Impact Farming – Crowdfunding and Accessible Investments
Since the term ‘crowdsourcing’ was coined by journalist and Wired contributing editor Jeff Howe in 1996 to describe “the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers” (Merriam-Webster), it has expanded and manifested in multiple ways. There is crowdfunding, crowdauditing, crowdjobbing, crowdwisdom, crowdcare and crowdcuration, amongst others. Within the crowdfunding space, there have also been various methods, with the explosion of...
Kwesé Makes A Play For South Africa
Confession. I started writing this six months ago and kept on meaning to finish and post. So here it is. The evolution of video entertainment is a wonder to behold. Where once television ruled, the space has become highly competitive with everyone from the teenager in their bedroom to YouTube content producers to Netflix to media houses/practitioners reaching beyond their traditional mediums jumping into the fray. Multichoice (initially M-Net), which has had a monopoly on the satellite TV front, particularly in South Africa, has had to compete on multiple fronts, and has repositioned itself...
Graduation Speech – Don’t Let Your Life Happen By Accident
This is a speech I gave at the Boston Media House Graduation Ceremony on June 26th, 2018. I am a little apprehensive about sharing this online but have had multiple requests to, so here goes. It is a long read. Giving this speech is a little awkward and strange for me because, to be honest, I still feel like my life is a work-in-progress and that I am still early in my journey. I must say that this is very different feeling for me today than it was six years ago, when I turned 40, and felt like time was running out because I was nowhere near where I wanted to be. One of the things that...
For The Love Of A Good Cigar
Being a cigar enthusiast, I have been exploring the landscape more and more over the last couple of years. Towards end of 2017, I wrote an article for Afropolitan magazine on my favourite cigar lounge, Pedro Portia, and what I have been learning about cigars. I also broadcast my Kaya FM show, Life With Kojo Baffoe, at Pedro Portia. In the interests of sharing more of the content I create for magazines and other spaces, I am going to be posting my past articles and the like on here regularly. Cigar 101 The soundtrack to our lives can sound like the buzzing of a mosquito on a hot summer’s...
How Ford Is Creating Buzz Moments
The days of brands detailing the specs and features of their products is over. And I am a big believer in the use of storytelling, in creative ways, to contextualise how products fit into our lives. It is through storytelling that brands can show how they facilitate us being able to live our lives and do the things that we do. It is about showing how they fit into our lives as opposed to telling us what the thing can do. When it comes to cars, all cars can comfortably get you from point A to point B. While there are those who will buy a car because of its specs, a lot of us connect with its...
So What If You Had More Time?
Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics are going to render many jobs obsolete. Copy and paste that sentence into your search engine and prepare to be freaked the hell out. In addition to links to a multitude of articles, at the bottom of the first Google search page: Searches related to Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics are going to render many jobs obsolete. will artificial intelligence lead to massive unemployment technology taking over jobs statistics artificial intelligence and employment negative impact of robots on employment jobs lost due to technology jobs...
My Commitment As A Man, For Women
Every year, on November 25th, which is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign is launched. Every year, it runs for 16 days until December 10th, which is the global Human Rights Day, as per the United Nations. As we come to the end of 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Children in 2017, I am still questioning myself and what I can do, as a man. Over the years, I have written poems and other thoughts around the scourge of women abuse. I'm not sure what is enough. I'm not sure that it...
How Do We Turn The Tide For Women?
This is a hard one to write. 2017 has been a heavy year globally but, especially in South Africa, when it comes to the realities of gender relations. The stories of how men – of which I am one – treat women is tragic, brutal and downright cruel. There is an epidemic in South Africa. The reality of women abuse In a press release from 1st For Women, it is stated that: SA has one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world and the Department of Justice estimates that 1 out of every 4 SA women are survivors of domestic violence. In 2014/2015 it is estimated that 563 841 sexual...
Fulfilling Promises With Visa Checkout
In the song Trenchtown Rock, from the 1975 Live! album recorded at a 1975 concent in London by Bob Marley and the Wailers, Bob Marley opens with the following lyrics: One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain, One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain, So hit me with music, hit me with music now… Friedrich Nietszche once said, “Without music, life would be a mistake” while Louis Armstrong said, “Music is life itself. What would this world be without good music? No matter what kind it is.” Music. It has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. It...
Following The White Rabbit With Jameson Cult Film Club
It was 1999. There was talk of a new film called The Matrix by The Wachowski Brothers, now simply known as The Wachowskis, and starring Keanu Reeves (Neo) and Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus). It was said that the actors spent months training in martial arts and the like before starting to even shoot. The special effects were like nothing seen before and significant parts of the dialogue became part of our lexicon. I don’t know how many times I have watched The Matrix. I watched the sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both released in 2003, but it was the original that has...
The I In Writing
As the cliche goes, I remember the night like it was yesterday. It was the mid-2000s. I was standing outside the Johannesburg City Hall smoking a cigarette with a friend, Zee. I don’t know if he remembers the night but I do, although I don’t quite remember why we were there on a nondescript Joburg night, other than that there was a gala event of sorts to celebrate South Africa’s literati. I also remember that Professor Kgositsile Keorapetse was being named South Africa’s poet laureate. There was a time when I dabbled in the poetry world?—?well, dabbled isn’t quite it but my efforts often...
Playing with the HiSense C30 Rock
Been meaning to post this for a minute. The smartphone market is a highly contested one, particularly within the Android segment, considering from a mobile OS perspective, the ecosystem is basically the same. We hear about the ones that make the most noise but that does not necessarily imply that they are the best ones because, let’s be honest, best is subjective. The campaigns and sponsorship are necessary to build awareness around products and brands, but when we are looking to buy a smartphone, the reality is that we look at features and functionality, we look at aesthetics and design,...
Reading To Write
Reading Zadie Smith’s essays on authors like Nabokov and Eliot and Kafka, I am plagued by a question that, as an aspiring writer, I am a bit embarrassed by. And yes, I do call myself an ‘aspiring writer’, not because I haven’t written or I have just started writing, but more because I haven’t written the things that I want to that would enable me, at least in my head, to consider myself an established writer. Like an actual book. Anyway, I distract easily. The question that that bothers me, when it makes its distant presence felt is: do I really want to read the books she references to get...
Zubz x Lavabeast = Birth of Wav_One
It is always interesting when one is a fan of a friend’s work, particularly in the creative spheres. The basis of a friendship, for me, is about personal connection outside of work yet the work can create an element of discomfort, if it does not resonate. Fortunately, with Zubz, this is not the case, and with his new project, Wav_One, he continues to demonstrate why I enjoy his music. Wav_One is a collaborative project between South African hip-hop legend Zubz The Last Letta and acclaimed producer, musician Peach van Pletzen. Both artists have made their individual mark on the musical...
Playing with the Acer Spin 7
I have been writing about technology for some years now – granted, not as much in the last couple – but one of the challenges I have always had is the jargon. My approach to most products, experiences, etc. is generally based on two things, namely functionality and aesthetic/design. The reality is that I do not consider myself an expert on anything so to write about anything as the ‘final authority’ feels uncomfortable. Plus, a lot of things are subjective, opinions formed on the basis of our own experience, understanding, interests, etc. For these reasons, and more, I have always tried to...
Eating Right With FitChef
Although a slight oversimplification, there is some truth to the adage, “a six-pack is made in the kitchen.” As well as the idea that “you are what you eat”, which came to us, as per www.phrases.org.uk “via quite a tortuous route.” They go on to describe how “Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, in Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante, 1826: Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es. [Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are].” “And, in an essay titled Concerning Spiritualism and Materialism, 1863/4, Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach wrote: Der...