The FRONTLINE/World iWitness interview about BarCamp Swaziland is now up.

Swaziland: The King and the Web

For much more of the story, such as how Swazis use Facebook, see envisionGood.tv, expert generalist, and YouthAssets.org. BarCamp Swaziland was sponsored by YouthAssets, which empowers youth heading households in Southern Africa.

My last post included a video interview with Dr Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary of the Kenyan Govt. ICT Ministry, talking about how why he sees the Local Content as key to our future. But I didn't include a summary of what he said, This excudes those on slow Internet connections since they can't easily view the video. With apologies, here is a summary:

Dr Ndemo talked about how we are now able to collect and store information which in the past has been orally passed from generation to generation. By storing it in a better way we can be able to preserve our knowledge. Dr Ndem is especially interested in engaging young people, particularly those who are unemployed, and training them in the use of modern technologies so they can collect the information.

Good morning beautiful folk, I was watching Def Jam Poetry the other day and I thought, hey! I could do this...I mean I love poetry. So I've started writing my first poem, it's one about the thumb really and the power it has along with others to change the course of a nation during election time. When it's done, I'll post it here for everyone to read. Till then, later peeps!! :D

This weekend I went with Dr. D to Accra, he had invited me to join him for a wedding and a funeral on Saturday.

We left quite early on Friday and arrived around noon at Accra. We went on to Tema to Dr. Ds friend Rockson where we stayed for the night.

The area Rockson lives in is quite upper-class, it's a guarded community and a lot of houses have fences with barb wire. Their house is also really nice, quite rich people for Ghanaian circumstances. It's a traditional family with a working father, housewife, children and a maid. We stayed in the guest room and were served breakfast, lunch and supper - I felt a bit uncomfortable to be honest, kind of decadent.

On Friday evening we went to the Accra mall to watch a movie - and I bought cheese at the large supermarket.

On Saturday we first went to a wedding, I will write more on that tomorrow. Afterwards we went to a funeral, but we only stayed for an hour. The burial had already taken place and we attended the reception.

Usually a funeral here is very joyful and people drink and dance. It's actually not called funeral but "celebration of life". At this funeral, as the person who dies was a bar owner there were free drinks for the guests. The reception took place in the village of the deceased, outside under a tent-roof. People were sitting in plastic chairs and there was a DJ playing music.

We donated some money, which was noted in a small book, and got a receipt of this donation. I still had the white shirt from the wedding so I was actually dressed inappropriate, black is usually the color of choice. The people dressing in a traditional way even have their special cloth called Adinkrah - black cloth with symbols printed on them - for these occasions. The guide at my post "Lake Bosumtwe" wears this dress.

We left quite early from the funeral and went to sleep soon to get up early in the morning on Sunday to go back to Kumasi. On the way back we stopped at several of Dr. D's friends' places and again we got food and drinks and the car was washed - now that's hospitality, it's humbling.

More on the wedding tomorrow.

In just a few hours I'll be heading down to South Africa for the Digital Citizen Indaba and Highway Africa. If you're not familiar with these events, they comprise the biggest gathering of African journalists which happens every year in Grahamstown, South Africa (700 in 2007). Highway Africa is a partnership between Rhodes University (School of Journalism and Media Studies) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), with the support of several partners, development agencies and sponsors. This is how they described this year's theme:

The theme of this year’s HA conference will be 2010, Development & Democracy and it will offer journalists a reflection on 2010 in the new media environment. In 2010, South Africa hosts the FIFA World Football Cup. As we head for the world’s biggest spectacle, taking place in Africa for the very first time, it is imperative that African journalism and media prepare on how the 2010 Story will told. The Highway Africa Conference 2009 will be both a celebration and an interrogation of journalism and media and their role in sport, identity and the African agenda.

The Digital Citizen Indaba, which takes place shortly before Highway Africa, was established in 2006 after it was recognised that Highway Africa could do more to encourage new media take-up by non-journalists. As a side note, indaba means 'gathering' in Zulu.

Itinerary

I will arrive in Johannesburg on the 1st and will then go to Grahamstown on the 4th for the start of the Digital Citizen Indaba which takes place on the 5th and 6th. I will then attend Highway Africa on the 7th and 8th, leaving Grahamstown on the 9th back to Johannesburg to try to meet up with a bunch of people until leaving South Africa on the 14th.

If anyone would like to meet with me to discuss what we're doing with Maneno, citizen journalism, blogging in low bandwidth, multilingual issues, or any number of other things, please let me know. I'll tweet my mobile number in SA once I pick one up, but any messages sent through our contact page will be forwarded to me.

Presentation

On September 5th at 15:30, which is the first day of the Indaba, I will be part of a panel discussion on “Digital Media and the Right to Language”. This will be a great topic of debate as only now people are starting to realize the importance of language on the web. Naturally, I'll be focusing a good deal on what is needed to grow local African languages online. You can read the full program for the Digital Citizen Indaba here, or you can download the full brochure [in pdf] here. Their general working theme for this year's event is ‘digital civil society and journalism in Africa’, focusing on the complex interaction between the mainstream media and civil society.

I'm really looking forward to attending as many sessions as possible both in the Indaba as well as in the Highway Africa conference, as they all look like they'll spur great discussions both during and after the panels. You can download the full Highway Africa program [in pdf] here. It's going to be a dizzying, yet wonderfully immersing number of days interacting with African journalists.

Coverage

I'll try to liveblog the sessions I attend as much as possible at my personal blog on Maneno. I'll be of course tweeting from our Maneno account, as well as the Highway Africa account since I've been giving them a hand with their social media outreach. The hashtags for the events are #dci09 for the Indaba and #ha09 for Highway Africa. Stay tuned!