Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

Kenyans activists occupied the Kenyan parliament yesterday to protest against attempts by Members of Parliament to demand more money. The activists have been using the hashtag occupyparliament on Twitter.

Agroam is a website designed to help African farmers market their products as efficiently as possible and give more opportunities to match buyers and sellers at fair prices.

Nan Chen, a Chinese American working in Nairobi, interviewed some Chinese expats and local Kenyans about China's business culture in Africa (via Tea Leaf Nation):

For Chinese expats, business comes first and politics second. The upcoming Kenyan elections matter only to the extent that they impact business. While among my western colleagues, these elections represent a momentous political situation with human rights implications, the Chinese (though not unconcerned with potential elections violence) find the politics disruptive of business.

Umati is a project that seeks to monitor and report the role of new media on an election: “Our Kenya-based project has citizens at its core and uses relevant technologies to collect,organize, analyze, and disseminate the information collected.”

Chrenyan discusses the land problem, which has become an election issue in Kenya: “It is a historical injustice for the Kenyatta family to own (it is said) half a million acres of land, all over this country (including thousands of acres in Coast Province). The defence that this land was bought is no defence at all, because the critical factor is not that the land was bought.”

MyWeku compiles a list of 10 best African food blogs for 2013: “There are seemingly a million food blogs out there, but only a handful showcase African food. Even so it has still been a struggle to pick 10 of our favourites for this year (2013).”

The film opens on the Ghanaian coast at the remnants of a slave post, the camera then pans over the Atlantic, finally settling on the green hills of rural Jamaica (Marley’s birthplace Nine Mile) from where it picks up Bob Marley’s story, thus cementing a link between the continent and its new world diaspora.

Sean Jacobs reviews Kevin MacDonald’s critically film, “Marley”.

Collins Mbalo wonders whether the African Union Panel of the Wise and the COMESA/IGAD committee of elders was unwise in their assessment of whether Kenya is ready for peaceful elections #choice2013.

Uchaguzi is a Kenya’s citizen digital crowdsourcing monitoring/mapping effort:”The Kenyan 2013 Elections are just over a month away. If this past weekend’s political nominations are any indication, there will be a rise of people’s voices and stories to share. You may be asking: how can I contribute?” More »

Mbawana Alliy says that e-commerce & mobile payments in Africa will not scale without business process integration:”As I tell the startups in our accelerator who are exploring integrating payments, its not just about accepting payments its about a business process and even business model rethink and in turn convince both consumers or businesses to pay electronically to effectively monetize their services.”

Video on how www.hadithi.org works to improve access to research resources in Africa

On January 24, the official launch of Hadithi, a platform for hosting open access academic content will take place in Nairobi, Kenya. Various scholars and digital players will get together to discuss digital open access in higher education in Kenya. Hadithi will search, view and download articles from research institutions around the world. To register for this event, find Hadithi on Facebook and Eventbrite.

Ken Opalo analyzes latest opinion poll on the electorate’s preferred president and running mate in Kenya, which shows the Odinga/Musyoka ticket leads the Kenyatta/Ruto ticket ahead of the March 4th 2013 general election.

The Kakuma News Reflector, or KANERE, is an independent news magazine produced by Ethiopian, Congolese, Ugandan, Rwandan, Somali, Sudanese and Kenyan journalists operating in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. It is the first fully independent refugee-run news source of its kind to emerge from a refugee camp, and has attracted considerable international attention.

Kenyan children are taught ethnic tolerance through science fiction: “Attack of the Shidas:AKAs Save the Planet” is the story of three communities who live in a desert town which depends on a lone borehole for all their water. But the people are threatened when they discover that the water is mysteriously being emptied at night.” More »

The Beer Belly original logo, voluntary contribution by @dasaf

The “Beer Belly” blog celebrated [mk, mk] its first anniversary. Its author @Twibi thanked members of the Macedonian Twitter community who have been bringing him beer samples from their trips all over the world to review. So far, he has made 198 posts about beers from 20 countries, including Kenya [mk], thanks to the local GV Summit 2012 participants – @ieli and @bjasari.

MyWeku shares a documentary titled “Africa is a Woman's Name“:

Synopsis: The lives of three extraordinary African women from different social levels and origins determined to bring about radical transformations in their day to day realities: Kenyan attorney and reputed lawyer Njoki Ndung’u, Puthi Ragophala the committed school principal of a remote South African village and Zimbabwean housewife-entrepreneur, Amai Rosie.

Chege discusses the state of Kenyan comedy:

I’ve been observing with both curiosity and amusement the on goings of the comic industry in Kenya. Comedy in Kenya has been around since time immemorial even before the yoke of colonialism….

Mzalendo looks at Kenyan elections 2012:

Though Kenya has recovered somewhat since the 2007/2008 post election violence. Somewhat because there are still several internally displaced persons. The economy though better than in the aftermath of the 2008 election is still in a slump. Ethnic tensions are still high as evidenced by violence parts of Coast, North Eastern, and Nyanza, and though we have a new constitution there have been several attempts by parliament to water down the provisions.

Will Mutua writes about a report investigating the use of Twitter by various presidential candidates ahead of the 2013 national elections:

This first report (a mini-report really) investigates Martha Karua’s engagement on Twitter: mentions, hashtags, sentiment analysis, key words used in tweets by her or about her and other such interesting tidbits from analysing her activity on Twitter.

John Karanja discusses the challenges of building African platforms:

What is an African platform? What does it look like? and perhaps more importantly what does it do? Will it address a Need or a Want? What exactly will make it African? Will it work elsewhere in the World?

Bankelele points out corporate marriages of note in Africa:

Barclays of UK and South Africa’s Absa Group are in talks to merge their African operations – but this is not really new as the plan was set in motion six years ago.

Wham writes about a new service called NationHela [Hela means money in Swahili]:

NationHela is a new, simpler and more convenient international money transfer service that allows you to receive money, from anywhere in the world, straight to your NationHela prepaid Visa card and mobile phone. A prepaid card is one in which you need to load money first in order to use and therefore keeps you in total control of what you spend.

Kenyan investigative blogger, Dennis Itumbi, has been charged with intercepting data in a computer system without consent for allegedly publishing internal emails revealing serious security flaws at a regional airline.

Mutua discusses education and innovation in Africa: “In today’s world it is imperative to create a differentiated and sophisticated economy in order to truly be competitive, so for African states to become significant players in the global economy, we have to find ways to move up the ladder to innovation-driven economies.”

Mountaineer and artist Ilina Arsova blogged [en, mk] about her climbing the Alaskan Denali (aka Mount McKinley), the highest peak in North America. She previously covered her expeditions to Kilimanjaro in Kenya & Tanzania, and to Ama Dablam in Nepal.

Gospel rapper Juliani will screen his Connections Documentary on July 1 at the Dandora Stadium. This documentary is a culmination of his Kama Si Sisi countrywide tours that has seen him urge the youth to believe in themselves and think about leadership, Hot Secrets reports.

Kenyans are reacting on Twitter at the news of the killing of 6 lions by residents of Kitengela a town near Nairobi in an apparent human wildlife conflict.The hashtags #Lion and #Kitengela are trending on Twitter.

Cassidy identifies problems with US military initiatives in Africa:”Current military and counterterrorism initiatives in and assistance to many countries in Africa – and, in particular, those in East Africa – lack transparency and congressional oversight. Though sources at the National Defense University have, for example, estimated related assistance to Kenya at as high as $300 million per year, it’s difficult to find more than around $35 million publicly documented.”

“To celebrate the African novel and its adaptability and resilience, Kwani Trust announces a one-off new literary prize for African writing. The Kwani? Manuscript Project calls for the submission of unpublished fiction manuscripts from African writers across the continent and in the Diaspora,” Nana reports.

Will Mutua talks to CEO and co-founder of buni.tv, a new internet video platform specifically focused on content created in Africa or about Africa.