Circumspecte

With a participant during the AYGC 2011 Last month I was invited to participate in the 2011 African Youth and Governance Conference as a panelist for the African Youth Economic Forum which took place on August 10, 2011 at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel. The conference was attended by over a 100 participants from all over Africa and the forum focused on Education; ICT; Natural Resources & Environment; Employment & Entrepreneurship; and Agriculture as key catalysts for sustaining growth and prosperity in Africa.  All in all, the experience was very powerful and more than ever, it is evident that Africa's youth are poised for action and tired of the rhetoric and 'talk shops' that our current leaders are all too fond of. Case in point: the Ghanaian deputy minister of youth and employment was literally rooted in one spot as participants fired questions at him about HOW exactly government is working to solve the youth unemployment situation. Point blank they told hi...

It's my great honor to introduce this young lady to those of you who might not have heard of her, and for those of you who have, to hopefully share one or two things that you probably didn't know about Deborah Ahenkorah and her journey so far. The Visionnaire Series begins. -- Privilege Vs Responsibility At 24 years, Deborah Ahenkorah is living proof of the heights a person can reach just by trying. A native of the Eastern Region, Deborah grew up with her parents in Ghana’s capital Accra. She attended North Ridge Lyceum, and later enrolled at Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast. Consequently, she proceeded on scholarship to Bryn Mawr College in the USA, for her university degree. “I had no reason to want to come back to Ghana. I’m going to America, why would I want to come back to Ghana? But in the four years that I was in school various experiences, you know, switched my mind 180 degrees,” Deborah recounted. According to the self-proclaimed adventur...

Finally, the first interview of the Visionnaire Series with Deborah Ahenkorah of the Golden Baobab Prize is all set! Stay tuned for the full showcase right here on Circumspect! In the meantime, here's a small teaser/preview, what I call the "Visionnaire Development Minute", on Debbie's thoughts on, well, development in Africa. Agree, disagree, have something to add? Please do share! Enjoy! Circumspect: How do you think the advent of e-reading will influence Africa’s literary landscape? Deborah Ahenkorah: I think the discourse around e-reading everywhere in the world is so fascinating, because without a doubt, e-reading is the future. No matter how you spin it, it is the future. But what’s interesting about it is how is it going to become the future? What is the process and what path is it going to take for it to get to the future? The western world is far, far ahead of us in that discourse, or in that journey of e-reading from a concept to the reality, like the ...