Circumspecte

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ― Anais Nin For Circumspecte, that day has come: unveiling another layer of possibility I've spent the past year preparing for our transition from a blog to a full-fledged website . Photo Credit: Nii Nai-Kwade Now that the hour is here, I find myself quite emotional.  Circumspecte: SEVEN years worth of priceless insights and experiences.  I'm thankful.  While this may be my final post here, you can still access our archive of 331 posts (see menu to the right)! I am also excited!  For all of you to discover the "new" Circumspecte , our team (!), and all we have in store! Our URL may have changed, but our essence remains the same: Inform. Interact. Inspire. For now, I just want to say THANK YOU . Introducing, Circumspecte 2.0: CIRCUMSPECTE.COM Facebook - Twitter - Google+ - YouTube

Chale, how! Chale freeeesh! Depending on intonation, pronunciation, context, time of day, people involved, energy, mood, the Ghaniaan word " Chale " - apparently a localised version of "Charlie" - can mean very different things! In this case, it's the newest "street-talk" web series produced by the Fashionista GH and Excelsis crew which - according to the official CHALE! Facebook page - seeks to "c apture our very essence and the word on the street across an interesting mix of issues - some of which we easily gloss over." I mean, how can you knock that hustle? E be cool waaa. When Fashionista GH team lead Ob Absenser first sent me the link to preview, I was immediately captivated by the name and branding - ingenuous, I'm willing to bet that every konkonsa (gossip) session in Ghana begins with "Chale". Then came the sound bytes for M.anifest' s Blue (Charlie What Dey Happen) and it's street cred was sealed...

I had come home to find a stack of papers and brown envelopes in my laundry basket. Assuming it was my sister’s, I ignored them. That is, until I needed the laundry basket. They were mine: college applications, recommendation letters, letters from high school, the works. I ignored them still. Until I needed yet another excuse to delay my packing (procrastination becomes your best friend when you absolutely dislike packing). So, leafing through the stack of materials I’d long forgotten I had, I time-traveled to younger versions of myself and of my parents. Among the things I found were invoices, letters and notes from my first real job… straight out of high school. Now I must say that I didn’t get my job as an administrative assistant and sub-editor the traditional way. Applications? No siree. Connections – mum tells distant-not-really-a-relative aunt of so-so and so that her all-grown-up-distant-not-really-related-niece is all done with high school and looking to keep busy – nop...

On April 15, 2014 an estimated 200+ girls at the Chibok Government School in Borno state of Northern Nigeria were abducted by armed militiamen suspected of being members of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. The girls had just returned to school to take their final physics exam following school closures across the region after targeted attacks by Boko Haram. Almost 20 days after the incident, over 200 16- to 18-year old girls are still missing, with about 50 escaping and returning to tell their harrowing tale. Accounts from nearby village inhabitants, who witnessed a mass wedding taking place indicate that the girls may likely have been "married off" to the militiamen, have left parents and relatives at wits end. There are also fears that the girls  may have been trafficked into neighboring Chad and/or Cameroun. Their parents received this information when they ventured into the wilderness with bows and arrows in search of their daughters. Two weeks after their dau...

Ladies and gentlemen, Entrepreneurship is IN! Not just because entrepreneurs are some of the coolest peeps ever, but because we Africans have a very real challenge on our hands. The dilemma presented by Africa's youth bulge: to either sink or swim in the face of youth unemployment and other issues. The good news is that there's a growing awareness of just how much of an opportunity or a challenge the youth bulge presents for Africa, and people and organizations like Christabel Ofori and the iHAV (I Have a Vision) Foundation are working on capacity building and employment generation by putting "Vision in ACTion!" with the IHAV Conference. What iHAV Conference: An annual conference "designed to raise a generation of young African entrepreneurs who will work collaboratively to create employment and provide sustainable solutions to Africa's challenge". 2014 Theme : Creating an Agribusiness Revolution with Africa's Youth. Topics: Embrac...

We danced. For months on end. The tango, the waltz, even salsa'd it up Amidst the swirling shadows, intoxicated by tune Daylight? T'was always the dark we craved Grinding against each other - wanting, denying, no sleeping tonight Heavy breaths in sync, bass tempo till light Staring. Breathing the other in.  Intimate, strange. Enveloped, conspiring; tearing the other apart. Remedy to the madness, but poisonous at touch Pure and utter insanity, the reasons to exile. Yet come night fall, we dance it up again. Deeper into the dungeon, velvety curtains drawn apart. Deadly passion, intoxicating yearning. Scratch marks the evidence of struggle. Copulate, then dilacerate. Copulate, then dilacerate. Pure and utter insanity, deeper into the dungeon we go. Nooks and crannies, monsters under the bed. The questions. The shadows. Therein all dwell. The darkness hath come and conspire with it we shall We dance. Over and over again. A mis...

We're excited to be partnering with Lean Startup Machine (LSM), a three-day workshop on starting a successful new business. Most new startups fail because they build something no one wants. LSM teaches you a systematic process for learning which products or services will succeed and which ones will not. Over 25,000 entrepreneurs have had their lives changed by the LSM experience. The date for LSM in Accra will be announced soon. Sign-up today to be notified and get a chance to win a free ticket to the event: click HERE . the lean startup machine - accra team  email:     lean.accra@gmail.com twitter:   @leanaccra facebook:  https://www. facebook.com/leanaccra website:   https://www. leanstart upmachine.com/cities/ accra/ dashboard

Hi everyone, Ghana's 2nd Blogging & Social Media Awards is ongoing and I'm excited to let you know that Circumspecte and myself have been nominated for a total of THREE categories! Best Blog Best Female Blogger and  Best Twitter Profile You can vote by  clicking here  - all you need is your email address and a few minutes. Voting ends  March 28, 2014.  I also encourage you to take a look at some of the other nominees, a lot of great content and folks. I must say that after our nomination and subsequent win for  Best Citizen Journalism and News last year, having three nods is very encouraging and tells me that maybe I'm doing something right :) Thanks to everyone who nominated/votes for me and everyone who reads, follows, engages and supports me. Jabdulai vs. Circumspecte That said, I'll admit I am a bit surprised about a couple of things. First, that jabdulai.com (the "second generation" of Circumspecte) made the list in lieu o...

Grand plans. That’s what we had. Of where we’d end up, how we’d end up, when we’d end up. I mean, we said “let’s leave it to Allah, let’s wait and see”. But really, the levers in our mind had long clanked away. Breaking news: I will never be Ghanaian, African [insert whatever label] enough. Trust me, I have tried. To hold on to the vestiges of who I think - we think - I should be To reformulate the   Ghanaianness   in me  Down to the last ei, o, and more recently, the last tweaa I mean, how can you possibly not know how to Azonto It was the fad. Now it’s vintage.  Encoded in our identical histories. Yet it seems you missed that particular memo. “Too American”, “Too White”, “Too Outspoken”, “Too Different” Yeah I know.   You make me aware of the fact daily. With every “It’s not how we do things”, Each “why can’t you be like…” But see - we traded all those possibilities in. The minute I checked in, went throu...

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.” Oprah Winfrey  said that. She should know, she kept a gratitude journal for sixteen years ! So here's the deal: as part of Circumspecte's " Behind the Seens " project we're inviting you to keep a "Gratitude Journal" this year - beginning Monday February 3 ! Why participate? Well, I don't know about you, but we seem to always be in a state of wanting. I definitely have moments where I finally have something I'd wished or prayed for moments ago...and yet I'm off chasing down another "want" or "need" without appreciating that which I do have. If Oprah's theory is right, you'll see more goodness in your life. If it's wrong, you'll still get to learn something about yourself and life. If you're like a writer like myself - or want to develop your...

The current wave of African storytelling is largely driven by access to social media and citizen journalists who literally break the news as it happens. But there's still a lot of content yet to be created - especially in Ghana, Africa. BloggingGhana  has been at the forefront of social media and citizen journalism in Ghana since it's inception in 2009 by a group of 8 friends. Now, the organization has hundreds of active members who contribute to news, information on Ghana, Africa, from the ground up. After five years of meeting and working in cafes, auditoriums, schools, and so on, BloGH is finally coming home. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to BloGHome. With the launch of its #MoreStories fundraising drive, BloGH hopes to raise $10,000 to furnish its newly procured office in Accra (see below). Per it's Indiegogo fundraising page , BloGHome will include a training area for training students, civil society, government actors and organizations on using social media ...

Source: Komla Dumor's Facebook Page "There's so much more to tell about Africa than the usual stories about war, famine and disease." Komla Dumor. Son, husband, father, Ghana's "Boss Player", Africa's storyteller, BBC World News broadcaster, inspiration - courage personified. If anyone had told me that Komla Dumor's Black Star would burst out into eternity on January 18, 2014, I would have called them a liar and then some. His 41 years of life might seem "short" to many of us, but from all indications, this amazing soul found it more than enough for doing what he set out to do: to be a journalist of the highest order and to contribute towards telling Africa's stories. His awards, accolades and  accomplishments  are well recorded - perhaps more so after his untimely demise yesterday from a cardiac arrest in London - and numerous people are sharing their condolences and tributes on social media with variations of the hash...

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. The man who best embodies the ideals and principles we cherish; the ideals and principles worth pursuing. Passion. Courage. Perseverance. Forgiveness. Conviction. Love. Humility. Purpose. Faith. Vision. The list is endless. What a soul. He was from us, but not of us. Unlike many, he understood the changing tides of life, the stark contradictions which easily elude us. He was a leader in the truest sense of the word; he sacrificed his personal ambitions for the good of his nation, his people. There are almost no words to capture the essence of this man; his work; his symbol; his legacy. Mandela's very being speaks for itself. "In him, we saw so much of ourselves," South African president Jacob Zuma said during his statement on Mandela's passing. I would add, in him, we see so much of who we could be . And that it especially true for us Africans, for societies where the concept of leadership, human rights, freedom is still a mi...