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• May 28, 2008
• 22:09

  Japan hosting Africa - TICAD IV

   » ‎ Mentalacrobatics

  Tags:  ticad iv Random  

  
  
  

  So here we are at another conference on Africa, full of Africans, held outside Africa at an Asian economic powerhouse. This all sounds very familiar. In 2007 the African Development Bank Group held its Annual Meetings in Shanghai, China, from May 16-17. It is easy to become cynical. What is the world coming to, after all, when Africans are unable to host their own meetings? How can the African Development Bank take its annual meeting to Shanghai, is there no African city that can host our top bankers and economists? Why do 40+ African Heads of State have to fly half way across the world to Japan to sit down and discuss issues of crucial importance to the continent? It is easy to become cynical of the whole TICAD process and dismiss it as yet another example of the never-ending talking shop of conferences on Africa.

  That would be unfortunate position to take and would be missing the point. The multitude of problems facing Africa require a dedicated African response. That is established. “African solutions to African problems” is the rallying cry heard from cabinet rooms to street corners across the African continent. These African solutions, however, cannot exist in isolation from the rest of the world. Rather active, positive and accountable engagement with partners is required. These partners may be development organisations such as the numerous UN bodies, these partners could be individual countries, such as Japan and China. China is one of the 24 Non-Regional Members of the African Development Bank and only the second to host the Annual Meetings after Spain in 2001. Japan launched TICAD in 1993 to promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners.

  At TICAD the focus is on two general objectives: Ownership and Partnership.

  1. to promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and their partners
  2. to mobilize support for African-owned development initiatives

  Rather than viewing these occasional meetings hosted for Africans outside African as an insult to our independence we should consider them an alternative type of forum, which may just produce some concrete results. After all our African Heads of State gather regularly across the continent at African Union meetings and the results of those meetings usually leave a lot to be desired. Take the African Union meeting earlier this year in Addis Ababa held while Kenya was at the height of violence, a situation the Heads of State refused to address as they collectively buried their heads in the sand. Meetings being held in African is no guarantee for success.

  Another advantage of holding a high level meeting such as TICAD outside Africa is that it removes the pressure of acting as host from all nations leaving the Heads of State and ministers to concentrate fully on engaging with each other positively. It is an added advantage that TICAD is hosted by the very efficient yet extremely polite Japanese people (and I am not just saying that because I am a sitting on a 16MB broadband connection – although it helps). Heads of State are ferried from one venue to the other rapidly and safely with none of the megalomania that usually accompanies our African presidential security details.

  Japan has proved herself to be a host worth listening to because she listens and acts on what she hears. The TICAD process is very much one of dialogue. This is reflected in the growing support for the process. At TICAD III in 2003 23 Heads of State came to Tokyo, this time round the number has double to over 40 Heads of State/Heads of Governments attending. Every single African country, bar one, has a strong delegation here. The only country without a delegation is Somalia. One clear indicator of political success in Africa would be a strong Somali delegation at TICAD V in five years time.

  [Photo Credit: Heads of State/Government at TICAD IV. Copyright: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan]

  TICAD IV | TICAD

  © Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2008. | Permalink | One comment

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• 22:05

  All Hands On Deck

   » ‎ For Love and Money
  All Hands On Deck

• 20:12

  We WON!

   » ‎ White African

  Tags:  Africa  

  Wow, we’re absolutely stunned, but we just won first place at the NetSquared Challenge! That means we have a check for $25,000 that we can spend on further development of the Ushahidi Engine (version 2).

  
  (Photo by Schipulites)

  More important than the money for us though is the validation that we got from the community at large for our mission. It’s the Kenyan and African community that got us here, and the NetSquared community that voted for us to win. A special thank you to NetSquared for making this possible.

  To everyone who has supported us, a BIG thank you.

  We’re not done with you yet though. We hope that you will continue to be a part of the greater Ushahidi community. Helping us develop the platform further. Helping us spread the word. Most of all, helping us implement it in crisis situations.

  Stay connected with us:

  Ushahidi Facebook group
  Ushahidi Twitter

  Want to help? Here are a few of the items that we’re looking for help on:

  • Increase/ensure Geo-coding accuracy of incidents
  • Build a verification process that can be based on technical information gathered in the the reporting of the information (geo-location of incident submission) or it can be based on a verification process where a verifier confirms the details of the incident.
  • Heat mapping based on category type, location and number of incidents
  • Plugin and extension capabilities in the core architecture
  • SMS handling process (similar to FrontlineSMS or RapidSMS) including a call back/verification process
  • Customization for NGO’s to track incidents, and to report on assistance provided to alleviate a situation
  • Missing person’s index
  • Volunteer feature on the mashup showing locations for volunteers, and also links to online donation sites active in a specific location
  • ‘Lens View’ visualization of the data, for example a multimedia ‘lens’ to filter the content for the public or press.

  [update: A couple people have asked for the presentation loop that we had running at our table. It is now up at Slideshare.net (I'll try to get an audio dub over it soon).]

  | View | Upload your own

  
• 14:17

  Quick Hits: Ushahidi and African Mobile Posts

   » ‎ White African

  Tags:  Africa  

  We’re at the NetSquared conference (day 2) still, where we’ll learn the verdict of the voters on whether or not we win. So, cross your fingers! Here’s an interview done of me (short). I actually was laughing at myself since it looks like I’m talking into a fish-eye lense.

  Short interview at NetSquared of me. I’ll add the one of David when it is posted.(video)

  Ushahidi covered on the TED Blog

  
  (image by Manny Hernandez founder of Tudiabetes
  and Estudiabetes, two communities for people
  touched by diabetes. On the right is Vam Makam, our new friend and local expert from Adobe.)

  After the NetSquared event last night, David and I took off for the WordPress party where we met up with Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress.

  Mobile Phone Posts
  One of my favorite bloggers has written a piece on South African mobile banking options.

  A write up by Katrin of Mobile Active on the “Say no to Xenophobia” campaign being run by Cell-Life in South Africa. I hope their campaign starts coordinating with the United for Africa campaign soon, it only makes sense.

  Jan Chipchase on, “Understanding Non-Literacy as a Barrier to Mobile Phone Communication“, part of a larger publication.

  

• 12:04

  So Here’s the Thing About Relocating to Africa

   » ‎ The Displaced African

  It’s really hard, and when it’s all said and done doesn’t appear to be for everyone. But most of us know it’s an incredibly noble, brave and courageous thing to do. So let’s break down four reasons to go back home and three reasons to stay put in the diaspora.

  

  For

  1) Money and Entrepreneurship

  From a purely selfish standpoint, it’s much easier for a person to leave the West and make their fortunes in Africa than it would be had he not left in the first place. During his or her time away, they have had their creative faculties ignited by exisiting in a different land with different people, institutions and rules.

  This may in turn spark ideas for businesses that have long since been taken for granted abroad but are yet to make a hit on the continent of Africa: examples may be outsourcing, an African Itunes or the mobile phone ring tone market outside of South Africa (perhaps?).

  So people could easily go home to cut and paste businesses and make killings. I know that a lot of y’all probably have at some point thought about taking some business idea or invention to Africa and how it would make you the black Buffet. There’s one part of the equation.

  The other part is the difference in currency. African currencies are much weaker than foreign ones. That means that if you are able to create cashflow sources abroad and/or sell a business(s) the value of your money is much greater as soon as you set foot on the Dark Continent.

  For some of you the cashflow might even be operating on auto-pilot meaning that not only does your money’s value increase on the basis of the foreign exchange but also because you have free time with which to design your ideal lifestyle using this money. Trips throughout Africa, contribution to your community and a nice plot for you to grow old in. And all this in the country of your birth……Something to think about.

  2) To Follow in Great Footsteps

  

  Lord knows how accurate Wikipedia is but I read this article about how the US together with Britain planned out the decolonization of the world. They intended on educating the next crop of African leaders to take over in their own countries and then leave Westernized minds to proliferate Western ways of life.

  That means that the story of a lot of Africa’s great leaders, Nkrumah and Nyerere, just to name a couple, is one of people who left the luxuries of the West to return to a life of servitude in Africa.

  For the “more enlightened” Africans these are some absolutely phenomenal shoes to fill and walk in. In addition to that a life of service is “the right thing to do” because a lot of us know that:

  People at home can be controlled easily because of poverty and ignorance

  Most of us in the diaspora are well educated and have more than enough to survive

  We can share this knowledge and resources and help people come out of poverty and suffering

  That equation is far from a mystery and for a lot of us it is the driving force behind our being here.

  3) To Be With People Like You

  The person who created the expression, “There’s no place like home,” must have been an immigrant. You never forget or lose a special connection with the place that gave you your way of life, your language, your culture, your history and most of all, your initial sense of belonging.

  A lot of immigrants don’t feel very welcome abroad or don’t feel welcome in the same way as we did in our native habitat. We want that feeling again and we want it every single day. It’s surprising how rarely this is discussed. This alone is responsible for huge numbers making the ocean migrations.

  4) Retirement

  

  Nursing homes suck! Retiring as an old person on a plot and being taken care of by your little nieces, nephews and grand children seems much better than your destiny being controlled by a cranky 22 year old African lady in a retirement village after a long life well lived.

  We want to retire in style and in dignity and so we return to the place where we can: home.

  Against

  1) The People are Mean

  I don’t think it’s any secret that Africans being on the bottom of the racial totem pole for many generations has left us with not-the-most-pleasant of personalities. We have inferiority complexes, insecurities and faults and very rarely work on them directly (when we do, the results are usually magnificent, just examine African music, philosophy and literature to get a glimpse of that)

  Instead we decide to bring each other down to size and viciously attack anyone or anything that even begins to remind us of any feelings of inadequacy. This means that verbal diarrhoea, anger and negativity directed at each other is commonplace. And this isn’t even the main reason we can be so bad.

  Lest we forget, most Africans are dirt poor. This is not a pleasant experience. People don’t have the time to be nice to you when they are robbing you to eat for that night (though surprisingly some thieves are very generous and courteous, go figure…..). Until Africa is an egalitarian society where we feel as though we are all whole human beings equal to people from all races and nationalities, we probably won’t stop being so mean.

  2) It’s Hard

  

  For those who do decide that they want to do something for the community, life is hard. Remember how most people are mean. Now mix that with a hatred and dislike for “people who have come from abroad to tell us what to do because they think they are so special now that they have spent a few years overseas” which a lot of immigrants get when they return.

  Throw in a huge dash of sexism if she’s a woman and tribalism and xenophobia regardless of their ethnic background. Splash in a whole lot of ignorance and illeteracy. Mix that up with some really corrupt politicians who like things just as they are.

  Put the Western government-industrial-corporate-military complex which also likes the status-quo on top of all that and you have the road that an African community organizer must take.

  It’s considered noble, courageous and given great rewards for a reason, it’s bloody hard!

  3) You Like Where You Are

  Don’t let the hype fool you: money isn’t the root of all joy.

  Don’t let the haters fool you either: the West isn’t all about money.

  In this place, whatever your journey to your bliss, you can find it. If you wish to find people who have chosen the strictly spiritual path to self-actualization, you’ll find them here. If you’re after the Wall Street money-hungry folk who only see the cents in dollars, they’re all right here. Searching for people who put family and people above all else they are right here.

  Whatever niche and experience and road to nirvana you have chosen, chances are you will find it in the West. To leave all of that and return to Africa which has a long way before it becomes the experience-buffet that the West isn’t a small ask.

  So let me ask you, will you ever go home? Why? Why not? Leave a comment and let me know.

  Be blessed and bless others,

  Mwangi

  PS: I just thought I would ask y’all whether or not I should continue with the series in which I explore different people’s viewpoints on living in Melbourne. I just wanted to check if people were finding some use in it now or I should postpone it till later when I’ve established the foundations of the blog a bit better.

• 10:36

  links for 2008-05-28

   » ‎ Black Looks
  Renewed attacks force IDPs back to camps (tags: refugees kenya violence) Nixon on “little negro bastards” RICHARD NIXON: We’re going to [put] more of these little Negro bastards on the welfare rolls at $2,400 a family–let people like Pat Moynihan and [special consultant] Leonard Garment and others believe in all that crap. But I don’t believe in it. Work, (tags: Nixon USA [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "links for 2008-05-28", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/05/links_for_2008-05-28.html" });

• 9:23

  Contemporary & Urban Dance - The GoDown Arts Centre

   » ‎ Kenyanpoet

  The GoDown Arts Centre and the Embassy of the United States of America presents
  
  CONTEMPORARY & URBAN DANCE
  Featuring FARE WELL; the End Of The World As We Know It
  
  By American Choreographers/Performers
  Maida Withers, Wendell Cooper, Steve Hilmy
  
  And Kenyan Contemporary Dancers*
  
  At the GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi
  Tuesday 3rd June 2008 at 7:30pm
  Tickets: Ksh 300/=
  
  
  * Kunja Dance Theatre, Julliette Omollo, Neema Bagamuhanda, KephaOiro, Evans Ng'ang'a, Mark Onyango, Michael Muriithi, Rebecca Gatu and Joseph Kanyenjo

  “As to the pure mind all things are pure, so to the poetic mind all things are poetical”

• 6:27

  How could they?

   » ‎ Mshairi

  Tags:  Africa  

  Heart filled with hurt which increases and grows
  What they do to the voiceless this child knows

  Sent here to protect soldiers with big egos
  Of these men and pain this child knows

  Come here to serve instead turmoil follows
  The sickness of human nature this child knows

  That one promises food laughing with his fellows
  A full stomach won’t stop the ache this child knows

  Viciously abused as if something she owes
  Her life has forever been altered this child knows

  Not a soul to save her when her blood flows
  There will be no-one to turn to this child knows

  Swaggering like earth owners and heroes
  Nothing will happen to them this child knows

  She wishes to fly far away from her woes
  Nothing will ever change this child knows

  Peacekeepers ‘abusing children’

  For UN spokesman Nick Birnback to say that it “was impossible to ensure “zero incidents” within an organisation that has up to 200,000 personnel serving around the world” is a just a load of old cobblers.

  This abuse of human rights is happening because the survivors are “orphans, children separated from their parents and families, and children in families dependent on humanitarian assistance”, according to the report by Save the Children (.pdf file) . In other words, voiceless people.

  The very people that organisations such as the UN and Save the Children are meant to be supporting and caring for.

  The poet, W. H. Auden wrote, “Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table”. How true.

  ShareThis

• 6:23

  Trouble Coming In The Rift Valley Courtesy of Daniel Moi

   » ‎ You Missed This
  I have never trusted Daniel arap Moi despite the fact that he was a much better president than Mwai “vote thief” Kibaki will ever be. Indeed historians are already re-writing the Moi chapter as they contrast it sharply with the chaotic blundering Kibaki “error” (and not era) which has completely lacked in any semblance of leadership.
  
  But what really concerns me and should concern every Kenyan is the former president’s current political activities in the Rift Valley.
  
  There is now a strong push to rebuild KANU and guess who the new party leader is? It is one Gideon Moi, the immediate former MP for Baringo Central and the former president’s favorite son.
  
  Moi’s plan is really very simple. The idea is to get the vast majority of Kalenjins away from ODM and to rally behind one political party which in this case is KANU. It seems that the older Moi believes that he knows a thing or two about the Kalenjin that Raila Odinga and ODM may not be aware of. One of these “facts” is that the Kalenjins can change their minds in a flash. Especially if a little cash is used here and there to help a few opinion leaders see the sense. The old man is a great believer in “kirigits.” A kirigit is the cow in the herd that all other cows follow blindly and without asking too many questions.
  
  The ultimate strategy is for the Kalenjin to form a coalition with the Mount Kenya tribes in 2012. Indeed it is not lost on the former president that it is highly unlikely that the house of Mumbi will field a presidential candidate in the next elections so soon after Mwai Kibaki. So what is most likely to happen is that the Mount Kenya tribes will be forced to rally behind a Gideon Moi presidency. Now which Kalenjin in their right mind would not want to support one of their own for the presidency?
  
  Already the folks at ODM are feeling the heat of Daniel Moi’s frenzied activity in the Rift Valley and no man is feeling more “roasted” just now than William Ruto. It is said that he has been told in the face to organize for the freedom of post election violence suspects immediately or forget a future in politics anywhere in the Rift Valley.
  
  So will Moi’s crazy plan work?
  
  Actually the more pertinent question should be; will peace and the coalition hold in light of such frantic political activity of the tribal kind? The answer to that question has to be a firm NO.
  
  Ironically the Moi plan is being packaged as a peace initiative for the Kalenjin and you will have heard leaders from the region making statements to the effect that they support the former president’s peace initiatives in the province.
  
  This is really crazy because Moi and comoany seem to have completely ignored the raw wounds in the province that have been brought about by the post election troubles earlier this year.
  
  In my view the most dangerous thing about the activities of the older Moi lies in the fact that the old man has lost it. Life and politics in Kenya has changed considerably and he can no longer play the game effectively. He should just go home and rest and forget the whole thing.
  
  One big mistake Moi is making is that his plans do not factor in the coming famine and serious food shortages that the country is very likely to face. They also completely ignore the coming “class war” where ordinary folks will rise above tribal sentiments and face their real enemies. Namely those who have gotten very rich by stealing public funds and then rushing back to their communities for protection.
  
  In fact Daniel Moi does not seem to be aware of the rapidly emerging political force in the Rift Valley that was most responsible for handing him and his team a resounding defeat in the last elections. I am talking about the relatively youthful voters who can never bite the same old baits that Moi used to rule Kenya for 24 uninterrupted years.
  
  Check out Kasarani.com, a new way to meet and keep in touch with Kenyans worldwide. You can even start your own blog on Kasarani! Click here to go to Kasarani.com now
  
  Honeymoon night shock for eager widow

• 3:25

  Is Africa Milked Dry In the Name of Aid?

   » ‎ The Benin Epilogue Part I: Africa-Ready for Business
  As Africa heads converge in Japan for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), it is urgent that we reflect on African interests. We already have had Sino-Africa, Euro-Africa, Indo-Africa and now TICAD. The most common denominator in all these is aid. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
  
  NOTE:
  Are the Xenophobic attacks in South Africa Justified?
  (Give you view on the violence in South Africa in the poll at the top of Business in Focus homepage)

• 1:07

  Interview with Just-a-Band on Kenyan Animation and Music Part I

   » ‎ Afromusing

  Tags:  Tech  

  I was listless, down out depressed, with chicken, egg and crossing of roads questions weighing on my mind; when my fingers as if they had a series of self-cordinating nanobots, tipitty tapped their way onto a blog called Sukuma Kenya. There, I found a pebble shaped like a play button on a retro CD player encased in a rectangle of sorts with a cryptic ‘You Tube’ logo on the bottom right. I touched the pebble. Holy haberdashery! I touched it!

  My fellow Africans, that is how i came to make an interweb acquaintance with Just-A-Band. JAB is defining Kenyan animation and Kenyan techno music with aplomb, piercing wit and style…what follows is the result of smoke signals encoded with morse code and for some strange reason, un-encrypted. Enjoy it, or the chicken gets it. Wait, the egg gets it! oh what the hell…something will get it.

  Just A Band is composed of?
  BLINKY: Jim, Dan and Blinky.
  

  JIM: There’s also our various alter egos – so that’s 2,303 of us in total.

  Is the blog Kenya Animation also part of Just-a-Band?
  DAN: Kenyanimation isn’t actually a Just A Band project, but I work as an animator, and I put up my JAB animation projects there. That blog was set up to bring together animators and animation fans who are from/work in Kenya, just to show people that there actually is such a thing as Kenyan animation, and hopefully be a launching point for bigger local projects, which haven’t had a chance so far coz people don’t really know that a scene exists! The other guys on the list (filterene, Bint Ali, Achoko, Majiqmud) are my collaborators on that project.

  You band bio is so creative (it informed my lame intro above…i couldn’t just say ‘here…an interview’ now could I?). It reads like a great fantasy graphic novel; have you guys thought of making one? When can we get our hands on it? In the CD liner notes - any fun stuff to look for?

  BLINKY: Hmm…it just may happen, really haven’t thought about it. The bio was kinda influenced by (at least I thought) by a George Clinton album cover, it had a really long narrative detailing the bands overindulgence on drugs and stuff till it sounded surreal. We get to introduce the gang that contributed to the album’s final sound in the Scratch To Reveal CD liner notes, very fresh cats if you ask me.

  DAN: Actually, the bio came about because we thought that the real story makes for a pretty dull read. I still have the notebook page where we start off, “In 2003, three young men met…”

  JIM: Now that you mention it, the fantasy graphic novel does sound cool. I think of our bio as a parallel story that’ll run alongside the much more drab reality – we plan to update it each time we do something new.

  The liner notes on Scratch To Reveal are slightly nonstandard. The cool thing about being unsigned is that there are no marketing-types breathing over your shoulder, urging you to standardize your output. It was actually Dan’s idea to do the liner notes in a different way – I’m ashamed to say I was one of the people who asked, “Do WHAT?”, but once we tried it out, it actually felt much more relaxed and true to the way the music was made.

  DAN: We’d been talking about expanding on this story from time to time, on certain projects. The liner notes on Scratch To Reveal are just us being overwhelmed by actually making an album, and our collaborators and such. But later this year we’ll probably do another project, maybe an EP (Just A Band meets The Sinister Synthesizer!) that will expand on the Bio story and if it gets printed, as opposed to just going online, you’ll get a bunch of cool liner notes and art and stuff…

  I saw that Daft Punk made a movie! Electroma! (Two if you count the one that went with Discovery – Interstella 5555) and I can sooooo see Just A Band doing some Psychedelic 88-minute Experience (at some point). But first things first, we have an album to push (I think one of the reasons we get so psyched up for JAB stuff is coz it could go so many ways, it’s always exciting to sit and plan out projects…)!

  
  The album cover for your CD has an arresting image…is there a story behind it? Did the idea pop into your mind or was it an organic, incremental idea that morphed from something? What is your creative process?

  JIM: This is definitely a morph – the original blurry concept was to have angry, cathartic energy of some kind on the cover; and cables. Cables are always cool. The images I have in my head always morph into something else by the time they’re finished. The final image ended up being something rather calm and contained – whilst retaining that arresting vibe you’ve mentioned. Of course, Lenny (the model) helped a lot – I chose him because he’s like visual play-dough and he likes to know what we’re aiming for visually. I explained the general idea to him – and played loud drum and bass and clashy electro during the shoot.

  My creative process; I typically see the visual in my head – slightly foggy around the edges, but there nonetheless. Then I work to transform that foggy visual into something real. It feels like I’m cheating, sometimes, because all I’m doing is translating the sketch that’s already in my head. In the process of doing that translation, many things change (somewhat like a multi-branched sequence of little decisions on execution) and the final results usually surprise me just as much as anyone else.

  I have only listened to one song from your newest album, is the music on Scratch To Reveal kind of in the vein of Iwinyo Piny or are there more varied sounds?
  BLINKY: I’d describe the album as adventurous. We all bring different influences to the Just A Band table plus an unwillingness to stay within proscribed boundaries, I’m influenced by acoustic guitar stuff, funk, jazz, hip-hop and dance stuff, everyone else’s influences are evident all through the album.

  DAN: The first single, Fly, is up on YouTube and is pretty different, a bit more aggressive and obviously scifi as opposed to Iwinyo’s flirtation with spacey sounds.

  JIM: Somewhere towards the middle, the album reveals a softer core; comes back to earth, if you will. Some people have found this surprising because the overall look of the album says – electronic – so having pianos and strings in the middle could be a bit bewildering for some.

  I see Daft Punk is an influence on your music; what are your thoughts on the Gorillaz? Would you work with Damon Albarn if he asked? What other types of music/musicians do you gravitate towards? Graphically speaking… which animators do you like? Cartoons? Which ones??

  BLINKY: I know for a fact that [Albarn] did some stuff with Fela Kuti’s band mates on a trip to Nigeria, so we wouldn’t be the first African peeps he’s working with, but I’d be absolutely down for it! I’m currently jazzed by Citizen Cope, Raphael Saadiq, Lupe Fiasco, John Mayer, Jamiroquai, St. Germaine, Van Hunt, Foreign Exchange, Bob Sinclair and Asa. I’m abit out of my waters with the animation vibes, though I like Aaron McGruder of The Boondocks fame.

  DAN: DEFINITELY we’d collabo with Albarn (right after we regain consciousness)… Every project he does is SO DIFFERENT, from the Mali Music albums to Blur to Gorillaz…very much the kind of thing that we hope to do, as well.

  I have a HUGE crush (creatively, hehe) on Björk. She pushes boundaries both musically and visually, stretches your imagination… We are all influenced by Parliament Funkadelic and their many spinoffs –

  JIM: Are we? I just think that George Clinton guy had cool outfits. So, maybe visually.

  BLINKY: George Clinton is cool!

  DAN: I think they’re our spiritual ancestors in the genre of musical Black scifi! We like old funk bands, Jamiroquai, Basement Jaxx, Jaga Jazzist, acid jazz, French House, Van Hunt and a lot of neo-soul artists, rock dudes like RHCP and Incubus, Madlib, Timbaland and the Neptunes (N*E*R*D was one of those moments of WTF is this??), a lot of stuff. I like comical old ska, garage rock like the White Stripes and The Hives and these new dancey rock bands like Franz Ferdinand. But I think the best music is the stuff you can’t really describe…

  Graphically, I’m very much into manga and anime, in terms of the stories, culture, even the shortcuts they take to meet their crazy deadlines! A random list of favourites: Samurai Champloo, Mind Game, Triplets of Belleville, Studio Ghibli films, Satoshi Kon’s work, Genndy Tartakovsky, Jamie Hewlett’s Gorillaz work is really well designed and moves so fluidly, The Boondocks. Ralph Bakshi’s confrontational movies from the 70s are a huge creative inspiration for what I’d like to do in animation in future.

  There’s an animation director called Koji Morimoto (he did the Beyond segment in The Animatrix), he makes my eyes water. Also off The Animatrix, the World Record segment was done by another new fave, Takeshi Koike, who is actually a celeb in Japan! How interesting, celebrity animators… I would like to go study at the feet of Moebius, the French comic book artist. And a lot of movies and books (I may be a bit of a junkie). We also keep an eye on the graphic design and motion graphics scene, and that’s always a visual overload.

  JIM: Daft Punk’s Discovery was one of those albums that really excited me (and it still does). Frankly, I like the visual detail of the Gorillaz more than their music. In fact, I really don’t think I like their music. But I like the way they work so hard on the supplementary material that helps you form an opinion about a band, the back story, the promos. I like people like Madonna and Björk for putting in extra effort and really being in control of their image and sound, and giving people some fantasy to believe in – however slightly.

  When I was a kid, I loved the musicians who went beyond the music and created lush record covers, and placed their music in some kind of fantasy literary context. Or even the people who explored themes other than the usual “love, girls and sex”. I love the way the disco dudes touched the sky and went beyond to other planets. Why confine yourself to dull old Mother Earth?

  These days it’s “Hi. I’m X and I have a great body. You want to have sex with me. I also sing.” or the other equally drab approach: “Hi. I’m exceptionally gifted. I will numb you into submission with my technical wizardry. I will now play the Euclidian scale with my teeth.”

  I think Europeans are better at it than the Americans (with the exception of people like Madonna, as mentioned above). Americans are very literal about their music – Band X fits into this genre and you shouldn’t ask where they’re from or why they’re doing this. Europeans are very cool about alter egos and costumes and silly things like that.

  From your Kenyanimation blog, it appears you are working on another project - Two Countries; will it be a CD & animation type thing? When can we expect to hear of a premiere?

  DAN: So, when we started off with Kenyanimation (which is not a Just A Band project, actually) we wanted to actually make something under this new group. The idea for this short animated movie was lying around in someone’s sketchbook, so we decided to make that. It’s kind of like a Gado cartoon come to life, political commentary vibes, but with a bit of Tom and Jerry thrown in, and (hopefully) a Just A Band score (as in, a proper “classical” score, which would be a new thing for the band).

  The project has stalled for a bit as people get more involved with their various hustles, but we’ll get it back on track soon, and as it’s just a short, it could be done by year’s end. As for how we’ll put it out, I’m not sure yet but maybe we’ll try some festival screenings and so forth.

  Do you perform live shows? If so, where can we catch you guys?

  BLINKY: Coming soon to an area near you.

  DAN: We’re actually working on the live shows now, figuring out venues and instrumentalists, and all the cool fun stuff like projections, or not. We will be unveiling the whole shebang in August. Details will be on the site/YouTube/Facebook.

  JIM: We’re working on making it something interesting – because I am skeptical that Kenyans would be OK with sitting around for several hours watching a bunch of geeks fiddling with guitars. So pom-pom’s, dancing, makeup, lights, psychedelic footage and action – on a shoestring budget, as always.

  *To order the CD ‘Scratch To Reveal’ send an email to jab [at] just-a-band[dot]com, they will personally ‘hawk’ it over to you. For us online folks, they will have their music on itunes or calabash soon…
  **Part II will be posted as soon as you thaw from the JAB burst of ice cold freshness. It will have more questions about the animated video ‘Iwinyo Piny’.
  

  More info on JAB’s You Tube profile and Facebook.

  A related aside, Jim is a blogger-DIY kinda guy, check out the AfriGadget post on him ‘Building The Sun’.

  A non related aside, do join us over at the Ushahidi Facebook Group as we continue building the next version of the Ushahidi engine.

• 1:05

  Building The Sun - A Kenyan Videographer’s DIY project

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Gadgets  

  Jim is a musician, videographer and member of the Kenyan animation trio Just-A-Band. He needed a consistent light source for his video shoots, and as he puts it…
  1. the sun is REALLY powerful
  2. but very unpredictable

  So he decided to create his own lighting equipment from easily available components that included:

  1. 2 cardboard boxes (20/-)
  2. 15 bulb holders (approx. 150/- each)
  3. energy saving bulbs (the 23-watt ‘cool daylight’ types - 450/- each. Ouch.)
  4. a roll of aluminium foil (approx. 200/-)
  5. lots of cellotape/masking tape

  With the help of his friend Kevin who is an electrician, he went from this
  

  and
  

  To

  

  Contrast his total cost of approximately 7000 Kenya shillings (about $113) with Tungsten lights being sold in Nairobi, Kenya for 20,000 Ksh (about $320), this is a neat DIY project that not only saved him some money, but also shows the African Ingenuity we are always excited about.

  Check out more pics and the rest of his post on his blog.

• 0:21

  Dirty Little Secret (Or, Money Money Money)

   » ‎ What An African Woman Thinks
  I’m ashamed to admit that I have an unhealthy relationship with money.
  
  I really should know better.
  
  Scratch that—I do know better, but I do not do as I know.
  
  (Judge me if you must. I’ve beaten you to it.)
  
  I’m clingy with money. I do not trust money enough to let it out of my sight. I fret about money not spending enough time with me. I worry that one day, money will grow tired of me, pack his bags and slip away in the middle of the night to idontknowhere. Then who will I be, what will I do, where will I go?
  
  It’s become this goat sitting on my head weighing heavily on me and preventing me from doing what I really want to do, what I should be doing.
  
  How do I get from here to a safe place?
  
  Anybody?
  
  And please understand that I'm a worrier about all things money, not a hoarder. Which is not a judgment on which is better or worse but rather a qualification of which I am and which I am not.
  
  Update: An anonymous reader pointed me to this performance by Poetri. It's all about money. Great stuff. (thanks anon).
  
  PS, I tried to upload the youtube video here and my blog just froze in shock at being asked to do anything but plain old words. I give up. This link will have to do. For a less technophobic blog, see Mama Shady It's my window, but I don't own the view.