Exchange Program Connects Africa and Metro Denver

Today I am shar­ing some insights and pho­tos from a May 21 net­work­ing recep­tion held at the Pos­ner Cen­ter and orga­nized by World Den­ver, for six emerg­ing entre­pre­neurs from Zam­bia and Zim­bab­we respec­tive­ly. The recep­tion brought togeth­er mem­bers of World Den­ver, the host­ing orga­ni­za­tion, ten­ants at the Pos­ner Cen­ter, as well as the pub­lic, to…

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

Captain Phillips, Lost Boys highlight ‘Danger of a Single African Story’

  Chi­ma­man­da Ngozie Adichie is a hero, if not a lit­er­ary star, among today’s gen­er­a­tion of young Africans.  Adichie’s “The dan­ger of a Sin­gle Sto­ry,” a Ted Talk she gave in 2009 about the sin­gle African nar­ra­tive por­trayed by the media that focus­es sole­ly on pover­ty, des­ti­tu­tion, and hope­less­ness, has received more than 6 million…

Denverite Encouraged by Resilient Spirit of Kenyans

Sep­tem­ber 21 marked a day of shock and con­fu­sion for many peo­ple in Kenya when news spread of an attack at the West­gate Shop­ping Cen­ter in Nairo­bi’s trendy West­lands neigh­bor­hood, an area fre­quent­ed by many for­eign­ers. A total of 67 peo­ple were report­ed­ly killed in the siege that last­ed about four days. Ter­ror­ists tor­tured, killed,…

Zimbabwe Tries Again

Pho­to: All Africa.com A good friend of mine in Harare said to me three years ago, “please let there be no elec­tions. The peo­ple here fear noth­ing more. We just want to be left alone for long enough to rebuild.” Most peo­ple agree that elec­tions are quin­tes­sen­tial demo­c­ra­t­ic rit­u­als. But faux elec­tions may only make…

At Achebe’s Funeral, Africans Reminded to be Stewards of Democracy

Thou­sands of mourn­ers con­verged in Ogi­di, Anam­bra State of Nige­ria, on May 23, for the funer­al ser­vice of Africa’s lit­er­ary icon, Chin­ua Achebe. He died in Boston, USA, on March 21. Achebe was the David and Mar­i­ana Fish­er Pro­fes­sor of Africana Stud­ies at Brown Uni­ver­si­ty. The Niger­ian nov­el­ist is glob­al­ly revered for his mas­ter­piece, Things Fall…

2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to Visit Colorado

Den­ver-based Peace Jam Foun­da­tion has announced that one of the recip­i­ents of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace, Liber­ian social work­er, Lemah Gbowee, will vis­it Col­orado in Novem­ber. The announce­ment post­ed on the orga­ni­za­tion’s web­site stat­ed, “Nobel Peace Prize Win­ner Leymah Gbowee will pre­sent­ing the 2012 Peace Jam Hero Award to Edie Lut­nick and Ken…