Circumspecte

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 ...

So Ghana's Ministry of Trade and Industry and Google Ghana recently launched a new initiative called Innovation Ghana. Innovation Ghana is meant "to celebrate our homegrown innovators and discuss what is needed to bring Ghana to the fore of innovation and entrepreneurship." Today, the first batch of heroes were awarded: Ghana Decides (woopie - now I can update my capstone paper accordingly!), Ganyobi Naa , Dream Oval Ghana Limited , and LetiGames . I came across some videos of the awardees and was too inspired not to share. If ever someone tells you that Ghana or Africa has no hope, kindly refer them to this post. To our heroes, you do us proud. More vim!

This article was originally published on the London School of Economics Africa Blog . -- Ghanaian blogger Jemila Abdulai   looks back on a landmark election not just for Ghana, but the whole of Africa. When it comes to African elections, one can always be certain of a healthy dose of unpredictability. From delays in delivering voting equipment to unexpectedly large voter turnouts, any African election fits the bill for a full-length movie, complete with the required suspense. Less evident though is the work behind-the-scenes; those moments of growth which leave such an impression on a country that they ultimately redefine what it means to be an African democracy. Nowhere is this more evident than during Ghana’s 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections. A woman votes in Ghana’s recent elections Photo: Reuters The one-day event, which extended into a second day, went beyond most people’s expectations and had both Ghanaians and the international community rivete...

Originally published on the blog Women Change Africa -- As the Ghana elections get closer, we thought it would be great to hear from one of our fabulous, smart and beautiful friends of WCA Ms. Jemila Abdulai. Jemila is a woman who is  definitely changing Africa. Amongst her many hats she wears, Jemila is a attaining her Masters in International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, owns and operates a very highly read blog titled Circumspecte which focuses on various issues in Africa, and of course is part of the Ghana Decides team working to help engage youth in Ghana to get involved and vote pre and during elections.  We hope you enjoy and learn about Ghana's elections and women, and be inspired the way we were with Ms. Abdulai. Enjoy!   Like its predecessors, this election is important for young Ghanaian women. The obvious reason is that women form the majority of Ghanaian society and being excluded from the political process could result in polici...

Ghana Decides launched a campaign yesterday, 27 November 2012, to get the Ghanaian electorate to turn up massively at the polls to vote on 7 December. The campaign, called  Our Vote, Our Voice,  is the latest in a series of successful campaigns since February 2012, which commenced with  #iRegistered ,  Ghana Decides Tag  and  SpeakGhana . The purpose of the campaign is to promote communal voting. Campaign Coordinators, Kwabena Akuamoah-Boateng and Nehemiah Attigah, said “we believe peer-to-peer influence is still high and people could call up friends to vote or post updates to say #iVoted which may encourage others to vote.” According to the Coordinators, “From our experience during the #iRegistered campaign, enthusiasm usually dies down after the first week or so. That is why the campaign is deliberately launched this close to the election.” Project Lead of Ghana Decides, Ms. Kinna Likimani said “The Our Vote Our Voice campaign intends to use p...

Initially published on the London School of Economics (LSE) Africa Blog . -- Jarreth Merz’ film  An African Election  covers the highs and lows of Ghana’s crucial 2008 presidential election, giving important insights into the electoral processes which helped safeguard the very stability of this West African nation. With many African presidential elections on the horizon for 2012, the film is a reminder of what is really at stake when it comes to democracy across the continent. Through Merz’ camera lens, Ghana’s political sphere in 2008 unravels. That year, both the National Democratic Congress   (NDC) and the then-ruling  National Patriotic Party  (NPP) – Ghana’s two main political parties – had eight years of governance under their belt since multiparty elections found its roots in Ghana in 1992. Then, as now, each party had its distinctive colours and symbol. An elephant with the colours red, white and blue for the NPP ...

Hi guys! This is a quick update on a campaign I've been helping Ghana Decides with for Ghana's upcoming December elections. It's called the Ghana Decides Tag - modeled after the actual game of tag and the "Ghana Tag" series on Youtube - and basically it's an opportunity for Ghanaians - at home and abroad - to share their views on what's important for them this election year. All you have to do is download the How-To guide from Ghana Decides , record yourself on video answering about five questions - and post the video online via youtube, facebook, twitter etc while tagging some of your friends to do their own videos! Camera shy? Do it with a group of friends or make an audio recording instead! The best part? You have full creative liberation! Just make sure to include the hashtags #GHDTag and #GhanaDecides and also cc @GhanaDecides so it's added to the GHDTag video playlist. I won't ramble on. Click here for a full description of t...