Subscribe on RSS
Oh, and it’s probably worth saying here as well. Dawa, the short film I wrote & directed last year will make it’s African debut at the Durban International Film Festival according to a little birdie…
For the Ukwelii blog faithful, I must say it’s been a minute…I’ve been pleasantly distracted by my Posterous Photoblog and of course Twitter (and a couple other things, but we’ll get to the “Where’d you go, Mariko” post later on). Meanwhile, the Twitterwebs are abuzz with a new Kenyan Trending Topic (definition: a phrase – that at times with a hash # before it – that is shared by many people on Twitter over a period of time)
Kenya/East Africa’s had it’s share now, with the popularity, scale and ripple effect growing with each one. The past few good Twitter trending topics include #AVitzIsNotACar (A Vitz is not a car) which made it into the blogosphere on Al Kags’ blog and even garnered an official response from Toyota Kenya. Then there was #MWEA10 (but we’re still debating whether this counts because it was a conference, not a by-the-people-for-the-people kind of Trending Topic), and iAlen‘s #YouknowYouAreKenyan was another good one, but thanks to the you’re/your/you are dilemma, didn’t really archive well.
So, seems like Moses Baraza didn’t know he’d be starting one when he started #Kenyainthe90s but he did, and it’s been a hilarious ride through the lives of Kenyans on Twitter (Can’t forget the hashtag of the same name by “CEO of #KenyansonTwitter” – Rojahs)
Here’s a glance at what’s trending right now. (By the time this goes up, it will already be old news. Keep up to date on it here)
edsamich: RT @Chiira #kenyainthe90s Ulinzi Stars could actually challenge teams like Tusker United for the Premier League title> make it AFC nt ulinzi
Bonus Tweet:
They even got a big-up from the official Nestle Nesquick Twitter page:
That’s probably not even the best of it all, but just a taste. Here are some of the videos being shared during the trending topic, bound to bring a chuckle or two.
Stay tuned to this post, I’ll try and update it, but I’ll need your help. Give me your favourite videos and tweets and we’ll at least immortalise them here… 😉
What’s your favourite memory of Kenya in the ’90s?
Young people in Kenya are no strangers to controversy, it must be said. The perpetrators of Kenya’s post-election violence in the last elections used the youth to execute their agendas.
It’s about time somebody spoke up and like Obama will tell you, there’s no better time than now.
Introducing Kuweni Serious ~ Swahili for ‘Get Serious’
They have some serious points of view for ‘young people’ seeing as they are the firebrands of a sleeping generation.
Kenya’s youth have largely been characterized as hedonistic generation of brand-obsessed youth, moving from party to party in the night and congregating on Facebook during the day – using TV, music and brands as our badges, our ID. We’re the Moi generation – the ones who grew up on the now-defunct “Maziwa ya Nyayo” school milk. We watched our parents root for and obtain multi-partyism, and we watched the country shrivel up and almost die under years of Moi’s rule.
And they are not afraid to call out the issues that plague young people in Kenya today.
We’re detached from the affairs of the country, they say – picking our addictions (which one will it be? Drugs, sex, TV, alcohol or God?) while the country burns. Perhaps it is true – what would you expect from a generation who are continuously referred to as “tomorrow’s leaders” in a country where people like one Mr. Kibaki have been in government for as long as Kenya has had a government? Tomorrow never comes, so we might as well carry on with our lives and forget about politics.
Here’s one of the videos on Kuweni Serious featuring George Gachara of Picha Mtaani of which needs a blog post from me too. He speaks candidly on the role of the media in Kenya, and his prediction of what will happen in 2012.
So as you can see, there is a debate that ought to be going on, young person to young person. More on Gachara’s interview here. Note: Youth in Kenya is anyone under 35. Kuweni Serious are trying to put a spotlight and include thought leaders on what we really ought to be thinking about, seeing as youth continue to be the majority of voters in this country.
It is perhaps only when our country was set on fire that we began to see how deeply politics affects us. A few months later, we were paying hitherto-unheard-of prices for fuel, there was water rationing, and power rationing, and then food started to run out. Only then did many more of us realize that we can’t hide forever in the company of the Lil’ Wayne’s and Prison Breaks of this world. Perhaps it is only when our comfort zones were threatened that we realized that our leaders, our “Honorables” are self-obsessed, thieving, murderous idiots. Honorables, indeed.
Blinky Bill, member of Just A Band and overall inspiring dude is honest when asked why he thinks we’re a whining nation, and why he thinks we keep voting in the same old people into Government.
Which moves us on to the real question on youth. Staring it face-to-face and asking people what matters.
And so we at Kuweni Serious – we’re a bunch of kids ourselves – have decided to go out there and find out: how do Kenya’s youth feel about all the chaos around us? Are we proud to be Kenyan or are we secretly wishing we could get green cards and disappear forever? Where shall we raise our own kids? Are we happy?
Convener of the National Youth Convention, Emmanuel Dennis, gives outspoken insight into why we can’t give up on this nation and why the youth seem so apathetic and detached from politics.
Food for thought.
We intend to seek out all the young people out there who are trying to make sense of all this, the youth groups, the activists, the people who read the news and get so annoyed that they write angry status updates on Facebook, the students, the guys and girls who’ve just landed their first job and have been hit hard by the realities of the economy. We want your opinions, we want your stories. We don’t know what we’ll find, we might step on a few toes, but we’ll do our best.
Join Us. Kuweni Serious.
And there’s plenty more where all this came from including a poignant piece by Njoki Ngumi, as well as interviews with award-winning photographer Boniface Mwangi, journalist Abdullahi Ahmed and more. Follow Kuweni Serious on Twitter and Join them on Facebook too.
As Obama said – The time for change is now.
29th October 2009
Kenya’s youth have largely been characterized as hedonistic generation of brand-obsessed youth, moving from party to party in the night and congregating on Facebook during the day – using TV, music and brands as our badges, our ID. We’re the Moi generation – the ones who grew up on the now-defunct “Maziwa ya Nyayo” school milk. We watched our parents root for and obtain multi-partyism, and we watched the country shrivel up and almost die under years of Moi’s rule.
I’m one of the curators of TEDxNairobi and though I wasn’t in attendance at the inaugural event (was busy working on my first film – Dawa <– Follow them on Twitter!) I was able to do the awesome planning with the great members of the Dream Team – Joshua, Phares, Sheila, Soud, Kim and Lina. If you’re unfamiliar with TED and their independently organised events have a look-see below.
TEDx was created in the spirit of TED‘s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.
At TEDx events, unique talks given by live speakers combine with TEDTalks videos to spark deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.
One of the speakers at TEDxNairobi was Conservationist and CEO of Wildlife Direct, Paula Kahumbu, of whom you should already be following on Twitter, she’s awesome, trust me. She gave a great talk, of which I blogged about on the TEDxNairobi blog. Have yourself a look-see and enjoy A Conversation on Conservation on the official TEDxNairobi blog:
Engaging Conversation on Conservation in Africa
Paula Kahumbu Speaking at TEDxNairobi
A self-confessed tree hugger, Paula Kahumbu opened by reminding us how extraordinarily privileged Kenya is as a country as far as diversity is concerned, and how most times, it’s taken for granted by Kenyans themselves. By demonstration when she asked to see those in the crowd who had been to a National Park in the last month, only a handful inferred to the affirmative. It brought life to her statement!
She shared on how Kenya has one of the world’s largest diversities of bees – over 1500 species.
We assume the Maasai Migration is going to be around for generations (for those who’ve not seen it already.)
Her second confession was that she didn’t have a television. Her veranda is her television from her home on the edge of the Nairobi National Park and you can always follow her amazing tweets and extraordinary wildlife pictures. […Read More…]
Make sure you have a look, and a special thanks to WildlifeDirect‘s Baraza for sharing it on their blog too. If you’d like to know more about TEDxNairobi have a look at the posts on all their Speakers. Amazing list with the likes of Aly Khan Satchu, Boniface Mwangi, Kwame Nyongo and Tonee Ndungu and Nyokabi Musila.
You can always follow my TEDxNairobi Twitter list here.
Don’t forget to stay in the loop on the next TEDxNairobi! Fan them on Facebook and Follow TEDxNairobi on Twitter.
This post is long overdue, but earlier this year, Pamoja Mtaani – a videogame I co-wrote and consulted on for Warner Bros was awarded the Global Business Coalition‘s Core Competence Business Excellence Award. The excerpt is below.
Congratulations to Award-Winning”PAMOJA MTAANI” (”Together in the Hood”), Behavior Change Video Game
The “PAMOJA MTAANI” (”Together in the Hood”), Behavior Change Video Game, created by Warner Bros, won the Global Business Coalition’s Business Excellence Award.
As a key component of the Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation, this open world five player LAN-Based PC game educates youth in Kenya.
The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria honored Warner Bros. Entertainment with the Core Competence Business Excellence Award for the video game “Pamoja Mtaani” (”Together in the Hood”) at the GBC Business Excellence Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. “Pamoja Mtaani”, Swahili for “Together in the Hood”, is an open world, five player LAN-based PC video game created by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in collaboration with technical experts within the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and noted serious games developer, Virtual Heroes, Inc.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, in partnership with PEPFAR, applied its core competence to develop an action-based videogame pilot that is delivering targeted HIV prevention messages to East African youths. The videogame combines traditional gameplay with messages aimed at changing behavior, focusing on key behaviors that can reduce HIV infections among youth. The game development is part of The Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation, a public-private collaboration among PEPFAR and businesses with critical core competencies such as messaging, new technologies and market research.
The “Pamoja Mtaani” videogame can be played at select youth venues in Nairobi, which are an integral component of this new initiative to revolutionize HIV prevention. The game, intended to engage youth through fun interaction, is designed to help influence HIV risk perceptions, attitudes and behaviors among young people in Nairobi.
Pamoja Mtaani also featured at Games for Health 2009. Below is the presentation that Producer, Kirsten Gavoni, gave some details on what it was like making the videogame (It was Warner Bros. first such project in Africa)
Pamoja Mtaani is available to play at three centres in Nairobi right now, two centres in the Mukuru slum and the National Youth Service along Thika Road. I’d suggest you go play it.
Ukwelii 